Business Consulting Services deals with efforts in making business professional, cost effective for the business and information technology communities.

Business consultants are admired for their expertise and relied upon in every industry in every country. No doubt in this that they are the highly paid people and their advice is highly valued.

If one wants to become a business consultant he/she can choose to specialize in a variety of areas, including:

• communications consulting
• e-business consulting
• operations consulting
• marketing consulting
• organizational development consulting
• small business consulting
• human resources consulting (HR consulting)
• strategic planning consulting
• technology consulting (IT consulting)
• any other areas organizations need professional advice

Consultancy Services are categorized into following processes:-

• Optimizing applications and workload – Service where business consultants help their clients in aligning applications to business strategy, prioritize critical work requests and plan internal resources
• Improving productivity – Service where clients are helped in designing a process to work more efficiently.
• Ensuring effective outsourcing – Service where clients are made to assess outsourcing suitability of applications and infrastructure, design governance structure to manage relationship issues in global outsourcing and manage organizational change involved in an outsourcing initiative.

Business consultants provide the following services mentioned below:-

Consulting Services:-

Consultants are always helpful in trying to find new creative ways to market your business products and services.

Research

They provide qualitative and quantitative research to help people to find the proper solutions for the business.

Planning

They provide business planning in all the areas of business to assure your business success. They create simple business plans as well as complex global change and growth strategies.

Training and Seminars

They provide training in all aspects of business & make largest selection of the most comprehensive business seminars available. They also host business conferences and trade shows to address specific business needs.

I believe there is a time when every business consultant should leave a business. The problem is most consultants refuse to recognise it when the time comes. Many consultants get entrenched in a business and are quite happy to cruise along because they need the fees. It doesn’t matter how good or how experienced the business consultant might be, when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. The first red flag is generally when the business owner feels he or she is no longer receiving more value than cost. Frequently the business consultant should be aware of this situation before the client is.

Sometimes it’s the business consultants call on terminating their contract with a client or business. Typically this manifests every time you raise your fees. i.e. You’ll typically lose approximately 15% of your clients. Successful consultants regularly cull the bottom 15% of their client base as part of their growth strategy. This allows the business consultant to reach out and expand the upper levels of their client base. In its simplest format you cannot expect your business to grow if you retain all your paid clients. You will at best plateau and hit the financial tipping point.

Consultants who work on a daily rate or per-diem are generally practicing their trade. Their aim is to maximise short term cash flow. For sure this statement will have consultants across the four corners of the globe cursing under their breath. I have attended business growth seminars where the guru presenter has told the attendees to work out a billable day matrix. I.e. establish how much annual income they require and then divide it to identify your daily billing rate.

After deducting weekends, bank holidays and individual holidays, approximately 220 billable working days remain in an average year. Deduct 30% of these days for marketing, business promotion and other non revenue generating activities. Then assume a 70% booking rate leaving a total of 154 days to generate revenue. Assume an annual salary requirement of £120,000 which dictates a daily charge out rate of just under £800 per day.

Three things generally happen if you adopt this severely flawed concept. First you’re screwed as far as your daily fee can only decline, and your margins erode. Second you’ve inadvertently capped your potential for growth. Third is if you drop a few days you’ll fail to hit your own required annual salary.

In his Million Dollar Consulting book Alan Weiss mentions, “There are substantial risks in the consulting profession as well as substantial rewards. It is ridiculous to assume the former without capitalising on the latter.”

The only exception I apply to this rule is when I provide business consultancy services to clients who have sourced match funding from grant agencies and you have to work to a per diem schedule.

Over the years I have always approached business consultancy from a perspective of helping my clients to become wealthy, irrespective of what type of relationship or system I adopt. My secondary aim is to establish an enduring relationship with my client. Given I am very selective about who I choose to work with, and that some of my clients still utilise my services after 15 years, I guess my philosophy has been successful.

