NCDCS, Inc Discussion

This blog has moved

2010-05-01T21:12:00.001-07:00

This blog is now located at http://ncdcs.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://ncdcs.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Right in a Left World: Third Graders Sing, "Thank You, Soldiers"

2010-03-03T19:40:00.000-08:00

Right in a Left World: Third Graders Sing, "Thank You, Soldiers"

2009 Year in Review and Looking to 2010

2009-12-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

Over this past year, the opportunity to work with startups and midmarket companies has been a delight, challenge and encouragement to the good workings of innovation and capitalism. During this time, we have again seen state and federal policy affect the opportunities for business to plan, adapt, adopt and overcome the rapid shifts in monetary policy; banking and the government take over of product markets. In addition to the greater policy issues that we track to know how to better serve our clients, the items closer to home that matter are understanding financial statements, cash flow, innovation, product development, marketing & sales and most importantly is capital availability.

It is significant to the operational health of an organization that the Board and management have an understanding of financial statements and the relationship of cash flow to sustainability. During the course of this past year it has become painfully clear that knowing what financial statements mean and how to interpret that information for the purposes of risk management and strategic decision making is not a common skill set among those responsible for organizations. We have seen the results of this lack of understanding in the public organizational arena and the problem is more systemic in the private small and medium business environment. With the lack of understanding and knowledge comes the unintended or sometimes purposeful negative manipulation of funds and numbers to make things look better then they may be. Not only that, if the Board and management are not clear on these subjects then when things start to really look gloomy, desperation may lead to inappropriate activities and use of cash that most likely is not available; hence the financial debacle of the last decade. We have worked with business leaders to understand these fundamentals so that better decisions can be developed and risks can be mitigated.

I have been participating in a number of discussions regarding innovation. Often this concept is relegated to technology and products, yet I believe that it has a broader scope into the other functional areas of business including the overall business model. For some forms of businesses this is more difficult to envision due to regulatory requirements and policies that put the models in boxes. But for the small and medium businesses, this is the time to look at what makes sense in the existing environment and determine if new opportunities can be derived through innovative thinking and approaches to the business. We believe in critical thinking that includes cross-organizational participation to bring together the strategic plans that come from innovation.

Marketing and Sales is the lifeblood of any company. The ability to communicate the differentiating value of the products or services in a competitive environment is what marketing is all about. The difficult aspect of this for the small and medium business is to understand their competitive environment and set a budget that will produce results through increased sales. It seems that many organizations still do not have clarity regarding the differentiations between marketing, advertising and sales. This is an area that we have been able to assist companies in gaining insight and therefore increasing existing customer relations and building new channels to new customers.

The really tough spot for organizations over the last couple years has been access to capital and financing. We have learned even more this year what the capital markets for startups and mid-stage companies is requiring. The need to have very well researched and developed business plans is more crucial than any recent time in funding new companies. Of the several key areas that get the most focus, these two are really zeroed in on: an understanding of the competitive market and distribution channels. This goes back to what was mentioned in the last paragraph. Access to capital requires good efforts by the CEO who needs to get out and sell the value points of the company to the investors. With that there needs to be a good management team that develops the information that will build out the financial and business models. These documents will be needed in order to seek financing as well. This may be in the form of a revolving line of credit or other facility. Although the Federal Government touted that financing to small businesses would be available, the interesting aspect of this is that not much became available and the financial system did not make it easy to gain access to these dollars.

The promises of new loan availability to the small and medium business environment never materialized. We do not expect it to get any better in 2010. With this, we are looking at the more critical aspects of how to work with companies to really understand cash flow and cash flow management. Through much research and study, we believe that companies need to aggressively develop a debt free model with a strong cash flow model. This is counter to what the treasury and banking systems would have business do. We are working out the operational methodology of this innovative model and intend to work with organizations in 2010 that will strengthen their cash management strategy and facilitate managed growth.

2010 – Looking forward

We intend to continue to communicate practical and informative business management for the blog entries here. These will transit the various core activities of doing business and technologies that will best enhance opportunities for business management and market development. We continue to qualify and quantify the business model that strengthens cash flow and growth strategies. Our CEO, Tom Niewulis, will continue to discuss real life lessons learned in business, which personalizes that which almost every entrepreneur encounters. His straightforward and humorous approach brings insights that often come across in a purely academic way from others.

Our ultimate goal for 2010 is to continue to build great relationships with our clients and build new client relationships by bringing insight and resources to efficiently execute their strategy, to assist in the development of new strategies, to facilitate greater understanding of financial and business models and to assess technologies from an their end user perspective. We look forward to the opportunities for everyone to excel in 2010.

Cold Weather – Forecasting

2009-12-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

The US is experiencing one of its Decembers cold weather blasts. In the Pacific NW, we hit new low temp records. The Small and Medium Business environment is experiencing some of its coldest times as well. Not from an artic freeze but from the legislative lack of understanding regarding what business is and what it will take to really allow growth. What increases the complexity of a business to be able to forecast budgets, manpower requirements, new product development and growth in general is the inane activities of government and a bunch of academics called economist who have no sense of reality. The policy decisions being driven by the wrong view of economics and what drives an economy is perpetuating the cold weather that affects business forecasting.

What can any size business do in developing forecast and how is it segmented for growth in any environment or market segment? One simple and fast method is known as the PEST analysis. This stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technical. There are a plethora of examples of this on the Internet but I prefer the KISS principle in all things. With that I like the to use the relational matrix of PEST to SBSNeR which is Supplier, Buyer, Substitutes, New entrants and Rivalries. The idea is to pull your team together and put on your Beany* copter hat and do some brainstorming. As far as the matrix design, put your PEST on the top and your SBSNeR along the left side. Now begin asking the simple questions about each box in the matrix to get the process engaged. Expand your questions as the matrix is further explored.

Example questions could be:

1. What is happening with deregulation, protectionism and subsidies and how does that affect the industry the business entity is involved in?
2. What are the local, national and international economic shifts?
3. What are the social shifts related to industry, customers or suppliers?
4. What technologies are affecting the industry, how and why?

Use the results of this exercise to look at the business’s market, product set, personnel and financial model. Then consider the results that need to be addressed in each area to meet the objectives that are defined as growth areas for the business. Hopefully your primary growth target is increased cash flow.

