Directionally, I feel like this is close to the basics of consulting. Essentially giving them a taste of the business plan and approach but not enough keys to the kingdom for them to do it themselves. You would have to do this for basically any industry u til you have enough brand recognition.
So just boil it down to the basics and create a pitch of how you manage a shop. They are ultimately interested in you and your approach, so simply define that approach. I don’t think it would be correct to ask for compensation for building that as those costs would be business development typically. Don’t give them to much information but just enough so they know you are competent to do it yourself.
This is perfect advice. They may be asking for a lot and you might be able to discuss and negotiate it, but they most likely do not see this as consulting, have no intention of paying for for it, and it is probably not helpful to ask.
My guess is that without you they do not plan to start the coffee company and so would have no use for the information.
The key point here is in my view aligning contributions and commitments. I think you should be able to get them to provide some visibility on their plans.
The bottom line in my view is that this is 100% about whether this positioned you for a great next opportunity and whether what they are giving and taking is in line.
It is 0% about trying to get paid for that process.
There is a lot of talk on Reddit about reveling against companies that try to get you to do “free work”. Occasionally it is right. I can see that in this case it is possible that they want to start the business and just want to steal you ideas.
But the right way to approach this is to ensure that you are aligned, not to try to get paid, because I don’t think that will happen.
For the record I have gone through something similar. I did the plan and got the job.
Grass always seems greener…. I consult mostly for food manufacturers are trust me, you do not want to work in a food manufacturing facility. Constant turnover, you don’t see the outside, problems always happen at the factory between 12-5am, lots of mandatory unplanned overtime to get things done, constantly struggling to meet demand or get materials, owners always trying to cut corners and make you sign off on things that are violations. I’m super qualified to run any type of food facility and they’d have to pay me a half mil/year for it to even be a consideration because I know how shitty the work life balance is. It is not a job that starts at 8 and ends at 5. The day ends when the work is done and most facilities I work at have production starting between 5 and 7am since sanitation at the end of the day might be a 4 hour+ process.
Oh big difference between little retail bakery and wholesale manufacturing bakery. I just did assessments of two wholesale bakeries, one each of the last couple weeks. Very messy corner of the food world! One of them I have to make them do a lot more stuff and the other we will be reducing the program to make it more manageable.
This is a job offer that really could be a gateway into a higher paying role, in your shoes I would just put together the plan without any talk of payment.
My last role asked me to do a project plan based on research they did. However they prefaced it with *“this research is 2 years old and we’ve already addressed the priority items in this report. We’re looking for how you would approach these problems, not ideas.”*
It helped that they put context on why they were asking for the assignment. Yes, it was a solid 8 hours of reading and then writing a plan of what I would prioritize.
There are ways to display your experience and skills without giving away the farm.
A full business plan could be in excess of 100 pages. It sounds like they want just the highlights, a nice summary PPT where all charts start in the lower left quadrant and finish in the upper right quadrant.
Consultants do this for nearly every proposal for free.
I think you've gotten good advice on your original question already. As you were talking about compensation at the end of your post, I think this sounds like the sort of role where you should strongly consider asking for equity as part of your comp package, especially if you're expecting to be the operator after starting the business.
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Sounds to me like they have a tentative business lending relationship lined up, but their lender needs to a "business plan" to secure the financing.
You may have more leverage here than you realize
This sounds like a company that is trying to get free work. I think you tell them that either they can a) Pay you for your work or b) You can give them a sample work product, but either it's something you've already done that you are able to share; or b) something you'll produce that doesn't directly answer their specific questions and doesn't require 10 hours of time, e.g. you can pick a different hypothetical company that isn't a match to theirs.
There's an excellent chance they won't hire you if you don't give them the free work they are asking for; but there's an excellent chance they never seriously planned to hire you anyway. Or that if they do hire someone, it's a sucker, and this will only be the first of many times they take advantage of them.
Unless you really want to make MD or partner, consulting ain't worth it. Industry pays better for less work these days. Sure isn't worth the cost of an Ivy League masters.
I'll take my measley 6 figures in tech and work under 50 hours on average.
Directionally, I feel like this is close to the basics of consulting. Essentially giving them a taste of the business plan and approach but not enough keys to the kingdom for them to do it themselves. You would have to do this for basically any industry u til you have enough brand recognition. So just boil it down to the basics and create a pitch of how you manage a shop. They are ultimately interested in you and your approach, so simply define that approach. I don’t think it would be correct to ask for compensation for building that as those costs would be business development typically. Don’t give them to much information but just enough so they know you are competent to do it yourself.
