Many Americans have accepted that consulting is a major part of businesses, especially when one lacks the expertise and experience in any area of a business. Hiring a consultant is beneficial to a business, but consulting is a major fallacy. This series discusses the greatest advantage of hiring a consultant and the major fallacy of consulting.
The question we asked them in this interview series was – What is the biggest benefit of hiring a consultant and what do you think are the biggest misconceptions about consulting?
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David Galownia
Title: CEO
Company: Slingshot
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-galownia-9202211/
One of the biggest benefit in hiring an outside development team is the immediate access to a team of experts. If you wanted those teams internally, you’d have to put in so much time and effort into hiring. Not to mention that if you’re building a single project, you may have issues keeping that team busy following the project.
Another benefit is getting a fresh perspective. Tech development teams build apps day in and day out. If you’ve never built a tech product before, having someone walk you through the process will ensure a quality product is built. It’s cheesy, but you should try and find someone who can help you think outside the box.
One misconception is that external development teams arn’t worth the cost. While the upfront price tag can seem overwhelming, you have to take into account what it includes. Hiring, onboarding, and benefits are employee-side things you won’t have to worry about. Managing all that talent takes a lot of effort. Building a product using an external team saves you the hassle, and you’ll have to pay for that convenience.
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Caitlyn Parish
Title: Chief Digital Officer
Company: Cicinia
Linkedin: Caitlyn Parish
Benefit:
In-depth expertise – this is the biggest reason why business owners need consultants mainly because they have years of experience in the field and are most likely aware of the latest trends and developments in the field. They offer very detailed information for your business so it makes it easier for owners to make decisions, build a long-term structure and expect fast ROI because with their expertise, your business can stay ahead of the competition and get the most out of clients and consumers.
Misconception:
All consultants are expensive – Not all consultants have the same price. Consulting comes in many shapes and sizes and the amount you need to pay will depend on the services they can offer or what services you only need to avail. Consultants’ rates can be negotiable and the information and advice they give will benefit your business for a very long time so never let your financial fears deter your business’ future success.
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Chris Walker
Title: Owner / CEO
Company: Superstar SEO
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/superstarseo/
In order to help you and your company evaluate your options, consultants are hired to share their knowledge and expertise. While consultants must possess in-depth knowledge, not everyone who knows more than the bare minimum qualifies as an expert. As a matter of fact, consultants need a variety of training programs, certifications, and paramount experiences to establish their credibility—to help business owners who want to become experts likewise.
The cost to hire a consultant amounts to the techniques and strategies you’ll learn from them. Additionally, your connection may serve as a gateway to additional networks that will benefit your company’s growth. Consultants have a broad range of networks available to them thanks to the connections they’ve made while achieving expert status.
When you ask a consultant for advice, they won’t simply respond with “yes” or “no” like a machine. Instead, these are actual people who have spent years honing their skills in order to support and assist others who are just getting started. Technically, they are paid mentors who assist you in assessing, acquiring, and developing your professional habits for the progression of your career.
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Sergei Lugovskoy
Title: president of Luxury Pianos
Company: Luxury Pianos
Linkedin: –
Consultants are outsiders who come into your office to acquire a comprehension of how your activities work and deal with procedures to additionally enhance what you’ve laid out.
Here is while recruiting a consultant pays off. At the point when an association knows about its restrictions and has clear objectives, yet isn’t guaranteed to have the foggiest idea of how to carry out a legitimate system to advance development, an expert ought to have the option to offer a sound arrangement.
The biggest misconceptions regarding consultants, according to me, is that they control everything including people. Recruiting an expert to guide you in the correct course doesn’t come without its difficulties. Their occupation ought to be to wipe out rehearses that are causing more damage than great in your association — not to affront your knowledge.
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Eyal Pasternak
Title: CEO
Company: Liberty House Buying Group
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pasternak-eyal/
The number one advantage of hiring a consultant is, hands down, the expertise they bring to the table. You can definitely benefit from their skills and knowledge regarding industry trends and future market predictions. A consultant will relay all this critical information to you, helping you fully grasp the ins and outs of the business world. As a result, you’ll make the right decisions needed to push your business toward success.
