- We offer certified developers to hire.
- We’ve performed 1500+ Web/App/eCommerce projects.
- Our clientele is 1000+.
- Free quotation on your project.
- We sign NDA for the security of your projects.
- Three months warranty on code developed by us.
A successful WordPress website project rarely depends on the quality of the code alone. It depends on decisions made before development begins, the clarity of communication during implementation, the quality of testing before launch, and the ability of everyone involved to understand what the website is actually expected to accomplish.
This is where a WordPress consultant can make a significant difference.
A WordPress consultant can help a business owner, marketing team, nonprofit, startup, publisher, or organization turn an idea into a practical website strategy. Depending on the project, the consultant may help with information architecture, WordPress development planning, theme and plugin selection, integrations, performance, security, SEO, content workflows, migrations, accessibility, maintenance, and long-term scalability.
However, hiring a consultant does not automatically guarantee a successful project.
The client and consultant need to work together effectively.
A technically talented consultant can still struggle if project requirements are unclear. Likewise, a client can spend more than necessary if decisions are constantly changing, feedback is fragmented, or the website is treated as a collection of pages rather than a business system.
The best results come from treating the consultant as a strategic project partner rather than simply someone who receives instructions and writes code.
This guide explains how to work with a WordPress consultant from the initial discussion through planning, design, development, testing, launch, and ongoing optimization. It also covers how to choose the right consultant, define responsibilities, manage communication, control scope, evaluate progress, avoid common mistakes, and build a productive long-term relationship.
A WordPress consultant is a professional who provides strategic and technical guidance around a WordPress website or WordPress-based digital project.
The exact role can vary considerably.
Some consultants specialize in development architecture. Others focus on SEO, performance, security, migrations, e-commerce, content strategy, integrations, or technical project management.
A consultant may work independently or as part of a larger WordPress development company or digital agency.
The important distinction is that consulting is not simply about building pages.
A consultant should help you answer questions such as:
In other words, a good consultant helps you make better decisions.
That is particularly valuable because WordPress gives organizations an enormous amount of flexibility. Flexibility is useful, but too many choices can create complexity.
A consultant’s role is often to reduce unnecessary complexity while creating a system that meets the project’s actual requirements.
The responsibilities of a WordPress consultant depend on the engagement.
A typical project may involve several of the following areas.
The consultant helps translate business objectives into website requirements.
They determine how WordPress should be configured and extended.
They may recommend approaches for themes, plugins, custom functionality, databases, integrations, APIs, hosting, and deployment.
The consultant may contribute to navigation, page structure, conversion paths, forms, and usability.
They can help establish technically sound URL structures, metadata systems, redirects, structured content, internal linking approaches, XML sitemap considerations, and other SEO foundations.
They can identify potential bottlenecks involving hosting, plugins, scripts, images, databases, caching, and third-party services.
They can recommend security practices involving updates, authentication, permissions, backups, hosting configuration, monitoring, and vulnerability management.
A consultant can review development work and help ensure that implementation follows the agreed technical direction.
They may help move an existing website to WordPress or migrate an existing WordPress website to a new architecture.
They can teach internal employees how to manage content and perform routine website tasks.
After launch, a consultant may provide periodic audits, troubleshooting, optimization, and strategic recommendations.
The key point is that you should not assume every WordPress consultant offers all of these services.
Ask.
Not every WordPress project requires a consultant.
If you are creating a simple personal blog using a standard theme and a handful of established plugins, you may be able to manage the project yourself.
A consultant becomes more valuable as complexity increases.
Consider hiring one if:
A consultant can also be useful before development begins.
This is often overlooked.
Hiring someone during the planning stage can prevent expensive architectural mistakes later.
These roles overlap, but they are not necessarily identical.
A WordPress developer typically focuses on implementation.
That may include:
A WordPress consultant generally takes a broader view.
They may still develop, but their responsibility is often centered around deciding what should be built and how it should be built.
For example, imagine a company wants a customer portal.
A developer might be responsible for implementing the portal.
A consultant might first investigate whether WordPress is the appropriate platform, determine what information the portal needs to display, assess authentication requirements, evaluate integration options, identify security considerations, and establish the architecture before development starts.
On smaller projects, one person may perform both roles.
That can be highly efficient when the individual has strong technical and strategic experience.
