[TrickyDick]

I think it's time. How do you go about finding one? I'm in southern New England.

[Dragonfly]

What specifically do you need one for. As most will be better at specific areas of business.

[TrickyDick]

Mostly management stuff. Financial, HR, long term planning all related to managing our growth. I've seen a number of threads here where people refer to working with consultants to develope thier management systems but I don't know where to find these people.

[prapoza]

I think it's like anything else. You talk to others look for referals, interview, attend a general seminar put on by someone your interested in. I live on Cape Cod and in the last 3 years have seen, Jack Mattingly twice, Jim Huston once, Jim Paluch once, Marty Grunder three times and I know Charles VanderKooi has been in MA within the last 2 years, also saw Frank Ross once in OH. There are a lot of consultants coming through doing seminars you just have to put your antenna up. Drop me an email, I'd be glad to talk to you about it.
_________
Paul

[r schipul]

Although I've never used any of the people that prapoza mentions they are all well known within the industry. I've seen all of them at least once and have read some of their books. It does depend on what your looking for as most are preaching different things. Some are into developing a positive culture (paluch) while others are all about estimating (Vander Kooi, Huston)and others are marketing/customer service guru's(Grunder). Ross is about setting up you books to the way landscapers estimate, so I guess you can put him under accounting/estimating as well. There is one name that is always popping up in Pro magazine who isn't listed above. He's based somewhere down South and his specialty closely matches what you looking for. I've never heard him speak so I don't know his name but maybe someone else can help.

[TrickyDick]

Thanks guys. I guess I was thinking more of someone that could actually sit down and work with us on this stuff rather than a seminar type thing. I don't even know that it needs to be green industry specific. Someone who specializes in construction management would probably work. But someone that I could work with rather than listen to. I've seen a few posts where people mention working with consultants and that was the impression I got from them.

[prapoza]

Any of these guys are available to sit down with you and work on your business. I was suggesting checking them out at a seminar before dropping $3-6K on a private consultation. Monroe Porter is the guy that writes in PRO magazine. I like what I've read from him.
Jack Mattingly and Jim Huston are good nuts and bolts guys, probably what you're looking for.
In my experience the way to get the most out of your consultant is to be very specific about what you need and are looking for from them and then be totally open and honest with them and to what they have to offer.
__________
Paul

[r schipul]

Prapoza,

The guy I was thinking of has been in a lot of Pro articles in the last couple of years but doesn't write for the magazine. I thought the company name was something like Damix but I did a search of it and nothing came up.

As for Monroe Porter, I love his articles but I saw him in person and he couldn't keep my attention like some of the others do.

[TrickyDick]

Thanks guys. I'll check out those you mentioned.