Background

Consultancy can be defined as the process of providing independent service to meet needs of the clients in exchange for money. Independent consultant has become a popular choice of career for individuals having a greater control on their future. Being you own manager is considered as one of the eye-catching proposal and in current economy where knowledge is regarded as the king since there are large number of persons who have the feeling that they can earn a very good living by selling their knowledge (Drucker 2014). Consulting forms one of the viable and growing options and several studies have suggested that individuals undertake the options of independent consultant as the choice of their career.

The study is based on the objective of providing understanding the role of independent consultant by embarking on the journey towards independent consultant. It is noteworthy to denote that more than half of the independent consultant business works in the form of sole trader business. Moving away from the environment of the corporate industry, giving up the full time paid employment and undertaking the alternative lifestyle leads to the presentation of challenges however, careful planning enables an individual to build a successful business of independent consultancy (Kirzner 2015). The key to succeed independent consultant is having the accurate individual merits and skills along with the understanding of the administration practices. The element of fee is considered as an important aspect of providing plenty of advice however; they make sure that the independent consultant gets the correct fee for their imparting their expertise.

Consultant is defined as the providing a service by the expert advisor with every sole business and occupation have several forms of consultant. There are large number of consulting business whose focal point is on the exact areas such as expertise, scheduling, premeditated services and organization consulting. There are large numbers of independent consultants who help the school system and universities create improved programs for their clients or assist the clients to come with the improved fiscal plan (Baum, Frese and Baron 2014). There are several numbers of consultants in the areas of sports, investment banking, publishing corporation and accounting firms. Accurately, anyone having a profitable knowledge can become an independent consultant, but to be a good consultant in any area one have to develop very specific kinds of merits and skills. With sufficient level of knowledge in consulting, an individual can opt to become a generalist consultant or a specific consultant. A generalist consultant posses the knowledge of making an universal improvement of the company. These kinds of individuals have several kinds of skills and knowledge in the areas of information technology, accounting and business management. They combine this knowledge to provide their clients with the plan to improve the prevailing situation. A specialist independent consultant on the other hand, focuses on particular area such as building writing skills, human resource management, accounting practices (Kuratko 2016). They gain all the knowledge and information they can based on the specific areas so that they can share the same with their clients and improve the one so that they can function in the company.

Knowledge

Consulting involves collection of project as one of the most significant skills of building the consulting needs along with the ability to work well with others. Independent is better able to handle people by listening and speaking with them at the time of consulting them. Along with knowledge an independent consultant should also have the ability to communicate in better way in order to be triumphant. Apart from being with individuals, another significant criterion, which the consultant needs to be having, is the service-oriented personality. An independent consultant must have the willingness to meet their clients (Nordman 2014). An independent consultant may have the excellent knowledge in the areas of consultant but if an the consultant cannot fulfil the requirement of the clients then under such circumstances they have wasted the time of their clients along with their own as well.

Even though an independent consultant is functioning with other people as the consultant management skills and the capability to work with others comes up with the ideas on their own by making a logical reasoning of the prevailing situations. An independent consultant is charged with the responsibility of fixing and changing an important feature of the corporation or company. The proprietors and the managers may look forward to tell the independent consultant what they need to do in order make their corporation better. An independent consultant should come to their job with the foundations of ideas, which are reasonable and must be ready to take charge with their work (Speculand 2014). It is noteworthy to denote that there should be no hiding back and providing someone else pick up the slack when it comes to independent consulting. An independent consultant should be the one possessing the ability of making difference with themselves and working on with success. Solving problem for the consultant might be considered as an easy job but executing the same is not always considered as one of the simple job. While trading with diverse types of business having varied regulations and policies, depending on one answer is considered silly but also regarded as downright wrong.

An independent consultant must have the knowledge of thinking several alternatives for the arrive at the solutions while performing their work. Beyond being specialised in one skill there are certain other areas where few other kinds of basic skills is needed (Dent and Whitehead 2013). An independent consultant ought to have immense skills of writing, business acumen, management skills and computer skills as well. Without such kinds of skills an independent consultant will not be ale to get to the doors of the company which they would like to work with. Several people join the business of consulting by specialising themselves in the areas of their own expertise. This is regarded as one of the easiest way of working in a consulting business. An independent consultant ought to have the necessary skills concerning their educational background, as having these kinds of experience will make them an ideal applicant. The most important knowledge, which an independent consultant should look for, is having the functional knowledge with the eagerness and ability to solve the problems of their clients (Muhammad et al. 2014). It is worth mentioning that every profession requires having a strong presence on online.

