Doing a consulting project on a family business to show initiative on resume

That's a fantastic idea. Doing a project for your family business is one of the best ways to show initiative and get a great talking point for interviews.

Since you're just starting, the key is to pick a project that has a clear, measurable outcome.

I would focus on one of these three things:

• Revenue Growth: Can you find ways to bring in more money? Maybe it’s a new service or a simple marketing plan to attract new patients. Your goal could be to increase monthly revenue by 10% within three months.
• Cost Reduction: Can you find ways to cut costs? Maybe it's negotiating with a supplier or finding a way to lower energy bills. Your goal could be to cut a specific expense by 15% within three months.
• Operational Efficiency: Can you make the clinic run faster? Look at the patient check-in process and find ways to reduce patient wait times. Your goal could be to reduce average wait times from 20 minutes to 10 minutes within one month.

Your goal is to be able to say, "I did X and it led to Y measurable outcome within Z timeframe." That's what firms are looking for. You've got this!

Hi there,

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• First of all, contrary to what other coaches have said, I would strongly advise against doing a consulting project solely to enhance your resume. If there really were issues or aspects your family wanted to improve in the business, you probably wouldn’t have reached out to ask what type of project to pursue, so I’m not sure it would be a successful endeavor.
• Moreover, instead, I would advise you to work with an experienced coach like me on perfecting your application files, and to secure a strong referral to maximize your chances of being invited to interviews.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your application files, for your upcoming pre-interview assessments and/or interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hey there :)

Great idea, projects like that look strong if they’re concrete and quantified. For a small health clinic, you could focus on things like: analyzing patient flow and suggesting process changes to reduce waiting time, looking at pricing and service mix to improve profitability, designing a marketing or digital strategy to increase patient acquisition, or running a basic cost analysis to find savings.

The key is to pick one project where you can actually gather data, apply a structured consulting approach, and show measurable impact (e.g. “identified changes that could reduce average patient wait times by 20%” or “modeled service mix changes that could increase revenue by €X”). That makes it credible and resume-worthy.

best, Alessa :)

Hi there, 

There could potentially be different types of project you can do on your family business, including:

• Profitability improvement (e.g., revenue increase, cost efficiency)
• Growth (e.g., expanding market / portfolio / customer etc.)
• Commercial and/or operational excellence (e.g., pricing optimization, procurement improvement etc.)

Just some examples for consideration.

Best,

Emily

Don't ask US that question, ask the people responsible for the business.

What do they want to achieve? More growth? Lower costs? Higher efficiency? 

Are they facing issues with retaining customers? Any process that needs to be improved? 

Or otherwise, do a pure strategy project. Do an internal diagnostic + external trends + performance gap analysis and figure out what should be the critical initiatives / changes over the next couple of years.