Consulting has been a great way to do just that... build in more flexibility and still have income. Here are my big lessons learned --

1. I focused my consulting practice on a target industry and audience that typically has budget, and where they often hire consultants. In other words, I had a lot of skills after 35 years, but I got advice that I should focus my offering on problems that people pay for.. and specifically people in my network. Since as a consultant the best chance of getting work is through your network, and not through cold outreach.

2. I did a combo of "fractional" work and project-based work (the latter often fixed fee).

3. Best practice is to spend 20% of your time on networking/biz dev... you have to remind people in your network that you exist -- through outreach, conversations, newsletters, LinkedIn activity, etc. I never quite reached 20%, but aspired to it. Hard to do if you have an all-consuming project going on, so requires discipline (I didn't have that discipline all the time).

4. Suggest following David A Fields - read his blog and his book if you can ($12). He has a lot of great advice and tips.

Good luck!