According to Wikipedia, IT consulting is a three tiered industry...

"The IT consulting industry can be viewed as a three-tier system:

* Professional services firms which maintain large professional workforces and command high bill rates. These firms are increasingly sourcing their employees from low-cost nations.
* Staffing firms, which place technologists in businesses on a temporary basis. These firms are pejoratively known as "body shops". While they are geographically limited by their customers, they can exploit global cost differences by bringing guest workers to their host country. Body Shops are typically distinguished from Consultancies by their commercial practice of pricing service by the day (the input), rather than by the results of their work (the outputs, or deliverables).
* Independent consultants, who function as contractors (in the U.S, on "1099"), employees of staffing firms (in the U.S, employed on "W-2"), or as subcontractors in their own right."
Source: Wikipedia

According to industry expert Joshua Feinberg...

If you are working in a regular corporate IT job, your earnings potential and your advancement opportunities will be controlled by things that are not within your control at all. You will have to deal with lazy or incompetent peers, bad management or an out-of-whack seniority system.

But when you get involved in computer consulting on your own, you eliminate a lot of these issues. If you don't like your peers, you find better partners and subcontractors. If one of your bosses (in this case, a big client) is behaving badly by not following your advice and thus running his/her business into the ground, you can find a new client to replace him/her.

And you will never be unappreciated. You know if a client is willing to pay you top rates for your professional services (upwards of $100 per hour), your expertise is valued and expected!

When you own your own computer consulting business, you give yourself total control over your own future.