Finance Model

Recently I grudgingly shelled out $9.25 plus another $4.25 for a movie ticket and an accompanying soda to see George Clooney's handsome face on a big screen (I don't believe there is anyone who improves with age as he has). The movie was Up In the Air in which George Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, fires people for a living. There is an art to his delivery and he provides the employees being laid off with a packet that promises this will be a positive change for them, if they choose to make it one.

He travels around the country delivering this depressing message and his schedule fills up as references are made to auto and manufacturing companies. If I understand correctly, many of the employees featured in these scenes were real people who had been laid off as our economy declined at a break neck speed.

Granted, there is a romantic story line incorporated into the film but what I really took away from it was that our country's unemployment rate is not merely a number or statistic. I hear it referenced practically every day on the news but rarely do I associate the recent increase or perhaps an uncharacteristic decline for the month, with real people.

We have become desensitized to news in general and use that as a coping mechanism for the unfortunate state of the economy and perhaps, of our own finances. In order for our country, economy and ourselves to fully rebound from the struggles of the past few years, we need to remember these numbers aren't just statistics, they are people.

This is a concept that also needs to be top of mind as we look to continue to do business in 2010. Those of you considering starting a business must be thorough in your preparation, creating accurate business plans and business strategies that project for both best case scenarios as well as worst case. You must do thorough and even exhausting market research to be sure to position your venture for success, before you ask others to tie themselves to the future of your company. If you're already in business, an organization assessment might be a beneficial exercise.

This is a necessary outlook in terms of customers as well or whoever you are doing business with - prospects, current clients or customers and vendors. The way you do business has to become personal again, after all, you're dealing with people, just people. It shouldn't be more complex than that.

We should make more of an effort to understand that every decision we make when it comes to business practices affects other people and we must be conscious of the potential consequences so we can position our own operations, as well as others, to enjoy profitability. This will be essential in an economic recovery. Maybe you need a new financial plan.

I think by now my love for Inc. Magazine is well documented here. If you're an entrepreneur, a business person or a professional in any field, I think it's a must-read. With an abundance of advice and first person accounts of launching start ups, it's a perfect tool to learn how to begin, manage and grow a company. If you're on the employee side, what better way to excel in your job and current responsibilities than to understand all the various intricacies your boss may be dealing with on any given day. Reading Inc. can help you become an idea person, helping dream up innovation.

OK, rant over.

Inc. recently posted three brief points from Eric Ries on why you should start a business now (and money isn't one of them). They are as follows:

When first starting a company, figuring out your brand identity is a key step in the process. You need to have a clear vision of who you are, who you want to be in the future and what your desired goals are as a part of a business strategy plan. A clear BRAND identity is also essential in securing bank financing and investors for an endeavor. The people lending money need to feel that you're comfortable with who you are and have clear goals set, using that identity as a foundation.

It may be useful to first visit what the word brand actually means to you. Seth Godin defines it as:

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer. 

A brand's value is merely the sum total of how much extra people will pay, or how often they choose, the expectations, memories, stories and relationships of one brand over the alternatives.

What do you think?

You may have a strategic HR plan in place at your company, but does it take you, the CEO, owner or leader into account? How often do you analyze your role within the company and how you affect such encompassing issues a program management plan down to the smaller matters of how you influence employees.

Entrepreneur has compiled a list of characteristics that define what it means to not be a good leader, but a superior leader. Below are some of my favorites:

Competency: You must be seen by your advisors, stakeholders, employees, and the public as being an expert in your field or an expert in leadership. Unless your constituents see you as highly credentialed--either by academic degree or with specialized experience--and capable of leading your company to success, it will be more difficult for you to be as respected, admired, or followed.

Communication skills: It does little good to have a strong mission, vision, and goals--and even a solid budget--if the executive cannot easily and effectively convey his ideas to the stakeholders inside and outside of the organization. He must regularly be in touch with key individuals, by email, v-mail, meetings, or other forms of correspondence. Of course, the best way to ensure other people receive and understand the message is with face-to-face interactions.

Getting out of the office or touring different sites is an irreplaceable method of building rapport and sending and receiving messages. "Management By Walking Around," or MBWA, meeting employees at their workstations or conference rooms, or joining them for lunch are just a few of the many effective approaches leaders can use to develop positive contacts with employees.

