Meet Gus!

Gus works with a select team of students to provide business-consulting services to Mississippi businesses. This is his third semester working with the Business Consulting Team and he has completed two projects and is working currently on a third.

For his first project, his team had the pleasure of working with the founder of Landscape University (LU) and Director of Landscape Services, Airport, and Golf Services at the University of Mississippi, Jeff McManus. Since his arrival, Ole Miss has been consistently revered for its beautiful campus. He credits this success to the systematic training program (LU) he designed for employers looking to improve leadership, uniformity, and accountability among their employees. Jeff currently hosts a yearly seminar that discusses his program’s design with both outside companies and universities across the country. Jeff asked the team to help improve the seminar’s profitability, accessibility, and implementation. During the project, the consulting team prepared recommendations regarding product design, website design, pricing, naming, target audiences, and marketing strategies.

For the second project, his team worked with the owner, engineer, and producer of Tweed Recording, Andrew Ratcliffe. Along with the studio, Andrew plans to open the North Mississippi Recording Academy (NMRA) in January of 2019.  The music recording school will have four 12-week semesters with beginner and excel level courses. The student body will include 160 students annually with 40 per semester. Andrew asked the team to research the financial aid process, and identify established housing developments in the Oxford area that would be interested in a partnership with NMRA. For financial aid, they concluded that a majority of the schools similar to NMRA were registered under the federal Title IV program. They outlined the Title IV process with cost and time estimates. The process includes three important steps: state registration, accreditation, and the Title IV application itself. As for student housing, the team identified numerous developments interested in partnering with NMRA. With multiple interested parties, they are confident Andrew will reach an agreement at a reasonable price.