Can a Business Consultant help your Company Succeed?

A business consultant has many roles and can help an old company re-new itself and find itself again; help founders start and develop a new venture or purpose; help to turn around a company fraught with problems; help a company identify new opportunities and markets; or help a company develop a business success plan.

A good business consultant has experience working in and with a full range of businesses and has broad and narrow stroke experience and typically, twenty years or more of accumulated business experience.  Having an MBA from a good business school isn’t enough.  The consultant must have solid real world experience with many types of companies to be an effective consultant.

So what does a business consultant do?  First and foremost, a consultant gets to know and understand your business.  As the business owner, you know more about your business than anyone else.  For this reason, a good business consultant will take the time to learn from you, your section heads and key employees about the ins and outs of your business. 

The business consultant then starts to work on identifying certain opportunities and problems. These of course are those pointed out to the consultant by the client but most importantly, a good consultant will have a proven system to readily identify these problems and opportunities which the business owner is not aware. A business consultant will bring a fresh pair of eyes and an open mind to the business, providing a completely new, fresh and unique persepctive than those working in the business.

A business consultant will then analyze this collected selective information in order to provide solid solutions and plans for the future.  Often business ownership is so focused on working “in” the business that short term and long term outlooks and strategies are overlooked and neglected.  The consultant re-focuses a company’s strategies in order to solve immediate problems, while taking advantage of future opportunities. Steps taken in a good consulting process include: learn about the business; identify problems; identify future opportunities; perform analysis; provide solutions through a concrete plan; listen to feedback and adjust the plan; and follow through and track the plan.

The consultant considers all company input to develop a business plan that will be effective.  The consultant listens to the opinions of the company’s advisors (accountants, lawyers, bankers and other advisers).  The consultant can use Delphi sessions and red teams which contain industry experts and competitive viewpoints.  The consultant also listens carefully to the view points of the company’s ownership, founders, board, top management and key employees.  A final business plan is agreed upon and signed off on by the company with the consultant helping to implement, track and re-work the plan as requisite over time.

When an entrepreneur is thinking about starting up a new business, a business consultant can apply a start-up analysis to determine if it is a feasible opportunity, which includes: analyze and evaluate the opportunity; develop a business strategy and model; resource audit; acquiring and leveraging needed resources; venture deployment; and getting and distributing value.

When considering an existent business acquisition, a business consultant can employ an business analysis, such as: products and services analysis; management team appraisal; operational analysis; market position; competitive factors; SWOT analysis; analyze financials; valuations; and risk assessment.

A business consultant’s derived value pays for itself.  What you pay in fees for a good consultant will pale in comparison to the profitableness the consultant’s strategies will create.  A business consultant is an investment in the future success of your company. 

About the Writer

Frank Goley is a Business Consultant for ABC Business Consulting and has been helping companies to succeed for many years. He is an expert in developing business plans, marketing plans, funding plans, strategic plans, turnaround plans and project specific business plans. Frank is also a business coach and business turnaround consultant. Frank is author of the business plan book, The Comprehensive Business Plan Workbook – A Step by Step Guide to Effective Business Planning, and he has over 40 published articles on business success strategies. He also writes the Business Success Strategies blog.