First Step:  Decide whether you need a consultancy or not

To decide whether it’s appropriate to engage with a
consultancy or not, consider the following:

What is the need or problem you want to address and why do
you think this need or problem exists? Will it be solved by
this intervention or will the underlying issue still exist?
What skills are you looking for?  What value might a
consultancy bring to your business? What risks are there to
your business in using an outsourced resource?

Second Step:  Draw up the initial brief

Once you’ve convinced yourself and the business that it is
appropriate to engage a consultancy, draw up a brief. Your
brief should be jargon free and contain:

1. A summary description of your organization:  its purpose
and values, what it does, its size and structure

2. The need or problem and why you think this problem exists

3. What you want the consultancy to deliver in terms of
outputs and deliverables

4. What role you want the consultant to play

5. Who will be managing the role of the consultants and
what reporting you expect to take place – weekly, monthly
etc

6. A provisional budget.  To decide on a budget think about
the impact of the problem and potential value of the
solution.  Basing buying decisions purely on cost is not
always effective.  An hourly or daily rate will not tell
you the whole story – a consultant with a high hourly rate
may produce value faster than one with a lower price.  In
addition, experience suggests that if you force consultants
to quote daily rates they will charge you for every single
project meeting, conversation or journey.  An overall
project fee may provide the basis for a more productive and
flexible working relationship.

7. A description of the kind of person(s) you want to
engage:  their skills, experience and skill set.  Industry
experience can be a massive plus factor but you have to
trade this off against the actual project demands that may
not be industry specific.  A specialist software consultant
may be more suitable for a software project in the oil and
gas industry than an oil and gas specialist.

8. Timetable for the work

Third Step:  The Pitch

After shortlisting your potential suppliers you will want
to meet them face to face.

During the pitch don’t be impressed by techno babble. 
Attempts to impress you with an extensive list of acronyms
and niche industry speak often hides a superficial
understanding of the real issues to be addressed.  Instead,
look for a company that listens to you and makes a
presentation or pitch that is both specific and sympathetic
with your company’s objectives, not just one where they
have performed a “find and replace company name” from a
previous document.

Assess the individual and the consultancy.  Remember big
consulting companies are not always the best in every
situation.  Larger companies can lack flexibility in both
internal processes and the way they handle clients.  Larger
companies also have costly head office functions to support
- these costs will be passed on to you through higher fee
rates.

Boutique or niche consultancies can provide specialist
advice in a particular expertise area.  They can be more
cost effective than larger consultancies.  The disadvantage
is that they may not have the breadth of experience in
house to service a large scale change project.  The same
applies for one man bands.

Fourth Step:  Reference Checking

Your original brief gives the basis for assessing which
consultancy you should hire.  When deciding who to work
with review your personal contact through phone calls,
meetings; written information such as research reports,
websites, CVs and the written proposal; and references or
recommendations from other people.

Fifth Step:  Contracting

Your fifth and final engagement step involves drafting a
formal contract which should include:
- The work to be done

- The person(s) who will be delivering the work

- The person who is the lead contact in the organization

- The timescale and deadlines for the stages, if relevant

- The fees to be paid and the schedule of payments

- What expenses will be charged for, and at what rate

- Whether VAT is charged and on what

- Any required insurances (such as professional indemnity
insurance)

- The work to be done by your organization eg arranging
meetings, room hire

- Copyright of written and other creative materials (unless
agreed otherwise, copyright belongs to the creator, ie to
the consultant/trainer)

- How and when the work will be reviewed and what will
happen if either party is dissatisfied

—————————————————-
Pam Kennett is Founder and Director of Chiswick Consulting
Limited a management consultancy which provides advice and
direction to clients in marketing and human resources. Pam
has been a management consultant for more than 15 years.
Contact her at pam@chiswickconsulting.com or visit
http://www.chiswickconsulting.com .

It’s a big question. Without the right support and
education, everything you’re working for can fall apart.
But, the wrong support can be expensive, time-consuming and
overwhelming. The first stage of growth: the world of
education.

When you walk a spiritual path, there are different stages
that a murid (‘murid’ is a Sufi word for spiritual student)
goes through.

In the beginning of spiritual walking, there is a lot of
foundational work that is done, learning about your ego and
the tricks it plays, as well as learning the basic
practices that help to control and clean the ego, such as
prayers, chants, movements, fasting, etc.

In your business, when you are learning something new,
there is a lot of terrain to cover. Foundational nuts and
bolts knowledge, and learning basic practices that help
your business to thrive, and not run rampant in all
directions, scattering your energy and efforts.

The second stage of growth: the world of light.

There comes a time in the spiritual life of the murid when
the nuts and bolts are in place, and the heart has been
emptied enough to be able to contain the light and knowing
of the Divine Presence.

