Many business executives are turning to consulting as the ideal second career. They relish the opportunity to share the technical skills and knowledge they've acquired during the first stage of their business life, along with the freedom to custom design the second stage of their life.

If you've spent years as an employee, the idea of being your own boss, choosing your own goals and designing your own life is a tempting one. It paints an alluring picture to imagine sitting in the comfort of your home office, without a boss, without a set schedule, using nothing more than a computer and your expertise to make a handsome income.

Because it is such a pretty picture, many people are tempted to jump right in to business consulting, without first doing the research to see if they have what it takes to succeed.

All too often, these quick jumpers spend the first few months at their computer almost non-stop. The newness of it all drives them forward. They are not making any money, but they are confident they soon will be.

But eventually, reality starts to set in. For months, they've worked hard but still haven't landed their first client. Worse yet, they don't know why. They only know they're well on their way to becoming a statistic, one of the many new consulting businesses that close shop in the first year.

It's unfortunate, but that is the way it is. Some people just do not have what it takes to run their own consulting business. After all, it takes more than industry-specific knowledge and experience. It takes entrepreneurial attitude.

Here are four ways you can tell if you have the entrepreneurial attitude it takes to be a self-employed business consultant.

1) You Are Self-Motivated

Many people work best when someone else sets the agenda for them. Give them a list of priorities and goals, and they're off running. But leave them to make their own list and they spin their wheels in one direction, then another, without ever getting anywhere.

As a self-employed business consultant, you must be your own taskmaster, setting your own goals and motivating yourself to reach them. There won't be anyone else to tell you which task is most important, or what to do next.

When you have your own business, you must be able to create a cohesive business plan and then work that plan. You must also be prepared to be your own head of marketing, head of sales, head of purchasing and head of every other department your company needs. Do you really have what it takes to motivate yourself through all this?

2) You Are Persistent

The fact is, starting up a new consulting business is a learning process, a process that requires that you try and try again. No matter how much experience you have before hand, you will quickly discover there are all sorts of things you don't have experience with that now have to be done. Working through the learning process requires persistence.

Thomas Edison famously said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." He wasn't exaggerating. He attributed his own success to the fact that he simply would not stop until he achieved success. Do you have that kind of persistence?

3) You Are Open To Change

If you've been an employee at a firm for years, or even decades, you may have become set in your ways. You've done certain things certain ways, year after year. Now, as head of your own business, you'll be in a constant state of change. Even your own self-image must change as you transition from employee to entrepreneur. Are you prepared to deal with it?

Being an entrepreneur requires a whole new mindset. It means you are always learning new things, always researching new things, always implementing new things. The world is changing at a rapid pace. And as the owner of a new business, your personal world will also be changing on a daily basis for a long time to come. Are you open to that level of dynamic change?

4) You Can Deal Appropriately With Obstacles and Rejection

You already know that obstacles are part of any business. But obstacles can take on a new edge when the business is your own. The same is true of rejection. On your job, a sales team brought in the clients. Now, as a solopreneur, you are the sales team. That means putting yourself out there as the item being sold, and dealing with being personally rejected when the prospect's response is a big, fat no.

Some people are capable of regarding any obstacle, even personal rejection, as an opportunity to learn and improve. Others react inappropriately, allowing themselves to be demotivated and cutting short their chances of success. Can you deal with obstacles and rejection while keeping your cool?

If you can answer yes to these four questions, then you have the personality traits you need to succeed as an independent business consultant. Pair these traits with the knowledge and experience you gained in your industry and you have a big green signpost that says "Yes! Becoming a business consultant is the right move for me!"