52
FEATURES
When it’s time to
seek help
Running a small business requires hard work and dedication.
Pinpointing the appropriate actions to take, based on a consultant’s
expert advice, can take your enterprise to the next level.
By Tristan Wiggill
It is important to understand that there are two types
of consultancies. There are the wafflers, who sit with
business owners and dish out verbal advice. And
then there is the second group, which implements
strategic and/or operational changes within
organisations. The latter group naturally has the more
difficult task to perform.
Before a client is taken on by a consultancy, it should
analyse that client’s business, both financially and
operationally. This will allow it to understand what is
happening within the business and what its objectives
are. Consultants should be able to fix, grow, or do both for
their clients.
Once the consultancy understands what is going on,
an implementation plan can be put in place, which
indicates what needs to be done to fix or turn the
company around.
Finding a legitimate consultant needn’t be that difficult,
though. As a rule of thumb, it is wise to choose a consultant
that relies primarily on client referrals to obtain business.
“If we go in cold, we need to be able to say to the client
this is what we do and this is who you can phone for a
reference,” explains Rodney Sanders, manager of Rens
Consulting. “The longevity of the consultancy or individual
is important in terms of identifying who is good and who
runs a management practice that can fix or grow your
business,” he adds.
Sanders says he has helped to double a plumbing client’s
turnover year-on-year. “We advise him on both the financial
and business side. Every now and again we sit down and
look at the company’s books and say, ‘This is what is
happening, this is what we suggest you do.’ And we assist
with implementing particular changes that are required.”
Consultancies that have the required skills base, expertise,
and academic background, primarily target large corporates
and government. This is known as high-income consulting,
which can cost R1 500+ per hour and eliminates most
SMME clients as a result.
Of course, there are hundreds of consultants that operate in
the small business sector. A word of caution: they are often
one-man bands that may have left varsity recently and
therefore have no real business experience. Consultants
like this can, at best, put a business plan together. They can
be a danger and a menace to SMMEs.
Inspectors and/or foremen are still required to perform manual checks on site.
April 2018 Volume 24 I Number 2
www.plumbingafrica.co.za