How To Decide on An IT Consultant That Suits Your Company’s Needs

If you are planning to hire an IT consultant, you’ll want to understand that it’s not necessarily always an easy task figuring out the proper factors for selecting the best of the IT companies available. Additionally, you will find the process even more challenging if you’re not comfortable or informed about the technical element of your company. The following are some pointers that may help you choose the best company or individual that matches your company’s requirements.

1. By hiring an IT consultant that has a range of knowledge and product knowledge, it will be possible to save considerable time and money in the long run. You need to find out about the consultant’s expertise, and check references from a few of their particular current customers. Also try to find testimonials submitted on the internet. A good candidate should talk about diverse systems with you to your existing requirements and not merely recommend a single solution.

2. You need to look for someone who has a excellent operating expertise in systems integration. Take into account that the more systems applications you’ll be able to use in your company, the higher the risk is going to be of downtime that is caused by inconsistent systems. Each and every equipment or software addition or upgrade that has been added to your business computer system, must be able to operate correctly with the remainder of the system and be as seamless as possible.

3. The IT consultant that you choose should be able to provide you with scalable solutions. Regardless of what the present size of your enterprise is, at some point in the near future your It requirements are likely to increase, as the technical systems become more complex and sophisticated. The IT providers that you are researching must be able to handle your current IT demands, in addition to the future IT needs of your business.

4. You should also consider choosing round-the-clock availability. Despite the fact that your company might not be opened twenty-four hrs per day, 7 days per week, in the event that you decide on a service provider that provides 24/7 assistance, the alternative is always available to you when you decide that your company requires it. It really is to some degree comparable to insurance; you pray that you will never have to put it to use, but it is good to know that it’s there when and if you need it.

5. Finally, you need to hire an IT consultant that will be able to give your in-house staff some education. If you’re installing completely new systems or modernizing the present ones, your team should understand how to effectively use these systems. It can be quite expensive when your team has to understand the programs themselves in addition to performing their job duties; therefore, it is often be more cost-effective to employ an outside consultant that could train your staff for you.

With some bit of upfront homework and interviewing mentioned previously, you can outsource your information technology requirements and, in most cases, save a substantial amount of funds as opposed to what it really would cost to employ your own staff to complete exactly the same function.

Mastering the Management Consulting Project Timeline

A project timeline is a central component in any good project management strategy. But as many management consultants have learned the hard way, creating and sticking to a timeline is not as easy as it sounds. Depending on the type of consulting engagement, many project elements – from people to technology to operational and market factors — can generate unexpected complications and delays, quickly throwing a project off-track.

Regardless, a project timeline is an important early step in time management planning and a necessary project management tool for educating your client and keeping your project on schedule and on budget. Whatever your consulting project entails, a detailed timeline enables a management consultant to:

o Give your client prompt, accurate status reports regarding what tasks are completed, due or behind schedule;

o Track your progress toward project goals, and determine whether you’re coming out on-target or behind in terms of payment;

o Identify potential setbacks and resolve them before they cause delays;

o Alert your client earlier to any potential delays – before they put the project behind and create liability for you as a management consultant;

o Invoice your client as project milestones are attained; and

o Monitor how long project components actually take, so you can better estimate time required for future projects.

Developing timelines

At first, developing reliable timelines can be a challenge. If you’ve ever started a consulting project with a schedule in hand, only to encounter setbacks that push your project off-schedule, committing to a timeline may feel like an exercise in futility.

But even if your timeline is just a rough estimate, it is still a useful tool for time management planning. It gives your client a visual aid for understanding how the project will flow, and demonstrates that you have a clear vision of the steps that need to happen to achieve specific project milestones. And, it can protect you against management consulting liability by helping you educate your client about the impact of potential project delays that are beyond your control.

To begin, talk to your client to define the major project milestones that must be accomplished during the course of the project. Use these milestones as the building blocks of your project timeline. Then, consider the steps that must take place to get from point A to point B, C, D and so on – and the logical order in which each step must be completed.

Think about what task must be accomplished in order to begin the next. If multiple tasks can be accomplished at the same time, chart them in parallel. If completing one task involves multiple sub-tasks, it may need a small timeline of its own.

