Consulting doesn't always mean a total break from the workplace routine and a move to some remote guru-infested mountaintop. Hanging out your own shingle isn't the only option open to you.

After six years with the same company, QA group leader Danny Faught was looking for a new career path, and had lots of friends who had gone into business for themselves. "I could appreciate the independence they enjoyed," he recalls, "but I also knew the pain they'd had to go through." After years of hearing stories from co-workers turned consultants, Faught appreciated that running your own business meant more than entrepreneurial freedom: "I knew I didn't want to be the CEO and the janitor and the accountant and everything else in between."

Faught actually found what he was looking for within an existing corporate structure. For the past year he's been with Reliable Software Technologies [now known as Cigital, Inc.], a relatively large and fast-growing company that gives Faught opportunities to consult on a variety of interesting projects with Fortune 500 clients. It also offers him and his family the stability of a regular paycheck--something that freelancing can't always guarantee week-to-week--and an alternative to working 100% solo. "I like that," Faught confesses.