Today's show is using the concept of MVO to introduce what is really required to build a startup - constant experimentation to test assumptions, build quick and test ideas to get it right.

Minimize the risk for the first offer by reducing the initial development investment while providing just the core features needed to make the sale. 

​The challenge with the first offer is the number of critical assumptions that must be made and how those can be tested or minimized. 

Building the MVO is never a finished product or service, it is a process to build right enough the first time and improve from there. Identifying the bare minimum features and functionality to engage the target market that is upgraded with each successive upgrade.

• Show 1: What Is The Minimum You Must Build to Make the First Sale - MVO
• Show 2: How Do Operations Look Like In A Startup?

• Show 3: ALL STOP - A Startup Is Not A Business, It Is An Experiment!
• Show 4: What Must You Know Before Starting The Startup
• Show 5: What To Build and When to Build It?
• Show 6: One More Thing Before You Start - How Are The Best of The Best Doing It

• Show 7: Turning The Plan Into Reality
• Show 8: Draw A Picture Of The Competitive Landscape
• Show 9: How Do Customers Make Buying Decisions

• Show 10: Your Core Process - Agilean
• Show 11: Never Build On Spec, Find A Partner
• Show 12: Managing The Mess Using Teams
• Show 13: What If You Could Put Your Feet Up On The Desk During The Workday?

This week we are taking the same minimalist approach only instead of the offer, it is the processes required to build the offer and support systems to ensure the first sale is successful. ​

EPISODE 5: BUILD ONLY WHAT YOU MUST BUILD

As we discussed in Show 1, all startups are really experiments and not businesses. Therefore your goal is the keep everything simple and easy to test: limited variables, simple processes, quick production & testing, easily improved.

Topics:

• Minimum process possible to 'produce' the offer
• Minimum processes possible to service the account

This might seem over simplistic but it gets at the first problem - are you a solution looking for a problem (finding the right customer) or building the right offer for a specific customer (the customer is known)?

Topics:

• Selection of the Right Customer, or
• Features of the Offer

It is almost impossible to limit the variables being tested to 1, but this needs to be goal. If you are trying to solve the problem and there are 3 or 4 reasons why the first offered succeeded or failed - how do you select the right one?

Topics:

• Variables
• Customer
• Inputs
• Processes
• Output

It is time to construct an operating model to test. There are at least 3 QFD's (Quality Function Deployments) created: (1) Requirements Matrix, (2) Design Matrix, and (3) Product Characteristics.

Topics:

• Requirements Matrix
• Customer Requirements / Design Requirements
• Design Matrix
• Design Requirements / Engineering (Process) Design
• Product (Offer) Characteristics
• Product Characteristics / Engineering Design

That is all we can accomplish today. In Show 7 we will build 3 hypothetical matrix's to demonstrate the simplicity of the process.

Show 2 expanded on the 'Startup as an Experiment' idea to cover some of the tools which we will expand on today.

EPISODE 9: WHAT IS THE PLAN TO BUILD THE PROTOTYPE?

This is consulting in its purest form - knowing the questions to ask. Our experience is answers are easier than questions and when engaging in this type of experimental design to prove the business idea there are 3 distinct stages in the process. Although initially only the first two matter. Once you have a winning offer, the last stage takes you from a tested prototype to a repeatable and a 'manufacturable' offer.

Topics:

• What Is The Design?
• How Are You Going to Test It?
• What Must You Learn to Build It Right?

This is the hardest step because of the need to fully understand the problem or aspiration from the customers perspective and that might have many layers. Also you are under considerable pressure to get started. Every day you don't have something to sell precious capital is being burnt up. Resist the pressure to shortchange this step and use it to make every day count.

Topics:

• What is the Context of the Problem?
• Why is the Current State Not Working?
• Create a Problem Statement to Solve?

Now that you have enough quality information on the aspiration or problem, the next step is to build a prototype that is minimal in its offer (MVO) but complete enough for the customer to use. In many ways this step can be viewed as the opposite of R&D (Research and Development) - D&R - Development and Research.

Topics:

• What Must We Know Before Starting?
• How Should We Build It to Learn?
• How Should We Measure Performance?

If you get this far what do you have, what do you know?

You will have proven the business idea is viable and there is at least an early market for you offer. Now you can focus on building a full featured offer and standardizing the support process. You have made the transition from an experiment to a business.

Topics:

• What are the Sprints (Steps) Required to Build It?
• How Do We Involve the Vx of the Customer?
• How to Manage Incremental Improvements to a Finished Offer?

"The World Of Business At Your Finger Tips"

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What really starts the process is your analysis of the bigger issues, the market, and competitors.; and that is where we are today.

MARKET RESEARCH

There are many ways to define market research. For our purposes we will look at it from the 3 Levels from a Macro to a Semi-Micro perspective. The goal is simple. Bring to market the MVO that will capture market share because it is a better match between what the customer wants and any of the known alternatives.

Topics:

• Level 1: RESZ - Regulatory, Economic, Scientific, Zeitgeist
• Level 2: Competition - Primary Secondary, Tertiary

Once we have completed this very Macro perspective of what is happening today and in the near future, the next critic al question to answer is what markets to pursue. Where is the greatest growth potential and the easiest path to segment domination.

Topics:

• Market Size
• Market Growth
• Market Segments

The last question and now the most critical is once you have zeroed in on a few great market opportunities, what is current state of competition? At this point the answer is obvious - the best market opportunity with the weakest competition should service a s the basis of our MVO.

Topics: 

• Aspirations & Pain Points
• Features & Benefits
• Price Point

This last step is organizational, creating spreadsheets that contain all of the information gather from market research so we can move back to the topic of building the MVO. In order to use one of most effective tools - the QFD, the information needs to be accurate and user friendly.

Topics:

• Building spreadsheets: (RESZ, Markets, Competitors)
• Revisiting your plan for the prototype

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2. Join our LinkedIn Group
3. Download the mobile APP

WHY BENCHMARK?

Benchmarking is nothing more than looking around a various industries: (1) your competitors, and (2) similar business models to identify how the best of the best are building, making, delivering their offer. You can either go in the dark and build it on your own or you can save yourself allot time and pain and learn from others. 

Topics:

• Lowest Cost Producer of Best Quality Offer (LCP/BQO)

There are several approaches to benchmarking your organization, it all depends on what you are looking to learn. Below I provided 3 of several options and these represent what a small business owner wants to know.

Topics:

• Performance: involves gathering and comparing quantitative data (i.e., measures or key performance indicators)
• Practice: involves gathering and comparing qualitative information about how an activity is conducted through people, processes, and technology.
• External: compares metrics and/or practices of one organization to one or many others

Time to start your research muscle. Like building your first offer or finding the right customers, this is the business muscle and the one you will use over the entire span of your business life. Here is the paradox of successful business ownership - spend enough time to understand what you are trying to do then act with urgency to turn knowledge into action.

Topics:

• Statista
• Hoovers Dunn&Bradstreet
• SCORE
• Sizeup.com
• IBGR GROWTH APP

This is the plan you need to build to ensure 3 things: (1) MVO, (2) customer offer match, (3) speed to market.

This entire process can be accomplished in months and sometimes weeks depending on the complexity of the initial offer.

EPISODE 21: AGILE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

This is an overview of the planning process that puts the required structure into place that can be managed and tested. This will provide the script to build a MVO that the customer wants and do it without burning any more working capital than necessary.

Topics:

• Planning: Product Vision, Development Roadmap, Release Features, Project Iteration
• Designing: Understand, Research, Sketch, Design, Prototype, Test, Refine
• Execution: Discovery, Implementation
• Testing: Communications, 4 Quadrant Acceptance 
• Deployment or Release: Client UX

This is where you start. Based on your research on the market as well as working with the first customer, you start with what they need and want based on aspirations and/or pain points. You start with a shopping list and will not represent the first offer. Over the next three matrices you narrow the list down to the essentials and provide data for further improvements.

Topics:

• Customer Requirements: complete list of needs and wants (X Axis)​
• Design Requirements: what is required to build/make the offer (Y Axis)

Once you have converted Customer Requirements into Design Requirements, the focus shifts to manufacturability - how to build it with the highest quality at the lowest cost.

Topics:

• Design Requirements: what is required to build/make the offer (X Axis)
• Engineering Requirements: convert Design to Engineering Speciation's (Y Axis)

Last step in the QFD (Quality Function Deployment) processes is to convert Engineering Specifications into Product (Service) Features - what you are actually going to sell.

You are now ready to move from mostly planning and research to implementation and using the Agile Cycle.

Topics:

• Engineering Requirements: Engineering Speciation's (X Axis)
• Product (Service) Requirements: Convert Engineering to Offer Characteristics - Results and UX (Y Axis)

"The World Of Business At Your Finger Tips"

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EPISODE 25: WHAT ARE THE REAL SUCCESS FACTORS?

OK time to pull our research together and focus on the specifics of the build, and that starts with customers. The following topics are the major areas you must drill down on to get a clear picture of required Design Requirements. 

Topics:

• Targeted Customer
• Offer Characteristics
• Market Timing

Starting with the most important issue, who is the highest probability customer who will find value in your initial offer and willing to buy first or early.

Topics:

• Start with the smallest cohort group possible
• Understand how value is perceived by the targeted customer
• Find a co-development partner to test & validate
• Create a buying persona

Now we have a buying persona which means we know how they search for information, what they evaluate about the company and its offer, and arrive at the decision to buy. Let's make all of those elements obvious and easy to find.

Topics:

• Physical characteristics?
• What does the offer do?
• What additional value does it provide?

So far our focus is on being right. There is one problem. Being right at the wrong time will lead to failure and therefore the market situatio needs to be accessed.

Topics:

• ​Where is the market for the initial offer? Innovation, Early Adopter, Early Majority, Later Majority, Laggards
• Where is the market/customer in the sales cycle?
• Where does the company stand in brand awareness?
• What are competitors selling that is similar to our offer?
• Where is economy and how will that influence timing of the buying decision?

Next Show: Creating a list of testing variables.

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This is a final validation of the offer characteristics and design specifications before starting the prototype. It will be build with feedback along the way so this isn't the only bite at the apple, just the second. You are testing all of the information assembled and validating your understanding is correct.

COMPONENT TESTING & ALL UP

This is an external testing methodology and starts with the mindset of 'All Up'. It is termed from the space program that a rocket with over million parts can only be tested during flight since it is not reusable. That puts maximum pressure on testing the component pieces along the way. If the components work, you are assuming the final assembly will work.

The second issue is when testing the components, there is enough functionality that a solid conclusion can be drawn.

Topics:

• Usability
• Performance (Results)
• Emotional Connection

We are going to use the same approach for two of the three segments. You have two individuals/groups working - the boss and the design team. 

The owner's job is to interact with their peers to gain feedback on the 3 areas of concern - usability, performance, and connection with the offer. You can also venture into pricing by establishing what is the maximum you can charge.

The design team works with prospective customers to validate all of the functionality and features you intend to build.

Topics

• Executive Meetings with 'decision makers' - multiple customers
• Focus Groups between 'buyers & users' and designers - 1 customer

The second test is the out layer and an internal activity. Before we start building it answers the key question - is it manufacturable for the targeted price point. 

Topics:​

• Process
• Design
• Material
• Environment
• Compliance/Testing

The last test is sharing the relationship between what the customer wants and how to build it. Here is an opportunity to build some street cred as a quality company, regardless whether you are building a product or service.

Topics:

• Executive Meetings with 'decision makers' - multiple customers
• Focus Groups between 'buyers & users' and designers - 1 customer

Next Show: Creating a list of testing variables part 2

There is allot here to unpack, so I am going to move quickly. The goal is to validate everything done to date and this is the end of the Research and the beginning of Design Phase.

Topics:

• Selecting the right customer - A review
• Part of a fast growing industry and/or market
• Unsatisfied or neutral about the current offer purchased
• Willing to help design a solution for them?
• First Meeting
• Share the big picture - who you are, what you are trying to accomplish as a company - create a desire to be affiliated
• Focus on the offer - why this offer, what you have researched and learned to date - surprise and intrigue with your understanding
• Overview: Physical characteristics, What does the Offer Do, What additional Value does it provide
• Schedule Second Meeting - allow the customer to share and discuss internally and create a second meeting to capture their requirements
• ​Second Meeting
• ​Restate the objective for the meeting - what new offer are you building to solve which customer problem
• Work with the group to fine tune the offer's goal - what problem will it solve
• Inquire about the positives and negatives of the offer currently being purchased
• Create a list of customer needs; ensure you capture both what it must do (results) and what will make it user-friendly
• Request volunteers to help in the design and build process
• Schedule third meeting for gaining closure on the list
• Third Meeting
• Prior - clean the list and rework into your design process
• Share your list for agreement
• Solicit participants for Focus Groups

There is allot here to unpack, so I am going to move quickly. The goal is to validate everything done to date and this is the end of the Research and the beginning of Design Phase.