When estimating the necessary time to accomplish each step, talk to the people who will be involved, and realistically consider the amount of time each person can commit to the project. Clearly define any project components for which the client’s team members are responsible, and set deadlines for accomplishing those tasks. Involve the stakeholders in setting these dates, and gain their commitment that they can meet the deadlines.

As you continue to employ timelines to track your projects, it will become easier to create future project timelines. Continually tracking your progress against your timelines gives you historical project management data that will help you estimate the time required for future management consulting projects.

Sticking to Timelines

One way to help ensure that you stick to your timeline is to build in a little extra wiggle room. For example, you might decide to develop two timelines: one for your own use, with more optimistic deadlines, and another, with later deadlines that you share with your client. Then, when you hit your own internal deadlines, you actually come out ahead of schedule in the client’s eyes. This project management method helps compensate for less-than-perfect estimates and unexpected events.

Another project management technique is to simply build a little extra buffer time into your schedule – particularly in areas where you suspect that your assumptions and estimations could potentially be off.

If at any point you find yourself falling behind schedule, look at the tasks coming up, and see if there is any way to dedicate time or resources to them early, so that you can make up for lost time later in the project.

Creating a realistic schedule often means that committed delivery dates will land farther out than your client would prefer. However, a practical project timeline demonstrates that you’ve considered everything it will take to get the job done right, and makes it more likely that you’ll accomplish what you’ve committed to.

Stay Flexible

No matter how hard you try to keep a project on track, the fact is, there are situations when you’ll need to adapt your project timeline.

It usually happens when you or other team members run into something you didn’t expect, such as an insurmountable technical glitch, budget cuts, operational restructuring or personnel turnover. It can also happen when client priorities shift mid-stream due to changing marketplace conditions, or when the client realizes that what they’ve asked for represents just a small part of a larger goal.

In these cases, you and all other project stakeholders must be willing alter your expectations and commitments. As the management consultant, consider the impact the changes will have on the time required to accomplish the project’s goals, and adapt your timeline accordingly. Any time you make a change, be sure to promptly inform everyone involved in the project of what has changed, and why.

By creating a realistic project timeline, and tracking progress against it as part of an overall project management strategy, you’re more likely to keep your management consulting project on-time and on-budget. Even if you fall behind, a timeline gives you a convenient and impressive tool for keeping your client informed of progress and the reasons for any delays. And an educated and informed client is more likely to be a loyal client.

India witnesses World’s largest Solar Plant by Adani Green Energy

India witnesses World’s largest Solar Plant by Adani Green Energy

Renewable India

India witnesses World’s largest Solar Plant by Adani Green Energy

Where is the biggest solar power plant located in India
This solar power plant in India is set up at Kumuthi,Guest Posting Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, it is ambitiously propelled by the government target to achieve 3,000 MW energy to suffice commercial and domestic energy demand in and around the state.

With an investment of Rs. 4,550 Cr, the company sourced the machinery and equipment from different parts of the world. Set up in record time of eight months only, the plant boasts of 8500 personnel who worked hard to achieve an installation of 11 MW each day. The company created at least 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs through this project.

Speaking on the achievement, Mr. Gautam Adani, Chairman of, Adani Group said, “This is a momentous occasion for the state of Tamil Nadu as well as the entire Country. We are extremely happy to dedicate this plant to the nation; a plant of this magnitude reinstates the Country’s ambitions of becoming one of the leading green energy producers in the World. I would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Hon’ble Chief Minister and the government of Tamil Nadu for their valuable support and guidance in achieving this gigantic feat”.

Source – Adani Green Energy

The business model of Adani Green Energy is focused on long-term contracts where they can build large projects at a faster pace with investment-grade counterparts. Since its public listing two years ago, the group has started fashioning solar development partnerships with big global giants where they pursue methods to reduce their carbon footprint. This largest solar plant is one of the colossal steps to strengthening this model.

