Assignment 24A

Putting it All Together 

Walding Consulting Firm

Opportunity-  

There are many people in the world with profitable business ideas or solutions, but have little guidance, knowledge or financial stability. My opportunity is described as a consultation firm that would allow for young entrepreneurs to receive the guidance, foundation and financial stability they need for their own startups. On the local scale, there are many students within the city of Gainesville that see themselves as entrepreneurs and want to create their own business from scratch. There are very few forces within the market, although, you could argue that new products or services can be a force by altering the ideas client bring to the firm. The market will have a younger demographic, probably around 18-35 years old, and geographically will be within the city of Gainesville. Many of my prospective clients are probably not pursuing their ideas at all, therefore, they wouldn’t be satisfying their need. This opportunity can be extremely big, depending on the amount of work put into it. The window of opportunity will last, and potentially expand in the future.  

Innovation-  

Consulting has been around as a business for a long time. My idea of turning consulting into a “pay later” business is something I haven’t really heard of. In terms of innovation, it isn’t radically different at all, but it will solve the problem of many entrepreneurs having a place to start with limited funds. Customers will buy this service because they have nothing to lose. My consulting firm is similar to the basis of a lawyer not getting paid unless the case is won. There are many vulnerabilities such as financial risk, arguably the most important vulnerability when running a business of your own. I will be selling my time, experience and knowledge for a flat fee plus interest. For instance, If I help a client build a foundation for their business for the course of 3 months, I would charge $25,000 plus interest payable over the course of 5 years. My experience and knowledge is what would make the entire service work, meaning, I should focus on building my own experience that someone else would be willing to pay for.  

Venture Concept- 

Customers will want to buy the service because they want the help of someone who is capable of making a business happen. Many people want to be business owners but are intimidated by the financial risks and other things that go into making a business work. My customers won’t be switching from any other providers, the difficult part will be getting them through the door and selling my service. I would organize this business into teams because I feel there are many different skills that need to be covered within a consulting firm and having a team will allow for a broader range of those skills to work together. As said before, there are many vulnerabilities when it comes to consulting.  There will be financial risks, economic hardship may affect the business, and many other forces.  

The most important assets my firm will possess are the knowledge and experiences it takes to run a successful consulting firm. This is nearly impossible for other firms to replicate, but there could be good competition in the market.  

The next venture would be expanding to the point where the firm can consult multiple clients at a time. Having created, managed and launched multiple teams into a space where they can work on the client’s needs will be key to driving more revenue and overall, expanding the business. This venture is extremely long-term. I would like to build off my own experiences for the next 5-10 years, and then launch my consulting firm that would provide many of the details included above. Five years beyond launching, I would hope to grow my teams and expand my revenues.