A business consultant is someone or a team of consultants that offer advice and work closely with their clients to analyse, develop strategies, problem solve and help staff learn develop business skills and knowledge.
A good business consultant will be able to save you money by making your business work more efficiently and therefore more profitably. Some business consultants specialise in one particular industry where as others will have a number of clients in multiple industries.
When a business consultant first goes in to a new business, they will spend much of their time analysing the current set up of the company. They will want to get a complete overview of how the business is run and then they can start to look in detail at more specific areas of the company to see how they can improve it. Usually their findings will be given to the company owner in the form of a report showing where the business currently is and how they believe they can help to improve it.