What Is A Business Development Consultant?
Updated: Sep 24, 2019
In today's world we need someone in our business dedicated to keeping up with the times and new business methods and tools available.
A business development consultant will identify weaknesses and challenges in the systems or approach of a business and strategize possible solutions and implementations.
They are the perspective holders in any business trying to make sure its long-term objectives are being helped and attained.
Let's define more about how a business developer identifies what you need for your business and what to consider for long-term relationships.
What Does A Business Development Consultant Do?
I mentioned that these professionals are going to take a look at your overall strategies and methods.
They are going to pinpoint where you are spending your time, energy, and other resources and see if this aligns with your long-term objectives.
More likely than not, the actions you are taking are not going to align with your long-term objectives or why else would you have hired the consultant?
Then you will go over what the consultant feels are the best actions you need to take to align more with your long-term objectives.
Usually these people have lots of experience growing and shaping businesses. They are usually educated with a great grasp of traditional business methods
You might be spending several sessions with your developer so it's important you choose someone that you have a good rapport with and enjoy being around.
One other important note is that your consultant needs to be familiar with the online world and how to get the most out of it.
This is obviously more important for online businesses like ecommerce but if you are starting a business or looking to grow and not implementing some kind of online strategy then your chances at sustaining growth will be fairly limited.
How Much Do They Make?
Glassdoor has the average job salary at $50,042 a year while Indeed has the average salary at $57,922 a year.
If you are looking for an hourly rate you should expect to pay anywhere from $100-$250 an hour.
If you are running a small business or are a solopreneur and you are not looking to get anyone on salary just yet, I would highly suggest spending the hourly rate and booking a couple of hours.
It's a steep price but the direction and guidance you will receive could change your operations and entire business overnight.
The most important part about hiring these services through the hourly model is to come prepared and make sure you aren't wasting your money.
How To Be Prepared For A Consultation
Do Your Research - Make sure you have done your due diligence on who you are hiring. Read any reviews, case studies, or testimonials they have. Check different review platforms like Google, Yelp, Local Business. Talk to others who have used their service. Make sure that you know their background and what education they got or what qualifies them to know so much about business.
Have Everything Ready - Make sure you have made notes and understand what is happening in different areas of your business. Have your latest finances, marketing, sales, etc. strategies at hand so you can easily cover these in your consultation and you have easy access to any documents you may need.
Ask and Receive - If you have specific areas you need help with, do some research about those areas and make sure you gather a couple of well thought out questions that directly address your issues.
The Perfect Future - Try to think what the best outcome from the meeting is going to be ahead of time. Think about leaving the meeting extremely confident about the future of your business and critically think about what that might mean. Maybe you just need one answer. Maybe you need support getting more accessible resources. Whatever the outcome, try to envision a perfect future for the meeting.
Why Hire One?
Having someone in your corner who is dedicated to helping you grow and succeed is always a good idea!
As entrepreneurs, our natural reaction is to think that no one understands our business as well as we do but it isn't until we let that feeling go do we experience a bigger understanding about what business is and how to enact real progress.
This is why hiring a business development consultant is so important.
Not to mention that you will also be benefiting from someone with loads of more knowledge about specific strategies who have dedicated large amount of their time to continuing to learn more.
I would also highly suggest hiring a online focused consultant if you are running a purely online business. Everyday there is a new product or software being released online that changes the way a business can operate.
I remember spending lots of money and time on building a specific function in Wix only to have Wix themselves build the same thing and make it accessible to everyone within 2 weeks after I finished my project.
Business development consultants can be privy to this information and can understand why you would want to wait or why your business needs immediate action.
Allow yourself an hour or two with a consultant to see what they know and how they can help you understand more about your business.
Conclusion
Do some research about your business development consultant and make sure you understand their education, experience, and previous clients who they have worked with. I would reach out to those clients to see their experience.
Make sure that when you are spending the resources hiring a business development consultant that you come prepared. Have all materials easily accessible and reach out to the consultant ahead of time to see what you should have for the meeting.
You also need to make sure that your consultant has experience and is familiar with online business development. This means they should be familiar with different products and software available and the best ways to use this.
I'd love to hear from you if you've hired a business development consultant for your business. Especially if you have an online business as I am becoming more and more interested in how these two intersections are helping solopreneurs and small business entrepreneurs grow.
Comment below and let me know your experience or if you'd like to let me know how you feel about what you've just read!
Like and share this post if you learned more about a business development consultant why you might want to hire one.
If you need help developing your online business I would love nothing more than to spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to find ways to help you grow! Fill out the form on my contact page so we can start talking!