Posted by Hello everyone!
I’m starting a new series about one of the biggest — and most misunderstood — parts of working life in Belgium:
Consulting.
This topic brings me back almost 15 years, to the beginning of my own career.
Back then, I had just entered the workforce. Suddenly, I was driving a BMW provided by the company, carrying a corporate laptop everywhere, walking into large client offices pretending I knew exactly what I was doing…
while internally feeling like a complete imposter.
😂
At the time, consulting felt strangely glamorous: company cars, client meetings, business trips, expense reports, consultants speaking confidently in PowerPoint slides.
But after spending almost ten years working inside consulting firms, I slowly realised something:
Consulting in Belgium is not just a job.
It’s an entire business ecosystem quietly powering huge parts of the economy.
Not the glamorous McKinsey or BCG world you see in movies.
I’m talking about the everyday consulting companies behind:
- engineering
- IT
- software development
- testing
- telecom
- media
- pharma
- and dozens of other industries
These are the companies many international professionals actually work for when they arrive in Belgium.
And yet surprisingly few people truly understand:
- how the business model works
- why companies hire consultants
- why consultants are paid differently
- or why Belgium became so dependent on this system
So in this series, I want to explain:
- how consulting companies operate in Belgium
- what the relationships between clients, consultants, and intermediaries really look like
- how salaries and margins work
- and why so many people eventually transition from employee to freelancer
If you’re job hunting, considering consulting, or simply trying to understand how corporate Belgium really functions, this series is for you.
⭐1. How Consulting Companies Operate in Belgium
Consulting companies work in a B2B model. They provide professional manpower or project teams to large enterprises to solve specific problems.
What do consulting companies “sell”?
Unlike traditional companies:
- Toyota sells cars
- Daikin sells air conditioners
- Google sells software
Consulting companies sell services — expertise, time, and people.
Who works inside a consulting company?
There are three main groups:
1. Consultants The largest group. They do the actual work at the client site.
2. Sales / Business Managers They find projects, negotiate contracts, and match consultants to clients.
3. Support Functions HR, finance, IT, fleet management, office management — the backbone of operations.
What are the costs?
Consulting companies have very low operational costs. Their biggest expense is employee salaries. No factories, no raw materials, no large R&D budgets.
This is why consulting can be a profitable business — but also a risky one (more on that later).
⭐ 2. The Business Relationship: Consultant → Consulting Firm → Client
Here’s how the triangle works.
Consultant
Consultants are hired on permanent contracts with normal Belgian salaries (often with optimized benefits). But 99% of their work happens at the client site, not inside the consulting company.
Most consultants are not “advisors” in the traditional sense — they are part of the client’s operational team, doing execution and implementation work.
If you’ve ever seen colleagues with email addresses ending in “external” or “contractor”, they are likely consultants from a consulting firm.
Client
Clients pay the consulting company based on the consultant’s daily rate — usually €500–€1,000+ per day.
This daily rate varies based on:
- the consultant’s expertise
- the market demand
- the sales manager’s negotiation skills
But it does not directly determine the consultant’s salary.
Consulting Firm
The consulting firm acts as the intermediary:
- It invoices the client monthly
- It checks client satisfaction
- It identifies new opportunities
- It manages the consultant’s contract, benefits, and career path
⭐ 3. Why Do Consulting Firms Exist?
You might sometimes question why consulting firms — often jokingly called “bodyshoppers” — even exist. Why don’t consultants just work directly for the client? It’s a fair question, and one I hear all the time.
The truth is simple: in this business model, all three parties benefit — the consultant, the consulting firm, and the client.
In this article, I’ll focus on the consulting firm and the client. In the next edition, I’ll dive into the consultant’s perspective.
From the consulting firm’s perspective
Yes, consulting firms earn high margins. But they also take on significant risks and responsibilities that most people never see.
Here’s what sits behind the scenes:
1. No product = no scalable output
Consulting firms don’t sell software or machines. Their revenue depends entirely on billable hours — the time consultants spend at the client.
If a consultant isn’t assigned to a project, the company earns nothing.
2. If a consultant is sick or unassigned
The firm still pays:
- the consultant’s full salary
- employer social contributions
- benefits
- company car
- insurance
(If you’ve read my article on Belgian payslips, you know how expensive this is.)
Meanwhile, revenue drops to zero. This is one of the biggest financial risks in the consulting model.
3. They handle admin, sales, legal, and risk
Consultants don’t need to:
- negotiate contracts
- chase invoices
- manage compliance
- handle legal paperwork
- find new clients or projects
All of this is handled by the consulting firm’s sales team and support functions. These roles cost money — and they exist to make the consultant’s work possible.
4. Many senior consultants eventually join the client or go independent
As consultants gain experience, two common career paths open up: joining the client or becoming independent.
Going independent
For those who choose self‑employment, income can increase significantly — sometimes severalfold. But independence also comes with:
- all the admin
- all the sales
- all the financial risk
- all the uncertainty
(We’ll talk about self‑employment in a future edition.)
Joining the client
Another common path is being hired directly by the client. This is attractive for consultants who want stability, deeper involvement, or a long‑term role in the organisation.
But from the consulting firm’s perspective, this is also a real business risk: they lose a consultant they invested in, trained, and placed.
There is even an unspoken rule in the industry: when a client hires a consultant permanently, they usually request a replacement consultant from the same firm. This helps the consulting company avoid a complete loss and maintain the relationship.
5. These risks translate into real costs
The margins consulting firms earn are not “pure profit”. They fund:
- salaries for sales representatives
- HR and payroll
- legal and compliance
- IT support
- periods when consultants are unassigned
- company cars and benefits packages
In other words: consulting firms exist because they absorb the operational, financial, and legal risks that individual consultants or clients don’t want to carry.
⭐ 4. Why Do Clients Hire Consultants?
If clients pay such high daily rates, why don’t they just hire permanent employees?
From the clients’ perspective, it is very practical to hire consultants.
1. Speed
Large companies need flexibility. Hiring a permanent employee can take months. Hiring a consultant can take days.
2. Firing is difficult in Belgium
Permanent contracts are expensive to terminate. For temporary projects, consultants are the safer option.
3. Budget structure: Capex vs Opex
Permanent employees = operating expense (Opex) Consultants = project expense (Capex)
Capex is easier to approve, especially in large international organisations.
This is why you often see consultants doing the same work as employees — the budget simply comes from a different bucket.
4. Headcount control
Many international companies in Belgium operate under strict headcount limits imposed by their global headquarters. Even when the workload grows, they are not allowed to increase the number of permanent employees.
But the work still needs to be done.
So what happens? They turn to consulting firms.
Hiring consultants allows companies to add capacity without increasing official headcount, which keeps HR dashboards clean while ensuring projects continue to move forward. It’s one of the most common — and least talked‑about — reasons why consultants are everywhere in large Belgian organisations.
5. “Try before you hire”
Belgium abolished the trial period in 2014. This makes hiring a permanent employee a big commitment.
So companies often bring in a consultant first. If the match is good, they convert the consultant to a permanent employee later.
This approach reduces risk for both sides.
6. Technical expertise
When companies lack specific skills — AI, cloud, cybersecurity, blockchain, SAP, data engineering — they turn to consulting firms.
Consultants can fill urgent skill gaps quickly, without requiring long onboarding or internal training.
⭐ Final Thoughts
Consulting is a huge part of Belgium’s job market — especially for international professionals. Understanding how the model works helps you:
- navigate job offers
- understand your value
- negotiate better
- plan your career path
In the next edition, I’ll talk about the pros and cons of being a consultant, and share my own experience working in Belgian consulting firms as a consultant.