You need to look beyond just profitability as product vs. consulting businesses grow in very different ways. Do you have a pipeline of quality potential hires?

You need to look beyond just profitability as product vs. consulting businesses grow in very different ways. Do you have a pipeline of quality potential hires? consulting headcount grows more in line with workload than product, which tends to stair-step. Can you handle the boom/bust of consulting? demand tends to be infinite or zero. Can you manage a long sales cycle? product (especially enterprise) sales can easily take 6-12 months. These are the clients that will also likely demand the most customization with software purchase. I like looking at the motivations for consulting, of which revenue is just one. You also get great ideas for new features, solve existing pain points and leverage relationships for new sales leads. You can do both but should have a very clear picture of why you do both.