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It's a question of degree also. A small business may not be able to afford a full time X expert. Either at all because they are a small business. Or when X is n
by creer 2y ago
It's a question of degree also. A small business may not be able to afford a full time X expert. Either at all because they are a small business. Or when X is nowhere near their core activity. X might be mission critical but also not core. Perhaps a lawyer, perhaps a sysadmin, perhaps an architect, etc.
A good consultant is a part time adjunct who gives you the hints you need at a price you can afford and then gets out of the way.
I think the more frequent problem is that it's HARD for a small business to pick the right consultant. After that, it's hard to establish what is the right question (so that the answer has a chance to be the right answer.) And then it's hard to understand the answer.
Still a good idea simply because you can't afford "one of everything".
(And then there is the consultant as a justification for something that would be hard to accept otherwise.)
- dools 2y agoYes I agree, the types of experts I had in mind when writing this are technical reviews by subject matter experts such as fractional CTO/CFO type things, or security consultants to do penetration testing, design style guides by a highly paid, very experienced designer or sales training. I think the type of consultant people are thinking of in this comment thread are more like business coaches who say things like "vision, misssion, values" and then charge $10k. I'm not saying there aren't good business coaches and that there aren't shitty technical experts, I'm just stating what I think people are arguing against here (which is to say they are imagining the worst kind of consultant and then assuming that's the only thing available).