# Business consultant

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Business_consultant
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Business_consultant.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_consultant
> Source revision: 1356377696
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Business consultant" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A **business consultant** (from [Latin](/source/Latin) *consultare*, "to discuss") is a [professional](/source/Professional) who provides professional or expert advice[1] or service in a particular area such as security ([electronic](/source/Information_security) or [physical](/source/Physical_security)), [management](/source/Management), [accountancy](/source/Accountancy), [law](/source/Law), [human resources](/source/Human_resources), [marketing](/source/Marketing) (and [public relations](/source/Public_relations)), [financial control](/source/Financial_control), [engineering](/source/Engineering), [science](/source/Science), [digital transformation](/source/Digital_transformation), [exit planning](/source/Exit_planning) or any of many other specialized fields.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide area of knowledge in a specific subject. [Consultants](/source/Consultant) can save their clients time, increase revenue, and maintain resources.[2] The role of a consultant outside the [medical](/source/Medical) sphere (where the term is used specifically for a grade of doctor) can fall under one of two general categories:

- Internal consultant – someone who operates within an [organization](/source/Organization) but is available to be consulted on areas of specialism by other departments or individuals (acting as clients); or

- External consultant – someone who is employed externally (either by a firm or some other agency) and whose expertise is provided on a temporary basis, usually for a fee. As such this type of consultant generally engages with multiple and changing clients.

The overall impact of a consultant is that clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired.

In the United Kingdom between 1992 and 2011, [government funding](/source/Government_funding) provided via [Business Link](/source/Business_Link) could be used to enable [small businesses](/source/Small_business) to access business consultancy services.[3]

## Research

A large-scale survey of business consultancy assignments, reported in 2004, found that repeat business and referrals from third parties were key determinants of consultant appointments.[3]

## References

Look up ***[consultant](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/consultant)*** or ***[consulting](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/consulting)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has quotations related to ***[Business consultant](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:Search/Business_consultant)***.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Consultant | Define Consultant at Dictionary.com"](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/consultant). Dictionary.reference.com. 2004-03-09. Retrieved 2014-07-20.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Tordoir, Pieter P. (1995). *The professional knowledge economy: the management and integration services in business organizations*, p. 140.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-bs_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-bs_3-1) Bennett, Robert J.; Smith, Colin (2004). ["The Selection and Control of Management Consultants by Small Business Clients"](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0266242604046295). *International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship*. **22** (5): 435–462. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1177/0266242604046295](https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0266242604046295).

## Further reading

- [Management consultant](https://web.archive.org/web/20200923145016/https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/management-consultant)

v t e Consulting Areas of expertise Management consulting Assurance services Audit Biotechnology consulting Engineering consulting Environmental consulting Financial adviser Human resource consulting Information technology consulting Public sector consulting Risk and strategic consulting Tax advisor Others Accounting network Business consultant Business networking Case interview Certified management consultant Consultant Consulting firm Strategy+Business Fixed-price contract MECE principle Shareholder value Lists MBB McKinsey & Company Boston Consulting Group Bain & Company Big Four Deloitte Ernst & Young KPMG PwC Others List of management consulting firms List of IT consulting firms Category

Authority control databases International GND 2 National United States Other NARA Yale LUX

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Business consultant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_consultant) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_consultant?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.