Topics:

• Selecting the right customer - A review
• Part of a fast growing industry and/or market
• Unsatisfied or neutral about the current offer purchased
• Willing to help design a solution for them?
• First Meeting
• Share the big picture - who you are, what you are trying to accomplish as a company - create a desire to be affiliated
• Focus on the offer - why this offer, what you have researched and learned to date - surprise and intrigue with your understanding
• Overview: Physical characteristics, What does the Offer Do, What additional Value does it provide
• Schedule Second Meeting - allow the customer to share and discuss internally and create a second meeting to capture their requirements
• ​Second Meeting
• ​Restate the objective for the meeting - what new offer are you building to solve which customer problem
• Work with the group to fine tune the offer's goal - what problem will it solve
• Inquire about the positives and negatives of the offer currently being purchased
• Create a list of customer needs; ensure you capture both what it must do (results) and what will make it user-friendly
• Request volunteers to help in the design and build process
• Schedule third meeting for gaining closure on the list
• Third Meeting
• Prior - clean the list and rework into your design process
• Share your list for agreement
• Solicit participants for Focus Groups

EPISODE 34: RUNNING FOCUS GROUPS

In the previous episode you have achieved much - found a partner for the offer, gained their insights into what they would buy if it was available at the right price point, and help in the production phase of the project.

The Focus Group's role in the beginning is to validate the requirements for results and user-friendliness by talking to the people doing the work.

​We will come back this later as the prototype is being built. The Agilean Process requires the Focus Group to test the prototype as it is being built.

Topics:

• Group members - marketing, sales, production, distribution, service
• Create a group charter for working together
• Have each person (1) discuss their role in the company, and (2) their role with the new offer
• Share the requirements list and have them prioritize the items in 2 lists: (1) results, (2) user-friendliness
• Solicit for requirements missing from the list, add, and re-rank
• Review the final list and gain agreement

We are almost done with the design phase, at least for customer requirements. Once we have a final prioritized list, it is time for your team to go to work and build a prototype.

Topics:

• Fourth Executive Meeting
• Share results from focus group and finalize the weighted design characteristics
• Request that members of the focus be available to help during production to ensure we are building what we promised

In Show 4 we covered the key questions to start build the prototype. Let's take that a little deeper.

Topics:

• What Is The Design?
• ​Build a model of the initial process
• How Are You Going to Test It?
• ​Do a walk through, imagine what happens at each step and record the initial brainstorm
• What Must You Learn to Build It Right?
• ​Based on the walk through and brainstorming - make 3 lists: based on facts, where are you certain (no assumptions); based on a few assumptions - where do you have reasonably certain; what don't you know

This is list is where the Design Phase and the Development meet.

​

Groups can become either a gaggle of individuals or synergy producing team and most of that lies on your shoulders. Here is a process we have used for years to increase the probability of having a high performing team.

Topics:

1. ​Vision for the New Offer
2. Reason for the Team
3. How this Team Supports the Business
4. 3 Key Results the Team Must Accomplish
5. Team Member Roles
6. Rules for Problem Solving & Decision Making
7. Rules for Dealing with Conflict
8. Time Demands for Team Members
9. Principles of Agile Projects and Sprints

Topics:

1. Goals are the customer's, objectives are the team's - what is the big picture (goal) then break it into required activities (objectives).
2. Requirements Matrix
3. Design Matrix
4. Offer Characteristics Matrix
5. Avoid details until the latest possible moment - focus on estimating time and topics.
6. Based on the topics break everything down into the smallest pieces possible - the Sprints.
7. Create a Road Map of how the project will evolve over time - what question/problem/issue is each Sprint solving.
8. Sprint Planning based on the Agile Cycle - include resource requirements.

The Sprints are short-term, time boxed to accomplish a segment of work. The output of a Sprint provides the basis of the next Sprint; each is an incremental accomplishment to reach an end result.

Topics:

1. SCRUM 1: Exploration - goal is to go from problems (opportunities) to solutions.
2. Define: create user story
3. Explore: identify all of the root causes / drivers
4. Validate: test root cause / drivers to select highest probability solutions
5. Iterate: test each solution to isolate the 1
6. SCRUM 2: Testing - goal is to develop the right solution right.
7. Explore: research market leaders, best in class providers for a building a first version; process or offer.
8. Update - upgrade solution from SCRUM 1 and build first process or offer.
9. Validate - use it internally (1.0 or alpha version) to determine if (1) produces expected results, (2) how user friendly is consumption.
10. Iterate - based on 1.0 test, upgrade the process or offer
11. SCRUM 3: Development - goal is generate new business
12. Explore: prepare client test (2.0 or beta version), control the controllables
13. Update: with install team, fix issues as it arises to meet results and use expectations.
14. Validate: review the client results and compare against storyboard - adjust as necessary.
15. Iterate: prepare the release offer (version 3.0)

Topics:

1. Control of Inputs: select only customers that fit your brand and skill sets, QFD (Requirements, Design, and Offer Characteristics Matrices).
2. Control of Throughput: Project and Sprint processes 
3. Control of Output: Offer Characteristics
4. Direct Supervision: SCRUM Master or Owner/Facilitator on Time boxing and accountability.
5. Cultural Boundaries: reduce variation by creating a set of behavioral boundaries.
6. Standardization of Skills: technical competence, industry competence, teamwork competence.

Topics:

• Select the core customer requirements that represent the total offer you can test
• Select the design requirements that represent the total offer you must build

Topics:

• Define what success looks like
• Assign roles
• Determine which problem and decision making tools you will use
• Gain agreement on how conflict will be resolved

​

Topics:

• Exploration Scrum
• Testing Scrum
• Development Scrum

Topics:

• The Define Sprint
• The Explore or Update Sprint
• The Validate Sprint
• The Iterate Sprint

When we look at that equation from an internal perspective our vision is based on a confidence in the model. However, when you look at it externally - how arrogant.

Unless your idea and model is truly unique and untested, which by the way is at least slightly delusional, why do you believe in the greatness hasn't already been tested and discarded?

So let's start with minimizing risk until you have sufficient real-time data to have real confidence in your idea and model; and that starts with the offer and processes.

Minimize the risk for the first offer by reducing the initial development investment while providing just the core features needed to make the sale. 

​The challenge with the first offer is the number of critical assumptions that must be made and how those can be tested or minimized. 

Building the MVO is never a finished product or service, it is a process to build right enough the first time and improve from there. Identifying the bare minimum features and functionality to engage the target market that is upgraded with each successive upgrade.

Topics:

• What Is The Minimum You Must Build to Make the First Sale - MVOffer?
• Given the product or service, what is the MVOrganization?

Understand what you are testing.

This might seem over simplistic but it gets at the first problem - are you a solution looking for a problem (finding the right customer) or building the right offer for a specific customer (the customer is known)?

Topics:

• ALL STOP - A Startup Is Not A Business, It Is An Experiment!
• What Must You Know Before Starting The Startup
• What To Build and When to Build It? (Right Customer or nature of the Offer)
• One More Thing Before You Start - How Are The Best of The Best Doing It

The first chasm problem is reality - what are the market conditions that will determine the offer and its price point.

Topics:

• Turning The Plan Into Reality
• Draw A Picture Of The Competitive Landscape
• How Do Customers Make Buying Decisions

Most companies as they mature develop a R&D process for the developing improvements or something new. We are advocating this is the first process to develop and is the inverse - D&R - Development & Research.

Topics:

• Your Core Process - Agilean
• Never Build On Spec, Find A Partner
• Managing The Mess Using Teams
• What If You Could Put Your Feet Up On The Desk During The Workday?

Chapter & Show 1 - Introduction: Recession Proof Your Cash Flow in 13 Weeks

EPISODE 1: Summary

Strengthen Your Core: minimize your exposure and build a bad weather fund, look inward and get back to basics to reduce cost and hold present employment, enhance customer relations, and co-develop with customers a new improved / new offer.

Show Objective

Given a contracting economy with diminishing business opportunities and inflation devaluing the currency, we will demonstrate the need to strengthen the core of the business to not only survive, but thrive.

• Finance Monday: Recession Proofing Your Cash Flow in 13 Weeks
• Operations Tuesday: Cut Costs & Develop New Offer - A Solid Recession Proof Business Model
• Customer Wednesday: How to Make Money in an Economic Downturn
• People Thursday: Recession Proofing HR - How to Do More With Less
• Owner Friday: First Principles - A Business Owner’s Survival Guide in an Economic Downturn

• Chapter 5: Basics of Financial Reporting
• Chapter 9: Establishing BEP - Break Even Point
• Chapter 13: Activity Based Costing
• Chapter 17: Cash Flow Cycles
• Chapter 21: JIT+ Inventory
• Chapter 25: Accounts Payable
• Chapter 29: Accounts Receivable
• Chapter 33: Credit & Risk Managment
• Chapter 37: Cash Flow Forecasting
• Chpater 41: Financial Scorecard
• Chapter 44: Crypto for Transactions
• Chapter 49: Summary & Implementation Plan

• Chapter 5: Basics of Financial Reporting
• Chapter 9: Establishing BEP - Break Even Point
• Chapter 13: Activity Based Costing
• Chapter 17: Cash Flow Cycles
• Chapter 21: JIT+ Inventory
• Chapter 25: Accounts Payable
• Chapter 29: Accounts Receivable
• Chapter 33: Credit & Risk Managment
• Chapter 37: Cash Flow Forecasting
• Chpater 41: Financial Scorecard
• Chapter 44: Crypto for Transactions
• Chapter 49: Summary & Implementation Plan

Book & Series: Recession Proofing Your Business

Chapter & Show 2 - Introduction: Cut Costs & Develop New Offer - A Solid Recession Proof Business Model

EPISODE 5: Summary

During a recession, unless you are selling necessities, you can expect a reduction in customer spending or losing accounts though no fault of the business. The key is to use the adverse economy to strengthen the core of the business - the variable cost processes that affect margin and fixed cost processes that impact profit.

Cutting Costs starts with value mapping your core variable cost processes, then eliminate steps and time to improve quality. This is the same process for fixed costs; value map your core fixed cost process to eliminate steps and time to improve quality.

Show Objective

Given a contracting economy with diminishing business opportunities and inflation devaluing the currency, we will demonstrate the need to strengthen the core of the business to not only survive, but thrive.

• Finance Monday: Recession Proofing Your Cash Flow in 13 Weeks
• Operations Tuesday: Cut Costs & Develop New Offer - A Solid Recession Proof Business Model
• ​Cost Reduction Topics:
• Value Mapping
• Moving from “AS IS” to “TO BE”
• Making process improvements is a collaborative process
• Customer Wednesday: How to Make Money in an Economic Downturn
• People Thursday: Recession Proofing HR - How to Do More With Less
• Owner Friday: First Principles - A Business Owner’s Survival Guide in an Economic Downturn

• Chapter 6: Achieving Lowest-Cost Producer
• Chapter 10: Cost of Purchased Inputs
• Chapter 14: Capital Costs
• Chapter 18: Operating Costs
• Chapter 22: Margins
• Chapter 26: Forward Channel Costs
• Chapter 30: First To Market With A Winner
• Chapter 34: Design A Winner
• Chapter 38: Never Build On Spec
• Chpater 42: Building Alpha
• Chapter 46: Beta To Omega
• Chapter 50: Summary & Implementation Plan

​We, the IBGR Network, has been using a very simple business model for content creation - make it once and use it multiple times. We looked at the best practices for business talk radio shows, podcasting, and creating eBooks. Then we built a process that integrates all 3.

That lesson is the basis of the Series Recession Proof Your Business. Instead of a weekly show, we have decided to take the subject through all 5 days using our balanced scorecard model. Every Monday we tackle what you need to do on finance, on Tuesday what you need to do for operations, and so forth. That means we will address Recession Proofing from 5 different perspectives and 65 shows. Each show is supported by a LIVE podcast for later review as part of the process of taking what what we provide and using it as it fits your business.

Our support system are the two Private Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook to move the conversation from one-way to creating a dialog and relationship with you. All you have to do is download the pre-release of Recession Proofing Your Business and listen to the podcasts. Our goal for the series is for you, the entrepreneur, to have a proactive plan to use the economic downturn to your advantage.

If you have questions post it here in the comments section or join our groups. Our handle on Facebook and LinkedIn is the same - ibgrnetwork.

See you there.

Next Operations Tuesday - Chapter 6: Achieving Lowest-Cost Producer

Chapter & Show 3 - Introduction: How to Make Money in an Economic Downturn

EPISODE 9: Summary

During an economic contraction, it is essential to strengthen relationships with your core or most profitable customers and suppliers. It is an opportunity to gain favorable terms from suppliers and hold on to the customer business. Gaining favorable terms and holding onto great accounts is essential when the economy is contracting. Strengthening the relationship with suppliers is applying the concepts from the Cash Flow Management Funnels. Strengthening the relationship with customers is applying the concepts from Lowest-Cost Producer.

Making Money in a recession starts with holding your customer base as much as possible. Given it costs five times more to gain new accounts and hold customers with existing relationships, it is a proven method of minimizing risk. The place to start or build upon is ensuring the relationship is data based to identify the best opportunities to improve your offer and prices. The next step is to bring this expertise to customers who can benefit from the same cost reduction and relationship improvements. Once you have shown your ability to help them, look for opportunities to bring them inside your operation to do the same. BTW - this also applies to suppliers.

Show Objective

Given a contracting economy with diminishing business opportunities and inflation devaluing the currency, we will demonstrate the need to strengthen the core of the business to not only survive, but thrive.

