Saving Clients Money is West Fargo Agency’s Mission
If Schooley Mitchell doesn't uncover savings, clients pay nothing.
Author: David Olson
The business plan behind Schooley Mitchell, a cost-saving consulting firm, is straight forward: If Schooley Mitchell doesn’t uncover savings, customers pay nothing. Is it really that simple?
“Our business is to help other businesses without them taking a risk,” said Dennis Schooley, founder of the company that started about 25 years ago and now has offices in about 320 locations around the U.S. and Canada, including one that opened last summer in West Fargo.
The West Fargo franchise location is operated by Kenneth Steiner.
Schooley and Steiner say that over the past two and a half decades Schooley Mitchell representatives helped more than 30,000 clients share in more than a billion dollars in savings.
“The way our model works, if we don’t find anything, we don’t get paid,” said Steiner, who provided an example:
“Say we’re working on a $10,000 bill and we save them (the client) $5,000. We’re going to split that 50/50 for three years,” said Steiner, who noted that at the end of three years clients pocket the full savings.
Schooley said the company reviews expenses in 18 different categories, including things like phone bills and other costs that businesses typically pay as part of their operations.
Schooley Mitchell negotiates with vendors on behalf of clients to get the best possible deals and the company also checks to ensure there are no errors in the vendor bills it reviews for clients.
“It’s really a risk-free offering to businesses in the community; our whole goal is to help them increase their profits,” said Schooley, who operates Schooley Mitchell with his wife, Beth McMillan, out of Ontario, Canada.
Schooley stressed that the location of the company’s central office is immaterial.
“We’ve built relationships with vendors throughout both countries,” Schooley said, adding that when it comes to clients, Schooley Mitchell works with governments and nonprofits in addition to for-profit businesses.
Making Connections
“We don’t look at their books. We just look at their bills and contracts and review those,” Schooley said. “In most cases, businesses are paying more than they should be paying, or there may be errors in their bills.”
Steiner, who launched the West Fargo franchise location about six months ago, said when he opened the local office Dennis Schooley impressed upon him that the Schooley Mitchell approach to business means not rushing things with clients.
Instead, it involves making connections with deliberation and trust.
“It is an 18-24 month game plan to get the business where you want it to be. The process is slow in the sense it’s about relationships,” said Steiner, who added that people typically aren’t searching for the type of service they offer.
“It’s more a referral-based business,” he said.
“It’s about helping them and helping the people they know and growing organically from there,” added Steiner, who noted that Schooley Mitchell franchisees are not given a specific territory they are exclusively responsibility for.
He said that means each franchisee is able to “help any company anywhere.”