A WordPress consultant and a WordPress agency are also different concepts.
An agency usually provides a team.
That team might include:
A consultant may work alone or coordinate other specialists.
Neither model is automatically better.
The right choice depends on project requirements.
A small business needing technical direction and occasional development may benefit from an independent consultant.
A large website redesign involving strategy, UX, branding, content migration, development, SEO, testing, and ongoing marketing may be better suited to an experienced agency.
For projects where you want a full-service technical partner, is one example of a company that can provide broader WordPress development capabilities alongside technical expertise.
The important thing is to evaluate capabilities against your actual requirements rather than selecting a provider simply because it has a large portfolio.
Website development is collaborative.
Even an excellent consultant cannot produce the best possible result without accurate information, timely decisions, and useful feedback from the client.
Think of the project as a partnership.
The consultant brings technical expertise.
The client brings business knowledge.
The marketing team understands customers.
The content team understands messaging.
The leadership team understands commercial priorities.
The designer understands visual communication.
The developer understands implementation.
The strongest project combines these perspectives.
Problems occur when one group assumes another group automatically understands information that was never communicated.
For example, a client might say:
“We need a better website.”
That is not a sufficiently detailed requirement.
A consultant needs to understand what “better” means.
Is the goal:
The clearer the goal, the better the technical decisions can become.
One of the biggest mistakes in WordPress projects is beginning with a feature list.
Clients often start with:
“We need a blog.”
“We need a chatbot.”
“We need a membership system.”
“We need a booking form.”
“We need an advanced search.”
“We need an app-like dashboard.”
But features should support objectives.
Start with the question:
What should the website achieve?
For a service business, the answer might be generating qualified inquiries.
For an e-commerce company, it may be increasing completed purchases.
For a nonprofit, it might be increasing donations and volunteer participation.
For a publisher, it could involve growing readership and subscriptions.
For a B2B company, the goal might be generating qualified leads from organic search.
Once the objective is clear, the consultant can evaluate which features are actually necessary.
This can reduce development costs because you stop building functionality simply because it sounds impressive.
Before the first serious consultation, create a project brief.
It does not need to be complicated.
A useful brief should include:
Explain what your organization does.
Explain why the website exists.
Describe the people you want to attract.
Identify the most important outcomes.
If applicable, provide the current website and explain what is working and what is not.
Provide an initial list of pages.
Describe required functionality without dictating technical implementation unless you have technical expertise.
List systems such as CRM platforms, payment providers, email marketing platforms, analytics tools, inventory systems, or external APIs.
Explain what content already exists and what needs to be created.
Provide examples of websites you like and explain why.
Provide your target launch date and explain any business constraints.
If possible, provide an approximate budget range.
A consultant can make better recommendations when they understand the financial boundaries.
Scope defines what is included in the project.
This is one of the most important documents you can establish.
A WordPress project scope may include:
Be specific.
Instead of writing:
“SEO included.”
Specify what that means.
For example:
The more clearly scope is defined, the easier it becomes to prevent misunderstandings.
Your consultant needs to understand the people who will use the website.
Do not describe your audience only in demographic terms.
Focus on behavior.
Ask:
For example, a law firm’s website may have visitors who are anxious and looking for immediate answers.
A B2B software website may have visitors researching products over several weeks.
A restaurant website may have visitors looking for opening hours, menus, location information, or reservations.
These different behaviors should influence the website structure.
Before development begins, decide how success will be measured.
Potential metrics include:
Avoid relying entirely on vanity metrics.
A website receiving more visitors is not necessarily performing better.
If traffic increases but qualified leads decline, the project may have moved in the wrong direction.
A good consultant helps connect technical decisions to measurable business outcomes.
Project responsibilities should be explicit.
For example:
| Responsibility | Client | Consultant |
| Business goals | Yes | Advises |
| Content approval | Yes | Advises |
| Technical architecture | Input | Yes |
| Development | Optional | Depending on scope |
| Design approval | Yes | Advises |
| Hosting selection | Input | Advises |
| SEO strategy | Shared | Shared |
| Testing | Shared | Yes |
| Final business approval | Yes | No |
| Launch coordination | Shared | Yes |
This prevents a common problem where everyone assumes someone else is responsible.
Finding a consultant should be treated as a selection process rather than a quick search.
Look for evidence.
