Business Coaching for Owners & Managers of Small Businesses

Web-based Information Services Company

For almost three years I have worked with the CEO and co-owner of this firm. An early discovery was that there was no product line sales/profits analysis available. Using spreadsheets and existing data, this analysis was completed and immediately revealed that a product line with low sales and not much sales growth, despite quite a bit of effort, was actually showing negative profitability. More significantly, much of the development effort of the company was focused on this product. This lead to a painful decision to abandon that product line and focus on others in the existing product lines.

Another outcome of the spreadsheet analysis was to focus on Cost of Goods Sold where, after discussion of vendor management, the firm launched a clearer strategy of vendor management. An immediate outcome was a 50% price reduction from the primary information vendor.

Ongoing, the CEO and I have spent time talking about how to focus more efforts on marketing and sales. Since the founders of the company are software engineers, there is a natural tendency for the firm to return to its roots and dream up more development projects and further embellishments on their internal support systems. With some care to the strengths of the primary players, we have been able to shift energies towards marketing and sales.

Overall results over three years have been greater than 40% sales growth each year and an improvement in net profits from 3% to the mid teens.

CPA Firm

Over two years I worked with Principals to analyze this five year old firm’s customer base, product lines, pricing structure and marketing strategies. We pared down the service offerings, raised prices, pruned customer list, refocused marketing efforts. Sales rose 55% with almost 30% improvement in Net Profits.

A critical situation emerged when the partners began to move in different directions in their lives. During a meeting with them I listened to their now diverging life objectives and their solutions to these problems. They had developed complex business arrangements to allow one partner to move to Florida while another wanted to exit. All of this was based on partly believable virtual work processes and the increasing number of clients with whom they never interfaced personally.

When I suggested that they think of selling the business, it was a moment of “Aha!”. This idea was hardly a breakthrough idea except that their inward focus had prevented them from seeing it as an option.

Firm has now been successfully sold. The three partners are off on their own new adventures.