• Finance Monday: Recession Proofing Your Cash Flow in 13 Weeks
• Operations Tuesday: Cut Costs & Develop New Offer - A Solid Recession Proof Business Model
• Customer Wednesday: How to Make Money in an Economic Downturn
• Assessing what data is currently collected
• Organizing the data in a common location with shared employee access
• Audit for both qualitative and quantitative data
• People Thursday: Recession Proofing HR - How to Do More With Less
• Owner Friday: First Principles - A Business Owner’s Survival Guide in an Economic Downturn

• Chapter 7: Data Based Relationships
• Chapter 11: Promise Gap
• Chapter 15: Recovery Gap
• Chapter 19: Personnel Gap
• Chapter 23: Inside the Customer
• Chapter 27: Process Improvements
• Chapter 31: Customer Relationships
• Chapter 35: Customer Inside
• Chapter 39: Agile Projects
• Chpater 43: Co-Development
• Chapter 47: Co-Testing
• Chapter 51: Summary & Implementation Plan

​We, the IBGR Network, has been using a very simple business model for content creation - make it once and use it multiple times. We looked at the best practices for business talk radio shows, podcasting, and creating eBooks. Then we built a process that integrates all 3.

That lesson is the basis of the Series Recession Proof Your Business. Instead of a weekly show, we have decided to take the subject through all 5 days using our balanced scorecard model. Every Monday we tackle what you need to do on finance, on Tuesday what you need to do for operations, and so forth. That means we will address Recession Proofing from 5 different perspectives and 65 shows. Each show is supported by a LIVE podcast for later review as part of the process of taking what what we provide and using it as it fits your business.

Our support system are the two Private Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook to move the conversation from one-way to creating a dialog and relationship with you. All you have to do is download the pre-release of Recession Proofing Your Business and listen to the podcasts. Our goal for the series is for you, the entrepreneur, to have a proactive plan to use the economic downturn to your advantage.

If you have questions post it here in the comments section or join our groups. Our handle on Facebook and LinkedIn is the same - ibgrnetwork.

See you there.

Next Operations Wednesday - Chapter 7: Data Based Relationships

​Based on your value mapping, create a new "TO BE" for all critical processes and reassign non contributing positions to the new process or steps. Then retrain all personnel from the new / updated SOPs.

Show Objective Given a contracting economy with diminishing business opportunities and inflation devaluing the currency, we will demonstrate the need to strengthen the core of the business to not only survive, but thrive.

That lesson is the basis of the Series Recession Proof Your Business. Instead of a weekly show, we have decided to take the subject through all 5 days using our balanced scorecard model. Every Monday we tackle what you need to do on finance, on Tuesday what you need to do for operations, and so forth. That means we will address Recession Proofing from 5 different perspectives and 65 shows. Each show is supported by a LIVE podcast for later review as part of the process of taking what what we provide and using it as it fits your business.

Our support system are the two Private Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook to move the conversation from one-way to creating a dialog and relationship with you. All you have to do is download the pre-release of Recession Proofing Your Business and listen to the podcasts. Our goal for the series is for you, the entrepreneur, to have a proactive plan to use the economic downturn to your advantage.

If you have questions post it here in the comments section or join our groups. Our handle on Facebook and LinkedIn is the same - ibgrnetwork.

See you there.

Next Operations Thursday - Chapter 8: Standard Operating Procedures

The WHAT are the specific areas of focus like finance, operations, customers, and people that is being built or improved..

The HOW is how you managing the change from today in those 4 areas to where you need to take the business. Every Friday we start with the HOW.

Objective Given a contracting economy with diminishing business opportunities and inflation devaluing the currency, you will generate new solutions to built an operation that can deal with current challenges.

EPISODE 17: WHAT IS A "BURNING PLATFORM"?A "burning platform" is a term used to describe an extremely urgent or compelling business situation in order to convey, in the strongest terms, the need for change. Using this process, you can get people’s attention and build awareness of the need for change very quickly. The only caveat is that not every change can have a burning platform. If this were to become the norm, employees may begin to ignore the message (not everything can be an emergency). As the old story goes, you do not want to be caught “crying wolf” for every change, in case you find yourself really faced by a wolf and no one responds to your call.

Get Your Financial House in Order - Next Show: Show & Chapter 5 - Basics of Financial Reporting Attack Costs - Next Show: Show & Chapter 6 - Create a Cash Reserve from Reducing Costs Making Money in an Economic Downturn: Show & Chapter 7 - Data Based Relationships Recession Proofing HR: Show & Chapter 8 - Standard Operating Procedures

EPISODE 21: Summary ​We now start week 2 of the series and specifically how to get a handle on your key financial reports. This is a two step process. It starts with you becoming intimate with the standard reports and using it to then build custom reports based on what you learn from the Balance Statement, Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement. The second step is finding at a minimum a CPA and the best case is a fractional CFO to handle the reporting so you can spend your time discussing the implications of past, present, and future decisions.

The Balance Sheet divides assets into groups: Current and Non-Current. Current Assets are usually under 12 months old and can be easily converted to cash. Current Assets: includes cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, and inventory. Inventory is further subdivided in raw materials, work in process, and finished goods. Non-Current Assets includes machinery, computers, land, and buildings as well as intangible assets like goodwill, brand, and patents. Also included in this group is depreciation which represents economic costs over the life of the equipment. Liabilities are listed in two groups: current and long-term. Current is long term debt that does not come due within 12 months. This includes car payments...

Next Show/Chapter 9: Establishing BEP - Break Even Point

You can use the additional margin to increase your marketing spend or price reductions, which will not hurt you, to buy market share from the competition. Usually it will force them to do the same and because of lower margins they are jeopardizing the health of the company.

The easiest method, especially if you are starting from scratch, is to use the value mapping process.

Show Objective ​Given a methodology for designing a data based measurement system for customer relationships, create an unique model that fits your organization and customers that completes the picture of business performance. The goal is to measure CUSTOMER ENTHUSIASM.

EPISODE 29: Summary This is one of the more significant decisions you will make for the business. Your goal is to get it right early, both in what you are going to measure and how the data will be collected and organized. In 5 years this data will become a very valuable resource and has a positive impact on the businesses valuation.

The best place to start is looking at how you are measuring internally and asking the question - what don't we know? For example you measure how long it takes from a sale to delivery (Dock-To-Dock), the measure the performance of each step in the process for cost and quality (Takt Time or actual performance to schedule which includes quality). Your quality metric is internal - what does the the customer think when they receive and use the product / service? Does it meet their expectations for promise - results, ease of use, ontime and budget?

Topics: Point of Sale At the Customers Point of Sale At your Point of Sale Periodic Surveys - Reactive and Proasctive Reactive - incident based Proactive - pulse taking Organizational Assessment - 2 Part General questions to compare clients Specific questions based on periodic surveys

Topics: Point of Sale Their Front Line - comments Your Front Line - comments Focus Groups Share collected data to gain their interpretation and conclusions Testing new processes or features Executive Advisory Groups Discuss your report on the 'State of the Relationship', ask for guidance going forward Results Expectations - does the product / service deliver on promise User Friendliness (UX) - how easy is it to use Relationship with your business - where is the friction between the 2 organizations that needs to be removed

The second decision is to build your own or buy surveys and assessments. If you are concerned only about accuracy, you can build your own and then test with the client to ensure it is valid (measures what it is supposed to measure) and relaible (everybody interprets the questions the same way).

If you are interested in purchasing existing surveys and assessments, IBGR has a full suite that will provide a great place to start.

Next Show/Chapter 11: The Promise Gap

EPISODE 33: Summary What is a SOP? It is a set of steps and substeps based upon the best practices possible now that provides to the user all the information they need to complete assigned tasks. It includes tools, equipment, and documentation required to perform; It is used to document best practices, helps in achieving Lowest-Cost Producer status, and as a training tool.

Once you have assembled the SOPs, it is used as a reference for creating Position Descriptions. Each step, sub-step, and task has a designated position that handles that unit of work. That information is transferred to the corresponding Position Description. The most important result is a more accurate Position Description because it is based on a process, not a function.

Topics: Process or Value Mapping - All positions are based on process requirements Job Fit - given the demands of the job, who has the right mix of knowledge, experience, skills, and personalty for the position? Team Work - based on the Process Map and Job requirements - what type and how much collaboration is required. Supervision (Leadership) - given process demands, job requirements, and type of temwork required, does immediate supervision have the skill set to lead Company Culture - how well does the company's culture match what is required to achieve discretionary performance.

The following are the components of any effective SOP.

Topics: Visual Process Map Task Identity Task Significance Responsibility Authroity Written Components of a SOP Purpose: in general terms, what is the goal of this SOP. Scope: in general terms, what functions or parts of the business does this SOP cover includes Position Descriptions. Prequisites: list of other SOP’s this is built on. Equipment & Materials: list of equipment and materials that are part of this SOP. Procudure: a list of all the steps covered by this SOP Steps: how is the procedure performed Role: Owner, Manager, Worker Documents: supportive information required to perform the steps ​Position Description ​Role Knowledge, Skills, Experience, Certifications Work Attributes Work Processes Compnay, Department, Individual Goals and Objectives

Topics: Individual and/or TeamPerformance Dock-To-Dock: time frame of beginning to end TaKT Time: match between schedule and acutal completion WIPI: work in progress inventory or how long between steps is a job waiting

Next Show/Chapter 12: Position Descriptions

​Never forget that as long as the pain of staying the same is less than the pain of changing, you will be pushing a very large boulder uphill. A second lesson is good plans with commitment will always outperform great plans with little commitment. Show Objective Given the topics covered in week 2, you will create a unique Burning Platform presentation and Vision of the Future that will serve as the basis for changing all aspects of the business.

EPISODE 37: Summary Our experience with managing large corporate change is no different in the smaller companies - just fewer people and resources. The place to start is the ‘Burning Platform” - why can’t we stay the same?

Next is your vision for the future - if successful, what will that look and feel like? Then there are the challenges of building concensus for the change.

If you have been successful selling why the past needs to be abandoned and the future embraced, then concensus is enhanced by having a strategic plan without the details. Why? Because to make the changes owned by everyone, they need to participate in its design and implementation.

The following is an approach I have used in the past that has worked.

Topics: The Current State of the Business Details of your SWOT Analysis Strengths to Build On Weaknesses to Fix Opportunities the New Enviroment Presents Threats the New Environment Creates The Current and Future State of the Economy Weaknesses we must fix Threats coming our way

Your job in explaining the vision is to create legitimate hope we have what it takes to get it done.

Topics: Strengthening Our Core Our Financial Situation Increase Cash On Hand Improve Available Credit Pay down or eliminate Debt Collect everything owed Achieving Lowest Cost Producer in our market Build only on demand Eliminate non-value processing time Reorganize work areas - 5 S Increase quality Improve margins Enhancing Relationships with Core Customers & Suppliers - holding their business Improve relations through the use of data Bring core customers into improvement efforts Share cost improvement by reducing prices while maintaining marhins Making Work Easier to do more - long-term employment goal Process improvemnts = better work environment Focus on skill mastery first, cross training second Building a variable compensation system - rewarded for improvements

Next Show/Part III: The Strengthening Our Core Plan

Here you need to estimate what percentage of revenue each line will contribute and using historical data is the safest place to start. Today's show won't get that complicated, if you can do the basic contained in today's show notes you'll be fine.

One of the areas this impacts is sales forecasting. It provides a baseline for sales targets of a specific period of time; a year, a quarter, a month, or week.

Topics: Unit Breakeven = Total Fixed Costs / (Price per Unit - Total Variable Costs) Total Fixed Costs: Sum of all Nonvariable Costs (rent, leases, utilities, etc.) Price per Unit: Total Revenue from Sales / Number of Units Produced Total Variable Costs: Sum of all Nonfixed Costs associated with the Unit (materials, labor, commissions, marketing, etc.)

The same is true for services.e a HVAC company and selling several different types of service contracts for the heating / ac units you sell and install. It will answer how many do you have to sell to breakeven?

Topics: ​The Product Formula by Product Line: Product Line BE = Product Line Fixed Costs / (Price - Product Line Variable Costs The Service Formula by Service Line: Service Line = Service Line Fixed Costs / (Price per Hour - Service Line Variable Costs)

When you compute breakeven for hours, go for a yearly number, then bresak it down into smaller units. What don't sell to make breakeven in the first month has to be added to the remaining 11 months, etc.

Topics:​​ The Service Formula by Hours: Hour BE = Total Fixed Costs / Margin Contirbution by Hour

Next Show/Chapter 13: Activity Based Costing

EPISODE 45: Summary The place to start is to compute all associated costs for buying, using, servicing the input and add to the initial price. Did you pick the right supplier? Use this metric to evaluate current relationships and it provides a model to interview and evaluate future suppliers.

This is your internal branding. Now the focus shifts outward and turn who are internally to who customers will experience in terms of quality, service, and value at price.

Topics: Ease or friction in the buying process Amount of rework required to use their products or services Impact of friction and rework on unit price or price per hour Have expertise to share

Once you assess their products and services fit what you need, the preliminaries are done. It is time to do the heavy lifting of finding what they are about. Are they as dedicated to make the relationship as you are?

Topics: Good faith negotiation Long, intense meetings Not replaceable Willingness to invest into the relationship

​Are you up to the task?

Topics: Consider both brands Build revenue for both Shared investments in each uther Reduce the number of suppliers to a few, the best Next Show/Chapter 14: Company's Value Added

​EPISODE 49: Summary The process starts with marketing and advertising, what is promised in terms of the results you can expect, how easy the product or service is to use, and what is like doing business with your company. Next, what happens after the customer raises their hand and the sales process starts? Are the promises made validated, dashed, or expanded? Once the product or service is delivered, does the result of the entire process align with what the customer was led to believe?

