Business Consulting

If you’re wrestling with a small business problem and are not sure where to start, this is my approach.

The first task is to define the problem.

Without a clear definition of the problem you cannot move into action as you’re worried you’re making the wrong decision, you may not have all the information and may make a mistake, you may lack the skills or knowledge to resolve the problem (and hopefully not make it worse), the solution is going to cost too much or take too long or involves confrontation which you want to avoid or many other reasons.

From my perspective, the strength of a small business owner is not your ability to do everything but know when and how to hire the right person to help you execute the best answer.

If you are nodding your head up and down and want to know if I am the right person to help, pick up the phone and give me a call. Better still, first send me an email that captures the problem you see, send it to me and then give me a call so we can talk and decide if I am the right person to help you or have a resource I think can help you better.

In general terms, my business consulting services include:

Strategic Planning

working with you to understand and define your personal and business goals to make sure they are in harmony and bring the results together into a written document.

Market Planning

Understanding where your business currently fits into the market, if that market is growing, declining or staying steady and what the best plan is to grow and take your business to the “next level.”

Growth strategies

If you want to take your business to the next level be it with internal growth by improving current processes and being more aggressive to your existing and new customers, I can help you build and execute a strategy.

Problem resolution

If you have an internal problem with a partner, key employee or other management challenge, I can work with you to successfully resolve the issue so you can “get back to business.” This can include creating training and/or operations manuals or other tools so new efficiency is brought to the business.

Negotiations

If you need help working through the acquisition of a competitor, partner or family member, I can bring my expertise to help determine the best win/win scenario so there are no losers or bitterness once all final decisions have been made.

Secure Finance

If you need finance for your business the first place is to start with the business and how well it and the owner present themselves. I can assist you obtain the right finance for the right reason be it for a capital purchase such as equipment, a loan to finance and expand your business or buy commercial real estate or money to buy out a competitor.

Exit planning

A problem I see continually with all small businesses is that the owner of the business is the business. When their energy is good the business performs. When the owner is distracted the performance of the business falls away. If an owner has lived and worked in the business for an extended period of time, they naturally lose energy and focus with many times this not being realized until it’s too late. The solution is to create a well conceived and executed exit plan where everyone’s a winner – the business owners family, the employees, the customers, the suppliers and most important of all – the owner. Creating and executing an Exit Plan is not a quick strategy. It will generally take a minimum of two to five years. Is this something you should be starting today?

Business Assessment

A great way to better understand your business and the direction you would like it to go is to obtain a Business Assessment. A Business Assessment provides a thorough review of where you are at and provides a baseline so you can make critical business decisions but most importantly, see the bottom line results of those decisions.

For more information including a sample report on different Business Assessments

For more information, please call me today at (916) 570-2674 or complete a request for me to contact you.

You can circle me on my Google+ Profile.