When Your Bottom Line Doesn't Reflect
All Your Hard Work
You enjoy being an entrepreneur but face several challenges. On a regular basis you find:
- You don't even know what your breakeven is, let alone if you're making money, and you worry if you can make payroll each week. (When you work 80 hours a week, you'd think you have more to show for it!)
- Your suppliers and banker call periodically—you start to avoid their calls, wondering which shoe is going to fall next.
- You feel like you're babysitting and wonder how you can get your people to understand the bigger picture.
- You're by yourself at the top of the mountain. Everyone thinks you should know what to do but you're not sure which of the many routes you should take.
- Your inbox has 200 emails in it—you're so overwhelmed that you don't know where to start answering them: employees, customers and vendors, or your banker.
- Your sales are stagnant, and your sales force is all over the road; they're doing a better job of selling you than the customer.
Does this sound familiar?
I know it does because I've been there myself and have helped dozens of business owners and CEOs through similar challenges. There is, however, a way through it all—a way where you and your business end up on top, and you actually enjoy being there.
In the past 20 years of being an entrepreneur myself (I've run seven companies, owning all or part of three), working in corporate America (I served as a consultant with Anderson Consulting and completed a turnaround on Vertis Communications' only union facility), and coaching business owners, I've created a unique and remarkably effective process. It's simple:
- We meet, and I ask you a bunch of questions—you're the expert on your business.
- I quickly size up the situation. I am intuitive and tend to see things that others don't.
- I provide straightforward and direct guidance, and jump in and roll up my sleeves when necessary (COO, CFO type of stuff).
- WE (together) get the changes made.
- Go back to #1 and start again.
The Results Speak
You're thinking that it sounds wonderful to have a trusted advisor who has walked a mile in your shoes. You'd love to have someone to bounce ideas off of and help you develop your skills as a leader. But you're practical and you want to know about real world results. Here are a few:
- During an initial conversation I provided a client with a break-even analysis in less than two hours that his accountant couldn't get him to understand.
- I helped a 20-year-in-business CEO wind down her business and negotiate with her creditors such that she walked away with no personal liabilities.
- In under 60 days I helped a CEO reduce her debt load from over $2MM to under $500k.