The topic of high performing teams is very active in corporate planning and performance measurement these days. As global competition reaches down to companies in the middle market, improving performance within companies is now a major goal. We cite a recent study at Google as an example of what drives Read more…
Would you like to know what your customers think of you but are afraid to ask? This process is not for the faint of heart and it is essential to keeping healthy, long-term relationships with customers. In a recent conversation with one of our customers, he explained about the long-time Read more…
Part 4-Packaging Your Application Previous parts covered the overview of the process and the first three steps of the process. This part covers the final step, pulling the whole process together for presentation to a lender and answering follow up questions. Depending on how long it takes you to gather Read more…
Part 3-Supporting the Loan Application Previous parts covered the overview of the process and the first two steps of the process. This Part 3 covers the steps which are usually the most difficult for smaller or medium sized businesses. That is providing detailed financial and operating data history. Folding your Read more…
Part 2-What Kind of Loan and Lender Previously we mentioned the first step as finding the right lender. Let’s start with the use of the funds because this will determine structure of the debt and who you may borrow from. If the funds are to be used for new equipment; Read more…
Part 1 – A Process Summary This is a four-part series on just what it takes to obtain a business loan and understanding the process you might face in running your business with someone else’s money. Today many businesses are experiencing growth opportunities and need capital to finance growth. So, Read more…
In 1970 the Harvard Business Review published an article launching zero-based budgeting as a tool to examine a business from a 360-degree view. Today we have Simon Sinek’s popular writing about always asking the “why” question for our actions. Believe it or not, the two approaches are not very far Read more…
Our company enrolled five of its team members in the EI Sales Training seminar series, hosted by Colleen Stanley and based on her book Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success. Our goal was to improve sales skills and to become better listeners. One of the first concepts is the power of Read more…
Personal Coach vs. Business Coach: What’s the Difference? We see many articles and blogs about aligning the person with the organization. What is that? Is this just jargon from personal coaches? Well, here is one experienced perspective from a few successful business owners. If you are a business owner and Read more…
The terms “data” and “metrics” are tossed about almost interchangeably in some business articles, but they refer to very different things. Both can be measured, but metrics are far more useful to CEOs and business owners. Though all metrics are data, not all data qualifies as a metric. In short, Read more…