Thinking small. A fresh consulting approach for founders.

The knowledge gap between what founders know, and what they need to know is huge. If you Google "what skills do founders need to build a business", you discover a broad knowledge set that is fairly generic at best.

Sales. Technical skills. Financial/accounting/bookkeeping knowledge. Communication and People Management skills. Networking. Domain knowledge. Strategic and Analytical skills. While some skillsets are similar across most industries, the level of specialization can differ greatly depending on your business and the domain and operational skillsets required.

Where does a founder even begin to learn what they need to know to build their business?

Aside from eQuo, I've launched a digital advertising agency called Dashboard, two SaaS companies in the automotive market (Glovebox, Bumper), and a coffee roaster called Neighbourhood Coffee. While certain functions such as accounting, bookkeeping, marketing and hr crossed all four companies, most other skillsets and knowledge requirements were vastly different. Sales in the service industry vs. SaaS vs. e-commerce vs. retail are very, very different as an example. I found myself in a position where I was starting with low to no knowledge in core areas required to build each company, and few people in my immediate network who could offer that knowledge, in spite of my previous entrepreneurial experiences.

Fast forward to our eQuo Alpha. As we have been speaking with founders and business owners who are taking part in our initial Alpha community, many have made it clear that they want to see a service component added to our digital platform. Yes, they can find capital requirements and funding in the Alpha, but they also want a resource where they can access experts, consultants and advisors to provide answers to critical questions about their business across all the key functional areas needed to grow their business. It was a long list...

At the end of the day, eQuo is a matchmaking platform for small businesses, and our goal is to accelerate and enable their growth. So we listened to what they wanted, and realized that we can enable a service function to meet their needs as part of our matchmaking algorithm.

What does that look like?

In order to facilitate the needs of small businesses, founders asked us to provide access to experts in critical business functions, and to have options that included hourly consultations, in addition to short and long term engagements as part of the eQuo platform. This would allow founders to jump on a call for an hour or two to determine what e-commerce platforms were best, or to find out what payment solutions met their specific business needs. It would also allow them to obtain a fractional bookkeeper, or to access someone who can help with merchandising and updating their web platform.

We listened and we are excited to introduce a new service feature for our eQuo community, launching in November, 2022. This will be the first cross functional consultancy, specifically designed for the needs of small businesses.

To this end, we are currently gathering experts, coaches, consultants and advisors to take part in our service consultancy. If you would like to participate, please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/thesmallconsultancy to apply.

If you are a founder who would like to use this service, you can also fill out this form and indicate where you need help. This will help us prioritize key areas that are most in demand. Additionally, we will be incorporating these operational areas as part of our ongoing series of webinars and events, allowing our community to continually learn and benefit from our knowledge experts.

When will we launch?

We will be launching in November with more details to come. In the meantime, we welcome your feedback and thoughts and encourage you to indicate your interest in participating as a founder, business owner or consultant by filling out the following form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/thesmallconsultancy .

If you would like to be part of our Alpha, please go to https://www.equoshift.com/ and register at the bottom of the page.

If you would like to invest in eQuo through our crowdfunding campaign, you can invest directly at https://www.frontfundr.com/equo .

About eQuo

eQuo serves as a truly inclusive platform for entrepreneurs and investors that are often otherwise left out of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The eQuo platform matches entrepreneurs with investors, funding and capital, in addition to other needed services based on mutually aligned criteria, thus ensuring all entrepreneurs are included and have equitable access to capital, and providing entrepreneurs with the funding they need to grow.

Today, immigrants, LGBTQ+, indigenous, persons with disabilities, persons of colour, persons over 60, black and women entrepreneurs all represent a large untapped market who can help spur the economy through the product and services they provide, the jobs they create and the money they bring into their communities, if they are supported through funding.

With inclusivity and support at the heart of eQuo’s mission statement, this platform addresses a need for inclusivity, resources and support for those traditionally underestimated.?eQuo is closing the opportunity gap by recognizing the obstacles and systematic challenges at work in the traditional startup ecosystem. eQuo ensures their network empowers entrepreneurs and investors to realize their full potential by providing equitable access to resources, information and support.

The eQuo platform is creating the biggest “small” network for underestimated founders and investors who realize how big a small business can be.

Learn more at www.equoshift.com .