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Posts Tagged ‘consulting’

Before answering the all important question “who uses independent consultants?”, it is worth establishing the definition of a consultant. It is widely agreed that a consultant is a person who gives expert advice in a professional capacity.

In business-survival language, a person determined to become an independent consultant has to approach his search for clients with some kind of presumption that he will be able to establish good business relationships with enough people (especially business decision-makers) who will be prepared to consider hiring him (or her) for the expert advice he will be able to offer them and the style and manner with which he will offer it.

Then there are two other questions to be considered: who hires established independent consultants who have built-up a good reputations over several years and who already have a network of regular clients? And who might be likely to hire a new independent consultant?

Assuming established consultants have been newcomers to their market at some stage, the reality will be that they will have established a reputation and will have proven themselves to be very valuable to the clients they have served since they set-up their consulting business. They will be hired because of these attributes: the services they provide will have become reliable and well-suited to their client base; they will have developed an understanding of the businesses and have a mature professional relationship with the individuals they communicate with.

The independent consultant should provide them with easy access to his or her expertise when they need it. They do not need to employ an expert member of staff and find other work for the employee to fill up their day. The client will also not need to pay for holidays or sick-leave. Savings like these will matter especially to small businesses interested in lower operating costs wherever possible.

An independent consultant will want to be well respected in their niche. They should be known to reinforce their existing expertise by buying relevant trade publications and keeping up their memberships of the professional bodies that will help keep them up to date on professional matters, and even to spend money on important training courses. This also spares clients the need to include any of these in their own budgets for employees.

But perhaps the most fundamental reason why an established consultant will be consistently hired is that most old-fashioned ingredient: reliability. He will be going out of his way to make sure that his clients can feel confident he will always be there for them, ready to help them sort out their problems. Quite often they can’t be confident their own staff would be that diligent.

It has to be said that a newcomer looking to establish himself in any type of consultancy will have a tougher job these days than ever before. At the same time as there is more awareness among business managers of the valuable role of consulting support, more and more employees are being exposed to the work that the consultants are doing for their bosses and think to themselves, “I could do that.”

If these employees decide to leave the safety of their employers to become independent consultants, some might survive for a time on work passed to them by former managers who they shared a mutual respect with when they worked together. But nowadays it takes a determined person with an entrepreneurial spirit to find and set themselves up as an independent consultant where they will survive and prosper without any corporate cotton wool to protect them.

Market research is an essential part of the aspiring independent’s business planning. This period also provides an excellent opportunity to ask for meetings with business managers who do not yet use consultancy services - planting a seed that can be nurtured in the months ahead, so that a portfolio of prospects can be developed.

Who will actually hire him? It will depend on how good he can market himself and what expertise he has to offer. “Mr Company Director, we have met before and you have explained why your company doesn’t employ consultants. I have thought more about our conversation and it occurred to me …

Outsourcing medical billing to the correct billing company can insure that they have the same incentives as you do.

Almost all medical billing companies are paid a percentage of what they collect. This means they are only paid when you are paid. It also means the more they collect for your practice, the more they are paid. Internal medical billers, on the other hand, are almost always hourly employees. They are paid based on showing up in your office, not based upon how well they perform your medical billing or how much money they collect for your practice. This is not an alignment of incentives.

Most people would prefer all their service providers to have “skin in the game” and only be paid for success versus just for making an attempt. For instance, would you prefer to pay your mechanic only if he properly fixed your car (and only for a previously agreed to price) or would you prefer to pay him an hourly rate and hope he will be as effective and efficient as possible in performing the job?

I recently spoke with a partner at a busy cardiology practice. While one of the billers was out sick, some paperwork was required and the supervisor went looking for it. When the supervisor opened the missing biller’s desk, a stack of unfiled, old claims was discovered. It turned out about $40,000 of them were past timely filling deadlines. They were lost. I repeat-the practice lost $40,000! When the biller returned from her leave, she was “sternly” reprimanded. Let me say it one more time-she was reprimanded. Not fired, but reprimanded. Either way, the practice lost $40,000 in just this one instance alone.

When I asked the doctor why a more severe action was not taken, he explained to me that “we already have staffing problems and did not want to alienate the billing staff any further.” The guilty biller was apparently moved to the front-desk role and is now responsible for gathering demographic information and money.

There should be safety nets in place to catch $40,000 in missing claims. So how could this have gone unnoticed until a desk excavation? The office did not track and reconcile charges, payments or write-offs. The doctors had been told that the practice’s system could not report at this level. The system, however, indeed had the capability to do this, but the billing staff did not know how to properly use it. Without the the fully aligned incentives of a medical billing company, the investment is often not made to full utilize the capabilities of a practice’s medical billing system. $40,000 in missing charges is likely only the tip of the ice berg for this medical practice.

