Retaining An Expert -- What Every Business Owner Needs To Know

As an entrepreneur, hiring an expert can be one of the most efficient ways to turbo-charge your business. However, thousands of consultants flood the Information Highway, and each one promises to positively impact your bottom line. How do you know which expert has the right combination of smarts, skills, experience and personality to move your company in the right direction?

It's no small feat to allow a consultant to make decisions on your behalf. Empowering a consultant to advise changes can bring up feelings of doubt and fear. To help you choose the right expert for you, here are 6 cautionary tips from Kathy Szpakowski, founder of KBS Group, one of the country's most successful, organizational development consulting companies:

1. Make sure the expert has a proven track record for delivering on their promises. Visit the consultant's web site and check on their references.

2. Pay attention to the expert's commentary after you've stated your vision. Do you feel understood? Does he or she "get" it, or do you feel like you need to keep on explaining? If, during the initial conversation stage or in the project outline stage you feel your vision is not completely understood or that there are areas being overlooked or under-valued, consider finding another expert who is more in alignment with your point of view.

3. Observe if the expert incorporates your thoughts and ideas into the conversation. Do you feel a sense of collaboration or do you feel shot down? While working with an expert, there will be times where you might take his or her well-substantiated advice and whole-heartedly agree with certain recommendations, while at other times, you might mildly agree or not agree at all. Based on your discussion, get a sense as to whether this person will be open to a collaborative arrangement, or might be intolerant of feedback or suggestions.

4. Assess if the expert understands the term 'within budget.' Rather than have an expert initially tell you all of the wonderful things they can do for you, then fall over from the sticker shock when you receive their proposal and their terms, tell them the budget you need to stay within. A consultant should not be writing from your checkbook. What is important is your budget; not their price.

5. Agree to a mutually acceptable time frame. In order to ensure that the two of you are on the same page, establish timelines to determine when you want to get started, as well as how long it will take before you can expect to receive recommendations, implement the recommendations, and see results. Make sure there is also a way to measure the results.

6. Trust your instincts. Believe in your intuition. If your instincts and experience in your business tells you to go in a different direction, do it. If you don't feel 100% committed to the recommendations, or have a 'gut feeling' that you and the expert are not on the same page ? Stop. Ignoring these feelings and going along with any recommendations that you are not committed to, or are convinced will not work, will only make you right ? they won't.

A word of caution: after a positive experience with one expert, entrepreneurs often have a tendency to get lax when evaluating additional experts to assist in other areas of their business. When talking with other experts, it can be easy to fail to completely communicate one's vision, the importance of integrating one's ideas, the necessity to stay within budget and on schedule, and the absolute need to know that your new expert 'gets it!"

Hiring the right expert can be a huge asset to your business, however, you are the only one who will know which expert is ultimately right for you. By applying the advice from the tips above, you can minimize your doubts and fears, as well as create a strategy to find an expert who can truly help you maximize your growth.

Kathy Szpakowski has 25 years of professional experience in sales, marketing, training, organizational and personal development. She is the founder of KBS Group and the creator of "Performance Management Plus" a turnkey solution that has helped entrepreneurs achieve phenomenal results worldwide. www.BetheBest-KBSgroup.com.

Kathy Szpakowski has 25 years of professional experience in sales, marketing, training, organizational and personal development. She is the founder of KBS Group and the creator of "Performance Management Plus" a turnkey solution that has helped entrepreneurs achieve phenomenal results worldwide. http://www.BetheBest-KBSgroup.com

In The News:

---

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: What Brokers Should Know Before They Go
CNNMoney.com - 2 hours ago
( Kristen McNamara writes Practice Management, a column that looks at ways financial advisers can build and improve their business. ...

MedaSorb Technologies Corporation Announces Management Changes
CNNMoney.com - 1 hour ago
These statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are naturally subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. ...

HE-5 Resources, Corp. Announces Reorganizational Changes Are ...
CNNMoney.com - 5 hours ago
New Management stated the following: "We are very pleased to begin our new operations and to share our visions and exclusive development program whit HE-5 ...

Reuters
Lehman Private-Equity Arm Gains New Investment
Wall Street Journal - 20 hours ago
The business has $4.5 billion under management, and holds stakes in more than a dozen portfolio companies including a Spanish railcar manufacturer to a US ...
Lehman Deal Spins Off Part of Private Equity Unit Into Independent ... New York Times
Lehman deal on private equity close Reuters
Lehman Said to Be in Talks to Sell Fund to Managers, Reinet Bloomberg
FINalternatives - RTT Newsall 112 news articles

National Post
Management Consulting in the Government?
Newsweek - Jan 8, 2009
In the world of management consulting, high-powered and often expensive contractors infiltrate all levels of a company to determine how it can run more ...
Chief Performance Officer: Nancy Killefer TIME
Obama Appoints Government Performance Officer Washington Post
Obama's performance czar has tried to improve IRS The Associated Press
CFO.com Magazine - GovExec.comall 487 news articles

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold Network Management Gives Back in 2009
MSNBC - 10 hours ago
LEXINGTON, MA - Ipswitch, Inc.'s Network Management division, the leading developer of affordable and easy to use network management software, WhatsUp Gold, ...

