Successful implementation of management systems and compliance with ISO standards require the appointment of competent individuals to become environmental managers, quality managers, and occupational health and safety managers. Nevertheless, there are instances when an organisation requires the aid of independent business management consultants to better understand what the organisation needs to do to improve its performance. Insights from external sources are extremely valuable because there are issues that members within the organisation fail to recognise or prioritise but are in fact of critical importance to achieving success.

Regardless of the type of business management systems you are trying to set up and implement, you definitely need people to oversee those systems. You may appoint yourself, appoint one or several of your employees, or specifically hire business consultants. Business consultants provide specialist help and advice on ISO standards compliance and certification. They are experienced and skilled engineers, occupational health professionals, and business managers with relevant qualifications required for developing, implementing and enhancing management systems.

As with all cases of developing and implementing management systems, compliance is better than certification. Quite often, ISO certification isn’t really worth the cost, time, and paperwork. This is especially true to small and medium size businesses. However, you can’t deny the fact that a substantial number of customers demand ISO certification, pushing you to go through all the trouble of obtaining one. Thankfully, business consultants provide cost-effective and innovative, not to mention fast approaches in complying with ISO standards and obtaining ISO certification.

The standards have stringent requirements, making it extremely difficult for small businesses to even design and implement management systems on their own, worse try to apply for certification. The bureaucracy alone is already taxing enough for an enterprise with limited resources. Furthermore, continued compliance is necessary to keep the certification. Once certified, the work just doesn’t stop. You do need long – term assistance and advice on ISO standards compliance because your organisation needs to consistently implement and upgrade your management systems.

At the start, you may have no one to designate as management systems representative, so you opt to hire business consultants. To guarantee your continued compliance with the standards, it may be more practical to create an in-house management systems team after you’ve achieved certification. Thus, those consultants must effectively pass on the knowledge to your in-house team for consistency and continuity. This helps to provide your business with a short-cut towards gaining valuable knowledge and skills in ISO standards and other relevant information that is otherwise in-existent in your organisation. Moreover, the transferred knowledge brings you competitive advantage that’s lasting and effective.

CG Business Consulting is one of the leading business management consulting companies in Dublin offering a step by step consultancy service enabling companies of all nature and size to achieve certification. We offer ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems, ISO 9000 training, ISO 14001 Environmental and OHSAS 18001 Health & Safety Management Consultancy Services, from the start of the project to Certification, through to maintenance and continual improvement. We constantly develop & enhance ISO Standards for our clients.

As a child, you may have enjoyed watching and counting the railcars that rolled by your local railroad crossing. But today, that seemingly endless stream of cars slowly moving past is just a hindrance, delaying you from where you need to be.

A professional power washing consultant, however, sees railcars in a different light – as profit. Each passing railcar is a potential unit in a profitable service contract.

The Niche Market of Railcar Cleaning

A niche market, the rail industry is full of untapped potential for power washing. Pressure wash consulting firms know there are legal requirements for the rail industry that mandate cleaning; for example, locomotives must be cleaned after a specified number of service hours, and boxcars must be cleaned before transporting different products. In addition, power washing is a regular part of the rail industry’s maintenance of cars in order to maintain the corporate image. Power wash consulting professionals can develop a simple request for exterior washing to include additional value-added services such as graffiti removal, repairing hatches, paint touch-ups and more.

A good pressure wash consulting professional may advise your company that a lack of experience in the railway industry shouldn’t deter you from venturing into this niche market. This is absolutely correct – with a few years of wastewater recovery and power washing experience; written best management practices; and the completion of a railcar cleaning training program, a contractor should feel confident about offering services in this relatively untapped market.

Entering the Market

While some railway companies may have their own service locations and pressure washing equipment, more companies are hiring contractors to do the work at a specific location. To enter this market, a power washing consultant would advise researching the companies in your businesses area and directly contacting the purchasing agent (or strategic sources manager) for each company. If the firm currently has a power washing service provider, management may still be open to new bids at the next contract renewal time; it never hurts to ask.

