2019 impact report

2019 impact report
The Challenge
Small businesses are symbols of the American Dream brought to life. According to the Small Business Administration, they employ nearly 60% of the private workforce and created nearly 70% of new jobs post-recession. But they’re in trouble…
In fact, only 50% survive past their fifth year.
Women and minority owners face acute challenges when starting and staying in business. In 2000, women received only 12% of all credit provided to small firms even though, at that point, they owned close to 40% of all US businesses (NAWBO 2016). Denied access to capital at higher rates, many struggle to stay in business on top of the typical challenges faced universally by all small businesses, like staff turnover and local competition.
Who We Are
Consult Your Community is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that inspires communities into action. Through skills-based consulting projects, we mobilize college students to leverage their education, digital savvy, and networks to drive change in their communities.
Welcome to Consult Your Community’s inaugural impact report. For this very special feature, we included highlights and stories of impact from this past year and years prior. When we use the phrase “this year” on this page, we mean the past academic year (Fall 2018 - Spring 2019). We chose to cut the data this way since pro bono projects are still ongoing for the Fall semester and we wanted to provide a comprehensive view of a year’s worth of data.
Consult Your Community was founded by the current CEO and a team of UC Berkeley college students in 2013 who craved responsibility and a chance to make a tangible impact for small businesses. Since 2016, a national team of young professionals mobilized to ensure steady growth and create more operational rigor.
Roughly 1700 student volunteers provided 354,000 hours of pro bono conuslting for local small businesses since the founding of the organization. Between Fall 2018-Spring 2019, our volunteers contributed nearly 2,400 hrs/week of pro bono counsel.
We used national estimates of intern hourly wages from the National Association of College and Employers (NACE) and survey data from our volunteer teams to arrive at the figure for this year.
We are currently serving small businesses in the 22 college communities listed below. 4 new university chapters are undergoing start-up bootcamp, where professionals in Private Equity, Consulting, Nonprofit, and Investment Banking on the National Team evaluate whether these student leadership teams exceed expectations. They must outperform standards of quality, professionalism, and commitment to service for 3-6 months before being accredited as a chapter.
The data in this section was populated by 75 volunteers on behalf of our 112 small businesses clients, and represents ~70% of the total sample. The remainder either chose not to self-identify or volunteers were unable to gather the attributes.
We mostly served businesses in the Retail (26%), Restaurant (18%), and Tech (17%) industries, which has stayed consistent since 2016. This industry mix aligns to what you would expect of small businesses closer to campuses.
93% of the small businesses we served have <5o full-time employees. Accordingly, the benefits of having a 3 to 5-person CYC team help for 3 months has the potential to be felt deeply by our small business partners.
Episode: Breaking The Cycle, How One DC Small Business Is Finding Its Niche
Small Business: Proteus Bicycles
Project Type: Revenue Optimization
Details: Laurie Lemieux tasked 3 students at University of Maryland with identifying new revenue streams to stabilize her revenues and income year-round. They surveyed 100 students to understand Proteus’ positioning and used customer insights to craft local promotional strategies to drive repeat traffic while fostering greater community feeling.
