| I spent a decade both as a "gig" consultant and as a "real" consultant. Here are the differences I saw between the two. "Gig" consulting - You are a skillset for hire or the client is simply short on ppl to do the work. You are selling labor. While you have skillsets, the client needs you for a very specific project/product and they manage you in context of that project. You are two hands on a keyboard with bonus points if you have a brain. "Real" consulting - You come in with a "solution" which the client needs or think they need. You are selling knowledge. They don't even know how to begin and you are the brains of the operation. You are hired less on your skillset and more for the IP you bring with you. The IP may be a process for how to get from A to B or training materials along with work sessions with a team etc. Yes, development may be part of the engagement but it's not what's actually being bought nor is it what you sell. To be able to hire ppl who do the work, it's very important to disconnect the "who" is doing the work from the product itself. If you are selling a skillset, the "who" performs the work quickly becomes a sticking point. If you are selling a final product, an outcome...the who is less relevant. While many "real" consultants bill hourly, many of the bigger consulting companies sell "projects" and then make money on the margin. You can charge more for knowledge than labor because knowledge is harder to valuate in $ than an hour of labor is. I.e. a friend of mine would sell white papers on particular topics within his expertise customized to the clients use cases. So, $200 hourly for coming in, meeting everyone, taking notes on needs, use case, meeting with CxO levels on concerns and goals etc. Spend 5 hours updating a pre-made template with most of the boiler plate info plus client specific stuff and charge 20K + hourly billing for the finished paper of maybe 20 pages. Usually these would support whatever agenda some CxO at the company wanted to push and needed "industry expertise", "best practices" and "market research" to back it up. Selling a product vs your billable time makes consulting scale better in terms of revenues. |