Helping Small Businesses Pivot

Terrill predicts pandemic-related adjustments like these will remain the program’s focus for some time. Here are just a couple of recent successes:

• A food producer and retailer quickly shifted to carry-out, then catering. By the end of March, catering was out too, so they adjusted again, this time to delivery. They ended their lease and moved all food production to a second remote kitchen. Student consultants focused on keeping the store’s brand in the community with a fresh marketing strategy that promoted their new services.

   

• A hydroponics farm on the city’s South Side had been supplying microgreens through a major distributor to local restaurants for five years. When the pandemic hit and restaurants shut down, the farm focused on direct-to-consumer online sales with some delivering on its own. As volume grows, the farm may buy a van, leaving the old distributor model behind for good.

“It’s one of the potential silver linings in this,” Terrill says. “It’s forcing a much faster evolution of their digital efforts—ordering, delivery, operations, customer engagement, and new channels of marketing. Many of these companies may have gotten there eventually, but the pandemic is forcing the pace.”

Even without a shutdown, consulting with small business owners is an immersion in reality for the students. Thinking fast on their feet without the luxury of extensive data is often a new experience for them.

“Entrepreneurs in the city of Chicago are so fantastic,” Terrill says. “They teach students how to make decisions quickly. Sometimes the business owner starts taking action even while the team is still finishing the final report.”

Students also see how much business owners care about their customers and the work they do.

“It’s less academic and more emotional. I’m always hopeful the Booth students will witness that personal passion for a business and look for that themselves in their own careers.”