Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the way the big guys (Accenture, TCS, etc) went a few years back. Keep that in mind as you try this -- the further you go down this route, the more the market pressures will force you into an offshore sweatshop model. A lot of product design shops have gone to more of an agency model, which makes sense here too. It actually works pretty well as long as you realize that the "accounting" works differently offsh…
I totally see the upside of taking an Accenture et al approach but I can't stomach the offshore sweatshop model. In the early days I tried offshore and the quality simply isn't there. I can't sacrifice the quality of what we put out just to make more £££'s.
It's all about learning what work to do on-shore (anything involving client contact / communication, like requirements gathering) and how to package and hand off requirements to offshore.
The big consulting firms will have an advantage over small ones in this model though, because hiring/training developers becomes an operational task that you're doing all the time. If you can grapple with the training and skills development you end up needing to do offshore, the model does work very well.
It will distance you from the technology side of the business, however... and soon enough you'll find that you're working in professional services rather than software development. :)