Top Consulting Services to Invest in for Business Growth

Consulting has become a staple of not just Australia’s economic landscape, but also worldwide. Whether you’re helming a growing business or managing a small to medium-sized enterprise, working with external consultants can reap plenty of benefits. For one thing, you’re getting expertise in a given field without having to take on the financial strain of another full-time hire. Moreover, a consultant can view your business with a fresh set of eyes and provide recommendations that your internal team may not have recognised. 

Consultants come in many different forms, so it’s vital to understand your business’ most pressing needs to ensure your investment in consulting services is poised to deliver a strong return.

Below, we’ll outline some of the top consulting services you can invest in to grow your business.

ISO Consulting

ISO certification has countless commercial benefits for your business, including access to high-profile opportunities like government tenders. However, actually securing a certification can be a challenge, which is why it’s recommended that business owners work with ISO consulting services before commencing your Certification journey. 

Among the most valuable services that an ISO consultant can provide is to perform an audit and gap analysis of your existing processes. They’ll then come up with recommendations to help you fill these gaps and provide you with concrete ways to implement these recommendations. For example, if you’re gunning for ISO 9001 compliance, a consultant can help you create standard quality management processes for all your workplaces/facilities. 

Besides helping get your business in shape for certification, an ISO consulting service may also be able to take care of the bulk of the administrative processes for you. This includes creating documentation for your business processes, coming up with a more efficient record keeping system and helping you submit the documents required in order to pass your Certification audit. Naturally, this takes significant stress out of the Certification process and helps your business avoid potential roadblocks on the way to reaching ISO compliance. 

ICT Consulting

Digital transformation investments are an absolute must for all businesses looking to build for the future. Thanks to the rapid advance of technology, it's now possible to get more work done in a faster time, and at a higher standard of quality. Unfortunately, many businesses don't have the necessary expertise to make full use of the tools available to them. Worse, businesses often commit common cybersecurity errors that lead to huge losses down the line. 

A digital consultant can step in to suggest which tools are best for your business and help you incorporate them into your workflow. These tools might include SEO platforms, CRMs, project management tools and more. A good consultant will also provide training for your team to equip them with the technical skills they need. 

It’s also vital for your business to seek out a digital consultant who specialises in cybersecurity. Have an outside expert perform a cybersecurity audit on your business to identify key weaknesses in your armour and, in more extreme cases, areas where breaches are already happening. A strong foundation in digital security allows you to build customer confidence and prevent bad actors from stealing your money and information, helping you avoid needless losses. 

Financial Advisors

When it comes to growth strategising, defining and allocating budgets can be amongst the most daunting tasks for business leaders. Balancing costs with projected ROI isn’t for the faint of heart in any scenario, but for business owners that are also juggling various other responsibilities, it can even be downright impossible to find adequate time and space to really focus on spend strategising.

This is where partnering with a financial strategist can offer businesses a major advantage. These consultants work with you and your stakeholders to create a sustainable budget for business growth, ensuring that any revenue resulting from growth strategising will always cover the initial cost value of your investment.

The expert advice provided by financial consultants makes it easier for business leaders to act more confidently when responding to growth opportunities. As seasoned business owners know, sometimes letting these opportunities pass you by can ultimately be more cost-intensive than grabbing them when they arise. With a financial advisory team, you can ensure your business is empowered to act when action is most imperative.

Digital Marketing

Operating a business is all about selling goods and services, so it stands to reason that marketing is among the most important activities you can do. To ensure that you’re making the most out of every marketing dollar spent, you need to find all the expertise you can get. Often, this means working with consultants. 

Marketing consultants come in many forms. A strategist can help you create a big picture plan and decide which channels to use. Choices like whether to prioritise inbound or outbound marketing, spend heavily on SEO or invest in a strong social media presence will have a significant impact on your business, so it’s important that your decisions are driven by data and expertise. 

You’ll also find many marketing consultants who specialise in specific fields like paid ads, SEO and organic social media. Once you’ve crafted a marketing plan, you can pick and choose which experts will be most beneficial to your business. 

Business Development 

Finally, business development coaches also fall under the umbrella of business consulting services. Business development consultants can help with tasks such as identifying growing market opportunities that you can pursue, helping you analyse your competitors and building relationships with key clients or stakeholders. 

Business development coaches are also a great resource for leadership training in growing enterprises. Promoting from within is a great way of making sure your leadership team have a solid understanding of your business before they take on management positions – but oftentimes, this approach can also result in department heads not being uber confident with the added responsibilities and realities of management. With business coaching, however, you can equip your leaders with a variety of commercial and community insights that help them not only be stronger leaders for their teams, but more effective in driving results towards your company’s overarching goals.

Elevate your Enterprise with Expert Insights

Whether you’re looking to invest in leadership for growth or want to boost your company’s credentials by attaining ISO Certification, hiring consultants is guaranteed to be amongst the most cost-effective methods to achieve these short term goals for long term gains. This is because consultants waste no time in getting you on the right track, taking in all your enterprise’s key challenges and integrating them into a tailored growth strategy for your team to execute. 

If you think you may benefit from the services offered by any of the consultants we’ve outlined above, then be sure to speak with your leadership team and stakeholders to get the ball rolling on your consultancy investment strategy.