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The differences between professional 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 professional consultant and a business consultant. Additionally, a business consultant has an average salary of $87,214, which is higher than the $80,770 average annual salary of a professional consultant.
The top three skills for a professional consultant include customer satisfaction, customer service and C #. The most important skills for a business consultant are data analysis, project management, and strong analytical.
| Professional Consultant | Business Consultant | |
| Yearly salary | $80,770 | $87,214 |
| Hourly rate | $38.83 | $41.93 |
| Growth rate | 11% | 11% |
| Number of jobs | 100,996 | 128,033 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Professional consultants provide their expert advice to organizations and businesses. This professional advice helps the organization to improve its business performance in terms of management, operation, and strategy. Their main tasks are to detect issues and find ways to resolve them, conduct surveys and research an understanding of the business, and assess the pros and cons of possible strategies. Professional consultants must have good numerical, teamwork, and interpersonal skills to succeed. Also, they must have commercial awareness, self-motivation, and good attention to detail.
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.
Professional consultants and business consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Professional Consultant | Business Consultant | |
| Average salary | $80,770 | $87,214 |
| Salary range | Between $69,000 And $93,000 | Between $64,000 And $117,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Rafael, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Citi | ZS |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Technology |
There are a few differences between a professional consultant and a business consultant in terms of educational background:
| Professional Consultant | Business Consultant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between professional consultants' and business consultants' demographics:
| Professional Consultant | Business Consultant | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 56.7% Female, 43.3% | Male, 62.8% Female, 37.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.2% White, 67.3% 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 Percentage | 12% | 12% |