As far as misconceptions are concerned, the biggest myth about a consultant is that they are only suitable for large enterprises. But that’s not the case at all. Anyone who wants to expand their business and conduct strategic market research will not regret hiring a consultant. I also believe that a company in its early stages will benefit from a consultant way more than one that’s fully established.
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Zachary Hamed
Title: co-founder and co-CEO
Company: Clay
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharyhamed/
The perspective to maximize your brand. A big misconception is that a consultant is brought on only to “shake things up” without understanding a company, but a good consultant can step back and see the big picture, understanding what makes a brand successful and how to improve it. Through a fresh perspective, a good consultant can show a business how it looks from the outside and can help understand the target audience for a brand in a way that may not be clear to those who work on it every day. A good consultant brings a fresh point of view on what makes your brand successful.
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Mark Pierce
Title: CEO
Company: Cloud Peak Law Group
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-pierce-70185725/
The biggest benefit of hiring a consultant is that a consultant offers an outside perspective. Sometimes all it takes to fix or solve a business challenge is to bring in a consultant to offer an outside perspective. They can look at the challenge objectively because they’re seeing it for the first time. Because they’re approaching the issue with a fresh set of eyes, they’ll be able to more easily identify the areas that are causing problems. From there, they can offer a set of suggestions for you and your team to implement to overcome the challenge.
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Lean Davis
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Company: Cicinia
Linkedin: N/a
What is the biggest benefit of hiring a consultant?
The biggest benefit of hiring a consultant is to maximize the level of your understanding of your business. Consultants will guide you from basic to legal requirements to ensure your business activity cycle is consistent with any standards. Also, consultants guarantee that every process is significant to their client’s interest and the benefit of the entire organization.
What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about consulting?
I think the biggest misconception about consulting is regarding the price. Some people and even small organizations believe they can’t afford it since there is a possible extra fee per consultation. Also, I noticed others saying the same rules apply to everyone about consulting. Technically, it is not true since every organization has different needs. For that, it has unique strategies to solve it.
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Yukee Will
Title: Co-Founder
Company: Everwallpaper
Linkedin: N/a
Probably one of the most common misconceptions about business consulting is that we gain nothing from consultants as they just tell us what we already know. But, as a founder, I believe one of the most valuable benefits to working with a consultant is that they bring in fresh eyes, which allow us to see things in a new light. The perspective a consultant brings helps us understand situations better, which helps us find the best courses of action and identify more opportunities.
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Rukmangada Kandyala
Title: Founder and CEO
Company: Testsigma
Linkedin: https://in.linkedin.com/in/rukmangada
From my perspective as a founder, in different industries, a consultant is someone we could trust in terms of our decision regarding our operations, human resources, and even our financial management. The biggest benefit I think that consultant could provide is a precise explanation of such factors to be considered and the possible outcomes for every probable decision.
It somehow paves the way and clears the path of what we want to achieve for our business. However, there are people that think of a consultant as someone who just does a great talking strategy and does a little convincing, some of them also think that they are a scam. Although there are cases that scams do exist in this profession, it is a matter of thorough evaluation before hiring someone.
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James Hancox
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: Hancoxhub & Ultimategrowthacademy
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/james-hancox-b758a9171?trk=people-guest_people_search-card
The reason a lot of businesses don’t like to hire consultants can come down to 3 things.
1) The business owner feels he can do the work better
2) Hearing horror stories of consultants not bringing any benefit to the brand or business, basically having little care about the results.
3) They just don’t want to spend the money. Investing hard-earned money is difficult, especially if you have a low-risk tolerance.
My view on hiring a consultant is simple. If you find the right person, who shows real knowledge for the area you need and who has done their research on your company it’s worth taking the shot.
It’s important to note that if you pay little money, expect little results.
I personally pay a sales consultant at one of my businesses a fantastic amount of commission per sale, but he is on a commission basis.
This means that he is heavily motivated to produce results that will benefit himself and the business.
He loves the pay structure because he is heavily driven to earn as much as possible and has a passion for what he does.
