A group of Fordham students is helping to boost the local economy by providing free consultation services to small businesses—and gaining valuable career skills in the process.
Fordham’s Consult Your Community Club is a chapter of a national organization that pairs college students with local businesses to offer free help with marketing challenges. In the past, they’ve worked with many family-owned restaurants on Arthur Avenue, mostly focusing on how they could help the small businesses get more Fordham students through the door.
Helping Local Businesses Thrive
This semester, 31 club members—primarily Rose Hill Gabelli School students—decided to give more intensive support to a smaller number of businesses. They partnered with four small businesses throughout the city, three through the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce: Diawondo New York, a shop selling African apparel and collectibles; Enoch’s Coffee, a Hell’s Kitchen coffee shop and performance space; and an interior design consultant called Style My Space. They also worked with Eternity Lily’s, a flower shop in the Bronx.
Both club President Sam Jones, a senior studying business administration with a concentration in finance, and club Vice President Ben Ukehaxhaj, a senior finance major with a concentration in credit, say the club offers a valuable opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience, while helping out neighborhood businesses.
Jones says he’s especially enjoyed working with mom-and-pop restaurants on Arthur Avenue during his time with the club.
“ I kind of fell in love with the neighborhood before I even came to Fordham, so working with the small business owners has almost been a full circle moment for me. I’ve always wanted to learn their stories,” said Jones.
Marketing and Technical Support
And what do college students bring to the table as consultants? A fair amount, according to Jones and Ukehaxhaj.
After learning about their clients’ biggest challenges, the club members have been helping them make inroads with the Fordham community through promotions and events, increase their digital marketing efforts, solve operational issues, make strategic pivots to their business plans, and create websites where customers can shop online.
For some of the small businesses, the technical support is especially valuable.
“Growing up in the iPhone era, it’s so much easier for us to do things like build a website,” said Jones, who added that prior to partnering with the club, one of their clients had been scammed into a website-building course that cost them thousands of dollars. “We have some kids that have their own e-commerce websites or TikTok shops, so they understand this really well and they’ve been able to give them some good help,” he said.
Jessica Walker, president and CEO of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, said the businesses have benefited from the students’ fresh perspectives.
“It’s a chance for the Chamber to support local businesses by offering free, creative marketing strategies that help them grow in the competitive NYC market,” Walker said. “We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from business owners who really appreciate the time and ideas the students have shared.”
Full-Time Consulting Jobs After Graduation
For the students, it’s been a valuable experience as well, according to Al Bartosic, executive director of the Fordham Foundry, which oversees the club. He noted that some past participants have gone on to land coveted consulting jobs at major firms including Deloitte.
“They get some real hands-on experience in terms of what it takes to work with a client … and I think the skills they develop are useful whether they pursue consulting or not,” said Bartosic.
Both Jones and Ukehaxhaj already have consulting jobs lined up after graduation. Jones is going into risk consulting at RSM International and Ukehaxhaj landed a job in financial consulting at EY, formerly Ernst and Young.
Interviewers were very interested in their experience, said Ukehaxhaj. “It’s not something that’s just theoretical anymore, it’s working with real small businesses and real people.”
