Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monday, August 6, 2007
Introduction
← click on business card
Welcome anyone and everyone who is interested in sustaining a competitive advantage through the use of value planning. To do this one must have an understanding of vital concepts and principles. These are the Knowledge Economy, Intellectual Capital and the tying of these two concepts into Knowledge Management/Leadership.
One must also be willing to a large extent reject the established principles of cost accounting since their focus is on a paradigm of "things" having asset value while "persons" are considered a cost. One of the greatest challenges small companies have, (especially those in manufacturing) is to afford the expense of hiring knowledge workers. They are tied to cost accounting and see high wages as a barrier to sustainability. Ironically spending more money if necessary to secure a bona fide knowledge worker actually costs less in the long run and sets up the business for future growth opportunities.
As a consultant, my job is to provide corporate "knowledge" strategies for smaller businesses to aid them in getting to, and through the transition from hand to mouth to growth and sustainability. The ideal candidate for my services meet the following criteria:
Once I have identified a client and once we together have agreed that I present a good fit with their organization, and they present a good fit with me (remember my provisos above), than I begin a process that demands an understanding of the details of their business. Not the industry they are in in general, but their specific business. While garnering this information I am continually educating the company leadership in the strategic aspects of their business such as logistics, human relations, marketing, branding and of course sales activities.
Normally I charge a $500.00 retainer before we get down to brass tacks since I value my time as well as do my existing clients. Over the two to three initial meetings, I will be liberally sharing great information that will be helpful regardless of whether the company decides to sign a contract with me or not. Now major corporate or marketing strategy companies can charge upwards of $20 000.00 just to walk in the door and draft a plan. The plan can cost as much as $5 000.00 and than the remainder would cover the cost of the "team" assigned to the client. Of course what you get is consultation in its classic form. A few meetings to go through the plan, and for them to teach the client how to use the plan and periodic follow ups depending on the time and scope of the growth strategy.
This presents several challenges:
Lack of funding. Most small businesses lack the budget to hire someone to come in for a couple of weeks and rake the company thoroughly for information to create a "plan" that is gone through in a few meetings. Honestly you get what you pay for does not really apply in this case.
Information overload. Many small businesses were started out of the simple desire someone had to try and earn some money doing what they truly loved. If a person had a great passion to knit, and wanted to make sweaters of various types, chances are they are great knitters, but lack any formal knowledge of business structures, corporate strategies, marketing, finance, etc. They may, but more often than not they are beginning from the ground up. That is why when a strategist in the classic sense enters the picture, they can and often do, create a plan that is on a level that requires a Business degree to implement. Sometimes this is an actual strategy. They are counting on the business owner to throw their hands up in the wind and say, you take care of it, and that helps them squeeze more money out of the client.
I find this disingenuous. To mistakenly use an advanced pedagogy for a client who needs a bit of hand-holding is one thing, but to count on confusing the client into submission so you can up the anti when they are already strapped for cash is short sighted and accomplishes little.
The way I operate is from the perspective of knowledge accounting. By signing on with me, you avoid getting a "plan" that sits on your desk and has little value in the "real" world day to day grind of running a business. Also, when a company signs on with me they sign an exclusive contract to work with me for a minimum of 18 months and up to time of exit (TOE). During that time, I work together with the owners of the company.
I am available to run through strategies that we adopt based on my recommendations. My job is not only to create a plan for growth, but to aid them in its implementation. That makes me a strategist/marketer/sales rep/etc. Over the course of the contract I in a sense become one of the in house team, all the while educating those at the company so that when my contract is done, they have a firm grasp of what it is they are doing, why they are doing it, and how it will adapt forward.
Now for all of that my demands are rather small and easy to accommodate. My rate is 2.5%-12% (depending on the type of industry) of growth sales based on actions taken for growth and expansion over the course of the contract. This puts me in the situation of putting my money where my mouth is. It is in my best interest to see to it that your business experiences legitimate growth and expansion.
My motto "STRATEGIES AT WORK" has two meanings. First of all I help you with your strategies at work. Secondly, I help provide you with strategies that are constantly at work growing your business.