A strong consultant should be able to explain:
Do not choose purely based on the lowest price.
A cheap consultant who creates a fragile website can cost substantially more to repair later.
Likewise, the most expensive consultant is not automatically the best.
Look for fit.
A portfolio should show more than attractive screenshots.
Ask:
What problem did the consultant solve?
For each relevant project, look for evidence of:
If possible, ask for case studies.
A case study should ideally explain the situation before the project, the approach taken, and the result.
A website screenshot tells you what the website looks like.
It does not necessarily tell you whether it works well.
Here are useful questions to ask a WordPress consultant.
The quality of the answers can reveal more than a portfolio alone.
You do not need to become a developer to evaluate technical competence.
Pay attention to how the consultant explains complex subjects.
A strong consultant should be able to explain technical decisions in plain language.
For example, if they recommend a custom plugin, ask:
Why is a custom plugin better than configuring an existing plugin?
If they recommend a particular hosting environment, ask:
What project requirement makes this hosting setup appropriate?
If they recommend a custom theme, ask:
What problem does a custom theme solve that an existing theme cannot?
Good consultants should be comfortable explaining trade-offs.
Be cautious of answers that rely heavily on buzzwords without connecting them to your project.
WordPress consultants can use different pricing models.
Common approaches include:
There is no universally correct pricing model.
The appropriate model depends on the degree of uncertainty.
If requirements are well defined, fixed pricing can work well.
If the project involves discovery, experimentation, or ongoing optimization, hourly or retainer-based consulting may be more appropriate.
A fixed project fee provides budget predictability.
However, it works best when the scope is clearly defined.
Frequent changes can create disputes.
Hourly consulting is flexible.
It is useful when requirements may evolve.
The downside is that total cost can be harder to predict.
A monthly retainer works well when you need ongoing technical support.
For example, a business might use a consultant for:
This approach divides the project into stages.
For example:
Payments can then be connected to completed milestones.
Your budget should include more than development.
Potential costs include:
Also consider future costs.
A website is not finished forever on launch day.
WordPress core, themes, plugins, hosting infrastructure, integrations, content, security requirements, and business needs can all change.
Budgeting for ongoing maintenance is therefore important.
Before meeting your consultant, gather relevant materials.
These may include:
You do not need to organize everything perfectly.
The consultant can help identify missing information.
The goal is to make the first conversation productive.
A consultant cannot make good decisions using incomplete information.
Tell them about constraints.
For example:
A requirement that seems minor at the beginning can become significant later.
Discovery is where the project begins to become concrete.
A good discovery process may cover:
What does the organization need?
Who uses the website?
What information must the website communicate?
What should users be able to do?
What systems must the website connect to?
What search visibility must be preserved or improved?
What experience should users receive?
Who will maintain the website?
Who can publish and approve changes?
Discovery should produce actionable documentation.
If discovery ends with nothing more than a conversation, valuable information can be lost.
Requirements should be categorized.
One useful structure is:
Essential functionality required for launch.
Important functionality that could potentially follow shortly after launch.
Useful enhancements that are not essential.
Ideas that should deliberately remain outside the initial project.
This framework helps prevent feature overload.
A website does not need every conceivable function on day one.
Content is one of the most frequently underestimated parts of WordPress projects.
You can have excellent development and still launch a weak website if the content is incomplete.
Determine:
Your consultant should understand how content will interact with the WordPress structure.
Information architecture determines how content is organized.
It includes:
Poor information architecture can create problems for users, editors, developers, and search engines.
A consultant should help establish a structure that makes sense for both visitors and the organization maintaining the website.
WordPress can be implemented in many ways.
You may use:
Do not select an architecture because it is fashionable.
Choose based on requirements.
A relatively simple website may benefit from a straightforward architecture.
A complex publishing platform may require more deliberate engineering.
The consultant should explain the trade-offs.
The theme influences presentation and, depending on implementation, can affect maintainability.
When evaluating a theme, consider:
Avoid choosing a theme purely because its demo looks impressive.
A demo may contain many features you do not need.
Excessive functionality can add complexity.
A custom WordPress theme may make sense when the website requires:
But custom development also creates responsibility.
Someone must maintain it.
Therefore, ask the consultant:
Who will maintain this theme two years from now?
That question is often more important than asking who will build it.
Plugins are one of WordPress’s greatest strengths.
