Don't Hire a Consultant: Here's Why
By Branden Crowe
If you've ever been through the ISO certification process and hired a consultant, you might already know how frustrating and inefficient it can be. Many companies fall into the trap of hiring a consultant because they assume ISO 9001 certification must be complex and expensive. The reality is quite different, and hiring a consultant often does more harm than good. Let’s talk about why.
Hidden Costs and Lack of Transparency
Another major issue with consultants is that they're almost never upfront about pricing. They’ll give you a timeline—say six months—and a general idea of the number of hours it will take. But once you're in, it’s always "more complicated than we thought," and suddenly, you're paying for extra hours and additional meetings. The final bill is often much higher than expected, and your team ends up investing far more time than initially promised.
The Time-Wasting Meetings and Homework Cycle
One of the most frustrating parts of working with consultants is the endless cycle of meetings and "homework." Let me give you an example: I worked at a semiconductor startup where we hired a consultant for ISO 9001 certification. We ended up paying her more than $75,000. She would call meetings with six of our people—people who were already very busy—and tell us we needed a specific document for some process. Instead of guiding us through how to create it, she'd send us off to figure it out ourselves. We'd spend days on it, only to come back and be told it wasn't what she wanted. Then, we'd be sent off to redo it. This kind of back-and-forth burned a lot of important engineering and operations time—time that could've been spent driving our core business forward.
The Fear Tactics
Consultants are often incentivized to make ISO certification seem far more complicated than it actually is. In my experience, the consultant we worked with scared the executive team into thinking the process was nearly impossible without her "expertise." She claimed she'd taken other companies through it before and insisted that it was going to be extremely challenging. This fear mongering made us think we had no choice but to rely on her, justifying her high fees. The reality? ISO 9001 compliance boils down to documenting what you do and following those processes—no magic expertise required.
Inflated Complexity Equals Inflated Costs
Consultants thrive on making things more complicated than they need to be. The more documents and procedures they write, the more they can justify their existence. They come in with standardized templates full of irrelevant content, creating bloated, unnecessary documentation that doesn't actually help your business. This over-documentation doesn't add value; it just adds to your bill.
Draining Your Team’s Time Without Adding Value
Consultants love to schedule meetings with your key people, and then assign them tasks to complete. This means you're not just paying the consultant; you're also dedicating your internal resources—your engineers, operations staff, and even executives—to working on tasks that the consultant should be handling. In my experience, these consultants don’t really add value; they just push the workload back onto your team, creating more inefficiencies and frustration.
So, What’s the Alternative?
The alternative is simple: don’t hire a consultant. Instead, partner with someone who understands how to simplify the process without wasting your time, money, or resources. At ISO Delivered, we focus on doing things differently.
No Unnecessary Meetings: Our approach doesn't require you to waste countless hours in meetings. We do the heavy lifting so you can focus on what matters most—growing your business.
Transparent Pricing: We provide upfront pricing and a clear process from day one. No hidden fees, no surprises.
Efficient Documentation: We create documentation that is lean and targeted to your actual needs—no bloat, no irrelevant content.
Value-Driven Expertise: We know ISO 9001 isn't rocket science. It's about documenting what you do and ensuring it's followed, and we make that process as straightforward as possible.
If you’ve been burned by a consultant before, or if you’re just getting started and want to avoid the pitfalls, let’s talk. ISO Delivered is here to simplify ISO certification and help you achieve compliance without the headaches.