And, in your business, when it is solid enough to stand on
its own two feet, when it is a thriving creature, there
comes a time when it can also contain a deeper presence.
You don’t exactly break the rules of business, but you play
with them and around them, like jazz plays with the musical
scales.

You always have to honor your foundational roots, but the
fluidity of the light invigorates the whole with a Presence
that goes beyond formula.

For one: groups. For the second: solitude.

After several years of working with hundreds of business
owners, I’ve found that for the vast majority of people,
the first stage is best done in a group. The feedback from
many different people, the companionship of others in a
similar place, the foundational nature of the knowledge
being learned all adds to the momentum of the group and
each individual within the group.

In any pilgrimage, you can only be accompanied so far. In
the spiritual journey there comes a time when you must
travel mostly alone. There is a profound surrender that is
needed and you can’t take refuge with companions, but
simply work intimately with a very knowledgeable guide.

Similarly, in your business, there will come a time to work
with a mentor, a coach, someone who can guide you. Since
you’re trying to create a thriving business, and not
necessarily going for enlightenment, you don’t have to wait
forever before you are ready for this stage.

It will come, sooner than you think. But, how can you tell
which stage you are in, if it will be more helpful to be in
a group or working one-on-one?

Ahhh… grasshopper. Let me share what I know.

Keys to being a business student

* Don’t let experience blind you.

If you are ambitious, a quick learner, or if you’ve had a
lot of experience with other subjects, you may be tempted
to jump directly into graduate-level learning by hiring an
expensive coach, or taking some advanced, comprehensive,
in-depth class. Don’t do this.

If you don’t know enough about the subject, whether it’s
marketing, financial management, or website construction,
to feel confident teaching a beginner’s class, then allow
yourself the freedom of being the beginner.

In this case, you are going to be better off reading books
and articles, listening to audio, attending teleclasses and
talks. Get as much information as you can. Learn the
terrain before you commit yourself too deeply.

* Don’t go it alone.

Form a study group for yourself. I’ve long been an advocate
of mastermind groups, and this is a perfect example of how
a no-cost peer study group can help you practice,
implement, and work with what you are learning at the
beginner level.

* Learning requires knowledgeable feedback.

One of the dangers of learning on your own is that it’s
easy to take on a misunderstanding early in the process,
and then build all of your later learning on that
misunderstanding. Not a very stable foundation.

You can avoid this by augmenting your peer-supported
learning through taking courses and joining forums where
people you respect and can learn from are available. This
will help give you crucial guidance as you put together
what you need to learn.

* Bumping your head against a ceiling?

Hey, the terrain is feeling familiar. You know the ins and
outs of your business, and you are getting some consistent
results. Now, your choices expand.

If you enjoy working in groups, you can continue by taking
advanced small-group courses. But, the time is probably
drawing near when you could really use a mentor, a coach, a
guide.

Someone who can connect with you personally, and challenge
you beyond your complacencies. Who gets to know you well
enough to point out blind spots. Who can help you with the
profound transformation that comes when you expand into
your greatness while supporting a deeper surrender into
your humility.

Remember the first world of education where your business
can find stability with the nuts and bolts. And THEN you
can proceed into the second world of light, where you can
find guidance to move into the humility of your business’
greatness.

—————————————————-
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your
Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your
Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line.
He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the
globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get
three free chapters of the book online:
http://www.heartofbusiness.com .

Texas. A place where 31% of the population is Hispanic. A friend approached me one day with an interesting communication case:  
 
As a Real Estate manager, he is fluent in Spanish but the Hispanics in his county speak a particular dialect of Spanish…Tex-Mex. He does not understand Tex-Mex very well. The only way to communicate with his Hispanic clients and workers is in “broken” English. 
 
The difficulty is that the English he uses has Texan slang and complicated sentence constructions. For example, he would say to a worker, “Y’all work’in in that house over yonder?” To a client, he would say, “The estimated property value according to the Hall county appraisal district for this house is $39,500.” 
 
Say what?! What did he say? 
 
For a non-native speaker, if you remove the slang and use clear English the sentences are easier to understand: Are you working in that house (you show the house with your hand)? The price of this house is $39,500 (you write the price on a piece of paper and show it to the Hispanic client). 
 
Visual aids are vital in this communication case. Use paper and write important information. For example, show numbers and words. Images are also important to use. Take photos from magazines to help communicate words. Those are two examples of creative solutions that you can use to manage difficult situations.

Creativity is a necessary element of effective communication. When a non-native English speaker does not understand, the message or idea could be lost in frustration. In an ineffective communication exchange, the communicator (native English speaker) typically loses patience and the receiver (non-native speaker) may be afraid to ask for repetition and clarification.

If a communicator uses creativity as a communication tool, the chances for success are greater. 
 
Less frustration. More success.

Terry Kaufman is an English Communications Consultant.  Y.E.S. gives native English speakers effective communication skills that are vital when communicating with their non-native English speaking counterparts.  http://www.your-english-solutions.com/