I’m a big believer in paying consultants very well but on a results basis, benefiting everyone involved.
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Dan Belcher
Title: Founder and CEO
Company: Mortgage Relief
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-belcher/
As a founder, I firmly believe that bringing on a consultant may provide a company with a competitive edge. Hiring one has several benefits, one of which is the fact that the skills and knowledge of one consultant can cascade into other positive outcomes. For instance, a consultant’s competence can spare time and money from being invested in poor decisions. On the other side, the prevalent misconception regarding consulting is that it is best suited for large businesses rather than small firms. I want to disprove the myth that consulting is size-specific because even tiny businesses may benefit much from it and it is not overly expensive.
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Paul Mallory
Title: Co-Founder
Company: ConsumerGravity
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pasternak-eyal/
One thing to love about consultants is their attention to detail. Their value is enhanced as they spend time learning about each client’s business and their goals. They are also best at catering tailored advice to fit the desired strategy to specific challenges faced by the company. The customization and attentiveness means that a consultant’s solutions are more effective than basic advisory services.
Everyone thinks of consultants as rock stars who travel the world, take first-class flights, eat at five-star restaurants, and generally live a pretty glamorous lifestyle, while somewhat true, there are some realities to add to this picture. As someone in the field for years, it’s more likely to be sitting in a two-star hotel you’ve never heard of than a 5 star hotel with expensive steaks. You can add countless hours of Excel spreadsheet work while being squished into a middle seat on the plane, reality hits differently.
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Joshua Haley
Title: Founder
Company: Moving Astute
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/movingastute/
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When it comes to business, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every company is unique, with its own challenges and opportunities. This is where consultants can be extremely valuable.
A consultant can provide an objective perspective, bringing fresh ideas and new solutions to the table. In addition, a consultant can save you time and money by helping you to avoid costly mistakes.
While there are many benefits to hiring a consultant, there are also some misconceptions. One common misperception is that consultants are expensive. While it is true that consultants can command high fees, the value they provide can often outweigh the cost.
Another misconception is that consultants are only brought in when a company is in trouble. In fact, many companies hire consultants to help them get to the next level.
By taking advantage of the skills and expertise of a consultant, you can give your business a competitive edge.
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Morgan Lilker
Title: CEO
Company: Watches of Today
Linkedin: N/A
It’s a no-brainer. If you want a job done properly, and no one in your business can do it, then you hire someone who can do that job to do it for you, for however long it takes to get it done. And that’s why you hire a consultant. To make sure that the job gets done.
As for the rumor mill and misconceptions…? Well, I’ve heard everything from” the only reason that consultants are hired is when people need to get fired” and “they’ve made too muhc money and they need to hide it from the IRS, so they’re blowing a chunk of chain on consultant fees”. The only thing you really need if you’re going to succeed as a consultant is a thick skin…
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Rob Greene
Title: Founder and Lead Content Creator and Consultant
Company: Price of Meat
Linkedin: N/A
The single biggest benefits for any business are that they can get an outside, and expert perspective on, and a workable solution for, a specific issue or problem that once fixed, will allow the company to move forward.
And the biggest misconceptions are that consultants don’t know what they’re talking about, are a waste of money, and charge far too much for their services. At least, that was what I was often told during my decade-long consultancy career.
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Daniela Andreevska
Title: VP of Content
Company: Mashvisor
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/6377274/
We’ve worked with a lot of full-time employees and part-time freelancers/consultants at the Content Team of Mashvisor, so we’ve experienced the pros and cons of both strategies.
One of the biggest advantages of hiring a part-time consultant is the lack of long-term commitment. You can easily test the work of a consultant and decide whether it makes time to continue working together in the future, without complicated long-term contractual commitments.
Another important benefit is that you can afford to hire a real expert on the field as you pay for only a fraction of their time. For startups and other entities with a limited budget, it’s usually unaffordable to hire an expert on a full-time basis.
Meanwhile, it is really hard to find good consultants. Many think that just because they are paying a high rate, they are guaranteed to hire a top expert. Consultants frequently overstate their experiences and expertise, so you should be very careful when hiring a consultant. Check their references, ask for examples of previous projects, and run a small test.