Which is the largest solar power plant in India
This biggest Solar Power plant includes 25,00,000 solar modules, 576 inverters, 3,80,000 foundations, at least 6000 km cables length, 154 transformers, and 27,000 Mt of structure. Connected with the 400 KV substation of Tantransco, this 648 MW plant producing clean and green energy is the world’s largest Solar Plant at a single location. Adani group is revolutionizing not just the ecological system of India but is playing a major role in transforming how India will stand on the world map of Renewable Energy. Building Solar plants, Solar parks while boosting the country economically and ecologically, the company is creating a seamless manufacturing integration that will enhance the Solar-powered technological advancements.

How can Job Management Software benefit your company?

Job Management Software can be many things for many people, but to a business, it is one of the most beneficial tools to streamline every aspect of your operations.

Do you want to streamline your Workflow Management?

Job Management Software is perfect for any trade or field service business. The system is typically cloud-based,Guest Posting and it comes with a synchronised Mobile App that allows field service personnel to manage their tasks from the palm of their hands.

Why replace spreadsheets with Job Management Software?

Your service business can be profitable if you use technology. To manage their workloads and organise their jobs, several, if not all, businesses began by utilising spreadsheets. However, relying on spreadsheets to manage your business has proven an intimidating and time-consuming procedure over time. Why should your organisation continue to rely on an out-of-date program to operate?

Whether you’re in the plumbing, gas safety, cleaning, or heating sector, Job Management Software can help you grow. It’s software that can help you optimise your business operations and provide you with an advantage over your competition at a low cost.

This software can assist your team in becoming more productive and profitable and enhancing customer and employee happiness. Every part of your business, including leads, quotes, project scheduling, dispatching, managing suppliers and orders, billing, and dealing with clients, is all within your control with this system.

Let’s start by looking at how Job Management Software may benefit your business:

Manage Jobs in Seconds:

Track and manage jobs at a glimpse and have all the information about tasks in one location. Everything from your resources and time allocation to expenses and profitability can be tracked and controlled instantly with the system’s capacity to save every task detail.

Workflow transformation is possible with Job Management Software, providing informative insights on a wide range of company variables. The Mobile App records both workers’ time on the job and time travelling to and from their locations. Field employees use the app to update management on task progress, which keeps the system up to date and makes communication easier. It is possible for your field staff to make status updates while they are working, such as “accepted”, “on-route”, or “finished”.

Customers and field personnel can be notified about the status of an appointment by email or SMS. Paperwork is no longer required to record job times, and administration can go paperless completely. Human error can be reduced by using an online system because everything is captured digitally and saved safely in the cloud (the internet).

Complete jobs with ease:

On-site field workers can submit their completed work for approval immediately from their mobile devices. For example, they can send and receive messages with the Mobile App while also creating purchase orders for suppliers and contacting clients as needed.

The app gives users the ability to access and complete documents on the go. Paper documents can be uploaded, digitised, and attached to jobs by your team. With this functionality, technicians can access their compliance certifications from the app and complete them digitally on-site.

Job management software gives your mobile workforce the tools they need to execute tasks more quickly and efficiently.

Boost Productivity:

Administrators will save a significant amount of time thanks to the system’s numerous features and tools that make their job easier.

When your field workers use the app, they can do their work while not connected to the internet. It will also store all of their entered data locally until they can reconnect to the internet on their smartphone. The app will then re-sync with the system and update the employees’ job sheets.

By making scheduling easier and delivering a paperless job sheet solution in your hand, the app helps you become more productive. Smart devices, such as tablets and smartphones can be used for daily job administration.

The scheduling procedure is made so much easier with Job Management Software than with any other product available. Adopting a system that allows you scheduling flexibility, expedites job dispatch, and locates field personnel is now a must-have.

Geothermal Energy utilization in Indian context

Geothermal Energy utilization in Indian context

Renewable India Energy

Geothermal Energy utilization in Indian context

Geothermal Energy Introduction
Power plants convert the heat to electricity. Geothermal energy as the name suggests it is the heat energy from the earth that is being utilized for electricity generation or direct heating and cooling processes. This energy comes from the original formation of planet Earth & from the radioactive decay of materials. It is contained in the rocks and fluids beneath the earth’s crust and can be found deep at the earth’s hot molten rock called magma.

The difference in temperature between core of the planet (Approx. 4000 °C) & its surface,Guest Posting termed as Geothermal gradient which drives the conduction of the heat energy from the core to the surface of the planet earth. This high temperature and pressure in the earth’s interior causes some rock to melt and solid mantle to behave plastically and convecting upwards being lighter than surrounding rock.

