Consulting is one of most accessible entrepreneurial professions in the world – almost anyone can set up a business at minimal cost and use the job title "consultant" to sell their services.

Why Hire a Consultant you may ask?

Consultants can add a breadth of experience and knowledge to a project that most employees and business professionals simply do not possess. While you may implement new processes as a business owner or modify your operations, a consultant will typically lead multiple projects for several different clients and can give you the experience they have collected from best practice seen elsewhere.

Consultants can also bring a different perspective to your startup or small business; these include proven processes and methodologies utilized in other businesses and industries that could have been overlooked by your full-time project team. This perspective can break down the “We’ve always done it that way” mentality and prevent you from simply automating the bad habits your organisation has built up over time.

So now that you’ve identified a business need, and it’s time to bring in a consultant. How well you go about doing that, determines the level of success you ultimately achieve. So how can you spot the difference between a professional consultant and an opportunist?

1.   Clearly define your project requirements in a professional brief.

Writing a clear and concise outline brief for your project is very important. Make sure you share the brief in your ‘hire a consultant’ job posting as it lets you target the specific expertise you need, allows a consultant to quickly see what needs to be done, avoids future confusion, and makes sure your business and the consultant you hire are on the same page.

2.   Do your research. 

Do you know what type of consultant you need? Do you know the specific specialities they need to possess? Find out the going rate for consultants in the field your business needs and how it fits into your budget, and then weigh the pros and cons carefully. Do you look for someone with less experience and a lower going rate, or do you go for the solid long term track record that comes with a higher price tag?

3.   Don’t settle for the first consultant that comes along.

The standards you set in appointing a consultant will obviously vary according to the nature of the work. You should look for the following points:

• How will they conduct the work?
• Have they fully understood your requirements in the brief?
• Can they finish the work within your allocated timeframe?
• Do they have the skills you need for this project?
• Do they charge an appropriate fee for the work and skills on offer?
• Will the consultant use timesheets and provide regular updates?

4.   Post Your Project on Consult O’clock

One of the easiest and best ways to hire a consultant is by posting your project on Consult O’clock (http://www.consultoclock.com/jobs). This ensures that you get responses and proposals from interested consultants, out of whom you can shortlist the best and finally choose one based on further interaction.

5.   Take time to choose the best candidate

Don’t treat hiring a consultant as any less important than you would hiring a full time staff position just because you’ll only be working with them a short time. In many ways, it’s more important, as a consultant’s job is to drastically improve your business. 

6.   Make sure you have a well-written contract.

The contract in place between your business and the consultant needs to spell out the responsibilities of the business management team and the consultant. Of course depending on the size of the business, the responsibilities assigned to the management team vary - you could also agree with the consultant that they are responsible for the entire scope of the project. Most importantly, the contract should have non-disclosure clauses to ensure any findings the consultant makes from your business are not shared with another organisation in a similar field that may give them a competitive advantage over you.