Why companies hire consultants
 
Hiring a consultant can be a hard choice. The perception for most business owners is that consultants are too costly and time-consuming. When you work with the right consultant though, that doesn’t have to be the case.
 
Business owners usually start thinking about hiring a consultant when one of the following situations occurs.
 

• After identifying specific goals that your business is working toward
• A need to bring focused skills or knowledge to your work
• To mediate a dispute or difficult situation
• You need a fresh perspective on a project or strategy

 
Finding the right consultant
 
Having a clear understanding of your specific business goals and needs for hiring a consultant can make a big difference in finding the right fit.

Here are the 5 things for business owners to consider.

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​We recently added a new guide on our Resources page!

If you're thinking about selling your business, C Squared can help. Take a look at our free PDF guide to get a better understanding of how the process works and what actions C Squared takes to kick-start the next phase of your business (and life!).

Download it here!

What does your workday look like? Is it a whirlwind of acronyms, apps, CRMs, social media, PM tools and SAAS platforms?

The availability of business tools on the market right now can be overwhelming. Even when you’re not looking (talking to you, targeted Facebook ads) it’s easy to become bombarded with all the options designed to help your business.

Here are our 5 tips to beat the overwhelm when choosing business tools.

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Being a new manager or small business owner can be a scary transition and the best way to combat those creeping fears of  ‘Am I actually good enough?’ and ‘Is this the right way to do this?’  is with more knowledge. 

Below are 5 books for new managers or small business owners focused on productivity and motivating yourself and your employees, that C Squared recommends (in no particular order). 

You can also check out more recommendations on our Resources page. 

                                                                                      ...Click the link below to view the book list

1. Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk 
In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader. Then one day he turned on a video camera, and by using the secrets revealed here, transformed his entire life and earning potential by building his personal brand. By the end of this book, readers will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Step by step, Crush It! is the ultimate driver’s manual for modern business.

2. Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker
Entrepreneurs often suffer from ”superhero syndrome”—the misconception that to be successful, they must do everything themselves. Not only are they the boss, but also the salesperson, HR manager, copywriter, operations manager, online marketing guru, and so much more. It’s no wonder why so many people give up the dream of starting a business—it’s just too much for one person to handle.

Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business is the step-by-step guide every entrepreneur needs to build his or her business with the asset of working with virtual employees. 

3. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In DEEP WORK, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

4. Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations by Dan Ariely
Bestselling author Dan Ariely reveals fascinating new insights into motivation—showing that the subject is far more complex than we ever imagined.

Payoff investigates the true nature of motivation, our partial blindness to the way it works, and how we can bridge this gap. With studies that range from Intel to a kindergarten classroom, Ariely digs deep to find the root of motivation—how it works and how we can use this knowledge to approach important choices in our own lives. Along the way, he explores intriguing questions such as: Can giving employees bonuses harm productivity? Why is trust so crucial for successful motivation? What are our misconceptions about how to value our work? How does your sense of your mortality impact your motivation?​

5. Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers by Erika Andersen 
Erika Andersen has helped some of the best-managed companies in the world develop their employees. Now she explains how to stay ahead of the competition by investing in your people. You’ll discover that: 
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• Listening is your most powerful asset. Use it to motivate and build commitment.
• Everything you know about interviewing is wrong. Discover what you really need in a potential employee.
• Successful companies hire for keeps. Get people feeling like part of the team from day one.

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Whether you’re a first-time manager or a senior executive, Andersen will help you create a dynamic workplace, where the efforts you make today will blossom into success for years to come.
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I was at a talk in Denver recently, hosted by tech staffing solution BWBacon, stacked with speakers whose talks were on the theme of disrupting the status quo in HR practices. Interesting idea – while there have been tons of serious innovations in HR, staffing, and payroll processes in the last few years, nobody has really heard about them – and one talk struck me as particularly insightful. The speaker explained that in her business, the person responsible for controlling their labor cost outflows wasn’t an HR person – it was an analyst from their financial department.
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It’s definitely food for thought. There’s a certain intuitive disrupt-y-ness to it: getting the important money decisions out of the hands of those fluffy HR people and over to the professional money-people. I bet you could even drum up some fun-sounding rationalizations about using technology to change a landscape, or making “data-driven decisions“ about something or other.

I appreciate the attempt to innovate in the area of human resources but I think that this attitude fundamentally misunderstands the role of a good HR person.

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​A Department of Labor study found that up to 30% of businesses misclassified employees as independent contractors. 

Should you be hiring employees or independent contractors? There’s no one size fits all answer, it depends on how you want to accomplish your goals. 

The main importance behind employee classification regulations is their effect on taxes, payroll items like overtime and deductions, and eligibility for benefits, such as health insurance and paid time off. Classifying employees can be complex and if not done properly, can be very costly and time-consuming for businesses. 

The Department of Labor (DOL) is the governmental agency that handles misclassification of employees (among many other things, of course). You can find out more about misclassification directly from the DOL here. 

                                                                                          ...Click the link below to read more

Many businesses shy away from hiring independent contractors but properly classified contractors can be a great asset to small businesses. They are generally experts in their field, have greater flexibility and you will likely save money by hiring an independent contractor since you don’t have to pay additional payroll taxes or offer benefits.

Employees on the other hand, are usually a better fit if your business requires more day-to-day supervision and monitoring over processes and results or need staff that can be flexible in handling other roles throughout the business.

Business owners should pay close attention to how workers are classified - no matter how many employees or contractors you hire. We recommend reviewing your job descriptions and classifications quarterly to make sure they are up to date and to reduce your risks of misclassification complaints. 

C Squared has a wealth of experience with the Department of Labor. In addition to many internal audits for small businesses, Christopher Ray has previously worked at the DOL and Chariss Tatman had the delight of managing a comprehensive DOL audit - so if you’re unsure how to classify your employees, are looking to do an internal audit or were recently notified of a DOL audit contact C Squared. ​