How do I get started as a fully licensed California CPA w/o going down the corporate or tax preparation route?

I have my California CPA license and have audit (no tax) work experience at a public accounting firm and a corporation, but I want to go out on my own as a sole proprietor CPA and/or consultant. I don't want to do income tax preparation nor do I want to work the regular 9-5 daily grind in a corporation. What can I do to explore my options and how do I get started getting my feet wet in the sole proprietor world?

Public Comments

1. First work a job maybe in a CPA firm or corporate work to pay the bills. You could even work as a temp but unless you have other income you will need to pay the bills. I was going to start a CPA firm once but found a job I loved instead but when I was starting I planned to try to specialize in partnerships of doctors. I had the software that I had done software support on for 10 years so was a report building expert and had formatted many partnerships and had worked in CPA firms for 17 years before that so was good at partnership returns. I live near a hospital that has many clinics around it and had planned to start with individual taxes. I got all my software when I was a tax analyst for a software company free. I placed advertising that came direct mail in Feb but they didn't place it so said they would run it in two months which would have been to late so I just took another software job. Most work full time in a CPA firm or software company as a software developer or software tester then run a tax practice or accounting practice evenings, weekends and tax season when tax software development and testing is done for the year. Some tell me a magnetic sign with the name and phone number got them about all the work they can handle. Some don't advertise they are CPAs because less liability.
2. without tax or bookkeeping services or other normal CPA work to fall back on, your paychecks may be few and far between