Local consultants set to launch new business

Braving a slow market for business consultants, Michael Renfer and Skip Liebman are forming Business-Centric Associates. BCA will officially begin working with business clients as a consulting group in 2003.

Liebman said BCA is "a group of highly respected, seasoned consultant-trainers who have combined expert talents to offer resources and support to small and mid-sized companies."

Renfer and Liebman, who have their own separate businesses, "were introduced about a year and half ago through some friends and became friends," Renfer said. They found they had different skills and backgrounds that complemented each other.

Liebman is president of Retail Consulting and The Liebman Company. He has 27 years' experience in the business field and has provided consulting and training to organizations for 15 years.

Renfer, who has Allegiant Partners, has more than 21 years of marketing experience.

His emphasis has been on branded business-to-business marketing, creating new business channels, launching new products and developing incentive promotions.

Both will continue to run their own consulting businesses.

BCA doesn't have a physical location as of now, Renfer said, because "most outsource work like this is often done from virtual offices, and the work is really done on the site of the business we're working with."

Fighting the economy will be the first hurdle for BCA.

"In this economy, I think it's probably difficult at best right now," Renfer said. "Consumer spending is OK, but people owning companies are afraid. They aren't letting go of money, and (they're) not spending money to consult and advertise. A number of companies have cut costs for the same reason. But you can only cut costs so long; at some point you have to spend money to build in 2004.

"I expect that outside consulting services will start to pick up in 2003, but (it) won't be back to where it should be until 2004. It's been a tough year for consultants nationally; companies are just not hiring consultants."

The key to success, Renfer said, is having the expert associates who bring in different skills. For example, associate Barbara Carnes' specialty is human resource development and Jim Novo's is on the technology side as in database marketing work.

"BCA will offer six result-based consulting and training business products designed for small- and mid-sized organizations," Liebman said. "The products cover a full menu of proven critical disciplines: business planning systems, sales and service systems, customer retention programs, strategic branding and marketing programs, performance improvement workshops, and human resource and organizational consulting."

BCA's first product is the Hundred-Day Plan.

"It's an affordable way for small businesses to take a day to work on their small business," Renfer said. "It gets them thinking about business in ways they haven't been thinking about."

The Hundred-Day Plan gets the business owner and senior managers together those who know the business inside and out to "collaborate on what the future needs to look like for their business," Liebman said.

When the session is over, clients have a workable plan; Liebman and Renfer said the session is action-based involvement, not a note-taking seminar.

In the short term, Liebman said, the plan will companies jump start their business and will move the business long term with "momentum to sustain change."

Within 10 working days, session goers will have "everything they developed during the meeting plus the Critical Path Timetable' a road map for implementation so they can turn their goals into reality," Liebman said.

The idea is that BCA will retain contact with clients attending the sessions over the 100 days, checking in about every 30 days. Cost will be under $3,500 for the day's session, Renfer said.

Other fees depend upon the client's follow-up needs, Liebman said.

Liebman and Renfer are easing into BCA, with no big upfront push. "We are making calls to local businesses on our own; it's really a referral system. I'll call on one or two companies that I'd like to do business with. The idea is to build a clientele base first," Renfer said.

He said BCA's concept can help a wide variety of businesses.

"BCA applies to any kind of business whether it's a printer, bicycle company or chain of drug stores; the same working strategies apply to all.

"It gives us at BCA more opportunity to get business and makes us a lot more diverse. That's the beauty of the concept. We will build experience in many different business formats which will make us more valuable to our clients."