Education

The consultant needs to pull out from their stops and they should be certain that they can offer new ideas to their clients for an extended period of time. The job of independent consultant is considered as one of the tough jobs since it requires long hours of working with high pressure. There are often circumstances where deadlines are often tight and the most toughest part is getting along to work with tough people and pleasing them as well. The upside part of the independent consultant is that they usually enjoy their work and tends to generate a sufficient living for themselves with their own level of knowledge (Pillania 2014). Apart from knowledge one of the most important thing, which an independent consultant needs to bear in mind, is that they need to possess adequate level of personality and skills to actually complement their work.

There is no such kind of single requirement to become a specialist rather than those stated in relation to the medical, psychological and business personnel having attained such level of degree in it and professional licences. Consultant may even hold the degree of undergraduates, graduates, professional degree along with the specialized designation related to their areas of knowledge. In few areas consultant is under the obligation to hold certain kind of specialized licences such as a civil engineer providing consulting knowledge related to the construction of bridge. In other types of consulting, there are no such requirements of specific kinds of qualification. An independent consultant with legal knowledge may have to be the member of the bar and must be holding the degree of law. An accounting independent consultant may hold the degree of chartered accountants statues with an accounting designation (Czerniawska 2016). In addition to this, there are certain individuals who become consultants after a long and distinguished career in the form of executive or political leader. Hence, their management and government experience may be their central credentials instead of a degree of professional designations.

Bachelor degree programs are centrally designed for business analyst, however there are several individuals who earn their degrees in the areas related to finance, business, management, business administration and accounting. There are individuals who specifically know their fields of consultancy and they generally intend to pursue their degree in those specialised areas. For instance if an individual is having an interest in computer they may wish to make their living through earning a degree in computer science. Other courses to consider for the independent consultant are to consider the areas of advertising, psychology, human resource, political science and government. Some business and government agencies often require independent consultant holding a masters degree in the areas of business administration or even hold an advance degree (L?z?roiu 2015). Having a master degree programmes in business is considered as popular and can be often found in variety of universities along with several private colleges. In addition to this, there are large numbers of quality distance learning programmes that offer well-established degree in both traditional and well-established institutions as well.

At some point an individual consultant is required to decide on the areas of their specialisation. The specialisation is entirely dependent upon the individual education as the can determine what positions they intend to get in and what kind of business they intend to consult. Individual consultant may intend to specialise themselves by including in the areas of sales management, administration and human resources. An individual may also look to specialize themselves in the areas of information technology, accounting and finance, projects and corporation projects. Some individual’s consultant may also emphasis on focussing entirely on the marketing as well (Brandon et al. 2016). An individual who is employed externally to the client and provides his expertise on temporary basis are generally considered as sole proprietor consultants having their own small business. This kind of independent consultant generally specialised themselves by engaging themselves with multiple number of clients and changing their clients which are generally companies, non-profit organisations and governments.

Work experience is generally considered as one of the most vital aspect in each kind of occupation. It is very vital in the field of consultancy and administration analysis. Before attaining the degree of graduation or instantly after earning the degree, a hopeful consultant or management analyst must pursue for the beginners position with the personal business, government and non-profit organisation, which an individual desires to work. Having a paid employment for commencing the position especially in the areas of private sector is necessary for an independent consultant (Harris, Gibson and Taylor 2015). Nevertheless, individuals must also take into the considerations the non-payment internship as the stepping stone of getting their foot in the door. There are large numbers of consultants who enter into the profession of independent consultant after years of service; hence, new graduates may aspire to consider before beginning their career in the connected field.

Work understanding and on the job, education helps in providing a wide variety of service options as individual professionals look to move ahead in their career. It is necessary for independent consultant to have considerable amount of experience in business. Gaining a work experience in particular business or in information technology is typically necessary to be working as an independent consultant in that sector (Hakanen 2014). By gaining a desirable amount of experience, an independent consultant may be able to increase their potential of helping clients. While gaining a work experience for independent consultant is especially helpful as they can participate in the market forums and assist the external representatives in managing relations with the clients.     

Commenting upon my work place, I have focused on developing my communication skills by undertaking regular shifts so that I could work on improving my communication skills with the help of my supervisors and staff members. I am able to communicate more than with my colleagues so that I can overcome my self-esteem. At my workplace, working with my teams forms essential on the other hand communication is important of for my group associates to understand my viewpoint. The requirement of job is possessing the capability to interconnect with the persons belonging from diverse upbringings and values to obtain encouraging response from the directors. I have improved my communiqué by regularly collaborating with my supervisor efficiently during any stage of my work. I often communicate with my managers with the help of email to schedule my work for every week. Working with teams has helped me to co-ordinate with my teams as this helps me finishing up my work on time.

