So you’re plugging along at your small business, hoping that you can make the best of it during challenging economic times. You may have heard that a small business consultant is worth his or her weight in gold because of the knowledge and experience that person has to share. Yet you may think you don’t need, or can’t handle, any additional expenses at this point in time, and can figure things out on your own. Right?
In this article, let’s consider the arguments many small business owners pose against hiring a consultant. We will look at what experienced consultants have to offer, how to locate someone for your initial consultation who can address your specific small business, and other related resources. You will even learn about my personal experience with a consultant and about what she did for my small business.
Should You Hire A Small Business Consultant?
Whether or not you seek the assistance of a small business consultant may be directly, but unintentionally, related to whether you plan to succeed – or fail. A commonly quoted adage is “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” Statistics provided by the Small Business Administration (SBA) reveal about one third of small businesses fail within the first two years, and over half within four years. Why do they fail?
At Business Know-How, writer Patricia Schaefer identified seven reasons for small business failure:
1. Started business for the wrong reasons: For instance, did you want to make a lot of money, spend more time with family, or not answer to a boss? These are not the optimal reasons to start your own small business.
2. Poor management: Insufficient business and management knowledge or expertise, lack of organizational skills, neglect of essential components of your business – these all contribute to small business failure.
3. Insufficient capital: Underestimating operational costs and maintaining a restricted budget, combined with unrealistic incoming revenue expectations, lead to small business failure. It’s true that it takes money to make money.
4. Poor location: As in real estate, so in business – a bad location, combined with limited traffic, can be disastrous for a small business.
5. Inefficient planning: As stated before, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Strategic planning in the form of a comprehensive business plan is essential for small business success.
6. Overexpansion: Growing too fast, without the cash flow and customer base to sustain it, can be a death blow to a new small business. Other adages are applicable here: Slow and steady wins the race. Everything in moderation.
7. No website: Seriously? It’s the 21st century – if you want your small business to succeed, you MUST have a website to establish an online presence to snag your portion of the 70 percent of the population who use the Internet and engage in e-commerce sales worth $70 billion (as of 2004 US Census Bureau statistics).
Furthermore, on the same site, marketing strategist Michele Pariza Wacek makes these three recommendations to avoid early failure: make marketing your business a priority; take action promptly and build momentum; and don’t give up too soon!
What Should You Expect From A Consultant?
For starters, a small business consultant can address all the points and recommendations mentioned in the previous section. Business leader Karyn Greenstreet, President of Passion for Business LLC, offers these significant ways a consultant can help you with your small business:
- Research and write business plans.
- Clarify vision and mission statements.
- Set organizational and/or business structure for the present and the future.
- Create short-term and long-term objectives and goals.
- Establish budgets and financial plans.
- Set prices.
- Watch your competition.
- Collaborate and brainstorm new products/services.
Karyn offers business consulting packages for various durations of time and cost that incorporate the above points, plus additional benefits. One of these may be appropriate for you, depending on your particular needs and budget.
Each package includes an initial session to design the consulting partnership, clarify your specific vision and relevant needs, and create a strategy with an accompanying action plan. The details for each of her small business consulting packages are as follows:
- Smart Start 30-Day Program: A “kick-start” program for $595; provides you with three 45-minute phone consultations and unlimited email consultations.
- 90-Day Strategy and Planning Program: A moderate program, and her most popular, especially appropriate to create a business or marketing plan, for $1,595; provides you with nine 45-minute phone consultations at intervals throughout the 90 days and unlimited email consultations.
- In-Depth Planning & Implementation Mentoring Program: A comprehensive six-month program for launching new products/services, and/or implementing new business or marketing models. For $3,095, you receive eighteen 45-minute phone consultations at intervals throughout the six months and unlimited email consultations.
How to Locate a Consultant
Start with your local branch of the Small Business Administration (SBA) or SCORE (Service Corps Of Retired Executives). Both organizations offer small business counseling and consulting, training, and many other services. A seasoned business leader within either organization could serve as a mentor throughout your business experience.
Business development centers in local universities or community colleges typically offer free small business consultations, along with low-cost seminars or workshops. Many community-based organizations that focus on particular groups of individuals, such as women or minorities, often provide free or reduced cost small business counseling or coaching services, classes, and workshops.
Then, of course, you have the power of the Internet at your fingertips. In addition to discovering answers to your questions about small business needs, you can also locate online communities especially designed to assist small business owners and prospective entrepreneurs.
Additional Relevant Resources
As previously mentioned, use the Internet to your advantage and glean valuable tips about running your small business. Obviously, Karyn Greenstreet’s Passion for Business is only one such resource. Check the online US Directory database for business consultants. A quick search, for instance, returned results for hundreds of individuals and companies offering business consulting services here in Maine.
A Personal Reflection
Before I began my “official” career as a freelance writer, I operated a home-based business making customized quilts, pillows, bags, and other items. (I actually still do this in my limited spare time). It had really been only a hobby for many years until I started to become established and known by word-of-mouth advertising. Then I invested in online marketing, entered the e-commerce world, and realized the potential for a niche market, particularly with the inclusion of imprinted photos to create customized and personalized products.
For about a year, I relied on another person to do the imprinting process for me, but this often led to unacceptable delays and dissatisfied customers. I learned of an organization here in Maine, known as Maine Centers for Women, Work, & Community, offering a 60-credit hour business course known as “New Ventures.” Numerous successful small business consultants with various specialties provided valuable resources and input for all of us who took the course.
In addition to coming away with preliminary business plans, we also received personal recommendations for our small businesses. The best piece of advice I seized was to invest in the necessary equipment to do my OWN imprinting rather than rely on someone else to do it. That turned out to be a key component to what has developed into – as I thought – a niche market among handmade craft enthusiasts, with imprinted photo products such as memory quilts, pillows, and bags becoming my most frequent and biggest sellers.
It’s Your Move
What happens next is your decision. Obviously a successful small business is preferable to a failing one. You have numerous pieces to assemble into a cohesive and recognizable unit known as your small business. You learned about, and perhaps identified with, some of the misguided steps leading to failure. Of course, you also discovered what business consultants could do for you. In fact, a small business consultant can be the key to your future success.