When Should You Hire a Business Consultant?

There comes a time in every business’ lifetime when it needs more; it needs to be shaped by fresh eyes and a new perspective, or guided through change by those with different experiences and expertise. And, as every entrepreneur knows, accessing this vital support means investing in a professional business consultant. But it’s this investment that often results in organisations opting to leave the task of hiring a consultant until the very last minute; until they don’t have any other avenues to explore.

And this is a problem.

If you hold back until the time that you need a consultant, then you’re already late. Of course, that’s not to say that a business consultant can’t still help to get you on the right track - they can, and they will - but what it means is that your consultant is coming in and making reactive changes. They’re coming in when you’ve already figured out that some things aren’t working, and they’re focusing their efforts on fixing these problems.

A much better use of a business consultant’s time and expertise is to have them come in before you even realise you need them, when they can work proactively to improve on what you’ve already built, look to the future, and identify ways to grow and develop in line with your ultimate goals. They can focus on getting you where you want to be. 

And so, a broad answer to the question ‘when should you hire a business consultant’ is ‘earlier than you think’. But when is the exact right time to make this sort of hire?

It all depends on what you want to achieve from working with a business consultant. For broad business expertise, generating ideas, and training teams, the earlier the better. For process improvement and change management, it can often be beneficial to bring a consultant on board a little later, giving you time to lay the core foundations before developing longer-term growth strategies that help you to develop further.

There’s definitely no ‘one size fits all’ here; each business must understand when the right time to hire is, for them in particular. This does require some thought and forward planning, but by hiring at the right time for you, you can be sure you’re in a position to derive full value from your business consultant, and experience all the advantages. 

Some early signs that it's time to hire a business consultant include:

●      Identifying knowledge gaps in your in-house team that are preventing growth

●      Uncertainty in how to get from where you are now, to where you want to be

●      An inability to implement your growth and development plans

●      Operating with a lack of well-defined organisational processes

●      Finding that your business is remaining stagnant; it’s not moving up or down

If you’re currently noticing any of these signs, then now could be the right time to bring onboard a business consultant to help you take your organisation to the next level.