They are also a common source of complexity.
Before installing a plugin, consider:
More plugins do not necessarily mean a better website.
The goal is not to minimize plugin count at all costs.
The goal is to maintain a sensible architecture.
Sometimes existing plugins cannot satisfy the requirements.
Custom development may then be appropriate.
Examples include:
Ask your consultant to document custom functionality.
The documentation should explain:
This becomes valuable when personnel change.
Hosting affects website reliability, performance, security, and scalability.
Your consultant should consider:
Do not automatically choose the cheapest hosting plan.
At the same time, do not pay for infrastructure that your website does not need.
The correct question is:
What hosting environment is appropriate for this project’s requirements?
Domain management should be handled carefully.
Make sure you know:
The consultant should not become the only person who can access your domain.
Business-critical assets should remain under appropriate organizational ownership.
Security should not be treated as something you add after development.
Discuss security during planning.
Areas may include:
Also ask:
What happens if the website is compromised?
A security plan should include recovery, not just prevention.
SEO should not be bolted onto a completed website.
Your consultant and SEO team should consider:
If you are redesigning an existing website, URL preservation becomes particularly important.
A beautiful redesign can still damage organic traffic if legacy URLs are mishandled.
Performance should be considered before the site becomes bloated.
Discuss:
Performance should be tested using realistic pages and devices.
Do not assume that a website is fast simply because it loads quickly on the developer’s computer.
Accessibility should be part of website planning.
Consider:
The exact accessibility requirements depend on the website, jurisdiction, audience, and applicable standards.
Your consultant should help identify the appropriate level of accessibility work.
Decide what needs to be measured before launch.
Potential tracking includes:
Tracking should reflect business objectives.
Installing analytics without defining what you need to learn often produces large quantities of data without useful insight.
Many modern WordPress projects are not isolated websites.
They may connect to:
Document these integrations early.
For each integration, determine:
If your WordPress website sells products or services, the project becomes more complex.
You may need to consider:
An experienced consultant should identify these requirements before development rather than discovering them after launch.
Website migrations require special care.
You may need to migrate:
Migration should be tested before the final launch.
Never assume that because content was successfully imported, the migration was successful.
You also need to verify URLs, media, metadata, internal links, forms, tracking, and search engine behavior.
Once requirements are established, design can begin.
The client should communicate:
Do not provide feedback only as:
“I don’t like it.”
Explain the underlying problem.
For example:
“The primary call to action does not stand out enough on mobile.”
That is actionable.
Wireframes allow teams to evaluate structure before visual details dominate the discussion.
A wireframe can help answer:
Fixing structural problems at the wireframe stage is usually easier than fixing them after development.
If your website contains many templates, establish reusable design patterns.
This might include:
A consistent system reduces design and development inconsistencies.
It also makes future website updates easier.
The transition from design to development should not be treated as simple visual copying.
The consultant and developer should determine:
A design file shows a particular state.
A WordPress website needs to handle many states.
Development should happen in controlled stages.
A typical workflow may look like:
The exact sequence can vary.
The important thing is that development should not feel like a black box.
A staging website is a separate environment where changes can be reviewed before they reach the live website.
This is particularly important for:
A staging environment allows the team to test changes without exposing visitors to unfinished work.
You do not need to inspect every line of code.
Instead, review meaningful milestones.
For example:
Core structure.
Homepage and primary templates.
Key functionality.
Integrations.
Content.
Final QA.
This makes feedback easier to manage.
Good feedback is specific.
Instead of:
“Make this better.”
Say:
“The form is difficult to use on mobile because the labels are visually separated from their fields.”
Instead of:
“The page feels too crowded.”
Say:
“The three promotional sections compete with the primary call to action. Could we reduce the visual weight of the secondary sections?”
Good feedback focuses on the problem.
It does not prescribe a technical solution unless you understand the technical implications.
Every project needs a revision process.
Define:
One of the worst workflows is receiving contradictory feedback from five people independently.
Choose one person to consolidate client feedback whenever possible.
Scope creep happens when new requirements gradually enter the project without corresponding adjustments to time, budget, or priorities.
For example:
“We also need a member dashboard.”
Then:
“Can we add social login?”
“Can it connect to our CRM?”
“Can members upload documents?”
“Can administrators approve them?”
Suddenly, a simple website has become a custom application.
