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What is consulting in simple words: types, tasks, differences from coaching. Consulting company - what is it in simple words What are consulting services and why are they needed

Hello! In this article we will talk about consulting.

Today you will learn:

Definition and types of consulting;
What are the benefits of consulting for doing business;
What are the stages of consulting activity.

Any business owner or company, large or not very often, needs outside consulting help. A person cannot know everything, but it also happens that a fresh look at an existing problem is required.

What is consulting in simple words

In the staff of a company, even the largest one, it is not possible to contain several experts in different fields. But if an enterprise has a goal to develop, conquer the market, sooner or later the advice of such experts will be needed. So what is consulting?

Consulting is a process of advising managers, management personnel and other employees on financial, legal, investment and other issues.

A bit of history

domestic consulting as professional activity began to develop in Russia in the 90s. This is directly related to the change not only in the economic system, but also in the political one. In 1991, there were only about 20 consulting companies.

With the development of market relations, the consulting services market began to experience rapid growth. These services have become more understandable to managers, more professional. Gradually, the level of competition began to increase, on Russian market major players from the West came to services, this put the consulting industry on a qualitatively new level.

Consulting company - what is it

Companies of this kind are engaged in providing their clients with consulting services. Most often they are external companies and are related to the companies of their clients. They provide assistance in various areas of their activities.

In the same time full responsibility for the result that will be obtained in the end, they do not bear. There is no unequivocal answer to the question of what consulting companies do.

In general, their activities are as follows:

Providing assistance in various areas;
Consulting services;
Planning organizational and management activities.

Principles of work of consulting companies

In their activities, consulting companies adhere to the following principles:

All of them use evidence-based data in their work;
Use in their work of such tools as information technology;
Specialists have the right to offer the customer their own scientific idea, if it helps in solving the problem that the customer has.

Types of consulting

AT modern economy There are several types of consulting. We will review and provide brief description the most common of them.

Financial consulting

It is a complex of services that are designed to build a reliable and functional system financial management. It includes: conducting an analysis and audit of the company's activities, consulting on finance and budgeting, introducing methods to strengthen the company's financial system.

Management consulting

It helps to establish which areas of the company are most vulnerable, corrects the company's activities as a whole.

It, in turn, is divided into several groups:

Strategic – allows you to analyze the market in the global and local sense, calculate possible risks;
Marketing– helps to develop the company's strategy, carry out diagnostics target audience. Its main goal is to increase sales, as well as reduce advertising costs;
personnel – advice on the selection and training of employees , creation and development of corporate culture .

In addition to all of the above, this type of consulting helps to solve the following tasks:

Improve the work of all company management structures;
Learn new management techniques;
Develop a system to motivate employees;
Optimize business processes.

Investment consulting

When company executives choose schemes for investing capital, or attracting such from outside, they mainly rely on the recommendations of professionals who can provide the necessary assistance.

Functions of investment consulting:

Implementation of interactions with credit organizations, insurance companies and authorities;
Assistance in the development of investment projects;
Legal investment advice.

HR consulting

HR consulting is getting more and more popular.

Such consulting includes:

Personnel certification;
Personnel accounting;
Personnel audit;
Analysis personnel policy;
Document flow analysis;
Analysis of the compliance of personnel policy with the norms of labor legislation.

Through HR consulting, you can:

Form a certain corporate culture;
Diagnose how loyal employees are to the company;
Increase the efficiency of the entire personnel management system;
Develop criteria for evaluating the work of personnel.

This type of consulting allows management to organize work not only with the team as a whole, but also with each employee individually.

Legal consulting

In today's business environment, it is often necessary to resolve emerging legal situations. And the situation itself is difficult to call transparent, then the manager will definitely need the help of a professional. And if there is no full-time lawyer in the company, then one cannot do without the involvement of a specialist from a consulting company.

Accounting consulting

The purpose of accounting consulting is to increase not only the efficiency of accounting. accounting, but also to control its correctness. Usually such services are provided by highly qualified specialists.

Accounting consulting services consist of:

Services for the development and formation of accounting policies;
Consultations on the construction of the accounting system. accounting;
Assistance in the preparation of accounting reports;
Assistance in preparing reports to the Federal Tax Service;
Consideration and consultations on disputable situations in accounting.

