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That made me chuckle...

1. If I had become and enrolled actuary, I would have saved a lot of money in outside actuarial fees. 2. Most important, how are you going to get new business? It is a relationship business and you or someone has to be great at this end of it. 3. All you list are challenges you will face, which is the "biggest" will vary depending on what's going on at the time. When times are good, attracting and retaining good employees is a challenge while the business rolls in. When times are slow, bringing in new business is paramount. 4. Best things about being an owner - get to do it your way, it makes you a better pension consultant to other business owners as you will share the same experiences. You should make more money than as an employee and hopefully you are building equity that you can eventually convert to cash. You end up on the good side of the tiered gateway allocation. 5. I would do it again in the time period I did it. I don't know if I would do it again now. The race to the bottom on fees is making this a much tougher business. Other - if you do own the business, remember it is an investment from which you should derive an appropriate risk-adjusted return. You should budget for a profit in addition to a compensation for yourself that is equivalent to what it would cost you to hire yourself in the market. We targeted a 20% profit - but it took us a number of years to get there. Be sure to go to the NIPA BMC every January. There are other organizations such as Vistage that provide support for business owners. You can hire technical help, but you need to define the vision for your firm and drive to fulfill that vision. Try not to borrow a lot of money otherwise the lenders own you and control you. Design your fees and billing such that you get paid as the work is done, not after the fact. Enforce a strict policy on collections and stop providing additional services when a client is in arrears. Always carry E&O insurance, it is a cost of doing business so budget for it.