Hiring a Consultant

Why hire a consultant?

Many business owners, executives and managers don't understand the purpose and benefit to hiring consultants. While consulting is like any other business in that there are good and bad performers among them, when you hire a good one it can offer many benefits to your business.

This section is to help you see some of the many reasons to consider hiring a consultant.

For companies seeking to solve problems and improve business a consultant can provide a fresh perspective on the issues you face.  Albert Einstein said, "We can't solve our problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." There's a lot of wisdom in that. G. R. Johnson said, "A smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others." Are you being held back because the only perspective you have in your business is from the inside? Are you finding that your company makes the same mistakes over and over again? This is one important area where a consultant can help your business.

Regardless of business size, the need for a consultant is often greater than realized.

More and more start-ups and small businesses are finding what large companies have known for years; there is great value in consultants to help them be more effective in their business.

The advantage of hiring a consultant is multifold:

1.) A consultant has fresh perspective when looking at your situation. Often they can see things that you will miss. This can be very effective for any business. Whether you are seeking growth, you are a start-up operation, or you have a turnaround situation consultants can see where changes or improvements are needed that may not be obvious to you.

2.) Fast learning curve is another benefit a consultant brings. Because they are specialists, consultants enable companies to bring in someone who already knows how to deal with a variety of situations. Their time to come up to speed is much faster than hiring a new employee or trying to learn it yourself. Consultants are usually available to start assignments rapidly. This provides you the ability to take advantage of attractive opportunities without the delays and additional costs of hiring your own people.

3.) Hiring consultants provides the additional advantage of lower employer costs. For start-ups and young businesses hiring new employees brings potential risk of over staffing and additional permanent costs. Using consultants reduces this as they can work on flexible contracts, enabling the company to control costs and have greater control of budgets. They do not have the many hidden costs of employees. While their daily or hourly rate is higher than employees, you do not pay benefit costs, taxes, holiday pay, etc. And being non-permanent there isn't the problem of having to deal with layoffs when they are done.

4.)  A common problem faced by many start-ups, small businesses, and companies of all sizes in difficult situations is the inability to attract the best talent. Consultants are experienced managers and "heavy hitters" with a strong track record. They bring immediate expertise and focus. For many businesses, a good strategy is to access the best talent through hiring consultants and then transfer skills to an in-house team at a later date. Consultants can even help train that team when the time comes.

In most situations hiring consultants can be an attractive strategy to support growth and solve problems.

From start-ups to large corporations, small business, and entrepreneurs, companies of all sizes are finding that consultants provide fast and flexible access to the best talent without the hidden costs and risk of recruiting, training and managing their own people.

There are a lot of management consultants out there. Some are fairly competent. But few have the background, the down in the trenches and walked in your shoes experience to know what you face and how you feel. Few have put themselves at risk not once, but over and over again throughout their career and struggled through to success. But at G. R. Johnson & Son we've done what few have done. We've lived it. We've been where you are. We can empathize with your circumstances because we've been there.

Most consultants are doing the same things today they were a few years ago. And with the markets what they are we know that that really doesn't work. Most haven't been trained in or don't have knowledge of what businesses did during the time of the greatest economic downturn in our nation's history, the Great Depression of the 1930s.

At G. R. Johnson & Son Consulting, L. L. C. we have the knowledge and expertise needed to chart a successful course through tough economic times. G. R. Johnson lived and worked through the Great Depression of the 1930's. The lessons he learned during that time and as an officer in the U. S. Army Air Corps in World War II were foundational in his development as a businessman. Those experiences were the foundation from which he built his remarkable business career after the war. He was driven in business and was able to retire before age 40 after building a successful business. But he loved business and re-entered the business world while raising and training his son, Doug, in the same expertise he had developed in his career.

Those companies that survived and thrived in the Great Depression were the ones who had become household names during the American Industrial Revolution. The principles that took them from small, struggling businesses and made them household names became the same principles that not only saved them, but caused them to prosper during the Great Depression. It was a focus on basics. Basic principles that are long forgotten by many today.

In the last few decades American business has found it easier than ever to succeed. The growth of business in America was on a train ride to the top. It had become much easier to succeed in business than it was before World War II. This ease of success caused many businesses to abandon basic principles of success. In fact, most businesses never learned them. They had started in business during the time of economic prosperity in the U.S. that was second to none in history. Success came without the knowledge that was foundational to the success of older, classic success stories that had been through the hard times of the past.

G . R. Johnson & Son Consulting, L.L.C. returns businesses to the classic, professional methods that turned businesses into household names during the Great American Industrial Revolution. Those are the same processes that gave them the ability to succeed through the toughest economic times in American history, the Great Depression of the 1930s. The result is long term success, long lasting customer relationships, and business built on satisfied customers and referrals.

Whether you have been in business successfully for many years, are just starting a business, are doing well or struggling to survive, G. R. Johnson & Son Consulting, L.L.C. can work with you to improve your business.