Cement walls, desk (faux walnut top), a busy office fielding telephone calls and requests for information. Nothing much suggests that this is one of the best bargains around in the world of business consulting.

    There's plenty of high-priced business advice available in Canada ($500 or more an hour). But expensive doesn't necessarily mean better. When it comes to a small business where bottom lines aren't bottomless, and the boss is owner, marketer, advertising executive, shipper/receiver, and chief cook and bottle washer, small firms need all the help they can get.

    So, for someone with limited financial resources and even more limited time, the York Consulting Group could be a dream come true. Its fees, for instance, run about $60 an hour, although they generally charge on a per project basis. If YCG is such a good idea, and a bargain to boot, why don't more people know about it?

    "We don't really advertise for one thing. Mostly, it's word of mouth publicity," explains Schulich School of Business professor James Darroch, YCG's current director. Since YCG took off as a student initiative in 1972, it has served hundreds of businesses ­ from start-ups to more established small businesses looking for new market share. Name a business field and YCG seems to have consulted for it, from provincial and municipal governments, retail, pharmaceutical, importing and exporting, to manufacturing, high-tech and health care industries, and even multi-nationals.

    Entrepreneurs often don't understand that product is only half the picture, says Darroch. Business consultants can help with the rest. Sometimes it's something as simple as how to balance a cash register, or telling people that they do indeed have to collect sales tax. "The point is," he says, " you don't always need to hire a high-powered consultant to get basic answers."