What Your Consultant Wants You to Know (but you never ask)

Written by Jan B. King


I’ve been both a CEO and a consultant, so I’ve seen from both perspectives what goes right and what goes wrong when a consultant comes in to a company. Generallyrepparttar CEO orrepparttar 104156 manager who hiresrepparttar 104157 consultant tellsrepparttar 104158 consultant what he or she wants. Oftenrepparttar 104159 manager is frustrated with something that is happening atrepparttar 104160 company and expectsrepparttar 104161 consultant will haverepparttar 104162 expertise to “just fix it”. While repparttar 104163 manager needs to setrepparttar 104164 expectations, of course,repparttar 104165 consultant rarely gets to voice what he or she knows would makerepparttar 104166 consulting engagement more successful for both.

Here is what your consultant would love to tell you about making him or her successful working on your behalf:

1. Please Do Your Homework before I Come In

Too many owners and managers hire a consultant and then stop thinking. They present a list of general problems and expect repparttar 104167 expert to conjure dramatic results. This approach almost always ends in frustration and many, many billable hours.

Instead, you have to takerepparttar 104168 initiative and stay involved. Discuss your needs, problems, and parameters in candid terms fromrepparttar 104169 start. Set a budget or schedule upfront for each project a consultant tackles. Save your skepticism (or your staff’s) forrepparttar 104170 interview process; once you’ve chosen a consultant, give him or herrepparttar 104171 benefit of everything you know and access to all important information.

One ofrepparttar 104172 biggest costs in hiring outside expertise is bringingrepparttar 104173 consultant up to speed on your company’s operations. If you can prepare reports and numbers internally, you can helprepparttar 104174 consultant stay away from data gathering and other basic reporting functions; keeprepparttar 104175 consultant focused on analysis. You can tabulate numbers yourself; you’ve hiredrepparttar 104176 expert to help you move forward from there. When you hire consultants, keep in mind that their most important skill should be critical analysis and problem solving.

Another point to consider is that many consultants have a steep sort of half life as to enthusiasm for a project. They are consultants because they like variety. In other words, their best thoughts and greatest creativity come early in their relationships with clients. Being prepared fromrepparttar 104177 start allows you to take full advantage of short attention spans.

2. Please let me stay focused on what I came in for and keep repparttar 104178 distractions and new requests to a minimum if you want me to stay within your original budget (or expandrepparttar 104179 budget).

A consultant’s expertise is so welcome in certain environments that they number of projects multiplies beyond repparttar 104180 hiring manager’s original intent, but often with their knowledge. The original project may be justrepparttar 104181 tip ofrepparttar 104182 iceberg of problems within a company, some of which are best solved by a consultant but many of which are best hired withinrepparttar 104183 company after working withrepparttar 104184 consultant to develop a plan.

Like any outside contractor or vendor, consultant services are a commodity—and consultants want to sell as much of this commodity over as long a time as they can. That’s their understandable inclination as business people. However, it’s your understandable inclination as an owner or manager to minimizerepparttar 104185 amount you pay them.

The Game Plan - The Difference Between Small Business Success and Failure

Written by Jan B. King


The Game Plan –repparttar Difference Between Small Business Success and Failure

It is an American dream to own a business. But sadly, according torepparttar 104155 U.S. Department of Commerce, only 1 in 5 businesses is still in business 5 years after it opens.

A business needs a great business plan, but it doesn’t give management enough information to have a successful, profitable business. You dramatically increase your chance of success with a game plan. According to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey, over half ofrepparttar 104156 fastest growing firms not only have business plans, but also have separate game plans to keep them focused on what must be done day to day.

A business plan gets you inrepparttar 104157 game. A game plan keeps you inrepparttar 104158 game. To userepparttar 104159 sports analogy, it’s easy to see how you are going to winrepparttar 104160 game in fromrepparttar 104161 locker room. Most businesses don’t have a working plan that takes into account what actually happens onrepparttar 104162 field once play starts.

A business plan is a sales brochure and a game plan is an instruction manual. You send a business plan to potential investors and others to excite them aboutrepparttar 104163 business. A business plan is about strategy. You create a business plan at a management meeting. A game plan is about tactics and is created by and forrepparttar 104164 people onrepparttar 104165 front lines. A game plan talks openly aboutrepparttar 104166 good,repparttar 104167 bad, andrepparttar 104168 ugly in repparttar 104169 business and is used by people inrepparttar 104170 business to make decisions every day. It talks about what to do in a crisis.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

The CEO takes a look at his balance sheet and decides that his company has too much of its cash tied up in inventory, so he gets his managers together and creates a new corporate objective forrepparttar 104171 year - to reduce inventory by 25%. If they do that they will all be entitled to a bonus. The managers aren’t stupid – they knowrepparttar 104172 only way to reduce inventory is to sell what they can and not replace it. So they put on a special promotion for their hottest selling items, they reducerepparttar 104173 inventory of those to almost nothing, and they get their bonus. But what has really happened here. The CEO’s company is now left withrepparttar 104174 inventory ofrepparttar 104175 items that weren’t selling, and they don’t have adequate inventory of their best selling items. The CEO didn’t really lead,repparttar 104176 employees cared more about their bonuses than doing what was right forrepparttar 104177 company, and there wasn’t a plan of action that was tied into a meaningful company objective.

A game plan focuses on these things: creating big goals that matter, giving individual employees responsibility to carry out their portion of those goals, creating a budget and a reward system that supportsrepparttar 104178 goals, and tools to allow employees to measure their own progress.

Steps inrepparttar 104179 Game Plan Process

The game plan requires a series of steps, beginning withrepparttar 104180 CEO getting in touch with his or her desires forrepparttar 104181 business. Then,repparttar 104182 management team must delve into what is real forrepparttar 104183 business today – understandingrepparttar 104184 business model (howrepparttar 104185 company makes money), having a handle on what is happening inrepparttar 104186 market, and finally, knowing what is happening inrepparttar 104187 company culture. With all this background work done,repparttar 104188 actual creation ofrepparttar 104189 game plan begins. At best, it is a facilitated process of discussions matching what is real today with what is possible tomorrow, inrepparttar 104190 long run and inrepparttar 104191 short run.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use