A global perspective on Geothermal energy
To limit global temperature, rise to 1.5°C and bring CO2 emissions closer to net-zero by 2050, clean and sustainable energy technologies are to be prominently used. Geothermal has been a clean, environmentally friendly, sustainable, and expanding source of energy in recent years. These are usually located close to tectonically active regions in the earth’s crust. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), geothermal energy has grown steadily from around 10 GW globally in 2010 to 14 GW in 2020. The total installed capacity for geothermal direct heat utilization for heating/ cooling (excluding heat pumps) is around 23 GWth.

The first geothermally generated power was produced in Larderello in Italy in 1904. The world geothermal map as indicated in figure 2 shows that the United States is the largest producer of geothermal energy in the world followed by Indonesia.

During the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Paris, France, in December 2015, the Global Geothermal Alliance (GGA) was formed of which India is a member, to increase the use of geothermal energy, both in power generation and direct use of heat. India has set a target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022 majorly by solar and wind energy. Geothermal energy in India is still at a nascent stage given site-specific nature, risk, and uncertainties with exploration and high capital cost

India’s Perspective on Geothermal Energy
A ‘hot springs committee’ consisting of the National geophysical research institute (NGRI), Geological Survey of India, and Jadavpur University, Kolkata was formed in 1963 by the ministry of power and irrigation to explore the utilization of thermal springs in India commercially. In 1971, India sought assistance from the United Nations in preparation for the report on the geothermal resource development project, and the final project document was updated in 1973. After, 1973, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) with CSIR – National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) carried out a preliminary resource assessment for the exploration and utilization of geothermal resources.

There are about 300 thermal spring localities in India as per the Geological Survey of India (GSI) report 2002 and these localities were grouped into geothermal provinces having estimated potential to produce around 11 GW. Chief geothermal provinces in India are shown in figure 3 which includes the Himalayas, Naga-Lushai province, Sohana, West coast, Andaman-Nicobar Islands, Cambay, Son-Narmada-Tapi (SONATA), Godavari, and Mahanadi valleys.

In 2007, MOU between the Centre of Excellence for Geothermal energy (CEGE, Ahmedabad) India and Iceland geo survey (ISOR) Iceland took place for cooperation on geothermal development in India.

In 2015 MNRE launched a draft national policy on geothermal energy to establish India as a global leader in geothermal power by installing 1GW in the initial phase by 2022. After the Paris summit on climate change, India proposes to install 10 GW geothermal energy by 2030 through active international collaboration with the US, Philippines, Mexico, and New Zealand.

On 7Th Feb 2021, the Agreement for establishing India’s first-ever geothermal field development project was signed, a step towards the goal of carbon-neutral Ladakh and MOU was signed between union territory administration of Ladakh, Ladakh Autonomous hill development council (LAHDC), and Oil & Natural gas cooperation (ONGC) energy center. This project will put India on the geothermal power map of the world. Puga and Chhumathang in eastern Ladakh is the most promising geothermal field in India as per the GSI where the deepest borehole was drilled up to 385 m depth and 220 m depth respectively.

These geothermal provisions are classified as medium enthalpy (100 to 200 Deg C) and low enthalpy (less than 100 Deg C) geothermal systems depending on the temperature profiles. Puga and Chummathang in Ladakh and Tatapani in Chhattisgarh are medium enthalpy geothermal systems that can be used for power production. The utilization of geothermal energy depends on the quantity and quality of the fluid and its temperature and pressure. In Puga, Ladakh geothermal fluids are used for extraction and refinement of borax and sulfur along with experimental space heating for a long time through shallow wells drilled.

Recently, ONGC has planned Puga field development geothermal project in Ladakh in three phases. Phase-I involves exploratory-cum-production drilling of wells up to 500 metres depth and setting up of a Pilot Plant of up to 1 MW power capacity. Phase-II would involve deeper and lateral exploration of geothermal reservoir by drilling of optimal number of wells and setting up of a higher capacity Demo Plant and preparing a Detailed Project Report. Phase-III would involve commercial development of the geothermal plant.

