The Pocket Consultant: the full Field Guide

The consultant

Who you are in the room, and how you behave there.

What consulting is (and isn't)

Creative problem-solving carried out with people.

Consulting is "creative problem-solving carried out with people. It is the disciplined work of listening deeply, understanding clearly, and helping an entrepreneur make practical progress."

It is not walking into somebody's business with a folder full of answers, impressing people with vocabulary, or making a beautiful presentation nobody uses.

You are not saviors, not there to take over, and not unpaid employees. You are trusted thinking partners. The entrepreneur holds the decision rights.

Three anchors

They live in the business, often for years. You walk in as an outsider. Ask what you actually have to offer.
Audit yourself. "You must know what you do not know."
"It is not about analysis per se. It is about solutions."

"You are not here to perform consulting. You are here to practice it."

Watch: Consulting Fundamentals & Creating Value

Source: Week 1 lecture script and Lecture 1 deck (Kershner) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Four types of consulting

Information desk, deck builder, doctor, collaborative partner. Be the last one.

Information desk at an airport: general advice or perspective on a defined topic.
Deck builder: applying a fixed skill to complete a fixed task.
Doctor: diagnosing, treating, prescribing, curing.
Collaborative partner: "jointly working with the client to mutually agree upon problems and opportunities, to mutually generate solutions, and to jointly implement those solutions."

This approach is the collaborative partner. As entrepreneurs are told at orientation, consultants are "not there to give advice" and "not there to solve problems for you". They are "there to solve problems with you."

Watch: Consulting Fundamentals & Creating Value

Source: Lecture 1 deck; entrepreneur orientation · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Process consulting

Help the client perceive, understand, and act on what is happening in their business.

Process consultation is "a set of activities on the part of the consultant that help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the process events that occur in the client's environment" (after Edgar Schein).

"It is not what you can do for the client, but what you can help the client do for themselves." You are walking a path together.

The relationship is a two-way dyad

Both parties seek something, both need the other, and both invest.
The two get closer over time.
"It is not telling the client what he or she wants to hear."

Four levels

The engagement itself is a process, with a beginning, middle and end.
The business is a set of processes: operations, bookkeeping, selling, marketing, inventory, HR, even a crisis.
Help the entrepreneur manage by process.
Collaborate: meetings are "collaborative work sessions, not inquisitions." Give the entrepreneur the credit for new ideas, wherever they came from.

Three values: listening (ask deeper questions), helping (walk alongside), and learning (so the client can lead the process later).

Watch: Consulting Fundamentals & Creating Value

Source: Lecture 1 deck; Process Consulting reading; UPBI Playbook · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The consultant mindset and how to listen

I work for my client. I serve my client.

"I work for my client, I serve my client."
"Humility coupled with expertise and hard work."
"Responsibility and integrity."
"I cannot mail it in: total engagement."
"I must come to know aspects of his or her business better than he or she knows it."

Listen for

What is being said, how it is said, what is not being said, what it really means, what is being avoided, and what the body language, the eyes, inattentiveness or a change of subject tell you.

The 60-minute test

"If you talked for 45 of the 60 minutes, that probably wasn't a great meeting." While one teammate asks, another watches for what the client avoids. Probe there gently. It often shows what is really holding the business back.

Watch: Consulting Fundamentals & Creating Value

Source: Lecture 1 deck; Week 2 recorded class (Dr. Morris) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

What the client may be thinking

Credibility is earned, and stereotypes run both ways.

Expect some of this, said or unsaid: "You don't have credibility with me. I don't trust you. I don't understand you. I am too busy for you. I am too busy to change what I do. I do not want you to know what I do not know. I know much more than you think."

Stereotypes run both ways

Yours about them: age, race, education, life experience, goals, values.
Theirs about you: being a student, race, age, life experience, education, values, and above all your motives.

Name these privately as a team. Then let preparation, respect and follow-through answer them.

When a client resists, build the relationship and bring options, such as ready-made mock-ups. A client who agrees with everything needs gentle pushback too: "This is your business."

Source: Lecture 1 deck; Week 2 past-consultant panel · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Building trust

Trust arrives before information does.

"The entrepreneur is a human being before they are a business. Trust arrives before information does." First meetings are relationship-first. The goal is clarity before action.

Trust is operational

Trust is built through preparation, respect, confidentiality, consistency, and follow-through.

Research the business's public information before you meet.
Write things down, and do what you said you would.
"If you do not know an answer, say so, and tell the client how you will find out."
Keep everything confidential. Only your team, the client and your supervisor see the work.
Bring an industry article between meetings. It says you think about their business when you are not with them.
Respect their time, and diagnose before you recommend.
Explain things in plain language and leave written instructions.

Expect distrust of institutions

Many low-income entrepreneurs distrust banks and financial institutions, often with reason (predatory lenders, little banking experience). Go gently when you ask for bank statements or suggest a loan. Probe carefully for hidden debts and money mixed between household and business.

"People tend to implement ideas they help create. Ownership is the beginning of implementation."

Watch: From Client Meetings to Real Deliverables

Source: Week 1 script; Week 2 script and transcript; templates; Financing chapter · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Diagnose before you prescribe

The first problem you hear is the start of the conversation, not the conclusion.