Today's show starts with a quick review of the two types of quality that are present in every product or service: Process and Delivered.

Process Quality is how you build the solution promised during sales. It is creatiing what was promised and begins in the marketing & sales process, through installing a solution, and the service follow-up; it is an alternative way for defining customer service.

Delivered Quality is the customers experience using or consuming the product / service delivered and whether it meets the promises made - does it do what you promised it would do and how user-friendly is it?

Topics: Gap 5: Customer Experience Gap 4: Creating Expectations Gap 3: Work Performance Gap 2: Leadership & Management Gap 1: Insufficient Customer Knowledge

Topics: 5.1 Reliability (Failure to Deliver on Promise) 5.2 Responsiveness (Recovery Methods) 5.3 Assurance (Competent and Empowered Personnel) 5.3 Empathy (Sincerity – Value Their Business) Tangibles (Features – Specific of Your Solution)

The third issue, which is soly Process Quality, is reflection of what it is like doing business with you. How does the customer feel about the overall experience?

Topics:​ Creating accurate expectations with potential customers in the marketing & sales process Post sale alignment meeting to start with accurate expectations The product or service is delivered on time, on budget, and with the features promised

Next Show/Chapter 15: Recovery Gap

EPISODE 53: Summary Most businesses create organizational charts and write descriptions based on the function. You work in finance or service and describe the job within a silo; we know different. All businesses are processed based, which leads to a different orientation to work. Instead of fumbled handoffs between departments, everyone is focused on making things better and faster than the competition, which leads to higher quality and better margins.

Based on your work building value maps of each process and then creating SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) each position is nothing more than a list of those responsibilities. This is essential in smaller businesses that cannot afford over staffing, defects, and poor margins.

Our design of position descriptions is part of that mindset, to define the job in a way that not just accuratly defines the job, but challenges them to grow.

Topics: Task Identity Part of a process, the job has a beginning and end, a scope Ability to experience an end result Task Sigificance How meaningful is the work, how does it contribute, a purpose Company, Department, Individual Goals & Objectives

Topics: Responsibility Which tasks are part of the job Authority How much control does the individual have over the assigned tasks Task Variety Challenging which requires growth

Topics: Knowledge What must you know to successfuly perform, can be expressed in education level Experience How much time is required to achieve average levels of proficiency Skills What behvior do you expect to see when successfuly competing task; if you were to test their ability Certifications Alternative to knowledge and skills, most certification require a demonstration Attributes What personal characteristics are required to be successful in the role

Next Show/Chapter 16: People In The Game

Today's show we put this into the perspectiver from last week - what is your plan to use the Burining Platform to make change in the company?

Topics: Agile SCRUMs Sprints

The Sprints are short-term, time boxed to accomplish a segment of work. The output of a Sprint provides the basis of the next Sprint; each is an incremental accomplishment to reach an end result.

​Topics: SCRUM 1: Exploration - goal is to go from the Burning Platform to A Plan of Action Define: create user story - Vision for the new company Explore: identify all of the root causes / drivers for change Validate: test root cause / drivers to select highest probability solutions Iterate: test each solution to isolate the critical few SCRUM 2: Testing - goal is to develop the right solution right. Explore: review the burndown list (Episode 60) and prioritize by sequence. Update - based on SCRUM 1 - i.e. improve Operations Validate - use it internally (1.0 or alpha version) to determine if (1) produces expected results, (2) how user friendly is consumption. Iterate - based on 1.0 test, upgrade the process or offer SCRUM 3: Development - goal is generate new business Explore: prepare client test (2.0 or beta version), control the controllables Update: with install team, fix issues as it arises to meet results and use expectations. Validate: review the client results and compare against storyboard - adjust as necessary. Iterate: prepare the release offer (version 3.0)

​The order of how the Burndown List is burned down is part of the SCRUM and Sprint Process.

Topics: Operations Value Map all Variable Cost Processes Value Map all Fixed Cost Processes Reduce cycle time and costs by a minimum of X% Create new/update SOP's to rerflect current best practices Create new/update Position Descriptions Customers Create/update data collection - formalize a data collection system Create a Report on the "State of the Relationship" Share with customers for feedback and a go-forward plan Incoporate improvement plans with Value Mapping and SOp's Share improvements with customers to include price reductions People Based on new/updated Positiond Description, reorganize employees - fully engage and apply excess capacity to new roles Provide Business Acument Training to all levels of the organization Provide Line of Sight to all emplayees - Company Goals & Objectives Create individual scorecards and manual scoring for all employees Create a variable compensation system for performance Finance Chart chnages to Revenue Chart changes to Margins Chart changes to Profits Chart changes to Retained Earnings

Next Show/Part IV: The Strengthening Our Core Plan - The Details

Also it calibrates your break even point with far greater accuracy.

Show Objective Given a contracting economy with diminishing business opportunities and inflation devaluing the currency, create a new "TO BE" process and use it to establish best practices for each process and achieve Lowest Cost Producer in your market.

EPISODE 61: ​Summary

In order for a process to generate a good margin and contribute to profitability, all costs need to be identified and assigned to the correct step. This is required to identify a product or service's full cost, variable and fixed, and embed into each step of the process. There is no other way except guessing to answer the most fundamental question - does the output of this process, whether it is a product or service, have sufficient margin to make it profitable?

Topics:

• Every major process must a visual map - both internal and external. Economies, improvements, reduction in steps in every process has been identified and the map updated.
• Understand all costs - fixed costs (like power, rent, office staff etc) and variable costs (materials, labor, equipment maintenance).
• Working forward each step has a margin assigned. When completed has does the final number compare to the price?
• Hint: the best companies in the service sector are operating at 40+ margins. Determine whether you need more process improvements to alter the price?

Topics:

• Show/Chapter 6 Review Select the Target Process: Project Manager selects a target process. ​Assemble Process Teams: Simple Projects – Project Manager creates an Action Team to handle the design, building, testing, and finalizing of the new process. Complex Projects – Executive creates a Design Team for research, design, and project management; and an Action Team for building and testing the new process. Create “As Is” Process: Project Manager or Design Team works with employees in the targeted process to determine what they “actually do” and why those steps/methods were chosen.
• Conduct Market Research: Based upon the output produced from the targeted process Project Manager conducts research to establish a Benchmark (Should Be) as a starting point.
• Compare “As Is” to “Should Be” Process: Project Manager or Design Team compares what should be done against what actually occurs to determine the reasons for the difference. This information is critical for designing the “To Be” process.
• Perform a Value Check:
• Check 1 - does this step provide value to the customer is willing to pay for?
• Check 2 - is the step required for technical or quality demands?
• Check 3: is the step required for legal or regulatory demands? Complete a QSFD: A structured process for creating design specifications based upon user needs and technological requirements. Should include project manager, functional management, subject matter experts, and front line employees.
• Create “To Be” Process Map: Starting from the As Is, Design and/or Action Team build a process that establishes the company as the LCP (Lowest Cost Producer) or as close as possible.

Topics:

• Start with your new "TO BE" process as part of becoming the Lowest Cost Producer Divide the activities into cost pools, which includes all the individual costs related to an activity—such as manufacturing.
• Calculate the total overhead of each cost pool; Assign each cost pool activity cost drivers, such as hours or units;
• Calculate the cost driver rate by dividing the total overhead in each cost pool by the total cost drivers;
• Divide the total overhead of each cost pool by the total cost drivers to get the cost driver rate;
• Multiply the cost driver rate by the number of cost drivers.

Topics: You have increased production but margins are trending downward Product or Service mix has changed due to customer demands and margins are trending downward The factors used for drivers has changed and margins are trending downward

Next Show/Chapter 17: Cash Flow Cycle

The math is simple and it is nothing more than an extraction from your balance sheet. Once we know how well your investment into tangible and intangible assets perform, it will present the next question - what do I need to do to increase its value or what do I need to add to realize the full potential of my processes. The question is for next week.

Summary

The production of a product or service requires the investment in equipment, what are your capital investments to date to determine effective usage. How much did the equipment cost (don't consider platforms you lease or subscribe to), what is its life cycle before replacement, how often does it need to be serviced professionally (costs), what are costs incurred in your preventive maintenance system, what are the warranties/guarantees, does it require manufacturer training.

Creating Value Through Tangible Assets Today's show will start on the easier part of the problem - Tangible Assets. Here is a list of what is considered a Tangible Asset and the information is available on your Balance Sheet. This list is not inclusive of everything you potentially have, just what exists in most small businesses.

Topics: Cash Accounts Receivable Contracts Equipment Tools Furniture Real Estate Inventory Pre-paid Insurance

Topics: Balance Sheet Total Liabilities + Owners Equity = Total Assets Debt to Assets Ratio Total Liabilities / Total Assets = Debt to Assets Ratio Return on Assets Income / Assets = ROA

Topics: Trademarks Copyrights Patents Domain Names Employees Brand Goodwill

Topics: (Your ROA X Industry Average ROA) - Pretax Earnings = Intangible Asset Brand Value

Next Show/Chapter 17: Operating Costs

Show Objective

Given an organization wide emphasis for delivering on promise to customers, you will be able to take a negative event and make it a win for the customer.

EPISODE 69:

Summary

An effective recovery strategy requires several things are in place: (1) your marketing and sales efforts don't over promise to any significant degree, (2) your processes are under control so defects are minimized, (3) there is a policy for handling recovery situations, and (4) the front line can solve it without management involvement.

Topics:

• Understand the opportunity to build a service reputation
• Clear and stated Recovery processes
• Front Line personnel enabled to handle the complaint

Topics:

• Customer Intelligence is shared throughout the company
• All internal processes are designed to respond to customer complaints
• Frontline / Customer Facing personnel are supported internally
• Policy and Procedures align with servicing customers

Topics:

• Parameters are set that allow frontline / customer facing personnel maximum flexibility to fix the problem on the spot
• A clear policy exists outlining the the limited situations the customer-contact personnel push the issue to management

This is a tough issue for management or the owner, you must trust the frontline person to make good decisions. If you have brought them into the great game of business and they understand how you make money, they can make better decisions. This is not an issue of trusting them, your education on the business will make most of their decisions sound for the business while the customer wins.

Topics:

• Customer contact personnel understand how the company makes money
• There is a post-recovery discussions on the thought process for recovery
• Most situations do not require a financial response ​

Next Show/Chapter 19: The Personnel Gap

The question universal in all organizations is “how do we get people involved and committed?”

The reason that question is so critical is most people just trade time for money and arbitrarily limit their performance to match a paycheck. Getting people in the game changes how they think and increases the amount of discretionary performance they choose to share with the company. Show Objective Given your employees are a good fit for the job and have accurate position descriptions, you will create a system for focusing their efforts to maximize the impact on the company.

EPSIODE 73:

Summary

Getting People in the Game is an effect and is caused by how well the business goals and objectives are shared and are used as management tools. Once people understand their role in the show, it is time to increase their business knowledge so they understand the rules. Combining these two elements together with providing a daily line of sight to the business plan is an essential tool that allows them to own their own performance. The only thing left is the ‘WIIFM” - what's in it for me and that can be addressed by creating variable compensation where they share in the upside.

Topics:

• Management By Objectives (MBO)
• Business Acumen Training
• Shared Financials
• Line of Sight to the Business Plan
• Personal Scoring
• Variable Compensation

Make sure everybody in your meeting understands how to read these 3 vital statements. Next discuss the drivers of profitability and where to find it on the respective statements. Now move to assets and how it is created, then move to how cash is created.

Finally close with how their day-to-day behavior impacts the numbers.

Topics:

• Conduct basic financial training
• How to read the key business documents - balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and sources and uses of cash.
• The goal - improve employee competence to participate in the process
• Map Your Processes
• Fully Burden Everything with True Costs
• Conduct advance profitability training
• Build a model for how the company makes and keeps money
• Turn the model into a game - use it for application training

Instead of focuing on just top management as outlined in the Druker quote, what if we had everybody focusing on contribution? What if everybody in the company asked themselves this question when in doubt about what to do next - which of these will make the most significant impact on the business?

That question underscores why everyone in the business modt know two things - how the company makes money and what is their role in the show.

Topics: Strategic Initiatives (Aspirations) Goals - Company and Department (Results) Objectives (Activities) Line of Sight - their part

We will or should have electronic employee dashboards (on their computer) so they already know the numbers, this is different. Imagine in a work group a schedule board available visually to everyone with each individual posting their own numbers.

What impact would that have on performance and contribution?

Topics: Schedule Board - work scheduled over a specified period of time. DTD (end to end) - based what is on the Schedule Board, total time from beginning to end TaKT (performance in individual unit), WIPI (what is tied up between individual units, OEE (up-time or availability).

One thought before we start, you need to review PART III and those 4 Episodes (57-60). That show covered the big issues and today we are going small. Also, the shows we covered this week in Finance (Episodes 61-64), Operations (Episodes 65-68), Customers (Episodes 69-72), and People (Episodes 73-76) provide the details contained in the change plan.

Summary

The following 8 Steps reflect how the companies that were able to make change work for them. I have used it many times over the last 18 years with my clients and companies.

