What Do Business Consultants Do and Why Should You Hire One for Your Business?

Business growth consultants are exactly what they sound like: they’re brought on to help companies navigate change and grow their potential for profitability. So whether a company is experiencing challenges with company culture or wants to implement a new business strategy that’ll better anticipate changes in economic conditions, a business growth consultant will be there to help.

The best business consultants can help you as a business owner adapt to today’s market dynamics and continue to compete no matter the threats you might be facing. They can propose tools to enable optimal work and clean up extraneous costs. Not only that, but you can scale up and down the services of your business consultant to suit what your present needs and wants are.

Therefore, business consultants are highly valuable external team members with the potential to add a lot to any business. So, in this article, we’re going to answer some key questions businesses tend to have before incorporating a business strategy consultant:

1. What does a business consultant do?
2. What services do business growth consultants offer?
3. And how do you incorporate large or small business consultants into your organization?

What Does a Business Consultant Do?

It’s important to understand the question “what does a business consultant do?” so you can best leverage said business growth consultant for your business’s success. As such, let’s summarize what a business strategy consultant does for both large and small organizations.

Business growth consultants are professionals who assist businesses with optimizing their current operations or offer advice on improving their future prospects. This includes proposing structural changes, helping businesses budget more effectively, and offering insights into the current status of their business’s financial performance.

Business consultant services go beyond just assisting large corporations with hundreds of employees. Small business consultants can be key in getting small businesses to really thrive within their chosen environments. Around 50% of small businesses will fail within the first five years. Running a business is risky, and it pays to have an expert small business consultant who can show you the optimal way to navigate those first five years and beyond.

‍Large and Small Business Consultant vs. Financial Advisor

Often, business strategy consultants are confused with financial advisors by businesses new to consulting services. Though we have a blog dedicated entirely to the differences between business consultants and financial advisors, we’ve quickly summarized the key points below:

• Business consultant services allow businesses to retain more independence, while financial advisors typically grow to play an integral role in the operation of a business.
• Business consultants maintain a more infrequent role in a business and the nature of the relationship is more about identifying problems and suggesting targeted solutions than that of a financial advisor.
• Financial advisors are brought on to work together alongside a business owner to keep a business performing optimally. In contrast, business consultants take a more hands-off approach, identifying problems and areas of improvement as they arise.
• Business consultants typically introduce tools and software for business owners to use, while financial advisors will more often use those tools and software to improve the financial posture of that organization over a predetermined period of time.

What Services Do Business Consultants Offer For Businesses?

So, we’ve answered “what does a business consultant do?” and explored how they’re different from financial advisors. Now, let’s go over the specific services most large and small business consultants offer their clients. Keep in mind these services may differ depending on the business strategy consultant of your choosing. If you’re ever unsure if your business consultant services include one of the ones listed below, be sure to ask your consultant next time you meet.

1. Gather Data and Analyze. Most business growth consultants will begin their partnership with an organization by gathering financial data and business information. This gives them a basic understanding of how the business currently operates.
2. Interpret That Data and Offer Suggestions. Once a business strategy consultant has gathered enough data to infer from, they’ll propose changes the organization can make to immediately improve processes and profitability. These changes can range from restructuring employees and their roles, eliminating extraneous monthly costs, or consolidating vendors to make billing simpler.
3. Make Goals Based on the Data. This is arguably one of the most important business consultant services that businesses can utilize. After understanding financial data and proposing changes to immediately improve a business’s status, large and small business consultants will draft realistic goals for financial performance over time. These goals can be immediate and can be for the next 10 years. Regardless, these goals are data driven and help organizational leaders better craft their strategic frameworks.
4. Develop Strategies and Solutions. Business consultant services typically involve crafting solutions to problems and developing strategies for growth over time. These strategies and solutions are often generated in collaboration with organizational leaders and key stakeholders.
5. Implement Those Solutions and Strategies. While a good portion of the strategies and solutions proposed by business strategy consultants are implemented by organizational leaders and stakeholders, some are enacted by the business consultants themselves. This portion of business consultant services typically involves financial record keeping and planning, as well as vendor and payment management.
6. Monitor Performance, Rinse, and Repeat. Over time, business growth strategists will alter their strategies alongside changes both within and outside the organization they’re providing business consultant services for. They’ll also continue to gather data and improve record keeping over time.

How to Work With a Business Strategy Consultant

Hiring a business growth consultant can have a massive impact on the success of your business, regardless of its size. Your chosen consultant will provide a suite of business consultant services that will improve your operations and give you a crystal-clear picture of your goals and projections for growth. As such, it’s important to be choosy with your business strategy consultant.

As a general rule, you’ll want to be upfront about your needs and have a pretty good understanding of what your large or small business consultant will provide you with. Make sure to run through the list of business consultant services we laid out above, choosing the business growth consultant who excels at the services you most desire for your organization. Read plenty of reviews and gather suggestions for business strategy consultants from your peers. Try to stay local with your business consultant so you’re more likely to work with a strategist who intimately understands the market for your business.

4Corner Business Consulting Services in Denver, CO

4Corner Business Services is Denver’s answer to business consulting services. 4Corner’s team of experienced accounting and bookkeeping experts provide you with the business financial consultants you need to make critical decisions. In addition to providing bookkeeping services for small businesses & large businesses, 4Corner offers payroll help, support in choosing & using accounting software, professional tax services, and business financial consulting.

We can provide your Denver, CO small business with all the bookkeeping and accounting services you need so you can better understand your business’s finances and maximize your profit potential. At 4Corner Business Services, we are the experts who help you understand what financial services you need. We address all your accounting needs from general ledger accounting to other small business accounting services so you can focus on the other important aspects that come with running a small business. We can also help you budget and track annual business revenue, giving you invaluable insight into how your business is currently performing and how it is projected to perform.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact us at 4Corner Business Services. You can set up a meeting with Phil Zavala, founder of 4Corner, to get you on the right track.