An additional influence in forecasting is the question: what will happen with inflation? We are all concerned about what the political powers will do to manipulate this indicator. Professor Rothbard states, “Inflation, distorts that keystone of our economy: business calculation. Since prices do not all change uniformly and at the same speed, it becomes very difficult for business to separate the lasting from the transitional, and gauge truly the demands of the consumers or their cost of operations.” It is a challenge for business executives, especially in the small and medium business environment, to assess what this means in relationship to supplier price increases, cost of living adjustments for employees, demand by customers for price adjustments and maintaining a consistent Net Margin that will maintain positive cash flow. Determining the influence of inflation is about looking at the complete picture of the living entity, the business, and seeing into the future the best we can. Add this component to the PEST analysis then readjust all the variables to establish what are the goals set as growth factors for the particular business.

Forecasting is not the crystal ball activity many make it to be. It is a methodology that is affected by numerous variables and therefore, a lot of work. The lack of time and the value proposition of forecasting becomes the limiting aspect to accomplishing it in a small and medium size enterprise. Yet, paying attention to it addresses several valuable business metrics that affect market knowledge, product alignment to the market and the affects of policy on future execution. Properly done forecasting will heat up the incentive to execute to growth.

A Little Political Rant

It never ceases to amaze me that those that are in the trenches have a clear view of what it takes to restore jobs and allow individuals to develop real wealth. The issue is philosophical. What has happened over the last 50 years? Simply put; instead of those elected to office really listening to the constituency, these elected persons rely on academics who for the most part have no true scientific or moral basis to influence policy that then affects the lives of individuals and the lives of businesses which are also living entities. It is unknown to most of us that the Union for Radical Political Economics is 1,200 members strong that are academics that have direct influence on policy, especially in this present Congress and Administration.

This organization believes and argues for the abolition of corporate profits and the elimination of pricing on eighty percent of the goods in the American economy. We see this influence now in the attack on corporations and the interference by government in free-market exchange through Agency rules and regulations. This is done not only at the national level but at the State level as well. The assault on small and medium business is felt through the trickle down of egregious Federal, State and Local Agency rule making that set encumbering regulations and fees. The constant barrage of incongruous business legislation and regulation seriously impacts how small business executives can forecast when they are wondering what is the next shoe that will drop.

The critical issue is that small and medium business owners need to be involved in the legislative process at some level. Joining associations such as the Small Business & Entrepreneurial Council (www.sbecouncil.org) can inform business executives of national issues that will affect the elements of forecasting. Contacting your State Legislator or County Commissioners will give one insight into local issues being addressed that will affect the business entity.

With the fact that policy will affect business, every business needs to be involved in the political process. Know who your elected officials are and communicate with them. It is the responsibility of the business executive to do this for the sake of the living entity, the business.

*For the younger generation see Beany & Cecil cartoons by Bob Clampett

Exit Strategy Part 3 – Succession Planning

2009-12-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

Funny how a discussion regarding politics and election cycles got me thinking about Succession Planning. The question that got all this really going had to do with how we raise up true Statesmen in our present political climate. Where do we find those that can be critical thinkers that act on principle and not on the dictates of a political party? The same questions are relevant to business. Where do we find and develop our next CEO, Vice Presidents, Boards of Directors and Small Business Executive/Owners?

So, we find the business entity in a moment of transition that is significantly going to affect operations. A senior executive is leaving. It doesn’t necessarily matter why but in this case; it is one of the top three decision makers in the entity. An Exit Strategy is being executed whether it is personal or that of the organization. What happens now? Let’s take a real life example; the CEO of General Motors (GM) is gone. The example being that I have defined every key person in the SMB environment as an executive and if your number one in the organization you’re most likely the CEO or President. What’s happening if you are gone? Who’s there to step in? Who will succeed you?

Succession planning is big business for Human Resources and Organizational Consultants. It is often thought of as the thing that heavy hitter and large corporations do to make sure that the good old boys keep the wraps on things. Wow, what wrong thinking that is. As we see with the GM example, the Board of Directors made a decision to remove the CEO and now are in a hunt for a new one not to keep an old boys club going but to increase the value of the company to the stakeholders.

The idea of increasing value of the business entity in a sustainable manner into perpetuity is a first principle of a Succession Plan. The basic concept for all businesses no matter what the size is should be to understand how to keep the entity moving forward with the inevitability that the most senior leadership will exit at some point for any of the reasons that I discussed in Exit Strategy Part 1. When someone heads out the door, what happens is a long conversation but the question here is – who is ready to step in?

I look at Succession Planning as an investment in critical assets of the business entity. As you know, I view a business as a Living Entity so that means there must be stewardship of that which is part of the entity. With that thought in mind, developing the individuals to succeed is critical to the growth and development of the business. Ensuring that someone will be able to step into the next role in leadership and management is critical. That is why I think that this list is some of the top reasons for a Succession Plan as part of the business entity Exit Strategy.

It will prepare current employees to undertake key roles
It develops talent and long-term growth
It will improve workforce capabilities and performance
It most often improves employee commitment and therefore retention
It will meet the career development requirements of existing employees
It will most certainly counter the increasing difficulty of recruiting employees externally
If done right, it focuses on leadership continuity and improved knowledge sharing
It will provide for more effective monitoring and tracking of employee proficiency levels and skill gaps

I believe that in short, Succession Planning is simply training and better yet, mentoring. I know, too simple yet very difficult to implement especially if there are a lot of ego’s in the senior management hallways. Just a quick reminder, the sustainability of the business entity isn’t just about you; it is about the longevity of the business.

OK, ego’s aside. All the HR experts and academics will agree that without a plan several things could happen to the organization such as:

ß Loss of expertise and business knowledge
Loss of business continuity
Damaged client relationships
Time and effort to recruit and train replacement employees

What are the basic things that should be in the Succession Plan?

Identifying roles for succession
Developing a clear understanding of the capabilities required to undertake those roles
Identify top performers in all departments and make sure that they are engaged and satisfied to stay with you for a long period
Prepare and develop employees to be ready for advancement into each identified role
Understand the time needed to backfill the key roles
Continually review and check the process of succession and whether planned individual development has taken place

You are thinking; well, I’m just a two, maybe a three person shop at best. What do I need to think about this for? I would suggest that you reconsider what Murphy can do in any business and that if you’re that entity that was just mentioned, what happens to the other couple employees if you exit unplanned? Honestly, any lack of planning leads to potential failure of the business. Without proper succession planning, the future success of the business is left to chance once the leadership is gone. Under these possible circumstances, if the entity succeeds at all, it is by default rather than planned.

