Provide professional consultancy services to your clients
Overview
This standard is for entrepreneurs who provide professional consultancy services to their clients. It is recommended for professionals providing support to individuals considering starting their own business and running existing businesses, either on a voluntary or commercial basis. You need this for delivering a demand-led professional consultancy service that meets the needs of clients. It complements other national occupational standards related to consulting by outlining the skills and knowledge that are needed to be effective when working with individuals considering starting their own business or running existing business owner-managers. It requires you to develop a relationship with the client, manage expectations around the nature of the relationship and service to be provided, deliver a service which meets the needs of the client and introduce the client to other sources of support to add value to the experience of working with you.
Business support refers to assistance which is received from individuals or organisations outside of the business, related to a specific business problem or opportunity or development of the business. Enterprise support refers to assistance which is received by individuals considering starting their own business. A 'business' can mean an independent entity such as a private sector business, a social enterprise, a charitable or voluntary organisation, or a significant operating unit, with a relative degree of autonomy, within a larger organisation. It can also refer to a formal partnership where two or more businesses are working together towards common goals.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- develop your knowledge and skills about business and enterprise support
- communicate your experience of working with clients who are starting, or running, a small business
- identify your clients' needs and requirements
- review the strengths and weaknesses of clients' entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and behaviours
- assess the motivation of clients to start or run their own business
- question clients about the development of the business opportunity
- show understanding of the client's situation, including the business opportunities, their business model, the market, the people and the internal and external influences
- explain the process involved in working with you including expectations, specific stages and any costs involved
- deliver a consultancy service that is up to date, relevant and adds value to clients
- identify any mentoring requirements requested by clients
- agree with the client the goals and rules of the mentoring process and the duration of your relationship
- identify any training requirements requested by clients
- build solutions into the training experience to assist in addressing identified problems and opportunities
- deliver training that is up to date, relevant and adds value at a practical level
- identify the resources for the clients that motivate them to move from opportunity to action
- make sure that clients maintain control of their decisions about your professional services
- suggest to the client how they may enhance the effectiveness of the way they do things and the associated benefits and costs
- suggest the variety of options available to clients at a personal or business level
- refer clients to other business support providers to address specific areas of action, where required
- review your own working practice and performance on a regular basis
- comply with legal requirements, industry regulations, organisational policies and professional codes
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
Empathy with enterprise
1. the day-to-day pressures and responsibilities associated with running your own business or consultancy
2. the interplay of family and business relationships that small business owners and entrepreneurs may have to deal with
3. the different ways that entrepreneurs may think and behave from those in employment
The small business
4. the enterprising skills and knowledge that allow someone to start up, survive and thrive
5. the different stages involved in starting a business
6. the different functions involved in running a business including the key interrelationships and how they affect each other
7. how your experience can apply to different types of businesses and sectors
8. the current issues and practices related to the topics that you deliver consultancy on
9. the legal requirements, industry regulations, organisational policies and codes of ethics set by your organisation or a professional body
Principles of mentoring
10. the principles of mentoring set by your organisation
11. what your role is as a business and enterprise mentor
12. the resources and facilities which may be needed for the mentoring process
13. the rules to set for the mentoring process including how often to meet, the places and times to meet, what to do if someone cannot make a session and when to involve other work colleagues
14. how to identify and agree a contract for mentoring
Professional training
15. the range of issues that enterprise training may need to address
16. how to tailor training to suit the needs of individual clients
17. the benefits of delivering interactive and practical training based around the clients' needs and requirements in relation to starting their own business or running a small business
Consultancy service to a small business
18. how to adapt your service to suit the needs of clients
19. the ways in which the core service you offer can be expanded to deal with other issues that may be useful to clients
20. the benefits of taking a longer-term view of the business and what it will need in the future
21. why it is important to build the capability of the client and how this may lead to more
22. how to develop a pricing structure that will attract small businesses
23. the professionals and business support providers who deliver complementary services to yours
Develop the relationship with the clients
24. why it is important to get to know the clients as an individual and build a relationship with them
25. how to develop the clients' trust in you
26. the strength of personal recommendation as a source of new business
27. the importance of being proactive and thinking of innovative solutions when dealing with the clients
28. the advantages and disadvantages of different communication methods
29. the different reasons the client might have for starting or running a business and how these will affect their goals
Improve your performance
30. the boundaries of your expertise and knowledge in relation to supporting clients
31. how to collect and evaluate feedback to improve the consultancy you deliver