You should make it clear to the Consultant exactly what you are expecting and ideally draw up an Initial Brief. This could be a short description of what is required or a detailed description of the project including time scale and budget cost for the project.

Our Consultants will want to meet you face to face to discuss the work before submitting a proposal. However, if you start with a clear Brief it will lessen the chances of any misunderstanding.

You should give some thought as to whether the end product (i.e. a report and recommendations) or the process (i.e. thought and idea development and information transfer) is more important.

When asking us to tender for a project it is usual to ask for:

• their comments on the brief
• details of their methods and approach to the work
• an estimate of the time they propose to allocate to the project
• summary of fees, how they are calculated and details of any extras that may occur