We obviously all want larger clients and business contracts but how do you break into the market when you are just starting out?

The most important thing that you can do is to focus on a niche. Something that because of your experience that you are able to offer that nobody else can. It has to be very targeted because the client will view it as taking a risk with a sole practitioner unless you can offer something nobody else can.

We are focused on a niche but we have not been able to get much traction - not even getting to the first step of the proposal round.

One of the things you may want to consider is going to some of your contacts you had prior to establishing your consulting business. See if you can do some work for a smaller fee than what you would normally command to build up a reference. Once you have the first client as reference it is easier to get the next.

I agree with the comments above but I would take it a step further for example if you specialize in iso9001 implementations you may want to set up a site totally devoted to that and then set up a general site. If you go into a client that you do not think is looking for iso9001 you can provide them with general site and vice versa.

We are in a niche that fits our collective backgrounds and are using the contacts from our previous careers. I would also suggest teaming with a more established company that would offer complementary products for your services. We consult in the IT space and we have a partner that sells high-end software that matches our abilities. We "sub" under them, but the client still knows our name. It cuts into our overall margin, but a cheaper rate is better than no rate at all and it gives us additional feet on the street. I am working on two additional partners now - and we also "sub" with an integrator.

Network!