CWA Blog Archive-Why & How To Use A Consultant Part 2

Why & How To Use A Consultant Part 2

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Paul Terbrueggen continues his consultant series, moving from Part 1's "why partner with a consultant" to the hyper-specific nuances of actually hiring one, with input drawn from consultants Gavin Haverly, Todd McCormick, and Ty Morrison Heath. Part 2 is organized around three phases: before reaching out to consultants, while exploring options, and after a contract is signed. Terbrueggen recommends starting with Part 1 to understand the types of consulting support available and the reasons to seek it. The article's analytical core is a set of distinctions that clarify what you're actually buying. It explains the key differences between hiring someone for their expertise, their time, or both, and the related question of whether you want someone to work on your business versus in your business. Combining those two qualifiers, expertise versus time, and on versus in, helps an operator decide whether they need a specialist, a mentor, a contractor, or simply an employee. But Terbrueggen cautions that reaching for a category is jumping the gun. The essential first step is identifying the specific problem you're trying to solve. Only once the problem is clear can you determine how to bring in outside support to address it. Written for senior managers and gym owners, the piece is fundamentally about disciplined thinking before spending. Its throughline is that hiring a consultant well isn't about finding the right person first, it's about diagnosing your own need precisely, then matching the type of outside help to that need. Skip the diagnosis and you risk hiring the wrong kind of support for a problem you haven't actually defined. Terbrueggen's framework gives operators the questions to ask themselves at each phase so the eventual hire solves the real problem rather than a vaguely felt one.

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Paul Terbrueggen's second consultant installment covers how to hire one, structured around before, during, and after the engagement. The key framework: decide whether you need expertise, time, or both, and someone to work on versus in your business. But first, diagnose the specific problem, everything else is jumping the gun.