Working in teams helps me developing proper knowledge at my workplace. Furthermore, teamwork is important since it helps me in developing the interpersonal skills. Working with new people at my workplace helps me in meeting new people as this gives me the opportunity of building a new relationship. My interpersonal skills has helped me in developing more self-confidence as I am able to overcome my introvert behaviour. On the other hand, my time management at work has helped me in planning and organizing my work before going to my workplace. I ensure that I am able to plan my daily routine by finding out the bus in order to reach my workplace on time. I additionally ensure, that day before the work I pack all my necessary items in my bag. This has helped me in arriving at my workplace on time. I work to ensure that my managers can now remain dependent on me with more number of bookings for work.

I have even worked on my leadership skills as this has helped me in leading me team members coming from different backgrounds and culture. Leading team of different cultures helps me to interact with them in clear lines as this helps in getting task done accordingly at my workplace. I am able to attain the ability to present at the time of being employed for an assignment during my study in campus. Employed in groups has helped in me enhancing the skills to make use of different styles to create a nice presentation. I was able to develop the intellectual skills at the time of working in class to present my presentation. I undertook the opportunity to take charge to provide explanation of my presentation. I was able to develop the self-assurance assistances industrialised at workplace by working regularly in new setting that provide me with the aptitude to encounter with new persons.

Being focussed at project has helped in developing a variety of skills by observing other colleagues executing their work perfectly to have a better career. I was able to develop my listening skills at workplace that has helped me in improving by paying attention to my administrator by elucidating the assigned job without asking for the information numerous intervals. I also listen to my colleagues patiently and gain the valuable feedback at time of working with groups. I have also understood the importance of working and listening patiently to customers as this helps me in meeting the expectations without obtaining any kind of negative feedback. My career largely consists of engaging with customer’s service as I have to contract with numerous application from clienteles to get my job done punctually and obtain valuable customer satisfaction.

My group has the project to present in class, which is associated with the small and medium size firms. The group often conduct meetings in class so that it can monitor the progress of any personal. Every individual in my group associates contributed to draft down any thoughts to perform the performance more positive than the other group associates. This is for the reason that we were first person from the class to commence the presentation. After the second meeting each team members illustrated their explanation, which they understood following the discovery of their topic. The group further communicated regarding the means which can be used and someplace it can be bought to be put into use for performance. For the presentation of project, it is necessary to attend to my classmates patiently by not doing again the similar thing constantly. Interpersonally skills was also developed at work with the individual in assemblies with whom I have hardly worked ever. However, this provided me with the chance to study new stuffs and implement to make me superior in that part. Following the performance, the group associates also performed a light conversation in order to reproduce back on each member’s presentation. The performance in the session was great in order to convey our concept in class.

The group discussion defined the roles and responsibilities of each members and explained the necessary things to be considered in order to make the presentation look better in class. My key decision involved undertaking more responsibilities in the group. Following the accomplishment of the allocated task I enquired the team leaders to undertake additional work in order to get things done more rapidly. For the presentation, I undertook the responsibilities of finding out the video, which is associated with the topic in order to make the presentation more interesting for the viewers. My actions were further sent to the members of the group to gain the valuable feedback regarding my actions. The important conclusion that was undertaken in this performance was gratifying the learners following the pop quiz. I took the actions to meet the cut-off date that was conversed during the group.

I even sent my share of performance to the group lead beforehand. My accountability comprised of visiting the reading room on regular basis to discover the info concerning the theme that was about to be presented in discussion. For the purpose of presentation we were required to collect information concerning the topic which was about to be presented in class. I undertook the decision of going in to the class an hour before the commencement of the presentation. The group associates even had the concluding quiz following the performance of my job, which was primarily to aimed to help the members with the questions of asking in class. The group that had accomplished the test was even rewarded for their tough work. It was found that one of our group members was unaware of the task allocated and the team members undertook the opportunity of explaining as they helped him to obtain a good score for our performance.

The group rehearsal was performed in the reading room prior to going for the final performance. This is for the reason that the other members were present late and I undertook the act of rehearsing before the other team members go up. Afterward the group lead had turned up I had decided to represent my alterations to slide and requested for enhancement in the area of presentation. The work of the group required to be referred to the professor and I undertook the choice of sending the group work before the cut-off date. I even took the responsibility of proof reading all the slides prior to submission. Following the presentation, I took the initiative of asking my group members to review my performance to see if any improvement can be made to make the presentation better at the time of working with teams to execute the task perfectly.

