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.
Our Mission
Create economic breakthrough for women and minority small business owners by connecting them with a volunteer workforce to solve their biggest strategic challenges.
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.
Our Impact
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.
6
Years Serving communities
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.
60,017
HOURS VOLUNTEERED THIS YEAR
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.
$1.1m
OF PRO BONO COUNSEL DELIVERED
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.
Our Reach
400
active volunteer consultants
22
universities
11
states
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.
Arizona State | Boston College | Bowdoin | Case Western | Columbia UNIVERSITY | Cornell UNIVERSITY | Emory UNIVERSITY | Georgia Tech | University of Maryland, COLLEGE PARK | NC State | NYU | Purdue | Seton Hall | SMU | UC Berkeley | UC Davis | UCLA | UNIVERSITY OF Miami | UNC CHAPEL HILL | UNC CHARLOTTE | UT Austin | WASH U
65% of Consult Your Community’s small businesses are owned or run by either minorities, immigrants, or female majority leadership teams
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.
% of small businesses served by industry and size
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.
Stories of Small Businesses
What Our Students Are Seeing in Their Communities
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.
What are some struggles small businesses have in the geographic area?
“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
What has been most fulfilling about your work?
“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
Laurie Lemieux, and her son Paul, talk about how creating a family around their small business has helped them compete with big brands like Amazon as a small, specialty bike shop in College Park, Md. Laurie says she wants to get people on bikes to empower them, to help protect the environment, and to make people happier and healthier.
Our Sponsors helped us launch CYCCON, our first conference, in November 2018. We brought together 152 volunteers from 17 universities and 5 small businesses together for the first time in the history of our organization. We could not have done it without the dedication of a great team at NC State University and a generous donation from the CEO of PwC started over a cold email…
Our Sponsors
What Small Businesses Say About Us
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
Capacity Building & Marketing Strategy, 2019 — Flourish
What does flourish do?
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.
WHAT WAS THE PROJECT SCOPE?
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.
WHAT DID THEY IMPLEMENT?
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.
Store Expansion & Digital Strategy in the Restaurant Industry, 2016
A project team in Austin assisted a food truck named Blenders & Bowls in its transition to a brick-and-mortar store by:
writing a business plan
rebuilding their website, and
setting up partnerships with popular local food deals app to normalize sales during business downtimes.
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 People
A national team with diverse experiences leads Consult Your Community, dedicating countless volunteer hours to leadership coaching, operations, marketing, grant writing, growth and more
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!
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