Educational consulting

The practical significance of this type of consulting is that the consultant:

Conducts seminars;
Organizes lectures and trainings;
Develops teaching aids.

Simply put, consultants train the personnel of the customer's company.

Expert consulting

Its essence is as follows: the client sets a task for the consultant, and he, in turn, using his own experience and knowledge, as well as relying on various sources, issues turnkey solution. In addition to developing a solution to a problem, an expert can also diagnose a problem.

The client does not participate in the development of a solution to the problem.

Project consulting

Project consulting is the joint work of a consultant and company employees, during which a decision is made on how to optimize the company's activities. This type of counseling is called long-term.

Internet consulting

This area of consulting activity can include:

Development information technologies taking into account the needs of a particular company;
Maintaining technology at a high level;
Identification of existing problems;
Creation of high-quality information infrastructure.

What tasks do consulting companies solve?

Consulting professionals can help in the following situations:

When you need to adjust business process management;
When is a business reorganization required?
To restore the solvency of a company or enterprise;
Support in the merger of companies;
When advice is required on the acquisition of property;
Budgeting;
Development;
When you need to prepare a financial forecast and so on.

This list of services is not complete and may be supplemented by other items.

Stages of implementation of consulting activities

Any company can be called a living, constantly evolving organism. If the body fails, then a doctor is required. But the treatment should be done by a professional, not an amateur. That is, a consulting company should be with serious practical experience.

1.The customer acknowledges the existence of a certain problem. If the customer realizes that he cannot solve the problems that have arisen in the company without the help of professionals.

Example: the head of the confectionery company set himself the task of increasing the volume of products. But a problem arose: the manager himself and the company's specialists do not have enough knowledge for this. To achieve the goal, a decision is made to invite outside experts. And this decision will be reasonable and justified.

2.Conducting initial consultations and conclusion of the contract. When a suitable company is selected, you need to consult with its specialist. Then the contract is signed.

The following items must be included in the contract:

The period during which the work will be performed;
A complete list of services with an indication of the cost;
Conditions in connection with which the amount of the consultant's fee can be changed;
Conditions for early termination of the contract;
Responsibilities of both parties.

The contract can be concluded both once and on long term. The contract can be concluded in the form of, and in the form of a work contract.

3. The data necessary for cooperation is being collected. The specialists of the consulting company at this stage of cooperation collect and analyze data that will help determine how serious the problem is. The main thing here is to establish what the problem is, as well as develop a plan to solve it.

4. The process of developing a solution to a problem. This stage can be called the main one. Having established the problem and its causes, specialists draw up a plan according to which the problem will be eliminated.

5. The process of implementing decisions and monitoring their implementation. All procedures specified in the plan are carried out under the supervision of consultants. Also in the process, training of company employees is possible.

6. The process of evaluating the results obtained. objective assessment results can be given only after a certain period of time. The head of the company together with representatives of the executing company will sum up the results.

7. Production of final financial calculations. If all the activities were carried out on time, production indicators increased, the company's income increased - this is an indicator that the activities carried out were effective, you need to make a final settlement with the consulting company. The amount specified in the contract is transferred to the account of the executing company.

Situations where consulting is needed

The management and employees of the company have no new ideas, the company has entered a period of stagnation;
The leader lacks certain knowledge or experience;
The company is developing a serious project, but cannot implement it in full due to lack of knowledge;
The company is required to conduct an audit with the participation of independent specialists;
The company needs the management apparatus to work more efficiently;
Companies need to recruit a number of qualified professionals.

This list of situations cannot be called exhaustive, since in fact there may be more than a dozen of them.

How to find a serious consulting company

If your company has a number of problems that it is not possible to solve on your own, the next step is to choose the right company that specializes in providing consulting services.

There are criteria following which you can choose a company and not make a mistake:

Collect the maximum amount of information about the company with which you plan to enter into an agreement. Look at her official website, find out how much the company is on the market;
Read reviews about the work of the company in the media, on the Internet;
Ask if the company has a portfolio: each specialist is proud of his achievements and usually fixes them;
Check if there are serious businessmen in your region among the clients;
Focus on the cost of the company's services, too low should alert, as well as clearly overpriced.

It is best to have several companies in stock, and after a personal meeting and communication with specialists, make the final decision.

