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raineysky
01-10-2011, 05:54 PM
I have been working in the manufacturing industry for nearly 30 years and have been thinking about starting my own consulting business targeting the SMB owner. One of my strengths has always been in production process optimization and increasing efficiencies in everyday tasks, down to the smallest on the shop floor. I have seen some small business owners who are good at what they do but really don't have the skills or knowledge to successfully bring their business to the next level.

In the large corporations I have worked at we collect data on just about everything and use that information to define process bottlenecks and discover opportunities for process improvements. This usually results in increased operating efficiencies and production which allows management to clearly see where or if capital money should be spent.

My questions is:

1. Would you successful small to medium business owners hire someone like me.

If so,

2. Would you need someone with my skills full-time or part-time.
3. What would be the best business title for that line of work.

Thank You

Steve B
01-10-2011, 08:01 PM
I personally would not. I like to figure things out for myself and tend to discount advice from others anyway, so I would't want to pay for it.

I would think medium sized business would be your market. I just got off the phone with a friend of mine that just completed his first week of doing what you're doing (after quitting the corporate world after 20 years). He has not had any problems finding clients - although he has a business partner that has tons of contacts.

jamesray50
01-10-2011, 11:56 PM
My business is just a home based bookkeeping business and no I wouldn't find a need for your service. Mostly because I couldn't afford it. I depend on advice from Score, members from forums in my industries and this forum.

vangogh
01-11-2011, 12:30 AM
You have interesting timing. I just read an article over the weekend talking about today's small businesses and how while many are taking advantage of the web most aren't keeping up with traditional things like being more efficient. I'm not sure how people here will respond, but I think in the very near future what you do could be in demand. Many of us here are micro businesses. A lot of us are freelancers and one person shops. We may not ultimately be your target market. I can businesses with a few more employees being perfect for you.

I'm thinking people would want to hire you more on a contract basis. Either to come in one time and make everything you can as efficient as possible or perhaps being someone who comes in consistently, but not all the time. I don't see a full time need, though I can see a part time need. I'm seeing you as a consultant more than anything else. Maybe an efficiency consultant or a production consultant. Even a general business consultant.

You may find many of us here saying we wouldn't need you, but again don't let that discourage you. I think it's more our particular situations than a lack of need for what you can offer. With many of us I can more easily see a one time visit to help us become more efficient with the occasional revisit. I think you're going to want to target slightly larger businesses than most of us here have, unless the idea of one or two time visits appeals to you.

raineysky
01-11-2011, 08:48 AM
Thank You for your replies, they are important to me. I am in the very early planning stages after having completed one successful consulting project while still at my day job.

Steve B
01-11-2011, 12:41 PM
VG makes a good point. "Small" is a relative term. Most of us are probably way too small for your service.

huggytree
01-11-2011, 06:30 PM
I have been working in the manufacturing industry for nearly 30 years and have been thinking about starting my own consulting business targeting the SMB owner. One of my strengths has always been in production process optimization and increasing efficiencies in everyday tasks, down to the smallest on the shop floor. I have seen some small business owners who are good at what they do but really don't have the skills or knowledge to successfully bring their business to the next level.

In the large corporations I have worked at we collect data on just about everything and use that information to define process bottlenecks and discover opportunities for process improvements. This usually results in increased operating efficiencies and production which allows management to clearly see where or if capital money should be spent.

My questions is:

1. Would you successful small to medium business owners hire someone like me.

If so,

2. Would you need someone with my skills full-time or part-time.
3. What would be the best business title for that line of work.

Thank You


i think by small you'd be talking about a 30-50 person company...

im a 1 man company and there's no way id need your help...any bottle necks would be obvious to me since im directly involved

id be careful about using terms like small/medium/large w/o giving employee #'s behind it...everyone had a different idea of small/medium/large

in my business large would be 50-100 employees....small is 1-3 employees....
in light commercial 50 employees may be small or medium

what is your specialty? light commercial is where id think youd be most successful... a newer business who is having trouble with production

one company i worked for hired these 3 guys to teach him how to run his business...he wanted to get past the 5 year point....we had 2 shifts and about 30-40 employees...i think these 3 guys charged like 20-30k for 1 months work....they sat and watched for days each persons tasks

you are soooorta like those guys...you dont teach how to run a business,but you teach how to be more efficient....how about calling yourself an 'efficiency expert to small business'?

there is a need, but for me id have to have 40 employees before id be interested...if you can keep your costs to under $10k id say you easily have a winner.

ArcSine
01-12-2011, 04:09 PM
Rainey, I agree with the general drift of the responses....the value of something related to operations research (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research) or "decision science" tends to be proportional to the size and complexity of the client.

Five'll getcha ten that for a small shop with just a handful of employees and few moving parts, the "operations" aspect of the biz is already close enough to an efficient state, that whatever room for improvement might remain is just too small to justify any significant fee to the consultant.

But when a company is of a certain size and complexity, the owners' or managers' experience and intuition just ain't gonna cut it, when it comes to processes optimization, no matter how many miles they have on their experience odometer. That's where the demand for your OR skills is going to come from.

Think too about targeting manufacturing companies in particular. You already know from your background that it's in production processes that OR really shines.

If you're going to go at it as a lone wolf, you might want to do a little homework and see what kind of clientele is being served by the larger consulting houses, and then target-market companies whose operations aren't large enough to justify the big fees charged by the bigger consultants.

Best of luck, comrade!

vangogh
01-12-2011, 11:11 PM
I do think there is a market of small businesses like us. It would have to be something different than what you would offer to businesses with more employees. I can only speak for myself, but I bet everyone here would like to be able to get more done during the day and week and month, etc. huggy mentioned this above, but for most of us it comes down to us. That's not typically the realm of efficiency experts. However I guarantee each of our business could be more efficient in ways that doesn't come down to us and has more to do with the businesses.

Where I think this could work with most of us is the one time visit to offer consulting or even as a personal efficiency coach. Most micro business probably won't see the value, but I bet there are enough that will to be able to build a business around the idea of offering efficiency advice. On our level we'd sooner hire a consultant or a coach than what we think of as an efficiency expert.