I believe you grow businesses by exploiting strength, not acclimating to weakness. I work hard and have every expectation that I be suitably rewarded for helping my clients to become wealthy. I operate on a project fee basis only and I always base my fees on the client’s perceived value of my business growth contribution. I make it clear from the outset that even though I am talking to the client, it doesn’t mean I will be working with them. If I get the sense that a prospective client doesn’t recognise me as someone who does outstanding work and someone who requires a high investment then I am always prepared to walk away from the business.

Some business consultants are specialists and some are generalists, then there are specialists who have transitioned into generalists. To become a successful business consultant I advise you to differentiate your services, and then try to identify your unique niche and then commence a very focussed marketing campaign. Never be afraid of failure, because in order to grow you have to fail periodically. These failures will pre-programme you to identify opportunities for improvement. I believe that uninterrupted success, by definition pre-programmes you for failure.

Old school consultancy has maintained a predominant focus on ‘reactive’, whereas my ‘Special Forces’ The Art of Business War is ‘extremely proactive’. I train my associates to respond to emerging trends and fads by collating detailed research and business intelligence. In my experience very few consultants approach business proactively.

When you work in extremely high risk security operations in some of the world’s most terrible theatres of operation, you quickly relate to the concept of ‘practice makes perfect.’ I witnessed world class SWAT instructors screaming at their recruits that ‘practice makes perfect.’ On one occasion I was tasked with running a very dynamic live fire SWAT programme at the Ground Zero tactical facility in Alabama, USA. Some 40 different SWAT firearms instructors attended. Their agencies paid for them to be taught personally by Dr. Mark D. Yates how to clear houses dynamically, in order they could then train their own SWAT officers back at their respective departments. Officers in attendance represented numerous different law enforcement agencies like the FBI, Police, DEA, Sherriff’s dept’ , etc, etc.

At great cost the Ground Zero investors had constructed a ballistically lined 360 degree live fire MATCH Modular Armoured Tactical Combat House. Many of the officers attending had never been through a live fire house, especially with a team of unknown officers before. It’s a very hairy experience which is not for fools or the faint hearted. Sadly one of the Sherriff’s SWAT instructors fell into both the fool and the faint hearted camp.

I caught him inflicting his expertise on a group of officers under my tutorage and I listened as he informed his ‘new team mates’ that he was highly skilled and experienced in live shoot house tactics. He finished his lecture by stating that repetition is the key, as practice makes perfect. After glancing at my fellow instructors we knew straight away he was a bluffer and a bullshitter.

We let him lock and load and placed him where he could cause the least damage, i.e. at the head of a six officer snake formation. He paused outside a door and placed his chin on the muzzle of his upturned 9mm, whilst his finger was locked rigid around his trigger. This was without doubt the single most dangerous incident I have ever witnessed on any shooting range in any of the 41 countries I have visited.

I aborted the exercise and brought the team outside for a safety brief. Sherriff Bubba refused to believe what I assured him he had done. I asked him what fate would befall one of his agency recruits if they made such a fundamental error. “Instant dismissal from the agency… but that would never happen because I train them properly and I’m big on practice makes perfect,” he replied arrogantly. One of my instructors led the team into the class room and played a video of the Sherriff’s Faux Pas. I told the class that practice does not make perfect, and that only perfect practice makes perfect. I also told them that I don’t train people, because we train animals and not humans. I prefer to educate people. For some reason Sherriff Bubba slipped away from the programme never to be seen again. Clearly like some business consultants, the time for him to leave was dictated by external forces.

Special Forces know when to arrive and also when to leave. They never overstay their welcome.

• This article may be reprinted without permission, provided it is utilised in its entirety and is not printed in or posted on any illegal or controversial publications.

Contact Dr. Mark D. Yates Business Consultant if you require Business Consultancy

Utilizing business consulting services is useful, effective and potentially very accessible. But, with so many consultants, publications and vendors weighing in with their own perspective and opinions, it can be very confusing.

Business consulting refers to the industry and the practice of helping businesses improve their performance, usually through the analysis of business problems and development of plans for improvement. Businesses may choose to invest in business consulting services for a number of reasons, including gaining outside objective advice and recommendations, to gain access to the consultants’ specialized expertise, or simply as temporary help.

