When Should I Hire a Consultant?
Hiring a consultant is bringing an ‘outsider’ into your business and can be an intensely personal experience.
What’s in this episode for you?!
- When should you hire a consultant?
- We’ll talk about hiring consultants in small businesses and my own 2020 adventure in bringing help into my own business.
- There are 3 consultants every business owner should have… what are they?
You’ll find highlights below. Watch the livestream recording or listen to the podcast version on your favorite podcatcher for all the details!
Listen to or Download the Audio Podcast
When Should I Hire a Consultant? | Show Notes
What is a Consultant?
In order to understand when it’s time to bring in a consultant let’s talk, first about what a consultant is.
This may seem basic but it’s important to be clear about it.
A consultant is someone from outside your company that brings needed expertise or resources that will benefit your business.
Most often we think of engineering services, marketing or business management ‘consultants’ with varying degrees of trepidation or even loathing.
The trepidation and loathing is a product of consultants who don’t take their craft and customers seriously. I’m sorry if you had that experience.
For what it’s worth… to me small business is as serious as the 50% of the economy that it represents (which means I take it seriously).
When Should I Hire a Consultant?
I have found two criteria that make this very simple.
- When you find yourself needing to accomplish something that you’re not objectively qualified for.
- If you don’t like doing it but it still needs to get done.
How Do I Know What to Hire a Consultant for?
Break down what needs to be done, what skills are needed to achieve those goals, and then match those to your own skillset.
Get referrals from colleagues who have experience with a consultant in an area you need who got results similar to what you’re looking for.
Get to know the experts you're considering. You’ll get a lot more benefit from someone you enjoy working with.
My 2020 Consulting Experiences
Over the last few decades, I’ve had my share of negative experiences with consultants. One of the reasons I chose to create my own consulting firm was to offer small business owners a way to hire a consultant and come out feeling great about it.
Like many of you, 2020 has allowed me to reevaluate some of my business goals, processes, strategies, and the results I was getting from them.
What I found were a few places where… when was being objective… I could use some real expertise.
Some of these things are still in process and some are complete.
Some worked out well and some did not meet my expectations.
The 2020 Projects
Watch or Listen to hear how I hired consultants in each of these areas, why I chose these projects, and how they worked out (or are going so far).
- Logo
- SEO
- Podcast/Livestream Shownotes
- Copywriting
- Website Design
3 Consultants Every Business Should Have
- Lawyer
- Accountant
- Business Operations & Management
Practical Action
Identify Your Objective Qualifications
Try to be as objective as possible. It was uncomfortable admitting that my original logo reflected my lack of skill at graphic design… but I really like the results I got from engaging a real team of experts!
Identify and Prioritize What You Need Help With
Take some time to figure out what you need to do that is outside your skillset and dig into getting some help!
Engage the Big 3
I promise you’ll thank me later. Start looking for the Big 3 before you need them. You don’t want to be desperate when you're looking for someone to help you with the law, money, or business operations.
Do you have a consulting success story? How about a ‘must-have’ consultant that I missed? Drop a comment with your thoughts. Connect with me to keep in touch and share ideas!
Additional Resources
Don't just take my word for it...
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/320051
https://www.themuse.com/advice/good-to-know-why-companies-really-hire-consultants
https://bench.co/blog/operations/when-to-hire-business-consultant/
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