Has anybody come across or heard of or know anything about a company called Alchemy Network Partners? This company was created by a guy called David Abingdon.They claim to be able to teach people to become business consultants in a 6 day residential boot camp with all the course material and mentoring support afterwards. All of this for the minute price of £19,000!!!It's not a franchise business but they license their consultants to use their templates and other material. The target market is the SME's with businesses turning over £100,000 to £1.2M.Are these people for real?

http://alchemynetwork.newsweaver.co.uk/g9n2mhn2umj

Are they willing to provide their services on a contingency fee basis?

Thanks for your question cynic. They are willing to offset a % of the fee and link it to when you have clients and are up and running after the course.

I don't see the rationale: if you have enough experience to work as an independent consultant your main hurdle will be winning business - and there are cheaper and better ways to do this. If you don't have enough experience, paying out 19K for a 6 day course won;t make you a consultant.If it's a framework of methodology you think is missing, take one of the many qualifications like Prince 2 or suchlike which can give your experience more 'consultant shape'. If you need help winning business, why not find a business partner with a strong presence in this space? You could even hook up with a rec firm to offer a diversified service, or find other independents to form a collective. You really don't need their collateral - you can create this yourself, or beg, steal, buy or borrow some from a consultant with a big firm and tailor it to your own offering if necessary.

I met with a similar business a few years ago called IIB. They had two main selling points:1) A "network" of 5000 consultants. The client wants someone with X then you have someone in the network who does X.2) A first year "guaranteed income" of $60K. I did not pursue at the time but the proposition seemed quite attractive with the guaranteed income.Would be interested to know if anyone has joined one of these networks.

Mars a day, what's your situation? Are you in a position to form a collective??

A couple of observations: £19k for 6 days of training is way above the cost of executive education provided by Harvard, Wharton, Insead etc; is this training really so superior to that provided by the world's most prestigous vendors? The name of the firm seems likely to have been devised to suggest an association with the prominent VC firm.