Jason's answer is right-on. A rule of thumb that I've used when considering the big move from 1099ers to employees is if the employee's effectiveness in year one could recoup a 3x return on the investment of their salary. In other words, does the employee free you up to bring in more consulting clients, or generate sufficient product sales to justify their salary?

The issue you raise of not having a predictable revenue stream as a consultant is exactly what led to the creation of the Seal the Deal Success Kit, which we created for coaches, but works as well for any consultant who wants to level out the ups and downs of the unreliable in-flow of revenues. http://sealthedealsuccesskit.com/ It's essentially a fully-stocked kitchen of information about essential mindsets for integrating leveraged action across three domains simultaneously: Networking, Marketing, and Sales. Do you feel you have a sustainable system for generating new consulting work/ revenue?

A business coach could make sense for you...there's a great article out recently citing Stanford research into the value of having a coach for your business. Here's that article. http://www.suzipomerantz.com/stanford-executive-coaching-study-reveals-most-ceos-want-coaching/

Books I'd recommend include: Seal the Deal (by me), Upside Down Selling (by Ian Altman), Beyond Referrals (by Bill Cates), Made to Stick (Heath brothers), and Dynamic Laws of Prosperity (Catherine Ponder).

Hope this is somewhat helpful!