As a consultant, I am frequently asked why people would want to hire my company. There are a number of reasons: experience, cost effectiveness, objectivity and independence. Depending on your situation, some or all of these attributes may be enormously valuable to your business.

What is a Consultant?

Dictionary.com defines a consultant as a person who gives professional or expert advice. Consultants do give advice, but they frequently also perform tasks that result from that advice. Those tasks can range from running a public relations campaign to building a customized order fulfillment system.

It’s important to note that consultants are not temporary employees. They are business people selling services to clients. Whether you’re dealing with an independent graphic designer or a team from IBM’s Global Business Services, you should treat them as a vendor who provides services to solve a specific problem that you have. Evaluate potential consultants as you would any other type of vendor.

Experience

Good consultants have valuable experience in one or more areas of specialty, and they can use this experience to your advantage. Consultants, by the nature of their business, frequently work on more projects than employees in the same field and generally do so across many more organizations. As a result, they may have seen more successes and more failures, enabling them to learn from both. They also interact with many different types of people and learn to adapt quickly to new situations. Finally, consultants must keep up with industry trends in order to maintain their expertise.

Project Work

Whatever your business is, you likely have projects that are out of the line of daily business operations, but are important to your success. If your staff has the needed expertise to complete the projects, can they accomplish their daily tasks and still execute the additional work required for the project.  What if they don’t have the expertise? In either case, hiring a consultant may be the answer. They can provide missing expertise and relieve pressure on your staff, enabling your business, and your cash flow, to continue humming along.

Part-time Work

Sometimes you have a need that doesn’t require a full-time employee, but is too much for existing staff.  A part-time employee might be an option, but sometimes it can be difficult to find an employee with the right skills who is willing to work part-time. A consultant who provides the needed services might be able to fill your need, particularly if the amount of work varies. Employees generally want a predictable number of hours (and thus a predictable paycheck), while consultants are used to clients whose needs come and go.

Cost

Whether you need help on a project or for part-time work, expertise and experience, particularly in specialties in high demand, can represent a significant payroll cost to hire full time. Hiring a consultant represents a way to acquire the needed expertise at a cost that is lower and shorter in duration. When looking at hiring a consultant vs. an employee, remember to factor in not only payroll, but your half of the Social Security and Medicare, FUTA, SUTA and benefits to the employee’s cost.

Objectivity

Consultants don’t have a vested interest in existing ways of doing things. They also bring another perspective to the table. Both of these attributes can be valuable, particularly if you’re dealing with internal biases or resistance to change. Sometimes just having an idea be pitched or endorsed by someone perceived as an unbiased outsider can be useful.

Office Politics

Like it or not, office politics can be a significant factor in business. Fiefdoms are built, friends and enemies made, and bailiwicks are guarded. Consultants are not part of office politics and do not have an agenda. They just want to serve their clients. This neutrality can help avoid political conflicts and, when combined with objectivity, can cut through obfuscation and attempts to derail or coopt projects. Most consultants have been through this multiple times and are skilled at identifying and overcoming, or even working around political agendas.

Conclusion

Hiring a consultant is not the solution to every problem and not always the right fit.  In many cases, however, it can provide significant advantages in experience, flexibility, cost, objectivity and impartiality.  The next time you find yourself with a project on your hands, think about these factors and consider whether hiring a consultant might be the right move.