Be sure to check out the piece to see the rest of the important characteristics - you may have to work on developing some that you lack in order to do your part to ensure success of your company. Getting bank financing in place, yes, important. Creating a company marketing plan, yes, also very important. However, the style with with which you lead everyday operation is just as important as any of the above aspects and should be given weighty consideration on a regular basis.

Dogswell: a five-year old company that markets dog treats worth $17 million

Ambition: to edge it's way into the natural dog food market, competing directly with such major brands as Purina and Iams

Issue:the owner of the company launched too quickly and anticipated returns that never materialized. Also, in expanding the company's identity and focus, he forgot to utilize many keys in his previous marketing strategy that had allowed the original operation to enjoy success. Therefore, he is facing his first red ink on bank statements. His first reaction was to generate more funding and line up investors. However, that's not always the right answer.

I would weigh-in and say this is a fairly common occurrence. Many companies launch with just one product or focus and as they get to know their customers, they respond to additional needs they might have as well as conduct consistent market research or analysis. What are other companies in my market selling? How have they expanded their market line? 

Too much focus is placed on expanding and doing so immediately, without the proper planning, research or analysis taking place first.

What do the experts say?

Be more disciplined
A lot of emphasis was placed on researching the initial product but not enough was done in researching the current market, competitors or a market research plan in general. Conducting market tests would even be helpful. Simply not enough has been done to fill out an entire business model or business strategy plan.

Don't lose focus
To make your company a true competitor, you want to stand out, specialize in something. While it's natural to want to compete with major retailers with what you deem a superior product, it may be better to stick to a niche, that way you can completely dominate the area.

It's that time of year again, business owners everywhere are spending late night examining operations, reconciling accounts and figuring out what can be done better next year. Don't let all of that analysis go to waste - use it to set a new year’s resolution, particularly one for your business to improve / upgrade the financial reporting and forecasting capabilities within your organization. 

Here are some ideas I find are often the most beneficial for small business owners to consider:

Budget  – Establish a detailed departmental budget for the new year.  You will be surprised by the cost savings that you will be able to achieve simply by developing a detailed budget and reporting against it on a monthly basis.

Executive dashboard – Identify the five or six things that are most critical to the success of your business and put them in a dashboard format that gets updated on a regular basis.

Financial model – Don’t spend all of your time looking in the rear view mirror.  It is equally important to look ahead by developing a three year financial projection model that will help you better understand where your business is headed and the resources required to help you reach your goals.

The above tips are small, basic insights but should be be considered while restructuring your business's organizational development strategy and then incorporated into an overall business plan that has a clear financial model and accounting practices.

I’m a big believer in the old saying that “what gets measured, gets managed”.  I’ve seen many companies make significant improvements in operational efficiency and overall profitability by changing and improving the way that they look at the  business.   

If you're not familiar with him already, John Mackey is the founder and CEO of organic grocer giant, Whole Foods. What started out as desire and plan to meet interesting women by living in a vegetarian co-op has blossomed into an $8 billion dollar operation.

And through it all, Mackey, who was profiled recently by Fast Company, has developed quite a theory which he has titled Conscious Capitalism. What's it all about?

"Businesses that are more conscious of making a positive difference in the world make the world a better place from just being there," says Mackey in the article. "That all results in higher profit and higher return on capital. There are no losers."

Another expert addresses the beauty of the theory being rooted in the fact that self-interest and altruism can not only coexist, they can both thrive simultaneously without government involvement.

"One of the things that I'm trying to philosophically just destroy is this bifurcation that human beings are either greedy, selfish, only in it for themselves - or they're saints," said Mackey in an old interview with Time magazine.

The whole piece on Mackey is a must-read for any entrepreneur. I took away that making money and striving to become a profitable operation is an honorable goal. We can temper our business practices with purpose.

With the right business plan, market research and bank financing in place you have the beginnings of what can be a successful venture. But if you subscribe to Mackey's beliefs, you need a purpose behind the venture so ultimately, you're doing more than making money (which is great) but building up something greater than yourself.

Over the past year in particular we have seen endless cost-cutting measures being taken by companies both large and small. In lieu of accounting advice, some have chosen to simply eliminate employee appreciation programs, celebrations and bonuses. Others have analyzed their cost and set out to find more cost-effective, creative means to reward employees and boost morale.