Proper business continuity for sustainability is dependent on succession planning that can help prevent a business from being frozen and discontinued. If the business entity is family owned, a plan also helps avoid conflict among family member and between heirs and surviving owner-executives. Remember, that no matter the size of the business entity; it endures the same pain when it has to go through management changes. It all scales according to the complexity of the organization as a Living Entity.

If the entity is a corporation with a Board of Directors, the discussion does become even more complex when it comes to CEO and Board Member succession planning. It is even coming to the point that legislation is in effect for publicly traded companies that require succession planning for CEO’s. Ah, another discussion.

New SBE Council Report on SMB Friendly States

2009-12-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

I have found that the Small Business and Entrepreneur Council is a great organization to be a part of. The are working hard for all of us in the SMB environment from a policy and information perspective.

They have just released a new report. Here is the first paragraph from the news release. Please follow the links for all the information.

"The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) today released its 14th annual rankings of the states according to their public policy climates for small business and entrepreneurship in the "Small Business Survival Index 2009: Ranking the Policy Environment for Entrepreneurship Across the Nation." Access the SBSI 2009 map of the states by clicking here."

For a full copy of the report follow this link Small Business Survival Index 2009 report

NCDCS is a source for the SMB environment to help understand the policy changes as they affect risk management, governance, board development and strategic planning.

Exit Strategy part 2

2009-11-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

I am revisiting this discussion because it has become so important in today's environment and because of the the illness of a friend of mine. This potentially life threatening illness was never a part of the business plan. So now what do they do? I am reminded again through this personal challenge that most small and medium businesses don’t think about what it means to exit since the idea is to build a business. Every entrepreneur is busy spinning hats to move their idea forward with passion that the thought of exiting is so remote you might as well be in another universe. Yet, there are distinct areas that I find every business needs to consider as part of an Exit Strategy.

My life lessons in business have taught me to identify and prepare for these areas as best as practical. Since I consider every business owner an executive no matter what the size of the entity in revenues or personnel, the first area to consider is the Executive Exit.

Every Executive should be interested in leaving the business at some point. Several planned Exit targets are:

1. The attainment of some age, income level, savings acquired or other parameters that meet thought out wealth requirements.

2. The growth level or health of the business entity - sustainability.

3. The transition of the business entity to another. That being someone mentored in a succession plan, a sale or merger.

4. If the cash runs out, what is the plan? This is for self-preservation.

Unplanned Exits need to be re-emphasized and they could be:

1. Death of the executive, spouse or other key personnel.

2. Divorce of the executive or other key personnel.

3. Disaster, which could be: accidents, natural disasters, financial, market turndowns or key customer(s) exiting.

All said and done, without an exit strategy, the executive does not know how to finish the business activities which makes doing business like getting into a race with no end in sight. The potential is that somewhere along the line there needs to be an exit. The business started with and for a purpose. The Exit should be planned for, as well as having contingencies for the unplanned or unexpected.

Babies and Economics

2009-11-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

I’ve been off line the last week since our daughter presented us with our first grandson this past Friday. We were hoping that he would hold out until my wife’s birthday on November 4 but he was more then ready to come into the world. Based on baby behavior and his size, we are guessing he is two weeks late. Wow! That gets one thinking about delivering to the customer on time. Well, we are delighted with welcoming our grandson even in these seemingly troubled times.

During my flight to Dallas from the pacific NW I began to reread Ronald Coase essay “The Problem with Social Cost” and John Locke’s letter on Toleration. What do these have to do with a new grandson? I believe that the simple essence to the answers of our present political and economic dilemma can be fundamentally found in these two works for starters.

I’ll start with Locke’s argument that a society cannot properly function without core religious foundations. He argued that these foundations are rooted in personal understanding and Biblical relationship with The Living God. Not only that, Locke argued that atheists should not be tolerated because 'Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist'. What this means in the context of my grandson is that there is a responsibility of his parents and me to ensure that he has a moral foundation based on Biblical principals. This is so that he clearly understands that the meaning of promises, covenants and oaths have deep rooted meanings and are more than just words that a bunch of lawyers can manipulate in legal jargon. There are responsibilities that have personal, societal and eternal ramifications.

This brings me to what Coase talks about in ‘The Problem with Social Cost’. For the most part this has nothing to do with babies but it does have everything to do with pricing models and government subsidies. Yet, in the long run, without babies we would never be able to look at the future of economic opportunities. With that confusion running through your synaptic nerve endings, let’s consider that all businesses begin with babies. The theory of supply and demand is most relevant in this context. Let’s face it, baby demands and mom supplies. Now the interesting aspect of this is that baby, especially a newborn is always in demand for any number of potential commodities: mom’s milk or appropriate substitute, cleanup after messing diaper, sleep, warmth, attention, care and love.

Supplying these needs for baby has driven many industries that culminate in mom being ale to supply the demand. If one were to specify a single segment of this generalized baby industry as economic theories do, breast-feeding would be a major study. How so you ask? Think about the volume of production to the time cycle of demand. This element alone speaks to the essence of core business management. Simply – baby has to eat; usually at some set time frame (if the parents are smart and set a schedule and not let baby dictate the cycle); mom has to produce the milk and ensure that the delivery mechanisms are balanced and in good working order. Some folks don’t understand that you have to balance out the time on each breast to sufficiently ensure milk production. If for some reason, the mom cannot produce sufficient milk for the baby the consequences could be devastating or an alternate source for this product must be located and acquired.
There in lay the opportunity for a new venture that meets a demand. New entrepreneurial opportunities arise from needs or wants. Of course, if one looks at modern economic theory and its ill-fated implementations we recognize as Coase did that the true human element is removed. Humans have been minimized when viewed in economics, law and business. Theorist have become ideologues and in doing so attempt to formalize sociological answers as if people were cocooned in The Matrix. This thought takes me back to reading Locke and the fact that we have to look at business and economics from the Human point of view with morality and virtue derived from an absolute source, in my world-view, the Biblical Living God. It is interesting what fundamentals of sociological, economic, business, monetary, government and other life factors are presented in this world-view.

What having a grandson presented into my life transcends beyond the raising of my own children is that to understand business and the world around us, we need to get back to the fundamentals of life. We are human; our western culture is formulated in the values and ethics of a Judeo-Christian world-view. Businesses are Living Entities as I write about in my book and seminars and must be nurtured no different than a baby from conception to its opportunity to establish its legacy in society.

