When you own a small business, you know that you don’t know everything. Your area of expertise is in providing a quality product or service, but many other things go into running and growing a business.
That’s why many small business owners have thought about working with a business coach or consulting service.
At CSI Accounting & Payroll, we’ve worked with small business consulting for over 50 years. That means we’ve talked to thousands of small business owners who have wanted to know:
- What is a business consultant? What do they do?
- How much does a business consultant cost?
- How do you find a good small business consultant? What should you look for?
What a Business Consultant Provides
First of all, what is a business consultant? This term can refer to a variety of things.
It’s often associated with business coaches, who advise almost exclusively based on their industry knowledge and experience. They focus on the pain point that you bring to them and don’t dive too deep.
However, the term “business consultant” also applies to:
- Specialized consultants. These are consultants who specialize in a certain area, such as marketing or hiring strategies. Often, business coaches will also be able to advise in these areas – but on a more basic level.
- Process consultants. This specialist will visit you on-site and advise you on how to make your processes more efficient.
- Legal consultants. Everybody knows what a lawyer is! There are some business operations that require working with an attorney.
- Financial consultants. The best example of a financial consultant is an accountant. They advise based on your current financial data, so everything is customized to your business.
Essentially, a business consultant is anybody not on your payroll who helps improve your business.
How Much a Business Consultant Costs
No matter which type of consultant you work with, they are all long-term relationships. However, they often use hourly pricing. Since there’s a variety in the types of consultants, there’s also a range of hourly fees.
Consultants typically charge between $150-$500 per hour.
Some consultants offer set-fee deals (ex. $1,000 per month will get you four hours of advisory time), but others will just bill for the number of hours you actually used.
Otherwise, if you’re just looking for a one-off answer to a question or free advice, you may be better off using resources like:
- Online search engines
- AI tools
- Business networking groups
- Online message boards
How to Find a Quality Business Consultant
Let’s talk about the ways to find a consultant, how to determine their quality, and how to hone in on the right financial consultant for your business.
Finding a Consultant
What’s the number-one way to find a small business consultant? Referrals. The market is saturated with business coaches who offer generic advice, but a more specialized expert is harder to find. That’s why it’s best to get referred to one.
Otherwise, if you don’t have a referral, you’ll need to do some online searches for business coaches, lawyers, and accountants.
Determining Quality
When you’re shopping around, how do you determine the quality of a consultant? We recommend:
- Rehearsing what you need to discuss. What do you need to ask them about their experience? Talk about your process or products you want to implement and see what their initial opinions are.
- Asking for their references. If they give you a reference’s phone number, don’t be afraid to call and ask questions. They should know firsthand what it’s like to be the consultant’s client.
- Looking at their reviews. This needs to include reviews that aren’t posted on their own website. That means you need to check Google and Yelp, too.
- Comparing what they offer to what you need. The range of things they offer doesn’t matter if they’re not what you need.
- A wide range of experience or a specialty in your area. It doesn’t matter how good their expertise is if it doesn’t apply to you.
Financial Consulting Solutions
Finally, you need to consider whether you need a business coach or one of the more specialized consultants mentioned above. If financial consulting is what you need, let’s compare a business coach to a year-round accounting service like our firm: CSI Accounting & Payroll.
A business coach offers experienced yet generic advice in most areas. Similarly, CSI can offer somewhat generic advice in most areas – however, we offer better financial advising due to being hands-on with your financial data.
With a monthly accountant at CSI, you get monthly financial statements to make informed decisions year-round. Your dedicated accountant knows your business like the back of their hand, and you can contact them as much as you want with one-off questions. If you need more help, you can even add on a consulting project.
Learn about the differences between free advice and add-on consulting projects here.
On the other hand, business coaches don’t work with your financial data. They only look at financial statements if you provide them and don’t dig any deeper. Plus, if you don’t have year-round accounting, you may not have accurate monthly financial statements. The less current the statements, the less current the advice will be.
Get the Best-Quality Financial Consulting!
Now that you know what business consultants do, how much they cost, and how to find a good consultant, are you ready to check out monthly accounting services?
If so, please consider CSI Accounting & Payroll! To see if we can be a good fit for your business, click the button below for a free consultation:
Not ready to talk? That’s okay! First, learn more about what factors go into pricing monthly accounting by clicking the image below:
