Businesses should tap consultants for valuable professional advice

Most businesses shun the services of consultants, relying on their own body of knowledge, skills, experience and their intuition to run their enterprises.

However, consultants form a very important part of the growth process of any successful organisation, profit-oriented or charitable. There are of course, some legitimate reasons for the “consultant phobia” that prevails in our society.

By consultant here, I mean a person who offers independent expert advice to another upon the latter’s request.

Often times the advice is the product of a process that involves, among other things, collection of information through interviews, direct observation and the review of relevant literature, analysis of this information on the basis of available terms of reference and finally, the drawing of inferences which form the basis of the advice.

Larry Greiner and Robert Metzger, in their book Consulting to Management, they define consulting as “an advisory service contracted for and provided to organisations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective and independent manner, the client organisation to identify management problems, analyse such problems, recommend solutions to these problems, and help, when requested, in the implementation of solutions.”

The greatest factor that deters small enterprises from accessing consultancy services is one of perception.

They believe that only large enterprises with large budgets can afford the “high” consultancy fees that such services attract.

However, charges vary according to the scope and length of a consultancy assignment and are typically captured in the terms of reference prepared for the client. In any case, each assignment will vary according to class and scope.

Another major factor that stands in the way of seeking consultants help is the reluctance of entrepreneurs to accept that there is a problem and that external help may be needed.

For many entrepreneurs, enlisting the services of a consultant amounts to conceding defeat. But no man woman or entrepreneur is an island.

Once in a while, an independent opinion is important to enable your enterprise do a reality check and calibrate itself accordingly.

Small business owners may also fear that their consultants may not have first hand experience in their particular business.

Terms of reference
However, it is important to appreciate that that the basics of doing business are the same across the board.

In any case, a consultancy assignment ought ideally to be preceded by a briefing session between the client and the consultant to enable the consultant focus on the client’s specific concerns through a clearly outlined terms of reference.

As such, prior experience in the business may not be mandatory for a successful consultancy assignment to be carried out. The consultant must, however, understand the problem clearly.