Requirements for companies and consultants

If a company or consultant has a high level of qualification and provides a wide range of services, then they must meet certain requirements, which we will discuss later.

The consultant must: have knowledge and skills in strategic planning, to be able to analyze and predict the economic situation, to own the methods of diagnosing the situation at the enterprise, to be able to establish contacts with specialists of different levels;
The consultant (or consulting company) should not depend on the rules and unwritten laws, as well as the traditions that have developed in a particular company. The opinion of the consultant must be free and objective;
The consulting company should provide assistance based on its experience and current legislation;
A consulting company, in addition to consultations, should be engaged in gaining experience, accumulating, analyzing and processing data;
The activity of a consulting company should also have a learning effect for its clients.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the table, which presents the main features of professional consultants and those who only consider themselves to be such.

What is the difference between a professional consultant and an amateur

Pro Consultant	Amateur
Examines in advance the activities of the client's company	Does not undergo preliminary training, learns about the current situation from the client
All offers are prepared taking into account the characteristics of the company	All developed proposals are not informative, but general, almost advertising in nature.
Since the start of cooperation practical advice and advice to the client	Emphatically obsessively talks about his achievements, puts himself an order of magnitude higher than the client
In the process of communication, shows awareness of the situation in the client's company	Talks about experience in the same industry
Asks questions, seeks the opinion of the customer	Speaks without objection
Able to listen to the client	Prefers to talk rather than listen
Answers additional questions	Additional questions are ignored
Always responds to customer objections	Does not take into account the client's objections, prefers to communicate through e-mail and not personally

Advantages of consulting

It should be noted that more and more often, not only those who have just joined the ranks of entrepreneurs, but also serious companies that have been on the market for a long time are turning to consulting companies for help. What are the benefits of consulting?

Consultants have a higher level of knowledge than regular company specialists (which does not detract from the merits of conscientious employees);
Consultants are more experienced due to communication with a large number of clients;
Consultants have enough time to deeply and comprehensively study the problem;
Consultants usually have an unbiased opinion, they are guided by the interests of the customer.

A clear advantage of consulting is that the company's specialists with a fresh look from the outside can identify problems that are simply invisible to the company's employees.

Consulting and coaching: differences between methods

Before figuring out the similarities and differences, let's find out what kind of animal this is - coaching.

coaching is a method of consultation in which the client and the trainer jointly look for ways to improve or solve a problem.

Skeptics may say that this technique just duplicates a number of others that are already familiar. Why invent something else if there are trainings and consulting? But it is coaching that does not repeat all previously known practices.

Coaching and consulting are not duplicative methods for one simple reason: the coach guides and advises his client to achieve the goal, and the consulting consultant is limited to making recommendations, leaving the client the opportunity to continue to act independently.

Who can consulting companies work with?

Consulting firms may partner with:

Public and private enterprises that produce any products, provide services;
FROM foreign companies who operate in Russia (legally);
With government organizations;
with government agencies.

So, dear readers, now you know what consulting is, what its goals are and what it is for. If you take advantage of consulting conditions in a timely manner, then your business will successfully grow and develop. Your company will survive all crises and become a serious competitor for others.

Consulting services are popular all over the world, because they can be used to solve various kinds of business tasks that are not directly related to the main activities of the company. Using consulting, the company has the opportunity to focus on core business.

Consulting is very useful service for businessmen. Those who have never used consulting services are interested in their cost. Not everyone understands the economic benefits of attracting specialists from outside, but it can be very significant.

In order to assess what significance a consulting company can bring to business development, we will give a definition and consider the essence of this concept.

What is consulting?

Let's start with the definition of consulting according to the Oxford Dictionary.

Consulting means "to be in the business of providing expert advice to people working in a particular field." In other words, a consultant is someone who gives advice certain group of people.

Consulting is expert advice business a certain group of people.

A consultant is someone who has a certain level of knowledge that a certain group of people find valuable, and people in that group are willing to pay the consultant for access to their experience.

Note that there is nothing mentioned about majors, degrees or certifications. If you can provide expert advice to a specific group of people, you can be a consultant.

All this begs the question, why is consulting so valuable?

The answer to this question lies at the heart of the meaning of counseling.

The true meaning of consulting - a consultant is one who gives advice. Therefore, it is worth asking the question “why do people buy advice”?

Why do people ask for advice?

