Hi All, I'm currently an experienced BA working in banking, but with a range of skills crossing from IT architecture design to being a qualified accountant, and I'm thinking of taking the leap to start my own consultancy firm. 

I'm fairly confident with the idea of dealing with clients, running my own accounts and obviously the acutal BA work itself, but what I'm struggling with is how do I attract clients, particularly when I want to keep the day job until things get going.  For example, how do I convince a client I can do a good job of understanding their business and writing requirements etc, when I can only work for them in the evenings and at weekends?  I see lots of people on the web saying it can be done, but I'm keen to get any advice or feedback from those that have done it?

"I'm struggling with is how do I attract clients, particularly when I want to keep the day job until things get going ... For example, how do I convince a client I can do a good job of understanding their business and writing requirements etc, when I can only work for them in the evenings and at weekends?"

That might be hard since the people you need to talk with for requirements gathering or technical information is not there.

However ... there are 24 / 7 IT shops.

Contact companies, with some kind of flyer and business card, offering your services for after hours and weekends ... maybe part of an Implementation team, Production Support, Help Desk, Technical Support, etc ... something to get multi-corporation / Business System experience and to your name out there ... Create some kind of Portfollio with examples of work you did (BRD, FRD, PRD, Use Cases, Etc. make sure they arn't confidential and take any reference to a company out of them).

Companies like Cross-Functional people experienced in Multiple-Technologies / Platforms.