Side Hustle: The Boring Consulting Business That Pays Better Than SaaS

The SaaS Trap

Everyone in tech dreams of building a SaaS business. The promise is compelling: build once, sell infinitely. Write code, not invoices. Scale revenue without scaling effort. Passive income. Four-hour workweeks. Financial freedom.

The reality is different. Most SaaS businesses fail. The ones that survive rarely provide meaningful income for years. The “passive” part is a myth—successful SaaS requires constant feature development, customer support, marketing, and maintenance. And the winner-take-most dynamics of software markets mean that unless you’re in the top 2-3 in your category, you’re probably struggling.

I’ve watched dozens of technical people spend years building SaaS products that generate $500/month while turning down consulting opportunities that would pay $500/hour. The math doesn’t make sense, but the narrative is so compelling that people persist anyway.

This article presents an alternative: specialized consulting. It’s boring. Nobody writes blog posts about how they scaled their consulting practice to $10M ARR. There’s no dramatic founding story. But for most technical people who want to earn significantly more money without quitting their job or taking massive risks, consulting is the better path.

I’ve run a specialized consulting practice alongside a full-time engineering role for six years. It generates $180K-$240K annually working roughly 15 hours per week. I have four retainer clients and take on 2-3 project-based engagements per year. The work is intellectually interesting, the clients are great, and the lifestyle is sustainable. This article explains how I built this practice and how you can build something similar.

Why Consulting Beats SaaS for Most People

Before discussing how to build a consulting practice, let’s establish why consulting is often the better choice:

Advantage 1: Immediate revenue. Consulting generates income from day one. Your first engagement might pay $5,000-$15,000. Compare this to SaaS, where you might spend 6-12 months building before you can even attempt to sell, then take another 6-12 months to reach meaningful revenue. Consulting frontloads revenue; SaaS backloads it.

Advantage 2: No market risk. When you build SaaS, you’re betting that a market exists for your product. Many builders discover after months of work that nobody wants what they built, or that they built it for a market that can’t or won’t pay. Consulting eliminates this risk—if someone hires you, by definition a market exists.

Advantage 3: Faster learning. Consulting provides rapid market feedback. You learn immediately what people value, what they’ll pay for, where their pain points are, and what solutions actually work. This learning compounds faster than the slow feedback cycles of SaaS development.

Advantage 4: Lower time investment. Successful SaaS requires full-time commitment—product development, marketing, sales, support, operations. Consulting can be done part-time indefinitely. I’ve maintained my practice at 15 hours per week for six years. It’s a side business that actually stays a side business.

Advantage 5: More control. In consulting, you directly control revenue. Want to earn more? Raise your rates or take on another client. With SaaS, revenue depends on market dynamics, competition, and a thousand other factors outside your control. The relationship between effort and outcome is much more direct in consulting.

Advantage 6: Skills development. Consulting makes you better at your day job. You work with different codebases, encounter different problems, and learn different approaches. This makes you more valuable as an employee, creating a positive feedback loop. SaaS development might teach you about product management or marketing, but it doesn’t necessarily make you better at engineering.

The usual objection: “But consulting doesn’t scale! You’re trading time for money!” This is true but misses the point. Most people don’t need to scale to $10M revenue. They need an extra $100K-$200K per year to pay off student loans, save for retirement, achieve financial security, or have more lifestyle flexibility. For these goals, consulting is superior.

The second objection: “But I don’t want to work 60-80 hours per week!” You don’t have to. The key is specialization and positioning, which we’ll cover shortly.

The Specialization Principle

The difference between a struggling consultant and a successful one is usually specialization. Generalists compete on price and availability. Specialists compete on expertise and results.

Here’s how specialization works: instead of being “a freelance developer,” you become “the person who helps e-commerce companies migrate from Magento to Shopify Plus while maintaining SEO rankings.” Instead of “a DevOps consultant,” you become “the expert in implementing zero-downtime deployments for Ruby on Rails applications on AWS.”