“One of the main things we’ve observed is gentrification. It’s definitely something that has affected her. You see a lot of these others stores coming up that have these really nice facilities, these large new shopping centers. It’s hard for these stores to compete because they’ve been here for decades. The location might not be as optimal.” — Fiona Whitefield, University of Maryland, College Park
“When you walk into Laurie’s store, there is a distinct smell. It smells like bikes. And it’s a really cool smell because you feel like you’re in a garage where things are happening. Bikes are being fixed. Bikes are being spun. That type of environment and that aura is not really present in these gentrified locations. They all have a really similar vibe because they’re built at the same time. Another challenge that small business owners face is being able to market themselves as this unique location. Not as another shop that popped up in College Park in 2017. But as a shop that’s been here and that’s been part of the culture, the history. As a shop that’s founded by two Terps, two University of Maryland students." — Ankit Sheth, University of Maryland, College Park
“There’s a big trend towards customers wanting more than just a transactional relationship with these shops. They want more of a relational view. Everyone that shops at Proteus be it 1 time or 10 times, they know Laurie. They know her face, and they all love her. That’s a draw to coming back. She’s a fixture there. They enjoy every interaction they have with her. That’s what they can really capitalize on.” — Nick Giannascoli, University of Maryland, College Park
“The most fulfilling part was seeing how a real business was run. I have a big interest in entrepreneurship. So just seeing how a small business owner like Laurie actually managed her business day to day, seeing her financials, seeing what they think are the best ways to market… Typically what I do in my program is propose a business plan but it was interesting to see how Laurie’s business plan has come full circle and it’s still going.” — Nick Giannascoli, University of Maryland, College Park
Raleigh, NC
“They were organized, professional, and direct. Their research has helped me grow my business and has affirmed what I am doing with my business. I only wish I could continue to work with them. They have been such a valuable asset to me and my team.” — Kendra Leonard, The Art of Style, featured left @ CYCCON2018
“The insight the team gave us on the [revenue] funnel and wholesale process are something we refer back to often, months later.” — Cary Heise - Founder & Director, Designed for Joy
Berkeley, CA
“We had an amazing experience working with CYC. The team was quite impressive and very well organized. The project was well managed and they definitely exceed our expectations. As a founder with many things happening at once, it was great to have them thoughtfully identify a couple of areas of work, lead the research process and provide useful recommendations. We would highly recommend CYC.” — Pedro Moura, CEO and Founder of Flourish Savings
“The team members have not only proven themselves to be dedicated to excellence, but they’ve been personable and a pleasure to work with!” — CEO, Francesco Productions
“From their highly polished presentations to their well-thought out insights and suggestions, we are extremely grateful for their help in planning out our product roadmap for upcoming months. Their advice has prepared us for the upcoming release of our next title and allowed us to begin the work needed to prepare for marketing at scale!” – CEO, Escality
“We would like to extend a huge thank you to the team that spent approx 10 weeks working with us to firstly understand our vision & objectives and secondly assist in prioritizing the commercial approach and monetization opportunities. They were able to provide a high level framework and also drilled down into specific examples and opportunities where we could go and prove out different commercial models. This was our first experience of working with a CYC team and we would highly recommend the experience and congratulate the team on the high quality of the work carried out and the depth and detail of the final report. Thanks again for your support to Litterati as we continue to make significant impact in cleaning the planet and eradicating litter.” — Dick Ayres and Jeff Kirschner, Chief Strategy Officer and CEO/Founder of Litterati
Pedro and Jessica started Flourish to promote positive financial habits among users, especially first generation financial citizens/ Flourish is a mobile application which allows users to save money through a savings account. If users save more, they have a higher chance of winning prizes through raffles and games. Through transforming the way people manage their finances, Flourish helps people recognize the importance of financial planning and encourages savings.
The project team at Berkeley worked with Flourish to create a marketing and branding strategy for the start-up, conducted market research on mobile games and applications, and created a brand ambassador program to help Flourish expand to other college communities.
Our ideas have created a comprehensive brand ambassador program for Flourish which it now uses to recruit and train interns. Specifically, we helped create more content for their social media, conducted a survey to better their application features, and provided suggestions to resolve problems they faced.
Our Impact: As a result of these changes, our client has become the #1 top result on Google for “Austin Acai”, increased click through rate by approximately 150%, and successfully launched its first store. This client has asked for Consult Your Community’s (CYC) continued involvement over 3 academic semesters.
Our Leadership Team and national staff bring private and public sector experience from management consulting, private equity, venture capital, education, and life sciences to Consult Your Community from Google, Sandton Capital Partners, United Talent Agency, J.P. Morgan, Bain & Company, Deloitte Consulting, Guidehouse, Simon Kucher and Partners, LISC, Pill Safe, and LEK — from the Bronx in New York to Los Angeles, CA. Are you looking to make an impact at a national scale? Join us!
Thank you Diana Davis Spencer & The Global Good Fund for honoring us in 2018!
Our CEO was selected as the youngest of 16 recipients for a $20,000 leadership grant administered by the Global Good Fund and Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, which accepted <1% of applicants. Given as support for the leadership development of social entrepreneurs, this competitive scholarship has opened many doors for us. Thank you for believing in us!