You have to become a partner(and do lots of selling) to really make it big in consulting. I left consulting and joined a product company after getting an MBA and lots of consulting folks try to switch to product company after the travel and constant whining of customer and billability issues gets to them. Product company hires more qualified people than consulting and you have option of making more money through options or bonuses(in sales) at various levels. If you are a specialist then working on hourly rate or opening a small company and getting an 8(a) status or gettng subcontracts from large consulting companies for minorities is the way to go to make a decent living. Scalability in consulting depends upon hiring people and that poses a problem because many people will leave in case someone else offers slightly better rate. Also, meeting payroll in consulting is a huge challange for small operators. My 2 cents
