Hi - And Why I'm Here

Hi all,

I'm not one for joining forums but I've been reading up on this site over the last few weeks and wanted to participate.

A few weeks ago starting my own SEO business seemed very overwhelming. There's just a ton of stuff out there! But because I'm stubborn and trust my abilities, I've kept my chin up and things are just now starting to come together.

So why I decided to go SEO -

I was at a large consulting company for a long time and specialized in pentesting and some other security work. I had enough of the travel, and decided to leave. I'm also planning to move to South America in the next few years. Because of this move, I wanted to focus on a new business that could let me pick up new clients and work completely offsite. So, this is what lead me to pursue SEO consulting.

So where am I with the business -

I still have a lot to learn, but I've taken some education (SEMPO... which seemed okay, but not great), doing a LOT of reading (SEO Secrets, SEOBook etc), and I'm now planning to rank my own sites for SEO practice. Once I have some confidence in this, I plan on volunteering my service to charities etc, to build up a portfolio. After 3-4 of these, I plan on going after paying clients. I still have a lot to plan out such as 1) pricing 2) what exactly I'm offering under each pricing model 3) marketing, etc...

If anyone has any other suggestions for this humble n00b I'd love to hear them.

David