Consultant: a person who is so fiendishly skilled at a job that they don’t even have to do it anymore, and instead merely pass sage (and expensive) revelations down to the people at the coal-face of the industry. Consultant: a person whose experience and talent can solve your small business’ problems and make you more productive and profitable.
Who are you going to believe? Here are some things to consider when working out if you could benefit from external consultancy.
Table of Contents
Objective Assessment
You may feel that your current staff have enough training to be able to path-find for your company. But the advantage of eternal consultancy is that a woman or man coming in from the outside can transcend your office’s working dynamic. A survey has found that 40% of employees criticise their bosses on social media. An external consultant can be the one to constructively criticise your decisions and policies without leaving a bitter taste in office relations.
Skills Gap
There are some things you are great at, but if you’re a small business, you won’t have enough people on board to be good at everything (yet). In the meantime, sometimes it is most pragmatic to get consultants to assist with highly specialised projects. For example, if you are involved in construction and have been contracted for a job requiring operating in a dangerous or unusual environment, it just makes sense to get someone in with the expertise to ensure everyone’s safety and the smooth running of the job.
This type of highly-specialised, short-term consultancy can often be the most beneficial to small business like your own. Some tasks require months of training to perform well and so there are all sorts of specialist consultants out there to plug your small businesses gap in talent.
You’re Probably Already Outsourcing Some Things
You are probably already giving some of your workload out to external workers, so why not trust consultants with more? For instance, you might already have an accountant, or have an arrangement with a solicitor’s partnership. Perhaps you use a delivery company to transport your products. You already outsource, so don’t be put off by the word ‘consultant’.
One of the most common areas to get external help is in IT, because of the fast-moving pace of the technology and data industry, it really does take dedicated professionals to keep track of what is best for your business. If you can’t yet afford to employ a tech-specialist, then it may be best to consult an external solutions provider, such as Evolve. At the end of the day, you need a job doing, and unless you are really going to hire more staff, the consultant need only cost you less than hiring a new employee for his services to make financial sense.
About Carson Derrow