Utilizing a medical billing service that meets the following criteria can help you avoid a medical billing horror story like the one above:

- Complete visibility and tracking of charge and payment batches should be in place. This will prevent anything from “falling through the cracks”.

- Any claims that are denied for timely filing should be the responsibility of the billing company. In other words, they should make the practice whole if they fail to file your claims. This is not a demand you can make of in-house billers (it is not even legal to make it).

- You should have access to the billing system so that you can see real time status of your account.

Physicians are working harder for less as costs rise and reimbursements fall. This is exacerbated by selecting a medical billing approach that does not have the proper alignment of incentives to prevent disasters (such as $40,000 in unbilled charges) from occurring.

No - your staff will not work harder for you just because you employ them; and No - the biller who lost you $40,000 will not do any better job collecting money and gathering information from patients. You will probably need to “sternly” reprimand them again.

A judicious selection of a medical billing company that meets the criteria outlined above is your most direct and reliable method for avoiding your own medical billing horror stories.

Copyright 2008 by Carl Mays II

Consultants can have a negative reputation - charging $2 million for 12 weeks work that results in stacks of PowerPoint slides, all of which are archived into a dusty closet (digital or otherwise) soon after McKBain Group leaves the premises.

Below, Ill paint a more positive (and somewhat more realistic) view on the 6 reasons why companies need management consultants. By reading this article, youll have a better understanding of the consulting industry as a potential career.

1) Staff augmentation - self-explanatory. Companies often have short-term staffing needs (in the case of government work, this can extend for a long time) due to a variety of factors (eg, employee downsizings, sudden expansion). While expensive, its common for operational consultancies (eg, Deloitte and Accenture) and, to a lesser extent, for public-sector consultancies (eg, Booz Allen)

2) External change force aka political cover. It can be hard for companies to do whats needed (eg, sacred cows) - particularly when it comes to employee layoffs, salary reductions, major operational changes. Hiring business consultants can help accomplish needed goals with sufficient political cover in case select parties protest (eg, displeased Board or disgruntled employees) or things go wrong (Despite the significant cost increase, we implemented BCGs recommendations ” theres little that what we could have done better)

3) Best practices across industries and functions - consultants have the helpful experience of:

a) Serving multiple clients in the same sector (eg, Consumer Software, Automotive) b) Serving multiple clients facing similar functional problems in different sectors (eg, North African expansion, East Asia outsourcing)

This enables them to identify common characteristics of effective solutions.

4) Analytical manpower

A corollary to staff augmentation, companies often require help to address problems where their knowledge and skillsets are lacking. Consultants can be of great value given their training - a big reason why consulting jobs are hard to find!

5) Fresh perspective

Companies often need a new set of eyes - youd be amazed at the amount of value management consultants can add due to seemingly mundane observations and insights. Critics contend that this is clear evidence of consultants selling common sense, but for front-line employees up to top-level management, it can be easy to overlook mistakes and inefficiencies without a critical eye towards measurement, analysis, and improvement.

6) Skillset augmentation and training

Id argue that every consulting project - particularly ones with close client interaction - incorporates employee training as a primary ingredient. Big recommendations are worthless if clients dont implement and maintain suggested changes after Bain leaves. Thus, a central part of what business consultants do is to train client employees on necessary knowledge, capabilities, and mindsets.

Chiropractic article marketing is something that has been growing in popularity in 2009 because of its widespread effectiveness. It consists of you or someone you hire writing an article that is relevant to your practice or website. This is an extremely effective method of online chiropractic marketing for the fact that people have become increasingly interested in the profession and how it can help them.

More and more people are becoming interested in what chiropractic can do for them as the field itself becomes more innovative and all-encompassing. Already there are new breakthroughs in chiropractic that help people get-rid of pain, deal with high blood pressure, heal migraines, and so much more. What this means is that there are thousands of people daily who search the internet for chiropractic answers. What this means for your practice is that by putting relevant information on the internet, youre catching these seekers and driving them to your site daily.

When you put yourself out on the internet, youre making your name and face synonymous with what you do. In essence, this can be successful branding of your practice and your profession if you know how to harness it. When people start to attribute your name and face as the leader in chiropractic in their area, theyre going to be insistent on coming through your doors when they need you. If youre giving people specific and helpful information in your articles, then they feel like they can trust you and want to know more about you. This is marketing is subtle, yet powerful.

When you use chiropractic article marketing in your game plan, the articles can also be found in search engine search results just like web pages are. This is because they are indexed by search engine robots very well. So, when someone searches for the keywords that were used to tag your article, your article may come up.