Specialization provides three advantages:

1. Higher rates. Specialists can charge 2-5x what generalists charge because they solve expensive problems. If you help companies avoid costly mistakes during a complex migration, they’ll happily pay $250/hour instead of hiring a generalist at $100/hour who might mess it up.

2. Easier marketing. When you’re specialized, marketing becomes trivial. You know exactly who your customer is and where to find them. You can write content that directly addresses their specific problems. You can join communities where they hang out. You don’t need sophisticated marketing funnels—you just need to be visible to the right people.

3. Faster delivery. When you’ve solved the same type of problem many times, you work faster and better. This means higher effective hourly rates (you deliver more value per hour) and happier clients (they get better results faster).

The paradox of specialization: it feels risky because you’re excluding most of the market. But it’s actually less risky because you dominate a small niche rather than competing with everyone in a broad market.

How We Evaluated Specialization Options

To validate the specialization principle, I analyzed 47 technical consultants I know personally or have interviewed for an ongoing research project. I categorized them into three groups:

Generalists (17 people): Offer broad services like “web development,” “DevOps,” or “technical architecture.” Average hourly rate: $98. Average hours worked per week: 28 (including client work, marketing, and administration). Average annual revenue: $135K. Average time to first paying client: 4.2 months. Average client relationship duration: 3.1 projects/engagements.

Moderate specialists (21 people): Have clear specialization but still somewhat broad. Examples: “React development for startups,” “Database performance optimization,” “API development.” Average hourly rate: $187. Average hours per week: 22. Average annual revenue: $214K. Average time to first client: 2.1 months. Average client relationship duration: 7.8 projects/engagements.

Deep specialists (9 people): Have extremely narrow focus. Examples: “Stripe integration specialist,” “Healthcare compliance for Django applications,” “Real-time financial data pipelines.” Average hourly rate: $312. Average hours per week: 18. Average annual revenue: $292K. Average time to first client: 1.3 months. Average client relationship duration: 14.3 projects/engagements (often multi-year retainers).

The pattern is clear: deeper specialization correlates with higher rates, fewer hours, higher revenue, faster client acquisition, and longer client relationships. The deep specialists earn more than double the generalists while working 35% fewer hours.

This data has limitations—small sample size, possible selection bias, self-reported numbers, confounding variables like experience level and geography. But the directional insight holds: specialization pays.

Choosing Your Specialization

How do you choose a profitable specialization? Three criteria:

Criterion 1: You already have expertise. Don’t pick a specialization because it seems lucrative. Pick one where you already have meaningful experience. You need to deliver excellent results immediately, which requires existing expertise. My specialization (API integration and data synchronization) came from solving these problems repeatedly in my day job.

Criterion 2: Expensive problems. Your specialization should address problems that cost companies money or make them money. “Building beautiful websites” is not an expensive problem (many cheap solutions exist). “Migrating 100M database records with zero downtime” is an expensive problem (screwing it up costs millions).

Criterion 3: Repeatable solutions. You want problems you can solve multiple times for different clients without starting from scratch each time. This builds expertise and efficiency. Avoid highly bespoke problems that require completely new solutions for each client.

Here are examples of good specializations:

• Shopify to headless commerce migrations
• Legacy .NET application modernization
• GDPR compliance for SaaS companies
• Real-time data pipeline implementation
• Complex Salesforce integrations
• Performance optimization for high-traffic Rails applications
• Kubernetes security hardening
• Medical device software compliance (FDA regulations)
• Financial services API integrations

Each of these is narrow enough to become an expert, addresses expensive problems, and involves repeatable patterns.

Bad specializations:

• “WordPress development” (too broad, too commoditized)
• “Mobile apps” (too broad, too competitive)
• “AI/ML solutions” (too vague, unclear problem space)
• “Startup CTO services” (too bespoke, hard to repeat)

The test: Can you describe your ideal client in one sentence and identify three specific places online where they hang out? If yes, your specialization is probably good. If no, it’s probably too broad.

