Copyright 2005 Poingo.com

Paying for expertise is an inherent part of business. How else can we make the best decisions in specialty areas without informed help?

Unfortunately there can be conflicts of interest on the part of your expert which can be subtle yet extremely powerful.

Ask yourself one question: Would your consultant benefit by prolonging your issue or project? If the answer is yes, you may be paying more than you should.

Paid experts have the power to prolong an issue or project thereby stuffing their pockets with more of your money, simply through their presentation style. If you have a Chicken Little consultant, fire him or her immediately.

For those to whom Chicken Little is unknown or a fog in the distance, here"s the scoop: Chicken Little is a storybook character who would periodically run about crying, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"

The townspeople were initially frightened and would run for cover similar to how our government expects us to, when one of their multi-colored alerts are issued.

After a while they realized that Chicken Little was really a turkey - the disparaging term type - and came to ignore him.

Miraculously, after they completely tuned him out, he actually had something important to say. Needless to say, they ignored him and got creamed.

Now we come to your paid expert. Does he try to prey on your insecurities? Does he disparage everyone but himself? Does he present his ideas with emotionalism rather than researched fact? If the answers are yes, save yourself a bundle and get a new consultant.

Better yet, take some time to study the subject yourself. The internet and a good search engine is the best consultant you will ever have. If some sites utilize scare tactics, there will be plenty of others to balance the message.