How Can A Consultant Run My Business Better Than Me?
As a small business consultant for the last 10 years this is usually my client’s opening question. How can a consultant run my business better than me?
I write this article in the hope that one of my potential clients will read it before our sit down or for someone who may be sitting on the fence wondering is a consultant worth the money or not.
First to begin, the majority of my clients are professionals (i.e. Doctors, Lawyers, CPA, etc.) each and every one of these individuals are intelligent, well read and have made a tremendous commitment to their professional careers.
More often than not, our meeting begins with the question “Mr. Jackson how can you run my business better than me”? My answer “I can’t” it is at this point there is usually a long silence followed by “so why are we having this meeting”. Simple, if you wanted someone to run your business you would be looking for an office manager and not a consultant.
In an effort to bring my point home, we need to define what a business is or at least my definition of a business. A business is an enterprise that works with or without you and generates revenue.
Now for most of my clients when we first meet they have a practice not a business in all actuality I usually refer to this as a very well-paying job that they call a business. They are usually working long hours; have a difficult time scheduling a vacation and in the event they become ill the practice suffers. Most importantly it is not an asset that can be sold or duplicated. Therefore my definition is correct Mr. Prospect what you have here is a well-paying job.
Don’t agree?.. If you owned a McDonald’s, Subway, Quick Check etc. would you have to show up every day to make your money? The key question, could you sell it and make a profit?
Please allow me to continue before you politely or (not so politely) invite me to the door. Using a medical practitioner as my example
” Doctor, you have spent many years honing your craft and your education I am very certain that you’re a very good doctor. ”
As you may have already learned, there is a lot more to running a business then diagnosing, prescribing, or operating on your clients, In that area I would not be able to hold a candle to your skill sets but in business you need an entirely different set of skills, such as marketing, technical expertise, advertisement, Hippa compliance, accounts payable, accounts receivables, client retention and that’s to name a few, it is in this area that I have perfected and honed my skills.
Mr. Doctor a business is much like a car, there are many parts that work independently but come together to form the whole, when you think of a business think of it in the same way. To show my point, let’s begin with the simple system of clients. How do you generate new client? Who sees your clients? How do you follow up with your clients? Do your clients generate referrals for your business?
In that one sentence there are four different systems at work and if you don’t have them in place your car (business) just won’t run right. And that is only one set of systems, let’s include bookkeeping, billing, marketing, computer technology and web design. I hope at this point you are starting to see the value of a consultant, a consultant keeps you focused on what you do well and what you don’t the consultants can become your guide. We can’t and don’t ever run your business for you.