How to Hire a Consultant

A consultant is someone who takes your watch, and tells you what the time is.

In a startup, use consultants wisely. Do not mistake them for employees. These are on-time facilitations that you can use as and when you need them. Period.

They will charge you for every word they speak, every cent they spend on you - whether phone calls, petrol, coffee, whatever. So ensure that the legal document for their engagement covers areas like.

Clear Deliverables.
Clear Timeframe.
Estimated time to be put in.
Estimated expenses.
Demand a warning from them when the expenses/billing exceeds budget.
Better still, ask them for alerts each time the billing crosses 1/10th of the estimated budget for the work (in real-time) i.e. within 1 day of it crossing each 1/10th.
Ask them to take prior approvals for estimated out of pocket expenses above a certain limit.

I don't recommend paying consultants for time. Pay them for specific works instead. Fix a budget, and ask them to take it up if they can deliver whats expected within the expected time and budget. If they don't deliver, fix a price for useful efforts done.

Use a consultant only if you need one. The first thing a consultant will do once they get a work from you, is ask you the answers to the questions you want them to answer. Then they will format this nicely (with html, tables, bullets etc), and send it back to you, with an invoice.

Do all of this so you don't get a bomb of an invoice later for bullshit work.