When a business has been failing to perform to past levels of success, for some time, and every correction has failed to change a negative slide, business owners and CEOs then begin to look for outside help. The help they call is a consultant. Business failures are so often repeated and regularly occurring, for every business and every reason under the sun, consulting firms have become quite wealthy off these misfortunes of others. While consulting can bring a desirable return on investment, from professional advice and instruction, there are some very important things business owners and CEOs should know beforehand.

First, you have to know the type of consulting firm you actually need. Some will come in and watch for a period of time, then leave after they give you a huge stack of papers, pointing out all of the problems and solutions they found. This leaves you with a big bill; but in the meantime, you are alone in fixing all the problems they identified.

Another type is one that does what the first type does, but instead of leaving you with written instructions for solutions, they stay and actually implement the solutions they identify. Even better, the consulting company will also train your managers in actual management skills. While this may seem unnecessary, it is amazing how many cousins and brother-in-laws become managers, with no knowledge of what management entails.

Second, you have to beware of the sales pitches. This is often done with a great deal of flare, through color charts and graphs, leaving you feeling like a fire alarm salesman does: made you feel guilty if you do not have rope ladders in all of your children's second story bedrooms. "What are you gonna do? Let everyone burn to death?" They will know exactly where all your problems are and how to fix them, for a price. When it comes time to make this important decision, think about how the salesman (the Business Analyst) got his or her information.

Was a team of people brought in to target every department or operation, through all shifts, for at least three solid days? Or, did the BA simply show up and do his or her own observations and measurements? Keep in mind that regardless of who you talked to first (probably a phone jockey solicitor looking for leads to follow-up on), or how relatively inexpensive the analysis they perform sounds (sometimes as low as $75), a project is going to be much higher. Don't fall for the sales pitch that day, no matter how

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