Consulting is a term used when expertise, education, certification, including a work history has been established. This term can accommodate all jobs and all areas of expertise can be found. Consulting jobs may be jobs for large multinational company or they can be acquired for a small boutique company. For example, financial institution may require a consultant for a specific task on an economic issue in a specific geographical area. Therefore a specialist in that field and in that part of the market would be hired. Thus consulting cannot be summarized as to a particular set of jobs. The depth of this word would be well understood in the following paragraphs where a number of types of consultancy jobs have been discussed.
We can say that consulting can be categorized types of business: - Research — Marketing — Computing - Financial Planning — Advisory — Training - Business Review - Strategic Planning - Business Planning - New Technology - Software Development, etc. This does not mean that it has to be limited to those mentioned; it may be possible for a consultant to work for a large firm on a specific problem. Their expertise will be focused to the task and they will do the job without input from the client. Their job and position with the company may be for one task or a multitude of tasks. For example it may be concerning a certain product that needs a new launch. Once the Marketing professional has done all research, they will advise the client based on all analytical or focus groups results they acquired. In whatever capacity they are used, they will have access to all employees on the project to viewing all previous launches by company to addressing previous problems encountered on other launches.
Where to find a Consultant can be challenging. Most businesses will ask their employees or business associates. Their experience will often be based on performance and availability of that Consultant. Therefore having a good relationship with a potential client will help the Consultant acquire new business. The Internet is another good place to find a consultant. Most will have various links to on-going projects or finished projects they have accomplished. Some Technical Schools or Educational Institutions may have a Consultancy department where they can suggest and offer several names from their roster.
In order to find the right consultant as a client they should: write an RFP (request for proposal). This is how a client outlines specific tasks that are needed, such as budgets, time lines, methods needed, and access in order to answer any questions they may have. The more clarity the client can give the better the results will be. Most companies already have RFP’s ready, however, as a Consultant it is best to have a ''questionnaire'' in case the client doesn’t have one. The more knowledge that a Consultant has of the job requirements the easier and faster the project will be completed.