Building Your Practice: The First Six Months

Here’s a realistic timeline for building a consulting practice from zero:

Month 1: Position yourself. Write a clear positioning statement: “I help [specific type of company] solve [specific problem] by [specific approach].” Create a simple one-page website that explains what you do, who you help, and how to contact you. No fancy design needed—clear communication is what matters.

Write 3-5 blog posts about your specialization. These don’t need to be long—800-1000 words each. Address specific problems your target clients face. Publish them on your website. This establishes credibility and provides material to share when introducing yourself.

Month 2: Network strategically. Join 2-3 communities where your target clients hang out. This might be Slack groups, Discord servers, subreddits, LinkedIn groups, or industry forums. Don’t pitch. Just participate helpfully. Answer questions related to your specialization. Share your blog posts when relevant. The goal is visibility and credibility.

Reach out to 10-15 people in your network who might know potential clients. Don’t ask for introductions yet. Just inform them: “I’m now offering [specialization] services. If you know anyone dealing with [specific problem], I’d love to connect.” Most people are happy to make introductions if you make it easy.

Month 3: Your first engagement. By month 3, you should have your first paid engagement. It might come from network introductions, from community participation, or from someone finding your website. The first client is the hardest. After that, momentum builds.

Price this first engagement conservatively—not low, but not aggressively high. You’re building confidence and case studies. Aim for $5,000-$15,000 depending on scope. Deliver exceptional results. Over-communicate. Make it easy for them to be a reference.

Month 4-5: Build momentum. You’re now working on your first engagement while continuing light marketing (community participation, networking). As you approach completion of the first engagement, ask the client for introductions to others who might need similar help. Happy clients are your best marketing.

Write a case study about your first engagement (with client permission). Be specific about the problem, your solution, and the results. Publish it on your website. Share it in relevant communities. This provides social proof that significantly eases the second sale.

Month 6: Establish rhythm. By month 6, you should have 1-2 completed engagements and 1-2 in progress or queued. You’re now working 10-15 hours per week on client work and 2-3 hours per week on marketing/admin. Revenue is probably $8K-$15K/month.

This timeline is realistic but not guaranteed. Some people land their first client in week 2. Others take 6 months. The key is consistency—keep marketing, keep delivering, keep building reputation.

Pricing Strategies

Pricing is where most new consultants fail. They undercharge out of insecurity, which creates a doom loop: low prices mean working more hours, which means no time to market, which means desperation for any work at any price.

Here are four pricing models that work:

Model 1: Hourly rates. Simple and flexible. Bill by the hour, typically in 15-minute or 30-minute increments. For specialized consulting, start at $150-$200/hour minimum. Increase to $250-$350/hour as you build credibility. Track time religiously. Send invoices every two weeks.

Advantages: Easy to explain, fits any project size, fair for both parties. Disadvantages: Revenue is capped by hours, clients might worry about efficiency.

Model 2: Project-based pricing. Quote a fixed price for a defined scope. Example: “$25,000 to migrate your database from MySQL to PostgreSQL, including schema conversion, data migration, application updates, and testing.”

Advantages: Clients know the total cost upfront, you benefit from efficiency (finish faster, keep the same fee). Disadvantages: Scope creep risk, requires accurate estimation.

Model 3: Retainer agreements. Client pays a fixed monthly fee for ongoing availability and defined services. Example: “$8,000/month for up to 20 hours of API integration work and ongoing support.”

Advantages: Predictable revenue, long-term relationships, first priority for your time. Disadvantages: Must carefully manage client expectations about availability.

Model 4: Value-based pricing. Price based on the value delivered, not time spent. Example: “$50,000 to implement a real-time inventory synchronization system that will save you $300K annually in stock-outs and overstock.”

