“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work.” — David Rockefeller
More than half of the US startups shut down within 5 years. When looking more into the reasons why companies collapse, it’s mainly because of no market demand, weak management team, and no roadmap.
However, a business consultant gives all the insights in such aspects in order to help the startup grow, instead of collapse down. In this article, we will break down each of these aspects to answer how business consultants make it happen. But before that, let’s dive deeper into who a business consultant actually is.
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Who Is A Business Consultant?
A business consultant is someone who is professionally trained to provide advice and support to startups on scaling up, pivoting, etc. Their simple aim is to enhance the business’s performance in order to help it expand and grow in the market. All of this is done with the help of extensive research of your opponents and potential consumers. Since business consultants are the most helpful for founders with little to no idea about a business’s aspects, they can turn out to be extremely helpful for long-term growth.
5 Reasons Why Startups Must Have a Business Consultant
1. Honest, Truthful Feedback
Most of the startup founders start young, and so, they end up working with their existing experience, knowledge, and expertise. However, they tend to ignore the bias going on in the real market.
In such a case, a startup consultant’s role becomes immensely crucial as the ladder goes down to honest feedback. Since startup consultants are well-experienced in their field, they can provide a much-needed external outlook to the core model of the startup.
In addition to the feedback about the concept of the business, founders can also seek the details of execution, management, and other aspects of the startup. Hence, helping them see a clearer picture of what they’re aiming at.
2. Management Advice
Once you’ve shared the initial idea and vision for your startup, the consultant will start to process the blueprint of how the business would look like. It’s like a computer brain filled with experience and expertise! However, the complex aspect about setting up a startup is the management…and young founders lack here.
Since young founders are usually the ones who went into building a startup straight out of college, they’ve never been managed professionally. Hence, lacking the requisite managerial experience to direct the venture. On the other hand, a startup consultant can help with their management advice based on their experience in management, finance, strategy, marketing, and development. In short, the founders get a word-of-clarity and insight into their business model.
3. The Road Map for Milestones
Most startups don’t have a concrete roadmap on which they can walk on, hence, they experience hurdles throughout their journey. That’s why strategic planning is literally the key to the success of any startup! And that key is what startup consultants provide in a very simple manner.
Startup consultants go through a lot of analysis, statistics, and strategy to help their clients with a startup strategy. This strategic plan gets put into place once enough market research and customer analysis has been done.
4. Expertise and Experience
As I’ve said before too, a startup consultant is known for their expertise and experience in their job. Moreover, they’re considered as an expert because they’ve got plenty of training with the tactics and techniques to scale up a business. Therefore, a startup consultant brings in the requisite knowledge and expertise for a business which may not be going so well.
In addition, business growth isn’t a piece of cake. It comprises a ton of tasks and processes that aim at the development and growth of the startup. Hence, an experienced professional is the only way out of those unorganised processes — which often become a mess!
5. Market Research
Market research is considered as one of the most important segments of creating a strategic plan and business decisions. So, startup consultants are very precise and meticulous when it comes to researching the market and your target audience. Closely looking, market research isn’t limited to your customers’ pain points, their data, competitors’ advantages, and trends within the industry.
Extensive market research includes continuous analysis of the market trends and dynamics, and professionals do it very well. Hence, your startup consultant stays aware of the changes and developments in various market sectors so that you can take your chance whenever possible.
Top Consultancy Companies in India
Although there are a ton of consulting companies in India, some of the best ones include:
- Accenture
- Bain & Company
- Boston Consulting Group
- Tata Strategic Management Group
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Conclusion
Even though startup consultancy companies have a reputation only when they are actually helpful, not all of them are worth it. For example, some consultancy companies collapse within 2 years of launch! Hence, if you are choosing one, ensure that you choose the best one.
With over two decades of experience in the software technology arena, having worked in multinational and SME companies in India, USA and Singapore in the capacity of programmer to CTO – I felt now was a good time to give back to the world what I have learnt in this journey. Even if it ends up benefitting a few of my readers by giving them insight or solving a technical issue, I think I will have achieved my mission!