The Right Consultant Saves You Money: Why Expertise Beats a Bargain

When my family decided to add an extra bathroom to our home, it felt like a necessity more than a luxury. With two growing kids and constant morning traffic at the sink, we needed another space to ease the chaos. But our budget was tight, and every quote from a licensed contractor was far beyond what we had set aside. That’s when I turned to the internet, scrolling through recommendations until I found a local handyman with glowing reviews. He assured me he could get the job done quickly and at half the price of the professionals. It sounded like the perfect solution. 

The remodel went smoothly—at first. The handyman worked efficiently, and within a few weeks, we had a brand-new bathroom. The tile looked great, the fixtures were modern, and everything appeared to be in perfect working order. We were thrilled. That is, until one evening when I noticed a damp spot forming on the wall. Within hours, water started pooling on the floor. Panic set in as I realized something had gone horribly wrong. 

I immediately called a professional plumber, who took one look at the work behind the wall and shook his head. “This entire plumbing job is a mess,” he said. “Nothing is up to code. The pipes weren’t sealed properly, and there was no venting for the drainage. This all needs to be redone.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, he asked if we had obtained the proper permits. My stomach dropped. The handyman never mentioned permits. Turns out, the city required one for plumbing work, and because we didn’t have it, we now faced fines on top of everything else. 

What started as a budget-friendly project had now tripled in cost. Not only did we have to pay for the permits we should have gotten in the first place, but we had to tear out everything the handyman had installed and start over. The drywall had to be replaced, the tile redone, and the plumbing installed properly this time. The money we thought we were saving vanished in an instant. Lesson learned—some things are too important to cut corners on, and home renovations are one of them. 

Invest in the Right Consultant, Not the Cheapest One 

When it comes to hiring a consultant, sticker shock is real. It’s tempting to choose the lowest-cost option, but in the world of pet food, animal health, and business strategy, expertise and experience aren’t cheap because they pay for themselves. A bargain consultant may seem like a smart financial move, but they often lack the depth of experience needed to solve complex problems efficiently. And fixing their mistakes? That is far more expensive than hiring the right expert from the start.  

At BSM Partners, this is a mistake we see all too often. We are frequently approached by companies needing to hire a consultant after hiring the wrong one and having to correct projects that have gone off the rails. This is often a result of hiring the wrong consultant in the first place or not realizing the depth of expertise it takes to truly be successful from start to finish of a project.  

This is one area where BSM Partners is truly different than any other consulting firm in the world. Not only are you hiring an expert in one area—you are hiring our whole multidisciplinary team, resulting in a partner to assist you in being successful in the pet industry. From ideation to fruition, we have you covered. With 28 experts and a combined total of over 400 years of experience in the pet industry, it’s hard to find a situation that we have not tackled successfully before.  

Unfortunately, many pet industry consultants lack the industry knowledge and hands-on experience required to navigate challenges efficiently, resulting in a higher cost to you than you might expect. Some of the “hidden” costs associated with this situation are: 

Time Wasted on Trial and Error 

Instead of solving the problem, cheaper and less experienced consultants take months to learn what an expert already knows. An example of this is a company that came to us after having to reformulate its existing product due to a change in raw material pricing. Their choice was to increase the price of the product or change ingredients. They decided to reformulate with an ingredient change, but once it was in production, their customers saw a drastic reduction in palatability with their pets, reducing the performance of their formulation.  

This was when they sought out BSM Partners. Our formulation team evaluated the formula and knew that this new ingredient was not very palatable, which resulted in changes in formula performance. Now, the BSM Partners’ team was faced with a decision: reformulate to choose a more palatable ingredient (resulting in increased cost for updated packaging) or find a way to make the formula more palatable without a major ingredient change.  

Consulting with our experts in palatability, we recognized that simple tweaks to the existing formula would allow for increased palatability without a major formulation change, resulting in a product that performed better than the original formula and did not require an expensive packaging update. Unfortunately, the company had already lost market share due to the original formulation faux pas. Having partnered with BSM Partners the first time could have prevented the loss of market share and precious time in reformulation. 

Regulatory Misinformation 

Even a consultant with specialized experience may not have specialized pet food experience. Recently, a pet food manufacturer was faced with a recall due to a potential safety issue with their product. Because they only had a formulation consultant and not a team of advisors, they turned to a “recall specialist” for advice, who told them not to issue a voluntary recall. 

Conversely, our Food Safety and Regulatory practice advised them to take a proactive approach, demonstrating to consumers that the company prioritized safety and was taking responsible action. 

However, they didn’t follow this advice, and their decision to delay action led to a state-issued stop sale, more pets becoming ill, and a delay in issuing the manufacturer’s recall of the product. Time will tell what this delay will cost in reputation, as this may be perceived poorly in the public’s eye. 

