Business Idea Vetting - Helping small business get fair prices on technical consulting

Original Post:

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Serket-Securit

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Nov 27, 2024
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  • #1
    Hi all, we're trying to gauge whether there would be interest for a firm we're considering setting up. Would business owners who purchase technical consulting, but are not particularly technical themselves, be interested in a service where we help vet if they are getting good value for money and potentially negotiate on their behalf to secure a better deal. As a fee we only take a percentage of the savings, so it should be a win win?
     
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    fisicx

    fisicx

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  • #3
    How would you market such a service?

    How would you convince me your service is worth the investment?

    How can I trust your assessment?
     
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    Ozzy

    Ozzy

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  • #4
    Serket-Securit said:
    As a fee we only take a percentage of the savings, so it should be a win win?
    Click to expand...
    I am technical so am not your target market, but my immediate thought and feedback is how would your business be sustainable where there are no savings to be made?

    For example, you are vetting a supplier for a customer of yours and find that the supplier is legit and providing great value for money?
    Your model appears to rely on assuming that all/many technical suppliers may be not providing good value.
     
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    Paul Kelly ICHYB

    Paul Kelly ICHYB

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  • #5
    Who is your target market?

    If smaller busiensses, projects might be smaller in value and harder to find, so, whilst it sounds like a good idea, not sure if it is a good business.
     
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    Serket-Securit

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  • #6
    fisicx said:
    How would you market such a service?

    How would you convince me your service is worth the investment?

    How can I trust your assessment?
    Click to expand...
    1. It should be a no brainer if either we save them money or take no fee

    2. A more difficult question, but if they're not technical at all and we have generic tech experience then we will be in a better position than them.

    3. Relevant consulting experience
     
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    Serket-Securit

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  • #7
    Ozzy said:
    I am technical so am not your target market, but my immediate thought and feedback is how would your business be sustainable where there are no savings to be made?

    For example, you are vetting a supplier for a customer of yours and find that the supplier is legit and providing great value for money?
    Your model appears to rely on assuming that all/many technical suppliers may be not providing good value.
    Click to expand...
    I appreciate that point, but the reason we're considering this start up is because of how many technical suppliers we've seen not just charging an unreasonable price, but also selling to less tech savy companies products and add ons that they absolutely don't need.

    If we really did think they were providing good value then the only loss would be our time as we would arrange them no saving and start out without a set fee. We should also be able to recognise this relatively quickly.
     
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    Serket-Securit

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  • #8
    Paul Kelly ICHYB said:
    Who is your target market?

    If smaller businsses, projects might be smaller in value and harder to find, so, whilst it sounds like a good idea, not sure if it is a good business.
    Click to expand...
    Ideally businesses that are large enough to be spending 50k-500k on consultants, but not so large that they wouldn't bat an eyelid at the cost
     
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    fisicx

    fisicx

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  • #9
    Serket-Securit said:
    1. It should be a no brainer if either we save them money or take no fee
    Click to expand...
    That's not what I meant. How are you going to make them aware that the service you offer even exists?
     
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    ThatDevAaron

    ThatDevAaron

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  • #10
    Sounds good, if we had been offering a technical service to a potential customer, that customer may hire you to negotiate on their behalf essentially?

    Its actually very good, I've seen first had that a lot of non-technical people are shocked when I give them a price much lower than they expected, as they've been to others who want to charge them obscene amounts.
     
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    Mark T Jones

    Mark T Jones

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  • #11
    There are questions which I can guarantee will come up (having spoken with many people in this game.over the years)

    They mostly revolve around value vs cost - starting with why they use their current source/supplier? This can be quite far reaching, from specific skills and values, to simply 'his son plays football with my son'.

    In reality, buying decisions are seldom driven entirely by price, though it's always somewhere on the agenda.

    Then, will they just take your discounted price and use it as a stick to hit their existing supplier with?

    These things can (must) be covered in your contract, but enforcement can still be fun
     
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    Serket-Securit

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  • #12
    Mark T Jones said:
    There are questions which I can guarantee will come up (having spoken with many people in this game.over the years)

    They mostly revolve around value vs cost - starting with why they use their current source/supplier? This can be quite far reaching, from specific skills and values, to simply 'his son plays football with my son'.

    In reality, buying decisions are seldom driven entirely by price, though it's always somewhere on the agenda.

    Then, will they just take your discounted price and use it as a stick to hit their existing supplier with?

    These things can (must) be covered in your contract, but enforcement can still be fun
    Click to expand...
    Thanks, that's a good point that I think we're definitely going to consider.
     
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    fisicx

    fisicx

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  • #14
    Serket-Securit said:
    I appreciate that, but it isn't very relevant to this specific business idea, that's just sales/marketing for any idea.
    Click to expand...
    It is very relevant to this business idea. It’s a whole different proposition to selling socks. People know what socks are and how to buy them. People don’t know a service like yours exist or they they get benefit. If you can make people aware then conversions will follow. The difficulty is working out how to market the service. It’s not going to be easy.
     
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