Application routes of geothermal energy
The low-temperature heat energy from the earth crust can be utilized directly through direct heating and cooling of buildings, drying processes and industrial process heating applications whereas the high-temperature heat energy of about 150 Deg C can be used to generate the uninterrupted electricity.

Direct Exploitation

Provide heat for building.
Hot springs as Spa.
Heating water at fish farms.
Provide heat to industrial processes.
Raising plants in greenhouses, drying crops.
Indirect Exploitation

Electricity generation & heat recovery
Hot water or steam deep below the earth surface at high temperature are drilled out to obtain environmental friendly, continuous, carbon-free, uninterrupted clean energy in the geothermal power plants by the use of turbines, generators, and transformers as being done in conventional power plants.

Geothermal electric power generations can be classified into three types as shown in figure 6. Dry steam plants are the oldest form of geothermal technology and take the steam out of the ground through production well and use it to directly drive a turbine. It is used when high-temperature steam is available. Transportation, storage, and combustion of the fuel are eliminated leading to the least land footprint among various energy generation technologies. Flash steam plants use high-pressure hot water into cool, low-pressure water. Hot water flows up through the well in the ground under its own pressure. As it flows upwards, pressure is reduced and hot water boils into steam. Steam is separated from water in the flash tank and is further utilized to generate power. Separated water and condensed steam are injected back to the reservoir for reheating through an injection well. Binary cycle plants pass hot water through a heat exchanger where secondary liquid with a lower boiling point (organic compound), turns to vapor and is used to drive the turbine.

Why you should switch to an Electronic Job Card Software

Job Card Software is the way to go if you are looking to streamline your operations and take your business from the heaps of paperwork to the stress free digital world.

Managing resources,Guest Posting time, costs, and profitability on every job seems like a difficult task, right? But if you have Job Card Software in place, you don’t have to worry about these things as the system allows you to locate a particular job and view every detail of it in just a few seconds.

By switching to Job Card Software, you’ll be able to increase the productivity and profitability of your business. Successful business results in happier customers, and the greater the number of happy customers, the greater the chances of having a successful business. So, it’s a win-win situation in every aspect.

Get Instant Professional Quotes

Job Card Software allows you to wow your clients by quickly providing them professional estimates. You’ll be able to determine how much time a task takes to complete after studying the time spent on it, and you can charge for it appropriately after analyzing the time spent on it. All of these details will assist you in generating accurate quotes. When you provide your clients with precise, professional quotations, they will trust you and request additional services from you.

Your Jobs, at a Glimpse

Are you searching for a quick and easy way to see all the specifics of your jobs in one place? If you answered yes, job card software is the right choice for you. The system allows you to see all of the details of your jobs in one spot. You don’t need to waste time looking for a job in numerous places. With the job card software in place, you can quickly locate your desired job and examine the necessary details.

Less Admin Time

You can improve the efficiency of your administration by switching to job card software. One of the best things about the Job Card Software is that it allows you to create recurring jobs. You can automatically create a new job on a recurring basis with start and due dates, job name, job template, category of job, job state, description, and staff already assigned.

No More Missed Deadlines

If you have job card software, then you’ll never miss a deadline. Customers like to get their work done on time, so when you complete the jobs assigned by them within the time limit, they will be satisfied with you. With the help of the system, you can view the start and finish dates of the jobs and receive notifications of the upcoming deadlines.

Get Accurate Invoices

If you use Job Card Software, then you don’t have to copy information from one paper to another. You don’t need to copy-paste anything from anywhere. You just need to enter the details in the system, and that’s it. Once the details are in the system, accurate job cards and invoices can be easily generated.

Smart Time Utilization

Job Card Software allows you to make better use of your time. When a new job comes in, your employees are immediately notified, and they can easily check out the jobs given to them from their phones, eliminating the need for them to return to the office. Furthermore, at the press of a button, they can edit and complete their job cards.

The Use Of Data In Modern Strategy Creation

Big Data is the driving force behind the successful initiation and implementation of important and critical business strategies.