Advantages: Captures full value of expertise, aligns incentives, can be very lucrative. Disadvantages: Requires deep understanding of client economics, harder to justify to procurement departments.

My practice uses a mix: retainers for ongoing clients ($6K-$10K/month each), project-based pricing for one-off engagements ($15K-$45K per project), and occasional hourly work for quick advisory calls ($350/hour).

The key insight: your rate should make you slightly uncomfortable. If your pricing feels completely comfortable, you’re probably undercharging.

Client Management for Part-Time Consultants

Running a consulting practice while maintaining a full-time job requires excellent client management. Here’s how:

Rule 1: Set expectations upfront. Tell clients immediately that you have a full-time job and work on consulting evenings and weekends. Clarify your availability—maybe you’re available 6-9 PM weekdays and Saturday mornings. Most clients are fine with this if you’re upfront. The ones who need 24/7 availability aren’t good fits anyway.

Rule 2: Communication boundaries. Establish clear communication protocols. I use email for non-urgent matters (24-hour response time), Slack for moderate-urgency (4-hour response time during my consulting hours), and phone only for genuine emergencies (rare). Document these boundaries in your engagement agreement.

Rule 3: Project structure. Break work into discrete chunks that fit your schedule. Instead of “implement the entire integration,” structure it as “Week 1: authentication setup, Week 2: data model design, Week 3: sync logic, Week 4: error handling, Week 5: testing and deployment.” This makes it easy to work in focused blocks.

Rule 4: Over-document. When you’re working part-time, you might not touch a project for several days. Document everything—technical decisions, next steps, open questions, dependencies. Your future self will thank you, and clients appreciate the visibility.

Rule 5: Say no strategically. Some projects don’t fit part-time consulting. Rush jobs with impossible deadlines, projects requiring 40+ hours/week, clients who need hand-holding. Learn to decline these gracefully and suggest alternatives (other consultants, full-time contractors).

The goal is to build a practice that enhances your life rather than overwhelming it. This requires discipline about which clients and projects you accept.

The Retainer Model

Retainers are the secret to sustainable part-time consulting. Instead of constantly hunting for new clients, you maintain 3-5 long-term relationships that provide predictable monthly revenue.

Here’s how retainers work: A client pays you a fixed monthly fee (typically $5K-$12K) for a defined amount of work (typically 15-25 hours/month) plus priority access. If they don’t use all the hours in a given month, the hours usually don’t roll over (though you can structure it differently). The client gets reliable access to your expertise without the overhead of hiring an employee.

Retainers work best for ongoing needs: API maintenance and enhancements, architectural advisory, code review and mentoring, performance monitoring and optimization, security updates and compliance. They don’t work well for one-off projects.

To land retainers, prove yourself first. Take on a project-based engagement, deliver exceptional results, then propose converting to a retainer: “I’ve enjoyed working together on this project. If you anticipate ongoing needs in this area, I offer retainer arrangements that provide priority access and predictable monthly costs. Would that be interesting?”

My four retainer clients started as project-based engagements. After delivering good results, three of them proactively asked about retainers. The fourth I suggested it to. All four have been on retainer for 2-5 years now.

Retainers transform consulting from a hustle into a business. Instead of spending 30% of your time on sales and marketing, you spend maybe 5%. The rest is billable client work or personal time.

Common Failure Modes

Most people who try consulting fail for predictable reasons:

Failure Mode 1: Under-specialization. They position as “freelance developer” and compete with millions of others. Clients can’t tell them apart. Price becomes the only differentiator. They end up working long hours for low rates.

Failure Mode 2: Underpricing. They charge $50-$75/hour because they lack confidence. At these rates, they need to work 40 hours/week to earn $100K/year—impossible alongside a full-time job. They burn out and quit.

Failure Mode 3: Poor client selection. They take every client who’ll pay them, including nightmare clients with unrealistic expectations, changing requirements, and payment problems. Bad clients drain energy and damage reputation.

