A Future in Consulting?

I am thinking about setting up a consulting business. I'm tired of not finding a job; it's time to make my own future.

This of course raises the question of what I should focus on. I have recently consulted on public relations, and I am hoping that I keep that going, and expand it in the company in question into educational consulting as well. This of course raises all sort of questions, as my interdisciplinary background inevitably does.

Let us take by educational background first.

I have a B.A. in recombinant gene technology, with a minor in chemistry, and two years of graduate classes in molecular biology. Of course, the last class I took was in 1995; yet, at the same time, I have been keeping up. How can I use this background to my advantage?

I have a M.A. in English, which might make me desirable as an editor or proofreader, but it is not immediately obviously of use in consulting.

I have a Ph.D. in the humanities, which is also not obviously of any help, but is in fact if one goes into the details. For example, in my dissertation I discuss education, social interactions, how the brain works, and the biological foundations of aesthetics. This suggests consulting in education, particularly aesthetic education. But it also suggests aesthetic consulting. Cities are taking aesthetics more into consideration, as well they should, and computer interfaces are increasingly taking into consideration aesthetic concerns. Are there elements that social netowrking sites, for example, are missing in their design?

And, though I have degrees in all of these fields, my primary scholarly research has been in spontaneous orders. I have published on the spontaneous orders of the arts, on the brain and morality as interacting spontaneous orders, and I am working on projects on the brain as a spontaneous order and its relationship to various networks, such as the hierarchical networks of organizations and the scale-free networks of spontaneous orders, such as the brain, living cells, and economies, and on the city as a spontaneous order. I am confident that I can help people understand how to use these differences in network structures to help them with their companies. Much of what I am reading about cities, for example, I have been using in the P.R. work I mentioned above. I think there are a variety of ways that I can use this area of expertise to my advantage. I just have to figure out the details, is all.

I have also been writing a lot on education. I have written pieces in the past for the Dallas Morning News, and I am currently writing pieces for The Pope Center. This, in addition to my experience teaching middle and high school and college all demonstrate expertise in education. This of course is a wide-open area. Education is a necessary aspect of economic growth in the creative economy, and creative workers need more and more various kinds of education. But they need education, not necessarily schooling. What can I develop along these lines?

I am only just now starting to think about these things. I would appreciate any input from my readers!