If you’ve ever met me professionally or socially and asked me what I do, I’ve probably wrapped some words around the theme of contributing to a plethora of business and economic development style projects across Cairns, Northern Australia, PNG and Micronesia.

If you left that conversation feeling slightly confused by my job, then you’re not alone.

The reality is, that if you’re in business, then my job is to help you!

So. Let’s unpack what this means! I'll kick off with some definitions – and not from any business dictionary; Forbes, Cambridge or Oxford – from a practical perspective…

Business Plan – a plan for how you intend to make money from your business idea. A document that draws together information about your customers, product and service, marketing, resources, money, people, legal requirements and risk management.

Vision, Mission, Goals – why are you doing this, where are you going, what do you want your business to look like in 5 and 10 years time.

Strategy (also referred to as ‘strategic planning’) – how are you getting there. (see above for where there actually is).

Business Development – making your business bigger and better. Making more money!

Financial Modelling – a tool that anticipates your income, expenses and profit or loss. We can help you to understand whether your great idea is likely to be profitable or not.

A Business Consultant looks at all the different elements of a business, holistically. Because a business isn’t successful just because of marketing, or just because of people, or just because of the software systems that back it up, or just because you understand your customer – a business is successful when you understand how all of these elements work together. A business consultant looks at the whole picture. The big picture. We see everything! And we bring it all together and come up with a plan to ensure you’re nailing all of these different elements. We help people wanting to get started in business and we help people already in business who want to grow, expand, develop and become more profitable. We can help when things aren’t going as planned and you’re wanting to get back on track. (And we also help with the boring stuff like structuring (sole trader v company), risk management and financial modelling).

So, as a Business Consultant, here are the types of Q’s that I help people out with: Every. Single. Day.

I’ve got this awesome idea that’s going to make me lots of money – can you help me get started?I’ve got this idea – but I’m not sure if there’s a market for it… can you help?We’ve been in business for a few years, its going really well. So now we’re looking at ways to expand – can you help with that?I’ve got a vision for my, but I’m struggling to figure out how to achieve it – can you assist?How do I know if my idea is going to make me money? And will it be enough to sustain my lifestyle?Should I set up as a sole trader, a company or are there other structures I should be considering?What are the risks to my business, what are my ‘show-stoppers’ and how should I be managing those?My revenue seems to be decreasing over time – how do I turn it around so my profits are increasing!?I really just need a business Mentor – someone who I can catch up with from time to time and ask questions of.

If you can relate to any of these questions, then a Business Consultant can help!