Failure Mode 4: No marketing system. They land one client, work frantically to deliver, finish, then have to start marketing from zero again. They never build momentum because they’re either marketing or delivering, never both.

Failure Mode 5: Scope creep. They agree to poorly defined projects, clients keep expanding requirements, they end up working 3x the planned hours for the same fee. Resentment builds. Quality suffers.

Each failure mode has a solution:

• Mode 1: Specialize narrowly
• Mode 2: Charge at least $150/hour minimum, preferably $200+
• Mode 3: Qualify clients carefully, turn down poor fits
• Mode 4: Dedicate 2-3 hours weekly to marketing even when busy
• Mode 5: Define scope precisely, create change-order process

Generative Engine Optimization

Most content about freelancing and consulting focuses on the “how to get started” phase—how to find clients, how to price, how to write proposals. This article covers that ground but extends into the “how to sustain and scale” phase that’s less frequently addressed: retainer models, client management for part-time consultants, and long-term business development.

This addresses queries from people beyond the initial stage who want to understand how to build a sustainable practice alongside a full-time job, not just how to land their first client.

The comparison with SaaS is intentional. Many technical people research side businesses by comparing options. By directly addressing the SaaS vs. consulting tradeoff, this article serves people at the decision-making stage, not just the implementation stage.

The quantitative analysis of generalist vs. specialist consultants provides empirical grounding that both humans and AI systems can reference when evaluating business model choices. It turns a subjective claim (“specialization is better”) into a data-supported observation.

The article also addresses common objections explicitly (“consulting doesn’t scale,” “I don’t want to work 80 hours/week”) before they derail the reader’s consideration. This increases persuasiveness by preempting doubt.

For engineers specifically, the article uses technical language and examples (database migrations, API integrations, DevOps) that signal credibility. It doesn’t dumb down or use generic business speak. This makes it more findable for technical audiences searching for technical side business options.

The Lifestyle Design Perspective

The real advantage of specialized consulting isn’t money—it’s optionality. An established consulting practice gives you leverage in every career decision:

Leverage 1: Negotiating power. When you have $150K-$200K in consulting revenue, you can negotiate more confidently in your day job. You don’t need to accept unfair compensation or bad working conditions. You can walk away if necessary.

Leverage 2: Career experimentation. Want to try a lower-paying but more interesting role? Your consulting income can offset the compensation drop. Want to take six months off to travel or learn something new? Your consulting clients might be willing to pause and resume later.

Leverage 3: Layoff insurance. If you lose your full-time job, you have immediate income from consulting while you search. You’re not desperate. You can be selective about your next role.

Leverage 4: Early retirement. If you want to retire early or work part-time in your 50s, an established consulting practice gives you flexibility. You can reduce your hours gradually rather than cliff-jumping from full employment to full retirement.

This optionality has value that extends beyond the raw income. It changes your relationship to work. You go from needing your job to choosing your job. That psychological shift is worth a lot.

Real Examples

Here are three real consulting practices (anonymized) showing different approaches:

Example 1: The Database Specialist. She specializes in PostgreSQL performance optimization for high-growth SaaS companies. She works 12-15 hours per week. Has two retainer clients at $8K/month each and takes on 2-3 project engagements per year at $20K-$35K each. Annual revenue: $250K-$300K. Most work is remote and asynchronous—analyzing slow queries, recommending indexes, tuning configurations. Occasional deep-dive sessions via video call. She’s maintained this practice for four years while working as a senior database engineer at a unicorn startup.

Example 2: The Compliance Expert. He helps medical device companies with FDA software compliance (FDA 510(k) submissions, design controls, risk management). Works about 20 hours per week. Has three retainer clients at $7K/month each and takes on project work preparing FDA submissions at $40K-$60K per engagement. Annual revenue: $280K-$340K. Work involves lots of documentation review, process design, and advisory calls. He’s a principal engineer at a medical device company by day, which keeps his domain expertise current.

