Sales Have Stalled: Specialized Design Firm
Cash Flow is Killing Us: Light Manufacturing
It’s Just Not Fun Anymore: Professional Services in Overwhelm

Sales Have Stalled: Specialized Design Firm

"I saved 2-3 years of growing pains through our focus on learning how to manage a business and to sell."

• Bottom Line: A talented designer has become a talented sales person and business owner as well. The company is profitable, growing every year and consistently beats bigger firms in direct competition for renovation projects.
• Situation: The owner was losing sales and pulled in so many directions at once that it was difficult to prioritize, feel secure about being in business, or have time for family.
• Analysis: Highly trained and experienced in a technical field, but never having owned a business, the owner had no clear way to focus sales efforts or truly track key business numbers. She also needed a clear sounding board to help sort out difficult client management issues.
• Resolution: GGW provided sales coaching and sales management tools that doubled sales closes in the first 6 weeks. Business management tools were implemented to provide:
  • Ways to use financials to make day-to-day business decisions and accurate projections,
  • “Political whiskers” to successfully sell to and manage clients with multiple levels of people who have conflicting agendas,
  • Structures that create order without cramping creativity.
• Ongoing: Sales and services have quadrupled with minimal staff additions while building an excellent record of creating beautiful projects on-time and on-budget. The company is well-managed and profitable, allowing the owner necessary time for family. Most important: GGW provided peace of mind for the owner to grow at a pace that worked for her.

Cash Flow is Killing Us: Light Manufacturing

“We’re confident now when we talk to clients about how they will pay.  We plug their commitments right into our weekly report and are getting better and better at knowing when money’s going to be tight or not.”

• Bottom Line:  Cash flow is actually under control and predictable.  Best of all, customers are paying on time.  The owner and his staff have become great “gentle” collectors.
• Situation: Customers were taking their time paying, so cash flow was scary.  It wasn’t always clear that every bill had gone out, who had paid, and no one had time to really stay on them to get the money.  Ownership often didn’t know if there would be enough money to meet obligations at the end of the month.
• Analysis: A team focused on getting high-quality home goods out the door didn’t have a clear billing system in place.  QuickBooks was set up but not completely accurate.  Interested in maintaining good working relationships with customers to meet tight time deadlines, nobody felt comfortable discussing payment issues, especially with inaccurate information.
• Resolution: GGW worked with the owner, production foreman, sales and the office manager to: 
  • Set up a clear billing process and clean up QuickBooks,
  • Owner and sales changed the way they were setting expectations with customers.  Owner, then staff, went through “collections boot camp” (the third call pulled in a big check!!),
  • A weekly tool for cash flow projections was implemented.
• Ongoing: To their surprise, the team found that they could collect money - even in difficult situations!  While a few customers were angry to see their free ride end, most appreciated the new clarity.  Sales actually increased when the company as a whole began to stand up for the value of its product.

It’s Just Not Fun Anymore: Professional Services in Overwhelm

“We were losing sight of why we opened our practice together in the first place.  It sure feels good to be clear that we are working on the right priorities at the right time!”

• Bottom Line:  Great at law, but not so great at running a business.  Juggling court, sales, networking, finances… it just about sank this partnership.
• Situation: After three years, the partners were being overwhelmed by success in an area of law suddenly in great demand.  They were not communicating well, and feeling intense pressure from commitments on all sides.
• Analysis: Structures, and some skills, were missing in two key business areas: time management and partnership communications.  There were also skill gaps in the areas of sales management and the use of reports to track key business goals.
• Resolution: Training built missing skills; coaching helped overcome the challenges of using new tools.  Together we implemented individual and company-wide routines for setting priorities
  • Effective, regular partner meetings with decision-making tools to help partners set strategies, address problems, and fairly divide up business management duties;
  • Sales and financial reports provided accountability and a foundation to plan for, not just react to, growth;
  • Hands-on time management implementation helped everyone in the firm make and keep commitments to meet deadlines.
• Ongoing: It is still a challenge to balance all the demands of running a successful firm while practicing law and having a life, however, the partners feel more in control.  They are communicating well and report that their new skills and processes continue to be refined in a way that will serve them well as they integrate their new partner into the flow!