Exiting Before You Begin! What’s With That?

2009-10-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges in the publicly traded corporate world continues to be succession planning at the executive and board level. Boards and shareholders are looking for leadership that are not only creative and responsive to markets but who can be people of integrity in fiduciary responsibilities. This challenge seems to be more complex in the private company environment.

About 90% of our economy revolves around the small and medium business environment. Most of these companies with more than ten employees are often family owned or have a tight knit management team. Often unlike the corporate entities that negotiate executive packages with exit plans, these businesses do not have business or personal exit strategies. That is unless the exception for a business is exit strategy that will be required to formulate if investors are participating.

What’s the difference in exit strategies? Most often, when the discussion is engaged about an exit strategy it is related to investors and what the investors want in return for taking the risk in a company. The math for this type of strategy is not all that extensive but it varies depending on when an investor comes into the company. This type of exit strategy is most often established in business plans. Other and often more critical exit strategies are the small and medium business (SMB) executives’ personal strategy and the board member strategy that often takes a back seat.

The focus for the moment is the SMB executive exit strategy. The founders of businesses in this environment usually get going with their hair on fire and learn that the space fantasies talking about warp drive is not all that far fetched. The fact that life happens along side of various business activities seems in the nebula. So when one some thing happens, not only are hats spinning but so are heads with the dumb founded look of, what happened. I look at four areas that need to be prepared for in personal exit strategies: Disability, Death, Divorce and Departure.

• Disability, I know the effects of disability first hand. I had a major accident that devastated one of my first businesses. The fact was that I did not have succession plan in place and did not train employees sufficiently to carry on with critical aspects of the business. Because of that, the entity collapsed. One never knows when a debilitating accident will happen. What I learned in the military about training your replacement, I did not carry into my business life. But I learned the hard way and have ensured ever since that if I as the chief executive and bottle washer go away, the business can sustain itself because others can carry on.

• Death is inevitable and no one knows when it will appear. With that, the idea of looking into your organization and training key people is critical to the legacy of a business. If there is no one that you think can sustain the business, then have some plan laid out for outside counsel or your Advisory Board to do a search for a replacement.

• Divorce is another devastating life experience. I don’t know about this one first hand but know enough folks in business to understand that this event can cause a business to come apart. There is not a rational way to prepare for this potential except to take care of your spouse first. Business will get done but an unhappy home life affects many things including the company. If this event does occur, then having had the knowledge to train up others will help obviate the instability caused by a divorce.

• Departure is something that we all would like to occur in a most positive manner. In this positive light, succession planning is critical. What are the benchmarks that need to be established for the SMB executive to transition? These often are personal financial targets achieved, age, family goals or any of a hundred targets one could set. This takes a working process just like any exit strategy. With this positive side comes the dark side. If the business entity is a Partnership then there may be issues between partners that cause one or more to depart. These may be for the bright side of an exit strategy but it could be for other reasons. Hopefully the partnership formation contracts accounted for the exit of each partner. The same is true for an LLC in that the formation documents should clearly articulate an exit plan for the active members and specifically those in management.

I find that in working with any size business, the concept of developing an exit strategy of any flavor is not often thought about and planned for. This is especially true at the early stages of forming a business entity. I always, get the quizzical look when I talk to business startup executives about having an exit before they start.

What is your exit strategy? Do you have one that is business plan focused to the investment community or have you looked at the executives in the company to define what their exit could be? Either will have major effect on the business and its sustainable legacy.

Today’s Technology – Tomorrow’s Work Environment

2009-10-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

The 20th century had the exponential growth in technology. Not just in one particular technology sector but also across many that are considered core to the building of an industrial information society. The silicon explosion in the 1960’s has been the impetus for the greatest knowledge exchange ever seen in the history of mankind. I can remember during those early years how the Bell Company wanted to introduce the future with the video telephone but television hadn’t even gone to color and Judy Jetsons would try as hard as she may to not get caught on the TV phone with no makeup.

It seems like a 5,000-year leap in just four decades of technology enhancements when we learn of another mega buyout by Cisco, formally a technology innovator. The target was Tanberg, the Norwegian based and global video conferencing leader. In my opinion, Cisco has done fabulous over the years acquiring its competition to move the information society into network ubiquity. This does not mean that it makes their products any better but it does increase the oomph of their marketing machine. OK, I have to catch myself regarding my attitude about this successful mega marketing machine.

The real and simple point is that many more businesses are having a distributed workforce. In doing so, they are looking to the economics of what telepresence might bring to growth as well as cost savings. I looked at the ROI of Telepresence in the SMB environment in my August Ezine article. The essence of what a business does regarding any strategic move should take into consideration how it will affect the whole organization. Making technology decisions always affects the cost of business and not necessarily in the manner expected. What about the cost in developing a culture that incorporates a technology? This requires the understanding of all that the business work environment is and what strategy the implementation will take. Often the people cost is not considered in the technology cost.

Several questions to consider in gaining an understanding of how telepresence will be assimilated by the whole Living Entity, the business, should be:
• Will management use the technology to better communicate within the company?
• Will more collaboration be gained across the whole work environment?
• Will outside influencers such as customers be able to easily become accustomed to the new technology introduction?
• Will the technology move to the desktop or is it still going to be used at the conference room level?

The good news is that since 1963 when the Jetsons were getting caught in embarrassing moments on the TV phone at home or in the office, real work is being accomplished today in HD down to the desktop. The new collaborative work environment that is developing through the technology of telepresence will see more cost effective opportunities for branch offices and distributed telecommuters. Keeping the business culture intact while developing a new working environment is the 21st century challenge.

Changing Business Times

2009-10-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

The changing times of the U. S. economy are driving more individuals to look at alternative ways to build income. For years, there has been the transition in the American workforce from the single employer for life employment to thinking about multiple streams of income. This transient employee milieu began emerging as the society began to move away from heavy industry to more financial services, intellectual industry and the explosion of technology.

We saw in the 1990’s that as quickly as a new technology company was started there were sometimes mass exodus of key employees from one company to the new. The incentives to do this overcame any sense of loyalty to the initial company. We know that the younger end of the baby boomers to the present will change careers on the order of 10 to 15 different jobs by the time they are 50 years old.