A recent Indy Star article discussed some numbers and what's being cut this holiday season.  Below are some of the key findings:

• 62% of companies will have holiday parties this year, compared with 77 percent in 2008 and 90 percent in 2007.
• 30% of companies will spend less on holiday parties this year.
• 36% of companies are catering a meal this year, compared with 57 percent in 2008.
• 31% of employees at small businesses will get end-of-year bonuses, compared with 44 percent last year.
• 35% of employees at small businesses will get holiday gifts, compared with 46 percent in 2008.

While cutting extra expenses like holiday parties and gifts can be a good idea to save in areas of discretionary spending, keep in mind, measures like these can also affect employee attitudes. Happy, satisfied employees tend to more effective workers. Make sure whatever cost cutting measures you are taking, you're also making an effort to reach out to your staff and show you appreciate the work they do.

Want to extend cost-cutting habits beyond the holidays? Get in touch with Milestone Advisors. Our experienced accounting staff can look over both your accounts receivable and payable, combine that information with market forecasting and a review of your current financial model to develop effective accounting strategies that will amount to significant savings year round.

I have a rule I'd like to introduce. If you're not familiar with Norm Brodsky, you probably should be.

Norm has been a contributor for Inc. magazine for years. A serial entrepreneur who has started and grown six different companies. Lately, Norm has been writing a column that details the incredibly complex and drawn-out process of selling CitiStorage, one of his six endeavors.

Each column details a new phase or challenge he's encountered during the process and I must say, his musings have been simultaneously intriguing and frustrating to follow. It seems the process of either buying a business or selling one (depending on which side you are on) is fraught with unseen obstacles whether those be morale of current employees, environmental regulations (one of Norm's problems) or adequate financing for the sale.

Even if you aren't currently in a position to either sell or acquire, reading through Norm's experience will open your eyes to the all the potential complexities involved in the process.

At Milestone Advisors, not only are we familiar with these complexities, we've helped many an entrepreneur sell their operations as well as buy other business that will enhance their products or brand.

We believe it an essential part of the process to contact a firm like ours who can objectively analyze the situation pre-sale and anticipate obstacles, thus building a strategic plan to ensure a smooth process. Such plans include organization assessment before a purchase or sale is made, market analysis (how will the sale or acquisition affect your remaining operations in the current economic client?) and much more.

Check out Norm's trials and tribulations throughout his process and if selling or buying is in your future, contact someone who can help you navigate through it.

Manufacturing is an integral part of our nation's economy. I think this can easily be forgotten as innovation in Silicon Valley continues to grow. And let's face it, any tech product or service, born of California is innately sexier and more interesting than the plant that manufactures the table my cup of Kona blend coffee currently rests on.

But that plant, highlighted in an Indy Star piece last week, has recorded a 10 percent growth in sales over the past year. Legacy Furniture Group is forging ahead, and their success is indicative of many other manufacturing operations across the country. The piece sites research from the Associated Press Economic Stress Index, a monthly analysis of the economic state of more than 3,100 U.S. counties, that shows  manufacturing counties have outperformed the national average since March.

Proving that, advances in technology may be more fun to discuss over drinks but much of our country's wealth and much of what could lead to a full economic recovery may still lie in manufacturing.

However, along with many other industries, manufacturing operations often struggle in areas of business planning or business strategy development. The industry's current position makes it an ideal time to analyze their financial models or get help with accounting. These manufacturing operations put people to work and help the economy function. They must be sure their processes and strategies are poised for success as they continue to proper slowly but steadily, in turn, putting America back to work.

As I type the above title the image of Scar perched on a cliff preaching to his heard of loyal hyenas about his extensive planning and maligning to steal the throne away from Simba in the Disney classic, The Lion King instantly pops into mind.

The kind of preparation I'm talking about is slightly different. Over the course of the past two years, we have seen CEOs of private companies manage conservatively, holding back plans for expanded operations, product lines or service offerings.

Add to that how difficult it's been to secure bank financing in days of late, with lenders cautiously screening loan applicants and reluctant to doll out any amount, regardless of how small.

Scar isn't that far off, if you have grand plans for your venture as he did for his 'regime', it's going to take extensive preparation. When you want to make a move forward with plans, you'll want it to happen swiftly and effectively. The key to achieving that: be prepared.

Here are some things to do in said preparation:

1. Invest in technology
Small and inexpensive improvements (particularly with all the free technology available today) may help your company run more efficiently, equipping you to handle increased business when you roll out new offerings.