When you prepare a bid, first know what type of railcars you may be cleaning. You will also need to know if there are any regulations specific to the company or industry. For example, when washing locomotives, the American Association of Railroads has written guidelines dictating that waterproof tarps must cover the brakes before pressure washing. Identified as a significant safety hazard, pressure washing without this preventive measure may cause corrosion of the disk brakes, resulting in brake failure.

Another major consideration a power washing consultant may advise you about is location. Take into account who owns the land where the work will be done, as well as environmental constraints such as water sources and wastewater disposal.

In addition, a pressure wash consulting professional will advise you that the railway industry will have tight deadlines to get the railcars back in service as soon as possible. It is not unreasonable to be asked to clean one unit train – consisting of 125 railcars – in as little as three days.

To provide power washing services to the rail industry, you will need:

- Insurance liability at the minimum of $5 million.
- Power washing equipment, including long hoses.
- Water extraction equipment and waste water recovery mats.
- Tanks to bring in clean water and to haul out waste water.
- A 4-wheel drive lift truck with industry approved personal protection (PPE) equipment to prevent falls.
- Industry-approved wheel protection covers.
- Chemicals and soaps including sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric and ammonium bi-fluoride.
- Appropriate PPE for chemical use.

With the right equipment, there is a seven-step process for cleaning railcars most power washing consulting professional recommend:

1. Wrap/cover wheels to keep the brake cylinders, roller bearings, control valves and slack adjusters dry.
2. Install wastewater recovery mats, and begin water collection.
3. Apply wash to the roof, then rinse (two-step).
4. Two-step under carriage and sides.
5. Remove graffiti.
6. Apply degreaser.
7. Rinse entire unit, including the undercarriage, from the top down.

Are you looking to expand your pressure washing business? Visit www.PaulHorsley.ca to learn how a professional power washing consultant can help your business grow and improve your bottom line.

The other day, I was talking to a small business consultant who had an angry client, a customer who had expected more, but due to his actions made the consultant’s job even tougher. The client had misstated some key information, leading to an unfavorable result. The angry client went on a rampage and trashed the reputation of the consultant online on numerous websites. Okay so let’s talk about this.

You see, I was thinking about the small business coach consultant’s predicament, and the scenario reminds me of the anguish of many writers when trying to get their books published. You see I belong to a couple of writer’s groups and there are “literary agents” which assist authors in getting book deals and putting together book proposals, shopping publishers, and arranging meetings. Often I’ve heard stories that a literary agent has charged someone $1500 to $4000 to help get a publisher for a book deal to no avail.

The authors, remember a good many writers are pathetically broke by my observations, barely have any money, and more often than not manically depressed, over the years, I’ve reasoned that I guess many creative people tend to be, as I’ve also noted this while sifting through think tank applications, which is a little something I do in retirement. Anyway, so, what happens is the authors complain, bitch, and moan that the literary agent did nothing for them, and stole their money, and they tend to banter around the words; scam artist, fraudster, con-woman/man, etc.

Indeed, in watching and observing all this, I’ve noted that many times the authors get all full of themselves, ego sets in, and they become overly optimistic, convincing themselves that even though their chances are barely 1:15 with a literary agent and 1:65 without, even if they are a decent writer – they always want to blame someone for their own failures, this appears to be human nature, right?

What I’m saying is; as long as a small business consultant isn’t giving false expectations, and as long as they vet their clients a bit before they take their money, then they can probably prevent similar future incidents of angry clients. In this case study, with the coaching consultant, the gentleman “lied” on a form and thus, I suppose he actually he hurt the coach’s reputation with their vendors, so actually the consultant should be the one angry not client in this case.

Meanwhile, the client’s behavior afterwards working to slander and trash the coach’s reputation online is “totally unacceptable” – so the consultant can stand tall knowing they did the right thing. Finally, I’d like to advise all consultants that have such a thing happen to them to never quit or give up just because one psychopath has made you his new excuse for his own failures okay.

