Advice can be fun but when it comes to your business, it might be worth paying for. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swanksalot/6300958000/
As of three months ago, Breaking Even began warning people on our meeting booking page that we charge for consultation meetings. I expected a huge downturn in appointment booking off that page when we put this and other disclaimers on there, but it seems that they’ve actually increased business.
Weird, right?
Maybe not so much. Here’s why I think people might not be so hesitant to pay for advice anymore:
The Difference Between A Vendor And A Consultant: How To Know Who You Are Talking To
So someone comes into your office selling y service or x product. They tell you all the features, what the package includes, and what an opportunity it is for you. This person is selling something in particular is a salesman (or, to not conjure up vacuum cleaners, a vendor). The vendor typically makes money based on the sale of that product or service to you, often based on commission. To use a cheesy fitness example, a vendor might be a representative for the NordicTrack company.
When you talk to a consultant, the interaction is more conversational. You are asked questions about outcomes you may want or frustrations you might have. You may have specific questions to ask about choosing a particular product or service to ask the consultant. You may have information about your business that you want them to work with. You are recommended x solution or y approach by the consultant based on reasons from your conversation. If the consultant talked to your friend, they would come out of it with a different solution since it involves different information. You pay for the consultant for the advice and you can choose to do with it what you wish. In cheesy fitness example land, a consultant would be a personal trainer.
So you see in one case you are paying for a product (which there is some knowledge behind) and in one case you are paying for someone’s knowledge (which may or may not involve a product or service).
It helps to know if you are talking to a vendor or a consultant. Someone selling one product? Not asking you to pay for advice? Probably a vendor. Someone working with your point of view? Asking you to pay something? Probably a consultant. This is not to say there isn’t some overlap here but your gut reaction will tell you the difference when you see it.
Breaking Even is a consultancy. We always have been. We want to educate business owners and give what we think is the best advice. If suddenly a product we were using started to stick like rotten eggs, we’d want to be able to switch our recommendation without worry of consequences, financial or otherwise.
Maybe you are at a point of getting some advice. Maybe you are writing a business proposal or overhauling some part of your business or looking at your budget and cutting your three biggest doing business costs. Here’s why it might be a good idea to pay for advice:
Advice could save you time and money.
The reason people often pay for advice is to save them time and money in the long run. It may be worth spending some money figuring out which computer system would work best for your company, and someone who knows that space can ask you the best questions and get you to your answer quicker and often less expensively then you would on your own. Getting advice means knowing why you are making this decision and why you aren’t going with other options. Having to change course at some other time, while possible, can be a pain in the butt. And expensive.
Advice could save you a headache.
As much as I personally enjoy calling all the area catering companies to see their prices on ham and portabella mushroom sandwiches, I’d just as soon let an event planner deal with the headache of planning a lunch. Stick to the kind of headaches you enjoy most (mine usually involve Facebook).
Advice wasn’t gotten for free.
Your consultant did not get their advice for free. They spent hours learning it and practicing it. If it’s an industry like internet marketing, it is something that must always be kept on top of. That real estate agent knows the market, who is in it, who isn’t in it, where the best deals are, and how property taxes have changed in each area over time. To get their advice is not just paying for the time you sit face to face with them; it’s paying for the time they spent getting the knowledge you are now so easily accessing.
So to expect the person you are talking to for advice and impartial information and expect them to do it for free isn’t fair. Because of them, you are not having to reinvent the wheel and because of you, they get to spend some of their time keeping on top of the best information.
When have you paid for advice? And, more importantly, what did you do (or not do) with the information you got?