How to Hire a Business Consultant: Benefits, Tips, and Budgeting for 2024

What if you could consult an expert or experienced business mentor before you make critical business decisions?

When restaurant chain Sweetgreen faced trouble with software scalability, they consulted with PwC to help them upgrade their back-office operations and financial systems. This reduced data-loading time by 67% and helped in a smoother expansion process.

“We realized that we needed a business consultant if we wanted to scale,” says Dylan Hoffman, Co-Founder of Swivvl, an AI logistics company. “There was a gap in our skill set when it came to marketing strategy. Working with a marketing consultant ultimately increased monthly revenue and improved website traffic.”

When you hire a business consultant, you get the exposure, expertise, and efficiency your business requires to grow.

In this article, we’ll take you through a step-by-step process on how to choose and hire the right business consultant for you.

Let’s get started!

What does a business consultant do?

Business consultants are experienced professionals who help organizations and SMBs reach their business goals and improve their management, internal workflows, and overall efficiency. Think of them as independent contractors, who are temporarily hired by business owners when they require expertise in a particular niche.

Let’s say your local business is planning to expand its market nationwide or even globally. You would need a professional opinion on the potential markets for your product and services, and the right way to go about your expansion.

A business consultant with expertise in market analysis would conduct a thorough assessment, evaluating demographics, competition, and consumer trends. The consultant can then develop a market entry strategy, including online marketing tactics and distribution channels.

Similarly, if your business is facing trouble in daily workflows or production processes, a business consultant will step in to identify the problem or cause of delay. Then, they will suggest ways you can increase efficiency by optimizing supply-chain management or implementing any technological upgrades.

8 steps to hiring a business consultant

Here’s a checklist on how to find the right business consultant for you.

1. Identify your business's needs:

You’ve already identified a problem or lack of knowledge and skills in your company. However, identifying specific challenges instead of generic problem areas will help you search for the right business consultant. 

For example, if your manufacturing company faces supply chain inefficiencies, that should be seen as a key area for improvement. By defining the problem, you can seek a consultant with expertise in supply chain optimization. This could be a consultant who successfully streamlined operations for a similar manufacturing business.

Here are some examples of business problem areas and needs.

• Expert advice on your market entry strategy 

• Trying to optimize your business processes

• Needing a cost structure analysis 

• A business strategy for your startup

• Streamline processes for better productivity

• Developing marketing campaigns

• Audit your organization’s structure

• Implement a sales training program

• Restructuring teams

• Negotiating a merger with another business

2. Figure out your ideal business consultant candidate:

Consider your ideal candidate's attributes. Now that you’ve identified the exact need, try this internal exercise of building the ideal business consultant candidate. A few questions you can ask yourself or your internal team are:

• What is the exact set of skills they’d bring to our table?

• What would their experience look like?

• What are some clients they have worked with before? 

• Which team would they work with?

You can alternatively create a checklist with ideal skills they should have, such as

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• <Insert Industry> specific knowledge (ex: human resources, IT consultant)

• Project management 

• Pipeline management

• Data Analysis

Figuring out your ideal candidate can help you narrow down the type of consultant you need. For example, If you're a tech entrepreneur looking to enhance your social media strategy, seek a consultant with a proven track record in tech marketing. Ideally, they should have led a successful campaign for a similar startup, showcasing the ability to navigate the unique challenges of your industry.

3. Finalize your budget

Establish a budget aligned with your business goals. 

The average business consultant's salary is around $40 per hour, depending on the level of expertise and skillset.

Average Business Consultant Salary according to Zippia

This is when business owners can decide the exact numbers they’re willing to spend on acquiring a short-term consultant along with their expected return on investment. Finalizing on factors like years of experience, education, and even industry can give you an estimate of what budget you should set. For example, a business development consultant with 3-5 years of experience may be fine for training your entry-level sales employees, but you’d expect considerably more experience for an important consulting project like negotiating a company acquisition or merger.

Note that many management consultants do not charge by the hour. 

According to a study by Consulting Success, the typical fee arrangements among consultants were:

• Project basis: 31%

• Hourly rate: 24%

• Monthly retainer: 15%

• Daily rate: 13%

• ROI basis: 17%

You can also look at a consultant’s previous projects to understand if they are a good financial investment.

