I'm new to the small business world. I'm currently in this phase between freelancing and small business - I have an LLC stood up, have a website, general business plan, etc., but I still process my contracts as a freelancer. My product would be defined as "IT Consulting". I do a lot of web scraping, data projects, and data visualization.

My question is about how to structure a sustainable consulting business. Currently it feels like I'm sort of a gun for hire. If I want to make more money, I need more clients or work longer hours (or increase the rate?), basically hoping that I check my inbox and that one of my clients has something new for me. It feels like a very 1 to 1 relationship between input and output. Revenue isn't predictable, and I constantly have to prospect to find projects (sometimes don't even last long or are duds). I try to envision the future of running the business and it feels like I'd still be a hamster on a wheel, just on a slightly bigger/fancier wheel.

How exactly do successful firms / agencies make it work in a sustainable/scalable way? I feel like there is something I'm missing about how the contracts and productization is structured, but not sure what it is or what level to pull when making this next step.