Aztec Consulting

Offering Management Consulting Services to San Diego Businesses

Welcome! Aztec Consulting Program offers management consulting services to businesses in the city of San Diego for free, based on an annual grant from the City of San Diego.

We are focused on building value for our community of clients and student consultants.

• To our clients, we strive to provide innovative, yet tangible solutions, which lead to optimized decision-making and increased effectiveness.
• To our students, we emphasize professional and personal growth by developing top undergraduate students into strategic thinkers and leaders capable of approaching complex, real-world business issues.

At the Aztec Consulting Program we know that finding the right help when you need it is a choice not to be taken lightly. We value your time and well being.

Overview

This is an on-going technical assistance program designed to assist small businesses especially women owned, minority owned, and veteran owned as these are the key target populations for our grant from the San Diego Economic Development Center.

SDSU’s Aztec Consulting Program, a highly successful, award winning program, started as the Small Business Institute (under an SBA grant). It has served nearly one thousand small and medium sized businesses in the San Diego region since its inception in the early 1970s. Our student consultants, working as a three to five person team, work with each business client for an entire academic semester, with each team guided by an MBA student.

SDSU will also provide an advising committee which consists of Dr. John Francis, management, and MBA or MS student advisors. These combined resources supervise the undergraduate students that are consulting for the business. All students in the program must complete a series of prerequisites, must apply competitively to participate, and are selected based on superior academic performance as well as stated commitment to engaging in active community-based service learning.

Prospective Client Application

Tyler Blair, owner of The Washboard laundry service near SDSU’s campus, also engaged the Aztec Consulting Program's students shortly after purchasing his business. While the report from the Aztec Consulting Program confirmed Blair’s assertion that no other local laundry service offered free wi-fi, televisions, customer service and high tech washing machines, the report also came back with a marketing and financial suggestions that helped Blair to strengthen his unique business.

“One of the first things the students did was to determine the actual cost and profit for each service and that’s when we realized that the fluff-and-fold service had the highest return on investment,” said Blair. “When I started marketing that service more heavily, we began seeing more profits pretty quickly. They also showed me how to better manage our existing accounting system, how to train and delegate work to the existing employees and how to determine a pricing structure.” Like Romero, Blair also learned that he needed to make his marketing and branding more uniform. “I didn’t even think about the branding before they pointed out some inconsistencies, but now I have a cohesive message across all media,” he said.

One member of the business community is Diana Romero who offers wedding planning services through her company, At Your Side Planning. She enlisted the help of the SBCC students in the fall of 2011 when she decided she wanted to increase her revenues.

The students suggested techniques to improve her marketing plan and determined that she was charging too little for her services. Upon implementing their suggestions, she noticed positive improvements right away.

“The results were incredible,” said Romero. “I implemented the students’ suggestions to revamp my pricing when their analysis determined my price point was too low. I also used their input to re-name and re-brand my company name, website and marketing materials to create a cohesive and higher quality look and feel. My resulting revenue has increased significantly and I have a higher quality of clientele now.”

Part of the reason for Romero’s results is the fact that she was not only willing to implement the suggestions made by the students, but also that the students are among the best in the College of Business Administration. “In order to be involved in the Aztec Consulting Program, students must go through an applications process,” said Dr. Don Sciglimpaglia, outgoing director for the Aztec Consulting Program. “Only seniors and M.B.A. students that have shown excellence in the classroom and that have a track record of community service are accepted into the program.”

Become A Mentor

A student team with one or two professional mentors is matched with a local business to help assess its business development needs. These mentors work with student consulting teams to guide the teams’ research and recommendations to meet the needs of the small business owners. The industry-specific and project management knowledge of professional advisors enhances the student learning experience and helps students work with small business owners to increase their success.

Interested in becoming a mentor?
Please contact John Francis
[email protected]
619-594-5339 

Curriculum

BA 404, or Small Business Consulting, is one of the available Business capstone courses that gives students the opportunity to implement all of their previous studies. The class meets on Friday from 10:00am-12:40pm. There is a LARGE element of this class in which student groups meet OUTSIDE the classroom. Students act as “business consultants” to selected businesses, working in three to five member teams. BA 404 can be taken as a business elective in lieu of the required BA 405. Always be sure to check with your academic advisor. The class will be small [30 students maximum]. Students must apply to take the course, which fills quickly, so plan to register as early as possible.

Program Overview

The Small Business Consulting class pairs astute students with businesses in the San Diego area. After meeting with their client, business students design their project plans and deliverables to meet the scope of the project. This experience gives the students the opportunity to answer those tough critical thinking questions in an interview situation and gives them real-life experience to put on their resume. Not to mention the lasting impact made in the community.

Student Application

Meet the Team

John Francis

Associate Professor[email protected]619-594-5339SSE 3312