It’s administrative/sales/etc work for the consulting business, not for the client. There’s something fishy about the $3,000/hr rate, though, because the high-

It’s administrative/sales/etc work for the consulting business, not for the client. There’s something fishy about the $3,000/hr rate, though, because the high-end consultants I know—and I suppose I count myself among them—don’t charge hourly. Many charge a daily rate, and the higher end ones charge a monthly retainer. I personally do fixed-price work with the occasional monthly retainer. (This is excluding consultant mills like McKinsey, which are a separate breed.) I’m not going to share details, but with some mental gymnastics, I suppose I could find a circumstance where I earned thousands in an hour. But that isn’t reflected in my yearly revenue figures, because it excludes the time in spending on marketing, figuratively waiting for the phone to ring, and other non-revenue-generating activities.