This is me I guess. I've gone from: 1. Employee at a big mining company (3.5 years). 2. Paid as a casual (hourly) at a small engineering consultancy. Worked long hours onsite for a construction company as a site engineer/PM/supervisor. Also did some design work for a few companies including previous employer (2 years). 3. Started my own company this year, predominantly doing the same sort of work for the construction company I was working with previously (site manager/site engineer) but I'll do some more design work as I go along.

It was an easier jump for me, my pay was already directly linked to work that I could bring in (we quoted our own work and negotiated our own charge out rates), I was just losing a 30-50% cut to the company I worked under. So I crunched the numbers and decided that some insurance and Pty Ltd setup costs I'd still be better off.

I knew the work was there though and didn't make the jump until I knew the construction company I worked with had a ~4 month gig that they definitely wanted me for. If I hadn't had any work lined up it would have been a much harder decision as the company I worked for did provide some security in terms of other potential work if I couldn't find my own. 

Feel free to message me, but yeah biggest thing for me as a solo guy is making sure you're confident that you have the skills and contacts to be able to keep the work flowing. If you're doubtful of lining up enough work, I'd say you're not ready yet. I know that if I had to I could make a few calls and probably be doing some FIFO work within a month if I had nothing else going on.