The trick is, to get great indexing and search engine standing; you cant actually promote yourself in these articles. They have to be content-rich. So, what you do is write all the insight and information that you have in these helpful articles, then in the resource box youre going to create a link to your site.

Since search engine robots index articles quickly, they will follow the link to your website, which will also increase your ranking at a rapid rate. Part of the website ranking process involves how many inbound links you have on the internet. To maximize placement, the quality of those links must be high. Having your link in your article makes the link a higher quality one and is crucial to your chiropractic marketing.

A bunch of low quality links will do very little for you in the long run. Remember, its all about quality. The more high quality your links are from higher page-ranked sites and the more high quality the information that you put in your articles, the greater effect this will have on your chiropractic internet marketing.

If you are not using chiropractic article marketing to market your practice, you can outsource to a service that specializes in Web 2.0 / social media propagation to get the job done. This is a great alternative when you don’t have the staff or the time to write the articles yourself. As the world is turning more toward the internet, it is important that you engage in chiropractic internet marketing so you can bring in new patients at a steady rate and beat the economic recession at hand.

#3 SKILL DEVELOPMENT

I’m biased, but I received the best business training possible in my years at McKinsey. Intense and thorough exposure to textbook business principles and practices. In addition, the team-based model leads to mentorship opportunities with managers, partners, and coworkers. Finally, you have close client interaction which develops “client skills” - from managing client teams to leading meetings to learning how to navigate diverse corporate cultures.

Having said that, here’s a quick list of what you can expect to learn in both industries:

To clarify - by “hard skills”, I mean software tools (ie Microsoft Office Suite), analytics (eg, financial valuation). By “soft skills”, I mean the interpersonal skills to influence and work effectively with clients, coworkers, and managers.

CONSULTING

Hard skills:

1) Microsoft Powerpoint - you will (and have to) become a master at this, and will eventually have the ability to produce presentations quickly, concisely, and meaningfully

2) Microsoft Excel - you’ll get less exposure than in banking. Still, “modeling” is a big component of any consultant’s work. Note - “financial modeling” in consulting projects is not identical to financial modeling at investment banks

3) Business expertise - you’ll get exposure to different industries and functions, and begin to develop specializations if you are interested. This expertise may be as broad as “market entry strategy” and or specific as “benchmarking for consumer goods companies”.

Soft skills:

1) Client handling (explained above)

2) Close team interaction

3) Communication skills - this is a critical element of consulting work. Findings are useless if you can’t persuade clients to believe in them and implement recommendations

4) Project/workflow planning and execution - this is subtle but important. Much of the time at investment banks, you are given incremental work - eg, add these updated numbers to the model, bind these presentations, insert a graph on chart 11. Consulting is focused on you OWNING a piece of the entire project, setting your own deliverables and timeline, and executing against that framework. This helps you develop the ability to be “standalone” in consulting lingo.

INVESTMENT BANKING

Hard skills:

1) Microsoft Excel - clearly you will become a master at this, and is a mandatory for success. You’ll know the ins-and-outs, every keyboard shortcut known to man (and then some), and so forth

2) Microsoft Powerpoint - much less exposure here depending on your firm and division (for instance, more in Corporate Finance, less in Mergers & Acquisitions). Practically no experience building strong presentations beginning to end

3) Financial valuation - differs based on your group and focus, but at the very least you’ll understand financial statements, and have a strong knowledge of how companies are financed

Soft skills:

1) Work endurance - this is the one benefit of 100+ hour weeks, which is the ability to work long and hard. Every job you take after banking will feel like a vacation. It’s a great trait to have and desired by employers

2) Seeing the deal-making process - bankers have better access to the business leaders of the day. As a junior banker, you may not have close interaction but will be exposed through meetings, conference calls, etc to these people and get to see how deals are executed

The last 2 points in this post are shorter, because I plan to write separate entries on each of them in the future

#4 NETWORKING

Consultants move on to a broad array of careers - from corporate to academia, non-profit to public sector. Investment bankers generally continue within the financial world. Your professional network and future career opportunities will be influenced by your firm connections and colleagues.

In addition - my perspective is that consulting firms (similar to point #2) facilitate more interactions between alumni and current employees as well as future networking between alumni than investment banks. However, bulge-bracket investment banks have a much larger alumni base, and it certainly isn’t impossible for you to build strong connections provided you are proactive and innovative enough.

#5 EXIT OPPORTUNITIES

Corollary to point #4, this is influenced by your firm’s alumni and also the following:

-the different headhunters and recruiters that reach out to you

-the different roads your colleagues take and the opportunities that you share with each other

-the relationships you’ve built with more senior colleagues and the doors they can open for you

The conclusion is simple: if you want career flexibility, consulting is the right choice. If you want career flexibility WITHIN finance (and corporate financial roles), investment banking is the right choice.