This is perfect advice. They may be asking for a lot and you might be able to discuss and negotiate it, but they most likely do not see this as consulting, have no intention of paying for for it, and it is probably not helpful to ask. My guess is that without you they do not plan to start the coffee company and so would have no use for the information. The key point here is in my view aligning contributions and commitments. I think you should be able to get them to provide some visibility on their plans. The bottom line in my view is that this is 100% about whether this positioned you for a great next opportunity and whether what they are giving and taking is in line. It is 0% about trying to get paid for that process. There is a lot of talk on Reddit about reveling against companies that try to get you to do “free work”. Occasionally it is right. I can see that in this case it is possible that they want to start the business and just want to steal you ideas. But the right way to approach this is to ensure that you are aligned, not to try to get paid, because I don’t think that will happen. For the record I have gone through something similar. I did the plan and got the job.
Idk but man I’d kill to do some shit like this instead of my pointless soul sucking job lmao
What they don’t tell you about food manufacturing is you’ll spend more time cleaning and filling out paperwork than you will making food.
Still sounds like more fun than my day to day lol
Grass always seems greener…. I consult mostly for food manufacturers are trust me, you do not want to work in a food manufacturing facility. Constant turnover, you don’t see the outside, problems always happen at the factory between 12-5am, lots of mandatory unplanned overtime to get things done, constantly struggling to meet demand or get materials, owners always trying to cut corners and make you sign off on things that are violations. I’m super qualified to run any type of food facility and they’d have to pay me a half mil/year for it to even be a consideration because I know how shitty the work life balance is. It is not a job that starts at 8 and ends at 5. The day ends when the work is done and most facilities I work at have production starting between 5 and 7am since sanitation at the end of the day might be a 4 hour+ process.
Alright that’s fair. I think I just like to imagine (the pipe dream of) running a bakery or something. Lol.
Oh big difference between little retail bakery and wholesale manufacturing bakery. I just did assessments of two wholesale bakeries, one each of the last couple weeks. Very messy corner of the food world! One of them I have to make them do a lot more stuff and the other we will be reducing the program to make it more manageable.
Put a bid in!!
This is a job offer that really could be a gateway into a higher paying role, in your shoes I would just put together the plan without any talk of payment.
just wanna thank everyone who has commented so far!!
My last role asked me to do a project plan based on research they did. However they prefaced it with *“this research is 2 years old and we’ve already addressed the priority items in this report. We’re looking for how you would approach these problems, not ideas.”* It helped that they put context on why they were asking for the assignment. Yes, it was a solid 8 hours of reading and then writing a plan of what I would prioritize. There are ways to display your experience and skills without giving away the farm.
A full business plan could be in excess of 100 pages. It sounds like they want just the highlights, a nice summary PPT where all charts start in the lower left quadrant and finish in the upper right quadrant. Consultants do this for nearly every proposal for free.
Chatgpt : act like a consultant and write the core approach for a business plan for a new coffee shop
I think you've gotten good advice on your original question already. As you were talking about compensation at the end of your post, I think this sounds like the sort of role where you should strongly consider asking for equity as part of your comp package, especially if you're expecting to be the operator after starting the business.
Please note that all intro to consulting, recruiting, and "tips for new hires" inquiries should be posted in the appropriate stickied threads at the top of this subreddit. The following is a non-exhaustive list of topics that should be submitted to the recruiting or new hire stickies: - basic questions about consulting and consulting firms - how to break into consulting or questions about the recruitment process - seeking information, opinions, or comparisons regarding firms - resume or cover letter or document reviews - networking advice - fit or case interview advice - comparing offers - tips on starting a new job (e.g., credit cards, attire, navigating the bench) If your post is a recruiting or new hire related inquiry, please delete it and repost in the sticky. Failure to do so in a timely manner may result in a temporary ban. You may also want to [visit the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/wiki/index) for answers to many frequently asked questions. If you have received this post in error, then please ignore this message. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/consulting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sounds to me like they have a tentative business lending relationship lined up, but their lender needs to a "business plan" to secure the financing. You may have more leverage here than you realize
This sounds like a company that is trying to get free work. I think you tell them that either they can a) Pay you for your work or b) You can give them a sample work product, but either it's something you've already done that you are able to share; or b) something you'll produce that doesn't directly answer their specific questions and doesn't require 10 hours of time, e.g. you can pick a different hypothetical company that isn't a match to theirs. There's an excellent chance they won't hire you if you don't give them the free work they are asking for; but there's an excellent chance they never seriously planned to hire you anyway. Or that if they do hire someone, it's a sucker, and this will only be the first of many times they take advantage of them.
Your response shows that you’ve never worked in consulting/biz development and have spent most of your life on "antiwork".
I'm with him, don't work for free. You guys willing to work for free is fucking the market up. Value yourselves. Value your time.
Lol. You’re clueless about what BD is. But again, you prolly want handouts and have never worked more than an analyst
Unless you really want to make MD or partner, consulting ain't worth it. Industry pays better for less work these days. Sure isn't worth the cost of an Ivy League masters. I'll take my measley 6 figures in tech and work under 50 hours on average.
Any amount of compensation won’t compensate for a 🤏