Owner operates a 28-year-old electrical distribution parts business.

The business has not grown, and owner wishes to increase the customer base, design a new sales approach, expand the organization, and restructure his financial situation. He and his bank have made financing decisions that proved detrimental to growing the business and taking care of cash flow needs.

Participation in a Business Support Program.

Solution Selling techniques implemented; refinancing of $300,000 debt; new credit line increase of $150,000; implementation of the three-year business plan; acceptable terms with suppliers; D&B ratings improved; revised approach for authorized distributors for General Electric and Cooper Lighting.

Owner operates a 10 year-old manufacturing company.

The owner wants to sell the business within the next two years, but is not sure of its value or what he can do to improve the value. He has applied for bank loans to expand company production facilities and technology, but has been turned down, despite a reasonable financial standing. He struggled to find a vision for the future. He had engaged several consulting firms, but has been dissatisfied with end results because all that was received were reports covering information that was already known. These high costs made him wary of consultants. He needed advice and guidance on how to get to the next level in growing the business and achieving higher profits, thus generating a better working capital position.

Participation in a Business Audit to ascertain strengths and weaknesses, and Participation in a Business Support Program.

Development of a business and operations plan for the next three years; perform due diligence in sales, operations, organization, technology, and financial areas, to improve company performance; project the future value of the business and determine options for future of company; and develop exit program for owner.

Privately-held manufacturer, projected to double in size in next five years.

Client had purchased integrated manufacturing and accounting software solution two years ago, and was having major problems in the implementation phase. They needed to look at the software and apply it to all of the business functions in all major functions of the business. Many of the functions were custom-designed and required a decision as to changing the software or replacing the function with the new application. Other factors, like hardware specifications, new applications, conversion of current system files to new system, report writing, and new applications not resident on the current system, had to be addressed.

Participation in a Software Implementation Project.

Defined a Project Team, composed of key users to work with current business applications and documentation; develop scripts of all major functions and cross-referenced to new software applications; worked with software vendor to educate team on application know-how; developed specifications for program changes where necessary; defined a project plan; and developed recommendations; go-live completed in nine months.

Owner operates a 3 year-old window washing and service contracting business.

The owner manages all operations, including sales and financial duties. He has 10 employees. The owner does not know if he is making money, because he has never created financial statements, except for getting his company tax return at the end of a given year. He has no financial measuring tools to monitor his business. His business is growing, and he wants the growth to continue. There is no business plan or budget capability. He gets sales by circulating direct mail that his employees deliver to residences before and after work hours. The company also lacks systems and procedures for the day-to-day business functions of the business. There is no computer system capability.

Participation in a Key-Point Analysis Project.

The Executive Advisor reviewed the major company functions using key-point documentation to determine strengths and weaknesses of the business; a formal marketing program to promote the business, with direct mail, telemarketing campaign, special offers, and advertising placement, was developed; with guidance, owner developed a customer tracking system to increase return services and customer loyalty; financial information system and tracking tools; a cash flow plan that projected needs in the coming months; Installed a computer system to track sales orders, contract material and labor estimating, job costing, project control, and accounting information; The owner plans to hire additional employees to fill slots in the organization.

80 year old manufacturing facility is experiencing severe financial constraints.

Current owner purchased the company two years earlier.  In an effort to “modernize” the business, an existing computer/reporting system was discarded in favor of a brand new package; however, without proper study of system requirements, proper training of the company’s staff, and a proper knowledge of the application environment, improper and insufficient costing procedures were implemented, which led to inadequate accounting and cash management procedures.  Furthermore, too much power, without any checks and balances, was placed into the hands of lower level staff members with a net result of low or negative margins, an out-of-control cash flow, and consistent operating losses.  Additionally, the constant cash flow problems placed constraints on the availability of raw material due to a lack of credit terms with vendors.  This in turn led to consistent late deliveries against promised ship dates.  The complete dissolution of the company was imminent.

Recognition of the myriad problems was needed and the company debt had to be eliminated followed by the sale of the company.  A complete overhaul of management guidelines and daily working procedures was needed, and pricing guidelines needed to be established, and the entire backlog had to be re-priced and re-sold to the customers.

By selling the company, a third of the employees were able to be re-employed during a re-start phase.   During the re-start phase, a solid management team was built (and “educated”) from the supervisory staff, and they were given complete responsibility for corporate results.  The end result was more accurate delivery date promises, consistent on-time delivery, and most importantly, steady operating profits and positive cash-flows.