There are several key differences between consulting and app development. Here are a few for your consideration:
Number of clients
When you do contract work, you are building for just one client. Your focus is entirely based on their particular business needs. By contrast, when you’re building an app, you’re building for hundreds, perhaps thousands of clients. And there’s no way you can please them all.
Work first, then payment
With an app, all development needs to be completed before your first sale. So you build it over a period of time (perhaps weeks, months, or even years) without it generating any income. So you’ll need another source of income while working on the app, such as consulting.
Build once, sell multiple times
Once it’s published, you can sell the app to multiple clients without doing more work (aside from the actual selling part). This really allows you to scale your revenue. With consulting, you always build once, and sell once.
Exit strategy
With consulting, since you’re usually selling your personal expertise, it’s not really possible to sell the business. That’s because you’re the business. An app is a distinct entity, with its own Intellectual Property and client list. And you can sell that to Salesforce or another agency.
The takeaway
Before building an app, be sure you know what you’re getting yourself into. Services and products are a different game, and not all your skills are transferable.