Common Sense Business Consulting
A common sense approach to business is the best way to address issues in today’s fast paced world. While the future is unknown, planning and forecasting is paramount when considering the business climate and where you want to be in the next five or more years. My goal is to help you by offering consulting services that give you the benefit of a different perspective and a plan to achieve success.
Efficiencies
In the past, small businesses responded to demand for their products and services by producing such and, often times, management would realize a lack of efficiency and consistency throughout the process. By establishing processes and procedures that convey expectations and the ability to measure productivity, continual improvement is possible through the use of modern technology. In addition to the efficiencies realized as a result of reviewing your business’s workflow, management is able to fairly evaluate their employees and delivery consistent, high-quality outputs that lead to lifelong customers.
Customer-Oriented
Without your customers, you wouldn’t have a business. While this is a simple concept, many business owners find themselves losing this focus after years of doing the same routine. Your business should be based around your customer and look to respond to their needs and desires in a timely fashion. By discussing customer service and the implications of not striving to provide excellent customer service to your customers with your employees you can set the tone for a highly customer-oriented organization. One additional step that is always recommend is to conduct secret shopper exercises to discover areas where improvement is necessary to better serve your customers.
Cost Savings
A discussion about improving your business wouldn’t be complete without a thorough review of efforts to reduce costs. Small businesses can notice large increases in profits by paying attention to costs in their supply chain and through establishing controls on the administrative side of their operations. Sometimes it’s as simple as diminishing waste but other times it’s realizing that cross training a business’s staff will result in cost savings. With advances in technology that are more accessible than ever to business of every size, effectively utilizing technology leads to saving time and money.
My approach is simple: observe, analyze, recommend, implement, and verify.
First, I will observe how your business operates on a daily basis. From the customer-facing aspect to the back office, I will observe and note areas where improvement is possible. After gathering information from observing what you want to improve upon, I will analyze my findings and prepare to present them in a way that shows the impact from start to finish. I will review the observations and recommendations with you, the business owner, to determine how you wish to proceed. Once there is concurrence on the approach for improving your business, an implementation schedule will be communicated and actuated. After the changes have been in place for a period of time that permits “burn in”, I will start the process again to verify that the changes have fully addressed our intentions and goals to see where, if at all, smaller changes are necessary to fine-tune your business’s operations.
Efficiencies
In the past, small businesses responded to demand for their products and services by producing such and, often times, management would realize a lack of efficiency and consistency throughout the process. By establishing processes and procedures that convey expectations and the ability to measure productivity, continual improvement is possible through the use of modern technology. In addition to the efficiencies realized as a result of reviewing your business’s workflow, management is able to fairly evaluate their employees and delivery consistent, high-quality outputs that lead to lifelong customers.
Customer-Oriented
Without your customers, you wouldn’t have a business. While this is a simple concept, many business owners find themselves losing this focus after years of doing the same routine. Your business should be based around your customer and look to respond to their needs and desires in a timely fashion. By discussing customer service and the implications of not striving to provide excellent customer service to your customers with your employees you can set the tone for a highly customer-oriented organization. One additional step that is always recommend is to conduct secret shopper exercises to discover areas where improvement is necessary to better serve your customers.
Cost Savings
A discussion about improving your business wouldn’t be complete without a thorough review of efforts to reduce costs. Small businesses can notice large increases in profits by paying attention to costs in their supply chain and through establishing controls on the administrative side of their operations. Sometimes it’s as simple as diminishing waste but other times it’s realizing that cross training a business’s staff will result in cost savings. With advances in technology that are more accessible than ever to business of every size, effectively utilizing technology leads to saving time and money.
My approach is simple: observe, analyze, recommend, implement, and verify.
First, I will observe how your business operates on a daily basis. From the customer-facing aspect to the back office, I will observe and note areas where improvement is possible. After gathering information from observing what you want to improve upon, I will analyze my findings and prepare to present them in a way that shows the impact from start to finish. I will review the observations and recommendations with you, the business owner, to determine how you wish to proceed. Once there is concurrence on the approach for improving your business, an implementation schedule will be communicated and actuated. After the changes have been in place for a period of time that permits “burn in”, I will start the process again to verify that the changes have fully addressed our intentions and goals to see where, if at all, smaller changes are necessary to fine-tune your business’s operations.