"I need more customers" might really mean an unclear offer, a price that doesn't reflect the value, slow replies to messages, no system for repeat business, or an owner too busy delivering to run the business.

"I need social media": ask what it should accomplish, who the customer is, what happens after someone sees a post, and whether there is a follow-up path to a sale.

Clients often describe problems in the area that feels safest. Someone uncomfortable with their records may ask for help with promotion.

Door-opening questions

What is working well right now?
What is getting in the way?
When did you first notice this?
Who experiences this problem most directly?
What have you already tried?
What would meaningful progress look like in the next 30 days?

Separate observations from assumptions

Observation: "Inquiries come through three channels and none is tracked." Assumption: "The owner doesn't care about follow-up."

Prioritize with two questions

Which issue, if improved, would make the biggest difference? Which is realistic given the time, resources and authority available? "A great consultant does not turn a client's world into a longer to-do list."

Watch: Consulting Fundamentals & Creating Value

Source: Week 1 lecture script (Kershner) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Who we serve

Poverty, ALICE households, and the entrepreneurs of the Build Up pathway.

Poverty is a situation, not a trait

The principle underneath the UPBI approach.

UPBI is "built on the principle that poverty is not a characteristic of a person, but rather, their situation" (after W.J. Wilson).

Poverty is not just an inability to afford necessities. It often comes with lower-quality schooling, more health problems, more crime, harder job searches, more discrimination, and networks with less access to opportunity.

Entrepreneurship is "not a silver bullet", but there is evidence it can be a pathway out of poverty. It brings empowerment: the capacity to make choices and turn them into outcomes. It creates your own job, future, wealth, pride, identity, and jobs for others.

How to show up

"The focus is not to criticize or tear down these businesses but help them adapt."
"We are not in the 'idea killing' business."
Develop the entrepreneur, not just the business.
Celebrate progress, and buy from the businesses you serve.

Source: POVERTY and UPBI deck (Morris); UPBI Playbook; Morris & Kraft slides · Open in the interactive guide · Top

ALICE and Miami-Dade

About half of households are in poverty or one emergency away.

ALICE means Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed: working households above the poverty line that still cannot afford basics such as housing, childcare, food, transportation and health care.

Miami-Dade figures used in the Build Up materials

About 34% of households are ALICE and about 17% are in poverty, so roughly 51% are in poverty or "one emergency away" (2023 United Way ALICE report).
14.1% of residents live below the federal poverty line.
54% of residents are foreign-born, and 75% of business owners are immigrants.

Build Up participants are highly multicultural, predominantly Hispanic or Latino and then Black or African American. Many are first-generation owners balancing family responsibilities, and they want to formalize, stabilize and grow.

Check the current ALICE report before you quote these numbers to a client or in a deliverable.

Source: Build Up program description (UPBI, Miami); Kershner, reflections on the first consulting cohort · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The liability of poorness

Four forces that shape every decision your client makes.

Lack of a safety net: everything is invested in the business. There is little savings, few assets, no access to debt or equity, inadequate insurance, and no benefits.
Literacy gaps, the five literacies: functional (reading, writing, numeracy), financial, technological, economic, and business.
Scarcity mindset: a short-term orientation, decisions taken one at a time, trouble planning ahead, reacting rather than acting, avoiding long-term commitments.
Intense non-business pressures: single parenthood, safety, housing and food insecurity, chronic health problems, caring for extended family, fatigue, non-business debt.

What this means for your work

These factors shape which opportunities people see, the ventures they start, their time, their access to markets and resources, and their returns. "And so a different approach is needed."

Poor decisions under scarcity "have a certain logic". They are not bad traits (Shah, Mullainathan & Shafir, 2012).

Design for real life: tools that run on the phone they already own, cost little or nothing each month, and come with plain-language instructions.

Source: POVERTY and UPBI deck; Morris & Kraft slides; Strategic thinking chapter · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The opportunity horizon

Poverty narrows what a person can see as possible.

The opportunity horizon is "the range of possibilities a person is able to perceive." People draw ideas from their daily roles, their skills and work experience, and what they see around them. In-group socialization in a low-income environment limits that view.

Three levels that widen it

Core: exposure to new knowledge, information, education, and other realities.
Second: connections with other neighborhoods and communities, and role models.
Macro: institutional and government support, empowering programs, civic participation.

As a consultant you widen the horizon by bringing new information, introductions, examples from other industries, and trend research. Then test the ideas against the commodity trap and the profit model.

Source: UPBI exercise: Expanding the Opportunity Horizon (Morris) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

UPBI and the Build Up pathway

Bootcamp, mentorship, then student consulting.

The Urban Poverty & Business Initiative (UPBI), at the McKenna Center at the University of Notre Dame, operates in more than 55 cities. Local partners deliver it in each city; in Miami, for example, it runs as the Build Up Program.

Three phases

Bootcamp (about 6 weeks): opportunity, business model, profit model, breakeven, segmentation, knowing your numbers.
Mentorship (about 4 months): one-to-one work with seasoned business leaders.
Student consulting (about 4 months): teams deliver implementable work.

Other components are community connections, microcredit (a loan-readiness pipeline with CDFI and bank partners), and research tracking of progress over three years.

"A pathway, not a bandage. A long-term build, not a short-term fix."

UPBI's toolkit was built for this population, because popular tools like the Lean Startup and the Business Model Canvas "are not always as effective" here. Its tools include the business model framework, the four types of ventures, the profit model, avoiding the commodity trap, expanding the opportunity horizon, assessing your market, bootstrapping and resource leveraging, acting like a guerrilla, and mitigating risk.

Watch: What Do Entrepreneurs Create?

Source: Kershner, reflections on the first consulting cohort; UPBI Playbook; Build Up description · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The engagement

From first meeting to hand-off: the steps of a real engagement.

The three stages of an engagement

Meet and agree, understand, implement.

Meet and agree: build trust, and clarify responsibilities in a consulting agreement.
Understand: build the business model, research the market and industry, assess needs, and set priorities.
Implement: prioritize the deliverables, put them into use, show the value, and hand off.

Stop after each stage to review where you are and where you are going.

Rules for managing it

"Produce a simple early deliverable."
"Manage expectations carefully. Promise less and deliver more. Don't start things you cannot finish."
Start deliverables early, and don't cram at the end.
Keep one organized running document, week by week, with a table of contents.

"Better to deliver one useful tool with care than five impressive-looking documents that go nowhere. Busy work is not consulting."

Watch: From Client Meetings to Real Deliverables · Consulting with Entrepreneurs

Source: Entrepreneur orientation deck (Fall 2026); Lecture 1; Week 1 script · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Preparing for and running the first meeting

Research first, relationship first, questions second.

Before

Research the website, social channels and reviews. Keep a research record: source fact, then hypothesis, then a question to ask. Example: "The website offers delivery. Delivery may improve profitability. Ask: which orders earn the best margin?"
Do a blunt, honest assessment of each teammate's strengths. You have more experience than you think.
Decide who leads which questions, and who takes notes and watches.
Outreach: one contact person, teammates copied, a specific time and time zone, a Zoom link, and flexibility.

During

Spend about 10 minutes on introductions and the client's story, family and background.
Explain the purpose: to help move the business forward by working together on key needs. Say it is an honor to learn from them.
Explain the stages: business model first, then agreed deliverables, then implementation and a write-up.
Move into the discovery questions. Listen and take notes before proposing anything.

Close

Name one team contact, exchange and confirm emails and phones, and set the next meeting with your other client in mind.

Watch: Business Models & First Client Meetings

Source: Morris first-meeting guide; Fall 2026 client-phase kickoff · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The 13 discovery questions

Dr. Morris's first-meeting question set.

Is the business up and running, or still in planning? If not, when will it launch?
Why did you start this business? What are your motives?
What is your vision? Where would you like it to be in 3 to 5 years?
Are you working another job? How many hours a week can you give the business?
Is the business registered? Do you have a business bank account?
Have you written a business plan?
Do you work alone, or do family members help? Any employees?
If operating, what are your approximate monthly sales?
Tell us about your products and services. Which are, or will be, the biggest sellers?
How do you attract customers? What is your marketing approach?
What are the biggest challenges you're dealing with? (Probe. Pull more out.)
Tell us about your market. Who are your primary customers?
Where could you most use assistance?

Also useful: Why that business name? What makes your offering different? Do you keep a customer list? How many customers a week?

Watch: Business Models & First Client Meetings

Source: Preparing for Your First Consulting Meeting (Morris); first-meeting ideas doc · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The engagement letter

Formalizes the relationship, builds credibility, sets boundaries.

It exists to formalize the relationship, build credibility, manage expectations, set boundaries, and make clear that the client invests too.

Typical sections (Build Up master template)

Thanks, and the shared goal: the sustainability and growth of the business, and a mutually rewarding experience.
Your understanding of the business: what it does, its challenges, its successes, and the primary focus of the engagement.
Method and timeframe, and that the first task is to set priorities.
Anticipated deliverables, noted as subject to change.
Trust and mutual commitment: "The best consulting relationships are mutual ones, where both parties invest heavily."
Client requirements: about 1 to 2 hours a week, regular meetings, and access to records and costs.
Confidentiality: no one outside the team other than the faculty supervisor sees the information or the work.
Start and end dates, and the faculty supervisor.
Implementation and the final presentation.
The team's personal learning goals.
Signatures: each team member, the client ("in acceptance of the terms"), and the faculty supervisor.

Review it together, agree, sign, and submit. The client keeps a copy. It's fine to start from the template and samples.

Timing

The agreement follows discovery. Use meeting 1 to learn the business, then review the letter together in meeting 2, about a week later. No formal consulting work begins until it is signed, and approved by your supervisor if you work under one. Don't contact clients until your program gives the go-ahead.

Watch: From Client Meetings to Real Deliverables

Source: Letter of Engagement master template; Structuring the Engagement deck; orientation deck · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Business model discovery: the six components

Build the client's model yourself, by asking.

A business model is "more than a business concept, less than a business plan. It captures the essence of how it will work." "A plan without a model is just a polished guess."

How do we create value? The product and service mix, standardized or customized, breadth of line, in-house or outsourced, equipment, labor intensity and capacity, direct or indirect distribution.
For whom? B2B or B2C, local to international, broad or niche, key segments, transactional or relational. "If the owner says the customer is everyone, they do not really know their customer yet."
What is our competence? Operations, selling, information, technology, finance, supply chain, or networking. "Most small businesses have one real strength, not five."
How do we differentiate? Operational excellence, quality and selection, innovation, low cost or value, or customer intimacy and experience. "If customers cannot explain why a business is different, it is not different."
How do we make money? Margins, volumes, operating leverage, and revenue drivers.
What are the ambitions? Subsistence, lifestyle, managed growth, aggressive growth, or speculative. "Your recommendations must fit the owner's ambitions, not your assumptions."

Make it consistent, and find what is proprietary

The parts must fit together. "A business promising high customization at low prices with no capacity is not a model. It is a wish." Then ask what would be hard for a competitor to copy. If nothing is, you have found the growth conversation.

How to use it

Build it in the first 3 to 4 weeks, alongside your industry and market research. Clients are asked not to hand you their existing model. Building it yourself is how you come to understand the business, and the write-up is your first gift to the client.

Watch: Business Models & First Client Meetings

Source: Business Model basics; Morris business-model write-up; Week 2 script and transcript · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Getting organized: the six issue boxes

Sort the client's issues, then let the client rank them.

Marketing: priority segments, prospecting, website, social media, selling approach, brochure, customer database, logo.
Financial management: bookkeeping, costs, margins and breakeven, pricing, separating personal money, payment and credit policies, card processing.
Operations: wholesale buying, equipment, bottlenecks and output, service steps and scheduling, hiring and onboarding, fulfillment, inventory.
Organizing: registration, 501(c)(3) status, permits and licenses, EIN and business bank account, location and lease, signage.
Planning and product line: business plan, product and service mix, and a revenue model (what earns margin, what drives volume, what opens the door).
Financing: sources of money, a funding approach, crowdfunding, grant templates for nonprofits.

Usually at least four apply. Adapt the map to your client, present it, and ask them to rank the boxes by urgency. The ranking becomes the basis for your deliverables. Focus each meeting on one box instead of jumping between issues.

Source: Getting Organized for the Rest of the Engagement (Morris) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

What counts as a deliverable

A problem solved. Not analyzed, not discovered, not described.

"A deliverable is a problem solved. Not analyzed. Not discovered. Not described. If the problem isn't solved, it's not a deliverable."

One question governs everything: did this move the business forward? Implemented solutions count for more than recommendations, and the work should still matter 12 months from now.

The Monday-morning test

"Can the entrepreneur use this on Monday morning without you in the room?" For every deliverable, decide what happens next, who does it, by when, and how you will know it helped.

Examples

Inventory management: set up real stock, test the system, and train the owner.
Customer database and follow-up: organize the contacts and put a routine into practice.
Website with ordering: build it, test it, and hand over maintenance instructions.
A pricing or cost tool: build it with the client's real inputs, test it, and hand it over.
Others from past engagements: LLC, EIN and bank account set up; a simple bookkeeping system; a market segmentation and outreach plan; a sales script with lead qualification; a content calendar; an AI-assisted marketing workflow.

Fit comes first

A client with receipts in a bag needs a one-page weekly tracker (money in, money out, what job made it, what it cost, what is left), not complex software.

Don't stay in your sweet spot. If the client doesn't need a website, don't build one.

Watch: From Client Meetings to Real Deliverables

Source: Entrepreneur orientation; consulting class syllabi; Week 1 script · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The 80 Steps to Sustainable Success

A shared language for progress.

The UPBI handbook by Morris, Becker, McDonald and Snyder lists 80 activity steps in three stages. Sustainability means ongoing profit sufficient for the owner to make a living and improve their economic circumstances.

Stage I: Planning, steps 1 to 27

Training, self-assessment and a mentor (1 to 3); interview 30 customers and visit 4 competitors (4, 5); value proposition and brand (9, 10); revenue drivers, costs, pricing, margin and breakeven (12 to 16); cash needed and personal income needed (17, 18); segmentation, location, channels, resources, differentiation (19 to 23); operating model, business model and plan (24 to 26); pitch for money (27).

Stage II: Launch, steps 28 to 58

Register, operating agreement, licenses, advisors, insurance, EIN, bank account, invoices, taxes, card payments (28 to 37); premises and equipment (38 to 41); cash monitoring, tracking revenue and expenses, payroll, full bookkeeping (42 to 45); cards, logo, website, social media, community, guerrilla marketing (46 to 51); supply, trial run, delivery, family labor, first hire (52 to 56); grand opening and first sale (57, 58).

Stage III: Stabilization, steps 59 to 80

SOPs, sales targets, a CRM, cash-flow gaps, expense and sales patterns, a feedback system (59 to 65); refine targeting, loyalty, the product mix, new products, supply, more hires (66 to 71); adjust marketing, advertising and prices (72 to 74); better accounting, HR guidelines, evaluations (75 to 77); certification, a business credit card, bank financing (78 to 80).

How to use it

Frame each deliverable as movement across steps: moving a client from step 16 to step 22 is a meaningful deliverable. "Progress begets progress": ask how many steps the client can take in the next 30 days. "Skipped steps lead to businesses that are vulnerable, not sustainable."

Source: 80 Steps to Sustainable Success (UPBI Press, 2024) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Hand-off, write-up, and final presentation

Leave usable work, a user guide, and evidence of progress.

The handover package

Implemented work the business can actually use.
Files, tools and materials: the agreement, the business model, and the working files.
A practical user guide with clear steps for use, updates and maintenance.

Writing for the client

Write a user guide, not an academic paper. Assume no prior knowledge, state the purpose first, use one action per step and simple verbs, include screenshots, test it with a novice, fit it on one page or one phone screen, say what to do next, and leave a copy.

The final presentation

Cover the problem you found, the process you used to investigate it, the solution you delivered, and how the client uses it without you. In short: business need, then the work, then the progress. "Evidence, not just attractive slides."

Leave the business, and the person leading it, "stronger, clearer, and more capable than when you arrived."

Watch: From Client Meetings to Real Deliverables · Consulting with Entrepreneurs

Source: Entrepreneur orientation; consulting class syllabi; Technology template · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Working as a consulting team

Name your firm, split by strengths, raise issues early.

Name your consultancy and act like professionals: "We're not being students to them. We're consultants to them."
Roles to cover: a communication liaison (with the client and your supervisor), numbers and books, operations, sales and marketing, and financing.
Split the work by strengths, but don't hide in your comfort zone.
Commitments: prepare and listen, document decisions, follow through, raise challenges early.
Document every meeting: who attended, when, what was discussed, decisions, and action items, each with an owner and a date.
Escalation: work through your team first with a direct conversation. Involve your supervisor when an issue needs support.

Watch: Consulting with Entrepreneurs

Source: Structuring the Engagement deck; orientation deck · Open in the interactive guide · Top

How many deliverables?

A workable model: two clients per team, two implemented deliverables each.

A model that works well: each consulting team of 3 to 5 people serves two entrepreneurs and completes two implemented deliverables for each, four per team. The original UPBI Playbook model used teams of two with at least three deliverables per client.

Fewer, finished, implemented deliverables beat many half-done ones. "Don't start things you cannot finish."

Choose them from the client's top-ranked issue boxes. Agree them with the client, and with your faculty supervisor if you have one, and write them into the engagement letter as anticipated deliverables, subject to change.

"Write-up of the analysis itself does not really count." The test is whether the problem got solved.

Source: Entrepreneur orientation and kickoff decks (2026); UPBI Playbook; Kershner, reflections on the first consulting cohort · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Professional commitments

Client meetings are non-negotiable. Participation is more than presence.

Consulting mirrors real professional work. The commitments that hold an engagement together:

Show up to every client meeting, prepared. Missing one is a serious breach of professional responsibility; the client gave you their scarce time.
Participation is not presence. Passive attendance does not count. Arrive with questions, research, and drafts.
Meet regularly: one dedicated hour a week with the client, plus a documented internal team meeting.
Keep everything the client shares confidential.
Raise team-contribution problems early and directly, first with the teammate and then with your supervisor. Waiting until the end is too late.

Mutual accountability

The consulting team commits to preparing and listening, documenting decisions, following through, and raising challenges early. The entrepreneur commits to making time, responding and sharing information, giving honest feedback, and helping test what works. "This only works if both sides are accountable."

Source: Consulting class syllabi; entrepreneur orientation decks · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Field tools

Frameworks to use with a client, function by function.

Economics: costs, contribution margin, breakeven

Before you give any advice, find the breakeven.

Seven steps

List all costs; separate those tied to what is sold; group them into fixed and variable; identify the revenue drivers; find average prices; calculate contribution margins; determine breakeven.

Definitions

Variable costs change in direct proportion to the unit (the haircut, the pie, the billable hour). "Variable does not mean discretionary." Marketing is not variable.
Fixed costs stay the same over a range of volume. Put semi-variable costs in with fixed.
Contribution margin = price minus variable cost.
Breakeven units = fixed costs ÷ contribution margin. Breakeven dollars = fixed costs ÷ (contribution margin ÷ price).
Add the owner's survival draw to fixed costs. Leaving it out hides the true breakeven: the client "breaks even on paper while working for free."

Make it a magic number

Turn breakeven into a daily number and compare it with capacity and market. Coffee cart: $5 price, $1.50 variable, $7,000 a month fixed, so 2,000 cups a month, about 77 a day. Salon: about 8 haircuts a day against capacity of 40, which is 20%.

Several products

Use a weighted contribution margin based on the sales mix. "What you sell matters as much as how much."

When the model can't make money

Four levers: raise price or margin, raise volume or capacity, change the cost structure, or add revenue drivers.

Source: Making Sense of the Numbers (Morris); Kershner break-even examples; Paintball problem · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The profit model

Margins, volumes, operating leverage, revenue drivers.

Diagnose how a business makes money on four variables:

Margins: high, medium, or low.
Volumes: limited by market opportunity and by internal capacity.
Operating leverage: the ratio of fixed to variable costs. More fixed cost means more risk, but more profit once past breakeven.
Revenue drivers: how many, and whether pricing is fixed or flexible.

Low volume with low margin is not sustainable. "Customization drives up your variable costs and limits your volume, meaning you have to be able to charge high margins."

For service businesses

For service businesses the question is revenue per hour of the owner's time. Map the owner's week (admin, selling, delivery, service, planning) and move hours toward the highest-value offerings.

Source: Making Sense of the Numbers; Financial Management template; student revenue-model deliverable · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The commodity trap and how to escape it

When customers see no difference, they buy the cheapest.

"When customers see no difference among competitors, they buy from whomever has the lowest price or is the most convenient. Competing on price is almost always a losing proposition."

The trap's interlocking parts

No differentiation, low entry barriers, low prices and margins, high unit costs, limited volume and capacity, intense competition, labor intensity, low bargaining power (buying small lots at retail), and no technology. Small margins leave nothing to reinvest, so the business becomes even more of a commodity.

Common in cleaning, painting, child care, repair, moving, small restaurants and convenience stores.

Escape routes

Find meaningful, sustainable differentiation that enough customers value and competitors can't easily copy.
Use the four levels of what you sell: core (the real benefit: a uniform maker sells professionalism), tangible (quality, design, packaging), augmented (delivery, warranty, service), and communicated (brand, positioning, story).
Target with a rifle, not a shotgun. A takeaway-food owner wasted a year's ad budget on a newspaper, then grew by sponsoring four churches' bulletins and events.
Price as a statement of value.
Fix the cost side: buy wholesale, co-purchase, and use shared or commercial kitchens and equipment.

"You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do." (Jerry Garcia)

Watch: Strategic Thinking About Your Business · What Do Entrepreneurs Create?

Source: Breaking out of the Commodity Trap (Morris); Strategic thinking chapter; Planning & Strategy template · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Pricing: a statement of value

Most clients price too low. Value, not cost, sets the ceiling.

"Price should not be a statement of costs, but rather, a statement of value." Low-income entrepreneurs tend to underprice because they undervalue what they provide, or fear losing sales. "If the venture's only advantage is low price, then it probably has no advantage."

The strategic pricing hierarchy

Price objectives, then strategy (penetration, parity, premium), then structure, then levels, then tactics and promotions. The inputs are costs (the floor), competition, demand and value perceptions (the most important), marketing strategy, and legal issues.

Structure is where the creativity happens

Bundling, a low base price with high-margin add-ons, peak and off-peak, segment prices, loyalty schemes, volume and early-payment discounts, deposits.

Pricing markers chart

Plot breakeven price, competitor prices (high, mid, low), and what each segment will pay on one line, then choose where to sit.

Rules

It is always harder to raise prices than to lower them.
Lower the price without lowering the price, using rebates and promotions.
Not every customer needs to pay the same for the same thing.
Pilot one change and track the results.

Watch: Business Strategy, Planning & Entrepreneurship

Source: Entrepreneurial Pricing deck (Kershner, 2026); Marketing template; Strategic thinking chapter · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Bookkeeping that fits the client

Ask what the system needs to tell the owner, then build the simplest one they will keep.

"You do not know your business if you do not know the numbers." Empathy is everything here. Clients may be intimidated, have literacy gaps, or have months of missing records.

Two big questions

What does the system need to tell this owner? Monthly profit, profit per job, whether they can pay this month's bills, margins by product, expense and seasonal patterns, whether they qualify for a loan.
What is the client ready for? Pen and paper, a spreadsheet, simple software (Wave, QuickBooks), or more.

Four-step process

Keep a paper or electronic trail of every transaction, in folders by month.
Record transactions in a revenue journal and an expense journal, at a fixed time each week.
Produce monthly statements.
Use the data to decide.

Separate personal and business money

Mixing them misstates profit. Check the bank statements, gently, to see how much is commingled.

Build the client's financial literacy, not just a document.

Source: Accounting and Record Keeping deck (Morris); Financial Management template · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The three financial statements

Am I making money? Can I pay my bills? What is it worth?

Income statement, "Am I making money?": revenue minus cost of goods equals gross margin; minus overhead, interest and tax equals net income.
Cash-flow statement, "Can I pay my bills?": cash in minus cash out, from every source, including loans and owner money.
Balance sheet, "What's it worth?": assets minus liabilities equals owner's equity.

Accountants start with the balance sheet. For the entrepreneur, start with cash flow. "Cash flow is king."

"The faster you grow, the more money you'll need." Growth eats cash. Build a 12-month cash forecast to spot seasonal shortages.

Probe for undisclosed debts, which are often personal. "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king."

Watch: Business Planning

Source: Accounting deck; Financial Management template; ACCA guide · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Assessing the client's market

Define it, size it, understand buyers, segment, target, check the competition.

Define the relevant market: where 90% or more of customers will come from.
Estimate its size. Build-up: average wedding $22,000 × 15% on photography × 20% on video × 8,600 weddings ≈ $5.7M. Or break-down from population. Data is scarce in poor communities, so combine sources and stay conservative.
Describe buyers: demographics, usage, vehicle ownership, renting or owning, public assistance, social media use. Find who decides, who influences and who uses.
Map how they buy: need recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase, post-purchase.
Segment: groups with similar needs and buying behavior.
Prioritize one or two segments: Is it big enough? How intense is the competition? Where is the client's advantage? How costly is it to reach?
Assess the competition. "There is always competition." Build a strengths-and-weaknesses table.
Project sales conservatively and state your assumptions.

"If we know who we are selling to, then who are we not selling to?"

Interview real customers. The 80 Steps ask for at least 30.

Watch: Strategic Thinking About Your Business · Business Strategy, Planning & Entrepreneurship

Source: Capturing the Market (Morris); Tool #8 How to Assess Your Market; Segmentation deck (Kershner) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Marketing that makes transactions happen

Match the selling process to the customer's buying process.

Marketing is "anything and everything the entrepreneur does to make transactions happen."

Check the 4 Ps for consistency

Product, price, promotion, and place.

Match selling to buying

Need recognition: create awareness.
Information search: create interest and understanding.
Evaluation: create preference.
Purchase: close the sale.
Post-purchase: build the relationship.

Turn tactics into countable tasks

Example from a beauty studio: identify 10 speaking venues, 20 brochure drop points, flyers at 40 locations, 5 co-marketing partners, an educational video, a before-and-after gallery, and four closing techniques.

Positioning

Write one positioning line, the strongest single thing you can say, and use it everywhere. Prefer guerrilla, leveraged channels such as churches, community groups and co-marketing when the budget is tight.

Watch: What Do Entrepreneurs Create?

Source: Marketing deck (Morris); Marketing template · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Selling and the sales pitch

You are always selling. Prospect, prepare, present, follow up.

Many clients are uncomfortable selling. Address that resistance directly.

The selling process

Prospect, with ability and willingness to buy; look for early adopters.
Prepare: the real decision-maker, what they use now, their seasons and budget cycle.
Present, using Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Follow up: "Follow up can be the most important part."

The six-part sales call

Opening, clarify needs and who decides, the core pitch, handle objections, close (you must ask), and commit to follow-up.

Objections

Anticipate the 10 to 15 most common. Don't be defensive, and turn the objection into a reason to buy now.

Closing techniques

Alternative choice, assumptive, balance sheet, indirect, puppy dog (let them try it).

The deliverable

A scripted pitch plus an objection-handling appendix. Rehearse it with the owner while you play the buyer.

Source: Proactive Selling deck (Kershner); Marketing template · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Operations: where the entrepreneur lives

Map one unit from input to output, then find the bottleneck.

"Operations is where the entrepreneur lives." It is usually all in their head. Consultants tend to assume the owner knows how to cook or sew and jump to marketing. Often the value is in how the work is done.

Map one unit

Map one haircut, one event, or one bottle of sauce: inputs, throughput, output. Mark the tasks, movements, bottlenecks, quality checkpoints and storage points. Or walk one order from inquiry to payment to after-sale.

Typical bottlenecks

Equipment, space, layout, people, hours, procedures, suppliers, cash.

Key ideas

"It's all about consistency." Run it like a franchise even when it isn't one.
Front stage (what the customer sees) and back stage.
Moments of truth: every point where the customer touches the business.

Seven questions for low-income ventures

How labor-intensive is it? What low-cost tech helps? Can we use others' equipment or space? What can we rent instead of buy? Are we buying in uneconomical quantities? What can we outsource and pay for when we're paid? What does being a cash business mean?

Common deliverables

A standardized operating model, SOPs, a simple inventory system, wholesale sourcing, a product priority list, better packaging and labeling.

Source: Client Operations deck (Morris); Operations template; mise-en-place reading · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Bootstrapping, leveraging, and guerrilla tactics

Owning a resource should be the last option, not the first.

"Even for the very poor, resources can be abundant. To leverage is to empower the individual by creatively finding ways of accessing what they do not own."

Ways to get a resource

Borrow, barter, share, contract, lease or rent, outsource, license, partner, consignment, give equity, "ham and egg" (use one resource to get another), collaborate on purchasing, and use certifications (woman-, minority-, veteran-owned).

Three questions

What internal resources are we not fully using? How well are we leveraging our network? What untapped resources exist in the community: a church kitchen after hours, a busy corner, a well-connected customer?

Guerrilla marketing

Time, energy and imagination instead of budget: reciprocal ads, bartering for window space, word of mouth, champions among key customers, community events.

Risk

Lessen it by keeping fixed costs low, using consignment and contract labor, staging rollouts, and locking in supplier prices.

Watch: Business Planning

Source: Leverage, Risk, Guerrilla deck (Kershner); Resource Leverager exercise (Morris) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Registration, legal structure, and insurance

Most Build Up clients choose a single-member LLC.

Entity types

Sole proprietorship (no liability protection), partnership, LLC, C-corp, S-corp, nonprofit. Limited liability protects personal assets, such as a car or home, from business debts and lawsuits.

Typical path

Check name availability; file articles of organization with the state (in Florida, through the Division of Corporations at Sunbiz; check current fees); write an operating agreement; get a free EIN from the IRS online; open a business bank account. A married couple can't form a single-member LLC.

Contracts

"If money, products, services, or valuable information are changing hands, a written contract should be in place." Draft from a reputable template, then have a lawyer review it. Watch leases for escalation clauses, auto-renewal and personal guarantees.

Boundaries

Students explain options and prepare documents. They don't give legal or patent advice, and they don't file IP. Use a specialist lawyer for leases, partnerships, IP and disputes.

Insurance

General liability is usually the first policy. Verify current local quotes.

Location

Choose home or premises on need and affordability, not ego. Score candidate sites against weighted criteria.

Source: Legal, Insurance & Location template; LLC operating agreement guide · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Financing ventures of the poor

Money comes in stages, and banks want a track record.

Financing is hard for low-income owners: no collateral, thin credit, little savings, friends and family who are also poor, and a justified suspicion of banks. Many ventures start with $500 or less.

Typical sources by stage

Self, friends and family (treat it as a strict business transaction), ROSCAs and savings circles, crowdfunding ($10,000 to $30,000, usually from your own network), CDFI microloans (typically $5,000 to $15,000), SBA microloans, and banks later.

Prepare the client

Banks may want up to two years of monthly profitability, so plan for debt early.
Keep clean books, and run the business's cash through the business bank account.
Build credit, for example with a small CDFI loan.
Expect lenders to ask for a business plan with 3 to 5 years of projections.
Banks judge the 5 C's: character, capacity, capital, collateral, conditions.

Steer clients away from long-term reliance on payday lenders and other high-interest informal loans.

Source: Basics of Financing Ventures of the Poor (Morris); Financing chapter; ACCA guide · Open in the interactive guide · Top

The first hire

Systems, not blame. Employee or contractor matters.

The first hire is a big, risky milestone. Ask why they feel they need to hire, whether the role and hours are clear, and what the cash flow looks like.

Employee or contractor: control, schedule, tools and taxes decide it. Misclassifying workers brings IRS and Department of Labor penalties.
Job design comes before the job description.
Recruit through low-cost channels. Run short, structured interviews with the same questions for everyone, plus a job task.
Avoid hiring friends and family who are hard to manage. If family helps, settle pay and hours in writing.
Set up onboarding, payroll, workers' comp and simple evaluations.

Focus on systems, not on blaming individuals.

Source: HR template · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Technology and AI for small businesses

Phone-first, low-fee tools the owner can actually keep using.

IT is "the great equalizer" when it is simple and runs on devices the client already owns.

Process for choosing a tool

Understand the current process before recommending anything; map it; agree criteria together (low upfront cost, low monthly fees, works offline, easy for staff and customers, quick access to funds); compare costs in plain language ("If you sell $500 a month, this costs about $13 in fees"); trial it for 1 to 2 weeks; then adjust.

AI uses for consultants

Social content, operating-model maps, plan drafts, market research, communications, explaining legal terms (red flags go to a lawyer), pricing, projections, website content, SOPs, hiring materials, workflow priorities.

The rules

Use AI to think better, not to avoid thinking. Verify against primary sources, fit everything to the client's real context, and disclose how AI contributed.

Basic security

Strong passwords, two-factor authentication, backups, and care on public Wi-Fi.

Source: Technology template; Kershner AI policy (2026) · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Planning and thinking strategically

Plans are nothing, planning is everything.

Owners are "working in the business, with no time to work on the business." Management styles run from reactive to tactical to strategic, and most clients are reactive.

The terms

Objective: a measurable target with a date.
Strategy: a theme or direction.
Tactic: a specific, time-bound move.
Plan: the written blueprint.

Under scarcity

Under scarcity, plan around specific future needs (a vehicle, a location) and run tactical experiments that each produce learning.

The business plan

Its main audience is the entrepreneur, so the entrepreneur must be intimately involved. The consultant should not write it for them.

Outline: executive summary (written last), industry, company and products, market, economics, marketing, operations, management, 12-month schedule, 3-year projections, financial needs.

Avoid the two big no-nos: "there is no competition" and "we only have to capture 1%."

Watch: Strategic Thinking About Your Business · Business Planning

Source: Planning & Strategy template; Planning deck (Morris); Strategic thinking chapter · Open in the interactive guide · Top

Using AI responsibly as a consultant

Use AI to think better, not to avoid thinking. You own what you deliver.

Professional consultants use AI daily for research, analysis, and client communication. It helps most when it extends your thinking rather than replacing it.

Use AI to think better, not to avoid thinking: brainstorm, pressure-test ideas, summarize research, rehearse meetings and presentations, sharpen your writing.
You own everything you deliver. Verify AI output against primary sources, fit it to the client's real context, and say how AI contributed.
Never paste a client's confidential information into an AI tool without their permission.
Generic, AI-generated analysis that shows no real engagement with the actual client is worthless to the client.
Practical AI tools can themselves be deliverables: a social media content workflow, a pricing calculator, customer message templates. Hand them over with plain instructions.

Source: Kershner AI policy for consulting students (2026); Technology template · Open in the interactive guide · Top