I tend to keep my clientèle limited so that I can truly be a resource for them vs. throwing out cookie cutter solutions. More importantly I maintain exclusivity of service. If a company similar to one I currently am under contract with approaches me, I decline their offers. I feel that this is a conflict of interest since I would be pitting competitors against each other while trying to help fly both planes. Once the contract is over I am under no such obligation, however those who decide to extend with me for longer periods of time continue to receive exclusivity of service.
Small businesses have historically suffered from being considered insignificant by their well established peers. Banks and financial companies make it rather difficult for a small business to have access to the resources necessary to secure a foothold. Often the trade off is ones own personal financial security which is not a mutually beneficial trade off. Of the 24.7 million (2004 tax return data) businesses in the United States, almost 18 million of them have no employees other than the owners. This data only verifies the difficulty of growing your businesses past the hand to mouth stage.
If you own a business that has made it through the initial stages, and are looking to grow, feel free to contact me. (click on business card above)
Regards,
DJ Ross
Welcome anyone and everyone who is interested in sustaining a competitive advantage through the use of value planning. To do this one must have an understanding of vital concepts and principles. These are the Knowledge Economy, Intellectual Capital and the tying of these two concepts into Knowledge Management/Leadership.
One must also be willing to a large extent reject the established principles of cost accounting since their focus is on a paradigm of "things" having asset value while "persons" are considered a cost. One of the greatest challenges small companies have, (especially those in manufacturing) is to afford the expense of hiring knowledge workers. They are tied to cost accounting and see high wages as a barrier to sustainability. Ironically spending more money if necessary to secure a bona fide knowledge worker actually costs less in the long run and sets up the business for future growth opportunities.
As a consultant, my job is to provide corporate "knowledge" strategies for smaller businesses to aid them in getting to, and through the transition from hand to mouth to growth and sustainability. The ideal candidate for my services meet the following criteria:
- They are a small business with growth potential. (A local family restaurant or auto-body shop often lack enough differentiation (there are exceptions of course) to expand beyond their local footprint. A company that makes a special type of salsa or paint booth represents similar industries, but often have a greater growth potential since they can more readily transverse various sectors.
- They represent a narrow sector.How many tanning salons can you find in any given town? How many shoe stores can you find in any given town? Now how about a company that makes and sells a specialized tanning lamp that decreases UVA exposure risk by 500%, or a manufacturer that has created a orthopedically superior 3 inch heel pump that can save many a female foot from pain during long evenings? A narrow sector shows that the business is already developing their intellectual capital to some degree.
- They are struggling, yet have survived past the 2 and 5 year thresholds for businesses. A start up may have the best idea since peanut butter, but if they haven't battled it out in the market arena long enough to have established at least a core customer following that keeps them afloat, than they are in a word, an unproven quantity. Unproven quantities in business are not ready to take the step forward towards growth since we do not know if they possess enough intellectual capital to get over these critical humps. Many companies can limp along for decades without any significant growth, companies like these will eventually die out or be sold off to those who possess the capabilities and capital to spring them upward and outward. Again my stewardship toward my clients is to get them past the hand to mouth phase and into a growth and expansion phase that they can handle.
- They are premium thinking or at least prepared to adopt a premium strategy. One of the biggest mistakes that newly minted businesses make is they get caught up in the cost accounting rat race, and this effects not only how they spend their money, but also how they price their products and services. They become almost desperate for business that they offer Wal-mart pricing for Neiman Marcus quality. Often their thinking is that it is just temporary just to get a foot into the door, and when they have established themselves they will begin to get what their worth. This unfortunately rarely ever succeeds.
- They are businesses most often not in the technology sector. While I will not necessarily turn down a client who runs a tech company, I am more inclined to focus on more traditional types. Unfortunately over the past fifteen years, the love affair capital and marketing resources have had over anything techie has virtually sapped the market of resources for more traditional type businesses. Building furniture may not create the kind of buzz that the latest nanobot application in medicine does, but the reality is that everyone needs to sit, lay comfortably to rest or have a place to store their unmentionables. This means that furniture is a viable market and one that will not be superseded by superior technology. The Knowledge Economy does not exclude more traditional businesses, it only effects how these businesses are run.
- Their IC is already at a premium. Whether they are aware of it or not, I tend to focus on companies that already have an established high level of intellectual capital. If two jewelry makers were soliciting my services, and one used cast molding exclusively while the other had cast molding, but also hand tooling, I would more likely drift towards the hand tooler if the quality was obviously high (comparable to high end craftsmanship in the industry). There would need to be compelling reasons why the former jewelry maker is chosen (superior quality, ability to quickly bring in design/tooling talent, etc).
