FAQ: Why Would Sizeable Companies With Sizeable Problems Choose A Solo Consultant, Like You?

Business owners are entrepreneurs by default. They are surrounded by employees all day. When they have problems, they want to discuss them with other entrepreneurs not with employees.

Solo professionals are entrepreneurs. Representatives of consulting firms are employees on safe and secure paycheques, benefits, paid vacations, expense accounts, etc. Even the consultants from McKinsey or KPMG.

Do you have all that? If do, who has given it to you. No one. You've got it for yourself.

That's all the difference.

Employees can't think in the same dimensions as entrepreneurs. They have different goals, and drastically different challenges.

A McKinsey consultant with a secure job and paycheque can't understand what his client is going through when a bank loan request is turned down or when the IT system is hacked and the whole customer database is stolen then deleted.

In the movie Rules of Engagement, Col. Terry L. Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) asks his former Vietnam comrade-in-arms, now lawyer, Col. Hayes 'Hodge' Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones) to defend him in a nasty court martial case that could break his Marine career.

Childers is accused of mass-murdering innocent civilians to defend the US embassy in a third world country. Upon asking Hodge to defend Childers, Hodge responded.

"I'm a pretty weak lawyer. For this case you need someone much better than me."

And here comes Childers' profound response...

"There may be better lawyers, but you know combat is. You've been shot at. That's what counts."

A McKinsey or KPMG consultant with a Harvard MBA may have more classroom stuff buzzing inside his head than a street-smart solo consultant, but he doesn't have the business owner's mindset and the perspective.

And while he can talk to business owners as an highly schooled egghead, he can never do that as a peer. He may know business owners' frustrations from books and the classroom, but he doesn't understand them because he's never experienced them. And he's never lived the entrepreneur's life.

In the words of Canadian author, businessman and motivational speaker, T. Harv Eker...

"You may have heard it, dreamt it or read about it, but you know it if and only if you live it."

That's why the typical employee's mindset has as much to do with the entrepreneur's mindset as the Salvation Army has to do with the military. All in all, nothing. Not a sausage.

So, here are just some of the reasons why you may well be better off with a solo professional.

1. You always deal with the top decision-maker. There is a great added benefit for you by having instant access to the "mahatma" of the firm, the person who can make decisions and take immediate action to assist you. With large firms you can end up fighting and army of junior staff and the corporate voice mail system, and hoping to get your call returned some day.


2. A one-person show is more responsive. According to surveys, there is an exponential relationship between the size of the firm and its responsiveness. That is, a solo practitioner can be as much as 16 times more responsive, flexible and agile than a firm of four people. There may be strength in numbers but let's not confuse consulting with cattle-farming where headcount is the true indicator of success.



3. You invest in your desired results, not in number of dispensed hours or poundage of deliverables. Unlike most large firms that sell you time units, I assist you to achieve certain jointly determined objectives regardless of time or deliverables. You always know exactly how much to invest, what the projected return on your investment is and have no surprises.


4. Since my overhead is very low, my fees reflect that, and they are not inflated by huge expenses and internal inefficiencies. My fees reflect my contribution to the value you derive from my help and support, so you obtain exceptional return on investment and I am equitably compensated. That's how true collaborators work together. You are also free of subsidising scores of branding and advertising campaigns, company cars, expense accounts, and vast obscure assistance entities.


5. My approaches are highly customised to your specific needs and are flexible. While many large firms with junior staff and trainees often use "cookie cutter" methods and "proprietary" systems, (Problem #123 is solved with Solution #123 as described in our proprietary solution manual), our methodologies are the result of a detailed collaborative objective development process, and solutions are based on your objectives with your full involvement.


6. There are no conflicts of interest and priorities with dozens of other clients. I only take a few clients at a time, so my attention is better focused on your results. Also, there is no chance of competitive clients, and I can guarantee you that I will NOT take on your direct competitor, avoiding the discomfort of having completely separate teams working on your accounts.


7. You don't pay me to learn the consulting business at your expense. I never use junior partners, freshly minted MBAs, interns or other academic theorists. While many large firms descend down on you with a herd of junior staff, hoping to rev up billable hours, when I use external help, I will use other seasoned professionals who have proved themselves in the trenches. However, for the sake of skill transfer, I prefer to use your people, as much as possible, so they sustain the improvement all by themselves.


8. I can sign non-disclosure, non-compete and other documents if you wish so. Since you are dealing with only one person plus your own people, confidentiality is further enhanced.


9. Your extra expenses will be less. My travel, administrative, and support expenses are small, because fewer external people work on your project.


10. I need you as much as you need me. Each of my clients is highly important to me. I can't afford to have poor relationships or ill-conceived projects. It is either a truly collaborative, win/win effort or no deal.


11. It is about value and results, not quantity and size. From your standpoint it is the outcomes that are important, not the alternatives. I will be least disruptive to your ongoing operations while obtaining the exact same project results.


12. I have local community relations. I have to live with the results I have been involved in even after the engagement is completed. This is another incentive for me to do a magnificent job on each project I am engaged in.


13. I have access to great talents for specific projects. Unlike large firms, I am not restricted to using whoever happens to be available within the firm.


14. You get a personal advisor not merely a momentarily available account executive. Large firms allocate talents according to the size and profitability of their projects. For large - mainly government - projects, they allocate their top tier talents. If you have a smaller project in the lower revenue range, all you'll get is a greenhorn MBA or other freshly-minted business graduates. Can you really risk your money on a newcomer who has just started learning real-world business... on your dime?


15. We both are paddling in the same boat. Just like you, I too am an entrepreneur, not a salaried employee with additional company perks and benefits. If we don't make things happen, we both starve to death. No one will give us paycheques. How could you expect employees from large firms to understand what you go through as an entrepreneur? You have the spine, guts and balls to run your own business. They don't. And while they know how to be great employees, from your entrepreneurial perspective it is just useful as a cat flap on the elephant house.

Size doesn't really matter, only improvement in your busirness. A small, agile, innovative and flexible "boutique" firm with a healthy dose of "get shit done " attitude can be more advantageous to your progress and prosperity than an oversized, top-heavy, "reputable" behemoth, riddled with internal politics, heavy-handedness and an army of business graduates being keen on learning the trade on your dime, eating up a fair chunk of your budget before they can contribute even the value of a ham sandwich.

Remember that David killed Goliath with a small pebble. A tiny 45-lb wolverine can make the mighty 1,000-lb grizzly bear run for his life while hysterically screaming for his mother?

Business development is not about size but intellectual firepower. So never mind the size. Focus on the intellectual strength and power you gain.

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