Anyone here do consulting work?

[lowsingle]

This may be boring for non-consultants but its easy to follow

Basically I got hired to set up this guys business through my university. They pay 1k a month to the school, $800 going to me, for the whole semester. I've been doing 5 of these at a time in lieu of classes and I get just the same units. It's only available to students who demonstrate that they are too advanced for undergrad classes.

So one of my clients only has an idea, an amazing silver tongue and a ton of money. No idea how its going to work, no idea of how to run a business. His ideas of numbers are hilariously wrong, for example, he expects when he is doing $3m in sales for his liability insurance to be $1200 a year....

I planned every single expense he could incur, found the best engineering firms available and negotiated amazing prices, set up deals with UL to test the product, found suppliers, advertising systems, all his projected accounting for the next 5 years and did market research. I went door to door to 150 homes in his very narrow target market and got 5000 survey results online.

result:
I have a 250 page document with with everything he ever needs to know for his business (with hundreds of pages of raw customer data). However, I had to give him a final 2 hour oral presentation a week before I give him the final document, per university requirements. I basically proved to him that this product can't work. It's laughably expensive and impractical. The engineering costs are through the roof and there are a thousand better options that cost less than 10% of what his costs.

He fired me and had his lawyer send me a threatening letter, telling me to destroy the document, so that when potential investors research his business, such negative information doesn't exist. Both of my sisters are attorneys with law degrees from ivy league schools, so I had them review our letters of engagement and know that this asshole doesn't have a leg to stand on.

But have any of you ever seen someone so delusional with their business? Raw data shows that there is no way this could ever be practical and less than 2% of people want it, in a very small niche market. I have teams of engineers saying that his idea would be analogous to competing with the car industry by making a flinstones man-powered car that costs $500,000, and 3 million to engineer.

I don't know if I should just redact his name and identifying information from the document before I turn it into the university to get my credit, or if I should feel obligated to prevent people from investing in this crock of shit (the guy is a liar and very convincing about his bullshit idea).

 

[MadSquabbles500]

If you can do all that why are you in college dude unless you are teaching the classes?

If you got this through you Uni, dont they have a contract with this said silver tongue without a knack for business, that should protect you? If anything, Mr. Silver tongue and your Uni are suppose to be going at it. Or was this strictly independent, and you just used the Uni for networking? If so what is stated in the contract?

And if the business idea is so bad, or is so blatantly unfeasible, he should not need anyone to tell him after they do all that research. Has this guy ever changed a light bulb on his own in under ten minutes? But if it just barely makes it after all that research, it may still be worth it.

 

[Josh]

Pretty boring read man.

Redact the name, hand it in for marks, no big deal. You don't need to be the conscience of the consumer here. If what you say is true, it's never going to get to that stage anyways.

 

[emperor]

I was a consultant up until about eighteen months ago and though I can say that I've never seen anyone threaten to sue me for revealing findings contrary to what they were hoping for, I found it really frustrating how most of the time my job was something to the effect of "yeah, I really want to do this but the C-level guys don't see value in it...so we're gonna pay you six figures to tell them how awesome my idea is." Usually when what I presented differed from what the client was looking for, my response was something to the effect of "hey, you hired me to tell you if it was a good idea or not, and it's not." Just goes with the territory.

To answer your question, redact the name and hand it in. If an investor isn't savvy enough to see a bullshit idea when he sees it, it's his own fault and he doesn't deserve to make money on the venture.

 

[lowsingle]

If you can do all that why are you in college dude unless you are teaching the classes?

If you got this through you Uni, dont they have a contract with this said silver tongue without a knack for business, that should protect you? If anything, Mr. Silver tongue and your Uni are suppose to be going at it.

And if the business idea is so bad, or is so blatantly unfeasible, he should not need anyone to tell him after they do all that research. Has this guy ever changed a light bulb on his own in under ten minutes? But if it just barely makes it after all that research, it may still be worth it.

he basically made his money in corporate jobs because he can talk up a storm. im fully protected, theres nothing in our contract about confidentiality unless he says i cant share beforehand. but i think the uni doesnt want to scare off potential clients by letting this go to shit

im doing this because its normally for MBA students. i just want my bachelors for business loans for the shit i want to start myself. i grew up in a family of mostly entrepreneurs so this shit is common knowledge to me

Pretty boring read man.

