The term “partner” is a wonderfully vague and diverse one. It can mean anything from the girl next to you in chemistry class to the comic relief sidekick on your favorite cop show to the person you chose to spend the rest of your life with.

But what about a “partner consultant”? What are they and what can they do for your organization?

A business “consultant” is another one of those ambiguous words that it’s hard to put your finger on. Are they contractors hired to fulfill a specific purpose? Are they technical experts? Are they number crunchers there just to keep you on budget?

A “partner consultant” is actually a perfect marriage of those two messy terms. She is someone who works side by side with you to help you meet specific goals in your organization and to build your capacity to tackle future issues on your own.

Like the chemistry partner who helped you measure and calculate the concentration of a liquid during a titration exercise, a partner consultant is there to offer expertise that you might not have, a fresh perspective, and a second set of hands when dealing with a problem. Like the sidekick cop, the partner consultant walks side by side with you through the process, has feet on the street, and your back. And like a good life partner, your partner consultant offers input and support with the goal of making you and your organization self-sufficient (don’t worry: at the end of the day he does go home to his own house, not yours).

A good relationship between a partner consultant and an organization is based on mutual goals (yours), trust, and accountability. And the mark of a great partner consultant is repeat business from clients.

Solarity is proud to have served as a business consultant for numerous organizations throughout Kentucky and surrounding states, including the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), Composable Systems custom software developers, and many others. With the goal of completing projects on time, in budget, and with value, our business consulting services take a partner consultant approach with a heavy focus on value. For us that means that our clients are not only happy with the outcome of the most recent project, but with our training and mentoring practices, they feel empowered to manage the next similar initiative on their own. We call this “teaching you how to fish.”

And isn’t life better with a good fishing partner?

About the author

Christy Swift has been a freelance writer and correspondent in the United States and Canada for over 10 years. With a degree in English and technical writing, she has a knack for making complicated subject matter digestible and even tasty. Christy regularly conducts research into the latest trends in project management to provide the Solarity Group with engaging content for its website and e-newsletters. 

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We partner with organizations and individuals to help them go “from inspiration to implementation” by helping them to define the right work, plan the work, and work the plan.