Is consulting a good business to start?

01 THE ANALYSIS

The strongest case for starting a consulting business in 2024 is the 'Service Business → SaaS Funnel' model (berg score 80/100), which earns the highest score in the entire analyzed set. The logic: a service agency in a specific niche generates revenue and customer access while validating a product, something pure-product startups spend years and millions trying to replicate. Initial investment floors at $3,000 and 200 hours — low enough that the downside is a bad quarter, not a financial crisis. ARR range of $60,000–$2,000,000 reflects exactly how wide the gap is between staying in services and making the product transition.

Two other BUILD-rated ideas follow the same structural logic. The 'Underserved SaaS Consulting-to-Product Studio' (berg 72/100) starts as an agency around a neglected enterprise platform — think Sage 100 for construction — then productizes workflows into plugins and templates. Entry cost is $3,000 and 80 hours, the lowest time commitment of any BUILD idea in the set. The 'Niche Facebook Ads Consultant' (berg 72/100) proves a solo consulting business can work at low capital ($500 entry, 40 hours), but only with strict vertical specialization and a revenue-share fee model that removes the client trust barrier. Both ideas share a competitor count under 8 in growing markets — tight enough to enter, large enough to matter.

The MAYBE verdicts are instructive about where consulting stalls. The 'Community Value-Add Lead Generation Consultancy' (berg 52/100) caps at $400,000 ARR because authentic community participation doesn't scale — quality degrades past 5–10 clients. The 'AI Micro-Consulting Platform for SMBs' (berg 56/100) lands MAYBE not because the market is small but because it's crowded with 9 growing competitors and free alternatives already exist. The pattern: consulting earns a BUILD when it's niche, has a product exit, or has structural differentiation. It earns a MAYBE when it's broad, human-hour-dependent, or competing on a feature someone else gives away free.

02 THE RECEIPTS — EVERY ANALYZED TAKE

• AI Micro-Consulting Platform for SMBsMAYBE · BERG 56 · ARR $80K–$900K · 9 COMPETITORS

  A subscription-based platform that gives small and medium-sized businesses access to AI-powered consulting agents specialized in marketing, operations, finance, and strategy at a fraction of traditional consulting costs.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: I CHALLENGED MANUS AI TO FIND $1M+ AI STARTUP IDEAS - IT ACTUALLY DELIVERED

• Sweaty Startup Local Services BusinessBUILD · BERG 70 · ARR $150K–$1.5M · 5 COMPETITORS

  Launch a boring but profitable local service business (pest control, lawn care, power washing, HVAC) in an underserved market where competitors are unsophisticated and demand is structurally growing.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: HOW NICK HUBER BUILT HIS WEALTH: FROM SWEATY STARTUP TO REAL ESTATE INVESTOR

• Underserved SaaS Consulting-to-Product StudioBUILD · BERG 72 · ARR $200K–$2M · 4 COMPETITORS

  Identify a large but underserved enterprise SaaS platform (e.g., Sage 100/300 for construction), build an agency around it, then productize workflows, templates, and plugins into a scalable software business.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: THESE 7 AI STARTUP IDEAS WILL PRINT $100K/MONTH (WITH PROOF)

• Community Value-Add Lead Generation ConsultancyMAYBE · BERG 52 · ARR $60K–$400K · 4 COMPETITORS

  A done-for-you service where a consultant joins relevant online communities (Discord, Reddit, School, Quora) on behalf of a client and systematically delivers high-value answers to generate inbound leads without spamming.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST CUSTOMERS (EVEN WITH ZERO AUDIENCE)

• Service Business → SaaS FunnelBUILD · BERG 80 · ARR $60K–$2M · 5 COMPETITORS

  Start a service agency in a specific niche to learn customer problems firsthand, then productize the solution into a SaaS or physical product sold to the same customer base.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: 50 REALIZATIONS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

• Niche Facebook Ads Consultant (Non-Douchey Solo Operator)BUILD · BERG 72 · ARR $60K–$350K · 7 COMPETITORS

  A solo paid-ads consultant who specializes in a specific vertical (e.g. wellness retreats, salons, female founders) and charges on a revenue-share basis instead of a retainer.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: HOW TO BUILD A MILLION DOLLAR SALES FUNNEL USING FACEBOOK ADS

• Startup Studio / PHC Incubator (Service Business → Studio Model)BUILD · BERG 71 · ARR $500K–$10M · 7 COMPETITORS

  Build an agency or service business that generates predictable cash flow, then use that cash to incubate and acquire digital products every 12-24 months under one holding company umbrella.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: MONEY, WEALTH, AND PERSONAL HOLDING COMPANIES WITH MICHAEL KARNJANAPRAKORN

• Personal Holding Company (HoldCo) IncubatorMAYBE · BERG 59 · ARR $80K–$650K · 8 COMPETITORS

  Build a personal holding company that incubates low-capex, tech-enabled businesses using AI tools, bootstrapping multiple small profitable companies into a diversified portfolio.

  FROM GREG'S VIDEO: HOW TO START A HOLDING COMPANY (FULL TUTORIAL)

03 QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK

How much does it cost to start a consulting business?

Across the 8 analyzed ideas, initial investment ranges from $500 (solo niche ads consultant) to $50,000 (startup studio model), with the majority of BUILD-rated consulting ideas sitting at $3,000–$15,000. Time investment is the harder constraint — the fastest entry point in the set requires 40 hours, the most demanding requires 500. Capital is rarely the bottleneck; positioning and niche specificity are.

Can a consulting business scale to real revenue?

The ARR ceiling across all 8 ideas spans $60,000 to $10,000,000, but the $10M figure belongs to the Startup Studio model, which uses consulting cash flow to fund product acquisitions — it is not a pure consulting business. The two ideas that stay closest to traditional consulting ('Community Lead Gen Consultancy' and 'Niche Facebook Ads Consultant') top out at $350,000–$400,000 ARR. Scaling past that consistently requires productizing some component of the service.

What type of consulting business has the best odds of working?

The data points to one pattern: consulting tied to an underserved, specific vertical with a clear path to a productized exit. The 'Underserved SaaS Consulting-to-Product Studio' (berg 72/100) and 'Service Business → SaaS Funnel' (berg 80/100) both score BUILD with competitor counts of 4–5 in growing markets. Generic or broad consulting — like 'AI consulting for all SMBs' — earns a MAYBE because 9 growing competitors and free AI tools erode the value proposition before you find your tenth client.