Because of their exposure to and relationships with numerous organizations, business consulting agencies are also said to be aware of industry ‘best practices.’ However, transferring practices that have successfully improved one business to another is not always practical or feasible.

Business consulting agencies may also provide managed services, development of coaching skills, IT solutions, technology implementation, strategy development, or application management services. Business consulting agencies generally bring their own patented practices or frameworks to identify problems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks.

Many business consulting agencies have expanded in the last few years to provide other services, such as IT solutions, human resource consulting, and other managed services. So-called ’boutique’ consultancies, however, are smaller organizations specializing in one or a few of the above services.

Similar to business consulting, management consulting is becoming more prevalent in non-business related fields as well. As the need for professional, informed and specialized advice grows, other industries such as government and not-for-profit agencies are turning to the same managerial principles that have helped the business sector for years.

One important and recent change in the industry has been the spin-off or separation of the consulting and the accounting units of the large diversified firms. For these firms, which began as accounting firms, business consulting was a new extension to their business. But devastated by a few highly publicized scandals over accounting practices, such as the Enron scandal, accounting firms began splitting from their business consulting units, to more easily focus on and comply with tighter regulatory scrutiny that arose following the scandals.

Business consulting is a fast growing industry, with growth rates surpassing twenty percent in the 1980s and 1990s. As a business service, consulting is highly linked to overall economic conditions. The consulting industry shrank during the 2001-2003 period, but has seen a slowly increasing growth since. In 2007, total global revenues for business consulting are expected to exceed the $300 billion mark.

The Internet market can be a complex landscape for the novice entrepreneur. However, in this age of advanced technology, and with the services sector expanding at a phenomenal pace, one can find a consultant for almost all business related requirements, including the increasingly popular e-business of today. E-business consultants take it upon themselves to help you to understand the intricacies of the e-business world, so that you are equipped to develop and implement winning marketing ideas, to make your business venture a success.

There are mainly two forms of e-business consultants available: paid or free e-guides, or e-business consultants, online and books. Both these provide very useful insights about handling various e-business related issues. Let us check out both, beginning with e-business consultants.

E-business Consultants:

They will help you with practically everything, from advising you on your choice of system to providing help with the installation process. The main advantage of these consultants that they reduce your workload. The consultants will share a lot of your burden. All you need to do is specify your requirements, giving the details of your choices and your budget, and the consultant will help you to acquire it.

Good e-business consultants help you to analyze your specifications and then devise a workable technical design accordingly, plus installing all the required software, hardware and network requirements, in addition to identifying the most cost-effective solutions. They also offer training, or arrange for it, and provide on-going support.

The only disadvantage of e-business consultants is the cost. The consulting fee varies anywhere from $25 to $250 per hour, depending upon the experience and the skills of the consultant. They also quote per-project based fixed fee as an alternative option to the hourly rate. Before you choose any of the options, you need to compare both carefully, and make sure that the one you choose is clearly mentioned in the contract you make with them.

E-business guidebooks:

E-business guidebooks are inanimate consultants that help in handling all kinds of issues related to an e-business. Apart from helping entrepreneurs by way of developing a business plan, you can also consult them to design and operate your website, find out how to get the website registered, find a suitable Internet service provider, and what computer equipment would be required for operating a website.

These guides also help budding entrepreneurs to avoid quick-rich schemes on the Internet and posting the privacy policies on the website. They also provide tips of how to market your business in the best possible manner, in order to differentiate your company from that of your competitors, including the various methods of advertising like making use of online communities, chats, blogs and forums, or banner advertising and podcasting.

Some guides also help entrepreneurs to find safe order solutions. They also provide tips on how to use the website to accept purchase requests, and sell software or other downloadable items. This module also includes tips to fight against viruses, and how to protect the website and computers with anti-virus software. However, of course, they can only solve common problems. If unique problems crop up, these guides would be of little help.

Both the consultants have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is up to each entrepreneur which consultant they select. The size of the business can help in making the decision. If the business involves more than 50 PCs, then it is probably a better idea to involve a human consultant, rather than a book, so that a round-the-clock support system is available. And if the business has only two to three PCs, a guidebook can be more cost-effective and informative.