With this being the case and the present economic cycle, it is only reasonable that we are seeing the increase in entrepreneurship. The Small Business Administration Presidential Reports have commented consistently that about 30 million individuals a year go into business for themselves. What that means is that there a lot of folks that are looking for honest and well-compiled information about how to do business correctly. What is happening is that the information super highway has terabytes of data around the “how to” of this or that. Yet, the consolidation of that information is not presented from a real life human perspective.

What we will continue to do at NCDCS is work hard to give a credible Life Lessons Learned approach to business. What is a business as a Living Entity and how are those participating in the Living Entity, building a sustainable legacy. We are here to be committed to you, our readers and clients. We have returned from a long-term engagement and family medical issues. We are more ready than ever to be the Strategically Whole-istic Organization that you have known us to be.

Many thanks and Blessing to all those who have been our trustworthy colleagues and friends through this last year and into the future.

Bottom Up is Smarter

2008-06-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

So you think you’re a corporation? The questions are many and I will deal with different segments of this in the next few postings. Here are several of the basic underlying questions for today:
1. Other than filing the paperwork with the respective state and the feds, what defines you as a corporation?
2. Are you going to look for investors?
3. How are going to include friends and family into your investor strategy?
4. The nut of it all is: How have you structured your equity positions?

What really defines you as a corporation? Are you using the entity because some attorney or account told you that there were tax advantages and that your assets would be protected? Those are reasons that are valid for incorporating but what now is your responsibility with that entity? You need to understand that you are not the corporation. As I discuss in my podcast and mini-series, a corporation is its own entity. To many folks think that they are that entity and this causes all sorts of issues as the corporation matures.

It is important that the corporate organizational structure is in place. This does not matter what your size is. The hope and desire is that the company will grow. Also, you should have a Board of Directors that can contribute to the development of the company. To often the BOD of small corporations is made up of persons that cannot help direct the corporate entity in a good business manner. Take the time to evaluate what make that entity, the corporation what it should be.

Are you looking for investors? This may start out as the three-Fs (Friends, Family and fools) but a corporation with great opportunity and leadership will want to grow and increase capitalization. This requires investors. Design the entity from the bottom up so that you will not have to rework everything when you are ready to go out with a PPM (Private Placement Memorandum) or seek Angles and Venture Capital.

The 3-Fs – how they are included in the investor strategy is critical, especially if you are a Subchapter ‘S’ corp. Have you thought all of this through? There are important issues that need to be faced so that these folks understand what will happen to their value as you add round of capital to feed the growth.

Have you structured your equity positions correctly? Usually this is the place many errors are made. How did you file with the state regarding your shares of the corporation? Did you reserve enough for all the present investors? Did you issue everything? Do you know how to structure your equity position and set the value of your Intellectual Property? I have seen many horror stories created by not doing this correct from the start.

I’m asking all these questions to get your thoughts processing. I have recently worked with a couple startup corporations that struggled with most all of these issues. Let me tell you, it isn’t pretty to resolve. But it needs to be. The fact is that most new corporations don’t take the time to structure properly. Doing it is a lot of upfront work but it is worth it in the long run.

Be smart, start bottom up not top down. Set the foundation and all will work much better.

BI – Business Intelligence for Small Businesses or Business Continuity First?

2008-04-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

The term business intelligence (BI) refers to technologies, applications and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of business information and also sometimes to the information itself. The purpose of business intelligence is to support better business decision making. It dates to 1958.[1] D. J. Power explains in "A Brief History of Decision Support Systems,"1

This is a real mouthful for the small businesses that are non-employee based or fall into the category of less than 100 employee’s. As we note in our other comments and book, most small businesses are 1 to 10 person companies. The question becomes:

What is BI for the small business?

Simply put the rhetorical question to you is:

How important is you your information and can your company continue if something happens to you?

For the small business environment, I look at this as more of business continuity question. It is great to have all the data available for making decisions but what good is a lot of data (information) if it becomes overwhelming or that is all someone gets consumed with. What is important to the small and even medium businesses is simple and good information that keeps a positive revenue stream and how to get to that positive cash flow. We'll talk more specifically about using technologies and the resulting information at another time.

You, as the owner of a non-employee or low employee count company should look at what makes sense in maintaining your information technologies continuity as well as your organizational continuity in the event of a disaster. Many small businesses have unforeseen events occur that affect their location of business, often their homes, or their personnel, including themselves. I know, I talk about some of these personal experiences in the book. The important concerns for the business is to keep it operational in the event of a bump in the road of life. Continuity is Key! I just want to throw out some real basics to consider.

Data and information related
The question is: How important is your data? Too many small businesses never, never take the time to backup their data.

Quick things to do -

USB memory stick technologies are cheap. This is cost effective removable backup storage.

Removable or portable hard drives are cheap. Even the basic backup software in the Microsoft or Apple operating systems will work better than nothing.

If you can, take your memory stick off site and keep it somewhere else. Just in case of fire, theft or other disasters.

If you are still paper driven and not much about computers, take your files that are older than a year and put them in a storage unit out of your office. Heck, that does two things: keeps them safer and cleans up the office.

Or, make copies and store them someplace.

Personnel related
If you are a non-employee business, the continuity of keeping your business operating in the wake of personal injury or disaster is totally dependent on your level of organization. If you have employee’s than ensure that you have trained one to two people with the capability of keeping things running if you are not around. Heck, you may not experience a disaster and just want to go on vacation!

Quick things to do -

Have a road map to your processes and procedures.

Have a list of where your important documents are. Keep this in an obvious place in your desk and have it labeled.

Communicate to your spouse or a trusted person where the keys, road map and list are.

Did I mention Communicate!! Somebody needs to know what is going on with your business so that there is not more insanity in the midst of tragedy.

I have lived through unforeseen events that took me out of the picture and seriously impacted one of my first businesses. Not for the lack of education. Heck I was an MBA candidate. No, it was because I did not pay attention to the application of business techniques for continuity and disaster recovery. I discuss the details of these points and other Life Lessons Learned for SMB's in the book that will be released at the end of this summer.

The real point here is to keep the business operating and ensuring that all the bill get paid, the customers are retained and that the business stays healthy.
Continuity is Key!

1 Power, D.J. A Brief History of Decision Support Systems. DSSResources.COM, World Wide Web, http://DSSResources.COM/history/dsshistory.html, version 2.8, May 31, 2003.

