The Small Biz Consultant

When you run your own small business, it’s far too easy to get caught up in the routine. There are always short-term decisions to be made – or even worse a full-blown crisis to be dealt with. Many of us get so caught up in the day-to-day ‘firefighting’ that we fail to grow our businesses properly. We don’t step back and take a long hard look at our businesses.

That’s why it can be a good thing to have an outside business consultant who looks over your business. These people tend to have a lot of experience with a lot of different companies. So they know a lot about ‘best practices’ and what is likely to work best for you.

However, there are strong arguments for not using outsiders. Firstly, they’re likely to be very expensive. Secondly, they don’t really know your company or your employees very well. Either they’re going to have to take a lot of (expensive) time to know your company well or they might make recommendations based upon faulty information.

So how can we get around this problem? One technique is for you to be your own consultant.

The first thing you have to do is to take a step back from day-to-day management. The best time to do this is probably just after you come back from vacation. You’re fresh and your team have been running the company perfectly well in your absence. So schedule a week without meetings and spend it thinking about your company. What are its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?  Spend time observing your staff and the activities they take. Is everybody in the right job? Are your work processes well defined and refined? Are your products beginning to look a bit dated?

You’ll save yourself a lot of money by doing this but you’ll also learn to remotivate yourself. Too many small business people end up with their company running them. Make sure you run your company. That’s the way to fun and profit.