What’s the value of a consultant? My fiancé asked me that this week. If you want to know the answer, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s get philosophical this morning.
As the business manager at a consulting firm, I wear many hats. Oftentimes people ask me what I do for work, and when I try to explain it, it sounds a lot like the way people sound when they try to talk with a mouth full of water. I work hard to be an effective communicator, so if I have your permission to be honest, this bothers me quite a bit (aka it really upsets me— you’re supposed to laugh at that).
As I see it, my job is to grow this business. As I try to do that, I often think about what the business’s value proposition is. How do I share the value of our services with clients, strategic partners, and even my friends and family?
I had a breakthrough this past week with my fiancé while discussing the business, and I think there’s value in this perspective in all areas of our lives, so I’m going to share it with you. The value of a good consultant can be $0 or it can be $100M; it can even be exponential. The value is determined by how effective the owner-client is at taking action. That part seems obvious, but where I broke through was in thinking about how profoundly true it is.
If you’re a business owner who’s unsure what industry best practice is for Gross Profit Percentage by job type, a good consultant can tell you. When they tell you that information, it’s effectively worth nothing. It’s an idea, and I’ve grown to believe ideas don’t inherently have value. Ideas that we act on are beliefs, and beliefs are capable of radically transforming people’s lives. Knowing what healthy margins are by job type by itself is worth nothing to your business. Building infrastructure to ensure that you, as well as any downline in your company responsible for estimating jobs, are writing all estimates to hit those healthy margins can be completely transformational for a small business.
I think what made this so interesting for me to think about was the realization that people who go to training or seminars and say it was a waste of their time are right, and people who say it was the best training ever are also right. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. The value of the ideas we are exposed to comes from our ability to turn those ideas into beliefs. The individual who listens to ideas that can transform their life and business and pronounces them worthless is right! The individual who listens to the exact same ideas, aligns with them, and takes action because of them to get better outcomes is also right when they say they’re transformative.
The way we turn ideas into the vessels of change they are capable of being is through the simple process of asking ourselves, “Based on the premise that I believe that in this situation, I need to do X,” and then doing it! Sometimes those decisions can be very hard to walk out every time, but simple and easy aren’t the same thing. That’s why some folks struggle to get results while others can point back to a specific conversation they had that changed their life.
A good consultant educated in your niche has input and strategies that their clients are seeing results with nationwide. They’re likely to identify trends sooner and see what’s working to resolve the issues that are plaguing the industry. When they don’t have an answer they can get one through relationships with other influencers that often take years to build. So, what’s the value of you adding a consultant to your business? Depends on what that information is worth to you. If you had access to that information would you do something with it, and if you did how powerful could that be for your company? You get to decide the value with the actions (or lack thereof) you take.
P.S. What “ideas” are floating around in your head right now that you could take action on that might change your life? I’m certain there are things, “ideas” you have that if you acted as if you truly believed them, could radically transform you as a husband or wife, business owner, mom or dad, you name it.
Wayne Hudson
Wayne has built a dynamic career rooted in the skills acquired during a 7 year stint in Property Management. While managing portfolios of hundreds of units spanning multiple locations he focused on becoming a more strategic thinker and worked hard to build high impact relationships.
After honing his leadership skills through hands-on management and navigating unique vendor partnerships, Wayne took a bold step in 2021, leaving his career in Property Management and pursuing competitive submission grappling while traveling the country.
Now, Wayne thrives in a remote role at Floodlight, applying his expertise to the growing team while planning his upcoming wedding with his fiance Hunter and heeler mix Samantha.
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