You have a venture idea or a business expansion project in the back of your mind and you want to explore its possibilities in more detail. You don’t have the time to research the feasibility yourself (you are a small or mid-size business owner, after all!) and this is not something that you can delegate to staff. Accordingly, you decide to live a little dangerously and (gasp!) hire a consultant. Martin Ashford, the internationally renowned management consultant, in his 1998 book ‘Con Tricks: The World of Management Consultancy & How to Make It Work for You’  (still available at http://www.amazon.com) had a few words of advice for those business owners who want to test the waters by putting their faith in a consultant.

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