Topics:

• Establishing A Sense of Urgency
• Create a Guiding Coalition
• Develop a Change Vision & Strategy
• Communicating the Change
• Vision
• Empowering for Action
• Generating Short-Term Wins
• Consolidating and Accelerating Change
• The New Culture

Topics:

• Market Research
• Current Weaknesses that will make the situation worse
• Future Threats that must be removed
• Current Strengths we can build on
• If we can make the change, great
• Opportunities open to us
• Strategy Changes
• Impact on brand Impact on current products and/or services and the mix that comprises your offer Impact on
• Operations
• Implications of changing products and/or services on processes
• Impact on People
• Implications on the future
• Implications on their roles Impact on Customers
• Implications on the value of our offer to customers and price point
• Impact on Suppliers Implications on our relationship with major suppliers

Topics:

• Creating Guiding Team
• Who should be on the team
• What is their role
• How will they operate
• Developing the Change
• Vision
• Impact on the company's Vision - what modifications are required - if any
• Impact on the company's Mission - what modifications are required - if any
• Impact on the company's Values or Operating Principles - what modifications are required - if any
• Developing the Change Strategy ​
• What are the company's Aspirations (Initiatives) for the change?
• If the Aspirations are obtained, what are Results (Goals) for the change?
• If the Results are achieved, what are the Activities (Objectives) for the change?

Topics:

• What is the Plan to make the change effort successful?
• Given you need short-term wins to build momentum, where will you start? It must be significant enough to matter and easy as a first win - you must have a success story to tell from the first attempt (SCRUM #1)
• What process are you going to use to create the first success - (Sprints)
• What is second - SCRUM #2
• What is third - SCRUM #3, etc. How are you going to use those early successes to create momentum and accelerate the process?
• Ongoing to communication plan to keep everybody up-to-date
• How is the progress affecting the company?
• Impact on Vision, Mission, Values - need to change/update?
• Impact on compensation - are you rewarding the past or the future?
• Add to your company's story

Before lean a business would purchase inventory based on historical records and stockpile it. You had the piece of mind that when the order came in you could respond immedisately but what happens when your forecast is wrong? And if you buy too much - that is cash collecting dust. We have traded security for speed and a better bottom line.

Topics: Risk vs Risilience What If You Sell Time - What Time As Inventory? Practical Help with John Richards

Topics: "onshore" your suppliers move from global to national, national to regional, regional to local JIT +X% for the items that are not available locally or based on materials that cannot be onshored - buy X% additional materials to ensure supply Tier your suppliers - ensure one is local Create at least 2 tiers to your suppliers with some overlap 80/20 Your Suppliers: Tier 1 is the main supplier @80%, Tier 2 can provide the same, buy less - just enough to keep them interested - @20%

Well that has a simple answer - you can't. Imagine approaching a customer with the following sales proposition: "I'll sell all of last week for 50% off?" They will think you are crazy because time is a perishable. Once it passes it is lost.

The following are some ideas of how you can pull inventory in advance so there is nothing lost.

Topics: Know Thy Sales Cycle! Block your time into zones within the sales cycle A: 1-2 weeks prior - force PDO - Paid Days Off, Sick Days, or Vacation B: 2-4 weeks prior - replace personnel who exceeded their revenue goals for period C: 4-6 weeks prior - replace personnel who exceeded their applied rate (75%) D: 6-8 weeks prior - bring into the sales process to help close

Our goal is for you to "Strengthen Your Core" so the economic contraction will force you to build a better operation. Then when the economy begins an expansion - you'll be ready and in better shape than the competition.

Topics: Price Increases vs Cost Reductions More effectively manage your portfolio of products & services Get closer to your best accounts

There isn't an exact formula for moving to this next stage of the relatioship, only a some conditions are present - a matter of timing: (1) you have as much of their budget as possible for your suite of products and services, (2) they are very satisfied with your offer and the nature of the relationship, (3) you have observed or been made aware of areas your competence will help, (4) established positive relationships with key decision makers.

Topics: Analyze and Report on the relationships What do you have to share a customer would benefit from? Getting started

The long-term answer is manage operations - all processes to build it better and faster at lower cost.

Topics: Improve Supplier Relationships Move from supplier-buyer to an alliance-partner realtionships Improving Quality to Reduce Costs Value Mapping Accurate Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) All Position Descriptions are process based Improve Distribution Channels - Next Week

You can't get there if you don't start with systematic data collection - a CRM system. Use this data to first improve the sales and delivery relationship, then take it to the next level - helping them.

Topics: Promise Gap Recover Gap Personnel Gap Results Expectations User-Friendly Expectations Doing Business with You Expectations

The second place is to look at all the costs external to company. Inflation will affect your suppliers differently and relationships that made sense before won't now. The same can be said for supplier relationships that made no sense during an economic expansion could now be a better fit.

Topics: Manage the Portfolio Potential Stars Cash Cows Dogs Reassess Supplier Relationships Look for better alternatives based on price and quality Buy direct from manufacturers rather than distributors Remove service components - go DIY Investigate BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) Upgrade your lowest price offer

Topics: Financial Performance Lowest Cost Producer Customer Enthusiasm Discetionary Performance

Topics: Horizontal Alignment - every process stars with the customer and works backwards Map the Moments of Truth or Touch Points and put somebody on it Bring the Customer Inside to help customize the products & services they use Pass on cost improvements to customers first - before they stop buying or decreasing orders

Keep one thing in mind. Your 'Report' was not requested and might put the owner/executive in a defensive position. Make clear, if you suspect they see this as another sale pitch, what you are offering is not what you sell, it is out of concern for them.

Topics: Start with Improving your relationship Review all of the customer data Create an Report on Improvement Recommendations Arrange a Meeting with the Owner - Neutral Ground Offer to Help

Topics: Business Plan and Infrastructure What to Train Making It Stick and Multiplying Your ROI

It starts with your comfortability for sharing financial data. Are you ready to share the current state of the business and expose bad decisions and second guessing? It comes with the turf but the reward is worth the risk.

Topics: Business Plan (Vertical Alignment - Employees with Company Direction) Strategic Initiatives (Asoirations) Goals (Results) Objectives (Activities) Lowest Cost Producer (Horizontal Alignment - Processes with Customers) Value Mapping Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) Position Descriptions

Topics: Strategic/Business Plan Key Profit Drivers Financial Statements Problem Solving Decisions Making

What you are really doing is building into the DNA of the business the ability to 'Self Manage' and not rely on you or the management for everything.

Topics: Management By Objectives Executive Level Plan Cascaded through the organization Front-Line involvement Rolled Up the organization Plan finalized

As we covered on earlier on Friday's, you are responsible for the outline and rules, they are responsible for details. Today we are looking at 3 key implemenation areas: creating a guiding team, creating working teams, and your role in the managing the process.

Topics: Building the SCRUM Team Building Sprint Teams Managing the Process

The term was lifted from rugby and describes the huddle before the play. Since the word huddle is used for quick Sprint Team meetings, the decision to call the group a SCRUM.

Topics: SCRUM Master (Facilitator): Issue Resolution & Escalation, Problem Solving, Team Building, Coaching, Change Management; Product Owner: Manages Stakeholder Expectations, Budget & Cost Control, Risk Management; represents members of the Sprints in the SCRUM. Champion: the owner or senior executive - makes sure the project receives necessary support.

You have to balance their working on the Sprint with their regular role in the company. However the most significant factor in group selection is subject matter expertise. For this project management method to work it is essential you have the right people on the right task.

Topics: Managed by the SCRUM Master Members: autonomous subject matter experts that can operate in a team environment; Product Owner: customers representative for the project, can be internal or external Subject Matter Experts: specific expertise related to the project; Business Analyst: provides input on the impact to current and future operations; Department Representative: provides input on the impact to their department or group; Interim Manager: manages all of the iterations to track and document improvements; supports SCRUM Master.

Since Financial Performance is the Result of action taken in Operations, with Customers, and Employees, this analysis will give you insights where to look in the other 3 SCRUMS.

Topics: Determine the work groups or departments impacted - they have the expertise for successful execution and will be impacted by the project. Select the SCRUM Group - Owner is the Champion, Product Owner is head of Marketing & Sales or Operations, SCRUM Master is head of HR or manager being groomed for promotion. Select the Sprint Groups - individuals from the designated departments or groups based on the roles, expertise, and personality. SCRUM Master holds 1:1 with each candidate to determine eligibility and suitability for the intended role. SCRUM Master holds team meeting on roles and group dynamics. SCRUM #1 Sprints 1 - X SCRUM #2 Sprints 1 - X SCRUM #3 Sprints 1 - X

Topics: AP Best Practices Get Right Budget Renegoiate New Terms

Topics: Value Map the workflow and remove any inefficiencies or friction in the process Automate everything possible and make it as paperless as possible Put in access controls. One of the places where employee embezlement takes place Priortize payment based on cash flow, due date, and impact on credit Renegotiate payment terms - we will deal with this element in the next episodes

Topics: Determine number of +30 day accounts Create a budget or "get right" plan for every supplier consistently over 30 days Renegotiate your deals especially all COD requirements and early payment discounts Add up all of the early payment discounts and COD reductions - consider this found money, add to the "get right" budget Proposal Example Determine number of +30 day accounts Create a budget or "get right" plan for every supplier consistently over 30 days Renegotiate your deals especially all COD requirements and early payment discounts Add up all of the early payment discounts and COD reductions - consider this found money, add to the "get right" budget

Topics: Understand their business, brand, their sources for materials Will they price match with competitors Pay in advance to start the relationship Make your AP processes fit their accounting processes What does a good deal look like? Discounts on purchases Flexibility in payment terms - duration, fixed vs variable If in a different currency - look in rates

Topics: Schedule a meeting with the owner / key executives to present your report, If they are interested, present the report to their leadership andd management teams, Provide them with your template for achieving similar results, Support their initiatives as needed.

Now you are going use it as a tool for helping your core and most profitable customers to help them through the economic downturn. If they survive and continue to buy from you, is there a better definition of win-win?

Topics: How to conduct a value mapping process How to benchmark competitors The difference between "AS IS', "SHOULD BE", AND "TO BE" objectives How close was the 'SHOULD BE" to the "TO BE" and why you couldn't close the gap What were the lessons learned and final results How did it affect the target customers account and relationship

What B2B customer would turn down a request to strengthen thier core and stay in business when so many are struggling or dying?

Topics: Changes in how your offer (products & services) are tiered Changes in pricing structure Impact on costs and margins

Topics: Providing the Report and Templates as starting points Assigning your personnel to help the customer get started How you will support them over time

Topics: Basic Training Turning Profit Drivers into KPI's Front Line Goals & Objectives

Topics: Testing Understanding How does marketing and sales impact the top line or the revenue line? Close Ratio's? Time in the Sales Process? How does operations affect COGS (Cost Of Goods Sold)? How does adminsitration (non-variable costs) impact overhead costs? How does employee turnover, accidents, sick days, etc. impact profit?

It is essential the owner with help from the management team and/or their accountant identify what drives profit and therefore what actions must take place to make it happen - the KPI's.

Topics: Profit = Revenue - Costs ​Revenue = Total Sales Total Sales = Close Rate, Time to Sale, Average Sales Price Margin = work scheduling, task scheduling, quality/waste Production & Delivery Costs = direct costs of producing and delivering a product or service excluding overhead People Costs = Turnover, Accidents, Sick Days, Training

Topics: Company Goals and Objectives Aspirations (Initiaitves) for the period - the why Goals (Results) for the period - the what Objectives (Activities) for the period - the who, when, and how Department Goals and Objectives Which part of Company Goals does the Department impact? Rewrite the Company Goal into Department Goals Proposed Standards or Measures Rewrite the Company Objectives into Department Objectives Proposed Standard and Measures Personal Goals and Objectives Which part of Department Goals does the Individual or Group impact? Rewrite the Department Goal into Individual Goals Proposed Standards or Measures Rewrite the Department Objectives into Individual Objectives Proposed Standard and Measures

Topics: Your First SCRUM Targeting Financials First Productive Sprints

Topics: Vision for the Project Build aTeam SCRUM Master Product Owner Champion Determine Topics, Time Frame, and Desired Results Build a Backlog of Work for the Sprint Teams Create a SCRUM Meetings (Alignment & Calibration) Select Sprint Team

This section of the show we covered yesterday in Show 28: How To Share Financials With Employees.

Topics: Build the Backlog List Analyze past financial performance - a complete and accurate description of what happened and why Determine and chart Profit Drivers Based on Profit Drivers, what are the supportive KPI's (Key Perfomance Indicators) that measure progress Determine the metrics for each KPI, it's owner, and how to measure and share the data

Topics: Select Team Based On Roles Product Owner Subject Matter Experts Business Analyst Department Representative Interim Manager Team Charter Storyboard what success looks like Problem Solving & Decision Making process Dealing with Conflict End Goal - "By reviewing last years financial statements, explain why and how the company achieved it's financial results, determine the profit drivers for and key performanc eindicates for operations, customers, and people. Rules and Phases of SCRUMS and Sprints Define Explore Validate Iterate Use of the Backlog List Start

The Business Cycle and Financial​ Review End of Expansion: Stop hiring, reduce inventory, move to only pull production, cleanup your accounts with suppliers (AP), cleanup your accounts with customers (AR), allow AR over 60 days to settle.

At the Peak: Shift your focus to reducing costs from the expansion, large increases in revenue makes you sloppy.

Start of Contraction: Create a strategy to hold your best accounts, gain their help in improving your offer and reduce prices as a reward, factor AR over 45 days.

At Midpoint: Start work on improving current offer or development of new products / services.

End of Contraction: Increase relationships with existing and lost accounts to announce new offer and prepare marketing collateral.

