Six Reasons Why You Should Hire A Consultant in Q4 During A Recession

This will be short! The six reasons are so skewed towards doing it versus not doing it that I can even bulletize them and you will easily see why you should be looking for the right consultant NOW.

• Use it or lose it. Many budgets are still calendar year and if you don't use funds, they are gone next year. Don't buy into the rhetoric that you’ll be rewarded for saving money. It doesn’t happen. And, if you are a fiscal year budget – you’re half way through the game partner, better get on it to finish strong.
• Chances are, you are behind the eight ball and are not hitting your Q4 or Yearly Goals. You have two options: 1) fret about it and work to the bone to attempt to make up the chasm (which probably won’t happen and you’ll burn out your team doing it), or 2) take your lump, get an outside viewpoint and an innovative plan to hit the ground running in Q1. Often new, fresh, objective and novel ideas come from the outside looking in. Use a consultant to do this.
• If you use a consultant now to design a solid plan for Q1, you can spend the remainder of Q4 getting your team amped up, on board and already working towards the new concepts. You may even see an uptick in Q4 if you get at it early enough ;)
• Stop looking at bringing in a consultant to “look things over” as a threat, sign of weakness or admittance of defeat. Athletes use coaches and specialized trainers when an area of their performance is not at its peak. The human body often requires a doctor to provide an exam to ensure the “system” is running as it should. We take our cars in for a “tune up” for heaven’s sake! Bringing in a consultant; one thorough and knowledgeable in operations, fiscal management, marketing, sales, and employee relations with an imagination and positive attitude is the solution to getting out of the slump we are in. If more businesses got a “tune up” in Q4, our outlook for Q1 as a country would be much better than it is today.
• The answers to improving productivity, loyalty, profits and new services and products are out there. Hire a consultant with no vested interest in office politics, ensuring everyone likes him/her and is only there to provide objective feedback on what is going well and what isn’t and can provide a solid plan for improvement in Q1 and beyond.
• As the commercial with the drill sergeant as a therapist would say, “get out of scary mamby pamby land” and make a decision that will change your future outcome.