Amazon’s New Management Console Treads Lightly
GigaOm, CA - 1 hour ago
Today, Amazon ( s AMZN) Web Services announced a management console that illustrates how carefully Amazon is playing its role as a platform provider. ...
Amazon Web Services Launches Management Console CMSWire
Amazon Web Services releases web-based EC2 console CNET News
Amazon EC2 launches Web-based management console Examiner.com
ReadWriteWeb - PC Worldall 27 news articles

Peregrine management drops buyout plan, shares fall
Reuters - 7 hours ago
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 9 (Reuters) - South African wealth and asset management firm Peregrine Holdings Limited (PGRJ.J) said on Friday a management buyout plan ...

University of California regents may freeze management pay
Bizjournals.com, NC - 3 hours ago
A pay freeze for senior management of the University of California system will be considered by the UC Board of Regents during a Jan. 14 teleconference. ...

JPMorgan Asset Management's Bull SA Stake Falls To 1.72%
CNNMoney.com - 3 hours ago
PARIS -(Dow Jones)- JPMorgan Asset Management's stake in French IT company Bull SA (BULL.FR) has fallen through the 5% threshold to 1.72%, according to a ...

management - Google News

Effective Meetings by Phone - Part 2, How to Hold a Teleconference

Even a well-planned teleconference can go poorly. Some people treat any meeting as a casual social activity instead of as a serious business project. And a teleconference... Read More

Money, Motivation, Success and Who?

It was 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and I was setting up to do the opening keynote for the conference. For some reason--I have no idea why--the... Read More

Survival of the Fittest: The Road to Human Extinction

I was watching a TV program some months ago about a biologist working in Central America who was dedicated to protecting the panther species from extinction. During... Read More

Creativity Management ? Quality from Quantity

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this... Read More

Unravelling the Data Mining Mystery - The Key to Dramatically Higher Profits

Data mining is the art of extracting nuggets of gold from a set of seeminngly meaningless and random data. For the web, this data can be in... Read More

Bye-Bye Boring Meetings! Make Yours Remarkable!

It's the middle of the night. You've woken up with a brilliant idea on how to improve the way your business product is delivered to your customers.... Read More

Stopping The Brain Drain: How To Capture Key Business Knowledge Before It Walks Out The Door

The verdict is in: More and more baby boomers will be leaving the workplace sooner, rather than later. Many industries are predicting that between 25 and 45%... Read More

Managing Workplace Conflicts

Kinds of Workplace ConflictsLet's start by identifying where conflicts happen. Think about the kinds of conflicts that happen around your workplace.? Disagreements over turf (who should do... Read More

10 Steps Towards A Stress-Free Introduction Into Management

Becoming a manager for the first time can be an unnerving and sometimes stressful experience. In many cases, organisations expect you to immediately jump into the role... Read More

Directed Introspection

One of the greatest obstacles to progress can often be our awareness of past failures. If we tried something a couple of years ago and fell flat... Read More

How to Dodge Distribution Difficulties

It happened again. I ran into an old friend while registering for the World Masters Games last month and as we were catching up, she complemented me... Read More

Three Business Lessons From The US Postal Service

There was a buzz in the air recently about the US Postal Service. Seems as though they were running into a budget deficit in the billions.The Postal... Read More

Never Punish Yourself or Others for Failures

If you want to find success in various ramifications, be it in business or personal relationship, don't punish yourself or others for mistakes, or blunders, or failures,... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Training is in the Eye of the Beholder

This article relates to the Training competency, commonly evaluated in employee surveys. It comments on the value of training to both the company and its workforce. The... Read More

The Business Shaman: Exploring the Mystery of Success!

Note: This article was written for a internet business site. It is a promo for my work with the business world. I published it here for anyone... Read More

Avoid These Seven Deadly Dangers Of Outsourcing

Here are seven dangers of outsourcing your software development. They become deadly if your career or entire company depends on the timely release of your software.Danger #1-... Read More

Managing People - No More Mr Tough Guy

I believe the media and our culture sends the wrong messages about how to manage people and this makes it difficult for Business Owners and Managers.We've all... Read More

10 Fool Proof Ways To Intensify Your Profits

1. Create benefit intensifiers for your list of ad copy benefits. Example, The Benefit: "Save More Time", The Benefit's Intensifier: "Never Seen Before".2. Use a little humor... Read More

Selecting A Collection Agency

If you run a business, you are sure to have some customers who require a lot of follow-up before they pay you. Often you spend too much... Read More

Tales From the Corporate Frontlines: Team Dynamics and Communication

This article relates to the Team Dynamics competency, which evaluates interpersonal communication, cooperation, and productivity between members of a single team, group, or department within your organization.... Read More

Ringing Doorbells Without Howitzers

Many operations leaders have been there, done that with re-engineering. And they report, in effect, that the process is like ringing a doorbell with a howitzer shell.Reducing... Read More

Improved Communication to Improve Results

Facilitating good communication can make the difference between a well oiled, effective team and disorganization and ambiguity. By following the tips below, you, the supervisor, can take... Read More

Is Your Employee Newsletter Management Propaganda?

It should not be. If it is an effective newsletter, it will serve the needs of readers (employees) as much as it serves the needs of the... Read More

Catch Your Staff Doing Something Right

A long time ago, I learned something about being a manager that has proven to be one of the most valuable lessons I've ever heard.You can't manage... Read More

How To Delegate for Fun and Profit

Ah, the wretched pain of delegation. It comes easy to some people. But others ? you know who you are ? would rather undergo a double root... Read More

New Job, New Culture: Do You Fit In?

It seemed like a good decision at the time. A 10-percent raise, an easier commute and a chance to move up the corporate ladder.Now, six weeks into... Read More