Micro-Consulting – An A La Carte Consulting Model

The general idea of micro-consulting (or “microconsulting“) provides a defragmentation of consulting. Traditional firms provide “all or nothing” consulting. A scope is defined (which is never static), a contract is signed, and the “project” begins. The customer will be given a base rate for an open-ended (all hourly projects are open-ended regardless of a quoted time-frame) timeframe. The deliverable can be anything – from a report, to analysis, to software.

In comes Micro-Consulting – the “anti-firm” approach. Ask an expert a simple question. And, with no baggage or sales guy or project manager, you get a simple answer. How is this beneficial? Well, the customer doesn’t get all the fluff that comes along with consulting from a traditional firm. They aren’t sold anything more and there is no upselling to other solutions.

The same model is beneficial to the consultant – they get to do what they love – be an expert. They don’t have to deal with selling their consulting “services”, creating specs, writing project plans, worrying about deliverables and milestones, etc.

Time is saved by both the customer and the expert. The customer doesn’t have to wait for a proposal, price quotes, bids, plans, timelines, etc. The customer doesn’t have to do any research – they just ask the expert a simple question, pay a flat rate, and get the answer they are looking for. The consultant likely doesn’t have to do a lot of research – that’s why they are the expert. They don’t have to spend time writing bids, RFI’s, or RFP’s because they have already established themselves as an expert.

That being said, 48Web is launching a micro-consulting, a la carte model. You don’t have to pay hourly or worry about an ongoing project. Just ask a question and get an answer. GANB has integrated the form as well. There are five types of questions:

1. Free: Our free service is a simple Q&A with no guarantees of response or quality or length. You may get a link for a response or a thoughtful analysis
2. Micro: This is our Twitter-like microconsulting feature. For $10 you have 140 characters to ask your question and we have 140 characters to answer the question
3. Quickie: Within one day we’ll get back to you with a 1-2 paragraph response
4. Analysis: Within three days we’ll deliver a brief, one page analysis for your question
5. Case Study: Within five days you will get a two page analysis case study with research regarding your question

What do you think about Micro-Consulting? Is it a good alternative to the traditional model? Let us know in the comments…

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