Thinking of starting your own consulting club? You’re in the right place! If your educational program doesn’t have one, consider this a golden opportunity. As the founder, you’ll not only get to build something from scratch, but you’ll also demonstrate leadership, expand your business network, and create real impact—perfect for boosting your resume, cover letter, and interview stories.
Ready to make your mark? Let’s dive into some key tips for getting started.
Tips To Start A Consulting Club
To get you started off on the right foot, we've outlined these 5 tips for starting a new club on campus.
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Don't Reinvent the Wheel
Talk to consulting clubs at other schools, especially ones that offer services similar to what you'd like to offer - resume help, networking opportunities, speaker series, case competitions, mentorship programs, etc. Use the links in our consulting clubs overview post to visit their websites and find a contact person. Set up a time to talk over the phone or Zoom and have specific questions prepared. Remember, they're busy too - so respect their time and be appreciative of their input.
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Find Staff Support
Find a faculty or admin member to back you up. It always helps to have someone in administration on your side - to offer guidance, help you network, and lend credibility to your organization, especially when you're starting out. Leverage the career services office on campus to build connections with alum at firms of interest and get help with marketing your events.
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Set Goals
Set a membership goal. Give yourself a reasonable yet optimistic goal for membership in your first year. Recruit other consulting-minded students to help you get the word out and draw interested students to the table.
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Think Long-Term
Because you may not even be there in a year (for example, if you're a 2nd year MBA student), you need to think about setting up an organization that will thrive after you've gone. You're building the foundation, so do things right the first time. Besides, the more successful the club in later years, the better it will reflect on you as the founder.
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Be Proactive!
This is your moment! Starting a consulting club demands persistence, commitment, and time—but the payoff is huge. Tap into the resources around you. Reach out to consulting pros for advice, lean on your business school or career center, or even drop us a line with your questions. For easy programming, direct new members to our free events. When you're ready to take it to the next level, schedule a 1:1 with our team, and we’ll help you craft a standout workshop series.
Fundraising for Consulting Clubs
This is definitely a topic you'll have to - and want to - consider before jumping into the deep end. How will you fund your activities? How much support will you need? Where does the money come from? Fundraising doesn't have to be a headache - get creative and have fun with it! Remember, trying and failing and re-trying is part of the learning experience inherent in a start-up - and the fact that you've been willing to experiment to drive growth will bring more impact to your resume and better stories to your interview.
Here are 4 ways to fund your consulting club:
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Corporate Sponsorship
Corporate sponsors can be heavy-hitting donors if you're able to secure their commitment. You're primarily looking for cash sponsorship, but a combination of cash and product donation or possibly even event location sponsorship could also fit your needs. What should you do to get started?
Preliminary research. Make it easy on yourself by not reinventing the wheel - if partnerships are already in place between businesses and your school, leverage those first. Check existing corporate partnerships on your school's website, like the corporate partners at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business, which includes KPMG and Ernst & Young.
Additionally, talk to your career and/or alum office - they'll have contact information for alumni who work with consulting firms you're interested in approaching. Ask the alum to connect you with the person at the firm who handles corporate sponsorships.
Prepare. If you are cold-contacting the integrated marketing or PR rep at the target firm, first send an email and then follow up with a call (the same advice we give in our Networking Course inside of the MC All Access Pass). Make sure to introduce yourself and include a short bio. After the intro, give an overview of your program and close with a promise to follow-up by phone - incentivizing them to call you back before you bug them again.
Attach a sponsorship deck - a proposal that gives an overview of club activities, membership goals, and the support you're requesting from the sponsor - to your email.
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Business Plan Competition
Hold a business plan competition and require an entry fee of, say, $50 to enter. The entry fees will demonstrate commitment from the entrants and make a small deposit into your treasury, but you've got a lot of work still to do.
First, you're only going to attract contestants if you offer them a fancy winner's title and a shiny prize - like a $5K award to launch their idea, the opportunity to present their idea to a group of investors, a nationwide press release, a year's office space in an entrepreneurial hub facility, or a $10K branding package to include website, email strategy, and SEO. The good news? There are LOTS of willing donors out there, and they'll get a good ROI off of their donation - if your competing pool is big enough.
In addition, you'll need a credible panel of judges to evaluate the entries and select a winner. That means 3-4 professionals - consultants from firms who recruit on campus, alumni in the area, professors with business experience, or prominent local business people. Sorry - your freshman roommate majoring in anthropology won't cut it. Because this is so important, consider offering a spot to corporate sponsors or in-kind donors.
Resources. For examples of entry forms, judging criteria, and competition rules, visit BizPlanCompetitions - a hub for all types of business plan competitions. It's also a great place to advertise your club's competition.
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Case Competition
Similar to above, you're asking teams to pay an entry fee - e.g., $200 - to compete in the competition. In case competitions, because the event ends on the day (there's no current Case Competition World Championship, although maybe one of you will start one), the winning team is awarded a cash prize.
While you could grab the entrance fees and pool them into a prize, you'll have real costs to cover - which means you'll have to put in the legwork to find a sponsor. For example, Duke Consulting Club teams up with BCG each November to host the annual BCG Case Competition. Sponsors lend credibility (and often cash) to the winners.
Again, your judging panel needs to be assembled from professionals with relevant business experience. That means you'll need to start networking - using your alum and career offices and possibly even your own network to build a solid and dependable panel of judges.
Because there are case competitions out there that don't require an entry fee, be prepared to present a solid case on why your club is charging for entry - the name of the sponsor or an incentive cash prize are good for starters.
Resources. Take a look at case competitions held by other schools to get ideas for your own. Use our list of consulting clubs to quickly access club websites, and stay tuned for our future article where we drill into the most prestigious case competitions around the world.
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Consulting Service
Offer consulting services, e.g., competitor analysis, market entry plan, industry profiles, etc., to businesses at a discounted rate, like Stanford Consulting and Queen's Business Consulting at Queen's University in Ontario.
You may be tempted to offer your consulting services for free - to gain experience or obtain connections at a particular organization - but there are good reasons to charge a fee, apart from raising funds for your club.
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- Establish expectations. When a client pays for something, they expect results - putting the pressure on you to deliver something great. Without that pressure, your team is less likely to put the client's needs above a graded semester project.
- Set scope and parameters. When you're required to deliver a proposal and price quote to a client, you're forced to set parameters and determine a budget - great practice for the real world.
- Qualify your client. When you ask for a nominal fee (we're talking about a few thousand dollars here, compared to an M/B/B price tag of $500K/month), you ensure the company is invested in the project and committed to working with you. It will make the overall experience good for everyone and help you avoid less serious clients.
We hope this advice lit a fire under you and got you thinking about all the great things you can do on your campus. Have more ideas and input? Email us!