The Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Small Business Marketing Consulting Firm or Consultant

Patrick McFadden • January 6, 2022

If you are like many small business owners, you are wearing many hats: CEO, VP of Sales, CMO, COO, Customer Service, and CFO just to name a few. With all this on your plate, are you doing it all well? Are you doing the job that led you to go into business for yourself?


Marketing is the engine that moves your business forward. If you do it successfully, you will have more resources to further invest in the other areas of your business such as hiring, technology, service partners, and equipment. But do it poorly, and you will have to scratch and claw for survival. 


So that’s why we’ve created the last guide you’ll ever need to help you find and hire a small business marketing consultant or consulting firm you can trust to take some work off of your plate.


When is the right time to hire a small business marketing consultant or consulting firm?


Before I get into the right time to hire, let me start off with when it’s the wrong time to hire a small business marketing consultant or consulting firm.


Consulting firms and consultants aren’t one trick magicians, we are amplifiers of success so here are the 3 moments when it’s the wrong time to hire us:


  1. It's the wrong time to hire a marketing consultant or consulting firm to fix your marketing when your product or service or business doesn’t make sense. 
  2. It's the wrong time to hire a marketing consultant or consulting firm to swoop in and get you more prospective clients when you don’t have a way of doing business that allows you to be the obvious choice. 
  3. It's the wrong time to hire  a marketing consultant or consulting firm when you want to remove yourself from the all-important role of marketing and give total control to a “guru or expert.”


No need to worry about the wrong time when you are speaking with a really good marketing consultant or consulting firm because they won’t take your money unless they believe they can truly help you, no matter what you think your burning marketing need or challenge is.


The right time to hire a marketing consultant or consulting firm to help you is when the following five areas are present:


  1. Lack of a real marketing strategy. Good marketing consultants or consulting firms will demand that you spend time building a solid marketing foundation based on a diagnosis before proposing a series of prescriptions aimed at increasing sales, leads and website traffic. Until you find a way to change how your ideal customer view what you do and make the competition irrelevant, you’ll find that your marketing efforts never seem to build long-term momentum.
  2. Too many marketing objectives. Good marketing consultants or consulting firms will help you zero in on your highest payoff activities and your top objectives based on where you want to be in 90 days, 1 year, in 3 years, in 5 years but not next tomorrow. And, a good marketing consultant or consulting firm will make sure that the number of objectives at any given time stays very, very small.
  3. Resource gaps are present. In the “DIY” world of small business owners and CEOs it’s difficult to spot the projects, campaigns and activities that require external help. You may be able to set up your newsletter, add graphics to your website and create posts for social media profiles but it's robbing you from higher payoff work. Sure, those things above might need to be attended to, but good marketing consultants or consulting firms will help you stop doing the things that are better handled by others. In fact, they might just help you become the CEO again!
  4. Lead conversion issues. This might be my favorite. Too many business owners, and sadly some marketing consultants or consulting firms, focus on traffic and lead generation when the highest priority should be conversion of that traffic and leads. Figure out how to get prospects to respond to your sales process to buy, can quickly build your business.
  5. Can’t stay focused on main objectives. One of the dirty secrets of consulting is that a part of you simply needs someone to hold you accountable – someone to help you document your goals and objectives and then bring you back to reality when you wander off into new ideas, because staying focused seems way too boring.


A part of this is accomplished through nagging and set appointments, but the greatest gains are achieved when your focus starts to produce results. Good marketing consultants or consulting firms will demand metrics tied to objectives and help you process and understand the overarching value you’ll derive by hitting your goals.


What does a marketing consultant or consulting firm do?


Small business marketing consultants or consulting firms specialize in the marketing needs of small business owners. These needs may involve educating you about how to develop and operate a marketing process that is tailored to your business, or it may involve a turn-key approach where a consultant functions as your fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) on a part-time basis. This latter approach allows your marketing needs to be met in the most efficient manner possible. A key outcome of engaging the services of a small business marketing consultant or consulting firm is that you will have a Marketing Process developed uniquely for you and your business.

 

A marketing consultant or consulting firm will bring a holistic approach to your marketing. It’s important to realize from the get-go that hiring a marketing consultant or consulting firm is a long-term investment, not a quick fix. They will bring value to your business, but a good one will do this in a process way and organically over time.

 

Good marketing consultants or consulting firms will have a strategic and consistent approach from the start. They will strategically align your social media, website, SEO, email marketing and content so that they work together to create a cohesive online presence.


Why you need a marketing process?


Which column describes your business?  Given the two alternatives on each row, in which mode would you rather be working?

Without a Marketing Process With a Marketing Process
Marketing results are "hit or miss" Marketing gets predictable results
Marketing is done in reaction to current conditions (so it is always behind) Marketing is done proactively and it sets up future business
Potential customers are confused by inconsistent or erratic messages Messaging is on-point and effective
Business brand is diluted Business brand is strengthened
Marketing is hard to budget Expenditures are planned in advance
Referrals are left to chance Referrals are a planned event

Who can small business marketing consultants or consulting firms help?


You have to have a good business, product and/or service to begin with. Customers should already be coming back to you and referring you to their colleagues and friends.

 

In other words consultants can’t save you. What they can do is take your business to the next level.

 

How should I go about hiring a marketing consultant?


Do a little research by looking for them online; visiting their website and social media channels. Are they practicing what they preach? 

 

Set up an interview to learn about their approach and determine if it aligns with your business and your goals. Review cases studies to learn about the results that they have gotten for other clients. 

 

Also, don’t feel like you are bound to consultants that only serve your particular industry. Many marketing consultants serve a broad range of industries, are very well rounded and could be a great fit.


Contact your marketing consultant at Indispensable Marketing

If you’re a small service based business that wants to explore if hiring a marketing consultant or consulting firm is right for your business or your business’s online presence on Google and other search engines, at Indispensable Marketing we can help. We offer marketing strategy consulting, marketing audits, monthly marketing packages, consultations, exploratory calls or monthly local SEO servicesContact us for more information. 

By Patrick McFadden May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.
By Patrick McFadden May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.
By Patrick McFadden May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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