Samuel Gerges Blog

Having spent years in the consulting industry as a solution architect and IT consultant, I have seen what truly makes a consulting business successful—beyond just providing skilled professionals for projects. The most successful consulting firms are those that deliver genuine expertise, solve complex problems, and help clients achieve long-term success, rather than just temporary solutions.

In this blog, I am sharing my top 5 ideas for building a successful consulting business, based on my own experience in the industry.

#1 Focus on being a consulting business rather than just a contracting agency

The best consulting firms aren’t just “renting out” employees they’re delivering expertise, solving complex problems, and ensuring long-term success for their clients.

There’s nothing wrong with hiring skilled professionals and placing them on projects, it’s a valid business model. However, the real difference between a body shop and a consulting firm is the value delivered and the success rate of projects.

• A contracting agency provides skilled professionals who follow client instructions and complete assigned tasks. While this approach works for companies needing extra resources, it doesn’t always guarantee the best business outcomes.
• A consulting firm takes a strategic and problem-solving approach, ensuring projects align with business goals, improve efficiency, and drive sustainable growth.

Why Consulting Firms Deliver Higher Business Value

• ✅ They focus on business impact. Rather than just executing tasks, consultants ensure technology decisions align with business objectives.
• ✅ They challenge assumptions. Great consultants don’t just do what they’re asked—they explore alternatives to ensure the best outcomes.
• ✅ They use proven frameworks. A consulting firm invests in methodologies and best practices to help clients avoid common pitfalls.
• ✅ They leverage collective expertise. Unlike contractors who work individually, consultants collaborate, drawing from their firm’s knowledge base to provide the best solutions.
• ✅ They achieve higher success rates. With a structured approach and access to senior experts, consulting firms help clients achieve sustainable success, not just short-term fixes.

🚀 Pro tip: Build a team of consultants who don’t just follow instructions but proactively identify opportunities and recommend innovative solutions.

#2 Control the Ratio Between Billable and Non-Billable Resources

Every consulting firm has two types of employees:

• Billable staff: Consultants working directly with clients, generating revenue.
• Non-billable staff: Management, sales, marketing, HR, and admin—important, but not directly making money.

The key to profitability is maintaining the right billable-to-non-billable ratio.

Industry Benchmarks

• 📌 70-80% of the workforce should be billable.
• 📌 Overhead (non-billable staff) should generally stay below 30% of total costs, ideally under 20%.
• 📌 Sales and marketing are necessary investments but should be kept within a sensible range to avoid excessive overhead.

How to Optimise This Ratio

• ✅ Keep overhead lean. Don’t hire unnecessary management positions too early.
• ✅ Balance sales and marketing investments. Growth is important, but overspending on non-billable staff can hurt profitability.
• ✅ Automate admin tasks and leverage AI. Free up billable staff from unnecessary non-billable work.
• ✅ Make leadership partially billable. (More on this in next point)
• ✅ Hire hybrid roles. Some employees can work on billable client work + internal responsibilities (e.g., a consultant who also mentors junior staff).
• ✅ Make sales and delivery teams work together. Don’t wait until a project ends to find the next one!
• ✅ Cross-train staff. Employees with multiple skills can shift between projects when needed.

🎯 Rule of thumb: Every additional non-billable employee should contribute to efficiency, sales, or profitability—otherwise, they’re just a cost.

#3 Everyone is for SALE!

A consulting firm’s leadership team shouldn’t just oversee operations—they should also be billable resources when needed. After all, who better to advise another CIO than your own firm’s CIO?

Why Leadership Should Be Billable

• ✅ They enhance credibility. A CIO, CEO, or senior leader working with clients strengthens relationships and builds trust.
• ✅ They create strong connections. Senior leaders build valuable relationships with top management in other companies.
• ✅ They ensure high-impact solutions. Their expertise can drive strategic outcomes for clients.
• ✅ They balance internal and external responsibilities. Example: A CIO targets 50% billable work and 50% internal leadership to contribute to revenue while managing the firm.

The Key to Making This Work

• 📌 Ensure leadership coverage. When senior leaders take on client work, have capable deputies who can handle internal responsibilities.
• 📌 Develop a leadership pipeline. Train the next generation of leaders to step up when needed.
• 📌 Balance strategic vs. billable work. Leaders should shift seamlessly between managing the firm and working with clients.

🚀 Pro tip: The organisation should always have a second line of leadership ready to step in. By involving senior leaders in billable work, you create opportunities for the next generation to gain valuable training and gradually take on responsibilities until the time comes.

#4  Turn Downtime into Opportunity

Unbilled time doesn’t have to be wasted time. With a strategic approach, your firm can transform quiet periods into opportunities to build internal capabilities, develop products, and craft impactful success stories. Making the most of unbilled time not only boosts your firm’s efficiency and delivery capabilities but also serves as a powerful tool for training and knowledge sharing among consultants.

Let’s break it down: if your firm has 100 billable resources at 85% utilisation—which is already a solid rate—and we assume 220 days as the average billable time per year per consultant (after considering leave, holidays, training, etc.), this leaves you with 3,300 unbilled days. That’s 220 days x 15% unutilised time x 100 billable resources—equivalent to having two or three teams working full-time for a year.

Now, if we put a dollar value on that unbilled time, assuming an average consulting rate of $1,600 per day, it amounts to a staggering $5.2 million project! And if your utilisation drops to 70% or 60%, the amount of unbilled time—and potential opportunity—becomes even greater.

That’s a massive chance to strengthen your team’s skills, build reusable tools, and boost your firm’s efficiency.

How to Make the Most of Unbilled Time

• ✅ Leverage DevOps and GitHub Culture:
• Design your internal projects similar to open-source projects on GitHub. Create a transparent portal where any consultant can view the internal products and features being developed. This allows consultants to take ownership of tasks independently. The key is to build a backlog of product features with MVP-sized tasks that are short and manageable, enabling consultants to pick them up during quiet times. Just like open-source projects, this approach keeps your internal development organised and efficient.
• ✅ Train and Upskill Employees:
• Internal projects offer a practical way to enhance consultants’ skills. By engaging them in meaningful internal tasks, you can turn downtime into a valuable training opportunity that prepares your team for client projects.
• ✅ Build Internal Capability Frameworks and Guidelines:
• You don’t always have to build products—creating frameworks and guidelines can be just as impactful. Standardising delivery practices and developing reusable frameworks can help consultants improve efficiency and maintain high-quality standards across projects.
• ✅ Build Open Source Products and Offer Them for Free:
• Consider creating free tools or standards that are accessible to the community. This not only enhances your brand presence but also positions your firm as a thought leader. Imagine if your standards are adopted by hundreds of businesses—every time someone mentions they’re using your standards, it’s free promotion for your brand!

🚀 Pro Tip: Turning unbilled time into a strategic advantage not only reduces waste but also builds a stronger, more capable consulting team that’s ready to deliver higher-value solutions to clients.

Wrapping It Up

Building a successful IT consulting business is about much more than just billing hours—it is about delivering genuine expertise, maintaining the right balance of resources, making the most of downtime, and using internal successes to build trust with clients. Of course, there are plenty more ideas out there, and each consulting business is unique with its own challenges and innovative approaches—there is no one-size-fits-all solution. These suggestions are just a few out of hundreds, but they capture some of the most common themes I have come across throughout my career. There is always more to explore and ways to improve your consulting business. I hope these insights have sparked some ideas for you—keep in touch for more tips and strategies!