When choosing a consultant, there are many factors to consider, however, all of them should point to a simple reality.  That is, the consultant should focus his efforts and yours on solutions that will enable you to reach your goals without jeopardizing or negatively affecting those successes that you have already achieved.

Extraordinary consulting is accomplished not just by providing accurate, useful, and meaningful answers to the needs of clients – but, by always remembering the fact that the very best results come not from the answers provided by the consultant, but instead are derived from the questions that the consultant should have asked.

For example, here are a few of the typical questions we ask a beginning entrepreneur at the outset of initial consultations –

• Which of these terms describes you best? – Creative, Innovative, Operative, or Administrative?
• Do you consider yourself more of an introvert or an extrovert? And why do you feel that way?
• Would you rather generate income using passive methods or active ones?
• If you were to describe the perfect lifestyle for yourself, would it involve a lot of physical activities or mostly quiet and relaxed ones?

Whether you consider yourself an entrepreneur or not, you probably consider that the way you earn your livelihood has little to do with your personal lifestyle or what you do with off-hours, etc.

If you feel that way, we would not argue the point.  However, it has been our experience that there are usually ways for entrepreneurs to design their business efforts so as to enhance and greatly influence the lifestyles that they may wish to live.

For some reason, many people tend to treat their business efforts as if their business has nothing to do with their lifestyles.  Of course, there are limits to how much your personal life and your business life should intersect.  There are many reasons for there to be a very well-defined separation between business and personal activities. Yet, each will still affect the other.

As a new entrepreneur, one of the normal expectations usually is that you will enjoy certain “freedoms and benefits” that you would find more difficult to achieve as an employee in most situations.  So, with that being the case, why would you focus on starting a business effort that requires you to openly interact with a lot of people in close face-to-face situations if you might find those situations stressful?

As another example of the importance of selecting the consultant that is best suited for your needs – consider these two instances:

Client 1 & Client 2 were both seeking guidance as to the best business areas for each of them.  Their revenue goals were similar.  They both were still actively employed.  And they both wanted to work toward becoming entrepreneurs as soon as practical and possible.  At first, it appeared that any business that had the potential to provide them with their revenue goals might be an option for them.

Yet, after some discussions with them, it was obvious that one client craved having lots of free time and the other client craved the admiration and recognition of his peers and associates.

So, the focus of their consultations shifted.  Not because of the revenue they wanted, but because of what else they wanted, Client 1 was shown how to position himself to generate the revenue he wanted without having to “operate” a business at all.  Client 2, on the other hand, required a business in which he could be visible, active, and essentially “the center of attention”.

Many entrepreneurs seem to choose their businesses based mostly upon just the potential revenue that could be generated – and that is understandable up to a point.  But, why not make your decision one that is likely to help you to gain success on multiple levels, not just in the area of revenue generation?

To us, generating revenue as an employee is not the same as generating the same amount of revenue as an entrepreneur.  Even though the amount of revenue gained is the same in both situations, all other factors will not be the same.  The job of a good consultant is to make certain that the client understands not just the “obvious” consequences of their business decisions, but also the “not so obvious” ones as well.

This article was written by SDK Hunter Consulting Group

About The Author:

Sherman Hunter and SDK Hunter Consulting Group staff consultants provide global moneymaking opportunities and proprietary strategies that quickly accelerate business activity. You may familiarize yourself with these unique concepts by visiting the SDK Hunter Consulting Group blog located at:  https://sdkhunter.com

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