Topics: Best Practices for Accounts Receivable What Should You Measure? Alternative Financing for Late Accounts

The area of real concern is the impact of the business cycle on AR. If you are in an Expansion or it's just coming to an end, everyone of your customers should be doing well enough financially to pay on time. If they are not, what are the chances they will be able to pay when the contraction starts or you're in a full blown recession?

Topics: Value Map the process Go electronic - automate billing SOP's for all components of the Accounts Receivable process Establish/Clarify credit and collection policies - i.e. all revenue recognized same day as payment received, monitor credit limits in sales Be Proactive - all invoices reviewed for accuracy, follow-up calls to check on it's accuracy, establish if there are any obstacles to online payment - respectful follow up Fit your AR to their AP

The following represents a solid list of early warning signs on where to put your attention.

Topics: Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) - aging reports Average Days Delinquent (ADD) - your loan portfolio Turnover ratio - paid vs open Collections Effectiveness Index (CEI) - % you are able to collect Revised Invoices - inaccurate invoices that delay payment Offer multiple payment methods

Topics: Requirements are an examination of your company’s financial statements, your accounts receivables, and your payables aging reports. The factoring company will also ask for information on your customers so that your receivables can be confirmed. One last note - make sure you have a written contract with customer's being factored.

Our position and part of our marketing strategy is preparating to take advantage of events effecting small businesses by offering insights and solutions when demand begins to grow.

Topics: Advantages & Disadvantages of being first to market First to Market Competencies Taking Advantage of the Next Expansion

Your processes have to be lean, marketing must have intimate knowledge of the early adopters, and you have enough financial resources to start. Once you are successful with a few early wins word of mouth will help defray additional marketing costs.

Topics: ​Advantages become the defacto standard high brand recognition build early loyalty that will make defection harder lock down other players to you, like suppliers create a high cost of switching Disadvantages gaining only early adopters, not the entire market large investment might not provide adequate return competitors learning from your mistakes your offer can be reversed engineered

Topics: Data Based: build upon existing relationships and improvements made during the contraction. Marketing Spend: educate the market on the offer before building brand presence. Customer Testing: beyond Market Research, when customers don't understand the offer - you must be right - how do you ensure a Steve Job's level of design competence. Testimonials: use improvements in your offer during the contraction to establish competence to support the message. Barriers to Entry: how do you make it impossible to be copied? Offer Features Offer Quality Offer Price Customer Support New Product/Service Development: first to market (first mover) means you take the initiative to create market standards that others must follow.

Topics: All early marketing campaigns are educational, use all avenues - audio and video, and channels Focus on your core (most profitable) customers first, what new opportunities do they see that a new offer can meet? Focus on existing markets, customers like your core customers Win back old accounts Win the orphans Take customers from weakened competitors Personalize marketing messages, using data from existing customers, talk to each prospect individually Bring in your distribution network, turn them into advocates for your new offer

Topics: Building a Data Based Customer System Mapping the Touchpoints Understanding Customer Expectations

Topics: Quantitative Data Qualitative Data Building a Working Model

Topics: Break the customer's experience into phases Map all the Touchpoints for Marketing Map all the Touchpoints for Sales Map all the Touchoints for 'Production' Map all the Touchpoints for Service Ensure every Touchpoint has an owner

Take this to the next level - what about things the customer doesn't expect that we can provide that would WOW them? In Raving Fans we called this Plus 1. It is not about add more items and cost, this about the experience.

Topics: Defining Line of Sight Creating Dashboards for Employees and Scorecards for the Owner Using Visual's to create commitment and accountability

​Going faster with better products and services starts with eliminating defects, scrap, and rework. This alone will change the financial picture and reduce the time from start to finish.

Topics: Link to last weeks show - PART VII The Operations Team Start with Lowest Cost Producer 1st OPS Project

If you have to do this alone, skip creating the groups and go directly to the Backlog of tasks. It is your working list to make it happen.

Topics: Creating OPS SCRUM Who Mission Charter Creating Sprint Team(s) Who Mission Charter Backlog Building the first Backlog Issues the Sprint Group must address guidance on the Order

Topics: Clarity on the end game what is the long game for the business and your role sell, merge, liquidate, IPO? Skin in the game as a member of the organization how do I benefit from helping you achieve the long game? variable compensation - WIIFM? Feedback on progress shared business goals and objectives vertical alignment of employees with strategy horizontal alignment of processes with end users Continuous feedback on performance measurement system based on balanced scorecard electronic and visual management of metrics Structured autonomy top down - creating the structure where autonomy is possible bottom up - taking initiative to solve problems at its level

Another way of looking at this regardless of the economy, if you want a profitable and long term future - being the LWP is a significant element in making that goal a reality.

Topics: Impact of OPS on your Financial Performance Analyze the Cost of Production Variable Costs - what you sell Fixed Costs - support of what you sell Total Cost - Variable + Fixed Marginal Cost - producing 1 more Average Cost - Total Cost / Units produced or Hours used

Every company has it's own version, the one we use is simple and it drives how IBGR creates programming. Financial Performance equals Operations plus Customers plus People multipled by the Executive or owner.

Topics: Setting Targets: for each element of your Balanced Scorecard, what is the Intention and the Results Measures for Goals, the Intention and Process Measures for Objectives? Finance Operations Customers People Setting Target Values: for each Goal what does the final result look like, how will be measured, and who is responsible? Setting Intermediate Targets for each Objective - what is the acceptable success level for this period and how will it be measured? Ensuring that every employee has all of the goals and objectives they impact covered by their position description

Topics: Schedule Board - work scheduled over a specified period of time. DTD (end to end) - based what is on the Schedule Board, total time from beginning to end TaKT (performance in individual unit), WIPI (what is tied up between individual units, OEE (up-time or availability).

Your OPS SCRUM will supervise the Sprint Team on how they operate and where to start on the Backlog of tasks. As the group progresses your control of their task selection will be driven by what is the next obvious item. Remember once you start this is an iterative process.

Topics: Backlog Review Process Maps or Map it now Subject every major and minor step to the Value Test would the Customer pay for it? is it a Technical requirement? are you Required to do it to meet a safety, environmental, or legal issue? Eliminate all steps with 3 no's Map a new process review Quality tickets or poll customers and employees challenge the group to start with 10% - increase in quality and decrese in time Test the new process does it work? achieve quality and time objectives?

We manage risks in business not to prevent risk, but to determine which to take or avoid through the prism of working capital and earnings. Today our focus is going to be on the marketing and sales areas leaving the other areas for operations.

Credit risk is where most small business operate. If correctly identified and managed, it can be leveraged as a strategic opportunity. Through effective credit risk management your business is able to greatly improve overall performance and secure a competitive advantage.

Topics: The Natrue of Types of Risks Managing Credit Risks Self-Financing Customers

Instead of building from an inside-out approach - our experts know better - it incorporates the voice of the customer into every step of the process and focuses internal experts on how to meet those requirements.

Topics: 4 QFD Levels 3 QFD Matrices Small Business Owners Using the Tools

We have shared with them the Vision, Mission, and Values of the company. We taught them the company's financials and had them participate in the creating this years Goals, Objectives, Metrics, and Standards.

Now we have them develop personal game plans for how they will effect the company's performance. It is this commitment we will hold them accountable.

Topics: Personal Goal Setting Fairness Feedback Reward

Topics: Sources Natural Human Economic Physical Insurable vs Uninsurable Risks Risk Appetite vs Risk Tolerance Risk Minimization

A Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic method to help identify customers' needs for designing a product (or service) in a way that it considers the customers' needs first time.

Topics: Level 1 - The translation fo customer wants and needs into product or service design characteristics utilizing a relationship matrix Level 2: The discovery of which assemblies, systems, sub-systems and components have the most impact on meeting the product or service design requirements and identify key design characteristics Level 3: Examine which of the processes or process steps have any correlation to meeting the component, part or service feature specifications Level 4: Listing all the critical processes or process characteristics in the “Whats” column on the left and then determine the “Hows” for assuring quality parts are produced and list them across the top of the matrix.

Topics: Business Credit Register and get a DUNS Number Use only accounts that report Get a business crad Monitor your score Customer Credit Competitive Advantage Increase sales Improve customer relationships Establish Credit Policy Credit Limit Credit Terms Collection Methods

Topics: Requirements Matrix - WHAT: Customer Requirements, HOW - Design Requirements Design Requirements - WHAT: Design Requirements, HOW - Engineering Design Product/Service Requirements - WHAT: Engineer Design, HOW - Product/Service Characteristics

Instead of building from an inside-out approach - our experts know better - it incorporates the voice of the customer into every step of the process and focuses internal experts on how to meet those requirements.

Topics: 4 QFD Levels 3 QFD Matrices Small Business Owners Using the Tools

EPISODE 154: The 4 Levels of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) We decided to provide you with the entire picture. There are 4 levels to the QFD process with #4 being optional.

A Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic method to help identify customers' needs for designing a product (or service) in a way that it considers the customers' needs first time.

Topics: Level 1 - The translation fo customer wants and needs into product or service design characteristics utilizing a relationship matrix Level 2: The discovery of which assemblies, systems, sub-systems and components have the most impact on meeting the product or service design requirements and identify key design characteristics Level 3: Examine which of the processes or process steps have any correlation to meeting the component, part or service feature specifications Level 4: Listing all the critical processes or process characteristics in the “Whats” column on the left and then determine the “Hows” for assuring quality parts are produced and list them across the top of the matrix.

EPISODE 155: The 3 QFD Matrices to Quickly Build a Winning Offer Although there are 4 Matrices in the process, we will focus on the first three because of the type of investment requirement. Since most small businesses have limited resources, let's cover what is possible.

Topics: Requirements Matrix - WHAT: Customer Requirements, HOW - Design Requirements Design Requirements - WHAT: Design Requirements, HOW - Engineering Design Product/Service Requirements - WHAT: Engineer Design, HOW - Product/Service Characteristics

EPISODE 156: How the Small Business Owner Can Use the Tools This looks difficult and complicated, it can be if you miss the point. This process of using matrics (charts) simplifies the process by sequencing steps to take a product/service idea to a final offer. The goal is to make the process comprehensive, miss nothing, and get it done as quickly as possible. Picture

Topics: Customer Requirements - measureable design targets and drive them from the assembly level down through the sub-assembly, component and production process levels Design Requirements - specifications and requirements contained in the contract to specify the minimum standards and define the limits of the project Engineering Design - the methods used to identify root cause and solve problems Product/Service Requirements - the features and attributes of the deliverable that needs to be controlled

Topics: ​Inhouse or third party? BNPL (Buy Now - Pay Later) Key Questions Can your customers qualify? What are the spending requirements? Will customers use it? What does it cost you? Impact on margins? Global Players PayPal ViaBill Klarna Afterpay Integrate with eCommerce platforms Part of your advertizing and marketing

Today's show introduces you to 4 part series on using the customer's core competencies to help improve your business and start the process of co-development - whether you are improving an existing offer or creating a new one. In may ways it is a reversal of show 23 where you offered your services to help them, now its time to see if they return the move.

Show 35 is an overview of 3 methods of utilizing the customers expertise and completencies to cement the relationship.

Topics: Customers & Agile Projects Co-Development of Your Offer Customers & Beta Testing

Topics: User Stories Roles SCRUM - Product Owner Sprints - Subject Matter Expert(s) Testing Internal Champion

Understand that the old model of R&D, Research and Development, is backwards. Given the world of small business operations you need to reverse the mindset - co-develop with customers and suppliers to conduct user research. It is easier, faster, and less expensive.

Topics:

• Requirements Matrix
• Design Matrix
• ​Offer (Product or Service) Characteristics Matrix

Additionally customers and suppliers bring a different mindset that leads to new ideas. Finally you will reduce the barrier between the two or three organizations.

Topics: Training Testors Creating Realistic Testing Environment (Soft Launch) Create Test Metrics

​This is a secret that is missing in most organizations and size doesn't matter. Most of the places I have worked, and hopefully avoided in my own businesses, are people trading time for money. This relationship to work in small businesses is deadly.

Topics:

• Don't Make Yourself Look Stupid
• If This Is A Management Tool - What is Required?
• How to Chart Personal Performance

Now for the definition in English. All 'normal' people hold the following belief's about themselves: they are good, honest, and competent people. This is not only what they feel about themselves but more importantly this is how they want others to perceive them.

Taking this further, we will do what it takes to avoid embrassing ourselves in front of others. I have used this concept during many years in a leadership role. If this is true, and my experience is it is close to being an absolute, it drives techniques that place people in the following bind: they are either carry out their assignments to the best of their ability or show themselves up as either incompetent or liars. This a situation we work hard to avoid.

Topics: Ensure Goals, Objectives, and Standards are clear Use the participatory tools of Vertical (Line of Sight to Business Goals) and Horizontal Alignment (Processes Based on Customer Value) Gain commitment for doing what is needed to support the tasks assigned Hold them accountable for their stated commitments

We have shared with them the Vision, Mission, and Values of the company. We taught them the company's financials and had them participate in creating this year's Goals, Objectives, Metrics, and Standards.

Now we have them develop personal game plans for how they will affect the company's performance. It is this commitment we will hold them accountable.

Topics:

• Personal Goal Setting
• Fairness
• Feedback
• Reward

Topics: Two Boards Scheduling Actual vs Desired Backlog Tasks Awaiting Action Board Elements Task Status - numbers and color coding (Red, Yellow, Green) Indicate Areas in Need of Support Indicate Actions Taken Show Desired vs Abnormal Management Needs Information that is Accurate and Current Goals & Targets are visible Metrics visible Reasons for 'Misses'

Remember during an economic contraction (recession or depression) you want to keep your customers buying as long as possible and to return when the contraction is over. These will become customers for life because you helped them stay solvent and buying.

