Puzzle 1 - Building a Leadership Team

A small business, in operation for over 15 years, had revenues of 7MM and 35 employees.  They were wanting to grow the business further and take an advantage of growth opportunities they saw in the market.  However, the business had always been run by the founder and her husband.  They were involved in every aspect and had grown the business, but at a slow rate, they wanted to grow faster.  However, they did not know how to grow quickly.  They engaged my services, and I helped them put together a leadership plan, to engage people they already had, plus adding a fractional VP of Sales to build their Sales Team, so they could focus on what each did best, the husband was great at the books and finalizing deals for negotiation and pricing.  The owner, was great at creating leads, but not so great at doing the follow-up, so she became the front person, or CMO, her husband was named CEO, promoting a current employees, to VP of Accounting, and grew the business 567% in 8 months, and the business is seeing a 25% annual net revenue growth for the last three years.

Puzzle 2 - Business Succession 

A client had been in business for over 35 years, and the owner had grown it to 9MM in annual revenues.  He wanted to retire, but had three children.  One was a doctor, one was in the business working, underneath him and was going to take over, and the last was a drug addict having some problems.  The owner only wanted his middle son to get the business, the one working in it, but didn't want the other two to be left out, and also wanted to maintain voting control for a period of time.  I devised a strategy that created different levels of voting/non voting rights, and created a NQDC plan, that provided funds upon the death of the founder/owner, buying out the shares of the two sibling not in the business, but they got non voting rights while the founder was alive in equal rights to the middle sibling, but they could not get any money or income form the business, as only voting rights got owner distributions.  A year after the founder/owner released some control he died, and the plan went into action, all tensions were alleviated before hand, and everyone got what they wanted with no issues, and I have continued to coach the new owner and the business is seeing a 40% year over year growth, and a 500% increase from my fee.

Puzzle 3 - Rapid Growth

A business owner, 2 years in business, had a great idea, but did not know how to grow.  I was able to go in and create a plan to take their infusion of capital they got from a round and help them write a plan to utilize the dollars efficiently and effectively, to put it to work.  The business in 4 months of engaging me was able to grow 876%, and maintain an annual growth curve for 2 years of 100% each year.  In the third year of engaging me, they continue at a 45% growth rate even during Pandemic times.

Puzzle 4 - Re Organization

In tough times, companies are always looking for solutions.  Many puzzles are created, in 2020, several clients engaged me, over 50, looking at how to reorganize and re-develop their business.  I have been working with each one, diligently writing a new business plan, taking a look at the economic situation and market outlook, re-organizing the businesses, and putting together plan of actions to survive and thrive.  All 50 businesses are still in business, and through the pandemic are seeing a 5-15% year over year increase in a down economy, by taking simple steps to adapt.