Post job

Consultant vs business consultant

The differences between consultants and business consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a consultant and a business consultant. Additionally, a business consultant has an average salary of $87,214, which is higher than the $78,912 average annual salary of a consultant.

The top three skills for a consultant include customer service, strong analytical and project management. The most important skills for a business consultant are data analysis, project management, and strong analytical.

Consultant vs business consultant overview

ConsultantBusiness Consultant
Yearly salary$78,912$87,214
Hourly rate$37.94$41.93
Growth rate11%11%
Number of jobs171,733128,033
Job satisfaction4-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age4444
Years of experience44

What does a consultant do?

Consultants are individuals who were tapped by a company or an organization to work on a specific activity, depending on their field of expertise. They act as guides for the organization in undertaking projects that are related to their field. Consultants would usually assist organizations in planning, often giving advice when the need arises. They would, at times, take the lead in activities that involve data gathering and interpretation of data gathering results so that they can provide solid recommendations on actions that the organization may undertake. They may also guide the organization in implementing any changes brought about by their consultancy and in evaluating the effectiveness of the changes.

What does a business consultant do?

A business consultant is an individual who works directly with business owners on developing a business plan and identifying their marketing needs. Business consultants offer business owners a wide range of services, such as supplementing existing staff, provide expertise in a specific market, and influencing other people. To increase revenue in business, business consultants should have experience success with the previous business owners. Business consultants must also have a bachelor's degree in business management and received years of field training.

Consultant vs business consultant salary

Consultants and business consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

ConsultantBusiness Consultant
Average salary$78,912$87,214
Salary rangeBetween $58,000 And $107,000Between $64,000 And $117,000
Highest paying CityWashington, DCSan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateNew JerseyAlaska
Best paying companyL.E.K. ConsultingZS
Best paying industryTechnologyTechnology

Differences between consultant and business consultant education

There are a few differences between a consultant and a business consultant in terms of educational background:

ConsultantBusiness Consultant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeNorthwestern UniversityNorthwestern University

Consultant vs business consultant demographics

Here are the differences between consultants' and business consultants' demographics:

ConsultantBusiness Consultant
Average age4444
Gender ratioMale, 58.4% Female, 41.6%Male, 62.8% Female, 37.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.8% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 13.8% White, 65.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 13.4% White, 65.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage12%12%

Differences between consultant and business consultant duties and responsibilities

Consultant example responsibilities.

  • Lead IIS tuning to get the maximum through put.
  • Manage daily data operations and customer support for SaaS web application products in Linux.
  • Manage several contractors in the development and coding of DB2 interface programs, as well as modification of the package software.
  • Manage operational incidents and changes to consistently meet SLA compliance
  • Introduce Jenkins to help automate manual deployments to multiple environments.
  • Design and code windows service to automate NRA applications email distribution.
  • Show more

Business consultant example responsibilities.

  • Partner with PMO and lead testing effort to ensure completeness of test data sets and to manage risk.
  • Manage requirements gathering, identify KPI s, and oversee design and architecture decisions.
  • Manage various SOX, HIPAA and PCI compliance projects from the planning stages to completion.
  • Apply the specific rules for HIPAA X12, Medicaid manage care requirements and industry best practices for transaction handling.
  • Manage external technology suppliers to assure functional operations and system architecture meet the business needs.
  • Perform successful UAT - good knowledge & experience in SDLC - SQL querying and data analysis.
  • Show more

Consultant vs business consultant skills

Common consultant skills
  • Customer Service, 10%
  • Strong Analytical, 7%
  • Project Management, 6%
  • C++, 5%
  • C #, 5%
  • Java, 5%
Common business consultant skills
  • Data Analysis, 10%
  • Project Management, 9%
  • Strong Analytical, 8%
  • Analytics, 7%
  • Healthcare, 5%
  • Tableau, 5%

Browse business and financial jobs