When Ruth Hatton was thinking about turning her autistic granddaughter's remarkable drawing talent into a business, she approached a novel small-business consulting service offered by students at Queen's University in Kingston.

The 70-something widow needed a marketing plan that would one day allow 12-year-old Carly to make a living with her art. Carly's paintings were selling for $50 each, but she was still a long way from being able to afford the fees of a consulting agency.

"I really wanted to get her established because I'm not going to be here forever, but I didn't know where to go next," Hatton said from her home in Gananoque, about 30 kilometres east of Kingston.

Friends told her about the small-business consulting program at Queen's school of business. A fraction of the cost of a private marketing firm - about $200 a day, plus expenses - Hatton leapt at the opportunity.

Michael Lea, Business Edge
Prof. Perry Bamji, director of small business consulting at Queen's University school of business, stands in front of the Heel Boy store, the school's first client.

Under the watchful eye of Perry Bamji, the program's director, two third-year students wrote up a marketing plan that will hopefully get Carly's story published in several magazines and newspapers.

The plan also encouraged Hatton to launch a website (www.carlysart.com), which is already starting to generate sales, and Hatton just started unrolling Carly's marketing plan.

Every year, about 35 businesses, most of them in the Kingston area, contract out services offered by Queen's small-business consulting program.

Those include agencies at Queen's, such as the campus bookstore, and the City of Kingston, which has had students do consulting work for its main playhouse and a community centre, as well as an economic-impact analysis after a disastrous tall ships festival. Local bank staff also regularly refer clients to the program, Bamji says.

Despite the lower rates, businesses get professional quality work, Bamji says.

"If we charged more, we would make more money, but I don't think the small businesses can afford the increase," he says, adding that the rates have remained the same for nine years.

Bamji is proud of the fact that almost everyone in the program finds consulting work after graduation, adding that those who don't go on to other endeavours.

Launched in 1973, the small business consulting program, which is now becoming the business consulting program, began as a summer MBA initiative and grew into a two-term, year-round offering for third-year students.

The program is client-driven rather than student-driver and Bamji says it is the only program of its kind in the country.

"The students do everything. They get the clients, negotiate with them. Other schools don't do that," Bamji says. He adds that the program is self'-supported and the work done by the students must pay for office expenses, such as photo- copying, fax machine use and phone bills.

Other universities hire staff to find clients, he says. "Luckily, we have a good brand name, meaning that the students don't have to go out and find the clients. They come to us - they find out about us through word of mouth."

To sharpen their networking skills, students attend local events, such as Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce business breakfasts, where they get to know the local business community.

There are similar consulting programs at other universities, including Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Mount Saint Vincent and St. Mary's University, both of which are in Halifax.

Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., has one of Canada's largest consulting programs, the Acadia Centre for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which has several staff who find projects for the students.

The Acadia centre provides entrepreneurial skill development, small-business counselling and consulting, and advisory services in social and community entrepreneurship. With offices in four Nova Scotia communities, it claims to have helped create 410 new businesses, 645 sustainable jobs and $12.5 million in initial investment between 1996 and 2003.

Bamji says the programs play an important role in helping businesses in their communities.

While the Queen's program does about 90 per cent of its work locally, the students have done consulting work as far away as Alberta.

Recently, they did a $14,000 project for an Alberta-based energy company headed by a Queen's MBA graduate who wanted to expand the company into Ontario.

Most projects pay the student teams between $1,500 and $2,000, for which they draw up market analyses, business plans, business feasibility studies, economic-impact studies and marketing plans.

But 10 to 15 per cent of projects are done free, Bamji says. "We do a lot of pro bono work."

Hatton's marketing plan was one such project. After she paid half her $1,100 fee, Bamji sent back her cheque and refused to cash her second one.

Price was also a factor for Suzanne Boisvert and France Spence, who wanted their personalized shopping service for seniors critiqued.

"The school of business does give a very good rate - it doesn't scare you away," says Boisvert, co-owner of Shopping 4U. "We couldn't afford a big consulting agency, especially when we're operating on a small budget."

Boisvert and Spence buy groceries, help with correspondence and run errands for seniors in the Kingston area. "After running the business for one and a half years we needed to have our marketing strategy critiqued," Boisvert says.

Boisvert and Spence met with students Steve Daicos and Kathryn Houlden, who conducted market research and came up with a separate corporate name for the company: FullService. Boisvert and Spence wanted to make a separate name for themselves in the corporate community and the new name was perfect.

The students also provided a number of corporate advertising ideas, including showing Boisvert and Spence what a new corporate flyer could look like. They also gave advice about the best places to advertise their services.

Boisvert says it was money well spent. "I must say I would do it again in a heartbeat."

The program continues through the summer, run by two summer students who get paid for their time. Bamji says the program can't stop just because the school year is over.

"The clients don't stop, the phones don't stop ringing and if we close in the summertime, we will never get those clients back," he says.

(Frank Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@businessedge.ca)