2. Snap up talent on the cheap
We're all aware that with the economy in its current state there is a surplus of great talent in the job market who need jobs, turn the positive into a negative and hire these individuals at a discount.

3.Ramp up training
Take some time to evaluate current staff, give them both positive and constructive feedback and see what ways everyone can improve in anticipation of coming change.

4. From strategic partnerships
It doesn't cost much to meet other professionals for coffee once or twice a week. Dedicate some time to forging bonds with people who may be referral sources down the road.

5. Get to know prospective customers
Once again, efforts in this area shouldn't cost you much while spending time with them and getting to know their needs may allow you to tailor offerings to deliver more efficient services.

(The above points are taken from an Inc. Magazine article)

While these all sound like simple steps to take, combined, they can become an overwhelming to-do list. It's important to organize these initiatives into a strategic business plan. This preparation can also be a part of a marketing plan or product launch plan.

Scar isn't that far off. He has some big things he wants to achieve and he's cautioning others involved in his operations that they all have to have the mindset of preparation, meaning, there is a lot that needs to be done to position his plan for success just as there is a lot a company must do beforehand to prepare for good things down the road.

Who said Disney couldn't teach us lessons in good business practice?

First and foremost, all of us at Milestone Advisors would like to extend our warm wishes for your Thanksgiving holiday. Nothing, not even running a business, is more important than family.

In honor of the holiday, I'd like to draw your attention to an excellent article in Inc. magazine written by Meg Cadoux Hirshberg who is married to the founder of Stoneyfield Farms. In her latest column, Meg addresses the stress surrounding not only her husband's foray into organic yogurt, but the fact that many of her family members, were funding the start-ups operations.

Both of Meg's brothers as well as her mother had invested in her husband's passion and dream. While there is happy ending, we all see the Stoneyfield brand at our local grocer, it was a long road getting there which made many of Meg's Thanksgiving dinners more like business meetings and could have potentially caused many a crack in their family foundation.

In one section, she makes the argument for going after venture capitalists to fund your business instead of those most willing to listen, family.


It's natural when starting a company to want to share your ideas and dreams with those you love and thus ask them to become a part of it. In fact, for many startup companies, it can be the most likely place or only place to successfully find financing. However, in an effort to protect the nature of your relationship with them, sometimes it may be best to seek a business consulting firm to identify opportunities for you, set up meetings, and formally document the transaction.

Milestone Advisors helps small companies or entrepreneurs with just an idea to identify the best means for obtaining funding or capital, especially if you are drawing family into it. Milestone analyzes your current financials and creates projections that allow you to determine how much money you need and when. We will work with you and your potential investors (friends and family, angel investors, or venture capitalists), set up meetings, and attend them as your advocate. We will also assist in developing a complete and comprehensive business plan or business strategy to use as framework for such a meeting, ensuring your success.

Long commutes are awful. The horns, cell phones and congestion add hours to a work day and are a complete drain on energy. Joel Bomgar, an IT professional was fed up with his daily commute in a rusted out Buick with questionable air conditioning.

Joel's job required him to drive from client to client in the heat trap, solving their issues on site. What if there were a way to solve their problems remotely, from the comfort of his own home and more importantly, from an adaquately air conditioned space? Thus, Bomgar Corporation is born.

Joel went to work designing a technology that would allow him remote access to clients computers and access to multiple machines at a time. After six months of work, he had an effective model and a small business was born.

Bomgar Corporation now employs 125 people and pulls in an annual revenue around 19 million and is facing new challenges such as how to differentiate his product in a market saturated with software billed to make life easier for professionals. Joel continues to make market research and market strategy and important aspect of his company's development. He understands that above all, you have to be offering a product or service completely different from what competitors are promoting. Not only does is have to be different, it has to be better.

My favorite part of this story and about Joel - he went to work finding his own solution for a problem that plagued him daily and turned the bain of his existence into his livelihood.

See the full article here.

Inc. Magazine has a great new 'Top 10' that as we read here at Milestone, we just kept nodding our heads and thinking back to times when we've worked with entrepeuners who have suffered from or made similar mistakes when drafting actionable business plans to guide growth.

Here's a peek at some things that are all too common and should be avoided:

1. Trying to be all things to all people
There's no way a business plan is going to appeal every party involved nor will the business model that's chosen work for multiple industries. If the business plan is designed too generically, it will spread the company too thin, cheating itself out of the potential for success.

