Generally undervalued work

Like artists, consultants across all industries are often the victims of their work being undervalued. People think because most of your work entails creativity and decision-making that it’s easy and that anyone can wake up and do it as well as you can, if not better.

Underestimated value of the required knowledgebase

When you consider the completed work of an artist, like a painting of a landscape for example, they have limited time to view the landscape they’re painting and so they find themselves having to fill in many gaps later on, from memory and more from knowledge. They’d have to know about the elements of the landscape they’re painting with regards to weather and in some cases even local weather, so too something like context with regards to politics or just basic physics laws. So a broader knowledgebase is required and the same applies to consultants across all industries.

If you’re putting together a flat-leasing project for example, you need some knowledge about interior design trends in your collaboration with the interior designer you’re going to bring on board and you’d probably need to know where the best place to source certain materials would be, etc.

Lots of creativity
When a property leasing business appears to be working flawlessly, even then it really isn’t, but what’s very easy to overlook is exactly what it takes to make the major cogs in the operation keep working. That’s creativity. Spend a day with a property owner who is test-running a new backpackers’ hostel for example, and you’ll know just how much creativity goes into merely solving problems, let alone improving the business. Now consider the property consultant or interior design consultant whose direct contribution to the project is their paycheque. Think about how professionals like Michael Teys and others come up with creative solutions for complex issues related to property management. Not to mention, they have to be able to negotiate and navigate with multiple clients for the same property. This kind of skill and creativity is nothing if not an art.
Lots of “off-canvas” work

When you visit an art exhibition or a gallery in which a collection of masterpieces are on display, priced accordingly of course, it can be very easy to overlook the invariable fact that what you see in front of you is a result of lots of work that was done “off-canvas.” There was lots of work done which you simply cannot begin to measure or maybe even imagine. It’s not like the painter for example just picked up the right brush at the exact time, dipped it into just the right mix of paints to create just the right colour to deliver just the right stroke – from start to completion.

There was no “perfect form” and consulting is much the same. Lots of work goes on behind the scenes, some of which is super stressful and requires experience in addition to the creativity discussed as well. For example, a landlord might never know that he can enjoy charging his tenants a much lower price as a result of the fact that the property consultant who was tasked with organising the business side of the project went with the most reputable HOA Management Service Scottsdale has to offer, which accounted for less risk associated with that specific neighbourhood and subsequently reduced the homeowners insurance premiums!