Busting myths about hiring consultants

There is a belief among startups and smaller businesses that the use of consulting support should be reserved for established companies. After closing early funding, startups often need to focus exclusively on establishing initial operations and hiring an early team. However, it pays to start thinking about, or hiring experts to think about, future fundamental strategic and commercial questions. This article dispels the common myths associated with using consulting firms: that they are highly expensive, provide impersonal service, offer generic solutions, and result in a lack of strategic autonomy for their clients. Thereafter, this article details why smaller businesses should consider making use of consulting support.

Myths:

Below, common consulting myths are busted:

Myth #1 -- High price tag: “I'm concerned that consulting fees will be exorbitant and not worth it.”

A common misconception is that hiring consulting support will break the bank, especially for startups or small businesses. Not so. One of the benefits of using boutique consulting firms in particular is that they offer top-quality service at affordable rates. Since overhead costs at boutique firms are minimal and teams are smaller, clients can benefit from the same level of service at an affordable price point. Thus, making use of consulting support can be cost effective, if the correct firm is chosen.

Myth #2 -- Impersonal: “Consulting teams won’t prioritize my business - I don’t want an endless stream of different consultants who don’t take the time to get to know the ins and outs of my business and what it needs."

Another myth is that consulting firms will rotate teams very often. This too is false. Boutique consulting firms provide the opportunity to work with a dedicated team, often one-on-one, who works with the client from start to finish. This also means that senior leadership will be actively involved the whole way through and that they are the individuals who are strategizing and guiding their client. Boutique firms prioritize building genuine relationships with their clients to ensure that solutions reflect the latter’s needs. Trust, communication and consistency are essential to the relationships that boutique firms develop with their clients.

Myth #3 -- Generic solutions: “Consulting firms use the same tired approach for everyone. This won’t work for my business.”

The concern that consulting firms do not supply anything unique or valuable to each business and that these firms use the same, generic approach for each type of project is another misconception. Instead of selling the same fixed strategies to clients, boutique firms have the capacity to develop tailored, novel approaches that take the specifications and goals of the client into account. This provides clients with forward-thinking and creative solutions, specifically targeted towards their individual needs.

Myth # 4 -- Loss of autonomy: “I don’t want to outsource the core strategic questions of my business. I know my business best.”

Business owners tend to believe that hiring consulting support means surrendering autonomy to third parties and losing the ability to make core strategic decisions regarding the business. Instead, boutique firms work together with their clients to ensure that solutions are developed through a ‘bottom-up’ approach in a way that works for their clients. Making use of consulting support is not about deferring control to consultants. Instead, it is about communicating the desired outcomes for one’s business and harnessing professionals’ strategy-expertise so that these outcomes can be achieved through concrete, actionable steps. Essentially, boutique firms extract clients’ needs and develop plans to make them workable.

Reasons to partner with a consulting firm:

Now that common myths have been busted, here are a few more reasons why consulting is imperative for startups and small businesses:

Reason #1: Mistakes are expensive

During the early years of a startup, cash flow can be difficult to manage. Every move needs to be well thought out to ensure the longevity of the business. This means that one bad mistake at this stage can have crippling consequences for a startup’s future. For example, incorrectly selecting the next launch market could be devastating. Thus, the use of consulting support as a reliable sounding board, to validate decisions before implementation, can help to protect against making detrimental and often irreversible strategic decisions.

Reason #2: Potentially limited skillset

Consulting support can add valuable contributions and fill in gaps that startup founders and business owners miss. Often, startup founders lack the experience to create a viable commercial strategy and to pitch this plan to potential investors and funders. These are two separate skill-sets and require detailed presentations that are ‘pitch-perfect’ so that investors can be placed in a position wherein they feel confident to invest in a business. Startup founders may omit specific areas relating to market research and analyses behind their expansion plans. Consulting support can ensure that startups are correctly prepared so that they can survive this stage and secure vendors.

Reason: #3 Traction before funding

Today, funders do not provide capital based solely on the potential success of a product or service. Instead, they want to see traction at the outset – before injecting capital into the business. This means that startups need to have established some degree of success in the market before they can secure additional funding. But how can businesses boost profitability without first receiving funding? This is where consulting support is pivotal in helping clients to build clout which will ultimately land them funding.

Reason #4 : Lack of capacity

Startup founders wear various hats and, besides for securing funding, are often inundated with operations duties and other responsibilities. This means, especially when initially getting the business up and running, that founders often do not have the capacity to focus on creating a sustainable commercial strategy. Ultimately, then, this renders them unprepared and unable to ask the ‘right questions’ or to provide the ‘right answers’ for their own funders and potential clients. Consulting support takes on the responsibility of crafting these strategies and solutions for their clients, so that the latter can focus on more pressing day-to-day matters while having the peace of mind that professionals are ensuring the longevity of the business.

Consulting support can provide valuable services to all businesses, whether small, large or just starting out. The myths that make many businesses reluctant to partner with these strategy-professionals can be solved by choosing the right consulting firm which will address the client’s needs.