The strategy essentially comes down to customers and revenue. However,Guest Posting customers don’t just stroll towards your product and services by chance. They’re attracted to your business marketing and how you’ve managed to approach them so they are compelled to buy your products. For all of this to happen, you need to build modern strategies. And what is a strategy without data? It’s nothing.

Just five or maybe six years ago, there were a number of companies that made it an ethical practice to track and store all information pertaining to their daily transactions in their own databases. They used this stored wealth of information to analyze future market trends and predict the needs of customers today or two days from now.

But that was a long time back. Now both factors have become huge. So huge, a business can gather click-stream data regarding any and every potential customer/client interaction with a website. It has also enabled marketing specialists to gather valuable information pertaining to what each customer is saying about their products/brand/services on the web. The question is what makes all this possible? The answer is a bunch of new processes combined with intelligent technology and varying mechanisms which have been given one point of reference and that is Big Data.

Here are some Big Data elements that have made the creation of modern business strategies possible:

1. Performance Supervision

Performance supervision entails a comprehensive understanding of the workings of Big Data through the incorporation of preset queries and multiplatform and multidimensional evaluation. The primary source of data for this sort of analysis is purely transactional, for instance, decades of customer transactions and activities, information pertaining to inventory, and fluctuations in turnover. And with the help of this, business leaders and managers can now pose a question, like ‘of all the customer segments which ones bring in more revenue?’ And they can get their answers instantaneously and in real-time. This helps them make better short and long-term business strategies and decisions.

2. Deep-Sea Data/Information Exploration

Data mining and exploration involve the integration of complex and sophisticated statistics in order to get answers to problems and questions they could’ve thought of earlier. This method influences foreseeable modeling strategies and techniques which can be used to gather information about customer/user behavior primarily based on past transactions and predictions. This amalgamated analysis can be utilized to divide customers into categorized groups by identifying buying characteristics a company’s analyst might have failed to spot on his radar. Data exploration can now let managers and business leaders develop effective strategies to keep their most profitable customer segment and reduce the customer churn rate.

3. Social Analytics

The social analytics measurement in Big Data mainly calculates the massive amount of non-transactional data. Non-transactional information mainly exists on various social media networks, including Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, and Pinterest. It evaluates three important non-transactional factors, namely awareness, engagement, and market reach. The awareness factor oversees the total number of reviews, videos, and other mentions on a given social media platform by members.

The engagement factor calculates the frequency and repetition of activity among social media platform users. Last, but not least, the reach factor measures the degree to which social media content is spread and circulated across wider platforms and with them, to other users.

So, as you can see, these elements which combine to form Big Data are the driving force behind the successful initiation and implementation of important and critical business strategies and because of which businesses thrive in modern times.

What Can One Get From Procurement Consulting Services?

There are so many challenges that a business can face during its operations. And if one is not able to overcome these challenges, the business will surely fail. This situation is what business owners would like to avoid. This is why at the start of the business operations, the owners would like to make sure that everything is working well and fine. If the business is able to establish a smooth flow of operations and transactions during the start of the business, then there is a big possibility that the business will continue on towards success. It is just important that the business owner is always on top of everything to make sure that all aspects of the business will be well taken care of.

In case the business owner is too busy or just do not have the time to check on each and every aspect of the business, they can just simply hire the expertise of consultants. If you are in a business where sales are involved, you can get hold of the assistance of procurement consulting services. So, what can this bring to a company?

A procurement consulting expert is often an economic professional who will have specializations on specific areas of business procurements. This person will help your company know the right actions to take with regards to products or supplies that are needed to be acquired. He or she will guide you as to how a proper procurement procedure should work especially in a business that is just starting.

This procurement expert will be able to study the market conditions and see which supplies or products are best to purchase at a particular time. He will also be responsible in knowing the right supplies to buy and make the company use the current supplies they have without the need to buy new ones. An expert can help the company save money from procuring things that are not yet really important for the moment. In other words, this consultant will be able to regulate the procurement procedures of a company making sure that all procurements will be used properly and effectively for the benefit of the business.

By having a consultant on procurement, the business owner need not to worry about wasting money on buying things that are not yet needed by the business. This will make sure that there will be someone who will watch over the expenses as well as the profits of the company. One can simply look for consultancy firms that offer procurement assistance. It is just very important that the company is able to find reliable and good consultancy company to get services from. One should first research on the reputation and background of the firm before dealing with them. This is to make sure that the business will get the best possible results from hiring a consultant for procurement. There are now many firms that advertise online. With this, it will be easy for a business to find the right company to hire.