Once I have identified a client and once we together have agreed that I present a good fit with their organization, and they present a good fit with me (remember my provisos above), than I begin a process that demands an understanding of the details of their business. Not the industry they are in in general, but their specific business. While garnering this information I am continually educating the company leadership in the strategic aspects of their business such as logistics, human relations, marketing, branding and of course sales activities.
Normally I charge a $500.00 retainer before we get down to brass tacks since I value my time as well as do my existing clients. Over the two to three initial meetings, I will be liberally sharing great information that will be helpful regardless of whether the company decides to sign a contract with me or not. Now major corporate or marketing strategy companies can charge upwards of $20 000.00 just to walk in the door and draft a plan. The plan can cost as much as $5 000.00 and than the remainder would cover the cost of the "team" assigned to the client. Of course what you get is consultation in its classic form. A few meetings to go through the plan, and for them to teach the client how to use the plan and periodic follow ups depending on the time and scope of the growth strategy.
This presents several challenges:
Lack of funding. Most small businesses lack the budget to hire someone to come in for a couple of weeks and rake the company thoroughly for information to create a "plan" that is gone through in a few meetings. Honestly you get what you pay for does not really apply in this case.
Information overload. Many small businesses were started out of the simple desire someone had to try and earn some money doing what they truly loved. If a person had a great passion to knit, and wanted to make sweaters of various types, chances are they are great knitters, but lack any formal knowledge of business structures, corporate strategies, marketing, finance, etc. They may, but more often than not they are beginning from the ground up. That is why when a strategist in the classic sense enters the picture, they can and often do, create a plan that is on a level that requires a Business degree to implement. Sometimes this is an actual strategy. They are counting on the business owner to throw their hands up in the wind and say, you take care of it, and that helps them squeeze more money out of the client.
I find this disingenuous. To mistakenly use an advanced pedagogy for a client who needs a bit of hand-holding is one thing, but to count on confusing the client into submission so you can up the anti when they are already strapped for cash is short sighted and accomplishes little.
The way I operate is from the perspective of knowledge accounting. By signing on with me, you avoid getting a "plan" that sits on your desk and has little value in the "real" world day to day grind of running a business. Also, when a company signs on with me they sign an exclusive contract to work with me for a minimum of 18 months and up to time of exit (TOE). During that time, I work together with the owners of the company.
I am available to run through strategies that we adopt based on my recommendations. My job is not only to create a plan for growth, but to aid them in its implementation. That makes me a strategist/marketer/sales rep/etc. Over the course of the contract I in a sense become one of the in house team, all the while educating those at the company so that when my contract is done, they have a firm grasp of what it is they are doing, why they are doing it, and how it will adapt forward.
Now for all of that my demands are rather small and easy to accommodate. My rate is 2.5%-12% (depending on the type of industry) of growth sales based on actions taken for growth and expansion over the course of the contract. This puts me in the situation of putting my money where my mouth is. It is in my best interest to see to it that your business experiences legitimate growth and expansion.
My motto "STRATEGIES AT WORK" has two meanings. First of all I help you with your strategies at work. Secondly, I help provide you with strategies that are constantly at work growing your business.
I tend to keep my clientèle limited so that I can truly be a resource for them vs. throwing out cookie cutter solutions. More importantly I maintain exclusivity of service. If a company similar to one I currently am under contract with approaches me, I decline their offers. I feel that this is a conflict of interest since I would be pitting competitors against each other while trying to help fly both planes. Once the contract is over I am under no such obligation, however those who decide to extend with me for longer periods of time continue to receive exclusivity of service.
Small businesses have historically suffered from being considered insignificant by their well established peers. Banks and financial companies make it rather difficult for a small business to have access to the resources necessary to secure a foothold. Often the trade off is ones own personal financial security which is not a mutually beneficial trade off. Of the 24.7 million (2004 tax return data) businesses in the United States, almost 18 million of them have no employees other than the owners. This data only verifies the difficulty of growing your businesses past the hand to mouth stage.
If you own a business that has made it through the initial stages, and are looking to grow, feel free to contact me. (click on business card above)
Regards,
DJ Ross
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