Topics: SCRUM and Sprints - Improve Your Customer Data Base Reset The Relationship with Data Share Your Improvements with Customers

The Sprints will analyze where you are and identify holes in your customer knowledge. Then fill in the holes so the picture is complete. Marry this to all of your process improvements to date and you have an excellent INternal Report for later use as you continuously improve your production and servicing processes.

Now take this docuement and convert it into a document you can use as marketing collateral.

Topics: SCRUM - What Do We Know and Don't Know? Sprints Analyze the data currently collected Build a composite picture of core customers Where are thge holes? What don't we know? Recomendations of what to collect, how to collect it, who to share it with - to complete the picture?

Topics: Create both an Internal and External Report on your process improvements Create a Customer Team for the Customer Meeting Hold a Briefing to Rehearse the Meeting Each member has a role Request a meeting with the owner, the executives, or your contacts Send them an agenda

Saave the punchline to last whre you announce effective immediately the price reductions they will receive. Once the whole thing haas been consumed, close with the clincher - "how can we help you do the same?"

Topics: Introduce the Purpose of the Meeting - Using Their Feedback, the Process Improvements You Made Walk Them Through the Report First for understanding Second open to questions - gain their insights Third offer them price reductions starting today - what has been ordered or future purchases Offer to Help Them to Achieve the Same in Their Processes

Know your BE point, weekly cash flow reports, maintain cash reserve, have a credit line, handle overdur accounts quicly, offer quick pay discounts, negotiate better terms for AP, use ABC account tools.

Topics: Purpose of Forecasting Cashflow Determing The Period of Time of the Forecast Determing the Method of the Forecast

To make the forecast meaningful, you need to determine what question are you trying to answer.

Topics: Short-term liquity planning Interest and debt reduction Covenant Visibility Liquity Risk Management Growth Planning

Topics: Short Periods Mid Periods Long Periods Mixed Periods

Topics: Time Horizon? Short-term Long-term What Question Does it Answer? Cash to fund working capital Cash required to fund longer term growth stratregies or investments in capital projects How to Build It? Analysis of upcoming receipts and debits, payments and credits Income Statements and Balance Sheet derivatives - customer reports

Topics: Customer's Role Customer Orginated Company Initiated

Use your periodic 'State of the Business' Report as the starting point. Discuss how to improve the relationship with customers and the opportunity will arise to move beyond how to do what you are doing better to real improvements.

Topics: Regular Debriefing on 'State of the Relationship' Report Improvement Recommendations in Current Relationship Storyboard How the Product/Service is Used

Assuming you are close with the current relationship, then take their storyboard and have them think out-of-the-box - what if we started with a clean sheet of paper?

Follow this line of thinking until you have a good idea of what their recommendations means for your business, but before you commit - move on to the next conversation - ideas you have.

Topics: CRM/Data Based Reports on the Relationship Suggestions for Upgrades / Improvements New Product & Service Ideas

You have observed their operation, you have quality data on the relationship, researched their business and market, and their recommendations - now is the time to roll out yours. Share your out-of-the-box ideas and discuss your clean sheet of paper.

​At the end of the conversation summarize what has been discussed and ask where would they like to start? Expect another meeting to formalize and begin the design process.

Topics: CRM/Data Based Reports on the Relationship Co-Design Collaboration

The best description is an iterative (a series of steps you repeat, tweaking and improving the product or service under development to make it as perfect as possible) project process performed in a collaborative environment by self-organizing teams.

It had its origins in software where developers and users would sit side-by-side, writing code and testing almost at the same time. It created better software faster and at lower cost. It has been adopted by many industries and is a powerful approach to developing new products and services.

Topics: Agile Project Cycle Agile Tools Agile Players

When employing the agile approach you don't know what the final output will be so you focus on a repeatable process that will produce the best possible result. Your focus is on accuracy and speed.

Topics: SCRUMS - Planning Sprints - Iterative Designing, Execution, and Testing Backlog - List of tasks accomplished during a Sprint with limited sequencing Daily Huddles - Team meeting at the beginning of every Sprint Matricies - how to organize the data Requirements Matrix - WHAT: Customer Requirements, HOW - Design Requirements Design Requirements - WHAT: Design Requirements, HOW - Engineering Design Product/Service Requirements - WHAT: Engineer Design, HOW - Product/Service Characteristics

The major difference is sticking to the process and allowing the teams (Sprints) to self-organize based upon the current backlog item and who is in attendance at that point in time.

Topics: SCRUMS SCRUM Master (Facilitator): Issue Resolution & Escalation, Problem Solving, Team Building, Coaching, Change Management; Problem Owner: Manages Stakeholder Expectations, Budget & Cost Control, Risk Management; represents members of the Sprints in the SCRUM. Champion: the owner or senior executive - makes sure the project receives necessary support. Sprints Product/Service Owner: customers representative for the project, can be internal or external Subject Matter Experts: specific expertise related to the project; Business Analyst: provides input on the impact to current and future operations; Department Representative: provides input on the impact to their department or group; Interim Manager: manages all of the iterations to track and document improvements; supports SCRUM Master

3 Weeks ago we discussed starting with the Financials for the first SCRUMS and Sprints. 2 weeks ago we covered SCRUMS and Sprints for Operations, and last week applying the Agile process to Customers.

This show focuses on the last element - People. We are accomplishing that at 2 levels: fixing their working conditions and gaining their commitment to make the company better.

Topics: Getting People Into the Game Make It Easy To Perform Earning a Share of the Upside

In reality you are creating mini-entrepreneurs to make better decisions on how the job is performed and their impact on on the company's future.

Topics: Business Acumen - How Do We Win Shared Financials Management by Objectives

Value mapping the process, eliminating unnecessary stpes and then documenting it with SOP's will make a huge difference. It will make it easier to perform will and uses their expertise and experience to make it part of the company's dna.

Topics: Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) Position Descriptions Line of Sight

Topics: Revenue KPI's Profit KPI's Investment KPI's

Topics: Sales Growth Rate = (Current Net Sales - Previous Net Sales / Previous Net Sales) X 100 Operating Cash Flow = Net Income + Non-Cash Expenditures + Change in Working Capital Working Capital = Current Assets / Current Liabilities Forecast Variance = Diffence Between Forecast & Actual Sales Day Outstanding = (Average AR / Total Credit Sales) X Total Sales Days Payable Outstanding = (Accounts Payable / COGS) X Days in Accounting Period Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio = Net Credit Sales / Average Accounts Receivable Accounts Payable Turnover Ratio = Total Purchases on Credit / ((Begining AP + Closing AP) X 2) Current Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities Cash Flow from Operations = Net Income + Non-Cash Items + Changes in Working Capital

Topics: Reoccuring Revenue Rate (MRR) = Sum of all Reoccuring Payments by month Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) = Total Revenue / Number of Subscribers Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) = Labor Costs + Materials Cost + Service Costs + Delivery Costs Gross Proftability = Total Revenue - COGS Customer Contribution = Revenue per Customer - COGS per Customer Earnings Before Taxes Interst payments Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) = Revenue - EBITDA

Topics: Return on Equity = (Net Income / Average Shareholders Equity) X 100 Internal rate of Return =

This is how we use the Agile Project Management process. Before we bring in a customer to participate in building it for them we need to decide whether it can be built and deliver the results expected.

Topics: Why Alpha>Beta>Release Works Alpha Options Step by Step Prototyping

Topics: Quicker to market Engages the organization Understand user requirements Builds the backlog for the next round - Agile

Once you have this initial offer, it allows you to test it internally and understand whether this project has a future. ​ Topics: Paper Based - idea review Feasibility Product / Service - ability to translate customer requirments into a working offer Alpha Product / Service - testing the offer internally

Topics: Use the QFD Process Requirements Matrix Design Matrix Product / Service Characteristics Matrix Build It Paper > Feasibility > Alpha Testing the Critical Features - QFD rankings Move from one-off to 'manufacturability' Create a 'Build Report' for the Agile process

Topics: Storyboarding the Product / Service What and How is the Group Going to Achieve It Who is Going to Do What When

Topics: Creating the entire Epic User Story - what does perfect look like? Breakdown the Story into Chapters - by User Pull out the key characteristics from each story - Results & UX

Topics: How will this group support making the story real? Make decisions Deal with conflict What are the top results this group must accomplish to make the story real? their list from the story your list from alpha testing How the iterative process works backlog list

Topics: Persoanlty assessment - yes or no? List the roles Subject Matter Experts (SME) - specific expertise Financial Analyst - business impact Interim Manager - tracking the iterations Solution Owner - represent the solution owner Devils Advocate - forces the group to think through decisions before action ​Conflict Manager

Topics: The Burning Platform - Reason for the Change Creating & Building the Teams (SCRUMs & Sprints) The Project/Implementation Plan

Topics: Report on the State of the Business - Today through 18 months The Burning Platform & Rationale The Process of Managing Change (8 Steps)

Topics: Training Financial Acumen Management By Objectives (MBO) Line of Sight Agile Project Management Team Building Group Dynamics Team Chartering Change Metrics Charting, Dashboards, and Scorecards

Topics: Finance SCRUMS & Sprints Operations SCRUMS & Sprints Customer SCRUMs & Sprints People (Employee) SCRUMS & Sprints

Cryptocurrencies can be mined or purchased from cryptocurrency exchanges. Not all ecommerce sites allow purchases using cryptocurrencies. In fact, cryptocurrencies, even popular ones like Bitcoin, are hardly used for retail transactions. However, the skyrocketing value of cryptocurrencies has made them popular as trading instruments. To a limited extent, they are also used for cross-border transfers. - Investopedia

Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that doesn't rely on banks to verify transactions. It’s a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to send and receive payments. Instead of being physical money carried around and exchanged in the real world, cryptocurrency payments exist purely as digital entries to an online database describing specific transactions. When you transfer cryptocurrency funds, the transactions are recorded in a public ledger. Cryptocurrency is stored in digital wallets. - CoinDesk

The given price of an underlying asset will depend on the characteristics of the market and, just like many central bank currencies, each token in the crypto space has different characteristics to prevent depreciation and help retain its value in the market. CoinDesk

Topics: Fungibility Durability Portability Recognizability Stability

This is a simple model. Are you Reintroducing an existing but improved offer or is it really brand new? Then who are your target markets (accounts)?

By analyzing the risk, the safetest place to start is with existing customers with an improved offer. They know you and they know the offer - just not in its improved state. Once you have gained as much market share as possible (pr you can afford), the next step is to move to adjacent markets where you haven't sold before and the customers are similar - same buying persona. Once you have achieved as much market share as possible, now take more risk by going after new markets. Offer Type Lower Risk Higher Risk New Offer 2. Adjacent Markets 4. New Markets Same or Improved Offer 1. Existing Markets 3. New Markets Topics: Making the Offer More Generic Test Market Acceptance Go-Live

Topics: Storyboarding Customer Usage Meet Needed/Promised Results? Meet Needed/Promised UX - User Friendliness?

You don't test practice, only the game. You must stress test the offer and the support functions to identify failure points prior to the hard launch.

Topics: Profile of Participants: friendly, demanding, honest, low risk, look like real customers - is their storyboard similar to the beta? Preparing the Staff: everybody is to act as if it is real, including supervisors and managers. We can't learn if we don't act normal. The Event must be as real as possible. Don't test a practice! Execute according to plan or there is nothing to evaluate. The Debrief with the participants. Give them an opportunity to comment anonymously and then discuss the comments.

You are ready for the world to know your offer. Your main role and responsibility during the Hard Launch is to be the captain of the ship.

If you hired out to help with the launch, ythere should be a need to micromanage the work. Your job is to ensure that your Hard Launch continues to maintain the course while making adjustments as needed. Introducing the offer needs you to be fully present and leading from the front. This is the time to step up and stay active.

Topics: You must have an intimate knowledge of your marketing plan. As course corrections are made, make sure that every part of your marketing presence continues to reinforce the image you want the world to identify as uniquely yours. Collect, track and adjust. Collect the data often, interpret the results and keep the focus on ROI. Your marketing dollars should have a positive impact on lead generation as well as sales conversions. Analyze your funnel and identify gaps. Are any “coffee stains” showing up now that need to be addressed? Is there any confusion in the marketplace that needs to be cleared up. Find them and fix them. You profit numbers should be increasing. Compare current data to previous soft launch data. What can be improved to increase your ROI in areas that are underperforming?

Marketing now knows it has a winner with data and testimonials. It needs from operations what is the final offer so they can identify target markets and start planning the campaigns.

Topics: Close out the project - what did you learn - the Numbers Close out the project - what did you learn - the Emotions Building the Generic Offer to Go Market Wide

This is the first half - the skeleton. You need quantative data (numbers) to measure progress and results. It doesn't provide the complete picture, just the outline.

Topics: Point of Sale Data Focused Surveys Feedback on Offer Performance

Topics: Input from the Front Line & Users Focus Groups - Internal & external Executive Debrief

​All that is left is timing - has the expansion started and future customers are ready to buy.

Topics: Create Final Report on the Beta Review original design notes & update Design the Generic Offer - Stop, Continue, Add

Topics: Executive & Management Meetings Supervisory & Routine Meetings Special Meetings

However there is one more hidden goal - understand how people in your orgnization think and make decisions.

