Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Pros and Cons of Business Consulting

The Pros and Cons of Business Consulting

Posted in NEWS! on December 3rd, 2012

The term ?business consulting? means different things to different people. Remember ?The Bob?s? from the famous movie?Office Space, a cult-like classic for office-dwellers everywhere? They were supposed to be ?efficiency consultants?, basically figuring out ways to reduce workforce and cut costs.

There are multiple types of Business Consulting available to businesses of all sizes and shapes. Here are few to think about for your business:

  • Financial Business Consulting:? Companies needing accounting, insurance, or other financial direction and expertise are prime clients for financial business consultants. In a typical financial business consulting agreement, the client (the business) has a specific financial plan in mind and would like an independent, expert opinion on its feasibility.? The consultant will report on the plan?s strengths and weaknesses and offer their own opinions and recommendations as to how the company should best proceed to reach their financial goals.
  • Corporate Strategy Consulting:? Is your competition talking about you?? They should be!? Strategic business consulting and planning is the process of creating a set of offensive and defensive business maneuvers designed to increase and keep competitive advantage over your competition.? This strategic planning confronts risks, engineers through operational and financial constraints, and respects and anticipates legal and other regulatory requirements.
  • Marketing Consulting:? Marketing consultants design and implement strategy for promoting a company?s product or service.? Encompassing more than just advertising, this marketing-focused business consultant can also be involved in social media such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), product packaging, pricing, distribution, and other promotion of the product.? Many marketing consultants begin working with a company with a rigid marketing budget. The goal of the consultant is to optimize the company?s marketing campaigns as to get the best results for their budget.
  • Operations Consulting:? The goal of an operations consultant is to optimize internal business procedures in order to enhance and strengthen the overall operation of the company.? An operations consultant will first observe and understand how the company currently runs, and why it is being run that way.? They will then offer advice on what strategies are working and how to make them work more efficiently, which areas have room for improvement, and what systems could need a complete overhaul.

Pros & Cons of Hiring a Business Consultant

?Pros:

  • Field Expertise ? The main advantage of hiring a business consultant is being able to benefit from and use their expertise in your decision-making processes.
  • Neutral & Objective ? Business consultants are not fazed by interoffice politics, distracted by individual passions, nor engrossed by in-office personal vendettas.? They are a fresh pair of eyes outside of your company?s culture ? take advantage of it!
  • Fixed Cost ? You typically know exactly how much it is going to cost you to utilize the expertise of the business consultant you choose to hire.? With the currently overflowing numbers of potential job applicants, you can remove the risk of hiring a permanent employee by instead working with a contracted business consultant.

?Cons:

  • Cost ? Most business consultants are not cheap.? The financial risk of hiring a business consultant is high, but it can be worth it. If project budgets are running low, it may not seem worth the investment, but if the consultant can expand the impact and reach of the project, they could be worth their weight in gold.
  • Minimal Guarantees ? Most business consultants also don?t come with many guarantees.? Along with the risk of not achieving the desired results, far too many consultants may leave you with some objectives and their opinions, but not help you execute to reach your goals.? Be sure to check with their references and conduct a highly thorough hiring process when searching for a business consultant.

Imagine Growth Strategy strives to be unique. We offer Financial, Strategic, Marketing, and Operations consulting all through one firm.? You don?t have to juggle between consulting firms to get the help and expertise you need.? We offer many fields of expertise, objectivity, and fixed costs (for the most part), but our rates are FAR cheaper than the competition.? This is important to understand because we pride ourselves on our commitment to create and execute (with you) innovative growth strategies to help clients achieve their growth and expansion goals.

We believe that hard work, professionalism, creativity and attention to detail generate growth in business. ?It is our goal to not only deliver the best possible execution of our growth strategies, we also seek to continuously generate new and innovative growth opportunities to ensure the future success of each of our clients. When it comes to our clients, we leave no stone left unturned and no prospect left unnoticed.? We?re in it for the long haul!

Do you have a positive or negative prior experience with a business consultant? Leave a comment, we?d love to hear a your stories!


Source: http://www.imaginegrow.com/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-business-consulting/

nba all star game shark tank john wall gordon hayward gas prices rising stars challenge star trek 2

No comments:

Post a Comment