On the surface, getting paid as a consultant seems quite simple.
But as an entrepreneurial consultant, it’s more complicated than you might think.
Sure, I’ll share with you the nuances of invoicing and how much consultants are getting paid.
But what’s most important here is how you set your consulting fees.
And when it comes to setting your fees, here’s what we teach our Clarity Coaching clients…
The further you get away from trading your time for money, the more potential you’ll have to generate higher revenue.
I’ll break that all down for you in the sections below.
(NOTE: In this article, we’re speaking to independent consultants and consulting firm owners, NOT employed consultants. If you’re looking for that information, check here.)
How Consultants Get Paid: Table Of Contents
- Getting Paid On Time & In Full As A Consulting Business Owner
- How Much Do Consultants Founders Earn?
- Different Ways To Bill For Your Consulting Services
- Get Personalized Coaching To Help You Raise Your Fees With Confidence
The further you get away from trading your time for money, the more potential you’ll have to generate higher revenue.
Getting Paid On Time & In Full As A Consulting Business Owner
Getting paid as a consultant isn’t just about doing great work and creating results for your clients.
It’s also about having a solid invoicing system.
Remember: cash is the lifeblood of your consulting business. Your invoices are the veins that keep it flowing.
Here’s how you remove the friction to getting paid as quickly as possible.
Create a Professional Invoice Template
Your invoice should include:
- Your company logo and contact details
- Client information (name, email, address)
- Clear invoice number and dates (sent and due)
- Itemized list of services provided
- Total amount due
Keep it simple and professional. Your clients should immediately recognize what they’re paying for without any confusion.
Establish a Reliable Invoicing Process
- Designate an invoicing point person. Whether it’s you, an assistant, or an outsourced professional, someone needs to own this process completely.
- Clarify your payment terms upfront. Include specific details about your fees, costs, and calculation methods in your contract. Being too specific is better than being too vague.
- Track your time. Even if you don’t bill hourly, knowing how much time you spend on projects helps you price future work accurately.
- Specify reimbursable expenses. Discuss with clients beforehand which expenses they’ll cover and document this agreement in your proposal and contract.
- Invoice promptly. Send invoices as soon as work is completed — or better yet, before you start working. The longer you wait to invoice, the longer you’ll wait to get paid.
- Request payment within 7 days. While larger organizations might operate on 30 or 60-day payment cycles, don’t simply accept this as inevitable. Have a conversation about getting paid as quickly as possible.
- Use a consistent numbering system. Number your invoices consistently to make tracking and management easier for both you and your clients.
- Itemize your services. Include enough detail that clients understand exactly what they’re paying for. If needed, add a cover letter explaining various charges.
- Follow up after sending. Always confirm that clients have received your invoice. A quick email or call can save weeks of waiting and wondering.
- Verify understanding. Check that everything on the invoice makes sense to your client. This gives you a chance to clear up any confusion before it becomes a payment issue.
Use Technology to Streamline the Process
Consider tools like Bonsai, Wave, Freshbooks, or Quickbooks to automate your invoicing.
These platforms can help you create, send, and track invoices while providing valuable financial insights for your business.
Remember that invoicing is one of the first tasks you should delegate as your consulting business grows.
Record your process using screen-recording software like Loom to make delegation easier when the time comes.
By implementing these invoicing best practices, you’ll spend less time chasing payments and more time delivering value to your clients — which is what this business is really all about.
How Much Do Consultants Founders Earn?
Curious about the earning potential of independent consultants and small consulting firms?
Our comprehensive fees study reveals what consultants are actually making in today’s market.
The Monthly Income Breakdown For Entrepreneurial Consultants
Our survey of thousands of independent consultants and consulting firm owners shows a wide range of earnings:
- Top Earners (5%): A small percentage of consultants are hitting extraordinary income levels—3% earn $45K-$100K monthly, while an elite 2% bring in over $100K each month.
- Solid Performers (32%): About a third of consultants earn between $10K-$45K per month, establishing themselves comfortably in the six-figure annual income range.
- Mid-Range (20%): One-fifth of consultants make $5K-$10K monthly, which translates to annual incomes of $60K-$120K.
- Building Phase (20%): Another fifth earn $2K-$5K per month as they develop their consulting practice.
- Starting Out (22%): About one-fifth of consultants earn less than $2K monthly, typically representing those in the early stages or working part-time.
What Affects How Much Consultants Get Paid?
Several key factors influence how much consultants earn:
- Specialization: Specialists consistently outearn generalists. Our data shows 42% of specialists earn $10K+ monthly, while 73% of non-specialists make $5K or less per month.
- Pricing Strategy: Consultants using value-based pricing tend to earn more than those charging hourly. While 39% of consultants using hourly fees have projects worth $10K+, 51% of those using value-based fees reach the same project value.
- Project Size: The value of your average engagement directly impacts monthly income. Among consultants with average projects worth $20K-$50K, 66% earn $10K+ monthly. In contrast, only 6% of consultants with projects in the $500-$2,000 range achieve similar earnings.
- Experience: Age and consulting experience correlate with income. More experienced consultants typically command higher fees and handle more valuable projects.
- Profit Margins: Consulting remains a high-margin business, with 34% of consultants enjoying profit margins above 70%. Specialists are more likely to achieve these premium margins — 54% have 70%+ profit margins compared to just 35% of non-specialists.
The Path To Generating Higher Consulting Revenue
Looking to increase your consulting income?
Our study reveals that 79% of consultants are actively working to raise their fees, with 55% planning specific fee increases in the coming year.