They want to change something, achieve something and they need help.

If financial condition companies are not what the leaders want. That being said, they know what their desired state is, but they need advice on how to get there.

That's why people want advice. They want to get from point A to point B, but they don't know how to get there. They are either lost or face obstacles they don't know how to overcome.

The true meaning of consulting is to help people solve problems and move from the current state to the desired one.

And the more valuable the desired state is for someone, the more he is willing to pay for help.

For example, if a small business owner earns 60 million rubles. per year and their goal is to make 120 million rubles. per year, achieving their goal for them is 60 million rubles, and they are probably ready to pay 5 million rubles, 10 million rubles, 20 million rubles, perhaps even up to 60 million rubles.

Consulting in a Nutshell: Helping People in solving problems and achieving results.

So if achieving a desired state is so valuable to people, why don't they just figure it out on their own?

Why do people hire consultants

There are three main reasons why people decide to take outside advice:

They are simply not able to understand it or get to the desired state on their own.
They have a general idea, but they want to get there faster.
They want to save time and effort by following an effective, proven system.

Three main types of consulting companies

When someone says, "I'm a consultant," they usually fall into one from three categories.

Management consulting.
Corporate consulting.
Independent consulting.

Management Consulting is what most people think of when someone says "consulting". This area is dominated by large firms to help businesses improve strategy and operations or manage significant business events such as mergers and acquisitions.

Independent consulting comes up often when someone has developed experience in an area they choose to build and run their own. own business around this experience rather than continue as an employee.

Specific Sold experience can be almost anything, and thanks to the emerging gig economy, thousands of new independent consultants are creating very profitable businesses for themselves.

How can you become a consultant?

Exists two main ways to get the consultation:

Get a job.
Start your own business.

While getting a job in consulting is more competitive and more challenging than ever, starting your own consulting business is still no easier.

With rising costs for staff members more and more companies are looking for temporary and permanent external assistance, often in the form of consultants and "do it for you" services. If you are interested in starting your own consulting business, there has never been a better time to get started.

Imagine that you ask all your burning questions to a team of high-class lawyers, auditors and tax consultants and get an answer to any of your questions on-line! This is how the “Consulting Support” line of the AIP audit and consulting group works.

Any question in the field of taxation, accounting,
personnel office work and other areas of Russian legislation

Is it possible to exhibit s / f if we are exempt from paying VAT?	call +7 495 236-77-50 (multichannel)
How to transfer the premises to the tenant?
We took a loan for a company, gave a loan to the founder, what are our taxes?
What documents will confirm the shipping costs?
We sent the declaration by mail, the Federal Tax Service is holding us accountable, what should we do?
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Buy a subscription to "Consulting Support" if:

The maintenance of full-time lawyers costs a ruinous monthly sum;
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Benefits of "Consulting Support"

Unlimited number of oral consultations per month. You can ask questions every day and throughout the working day.

On-line answer to any question. You get an answer to your question immediately or within a business day.

No paperwork. You don't have to conclude separate contract for every consultation. Being on a subscription service, you simply ask your questions by phone or e-mail.

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Quality assurance

Expert auditors, tax consultants, lawyers, each of whom specializes in a narrow area of law, work on your issue. You are guaranteed to receive an effective solution to your problem.

One-time services or subscription?

Composition and description of services	One-time services	Subscription "Consulting support"
		tariffs
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Oral consultation You ask us a question by phone or e-mail and get an answer	2000 rub./hour	Daily in real time during the working day. No limit on the number of consultations.
Written consultation A weighty argument in disputes with fiscal authorities, counterparties, when defending a position in court. The term for preparing an answer is from 2 days, depending on the complexity of the question.	6000 rub.	2 Consultations per month	3 Consultations per month	8 Consultations per month
Master Class Mini-seminars for 2-3 hours. They take place in the AIP office in the question-answer mode. Author's teaching materials are provided.	3600 rub.	Up to 4 workshops per month
Monitoring of the legislation of the Russian Federation New bills, documents, important events in the form of an e-mail	is free	Included in the package
Compilation on demand - a thematic selection of normative and teaching materials, consultations, archival materials, arbitration practice, information from legal reference systems	from 2000 rub.	Included in the package
Total:	from 12600 rub.	6800 rubles/month	8800 rubles/month	18000 rubles/month

Each company and business strives to develop and conquer its part of the market. But far from always this is possible without huge investments and only on our own, especially at a time when there are problems in the country's economy.

