Short answer
Check the licence first — business consultants are not licensed in Australia, so check qualifications and public liability insurance instead. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 274 Australian business consultants in this directory, only 28.8% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 6.5% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Business Consultants handle strategy, operations, growth planning, business coaching, process improvement and advice on buying or selling a business. This is what to check before you pay for advice you cannot check yet, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
There is no business consultant licence — so check something else
There is no licence for business consulting, which means the title tells you nothing on its own. A consultant who advises on a business sale may need a business broker's licence in some states, and anyone giving financial product advice crosses into licensed territory. For everything else, the evidence is their track record and what the engagement actually commits them to.
No register exists. Confirm the ABN, read the contract for deliverables and exit terms, and ring a reference. If the advice touches tax, super or investments, the adviser needs the registration those fields require.
What 274 Australian business consultants actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For business consultants:
| What we checked | Business Consultants | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 28.8% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 41.9% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 6.5% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 88.2% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 86.1% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 18 | 39 |
What goes wrong with business consultants
- Open-ended retainers with no deliverable and no end date
- Advice that drifts into financial, legal or tax territory the consultant is not licensed for
- Case studies that cannot be verified with a named client
What to ask before the work starts
- What will I have at the end of this engagement that I do not have now?
- Can I speak to two clients you have done similar work for?
- What is the total cost, and what ends the engagement?
A business consultant who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median business consultant in this directory has 18 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do business consultants need a licence in Australia?
- No. There is no licence for business consulting, which means the title tells you nothing on its own. A consultant who advises on a business sale may need a business broker's licence in some states, and anyone giving financial product advice crosses into licensed territory. For everything else, the evidence is their track record and what the engagement actually commits them to.
- How do I check a business consultant's licence?
- No register exists. Confirm the ABN, read the contract for deliverables and exit terms, and ring a reference. If the advice touches tax, super or investments, the adviser needs the registration those fields require.
- What percentage of Australian business consultants have a verifiable ABN?
- 28.8% of the 274 business consultants in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a business consultant have?
- The median business consultant here has 18. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Read next
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- When a tradie's phone number doesn't match their own website10,300 Australian trade businesses list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website. Sometimes it is a …