Category Archives: Advisory

When you climb behind the wheel of your car, you’ll see a row of gauges on the dashboard with needles that give advance warnings of potential problems with oil pressure, engine temperature and other measurements. Such gauges enable drivers to spot signs of potential danger at a glance and take corrective action. Like car owners,

Over the last couple of months, we have been working with some of our clients to increase their profit and the value of their businesses.   While the questions are simple, the mechanics to implement are not as simple. The three questions to increase the value of your business by 30% or more are: What can

Businesses fail for complicated reasons — from dysfunctional management to insufficient capital; too-rapid growth to an inability to respond to changing markets. Why businesses succeed, on the other hand, is often easily explained. Regardless of size and sector, most healthy companies share three characteristics: 1) strong revenues, 2) low production costs and 3) low operating

On December 16, 2014, Congress passed the “Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014”, which retroactively extends several tax breaks that had expired at the end of 2013. The President is expected to sign the bill that will extend the credits through the end of 2014. Here is a summary of the changes which are most

We are coming to the end of 2014, and the 2015 strategic planning season is in full swing. It is the time of year to reflect on how we have progressed towards the 2014 goals and to determine the strategic vision for 2015.  In my experience, there seems to be a disconnect between the goals

This month I’ll focus on ‘Revenue Streams’, the fifth section of the business model canvas based on the book Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.  ‘Revenue Streams’ represent money the company generates from customer relationships and customer segments.  There are a couple of key questions to consider before we review the specific

This month, I’ll discuss ‘Key Resources’, the sixth part of the nine building blocks in the Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. I happen to really enjoy this building block because it speaks not only to the financial assets that a company owns, but also to the non-financial resources as well.  Many

This month, we are covering ‘Key Activities’, the seventh of the nine building blocks in the Business Model Generation as developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.  ‘Key Activities’ refers to the most important things a company must do to makes its business model work. Key activities focus on operations.  While a CEO focuses on

This month we are covering ‘Cost Structure’, the last of the nine building blocks of the Business Model Generation developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.  ‘Cost Structure’ describes all the costs incurred to operate a business. Here are three things to consider: What are the most important costs inherent in your business? Which key