2. Being Boring
A business plan has to be thorough and intelligently written, however, it has to keep a potential investors' attention. If they become bored to quickly, they may not make it all the way through the plan which can cripple a presentation.

3. Measuring market size too optimistically
We often tend to think bigger is better. Projecting large profits and vast markets can seem like impressive numbers to include within a plan - however, it may give the impression that the numbers weren't thoroughly researched or the writers of the plan are overly optimistc and lack a sense of reality.

For the rest of the mistakes, take a look at the original article here.

Small business lending has been a popular topic of conversation ever since the bottom of the economy dropped out. A recent article in the Indianapolis Business Journal pin points the decrease of Small Business Administration lending in Indiana at 17 percent. In addition, SBA lending decreased by 64% at three of the four of Indianapolis' largest lenders.

The piece seeks to explain why and how this decline in lending occurred, providing more detailed answers and explanations than the standard answers that have been furnished as explanations thus far. Here are a few of the insights:

1. Banks are being conservative in their lending practices. After all, the current economic state is in part due to banks doing the exact opposite and approving loans much too freely.

2. Another potential explanation -- small businesses themselves are being more conservative by not taking as many risks (expanding operations, launching new products etc.) therefore the overall demand for small business loans isn't as high as usual.

3. Some small business' credentials have taken a hit along with the economy. Many companies who could have qualified for an SBA loan three years ago can't get anywhere near the front door of the bank, nor are they interested in trying.

Many Indiana banks expect SBA loans to increase over the course of the coming fiscal year. A trend that would bode well for the local as well as the national economy. These banks also say they're anxious to receive an influx of small businesses seeking their backing. However, some local companies say otherwise.

The IBJ interviewed one small business owner who said his requests for start-up funds was met with little enthusiasm and what he deemed were unfavorable terms. The challenge that we've seen at Milestone is that banks typically haven't been interested in discussing additional debt for businesses with or without the SBA credit enhancements.

It's our hope here at Milestone Advisors that small business lending will experience an upturn in the next few months. We hope to have many conversations with small business owners in the near future who are seeking bank financing for a new start-up, to expand operations or support a whole new brand. We can't wait to help you get started, determine the best corporate finance strategy for you, discuss how best to navigate through the SBA loan process in Indiana and the best ways to put funding to work for you.

It's official, CNNMoney.com is reporting that all of the $375 million designated to buoy the Small Business Administration's lending programs has been completely tapped out. Part of the Recovery Act, the funds were designated to help banks guarantee loans for small businesses. Now the current 148 loans waiting to be processed may not be approved.

With the above help from Congress, the SBA had been able to guarantee up to 90 percent of a defaulted loan, making banks far more comfortable with extending the loans. The aim of the program being to increase small business lending in general and stimulate the economy.

Although the money train coming to a stop is a surprise to no one, it wasn't projected to do so this quickly. We referenced the decrease in SBA loans in Indiana in an earlier post. Now there are $80.3 million in loan applications waiting to be processed and without the government guarantees from the SBA - they may never be approved.

The good news - representatives from the SBA say they're in talks with Congress to generate additional funding that will allow for continuation of the increased guarantee amounts and decrease in application fees etc.

Should the SBA succeed, are you in a position to benefit from what will be newly available funds for small businesses? If not, you should begin conversations that address bank financing and how to attract investors. Start to look at your current business strategies, conduct some market research or market forecasting, try to determine the best corporate finance strategy and discuss how best to navigate through the SBA loan process. This way, when the opportunity presents itself, you can be the first in line.

Indiana National not only recognized the signs and restructured their business, they did so and thrived. Are you recognizing the changes required in your business? Following the example of Indiana National, now is a great time to formalize your strategic plan and emphasize innovation to set your company far ahead of your competitors.

...who do you guys serve?

We serve the people who drive our economy and job creation. They are thought leaders, innovators, family businesses and people with dreams. In other words, CEOs of entrepreneurial start-ups.

The process of starting a new venture is embodied in the entrepreneurial process, which involves more than just regular problem solving as it is fraught with both fresh and charted challenges. An entrepreneur must identify, evaluate and cultivate opportunity by navigating through all the forces that regularly stand in the way of creating something new and unique.