Topics: Executive (Owner) Meeting with Managers 30-60 minute meeting facilitated by a team member on decisions made that week and who helped them. Owner attends to observe and only gets involved when necessary. One Page Report (roll up from manager one pages) Manager Meeting with Supervisors 30-60 minute meeting facilitated by a team member on results achieved that week and who helped them. Manager attends to observe and only gets involved when necessary. One Page Report for Executive Meeting (roll up from supervisor one pages)

Topics: Supervisor Meeting with Employees 30-60 minute meeting facilitated by the supervisor on problems solved that week and who helped them. One Page Report for Management Meeting. Routine Huddles Process Based - daily 5-15 minute standing meeting on production demands from yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Topics: Agile Projects SCRUM Sprint Planning Daily SCRUM Sprint Review Sprint Debrief Backlog Refinement Sprints Planning Standup Review Debrief Traditionasl Projects Special Projects - 30-60 minute on Budget, Schedule, and Change Orders as specified in the project plan.

IBGR.News, our business and economic news division, has been forecasting an economic contraction since June of 2021. It now appears we successfully read the tea leaves. EPISODE 1: Season 10 Before we start into Economic Models and Business Cyles, let's get a few terms out of the way.

Topics: Supply - what and how much is available Demand - what do people need and want to buy Price - the balance between demand & supply Perfect Information - access to and accuracy of the information Animal Spirits - degree of confidence people have spending money as oppossed to hording it until a better time Inflation - the devaluing a currency through over printing Demand Destruction - a significant increase in price, whether inflation of supply/demand imbalance, that stops customer purchasing

The rational models believe that people, the ulitmate players, make decisions in their best interest based on the information available. When they don't the government should intervene. The emotional models believe decisions are feeling based with rationality playing a role in justification. It is a belief that ultimately people will make decisions than government.

Thanx to zerohedge for the following definitions.

Topics: Rational Models Marxism: a capitalist economy is not just flawed, but naturally self destructive and therefore requires outside intervention and regulation to be consistent with prosperity. In essence, the capitalist class will obtain exceptional power over the labor class resulting in massive inequality and general hardship. ​Socialism: derivative of Marxism where the state owns most of the means of product with some private enterprise activity Modern Monetary Theory: capitalism is naturally flawed and can only operate at full capacity if the government is used to permanently fill any demand shortages that exist. Behavioral: the economy is complex, dynamic and uncertain and is being navigated by imperfect participants. Because of this it could be appropriate for government intervention at times. Combination Models New Classical Economics: rational agents are always making optimal decisions and firms are always maximizing profits, but the economy is often shocked by “real” effects like unanticipated policy changes, changes in technology or changes in raw materials. New Keynism Economics: economic agents are rational, but markets are imperfect due to phenomena such as “sticky prices”. This can result in broad market failures leading to recession. Post Keynesian Economics: capitalism exists on an inherently unstable foundation and will at times require some forms of government intervention to achieve prosperity. ​Market Monetism: the economy is unlikely to reach equilibrium without a permanent nominal targeted income targeting rule in place. ​Emotional Models Classical: classical economists were the emerging capitalists from the age of feudalism. They saw outside intervention in the markets (such as regulation and government) as a disruption to the natural order of markets. Austrian: the less the government is involved in the economy the better it will perform; the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals

The role of the business cycle is to reward productivity and innovation to achieve growth until the quality of decisions decrease creating bubbles. When a bubble bursts the business cycle cleanses out the bad decisions to better utilize investments in productivity and innovation.

How long and serious is a function of government intervention in the cycle which impacts supply and/or demand and therefore distorts price. Business cycles left unhindered are swift and long lasting (expansions) and contractions short and painful.

Topics: 8 Stages of the Business Cycle Expansion Equilibrium Point Bubble Crest Contraction Eqilibrium Point Recession/Depression Trough

The only control we have is our response. During an expansion the owner's focus is on markets in the pursuit of revenue. While in a contraction the focus shifts internally and bring costs under control while holding as much revenue as possible. ​ Topics: Expansion - First to Existing Markets Equilibrium Point - First to Adjacent Markets Bubble - First to New Markets Crest - Cash Flow Management Contraction - Lowest Cost Producer Equilibrium Point - Hold Best Accounts Recession/Depression - Upgrade/New Offer Trough - Ready First to Market with New/Improved Offer

So today we will pick up from last week where we covered Leading, Current, and Trailing Indicators - or what should I pay attention to and better management my business. Today is the fun topic of economic bubbles. EPISODE 9: What is an Economic Bubble? A bubble is an economic cycle that is characterized by the rapid escalation of market value, particularly in the price of assets.

This fast price growth is followed by a quick decrease in value, or a contraction, that is sometimes referred to as a "crash" or a "bubble burst."

Bubbles are typically attributed to a change in investor behavior, although what causes this change in behavior is debated... Investopedia

Topics: Displacement Boom Euphoria Profit Taking Panic

Topics: Holland 1634 - 1637: Tulips United Kingdon 1720: High Seas United Kingdom 1862: Railway Mania United States 1929: Black Thursday United States 1980: Precious Metals Japan 1980: The Lost Decades United States 1990's: Bubble Trouble United States 2006: Housing Boom

Topics: Sovereign Debt Corporate Debt Consumer Debt Student Loan Debt Stock Market Asset Real Estate Bubble

We are going to look at the numbers for the United States as of offical July 2022 reports and see if there is a theme.

​ For definitions, reference show FOUNDER SERIES: S10.2.

The one thing to remember with all statistics - one data point is #$%@ happens. You need at least 3 data points to establish a trend. Here is the data from July 2022 for the United States. Next report will be global. ​ Green or Positive: 7 (35%) Black or Neutral: 2 (10%) Red or Negative: 11 (55%)

EPISODE 17: Leading Economic Indicators Yield Curve: 2 Year 3.10, 10 year 2.73 Durable Goods Orders: +1.9 Stock Market: +9.22% Manufacuring Jobs: +30,000 Building Permits: 1690 (neutral)

If you follow IBGR.News, it is obvious we are capitalists - entrepreneurial capitalists to be exact.

We believe that the 380 million small business owners who employ 57% of the planet are the most important community. EPISODE 21: They Keep Us Stupid on Purpose I know this an inflammatory statement to start a show, but it is true.

The reason for the statement is simple. If you could intelligently decipher the BS espoused by politicians, thought leaders, and media talking heads.

Imagine the second a legislator or prime minister makes a ststement about the latest policy, you could smell the #$%^ over the TV or radio?

They need you stupid to sell what doesn't work - or least the vast majority of pundits.

Topics: Capitalism Was Created Capitalism Creates Poverty Capitalism Is Unstable Capitalism Creates Obscene Profits Capitalism Creates Misinformation

Topics: Capitalism Leads to Environmental Destruction Capitalism Led to a Concentration of Power Capitalism Leads to Globalization Capitalism Led to Lower wages and Benefits Capitalism Rewards Racism and Segregation

If forced to provide an explanation, the answer remains we are in the early stages of a recession. With the announcements by major employeers of layoffs by the end of the year and a forecasted reduction in the PMI (Purchasing Managers Index), these events will accelerate the contraction. By the end of the year the picture will be clear.

(JULY)​ Green or Positive: 7 (35%) Black or Neutral: 2 (10%) Red or Negative: 11 (55%) (AUGUST) Green or Positive: 6 (30%) Black or Neutral: 4 (20%) Red or Negative: 10 (50%)

EPISODE 29: Leading Economic Indicators Yield Curve: 2 Year 3.10, 10 year 2.73 (JULY); 2 Year 3.421, 10 Year 3.039) spread increased by .012% (AUGUST) Durable Goods Orders: +1.9 (JULY); +.9, decrease of 1% (AUGUST) Stock Market: +9.22% (JULY); -1.95, a decrease 11.12% (AUGUST) Manufacuring Jobs: +30,000 (JULY); not available Building Permits: 1690 (neutral) (JULY); decreased by -1.3% (AUGUST)

If you have been following the new, especially IBGR.News, the picture isn't pretty and the contraction has just started.

For definitions, reference show FOUNDER SERIES: S10.2.

If forced to provide an explanation, the answer remains we are in the early stages of a recession. With more announcements by major employeers of layoffs by the end of the year, a forecasted reduction in the PMI (Purchasing Managers Index),and the #rd Quarter in a rom of negative GDP, these events will accelerate the contraction. By the end of the year the picture will be clear.

One additional note, we have recalibrated our numbers as the govermen has adjusted the numbers. Today we are using 'official' numbers as it is available.

EPISODE 37: LEADING INDICATORS​ Leading Indicators July August September Yield Curve 2yr - 3.10 ​10yr - 2.73 2yr - 3.42 10yr - 3.04 2yr - 4.168 10yr - 3.703 Durable Goods 1.9+ .9+ 0.0 Stock Market 8.39- 9.11+ 4.42-​ Manufacturing Jobs 12,794 12,852 ? Building Permits 1890m 1517m ?

Manufacturing Activity 52.2+ 51.3+ 51.6+

Short Term Interest rates 4.229% 4.962% 5.320%

Inflation 9.1% 8.5% 8.3%

GDP Q1: 1.6- Q2: .9- Q3: .01-

Unemployment Rate 3.5 3.7 ?

Balance of Trade $79.6B ? ?

Good: 4 (13%) Neutral: 4 (13%) Bad: 18 (60%) ​No Data: 4 (13%) Total: 30

Our analysis: given the 3 Quarters of negative GDP growth, it fits the technical definition of a recession. Looking at manufacturing activity and therefore jobs, we are at the beginning of the contraction.

Left alone by the government, the market can cleanse itself in 6-8 months, certainly within a year. However government will not resist the political pressure to do something and that will lead to distorting the contraction.

Remember the goal of a contraction in the business cycle is remove bad investing decisions (all uses of capital) to bring a balance between demand and supply, between the value of something and its price.

Since I started on this journey over 43 years ago, the first 2/3's of my career was consulting with the C Suite (CEO, COO, etc.) on building a sustainable organization that could also achieve rapid growth. S11 E5 The Self Managed Organization

Once a business gets to a certain size these two objectives seem to be mutually exclusive. Based on that experience I built a collection of business rules that when combined created high performing, fast growth companies that had long futures. This is my story.

I have a different view of things than traditional media and consulting. The lessons we learned turning around a small radio station taught me two things: I love the industry, and it has no future. Loving the industry satisfied a need that was decades old. Answering the question of how do we bring corporate consulting to where it will have the greatest impact - small business? It was obvious the medium of audio, broadcasted globally, could reach the 375 million small business owners employing 57% of everyone in the private sector. Finally, after years of working on finding a business model and delivery method, I had the answer.

Radio, AM in particular, is a bandwidth without a profit model. The last 3 decades of syndicating political speech and automating radio stations were spent. What if we used the radio spectrum and the internet to niche the market and provide insights and tools critical to starting, growing, and exiting a business?

What if the radio was the plumbing bringing water to your house, and the water was consulting? This different approach is instilled in everything we do at IBGR. Our principles are to provide entrepreneurs with everything they need to build generational wealth and create jobs regardless of their geographic location.

Everything we do is demand-based; what is required to start fast and successfully, what is required to scale the business with growth that can be sustained, how does the owner achieve their end game. As serial entrepreneurs, we understand owners need to feel connected. All of us want feedback and control. We want instant response to decisions and the agility to implement. We want the ability to deploy resources efficiently and accelerate momentum to create quick wins.

At IBGR, we understand the relationship between the owner and their business, their investment and risks in this act of creation.

2. Line of Sight to Business Objectives. The yearly business Plan This is where your use of MBO is critical. Managing By Objectives requires everyone has a piece of the action, an expressed part of this periods business objectives.

3. Ongoing Feedback on Performance and Results Although on occasion this is feedback delivered by an immediate supervisor, to make this work feedback on their performance (progress and/or results) needs to be delivered by the system. Consider the 80/20 rule as a great place to start.

5. Pay4Performance The only true measure of business performance is profitability, not revenue. It doesn’t matter how much money flows in; it is all about what is left in the cigar box. If it is true about you as the owner why should it be different with anybody else. Tie all of your compensation to how people impacted the amount of money left in the bank.

6. Share the load Get everybody into the game, the great game of business. Most people work in environments where they are forced to bowl with a sheet over the lanes. Imagine the only feedback you receive is noise without knowing how many pins were knocked down or where? And where do you throw the second ball? Why are you the only person losing sleep at night because the company is not performing?

8. What Is The Payoff The payoff is simple, to create the systems and processes to make self-management possible forces extreme levels of clarity and executives who can focus on their role - the long term health of the business.

Segment 1 Dominic covers his journey from an enlisted airman in the USAF to becoming a wealth manager of individuals and business owners as well a successful business owner running a major investment practice

Segment 4 Dominic closes the interview with success stories of building wealth an helping others achieve their dreams.

Segment 1 Greg shares his progression from engineering to his first experience in business - buying into a franchise. This transition helped him give back to other budding entrepreneurs by starting a franchising company.

Segment 2 Greg contrasts the challenges of the startup phase for the individual business owner with purchasing a franchise and having guard rails on a path to success.

Segment 3 Like segment 2, in this segment Greg discusses the two growth options available to franchising: horizontal - open more locations or vertical - creating a franchise.

Segment 4 Greg shares his success stories as a business owner and the stories of other owners selecting the right franchising option.