Consulting – 4 Most Profitable Fields of Consulting

Here are the fields of consulting that really pays well:

1. Internet marketing consulting. Based on research, thousands of entrepreneurs are taking their business online on a weekly basis. While most of these people are thriving in the offline arena, a lot of them are virtually clueless about internet marketing. This creates opportunities for people who are considered experts in running and growing online business. Depending on the services needed (SEO, link building, competition and market research, etc.) a consultant can charge his clients anywhere from $5,000 – $25,000 per project.

2. Business consulting. This is a type of consulting that targets those people who are running brick and mortar business. Consultants are expected to help them in setting up their new business and later on, in growing it. Business consultants are expected to have a degree in commerce or business before they can practice in this field. They must also have proven track record and they must be highly recommended by industry leaders.

3. I.T. consulting. This is the type of consulting that provides professional technology advice to organizations. The job of the IT consultant includes suggesting certain software solutions that can help in streamlining certain processes to increase efficiency and productivity. I.T. consultants make at least $75,000 per client.

4. Leadership consulting. More and more big organizations are now realizing the importance of improving the quality of their leadership team. This is the reason why leadership consulting is fast becoming one of the most in-demand services today. Consultants are expected to help leaders in becoming more competent in their jobs by teaching them new skills that match their position in the corporate world.

All Consultants Are Not Created Equal

Every year, thousands of corporations and organizations enlist the services of either an individual consultant, team of consultants, or a consulting firm, to address items that their leadership envisions need addressing professionally, by an impartial eye. Unfortunately, however, nearly anyone can represent himself as some sort of consultant, either in a specific area, or in a variety of areas, and while some of these individuals are excellent, and provide a fabulous, valuable service, others use consulting as a rouse to sell some sort of product or service. Major areas that consultants are called in regarding include, but are not limited to: business, financial, fiscal, and budgetary items; strategic planning; event planning, negotiations, coordination and organization; Board training and evaluation; business planning; etc.

1. Your preliminary discussion with any honorable consultant should be a getting- to- know- you type of meeting, and should be free of charge to the organization. Observe whether the consultant listens and asks pensive and examining questions, more than he speaks and tries to sell himself. Do not be overly impressed by fancy brochures and literature, or even elaborate presentations. You should be looking for a consultant that does not try to use a one- size- fits- all approach, but customizes his service directly to your needs and your organization’s idiosyncrasies. Don’t be overly impressed by fancy rhetoric or techno- jargon, because it often has little true value.

2. When a consultant is used for event services, he should guarantee his services will do several things for your event. Firstly, he should take away the hassles and headaches. Secondly, he should be able to negotiate in all related areas and foresee your needs. He should be someone who does his homework before he begins to negotiate, in order to find out what is needed and what the priorities and objectives of the event are. He should gather historical information, in order to gather am historical perspective and better understand the group’s heritage and needs. He should never impose his will, but also stand up for what he believes should be done, and be able and willing to explain why. His negotiations should save considerably more money than the total of his fee and reimbursable expenses. He should fully explain his fee up front, and explain what he will do, how he will work intimately with the group’s organizing committee, and make relevant suggestions.

3. Beware of any consultant who makes too big a deal about making governance changes, in order to address systemic problems and challenges facing the organization. While in a mostly healthy organization, certain governance models might work better for a specific group, governance should only become a priority during a healthy or relatively healthy stage, and not when there are other challenges. These governance recommendations are usually followed, in gradations and steps to follow, by meetings that you are charged for consultant’s time, training sessions (also at a charge), and often with a beautifully prepared governance manual, that often is less valuable to the stability and well being of the organization than the paper it is printed on, etc.

Always ask a prospective consultant about his fees, thoughts, methods, approaches, and what he feels he might be able to do for you, before you agree to his contract. Many organizations have cost themselves dearly by not carefully considering all of the ramifications. While many consultants are great and provide a wonderful service, like in everything else, there are always some “bad apples.”