Business turnaround consultants are a dime a dozen nowadays, but they are not all created equally. In addition to cost and reliability, it is important to find the business turnaround consultant that will best fit your business needs. While you certainly do not want to cut corners and choose a business turnaround consultant who costs more than your budget allows, there are also some business turnaround consultants that you may find difficult to work with. When looking for business turnaround consultants, you will want to take the time to evaluate each business consultant on the following list of key considerations. Once you have a short list of it that fits your business needs, you will be able to narrow down your selection process until you have found the business turnaround consultant that is perfect for you.
Cost:
You will want to remember that while business turnaround consultants may charge you a hefty sum, the benefits of having a business turnaround consultant on your side are far greater in the long-term. This is especially true if you are suffering through a cash flow crisis, or are facing bankruptcy. Although business turnaround consultants are not legally required to perform a credit check on you, it is still smart to only deal with consultants that can provide you with a written guarantee that their work and services will save you money in the future. This guarantee should come from the business turnaround consultant himself/herself, as well as the business improvement consultant that you are going to hire. Make sure both business turnaround consultants have agreed to guarantee the price before you commit to them.
References:
It is very important that you ask your business turnaround consultant for a list of business clients that he/she has helped in the past. This will give you a feel for the business skills of the business consultant. Remember, business turnaround consultants work for you, and so you should receive full disclosure of the businesses and projects that they have handled in the past. Be careful that you only deal with a business consultant that has a great reputation in the business world. Also, never choose business turnaround consultants based solely on referrals; as mentioned above, business referrals are great but business referrals that are based on hard facts and figures are even better.
The Right Personality:
You want to hire someone that fits the exact mold of who you are as a business owner. Do not choose it based on their personality. Make sure the business turnaround consultant that you are going to hire is comfortable working with you, and is good at communicating within a business environment. For example, if you are a business owner that loves to work with numbers, then you should look for a business turnaround consultant that communicates well with numbers. If you think business turnaround consultants have a great personality, then that is another story. Make sure that it you are going to hire, has a good personality and communicates well with your staff.
Experience:
Business turnaround consultants are experts in their field, so it is important that you find someone that has a lot of experience in business turnaround. You want to ensure that you are hiring a business turnaround consultant that knows what they are doing, and has been successful in doing it. lot of research on business turnaround consultants by checking with the American Business Renovation Society (ABS) and the Small Business Administration (SBA). If you want to check into the success ratio of business turnaround consultants. The success ratio is the percentage of businesses they have helped to save or improve from bankruptcy to operation or growth. The higher the success ratio, the better business turnaround consultant you should consider hiring.
Once you have done all of the necessary research, you can now begin to interview business turnaround consultants. During the interview process, you will want to make sure to ask business turnaround questions to make sure that the business turnaround consultant that you are considering knows how to successfully deal with business problems. You want to make sure that business turnaround consultants understand business problems in their own business and understand what the business needs in order to be successful. If business turnaround consultants don’t know how to solve a business problem, they probably don’t have enough experience in that business. You may also want to find out what business relationships the business turnaround consultant has developed, if they have any.