If you're a small business owner aiming to improve financial processes, calculate the potential cost savings resulting from a consultant's expertise. If a consultant helped another small business reduce operational costs by 20%, consider how this aligns with your budget and potential return on investment.

4. Create a detailed job description

Once you’ve internally decided on the details, you can craft a job description that puts everything together. Include project requirements, skills you’re looking for, and approximate budget.

Ensure you outline the responsibilities you’d require from the business consultant through the project and the exact goals you’d want to achieve at the end of their tenure. Consider utilizing job description templates as well!

Here’s a sample job description with requirements for a Senior Business Consulting position.

Example of a business consulting job description on Linkedin

5. Explore professional platforms

Now it’s time to look for your Business consultant. Once you know exactly what you want, you can contact:

• Consultant firms: Make a list of top and trusted firms like Accenture, KPMG or E(Y) according to your budget and business needs. However, most global firms are out of budget for smaller businesses, so check out trusted local consulting firms as an option as well.

• Your network: Many new business owners opt for referrals from their colleagues, partners, or professional contacts

• Professional networks: Check out online communities or professional platforms like LinkedIn

• Online platforms: Visit trusted professional marketspaces like Fiverr to post your job description

6. Conduct interviews

Hard skills or technical skills include experience and accomplishments and are included in the job description. This is a screening method that eliminates under-experienced applicants.

An interview gives you a chance to get to know your potential consultants and see if they’re a good fit for the business consultant role. 

Try to find out more about a candidate's soft skills during the interview process. These include their communication skills, adaptability, problem-solving abilities, and interpersonal skills. Assessing their cultural fit within the organization is crucial, as it ensures they align with the company values and can collaborate effectively with team members. 

Here’s a checklist to keep in mind and also help you frame your questions for the interview:

• Do they put in the effort to understand your company’s vision and culture?

• Do they reference their portfolio and other case studies to help you understand their process?

• Are they a good communicator?

• Do they ask questions about the team they will be working with?

• Do they have a client-focused approach and show how they can adapt according to your company’s requirements and workflow?

• Have they given you feedback or made suggestions on your initiative? If they’ve given you constructive criticism, how did they put it across?

• Do they speak about any challenges they’ve faced and how they’ve overcome them? 

• Are they a culture fit for your organization?

• What metrics do they use to measure success?

• How do they receive constructive criticism? 

It’s easier to check for integrity and level of expertise when you ask specific questions during the interview. Anecdotes provide insights into the consultant's problem-solving skills.

“When interviewing for a consultant, I was also looking for a strategic thinker who could see further than immediate tasks and strategies to create a comprehensive growth strategy,” says Dmytro Sokhach, Founder of Admix Global. “I would ask them to envision the future of Admix Global and explain how they would guide us toward it. Based on this response, I was able to hire who I believed was the right fit.”

7. How to choose the right business consultant

When you evaluate your short-listed candidates, ensure you double-check their references and have enough information from each interview to compare and make your decision.

Some green flags that could aid in your decision are:

• They are a cultural fit for your company

• You’ve cross-checked their references and have heard good reviews

• Their past work aligns with your current business needs

• They know how to operate within a team

• They bring a niche set of skills that your organization lacks 

• You align with their methods of managing a crisis

• They don’t promise unrealistic goals or numbers

8. How to ensure success post-hiring

Once you’ve selected and hired the right consultant for you, here’s how you can ensure a smooth tenure.

The first step would be to communicate and ensure deadlines and project responsibilities are clear on both ends.

Second, you need to establish what metrics you’d use to measure success and positive business impact in any way. Consultants will typically address this when they explain their process during the interview.

Third, make sure your integration process is smooth. Consultants are temporary hires, so the best way to get a good return on investment is to allow a transfer of knowledge from experts to your employees. Once your consultant joins your organization, you can introduce them to all the relevant teams.

For example, if you're a software company hiring consultants for product development, introduce them to your development team. This ensures a smooth integration and sets the stage for a successful partnership. 