Redact the name, hand it in for marks, no big deal. You don't need to be the conscience of the consumer here. If what you say is true, it's never going to get to that stage anyways.

i gave a disclaimer

I was a consultant up until about eighteen months ago and though I can say that I've never seen anyone threaten to sue me for revealing findings contrary to what they were hoping for, I found it really frustrating how most of the time my job was something to the effect of "yeah, I really want to do this but the C-level guys don't see value in it...so we're gonna pay you six figures to tell them how awesome my idea is." Usually when what I presented differed from what the client was looking for, my response was something to the effect of "hey, you hired me to tell you if it was a good idea or not, and it's not." Just goes with the territory.

yeah thats pretty much what happens. i was just trying to save him from blowing 500k on designing a product nobody wants

i had a good similar experience though. someone wanted to make custom forearm crutches for kids. his son has medical issues and needs them, so he figured itd be nice if someone made "cool" animal ones or transformer ones or whatever for kids so it doesnt suck so bad.

i quickly found it wouldnt work because less than 10% of the crutches in america are forearm ones (like walt jr uses in breaking bad). everyone uses the armpit ones, so his market is tiny. then i discovered (semi-obvious info) that nobody buys crutches with their own money. insurance companies buy them, and they'll never shell for a more expensive model for the customer.

they took it well and thanked me for saving them the trouble of blowing their savings on it. sucks because it was for a good cause rather than to make money

 

[MadSquabbles500]

This is like Shark Tank.

I am really curious, just please tell us what the product is or at least the category. I mean is it a pen, or a type of disposable eating utensil?

 

[wlu29]

This may be boring for non-consultants but its easy to follow

Basically I got hired to set up this guys business through my university. They pay 1k a month to the school, $800 going to me, for the whole semester. I've been doing 5 of these at a time in lieu of classes and I get just the same units. It's only available to students who demonstrate that they are too advanced for undergrad classes.

So one of my clients only has an idea, an amazing silver tongue and a ton of money. No idea how its going to work, no idea of how to run a business. His ideas of numbers are hilariously wrong, for example, he expects when he is doing $3m in sales for his liability insurance to be $1200 a year....

I planned every single expense he could incur, found the best engineering firms available and negotiated amazing prices, set up deals with UL to test the product, found suppliers, advertising systems, all his projected accounting for the next 5 years and did market research. I went door to door to 150 homes in his very narrow target market and got 5000 survey results online.

result:
I have a 250 page document with with everything he ever needs to know for his business (with hundreds of pages of raw customer data). However, I had to give him a final 2 hour oral presentation a week before I give him the final document, per university requirements. I basically proved to him that this product can't work. It's laughably expensive and impractical. The engineering costs are through the roof and there are a thousand better options that cost less than 10% of what his costs.

He fired me and had his lawyer send me a threatening letter, telling me to destroy the document, so that when potential investors research his business, such negative information doesn't exist. Both of my sisters are attorneys with law degrees from ivy league schools, so I had them review our letters of engagement and know that this asshole doesn't have a leg to stand on.

But have any of you ever seen someone so delusional with their business? Raw data shows that there is no way this could ever be practical and less than 2% of people want it, in a very small niche market. I have teams of engineers saying that his idea would be analogous to competing with the car industry by making a flinstones man-powered car that costs $500,000, and 3 million to engineer.

I don't know if I should just redact his name and identifying information from the document before I turn it into the university to get my credit, or if I should feel obligated to prevent people from investing in this crock of shit (the guy is a liar and very convincing about his bullshit idea).

Are you in undergrad or graduate school?

 

[lowsingle]

This is like Shark Tank.

I am really curious, just please tell us what the product is or at least the category. I mean is it a pen, or a type of disposable eating utensil?

basically im the guy who would prepare the person for shark tank so they can get an investment

the most i'll say, is that its a home protection system. fire/tornado. think of the most comical way to protect ones home from those, and thats his idea. it also destroys the aesthetics of the house and requires you to stay home for the first hours of the disaster. with prices only scrooge mcduck can afford

 

[Anung Un Rama]

This guy got all of that information for $12K


Is this available at all universities?

 

[emperor]

This guy got all of that information for $12K


Is this available at all universities?

Don't know about undergrad levels, but lots of MBA schools require some kind of field consultancy for graduation.