The important judgement, which I undertook for the purpose of performance, was to rehearse with the friend beforehand the final day in class. For the purpose of performance, I took the initiative of overcoming my challenges so that I can speak well without being insecure and losing the focus. I was able to overcome my challenges by observing the performance of others so that I can apply the same in my own presentation and I had observed the parts of development. I undertook the deliberation of making myself my better. I undertook the initiative of drafting the smart objectives that was measurable and achieve without a certain time of line. I took the initiative of working efficiently with others to perform the task perfectly. I also value the opinion of the members of the other team members as well.

I have the required skills and abilities to turn into a consultant as I have the ability interconnect with persons that come from diverse background and values. The skill of my communiqué is enhanced which helps me to improve my position for working as a consultant. My skill of interacting with new persons is my desire as meeting new persons helps me in creating new association with the individual. The capability to facilitate interactions with differ people provides me with the opening of sharing ideas and learning new things to turn into a good consultant. It is noteworthy to denote that recording and collaborating must be aligned appropriately with the strategy.

In addition to this, I believe that my management skills is appropriate to develop a self-governing consultant as I have the ability to administer small group by offering sustenance and direction to attain the objective. I shall be working on my own inventiveness without requesting assistance to meet the needs of the client. I use my leadership skills to treat each person equally without doing any biasness with the members of the collection. As the self-governing advisor leading people within the group and having a clear path of communication results in success.

I possess the skill of working with people as because teamwork helps me to perfectly execute the necessary skills. This helps me in sharpening my skill and even helps me in making discovery of strength and weakness. The work of consultant requires a person to work with different people coming from different organization to discover the solution of complex situation. I aspire to see myself as a classified consultant by making use of necessary skills and qualities to work and generate productivity at the work sight. I consider myself as the team player as I am determined in attaining specific objective by working long hours. Teamwork allows the consultant to identify the opportunities as this helps in bringing needed situation to attain the objective on time. Teamwork provides me with the opportunity of observing my characters and skills. My capability to work with teams is worthy and I can work with persons that do not have knowledge of business and with those persons having advanced level of education.

I believe that I have the necessary interactive abilities to agree to take the people for their individual conduct. I am keen to work individuals that come from small firms or big companies to be productive at work. It is significant for an advisor to be composed while dealing with their clients as the work of independent consultant involves accepting the viewpoint of the others even though there occurs a conflict of interest.

Presenting the presentation in front of group or individuals might be associated with my accomplishment since I am working hard on developing my skills so that I can do well in front of the peoples. To develop my Interpersonal abilities it is better for me to monitor the presentation work classes because no other organization can hire me if my interpersonal skills are not developed and persons might not consider me as a qualified consultant.

Consultant are attentive of the technological variations and I possess the abilities of identifying whatsoever new prevalent in the marketplace to advance the service or encouraging the clients to hire me as their consultant. By being aware of the technology provides me with the necessary updates from place to place across the world. To understand if the clienteles are content with the provided facility the advisor can also conduct a survey to better understand the customer needs.

As stated by Firsova and Azarova (2016) a good relationship helps in yielding a considerable amount of profit than merely building a simple esteem of satisfied client. I possess the necessary skills to develop a good personal relationship with the customers. Face to face, communication is necessary in developing the relationship with the consumers. It helps the consumer to remain vibrant about their expectations and the consultant should be clear about their demonstration. When the question arises for time management, I believe that I possess the necessary skills of managing time. I prefer achieving certain target within the stipulated time. However, to achieve this an action plan is necessary for me to be drawn. The career of independent consultant involves huge time management to perform interview with clients and the working hours required to be planned appropriately without making any client to wait. To be on location at time I plan to leave thirty minutes before time. Prior to visit clients for meeting it is vital to discover information about the company along with their mission statement to make everything simple. The company may possess better image regarding their work performance as they notice whether a consultant is better organized with his ideas and opinions. I possess the necessary skills to be an independent consultant by creating trust with the clients as trust helps in making the customers feels better about their consultant. Furthermore, trust forms an important ladder in interpersonal skills and simultaneously consumer feel valued and accepted as well.

For a consultant problem, solving skill is of primary importance as they form necessary skills in working with large companies and solving their business challenges by making use of the straightforward problem-solving instrument. As the advisor possess better problem solving abilities they can overcome some difficult contests faced by the business which an individual can express without taking any sustenance from others. I have the necessary qualifications to be an independent consultant due to my work experience. I also possess the necessary occupational skills and client support to offer the required tactics for meeting the customer needs. Higher education has helped me to become a team player as they provide me with the required self-confidence to follow my path without taking any unethical route. It provides me with the ability to understand new things as being educated provides me with better vision of my expectations. I possess the required ability to meet other educated consultants in order to develop new business ideas.                

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