How secure is the Vail

2008-04-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

As I was working on a couple more chapters in the book Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB environment, the facts came to light regarding liabilities and corporate entities. You're probably asking where I'm going with this since the purpose of forming a corporate entity is to protect the members or officers from the business liabilities. Most often 'true' is my answer.

Many small businesses choose the legal entity of either an LLC or a Subchapter 'S' Corp for this idea of liability protection. Here is a concept that I want you to think about.

You are a new business that is more or less bootstrapping. You choose one of the mentioned legal entities. So far so good. Now you take your business plan to the bank or some lending facility. They do the credit check and see that the legal entity, the business, A separate Living Entity, has no credit history of its own. What does the lending facility want from whom?

Ahhh, yes! They want the officers to sign-z-papers with a personal guarantee. By signing the papers, who is libel? Correct, you the officers who signed the papers.

Today's Life Lesson Learned
Be very cautious what you sign and what the conditions of the contracts are. Do the best you can do to build basic credit for the legal entity and have all the loans or lines of credit developed in the corporation without your personal guarantee.

Hey! Where've You Been

2008-04-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

Wow! Times seems to move fast especially when wanting to keep up with all the great happenings on the Net and life in general. So what does all that have to do with NCDCS and the seemingly Missing-in-Action for this Blog? The fact is we've been getting our Facts in order and verified. What do I mean by that? Well here's a review of some of the Facts regarding why we are doing what we're doing:

Small business is the driving force of the economy in the US. The statistics are there and with 26 million small businesses active in the economy and 7% of the adult population attempting to start a small business every year.... Well there is a lot to cover. More on the statistics in the future...

Most sites on the Net and books written read like text books. So when we talk to folks about the hard knocks and real lessons of life in business from cradle to grave; our perspective and discussion resonates. Heck, we're going to revamp stuff on our site as well to get it to have meaning and interest to small businesses. We've had to many comments that we look like we talk to the large corporate level of folks when our heart and intent is to make sense of business concepts with a "Napkin" approach. KISSIOMD. Oh, the acronym comes from my daughter - Keep It Simple Stupid, OH! I Mean Dad.

Most of the business journals and local government entities don't really have a clue regarding the needs and functionality of small or even medium size businesses (the SMB environment).

Most economic development councils are tuned into the 10% of the large businesses and don't know how to stimulate economic growth in the SMB environment.

There are a lot of misnomers out there regarding the ins & outs of LLCs. Especially when it comes to the realm of funding and financing the entity.

There is little thought given to the fact that a business has a personality and that the SMB environment misses this perspective altogether. That's what the book that Tom is finishing will really dig into.

So, we've been busy validating what we suspected to be true. We have a lot more that we've learned, validate and are putting into the book by Tom and seminars will really get into the nitty-gritty in a fun common sense way. Dang It - business should be fun!!

Mostly, in all candor, we've been really drinking our own medicine. Thankfully we know who turns the distasteful palatable so that we can excel and succeed.

With that, we won't leave you hanging again for such a long time. We'll be getting more moving.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Standards and Procedures

2008-03-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

It is extremely important to have standards and procedures in place in your office or business and that every person is informed on what they are. I really suggest a reference book as a place where anyone can go as a resource whenever they need to. I have worked in an office where you didn’t know what the standards were and you had to learn them the hard way. Often times in a small business no one thinks to tell you about a task and the way they want it performed until you do it and because you are not informed, you can make a mistake unknowingly. The owner and co-workers get upset, but you were clueless of the procedure until the job task needed to be done. Also, if you only do a particular job task once in awhile, you need a place to look to refresh your memory on what it takes to do that particular task.

Often there might be more than one person giving instructions, but giving them differently so that a new person gets confused on the correct way to get the job done. Each person in a office can tend to have a different way of doing things as well as what they think works better.

Also, it seems that when there are no standards in place, targets move from time to time without notice which causes unnecessary confusion. The individual shoots their arrow towards the target only to find that the target has moved which causes them to miss it completely.

When certain individuals have worked in a particular business for several years, they can basically do everything in their sleep, but forget to include all of those details when explaining the way the task at hand needs to be accomplished. If there were standards and procedures in place, they would be updated if job requirements changed thus saving all the confusion and increasing efficiency that is positive to the bottom line. A weekly or monthly staff meeting is a great way to get new information or updated procedures circulated to everyone easily.

I was really spoiled when I previously worked in the telecommunications industry and there were standards & procedures in place for anything you needed to know about any job and any task within that job classification. There was no room for doubt on the exact way to do the job correctly. There were training classes in place when you started a new job so that you knew what was expected when you started the actual job. Certain positions even had someone who would check your work to make sure you were on the right path & let you know of any mistakes you might have made. You didn’t have to play a guessing game!

Once again, it is that old adage ‘work smarter, not harder’.

Office Organization 101

2008-02-29T19:16:00.000-08:00

When you set up your office for your new business, I have found that good organization is of utmost importance. You want to be able to put your hands on specific documents easily when you need them, so a good filing system is important. Over the years, I have visited business owners in their respective offices to find that things were definitely askew and not organized at all. They had some papers on their desk in different receptacles, some on the floor by their desk or under it rolled up, some in different drawers & even some in their pockets or purses. Sometimes, they had to rack their brains as to where the needed paperwork was, and sometimes they might remember where to find it if they were lucky. I have always believed that it is important to save yourself time by having things organized and at your fingertips at a moments notice. The cool thing is you can save enough time to be able to take a much needed coffee break!

It is important to have a filing system set up for hard copy paperwork so that as you receive documentation you can keep everything together by subject matter. I always work to get this set up right away so that I keep a handle on where to find what I need as quickly as possible to save unnecessary frustration and wasting of important working time. There is nothing worse than wasting time trying to remember what pile of papers on your desk or elsewhere might contain the paperwork you need. The added benefit is that other personnel can find the needed paperwork easily based on your filing system being in place.

I also set up a system for my incoming e-mails that contain important information that I want to save. I set up individual folders by subject under the company name so that I can retrieve it easily when needed. I usually don’t print out the e-mail attachments unless I want to have a hard copy which I would file in my paper copy filing system.

In my e-mail account, I also like to keep my contact list updated. I always make sure that the people on my list have updated addresses & phone numbers so that I always know how to get in touch with them when necessary.

By establishing good filing methods when you first start your business & set up your office, the old adage is that you work smarter not harder, so organization is the name of the game!