At Milestone Advisors, we break this process down for you into four clear phases:

1. Identification and thorough evaluation of the opportunity at hand
2. Development of a realistic and actionable business plan
3. Determination and acquisition of required resources
4. Management of the resulting enterprise or business

These four steps can become a highly-involved and sometimes difficult process. We built Milestone Advisors with the idea to help entrepreneurs, small business owners and start ups evaluate themselves, build a realistic and comprehensive business plan or business strategy and secure bank financing that will allow these ideas to come to fruition and experience success.

We believe the small business owner with his/her drive and spirit is what forms America's economic foundation. We exist to serve those who buoy the economy, create jobs and believe in an entrepreneurial country.

Yesterday I talked about how important it is to research what other entrepreneurs or small business owners are doing to either launch or improve operations. This is not in an effort to copy necessarily but learn by reading about their major blunders and analyzing their success. Will things they have done work for your business strategy?

A lot of these thought leaders are more than happy to share their triumphs, processes and struggles in hopes that it can positively affect other business leaders. A wonderful aspect of 21st century technology - they can share all of this online, making their expertise and acumen more accessible than ever.

I present to you Inc.'s list of 19 Blogs You Should Bookmark Right Now. Some of my favorites and regular reads include Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Michael Arrington. Seth Godin usually only writes a few sentences but it's as if he has taken an industrial power flashlight and shined it through a mass of clouds. His reflections are insightful and will get those wheels in your head turning.

Kawasaki is constantly offering advice that can help you improve business, mainly in terms of marketing. Some recent posts include 'How to get found' that explains SEO and a few quick tips on implementing an SEO strategy and 'How I twitter' which gives you a look at the methods and practices Guy utilizes with this social media and the rationale behind them. I like Arrington because, well, I'm a geek for technology and he has a great sense of what is going on that realm which is always closely aligned with the latest and greatest innovations in our country.

These blogs can help spark or fuel ideas that can change everything from your current business plan, how you go after bank financing to your overall business strategy. Read about their past experience and see business through their eyes, a new perspective may work wonders.

When looking to start your own business, it's a good idea to check out some of those who have come before both in the industry you're seeking to break into as well as some that are completely unrelated. You want to get a feel for what has worked and what hasn't in an effort to put together a strategic plan to be used as a roadmap for the first few years of operation.

Here are some insights I found interesting from Fortune's interview with the founder of True Religion jeans, Jeff Lubell.

1. Don't be afraid of powerful people
Lubell shares that when launching his brand, he approached some higher-ups at Gap to obtain private funding without a real introduction. While I completely agree with the sentiment, in all aspects of life actually, I think introductions to potential investors are important, whether you're tapping private investors or securing bank financing. Yes, don't be afraid to go after the big fish but do some research regarding the proper avenues to approach them. Private funding and investors can be the key to successfully launching and sustaining your business. From the very beginning interaction with these individuals should be one of mutual respect to foster a lasting, positive relationship.

2. Skip the prototype
Instead of designing a sample line and shopping it around to various retailers, Lubell had 14,000 pairs of jeans manufactured before he had met with one potential customer. While it's clear this worked for his endeavor, I don't think it's sound advice for everyone. If you're going to be selling a product, you have to make sure you have buyers before sinking capital into production.

3. Comp the sales staff
Now here's a great business strategy. Lubell gave free pairs of jeans away to sales representatives in stores that agreed to carry True Religion on a trial basis. After they started wearing them around their respective stores, stock sold out. It's one thing to get your product into a store, it's a completely different factor to get it endorsed. And could there be a better endorsement than people actually wearing or using your product? Are you going to believe a salesman trying to sell you on the new Ford Taurus if he chooses to drive a Nissan? Of course not. But if he drives one himself, you're far more likely to listen.

Lubell has many more secrets of success that are worth taking a look at, particularly if you sell or manufacture a product. However, the main point is importance of research. Both of what other entrepreneurs are doing well and what decisions have caused them to fail. By conducting this kind of business analysis you can identify strategies you might never have thought of otherwise as potential plans that can positively affect your operations and bottom line.

If you don't have the time do this kind of industry research and analysis, I suggest hiring someone who can. The beauty of a company like Milestone Advisors is that we have been out in the field for years, observing what the Jeff Lubells of the business world have done to catapult a brand or decisions that have tanked their sales. It's this broad experience that allows us to provide clients with business planning and analysis that can position entrepreneurial operations to succeed.