The highest-earning consultants typically…
- focus on larger projects (3+ months in duration)
- work with medium to large companies (10+ employees)
- and maintain a manageable client load (3-12 clients annually)
By developing specialized expertise, adopting value-based pricing strategies, and focusing on delivering substantial outcomes for clients, you can position yourself a top-earning consultant in your industry.
Specialists consistently outearn generalists. Our data shows 42% of specialists earn $10K+ monthly, while 73% of non-specialists make $5K or less per month.
Different Ways To Bill For Your Consulting Services
As a consulting founder, how you structure your fees directly impacts how much you get paid.
Let’s explore the five main billing structures used by consultants.
1. Hourly Billing
How it works: You set an hourly rate and bill clients for the exact time spent on their projects. You track your hours, send detailed timesheets, and multiply your hours by your rate.
Pros:
- Simple to calculate and explain to clients
- Provides clear documentation of work performed
- Easy starting point for new consultants
- Works well for unpredictable projects with changing scopes
Cons:
- Creates a ceiling on your earnings (you can only bill 24 hours per day)
- Misaligns your interests with the client’s (they want fewer hours, you benefit from more)
- Forces you to track and document every minute
- Commoditizes your expertise rather than your results
Client example: You’re a branding consultant, and a marketing manager hires you to audit their digital media presence. You charge $150/hour and spend 12 hours analyzing their brand, creating recommendations, and presenting findings. You bill them $1,800 for your services.
2. Project-Based Fees
How it works: You charge a flat fee for completing a defined project with clear deliverables, regardless of the time it takes.
Pros:
- Removes the focus on hours worked
- Provides price certainty for clients
- Rewards efficiency and expertise
- Easier to sell than hourly arrangements
Cons:
- Many consultants calculate project fees based on hours (limiting true value)
- Risk of scope creep without clear boundaries
- Requires accurate time and effort estimation
- Can be unprofitable if you underestimate the work required
Client example: Sarah Borders, a compliance benefits consultant, would charge $1200 for her assessment discovery offer. After working through our Clarity Coaching Program, she gained the confidence to more than double her fee for the assessment offer to $2500.
3. Daily Rates
How it works: You charge a flat fee for each day you work on the client’s project. This is typically your hourly rate multiplied by the number of working hours in a day.
Pros:
- Simplifies billing (no tracking minutes or hours)
- Clients often prefer knowing the daily cost upfront
- Makes sense for on-site consulting work
- Can be more profitable than hourly rates if you work efficiently
Cons:
- Still creates an income ceiling based on available days
- Requires working more days to earn more money
- May not reflect the true value you provide
- Can be challenging for partial days of work
Client example: Nena Hart, a healthcare consultant, helps senior care providers improve their care. By working with her coaching the Clarity Coaching Program, she was able to charge $22K as a day rate to come in and help her client on-site.
4. Consulting Retainers
How it works: The client pays you a set fee each month for ongoing access to your expertise or services. This creates predictable recurring revenue.
Pros:
- Provides stable, predictable income
- Builds deeper client relationships over time
- Reduces time spent hunting for new business
- Can be very profitable for advisory retainers requiring minimal time
Cons:
- Clients may start treating you like an employee rather than a consultant
- Your perceived value often decreases over time
- Can lead to scope creep without clear boundaries
- May require constant justification of your ongoing value
Client example: Vince Rath provides executive and operational consulting to jewelry retailers. Prior to working with Consulting Success, he was charging a daily rate. However, when he switched to offering a monthly retainer so that his clients had ongoing access to his expertise, he was able to raise his revenue by 600%.
5. ROI-Based & Value Fees
How it works: You charge based on the value and return on investment you create for the client rather than your time. This links your compensation directly to client results.
Pros:
- Highest income potential of all fee structures
- Creates true leverage (earn more by delivering more value, not more hours)
- Aligns your interests perfectly with the client’s
- Positions you as an investment rather than an expense
Cons:
- Requires strong value-focused sales skills
- Can be challenging to implement without expertise
- Some clients may resist this approach
- Requires clear definition of what constitutes “success”
Client example: Donna Bates, a marketing strategy consultant, helps her clients grow. As a result, she directly impacts their bottom line. Through ROI and value-based pricing, she was able to raise her prices over 10X by showing the client how much she could help them grow. Not a single client refused her new pricing despite it being 1000% more expensive. Why? Because the investment would still net them an incredible ROI.
The top earning consultants in our Clarity Coaching Program move away from hourly and daily rates toward project and ROI-based fees as they gain experience.
This evolution allows them to earn significantly more while working fewer hours — creating both wealth and freedom.
Get Personalized Coaching To Help You Raise Your Fees With Confidence
Do you feel like you’re trapped trading your time for money?
Like you want to experiment with a more advanced, higher-leverage pricing strategy…
…but you don’t know how to put your ideas into action?
Raising your fees is the quickest way to immediately generate higher revenue as a consulting business owner.
But if you’ve been charging by the hour — or a fixed fee — you don’t know how to start charging based on value or ROI.
If you’d like personalized coaching and the support of an entire consulting community to help you raise your fees by 2x, 3x, or even 10x, we can help.
In our Clarity Coaching program, we’ve helped over 1000 consultants to build a more strategic, profitable, and scalable, consulting business.
Learn More About Clarity Coaching
Whether you’re struggling to price your services based on value, want to build in more recurring revenue, or want to know how to structure an equity deal properly, our program will help you increase your pricing with confidence.
You’ll learn how to make more money with every project you take on — and how to land more clients than ever before. Learn more about Clarity Coaching and get in touch to talk about your situation and goals.