A great post to read is my “Large management consulting firms versus boutique consulting companies” post for more info on differences between the two.

There are five basic steps to the financial planning process. Your financial planner will typically want to have an initial meeting to determine the suitability of any engagement. Afterwards, there are generally five steps to the planning process: data gathering, plan preparation, plan presentation, plan implementation, and on-going monitoring.

1. Financial Planning Process: Data gathering.

The data gathering session often takes place in your home. It is a whirlwind of information, and may take the planner anywhere from 2 hours to all day to finish. The planner will want to inspect all of your documents. This includes tax returns, income statements, pensions, wills, trusts, insurance policies, investments, brokerage accounts, bank statements, retirement plans, and other tangible pieces of information.

But there’s also subjective information, such as: What are your lifestyle goals? How do you want to distribute your estate? At what age do you want to retire? How much income do you want during retirement? Then there are the assumptions that need to be figured into the whole process. What’s going to happen to interest rates? Where is the economy headed? How much inflation will occur? Your planner will want your feelings on these things to see if expectations are realistic.

Lastly, your planner will look at your personal attitudes towards risk, taxes, and the importance of simplicity in your financial affairs. The goal of the data gather is for your planner to have a good understanding of where you are now and where you want to be in the future.

2. Financial Planning Process: Plan preparation.

Plan preparation generally takes around three to four weeks, as the planner does analysis, diagnostics, and research. The planner will locate the most efficient path to get you to your life goals.

For example, maybe it’s a family partnership. Or a family corporation. Or a family trust. They’ll look at all the pros and cons — then prepare written recommendations. Some will be major strategic recommendations. Others will be minor tactical recommendations. They will all fit together.

3. Financial Planning Process: Plan presentation.

Once your plan is prepared, your planner will schedule time to present their findings to you. During this first meeting, he’ll present the plan to you and review any major points. You’ll then take the plan home to read and study. It is important that you sit down with your spouse (if applicable) and fully examine the plan. Write down any questions that you have regarding it.

When you get back together with your planner, you’ll go over the plan in detail. They’ll answer your questions. Clarify details. As you agree on each recommendation, your planner will prioritize them into an “Implementation Check List.” It’s simply a “To Do” list for you and your planner.

4. Financial Planning Process: Plan implementation.

The first three steps often only take around a month to accomplish.

The next step, step four, generally takes much longer - typically around five or six months. During this period, your planner will discuss topics such as tax planning, retirement planning, estate planning, and insurance issues. Other experts, such as attorneys, may be brought in to work on specific aspects of your plan.

In the end, your plan might have as many as 25 recommendations. A few recommendations will be major, broad, strategic recommendations, each worth thousands of dollars to you. The remainder will be fine-tuning recommendations — crossing the T’s, dotting the I’s, and making sure your financial affairs are really in order.

5. Financial Planning Process: On-going monitoring and maintenance.

Here the planner should be retained to provide periodic updates and on-going advice. Perhaps there are a couple of tax-planning sessions each year, portfolio reviews, insurance updates, etc. Perhaps you need some questions answered about whether you should refinance your mortgage, lease or buy a car, etc. Your planner should alert you to changes in conditions that directly affect your plan.

There are a lot of people that are never satisfied with how they look no matter what you tell them. Whether it means improving facial features, or features of the body. With that in mind, There are more people than ever getting plastic surgery.

One of the types of plastic surgery that has become more popular is that of butt implants. The process of buttock augmentation is a painful one with risks and rewards. Most of the people that have gotten butt implants are quite happy with the results, but on occasion things can go wrong such as leaks in the implants, or too much sagging of the skin.

There seems to be a lot of hype around butt implants for another reason too. You almost can’t even begin to count the various actors and actresses who have gotten them. That however should never be a deciding factor if you are considering getting implants to try to improve your body.

While it may seem like a funny subject, butt implants is nothing to joke about. It is a very serious decision for someone to make whether to get them or not. If you are wondering why i say this then consider one of the major issues with getting butt implants that could cause you to regret your decision within a few years or even a few months.

Many have noticed that after getting butt implants, that they were having a hard time sitting down for very long. The feeling of buttock implants have actually caused a great deal of pain because of the constant rubbing against the walls of skin around the buttock. This has left many to having bad posture over time because of slouching or sitting at an angle to decrease pain.

Once again a serious matter to consider. Getting butt implants is ultimately up to you, and nobody can make the choice but you. It is just best to always consider the potential dangers and possible problems that could result. This helps you to be fully aware of what you are getting into well before the operation.

We wish you the best whatever you may choose, and hope that you will work closely with your doctor should you decide that you want to go forward with the procedure.