New ideas are not bad.
They simply need to be evaluated.
Use a change request process:
New requirement → impact assessment → cost/time estimate → approval → implementation.
This keeps the project transparent.
Disagreement is normal.
The client may want one approach.
The consultant may recommend another.
Do not make the discussion personal.
Ask:
A good consultant should be able to explain trade-offs.
A good client should be willing to listen.
Establish communication rules early.
Decide:
Do not allow important technical decisions to disappear inside random chat messages.
Document significant decisions.
Meetings should have a purpose.
A useful weekly meeting might cover:
The goal is visibility, not meeting for the sake of meeting.
Documentation can include:
Documentation becomes especially valuable when someone leaves the organization.
The client should understand who owns content operations.
For example:
WordPress can support sophisticated publishing workflows, but only if the system is designed around actual organizational processes.
Testing should be systematic.
Do not rely on:
“I clicked around and everything looked fine.”
Create a testing checklist.
Test:
Functional testing verifies whether features work correctly.
For example:
If the website has a contact form, test:
Do not test only the happy path.
Try to break things.
The website should be evaluated across different screen sizes.
Check:
A website that looks perfect on a large desktop monitor may still have serious mobile usability problems.
Test important workflows using relevant browsers and devices.
Prioritize based on your actual audience data.
You do not necessarily need to test every browser equally.
Your consultant can help define a practical browser-support strategy.
Before launch, verify:
If the website is replacing an older site, compare the old and new URL structures.
Performance testing should be performed on important templates.
Test:
Do not optimize only one page.
Different templates can have very different performance profiles.
Accessibility testing should include both automated tools and human review.
Automated testing can identify certain issues.
Human testing can reveal problems involving:
Treat accessibility as an ongoing quality standard rather than a one-time checkbox.
Security testing should reflect the website’s risk profile.
Review:
If the website processes sensitive or valuable information, security requirements may need specialist assessment.
User acceptance testing is where the client confirms that the website meets business requirements.
Give testers a list of realistic tasks.
For example:
Test the website as an actual user would.
Launch preparation should begin before launch day.
Confirm:
Prepare a rollback plan.
Ask:
If something goes seriously wrong, how do we restore the previous version?
A practical launch checklist may include:
The launch is not the end of the project.
The first days and weeks are important.
Monitor:
Compare performance with the pre-launch baseline where possible.
If organic traffic suddenly changes, investigate rather than assuming the fluctuation is normal.
A technically excellent website can become difficult to manage if employees do not know how to use it.
Training should cover:
Provide written documentation or recorded training when practical.
WordPress websites require ongoing care.
Maintenance can involve:
Updates should not always be applied blindly to production.
For important websites, test significant updates before deployment.
After launch, measure whether the project achieved its objectives.
Ask:
The consultant can help interpret the results.
Once the website has enough data, optimization can begin.
Potential improvements include:
Do not change everything at once.
Use data to prioritize.
An ongoing consultant relationship can be valuable when your website is business-critical.
A consultant may perform periodic reviews covering:
You may not need full-time support.
Quarterly or monthly consulting can be sufficient for some organizations.
A beautiful design cannot compensate for unclear requirements.
Low initial cost can create high long-term cost.
Constant changes disrupt schedules and budgets.
“Make it pop” is difficult to implement.
Content delays frequently become development delays.
Technical changes can affect search visibility.
Websites require ongoing maintenance.
Organizational access should be controlled properly.
Consultants also have responsibilities.
Common problems include:
Building a sophisticated system when a simpler solution would work.
Making the organization dependent on one person.
Failing to explain progress or risks.
Focusing entirely on technical implementation.
Treating content migration and creation as minor tasks.
Finding problems only after launch.
Allowing requirements to expand without clear cost and schedule implications.
A professional consultant should manage these risks proactively.
The strongest consultant-client relationships generally have several characteristics.
The client trusts the consultant’s expertise.
The consultant communicates risks honestly.
Everyone knows what they are responsible for.
Business expertise and technical expertise are both valued.
Important decisions are recorded.
Reasonable changes can be considered without destabilizing the project.
The project remains connected to its objectives.
You do not need to agree on everything.
You need a productive way to disagree.
Here is an example of a structured project.
This workflow provides a structure without forcing every project into exactly the same process.