Furthermore, if your project is rather large, working with a consultant can end up quite costly. They charge significantly higher rates than full-time employees.
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Zachary Colman
Title: CEO
Company: Creatitive
Linkedin: N/A
There will come a time when a business will need a helping hand to help with operations. While this is a good sign of growth, it can lead to problems if the business has not decided whether to hire somebody or not. It is one of the most significant decisions, as hiring an employee comes with some costs. Fortunately, businesses have the option of hiring a consultant. One of the best things about having a consultant; you won’t need to hire a full-time staff. It works excellently for startups that are not yet ready for a major business decision. Some businesses are discouraged from hiring a consultant simply because the fees can hurt the budget. However, these consultants are professionals, knowledgeable, and trained for what they do, so the benefit outweighs the cost. It may seem complicated to define the job description that a consultant will do, but both parties can settle this by a contract that stipulates the scope of work. Another advantage of a consultant is ensuring everything is being done correctly with their expertise.
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Christian Velitchkov
Title: Co-Founder
Company: Twiz LLC
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-velitchkov-15963ab4/
Business Consulting Services: Benefits
Focus on core business capabilities.
The Benefits of Hiring a Consultant.
Business Tasks Needed Expert Opinion.
Efficacious.
Your business should grow.
Boost efficiency and profitability.
Knowledge and aptitude.
The acceptance of a wider range of knowledge.
Misunderstanding:
1.Business Problems – Successful businesses can also benefit from outside consultants.
2.Company Size – In order to hire a consultant, many people believe their company must be large and well-established. In the early stages of development, a smaller organization is more receptive to adjustments and modifications than a larger one.
3.Has little or no experience – The main experts in their fields are business owners, not consultants. In most cases, rather than focus on the issue at hand, firms are concerned about hiring the right person.
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Raven Cobb
Title: Marketing Director
Company: Clear Step
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravencobb/
Benefit:
Besides providing expertise and an objective viewpoint, consultants also specialize in a wide range of industries and disciplines, such as finance, operations, human resources, IT, marketing, and sales.
With the help of a consultant who has experience, businesses can achieve success. Through consulting, growth can be achieved, challenges can be tackled, and revenue can be generated. The business consultants you hire should have experience working with companies like yours and previous success.
Misconception:
One of the most common misconceptions about consultants is that they tell you what you already know
You already know what consultants will tell you. Effective business consultants want to join your team. As a result, they’re committed to your long-term success. It is also important to them that they prove their value.
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Lucas James
Title: CEO & Co-Founder
Company: Agency Go
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucascapestany/
Benefit:
1.Knowledge transfer & coaching
Keeping up with the latest skills in their field is a goal for a good consultant. Embedding himself or herself in an organization allows them to pass on new skills and knowledge.
2.Concentration and dedication
The consultant is there to focus only on the project, so he or she can dedicate all of their time to it, without distractions.
Misconception:
Hiring a consultant is viewed as an expensive endeavor by most people
It’s true that consulting from large firms can be obscenely expensive, but that doesn’t mean it has to be. There is no doubt that consultants charge a premium for their years of experience, and working with large consulting firms can be costly.
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Hilda wong
Title: Founder
Company: Content Dog
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilda-wong-9a0542207/
Benefit:
1.Process improvements – Consultants tend to be hired to fill skills gaps, but they can also bring innovative ideas and improve productivity.
2. Neutrality – Providing three super abilities is what consulting is all about — independence, neutrality, and exposure to broad experiences that internal resources can’t offer.
Misconception:
1.Consultants can’t be hired by small businesses
A small business can definitely hire a consultant! Expert consultants should be accessible to businesses of all sizes.
2.Consultants = Freelancers
Contrary to popular belief, consultants are often not freelancers. Unlike gig workers or “taskers”, consultants aren’t hired for one-time services, products, or projects. Clients usually form longer-term relationships with them to receive advice, plans, and strategies that are unique to your business. The expert knowledge and years of experience of great consultants will benefit your team.
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