To remain a popular and competitive company, you need to constantly change, develop strategy and tactics. And if there are no resources for this within the company, then you have to use external services - consulting. What is consulting services? What types of consulting are there? What are its advantages and disadvantages?

What are consulting services and why are they needed?

Even large international companies often face difficulties in their work. This may be related to both external factors as well as internal problems. Most often, problems arise due to price fluctuations in the market, the appearance or departure of a competitor, but in firms there are difficulties with the very relations between employees within the enterprise. Because of this, there is no opportunity and strength within the company to fight for its survival, so an excellent solution in this case would be to use consulting services.

Consulting is a type of service that essentially means counseling. One company or person provides services to solve certain problems to another company.

The issues that can be solved with the help of consulting are very diverse. Sometimes it can be a whole range of tasks, and sometimes it is provided only in a narrow area. For example, accounting consulting is the involvement of a specialized company or employee to solve problems related to accounting. That is why when they talk about the concept of consulting, there is no clear definition.

Consulting services are the solution of organizational or managerial tasks within the company with the help of external specialists. Professional consultants in a certain area are invited to work in the company. Specialists assess the condition, see the cause of problems and create a system for solving these errors.

The company turns to consulting not only when it experiences difficulties in development. Often the manager decides to expand, so it is urgent to increase the number of specialists. But even if you hire them, it will still be necessary to spend months on training, monitoring the implementation of tasks, and only after that put complex tasks in front of them. And in a growing company there is not so much time.

Consulting firms are specialized companies that provide consulting services. There may be a staff of employees who simultaneously cooperate with different organizations.

Stages of ordering consulting services (infographics)

Types of consulting services

IT consulting is one of the newest and most demanded types of consulting in Ukraine. This is consulting and assistance in the field of information technology. In fact, IT consulting solves all issues related to the Internet and information business processes.
Marketing consulting. Not all companies can afford to open a marketing department or hire professional employee who will address these issues. And it is necessary to engage in advertising today, because this is the only way to stay on the market and be a leader. In many cases, marketing consulting services are provided along with IT consulting.
Legal consulting associated with the solution of current problems that are relevant to the law of the state. This will allow you to correctly evaluate the activities of the company and take the most profitable solutions. Legal advice is especially important during the expansion of the enterprise, when it will be necessary to open new branches or conclude agreements with intermediaries, suppliers.
Financial consulting- services related to effective management funds, the distribution of the budget within the firm, as well as the right external investments.
HR consulting undertakes the establishment of internal relations between employees, the selection of new specialists who will meet the requirements of the company.

Consulting and other professional services in the field of economics and management are the most important factor for Russia to reach the level of world management and management standards. entrepreneurial activity.

In the practice of industrialized countries with market economies, investments in the purchase of intellectual capital in the form of consulting services are considered to be much more effective than the purchase of machinery, equipment and technology. In Russia, in this area, a paradoxical situation has developed: in the presence of a large intellectual potential in the field of economics and management, its use during the transition to market economy decreased significantly. The old state forms of forced introduction of scientific knowledge are practically not used, and the involvement of independent consultants has not yet become sufficiently widespread. At the same time, most Russian enterprises are now in a difficult situation. economic situation, and not the last role in this was played by the fact that they could not find forms of managing their activities that would be adequate to the new economic conditions. At the same time, those few modern-minded managers who nevertheless decided to turn to the services of consultants have already experienced (often not without surprise) the effect of problematic diagnostics, financial and economic analysis, the definition of strategic goals in the conditions of market reform, the development of programs for recovery and exit. from the bankruptcy zone, active marketing, development of assortment, financial, tax and investment policies, etc.

An attempt to "save" on solving the problems of engineering, as shown by the experience of Russian enterprises, only exacerbates these problems and leads to huge financial and material losses. However, the majority of Russian managers, lacking relevant information about consulting services and skills in using consultants, are still trying to treat the diseases of their enterprises with “home remedies”.

Consulting is a professional assistance from management specialists to business managers and management staff various organizations(client) in the analysis and solution of problems of their functioning and development, carried out in the form of advice, recommendations and solutions jointly developed with the client.