Planning for Adversity In the Small Business

2008-02-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

The whole idea of Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB Environment is to share some of the Realities that helped me mature in business over the last twenty-plus years. I’d like to slip back to the HR discussion from the other day and give you the real life example of why the idea of Planning for Health Care and Retirement is a critical component of any startup or SMB.

I was reminded last night about the years when I had a landscaping business. I met a gent last night at a meeting of a forty and under group that is politically active and will have a wonderful impact in the future of our world. Brandon is a really great individual and he owns a landscaping company. Our discussion took me back to the time when that was one of the companies that I started back in the day and how successful that endeavor was and how quickly triumph can be impacted by tragedy that leads to adversity in business.

The details of this life example will be in the forth-coming book but the immediate lesson here is planning for and overcoming adversity. A quick sketch, our landscaping company grew from some part-time help and me to twenty employees. In two and a half years we expanded services and had a gross income in the six figures and had margins of about 57% on average. We computerized our accounting system, which in the 80’s was uncommon and we did other cool things. But, like many small businesses, especially in the service industry, we did not carry inventory and in sad retrospect, we did not carry a sufficient cash reserve so that when we were the successful winners of bids for irrigation systems or large landscape projects we ran an accounts payable balance to the vendors. Sounds pretty normal and are a model that most small companies operate under.

In addition, we did not provide a group health insurance plan nor was I individually covered under any plan other than my wife and her employer’s plan. OK, so I had me taken care of and in the chance of any on the job injuries for my employees I believed that L & I would take care of them. Not only that, I did not have any type of retirement program working for my employees or myself. You say, “OK Tom that is normal also.”

Well, the inevitable struck; I had an accident with a chain saw away from work and on personal time that took me out of commission for six months. So what happened to the business? The sad part is that you really never know your employees until something happens. First off, I did not fully train any of my foremen sufficiently to go out and bid jobs. Part of that is because none of them showed interest. So, no major construction type work was brought in. I had to lay off people. Or, I should say my wife did. SMB owner, especially sole proprietors, single member LLC’s and some partnerships, remember that if you are married your spouse will have pick up the business if your not there to carry the ball. So all the issues of running the business, personnel (HR) stuff, financial stuff and more have to go to someone.

In addition, all those vendors that you have been running accounts payable with are now screaming to get paid and the government is more demanding and wants, absolutely wants their money now with no mercy and irregardless of your situation. And then, there are all those employees that have to be dealt with and your issues become theirs. Oh, and some will become so embittered that the ol’ adage of ‘kicking the horse while it is down’ may play out in them that they sabotaging the remainder of the work you have in the schedule. Be prepared to loose it all when unforeseen things enter your life.

Wow, is this just a sob story? No, this is just one example of what can happen when you developed so fast that you did not include an exit strategy, retirement and health care in your business plan and you do not have your employee base trained to the level of stepping in for you or even replacing you at some point. The upside of all of this is that we survived all the inane complications of injury, and business loss. The experience added to my carpetbag of knowledge and prepared me better for the next venture. The point to you my friends is that I know you are wearing many hats and going at warp 500. Get someone to assist you in reviewing your plan and preparing an exit strategy as well as addressing those HR points we discussed before so that any 'murphyism' will less likely affect the legacy of your business.

My final note here is that I have been Blessed with a wonderful wife who has stuck with me in all the ups and downs in this journey called life. And more so, I have experienced the grace and mercy of God and know that He has greater plans than what I can imagine. Heck, from my perspective, God is the ultimate project manager and if you really consider it, He knows commerce better than anyone. But that’s another discussion.

When Passion Clouds the Eyes and Reason

2008-02-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

In the mini-series Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB Environment (RLLL), I open the discussion about why we are doing RLLL with a statistic that about 7% of the adult population in the US will attempt to start a business every year. That is 7% of 217.8 million people over the age of 18. Hmm, the simple math says that is: 15,246,000 adults that engage in starting a small business every year! Wow!

That means that we have that population base that is passionate about something that they believe will become that business opportunity. All the various factors and rational can be read in Why Do ‘Real Life Lessons Learned’ but the reality is that in a startup environment most often passion clouds the eyes and any reason. You say, “Tom that is a pretty harsh thing to say!” Well I’m not going to apologize but will explain a little more.

I had two awesome meetings today this morning. One with a new birthing business group from the church that I’m attending and the other with a well respected Venture Capital (VC) friend and colleague of mine. I really appreciate my VC friend in that we go back a number of years and have seen the successes and downfalls of small companies and corporations. What he and I kicked around today is the key point that many who begin a business are so passionate about their ‘thing’, be it an idea, invention, developed product or service, that they do not understand the key fundamentals of business.

My VC friend sees this all the time as he reviews opportunities that come to him. Several of the key fundamentals that we discussed today are: First, a poorly done business plan and financial model or worse, a napkin plan which in essence is no plan at all. Second, not understanding all the cost. What is COGs? And third, happens to be two-fold; what is the long-term strategy and what is a management team? Without having people that know how to execute the plan, nothing happens.

The conclusion for now is that passion is important but it must be directed. As we have discussed in other writings, without a plan or lack of knowledge, the passion is quenched and the opportunity perishes. I have know a number of entrepreneurs and founders of companies that get stuck in what the VC world calls “The Founder Syndrome” where their passion clouds their seeking of good counsel and their sense of reason regarding informed decision making.

My conversation with my VC friend concluded with the reverberating sounds of: Have a really good plan, Have a really good financial model, Understand your cost of doing business and Learn to lead/manage or find someone that can do that. There are many elements to success and there are always key fundamental to have an understanding of.

Local Economic Development

2008-02-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

Today we are going to take the stroll down the river of local economic development for small business in the State of Washington and Clark County in particular. Clark County is located in southwest Washington State across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. Many in the country are not aware of the fine location that this is for climate and opportunity. For those that believe that it always rains in Washington State that is OK if you want to keep that in your perception. Otherwise, the area is premier and pristine with less rainfall than the likes of Houston.

So what does that have to do with small business? The key elements to location for business are what resources are available to allow the business to prosper. Clark County is in the process of re-evaluating its capability to support small businesses especially in the more rural areas. There are key areas of infrastructure that should be of interest to someone that is looking to open a business in the County.

There is access to shipping via the Port of Vancouver to the Pacific Rim trading partners, there is heavy rail at the Port to support national transportation and especially for the Washington State markets, the I-5 corridor has very good access. The several cities in the county are working toward developing more business friendly environments. There is a real opportunity for some communications entrepreneurs to develop rural high-speed data systems since those in the rural locations cannot get the connectivity they need from the local communications or cable companies. Trust me, satellite is not the answer because I had it at one time and it does not fit the requirement at the price points.