Finally, it's crucial for you to regularly assess progress by the key performance indicators or metrics you decided on earlier. It’s important to have an open conversation about the reporting process at the beginning itself, to set clear expectations on deadlines and processes in case of delays.

Reasons to hire a business consultant

What are some specific advantages of hiring a business consultant that your internal team cannot help you with?

1. They bring niche industry expertise

You can find and temporarily hire a consultant who has experience in the exact problem you’re facing, without worrying about building your internal team. Business consultants typically work with a lot more clients than internal teams, giving them more exposure and knowledge to tackle your problems with ease.

If you’re facing problems with developing the right product for new markets, you can hire a consultant who has helped other businesses with similar product offerings. 

Or let’s say you already have a content marketing team, but you want an SEO expert for a successful campaign launch. You can choose to hire an SEO consultant or expert to advise and train your content marketing team instead of hiring a full-time SEO expert.

2. They have a fresh perspective

Most problems aren’t identifiable from within. Sometimes, you need an experienced third-party view to identify the issue as well as solve it. A company’s internal team may have a certain bias or emotional attachment to current systems, making it harder to evolve and function better as an organization.

Hiring a business consultant can bring a fresh perspective to any business plan. 

“Our steam cleaning equipment was top-notch and efficient but we still could not beat our competition,” says Lev Tretyakov, CEO and Head of Sales of Fortador, a cleaning equipment company. “We got all departments—sales, marketing, and operations—to brainstorm. But their usual workloads and lack of objectivity kept us in a plateau.”

Fortado then worked with a consulting company with industry expertise. They implemented the changes in phases for easier adaptation. “We embraced the chaos, and the consultation ultimately helped us get an 18% increase in lead generation and a 15% increase in our annual revenue.”

3. They improve your company’s efficiency

By bringing in a business consultant, you tap into their expertise and fresh perspective and supercharge your company's efficiency. 

With undivided attention, consultants focus solely on your project or team guidance, ensuring swift progress. In contrast, internal teams, juggling various tasks simultaneously, split their attention and risk slowing down the process. 

The dedicated focus of a consultant means you save time, as they have no other responsibilities apart from the assigned project.

4. They’re cheaper in the long run

In comparison to hiring an internal team or a long-term resource for your company, business consultants can turn out to be more affordable for your company.

Unlike hiring a full-time employee, consultants are typically engaged on a project basis, allowing businesses to avoid long-term salary commitments, benefits, and other overhead costs

Additionally, consultants bring specialized expertise, which means they can efficiently address specific issues without the need for extensive training. Business consultants also operate as independent contractors, reducing the burden of payroll taxes and other employee-related expenses.

How to hire a Business consultant through Fiverr

Step 1: Sign up or create a Fiverr account

Step 2: Search the business section and choose the type of consulting service you want. Here, we selected market research.

Step 3: If you want to further specify your search, you can use Fiverr’s preset filters.

Step 4: Choose the type of service, seller rating, budget, and delivery time to find professionals that fit your job description.

Step 5: Once you select the type of service you’re looking for, Fiverr will display its top-rated business consultants according to your needs.

Step 6: Choose and shortlist the profiles you’re interested in, by reading their descriptions, hourly rates, and ratings.

When you click on a profile, you get access to their portfolios, customer reviews, and more.

Step 7: Since you’re looking for industry-specific expertise, be sure to double-check if the candidate you selected has experience working in that field. 

Step 8: Once you’ve decided on your consultant, check out their pricing plans and select the one that aligns with your company’s budget. You can always contact a freelancer before you make the payment if you have any queries or concerns about the project.

Step 9: Once the freelancer accepts your offer, you’re set! You can get started by communicating through Fiverr’s messenger.

Find the right business consultant for your business on Fiverr

Searching for consultants, vetting consulting firms, and communicating deliverables are added responsibilities to a business owner’s already full plate. 

Fiverr makes it easier to hire trusted consultants with the skill sets and expertise you’re looking for. On Fiverr’s marketplace, you’ll find experienced HR consultants, legal consultants, and financial consultants. 

Sign up on Fiverr to hire business consulting services today.