A concise consultant brief could look like this:
Project: Corporate WordPress Website Redesign
Business objective: Increase qualified inbound leads.
Target audience: B2B decision-makers researching professional services.
Current website: Existing WordPress website with outdated design and inconsistent content structure.
Primary challenges:
Required functionality:
SEO requirements:
Content: Existing content will be audited and selectively rewritten.
Timeline: Target launch within the agreed project period.
Budget: Defined during proposal stage.
Internal team: Marketing manager, content specialist, business stakeholder.
This gives the consultant a much better starting point than:
“We need a new WordPress website.”
A simple communication structure could be:
Review progress, blockers, decisions, and next steps.
Track tasks and approvals.
Store requirements and technical decisions.
Consolidate feedback before sending it to the consultant.
Document new requirements and their impact.
Use a dedicated checklist for launch activities.
This creates predictable project operations.
Be cautious if a consultant:
A consultant does not need to know everything.
But they should be transparent about what they know, what they do not know, and when specialist support is necessary.
You should expect strategic guidance, technical recommendations, project planning, and, depending on the agreement, development or oversight.
The exact responsibilities should be documented in the contract or scope.
Not necessarily.
A small website may be straightforward enough for a developer or experienced site owner.
However, consulting can be valuable when the website has important SEO, business, integration, or scalability requirements.
Ideally, before major technical decisions are made.
Early involvement allows the consultant to influence architecture rather than simply repair decisions that have already been made.
It depends.
Having one person handle both consulting and development can improve continuity.
However, larger projects may benefit from separate specialists.
Pricing varies based on experience, location, specialization, project complexity, scope, and pricing model.
Instead of comparing hourly rates alone, compare the total value and deliverables.
Generally, yes.
A realistic budget helps the consultant recommend solutions appropriate to your constraints.
Ideally, the client organization should own its domain, hosting relationship, content, accounts, and other critical business assets, subject to the contractual arrangement.
Clarify ownership before work begins.
Not necessarily.
Use plugins when they provide valuable functionality and fit the technical requirements.
The goal is a maintainable website, not a specific plugin count.
No.
A custom theme can be valuable for specialized requirements, but an appropriate existing theme or block-based approach may be more efficient for simpler projects.
There is no universal timeline.
A simple website can be completed relatively quickly, while a large enterprise website involving migration, custom functionality, integrations, content, and extensive testing can take considerably longer.
The consultant should assess the effect on scope, timeline, and budget.
Approved changes should be documented.
SEO should influence planning from the beginning.
Technical SEO, information architecture, URLs, redirects, content structure, and performance should not be left until the final day.
Monitor the website, review analytics, resolve issues, maintain WordPress and its dependencies, and continually improve the website based on user and business data.
Working with a WordPress consultant should not feel like handing a project to an outside technician and waiting for the finished website.
The best projects are collaborative.
The client provides business knowledge, audience understanding, brand context, content expertise, and organizational priorities.
The consultant provides technical knowledge, strategic thinking, architectural guidance, development expertise, risk assessment, and practical recommendations.
When those strengths are combined effectively, WordPress becomes much more than a content management system.
It becomes a platform that supports the organization’s broader digital strategy.
The most important step is to establish clarity before development begins.
Know what the website needs to accomplish.
Define the audience.
Document requirements.
Establish priorities.
Agree on responsibilities.
Set measurable success criteria.
Choose technology based on actual requirements rather than trends.
Create a clear scope.
Establish a communication process.
Review work at meaningful milestones.
Give specific feedback.
Manage changes transparently.
Test thoroughly.
Prepare for launch.
And continue improving the website after it goes live.
A strong WordPress consultant should not simply ask, “What do you want me to build?”
They should help you ask better questions:
What problem are we solving?
Who are we solving it for?
What is the simplest reliable way to solve it?
How will we know whether it worked?
Those questions can dramatically improve the quality of a website project.
Ultimately, successful WordPress consulting is about making informed decisions before expensive mistakes occur. When the client and consultant operate as genuine partners, technical expertise becomes much more valuable because it is connected to business objectives.
The result is not merely a website that launches.
It is a website that is easier to manage, easier to improve, more resilient over time, and better aligned with the organization it represents.
If you are planning a WordPress project, a useful next step is to turn your requirements into a one-page project brief and consultant evaluation checklist before contacting potential consultants.