 

[lowsingle]

Are you in undergrad or graduate school?

final semester of undergrad

but i took the slow way and this is my 6th year. i went part time and worked full time once my school dropped the wrestling program and i lost my full ride scholarship. i only started going full time again once i got an easy as fuck management job and i started getting paid for it through these consulting programs

 

[wlu29]

final semester of undergrad

but i took the slow way and this is my 6th year. i went part time and worked full time once my school dropped the wrestling program and i lost my full ride scholarship. i only started going full time again once i got an easy as fuck management job and i started getting paid for it through these consulting programs

How were you able to secure a management job without even an undergraduate degree

 

[lowsingle]

This guy got all of that information for $12K


Is this available at all universities?

theyre common at an MBA level

my school also has undergrad consulting programs for only $1k/semester. the students dont get any of the money, they assign like 5 kids to one client and they get professor guidance. their actual recommendations can be ignored, but you basically get 5 interns doing legwork for 1k if you set it up right.

im starting a foodtruck over the summer, so im doing the same thing, but with graphic design students. im paying $500 and they will assign 4 kids to design the graphics on my truck as their summer school class lol

its great for experience, but kinda feels like the school is collecting tuition to make kids do intern work...

 

[emperor]

theyre common at an MBA level

my school also has undergrad consulting programs for only $1k/semester. the students dont get any of the money, they assign like 5 kids to one client and they get professor guidance. their actual recommendations can be ignored, but you basically get 5 interns doing legwork for 1k if you set it up right.

im starting a foodtruck over the summer, so im doing the same thing, but with graphic design students. im paying $500 and they will assign 4 kids to design the graphics on my truck as their summer school class lol

its great for experience, but kinda feels like the school is collecting tuition to make kids do intern work...

I'm starting to wonder if you and I went to the same school...

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Don't know about undergrad levels, but lots of MBA schools require some kind of field consultancy for graduation.

 

[lowsingle]

How were you able to secure a management job without even an undergraduate degree

its in a restaurant and ive been helping in family restaurants from age 12->16 at which age i started working in various restaurants. 24 now

i pretty much got the promotion by telling the GM everything he should do to improve the restaurant, how to set up automatic par system inventory ordering, how to reorganize the tables/chairs to fit more people and accommodate larger parties, evaluated the menu on items that don't sell and how much money we lose by carrying them. shit like that

now i just supervise shifts and give him/the owners ideas once a week. but most shifts is just sitting in the back office on sherdog and doing schoolwork

 

[wlu29]

Your client sounds like a moron

Fools and their money should be parted

 

[Anung Un Rama]

What rustles my jimmies, is I had top of the food chain consultants helping me.
I knew them personally and they LOVED our idea/concept. They did everything for me for a small stock %. What I didn't get was the consistent one-on-one (They were in NYC and Boston, I'm in the West). And I didn't get that sweet ass 250 page document.

Skill/ experience-wise, I don't think a student could compare to these guys but I bet they would have solved the problems that brought us down, before they even existed. I'm getting pretty bent right now.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

theyre common at an MBA level

my school also has undergrad consulting programs for only $1k/semester. the students dont get any of the money, they assign like 5 kids to one client and they get professor guidance. their actual recommendations can be ignored, but you basically get 5 interns doing legwork for 1k if you set it up right.

im starting a foodtruck over the summer, so im doing the same thing, but with graphic design students. im paying $500 and they will assign 4 kids to design the graphics on my truck as their summer school class lol

its great for experience, but kinda feels like the school is collecting tuition to make kids do intern work...

How does one apply for this program? Just call the Business School? Give a presentation?

 

[lowsingle]

What rustles my jimmies, is I had top of the food chain consultants helping me.
I knew them personally and they LOVED our idea/concept. They did everything for me for a small stock %. What I didn't get was the consistent one-on-one (They were in NYC and Boston, I'm in the West). And I didn't get that sweet ass 250 page document.

Skill/ experience-wise, I don't think a student could compare to these guys but I bet they would have solved the problems that brought us down, before they even existed. I'm getting pretty bent right now.

from what i heard from mentors the school introduced me to, thats the tradeoff. you usually get expertise or focus, as good consultants usually have a fuckton of clients versus new guys who can dedicate more time to you.