A business consultant works with companies to review practices like sales, marketing, finance, and provide recommendations for improvements. Consultants bring expertise and experience to help analyze problems and develop improvement plans. They can help businesses gain an outside perspective, get objective advice, and tap into specialized knowledge. Consultants also transfer insights from other industries. Small business consultants focus on helping smaller companies improve operations in areas like sales and marketing to make the business stronger by identifying opportunities and solutions.

1. THE BITTER BUSINESS
Business Consultant
What does a business consultant do?
A business consultant works with a company or small business to review the
existing practices in the areas of sales, marketing, product or finance amongst
others and then to work with the management to make recommendations for
improvements. Most business consultants specialise in one or two areas of
business management, such as sales. For example, a software company might
hire a sales and marketing consultant to help develop its market reach or
customer acquisition strategy.
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A business consultant brings expertise, experience and knowledge to help a
company improve performance metrics or key performance indicators through the
thorough analysis of existing business problems. The business consultants then
develop plans for improvement alongside the management team. A business
may consider engaging the hire the services of a business consultant for a
number of reasons, for example, to get an external view on the business, to
receive objective advice and recommendations, to tap into the business
consultants expertise, or even as a temporary resource to help with aspects of
the business where hiring a permanent employee is not needed.

2. A business should expect due to the business consultants relationships with
numerous markets and industries, the consultant can transfer knowledge and
insights that will be beneficial to the company’s growth or profitability. A
consultant may also provide organisational change assistance to upskill existing
staff, coaching to staff, business strategy development, or improvement services
in a department. A business consultant usually brings methodologies, templates
and frameworks to uncover the identification of opportunities and then to act as
the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing
the business task.
The term “Business Consulting” is overused and can refer to a very broad range
of services. There are numerous areas of specialisation with business
consulting, in the area of IT (information technology) consulting, HR (human
resource) consulting, Sales (sales and business development) consulting and
others, many of which overlap like marketing. Business consultants range from
the large diversified consultancy companies offering multiple services right down
to owner run 'boutique' consultancies which specialise in one or a few of areas.
The work of business consultants is also becoming more popular in non-business
related organisations as well. As the need for professional advice and specialised
knowledge grows, other industries such as government agencies, charities,
universities, and other not-for-profit agencies are now turning to consultants to
uncover opportunities that have helped private industry for years.
A small business consultant such as The Bitter Business will focus on helping
smaller business and growth focused companies to improve their operations in
sales, marketing and go-to-market strategy. While a consultant may specialise in
a specific area they usually have insights in all areas of the business functions.
The overall goal of a consultant to the smaller business is to help make the
business stronger through identifying opportunities, addressing problems and
recommending solutions for implementation.
The practical role of a small business consultant involves communicating with
management and staff, reviewing strategy and process, watching the day-to-day

3. business activities to understand what problems exist and why they exist. The
small business consultant will work with the business owner or team to create
viable solutions to problems, use analysis and research to present findings to the
business owner. Also the consultant should be hands on, has the business skill to
work closely with all the business stakeholders and staff to gather information
which will be used to assess what changes need to take place to improve
business performance, improve the business results and reach set goals. Once
the gathering and analysing of information is complete, the consultant may
develop the actual plans for the business detailing resources, actions and
programs to be put in place
Some of the common business consultant’s tasks are:
Analyse and evaluate the business performance against competitors and within
the market.
Recommend strategies and tactics to increase business opportunities.
Create action plans and identify gaps in the business model.
Identify and implement business actions.
Conduct market research and information gathering.
Document findings and then present findings together with options.
Identify business requirements, resources, partners, channels, and routes to
market.
Perform sales and marketing analyses and make reports.
Drive process improvements and efficiencies in sales, business development or
marketing.
Implement plans while evaluating the business prospects, goals and objectives
for growth.
A business should not wait until it has problems to engage with a business
consultant; rather use their knowledge as an external lever to uncover how to
make a business better and more successful.
Regards
Brian

4. The Bitter Business
http://thebitterbusiness.com/