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So You Want to be a Consultant?
Consultants are among the most independent of businesspeople. They
usually possess a certain skill or knowledge that qualifies them as
‘experts’ but often it’s the case that these experts have to work pretty
hard to find clients that will pay them for their expertise.
Some consultants have the advantage of being paid by their former
employer to ensure their well-developed knowledge isn’t lost to the
business when they go. Other consultants bring skills acquired in large
businesses into the realm of smaller enterprises that would be unable to
afford such talent on a full-time basis.
But in most cases a consultant
has to be constantly on the lookout for work opportunities.
A survey found that there were
at least ten reasons why an organization would hire a consultant; it
might be helpful to know what they are.
1. They’re an Expert in Their Field
This is the most common reason and it makes good sense. If you can
acquire a reputation as an expert in a particular field and you ensure
that your knowledge is consistently up-to-date you can be extremely
valuable when your expertise is needed. It’s not every day that a
manufacturing company wants to prepare an advertising campaign, but when
it does it calls on the services of an expert in that field (and doesn’t
have one on the payroll for the rest of the year).
2. They Can Share Their Knowledge with Others
Consultants are often called to function as teachers in the field of
their specialty. An expert in industrial safety could be called in to
address a group of construction foremen with the aim of reducing
on-the-job accidents at construction worksites.
3. They Can be Temporary Team Members
Sometimes a business will suddenly be overwhelmed with work or win a
short-term contract that would be impossible to handle with existing
team resources. Consultants can come into such a situation, already
knowing a lot about the type of work they’re expected to do, and ‘hit
the ground running’ for the duration of the time they’re needed.
4. They Can Solve Specific Problems
If a supermarket is having problems with its refrigeration equipment
it’s going to call in a consultant to determine exactly what is causing
the problem, how to fix it, and all the other details that nobody in the
supermarket’s team could possibly know.
5. They Can be a Source of Profitable Contacts
Especially popular in the areas of politics and defense, consultants who
have formerly been part of the political or military establishments are
useful to those who want to deal with the ‘higher ups’ with which
consultants are intimately acquainted.
6. They Can be ‘Hatchetmen’ in Downsizing Situations
Whoever gets the job of delivering the bad news at a time of corporate
downsizing is never going to be popular. Far better to hire a consultant
and have them make the evaluation of who stays and who goes, then tell
those affected by the downsizing about their fates.
7. They Can be a Source of ‘Bright Ideas’
Companies can reach a condition of extreme stability – when absolutely
nothing’s happening except what’s part of the day-to-day business and
things start getting stale. A consultant can be brought in to ‘identify
business development opportunities’ or some other kind of new and
different activities for team members to undertake that will get them
out of a rut.
8. They Can be Cheaper than Having Someone on the Payroll
Full-time team members can be expensive when it comes to all the
on-costs of employment. There’s usually no medical insurance, social
security charges, workers compensation payments, union fees or similar
amounts to be paid for a consultant.
9. They Can Help Implement Organizational Change
Change has become part of the business environment, and it’s often an
unsettling factor within a company. ‘Bring in a consultant’ is the
answer to this problem; by having an outside consultant manage the
process of change there’s no lasting ill-feelings among those who are
permanent members of the team.
10. They Can Bring Fresh Perspective to an Enterprise
All too often those who work in a business are too close to see its
faults or the opportunities that might be facing it. A consultant comes
in without any preconceptions or influences from the culture of the
organization and can see things differently from those on the inside.
There are probably a lot more reasons to use a consultant but these are
among the most popular. It’s important that any consultant is able to
fulfill more than just one of these requirements or they’ll be missing
out on opportunities to cash in on their own particular expertise.
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