If you are thinking of opening a small business, you may be a little confused on how to go about doing it. This is not something that is necessarily difficult to do, but not everyone has the skills and knowledge needed to do so, especially if the business is a little more involved and requires a location and a staff. To make it a little easier for you, you can hire someone called a small business consultant.

A small business consultant is an individual that you can hire to give you advice on everything that you will need in your business formation every step of the way. Usually, they do not charge a very high amount, and the services that they provide are well worth the money that you will pay.

The major advantage to hiring a small business owner comes to people that want to open a business but just don’t know much about it. They can instruct you on the planning and how to do everything else to get yourself started. That way, you don’t have to stumble into the process blindly. You will have someone there that has done it before and is getting paid to make your business successful and to teach you how to make it successful as well.

You will be charged in a variety of ways, depending on the methods chosen by the small business consultant that you hire. They may charge you a total amount after their services are completed, but they may charge you a regular hourly rate if you need their services for a long time and you will have to pay them on a regular basis. You can sometimes work out payment options with the consultant.

There are many times when you may need the services of a business consultant. Occasionally, you may need a consultant at the very beginning of the process. They could tell you what kind of business would be best for you to enter into. Usually, when you start up, if you don’t know what expenses you will need and who to hire if you need to, you may want to seek a consultant.

During the time that your business is first open, a small business consultant may be able to help you with effective marketing strategies that will prevent you from going through the period that every small business has in the beginning when they first open where they nearly go under. This would be helpful and maybe even prevent you from having to sit down and re-invent marketing strategies as most small business owners have to do at least once.

A business consultant is a great option for people that want to open a business but don’t know much about starting it out. They can instruct you how to properly do everything to make the process go as smoothly as possible, and if you are lucky you will start out making a profit, which is more than most small businesses can say.

If you are planning to hire an IT consultant, you’ll want to understand that it’s not necessarily always an easy task figuring out the proper factors for selecting the best of the IT companies available. Additionally, you will find the process even more challenging if you’re not comfortable or informed about the technical element of your company. The following are some pointers that may help you choose the best company or individual that matches your company’s requirements.

1. By hiring an IT consultant that has a range of knowledge and product knowledge, it will be possible to save considerable time and money in the long run. You need to find out about the consultant’s expertise, and check references from a few of their particular current customers. Also try to find testimonials submitted on the internet. A good candidate should talk about diverse systems with you to your existing requirements and not merely recommend a single solution.

2. You need to look for someone who has a excellent operating expertise in systems integration. Take into account that the more systems applications you’ll be able to use in your company, the higher the risk is going to be of downtime that is caused by inconsistent systems. Each and every equipment or software addition or upgrade that has been added to your business computer system, must be able to operate correctly with the remainder of the system and be as seamless as possible.

3. The IT consultant that you choose should be able to provide you with scalable solutions. Regardless of what the present size of your enterprise is, at some point in the near future your It requirements are likely to increase, as the technical systems become more complex and sophisticated. The IT providers that you are researching must be able to handle your current IT demands, in addition to the future IT needs of your business.

4. You should also consider choosing round-the-clock availability. Despite the fact that your company might not be opened twenty-four hrs per day, 7 days per week, in the event that you decide on a service provider that provides 24/7 assistance, the alternative is always available to you when you decide that your company requires it. It really is to some degree comparable to insurance; you pray that you will never have to put it to use, but it is good to know that it’s there when and if you need it.

5. Finally, you need to hire an IT consultant that will be able to give your in-house staff some education. If you’re installing completely new systems or modernizing the present ones, your team should understand how to effectively use these systems. It can be quite expensive when your team has to understand the programs themselves in addition to performing their job duties; therefore, it is often be more cost-effective to employ an outside consultant that could train your staff for you.

With some bit of upfront homework and interviewing mentioned previously, you can outsource your information technology requirements and, in most cases, save a substantial amount of funds as opposed to what it really would cost to employ your own staff to complete exactly the same function.