My colleagues and I work as a genuine small consultancy. We’ve been that way for a long time, That means we rarely work through agents. Agencies do a lot for contractors and take a lot of the boring stuff away, but without them, much of that suddenly lands on your own desk.
Here are the biggest things you’ll need to handle financially when you’re a small business working with the giant multinationals.
1) Working at risk
“Working at risk” is big-company shorthand for starting work before a contract is fully signed, meaning you might not get paid. It happens because internal contracting and approval processes often move far slower than the need to deliver. Large consultancies accept this as normal. If you’re used to agency work, you won’t have seen it because your contract sits with the agency. As a real company, you will face it regularly.
2) Slow payments
Large organisations pay slowly, sometimes very slowly. Even with everything done correctly, you may wait months (45 or even 90 day terms are common), and practical delays can push invoices being paid out to six months. there is rarely malice in this; it’s just how the corporate machinery works. You will need enough cashflow to cover at least six months of outgoings without incoming invoices when first starting out.
3) “Bad” software (that’s actually just hideously complex)
You might run your own invoicing on tools like FreshBooks, Xero or QuickBooks. Your clients will likely use things like Coupa, Planview and other enterprise platforms. From your vantage point, they can seem dreadful or illogical. In reality, you’re seeing only a tiny slice of a system coping with huge complexity. Expect odd workflows and fields that make little sense in isolation. Be patient, ask for a short walkthrough, and build simple internal checklists so you submit things right first time.
4) Being treated like a multinational
Flattering? Yes. Fun? Not really. Many procurement teams are set up to deal with Accenture, PwC, Deloitte, and the like, so the template master services agreement you’re handed will be written with them in mind. Hire a good lawyer you get on with, and have them mark up practical adjustments for a company your size. Most procurement people are sensible; if you clearly explain what’s unreasonable, they’ll often accommodate it, provided you stay constructive rather than combative.
5) Invisible thresholds
Everything can be cruising along nicely and then, bang, You’re suddenly pulled into confrontational calls and quizzed on billing details that were fine last year, sometimes over very small amounts. What’s happened is you’ve crossed an internal threshold: end of financial year timing, a budget code boundary, or a spend level that pushes approvals to a higher tier. None of this may be visible (or shareable) to you. Don’t take it personally. Break invoices down, align to the right periods, and help them route approvals cleanly.
6) Absorbing costs and tasks
You may be asked to absorb items you’d normally pass on as expenses to a project such as, ISO certifications, bits of hardware, software licences, and so on. Big consultancies often bundle these into their rates or already hold the certifications, so the client expects “sure we’ll cover that” when asked. As a small company, you’re competing with that standard. Decide what you’ll absorb, what you’ll explicitly scope and price, and where you’ll simply say “that’s out of scope, here’s the cost”. Transparency helps, but be prepared to shoulder some admin and paper work to keep things moving.
Final thoughts
Working with huge companies is absolutely doable, and rewarding, if you plan for the realities: accept some risk (carefully), maintain strong cash reserves, get proper legal support, expect bureaucracy, and keep your documentation spotless. Do that, and you can go toe-to-toe with the big players while keeping the advantages that make small firms valuable: speed, focus, and high skill.