Find The Right Help For Hire

Expert opinions and guidance can help your business soar—but before you invest, be sure you know what you’re looking for.

- Adam Bornstein

We’d like to hire a consulting firm to help our business grow, but we’ve been burned in the past. How do we find a good fit?

—BOBBY A., San Diego

WHEN I FIRST started my consulting agency, I took on every client who showed interest in our services. We were new, and I truly believed we could add value anywhere. It was a huge mistake. Early on, we were a catchall branding agency, trying to be everything to everyone. We offered public relations and design services, and we specialized in growth—building an audience, creating social marketing, helping sites convert audience members into customers. We had too many clients to juggle and lacked focus. We ended up with some hits, sure, but we had way too many misses.

Today, we reject more than 90 percent of the folks who knock on our door, and that’s been the best move for our clients and our business. Deeper integration means better results, and better results means better case studies that demonstrate our work and impact. The job of a consultant isn’t to have lots of clients—it’s to add significant value to every single client.