From my most recent meeting with a County Commissioner, I learned that there are over 1,000 new business applications in the rural county areas. That is significant for a place with a population base of just over 400,000. The fact that there is so much interest gives one the perspective that a quality of life demand drives one to locate a business in a rural setting. Yet, there are a number of issues that statistics prove to often to be true. One key statistic being that more than 50% of those filing to start a small business will not succeed over a five-year period. Most often the statistics show it is because the startup does not have a business plan.

What I have learned over the many years and companies that I have started or been a part of is that having a plan that is dynamic and financially functional is a critical tool. Hey, my first company had no plan. I did OK but my oh my I did not understand all the nuances needed to really be a market leader nor did I have a sound financial model that I could use to attract investors or other financial institutional support to the level that I needed to grow. So I learned the hard way.

The good thing is that in Clark County there are a solid number of resources to assist new businesses and existing small businesses. NCDCS, Inc is one of those resources. If you are contemplating starting a business in Clark County Washington, or anywhere in the US, contact us and let’s see if we can assist you in developing your ideas with a dynamic strategy and plan that allows you to be one on the winning side of the statistics.

Why do "Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB Environment

2008-02-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

Over the years I have seen many people looking at the great idea of starting their own business. I have had the opportunity to either coach them as to how to begin the endeavor or work with those who are already in business and desire to enhance, improve or grow their businesses. Over the last two years folks have kept nudging me with “Tom, you need to write down what you know about business and provide the information to the masses out there.” I always retorted that there are plenty of business books, web sites and guides available. The response back to that was, “Maybe that is the case but no one puts it together like you do and you have a unique way of presenting the information.” So, one of the many reasons to develop Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB environment is because I have been strongly asked to do it and I believe that you are entitled to get the best information that I can provide so that you can be a success. The statistics that I’ll mention later indicate that every year 7% of the adult population in the United States is engaged in an attempt to start a small business. Also, there are 26.8 million of you already engaged in small business activities.

Everything I know, lived and researched shows that SMB’s need good information and a trusted resource to start and enhance what they are doing. With that, searching the information on your own can consume inordinate amounts of time when all you want to do is move positively and progressively forward. You want to do this in a cost effective manner and want to have the reassurance that the person or entity you are dealing with is ethical, honest, sincere and willing to saddle up next to you for the long haul. To often the resources that are out there on the Internet are convoluted and only want your credit card dollars with no personal interaction. Then there are some of the consultants who want to come in and do a quick fix type of thing and that often can leave more unresolved issues. What you more often need is someone that will work with you on the long-term strategy. Also, many so called consulting groups or companies don’t have a heart for the SMB environment. At best, they are looking at you as project with quick revenue hit. Granted there are many good consultants out there that will benefit your endeavor. Our philosophy at NCDCS is that the SMB is critical to the local, state and national economy and more importantly, you are hard working individuals that want the best for your families and employees. The desire of NCDCS, Inc is to be that trusted partner that takes the long-term relationship approach, which is meaningful and cost effective for you. That is why we have developed the Rent-A-COO and Rent-A-CFO programs. At this time, I’m not here to promote our services in this discussion. I will encourage you to go to our web site and then give us a call or send an email.

The simple facts are that each person has varied motives for wanting to start or maintain a small business. Some of these are:

I have a great idea for a new widget and can make this work.

I can do what I’m doing better than the folks I’m working for now.

I enjoy my hobby and wouldn’t it be fun to do this full time as a business.

I want to get rich and having my own business will get me there.

I’m sick of working for someone else.

I want more time to do what I want

For those in business: I know my own business and what it will do that for me.

Again for those in business: I can’t afford to review what I’m doing, I’ll get by and it’ll get better.

And there is a plethora of other reasons that someone comes up with or that somebody else convinces you; are the good reasons for going into business. Ok, so how do you get there? What does it take to start? And once you are into it, what does it take to keep it going? I am not going to answer all these questions in this introduction. But these questions and hundreds more are why I’m doing Real Life Lessons Learned for SMBs.

Continue Reading the Introduction to "Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB Environment" by downloading the pdf or listen to the podcast at www.ncdcs.com/rlll.htm

/Why%20are%20we%20doing%20RLLL.pdf

HR - How Does it Matter?

2008-02-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

When we consider that Human Resources includes all members of an organizational entity no matter what size it may be, than HR does matter to the SMB environment. In the most recently released and posted ( http://www.ncdcs.com/rlll.htm ) segment of the mini-series Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB Environment, we discuss the areas of basic concern to the sole proprietor and the single member LLC.

The fundamentals are often missed in small business usually due to the owner spinning the many hats that are worn. If you're the do-it-yourself or one person small business then you need to look into the discussion just to take a quick refresher regarding Benefits. Specifically your retirement and health insurance. We have several quick ideas that you can take a look at.

Now when it comes to adding people to grow the business then it is critical to look at more of the basics that will make clear what you expect from your employees and eventually save you heated-red-eared frustration in the future.

HR is an important aspect of business and often ignored for a lot of reasons. But without this valued resource of people, then we sure wouldn't get much accomplished. As small business people, we owe it to ourselves and those that endeavor with us to ensure that we are building the best business environment for all to succeed and leave a legacy of integrity.

New Podcast for Small Business Environment

2008-02-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

We have completed publishing our podcast for the small & medium business environments.

Our first topics in the mini- series "Real Life Lessons Learned for the SMB Environment" focus on why we are doing Real Life Lessons Learned, Organization - A Living Entity and Communication - Are You? The latter two have pdf's that can be downloaded off the NCDCS web site (http://www.ncdcs.com/NCDCSPodcasts.xml) or http://www.ncdcs.com/rlll.htm or at ClickCaster or Podcast Alley.

Our intend in presenting the podcast and other resource materials is to assist those desiring to start a business and to bring over 100 years of combined business expertise to the SMB environment as every organization can benefit from what a trusted partner can assist with.

We look forward to continued development of our mini-series, podcasts and other resources for your benefit.

Our Rent-A-COO service allows you to gain the expertise of a COO or CFO without having to hire one full time. Our concept for how this works is available to review on the web site and by having a conversation.

Looking forward to great discussions and providing you with trusted Real Life Lessons Learned in business development and management.