Manufacturing Pitfalls 

In pet food, a consultant unfamiliar with processing constraints might create a formula that’s great on paper but impossible to manufacture. Hiring a consultant who only knows formulation software but lacks manufacturing experience can lead to diets that cannot be manufactured properly, causing costly production delays and reformulations. This is a common situation that BSM Partners addresses.  

Unfortunately, there is a very steep learning curve when it comes to taking a product from formulation to production, requiring a deep understanding of food science while learning to formulate with commercial software. It is too large of a subject to become proficient without years of university-level education or prior industry experience. Fortunately, when you partner with experienced consultants with several food scientists, equipment engineers, formulators, and nutritionists who have years of food production experience (like BSM Partners!), the consultant can collectively handle even the most complicated of food production problems. 

Rework and Do-Overs 

A consultant with a lower fee might not have the experience to avoid potentially costly mistakes. For example, a past project had a study design that was already underway when they encountered severe implementation challenges and had to be suspended unexpectedly. The company reached out to BSM Partners to diagnose the underlying issues with their experimental protocol. 

BSM Partners identified fundamental flaws in the original formulation and developed an improved version with substantially better performance. However, this solution required the diets to be remade, tested for quality, and shipped to the test facility, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in research kennel boarding fees while the study was on hold. Ultimately, the study had to be restarted, significantly increasing the cost and delaying the product getting to market. 

This is just one example of an expensive error that could have been avoided if the company invested in more experienced formulators and researchers from the get-go. 

Damage to Your Reputation 

Poor advice can lead to product failures, regulatory issues, or customer dissatisfaction. Once products are on the market, these issues can seriously erode customer confidence and loyalty. As the saying goes, you only get one first impression, and if a consumer’s first experience with your new product goes poorly, you're probably not going to get a second chance. This means that you need to do things right the first time around.  

In this case, a new supplement manufacturer came to BSM Partners because they had a newly launched product that had a high level of returns and several customer complaints that they weren’t getting what they paid for. After evaluating the product, our team discovered two critical issues affecting consumer satisfaction. 

First, we concluded that a main ingredient in the supplement was notoriously unpalatable to cats, so while it may have been functional, dosing was an issue that couldn’t be overcome with even the strongest and most successful palatant. This ingredient was replaced with a tastier alternative, and palatability studies were conducted to help determine the right amount of palatant for this particular formulation.  

Regarding the customer complaints of value perception,  our packaging experts made strategic modifications to the packaging design that better aligned visual presentation with consumer expectations for improved customer satisfaction. 

Choose Proven Knowledge Over Frugal Fixes 

These are just a handful of examples, but the list is long, as our team is approached daily by brands that have used another consultant in the industry, had issues arise, and now need BSM Partners’ help.  

As our name says, BSM Partners is truly your partner in this industry. All our advisors are available to you through our partnership, bringing years of hands-on industry experience with us. This experience helps us navigate and avoid many potential pitfalls that brands encounter in this industry.  

With a BSM Partners partnership, we won’t just give you a compliant formula—we’ll ensure it’s palatable, cost-effective, and scalable for mass production. With our team, you get: 

• Faster problem solving—with a proven track record of addressing various challenges, we bring speed and precision to identifying the implementing effective solutions. 

• Regulatory know-how—our deep understanding of compliance frameworks helps you avoid costly and time-consuming missteps often overlooked by less experienced teams. 

• Manufacturing expertise—we ensure your production processes and equipment operate at peak efficiency, enabling concistent product quality and seamless scalability.  

• Strategic foresight—we go beyond solving immediate issues to future-proof your operations, identifying risks and opportunities before they impact your business or pass you by. 

• Formulation and food science experience—our specialized knowledge has been built over years of hands-on experience, bringing rigor and innovation to every product we touch. 

A good partner isn’t just an expense—they’re an investment that saves you money in the long run. While hiring an expert might feel expensive upfront, the right advisor will help you avoid costly mistakes, accelerate your project timeline, and set your business up for success.  

The cheapest option is rarely the best. Choose expertise over a bargain, and both your budget and your future self will thank you. 

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About the Author

Dr. Katy Miller works as the Director of Veterinary Services at BSM Partners. She earned her veterinary degree at Ross University and completed her clinical year at Louisiana State University. She previously served for 11 years as the Director of Dog and Cat Health and Nutrition for Mud Bay where she earned multiple certifications and specialized in pet food nutriton, prior to which she practiced general and emergency medicine for seven years. She is also a competitive three-day eventer, licensed falconer, and claims only two (Golden and Mini Doxie) of their nine dogs.