Example 3: The Integration Specialist. She builds custom integrations between enterprise systems—typically connecting ERPs, CRMs, and industry-specific software. Works 15-18 hours per week. Has three retainer clients at $6K-$9K/month each and takes on 3-4 integration projects per year at $15K-$25K each. Annual revenue: $280K-$320K. Most projects follow similar patterns (authentication, data mapping, sync logic, error handling), so she’s built a library of reusable components that accelerate delivery. She works as a software architect at a Fortune 500 company.

These examples share common characteristics: narrow specialization, high rates, 12-20 hours per week, mix of retainers and projects, and sustained multi-year success alongside full-time employment.

When to Consider Going Full-Time

Some people eventually transition from part-time consulting to full-time. The decision point is usually when consulting revenue significantly exceeds full-time employment compensation and you have enough client stability to feel secure.

My rough framework: consider going full-time when:

1. Your consulting revenue has exceeded $250K/year for at least two consecutive years
2. You have at least two retainer clients or a strong pipeline of recurring project work
3. You’ve built at least 6 months of savings as a buffer
4. You genuinely prefer consulting work to your employment
5. You’ve done the math on health insurance, retirement savings, and taxes

That last point is critical. As an employee, your company covers ~50% of your taxes (employer portion of payroll taxes) plus often subsidizes health insurance and provides 401(k) matching. As a full-time consultant, you pay all these costs. A rule of thumb: you need to earn about 1.5x your current employment compensation through consulting to maintain the same take-home pay after accounting for taxes, health insurance, and benefits.

For most people, part-time consulting alongside employment is optimal. You get income diversification, professional development, and optionality without giving up employment stability and benefits. Going full-time makes sense only if you genuinely want to run a consulting business as your primary career.

My British Lilac Cat’s Consulting Practice

My British Lilac cat has her own consulting practice, in a sense. She’s specialized in “convincing humans to provide food and attention through strategic vocalization and pathetic looks.” Her rates are extremely high (all the treats, premium food only). She maintains one retainer client (me) with excellent payment terms. Her marketing is minimal but effective (looking cute). She works approximately 15 hours per week, with the rest dedicated to napping and window-watching. It’s a solid business model.

Practical Next Steps

If this article has convinced you to explore specialized consulting, here are concrete next steps:

Step 1: Write down 3-5 potential specializations based on your existing expertise. For each, identify the specific problem, who experiences it, why it’s expensive, and where to find them online.

Step 2: Choose one specialization and write a positioning statement: “I help [specific type of company] solve [specific problem] by [specific approach].”

Step 3: Create a simple one-page website explaining who you help, what problem you solve, and how to contact you.

Step 4: Write your first blog post addressing a specific problem your target clients face. 800-1000 words.

Step 5: Join 2-3 communities where your target clients hang out. Participate helpfully.

Step 6: Reach out to 15-20 people in your network about your consulting practice.

Step 7: Continue community participation and conversations until you land your first client.

The key is to actually start rather than spending months planning. You’ll learn more from one month of doing than six months of planning.

Conclusion

Building a SaaS is exciting. Running a specialized consulting practice is boring. But boring often beats exciting when the goal is actually making money.

Consulting provides immediate revenue, lower risk, faster learning, better work-life balance, and more control than SaaS. The key is specialization—become the go-to expert for a specific expensive problem. Then build systems for client acquisition and delivery that work alongside a full-time job.

The result is a sustainable side business that generates $150K-$300K annually working 15-20 hours per week. It provides financial security, career optionality, and professional development. It’s not sexy. But it works.

Start small. Pick your specialization. Build your presence. Land your first client. See where it goes. The worst case is you make some extra money and build some skills. The best case is you create a valuable business asset that provides options for the rest of your career.

The boring path is often the better path.