Just make sure you've counted silver before they start and after they leave.

Does that sound harsh? You bet. You see, managed correctly a consultant is an excellent resource to help complete projects and get special tasks completed. Improperly managed consultants often wind up costing a small fortune and produce less-than-adequate results.

Don't get me wrong, it's not usually consultants fault. No, not by a long shot. Generally consultants are reasonably honest and try to do a good job. You can almost always trace problems with consultants (over billing, under producing or just plain doing wrong thing) to a failure to properly manage and control project.

You see, success or failure of a project depends upon one variable and only one variable (baring actual criminal behavior on part of team members): skill and abilities of project manager. If project management is weak, then project will almost certainly fail. The weaker manager more likely project is to go over budget, to run into unforeseen problems and to, at worst case, utterly fail. On other hand, better a project is managed, more likely it is to complete on budget, on schedule and with a minimum of disruption.

Some of rules that I follow when dealing with consultants are:

Communicate very clearly - Be sure your consultants have an excellent understanding of what they are to accomplish. One method that I use is to require regular meetings, and I ask my consultants to write up minutes as a report to me. By reviewing these minutes, I can catch any miscommunications and correct them before they get translated into incorrect solutions. The purpose of having them write up minutes is simple - they tell me their understandings of what they heard and committed to in meeting.

Plan everything carefully - I like to manage projects as a pyramid. I begin small with an initial analysis (often a proof of concept), then expand into a larger analysis, then a design, implementation and finally quality assurance and installation. The reason I do this is first phase (proof of concept and perhaps some analysis) are done time and materials but are very short. Once this is done, analysis can be done with some reasonably accurate cost estimates (just for this analysis, though). And once that is done, rest of project should be fixed-price.

Validate ALL assumptions - As you work through projects, create an assumptions document. ALL assumptions should be listed in this document. What is an assumption? Anything which has not been verified through actual testing, or, in other words, something taken on faith. Every single project failure that I've seen has been result of an unverified assumption of one form or another. And every single assumption is an opportunity for your consultants (and other variables as well) to destroy your project.

Consultants are not your employees - Do not under any circumstances treat them same as your normal staff. The IRS and other government agencies will get very upset if you even think about treating them same as your normal employee. In addition, you will find your people will quickly come to highly resent them (and you) if you do so.

Consultants do not get special treatment - If special requests from consultants help them get job done quicker and faster, then by all means go ahead. However, consultants are generally expected to provide their own tools (laptops and such), do not get training on your dime, and should not receive permanent working conditions. According to IRS, consultants are temporary, must supply their own materials, and must be short term.

Consultants are there to do a job - It's best, in my experience, to hire a consultant (or consulting group) for a specific task at a time. You need, say, a SQL 2000 server installed and optimized, then hire a SQL 2000 consultant to do job. When he's finished, let him leave. Later, when you need an Apache web server built, then hire a consultant with Apache experience. If you need a payroll system modified to suite your company, then hire a consulting team for that purpose. The point is you use them to get a job done, then let them go.

Consultants are not loyal to you or your company - Keep this in mind at all times. A consultant has no long term commitment to your company (if he does, then he's not a consultant, he's an employee). Therefore, do not expect or demand long term loyalty or thinking.

Are we really facing an economic downturn? Is it just hype that we’re heading into a recession? Or is this reality we need to face?

Whether or not you believe that we're facing recession, you can choose how to handle it. You can either believe it and blame all problems your business is facing on economy. Or you can strengthen yourself and your business, regardless of what's happening in outside world.

When you listen to all doom and gloom on television and read about it in papers, it’s easy to buy into that way of thinking. To get caught up in how bad things could be. One of successful ways through this tough time is to take a more positive attitude. Remember, only best discover a way to not only survive, but to become stronger as a result. You can work through this recession and emerge with a stronger and more streamlined business.

This positive attitude is definitely one of keys but I would suggest that it’s not enough. There's one more key to add to this - action! You need to take action. You need to do something about your situation that’s going to move you forward. Don’t sit back and hope things will get better - get going today.

Instead of just monitoring how economy is doing, I suggest you look to yourself and your business, and discover how you can improve your effectiveness. When times are tough, it’s easy to sit back and feel a victim of it all. I encourage you to stop playing martyr and to start taking responsibility for your own success.