By Neil Thompson

Are you a consultant member of SDEE? If so, read on.

If you’re a SDEE member who needs advice on entrepreneur stuff, this is for you, too.

Remember when you were in college and your professors would hold office hours to answer questions? Well, starting fall 2017, SDEE is introducing its own take on it. Office Hours is SDEE members getting their questions answered by SDEE consultant members of all stripes. Product development? Intellectual property? Marketing, perhaps? Office Hours got you covered. 

Office Hours is the brainchild of the SDEE Consultants Committee, formed to harness the collective brainpower of SDEE’s consultant members. Aubrey Haddach, one of the organizers, brought the idea of office hours to SDEE after having experienced it elsewhere. “[Office hours] came from the fact that I worked as a consultant for CONNECT a long time ago,” she explained. “[The SDEE Consultants Committee] is trying to do something similar with SDEE where people can come and be consultants and give back to the community.”

Here’s how it’ll work. For 30 minutes, a member of SDEE with burning questions can talk with a consultant in person or can get advice. For instance, Aubrey is an IP attorney. In a 30-minute consultation, “I’m not going to draft a patent application for [potential clients],” she said. “We’re going to be there so we can guide them through all the things that they don’t know, and then they can seek out the counsel that they really want.” What a great benefit of SDEE membership!

So what’s in it for the consultant? “Once you get a relationship with [potential clients], you help get them started, and you guys can have like a trust…they will come back to the people that consulted them early on, when they’re starting their company, and come forward and become real clients.”

Can we all agree that Office Hours is a win-win for SDEE members and consultants? Aubrey saw it work to great effect in the past and is keen on bringing it to SDEE. Check the SDEE website and keep tabs on your email to learn about the official launch date and location.

Office hours will soon be in session!