Has Your Company Growth Stalled?

It is a common tale. In the past, a business performs well. But time passes, and that growth trend stalls. Trust us when we tell you, there is usually a cause. There are bottlenecks in your business process that are slowing you down!

Data Management + Better Decision Making

Time is wasted when the same data is entered multiple times…

More time is wasted when more than two people have to handle the same piece of paper…

Finally, if you do not have easy + quick access to this data when you need to make important organizational decisions, you are at a disadvantage…

If any of these bottlenecks sound familiar, you need to improve your intern business process…

The Coming Age of Entrepreneurialism

As this great country continues to work its way out of difficult financial times, many people look to the future and wonder what will be the “next great thing” that will invigorate the business world. My contention is America is at the forefront of a great new wave of entrepreneurism. For far too long the smart people went into banking, financial services, large high tech companies and other large enterprises like General Electric. Times are changing. Smart people are leaving these industries in droves, both voluntarily and involuntarily. You talk to almost anyone in large corporations and they complain about the daily life, lack of decision-making, and general malaise of corporate life. Many stay because they have a job and lack risk tolerance to go on their own.

Again, times are changing. In the past, MBA schools weren’t open and eager to teach entrepreneurialism either because many of it’s students had their tuition paid by large corporations, or because these same corporations support the schools financially, or students saw it as the fastest way to a corporate job. However, many MBA schools have now embraced teaching entrepreneurialism and are seeing students gravitate in mass to these studies. With the pullback in corporate support, students are now driven to make their own decisions and what gives them the most risk/reward potential. As Gen X and Gen Y become more of the leaders in society, their motivations are driven beyond the classic normal factors. Fulfillment of life goes beyond salary, and building something that will have a more meaningful impact, either by employing people or giving back to their community through services, have become priorities.

My contention is that these corporate “nomads” will start to find each other. They are highly educated and understand the operating principles of business. What they need help with is the risk profile of an entrepreneur. Through education, and most of all through trial and error of running a small business, this group will lead the resurgence of the business community. America needs this to happen and the government should offer incentives to promote the growth of entrepreneurialism. Let’s look at the numbers that the Kauffman Foundation released this year after studying the US government’s data set called Business Dynamics Statistics. From 1997 to 2005, existing companies were net job destroyers, losing one million jobs annually, while new businesses in their first year added an average of three million jobs annually. Corporate America is NOT where the jobs are created. Entrepreneurs and Small Business leaders are the job creators in this country. We need to embrace and exploit this fact as the New Entrepreneurialism Age grows over the next decade. Federal and local governments need to embrace this growth and cater to small business, as these are the growth engines of the future. Over the next eight years, America and Corporate America will struggle in a tough environment due to the deleveraging that needs to continue happening, deflation then inflation, and the end of a nasty debt driven recession.

Entrepreneurs will also struggle, but they understand the ups and downs better because they live with these day to day in their business. They also have an optimistic attitude and a drive in their gut to succeed. Entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do and will work day and night to get their job done. They are problem solvers. Corporate America has lost this trait over the last several years as making money became somewhat easy. No more. The other key to the entrepreneurial rise is access to capital. With debt tight but opening in the future, entrepreneurs have sought out capital through equity offerings. Much of the smart money looking to be placed understands this fact. Investors continue funding entrepreneurs even through these tough times. Returns still look attractive in these investments, even on a risk-based standard. The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article talking about the growth of “Super Angel” investor groups. I believe the growth in angel investing groups will help drive the smaller entrepreneur at a faster pace than ever before. The next decade will be very tough, but I believe the following decade will be the new “Roaring Twenties”. Now is the time to either be an entrepreneur or invest in one. The new wave is coming and I for one am excited every day to have the opportunity to not only be an entrepreneur, but invest in other entrepreneurs as well. We will as a country, get through our issues and the entrepreneur will be a driving force to bring this country to a new level.

Photo from Guerrilla Futures / Jason Tester on Flickr

Finding a Trusted Advisor

I received a number of emails in regards to my last blog where I discussed finding a trusted advisor. All the comments were very similar, “how do I find this trusted advisor”. In this blog post I will try to give you a few tips on how to find your advisor.

When you look for someone to help navigate the technology landscape, it is important to search for a person who has the following traits:

• Understands technology, but also understands the value it brings business.
• Strives to understand your business and the problems driving you to look for technology solutions before they ever discuss any products.
• Someone who understands your industry, what drives it forward and what hinders it from going forward.
• Someone who has knowledge of the wide range of solutions available in the marketplace.
• Someone who will take the time to educate you.
• Someone who is more interested in a long term partnership than making a sale and running off to the next one, never to be heard again. In most cases with technology, there are several steps before your vision is realized. Sometimes it means going down one path and then changing directions. This is when it is critical to have a trusted advisor.

Now that you know what to look for, where do you find your advisor?

• The best place to find anything in my opinion is through the people we already know and trust. They can discuss past experiences and give you the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• After exhausting your network, the best place to find a potential trusted advisor is in a scenario where they are not trying to directly sell you something. You want to observe them using the traits I have listed above, but in a setting that is not specifically aimed at you. This could be an industry event where they are speaking, it could be through an article, paper, etc that they wrote, it could be though social media posts or any other platform where they are discussing your industry problems and how to solve them. By attending your industry events or reading industry materials, you should be able to dig up potential candidates that would be worth talking to.

If you are an executive, your concentration is on the bottom line. Increasing revenue and profits year after year is why you are there. I believe without a doubt that technology should be a part of your strategy. The issue is that there are countless products and solutions in the marketplace and salespeople who will tell you anything you want to hear to make the sale. Your trusted advisor will help guide you through available solutions and be there long after the initial sale. This person can be already on your IT or business staff or maybe it is an outside vendor or consultant. Take the time to find the right person and your revenue, profits, and employees will thank you afterwards.

Photo from Shivf1 on Flickr