Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
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IN ONE LAST, glorious attempt to lose 12 pounds while still in my 40s, after which I?m hopeful I won?t care anymore, I joined a fitness and diet group at my health club.
There I was shocked to learn that the correct portion size of rice or pasta is ONE-THIRD CUP. Seriously, measure that and you?ll see how ridiculously small it is. (Don?t even get me started on the supposed size of a glass of wine.)
How banal, I thought, as I measured my half cup of cereal. How boring, I thought, as I weighed my 3 ounces of turkey, all white meat, no skin. But pretty soon I wasn?t ravenous all day on that daily regimen reduced by 700 calories. Pretty soon I could estimate that three-ounce portion without weighing. (It?s the size of a deck of cards. No kidding.)
At about the same time I interviewed Chuck Selcer, a shareholder with local accounting firm Schechter Dokken Kanter. He recommends that companies examine each of their processes and make small changes to every one, in order to become ?razor sharp.?
How banal, I thought. How boring. How could tiny changes have any effect other than driving the people who had to make them insane?
But then he elaborated. Say your company gives a 10 percent discount to customers who pay within 10 days. Say a customer pays in 13 days, but takes the discount anyway. You should send that customer a friendly letter, explaining your policy and saying next time no discount unless it?s on time.
Say you usually send invoices once a month, but then you start sending them as the product ships or the service is rendered.
Say your order accuracy rate is 95 percent and you improve it to 97 percent.
Pretty soon your cash flow improves, and you can pay your line of credit balance a few days earlier, shaving the interest owed. Pretty soon you can pay a key vendor a few days earlier, perhaps taking advantage of the 10 percent discount. Pretty soon you can cut a few hours from your call center, because they?re having to deal with fewer complaints.
Everyone?s attracted to the grand gesture. We watch ?The Biggest Loser? and are amazed as people lose 100 pounds, then show up at the after-show reunion gasping and crying with joy. We like that great diet that says you can eat prime rib of beef until you?re blue and yet the pounds melt away.
In business, we marvel at the bold new CEO who creates a sweeping vision to transform a company, or the expensive consulting group that lays out a 12-point plan of reforms, or the turnaround management firm that brings a company back from the brink of bankruptcy.
But the truth is most of us don?t need to lose 100 pounds, we need to lose 12. Most of us don?t need to radically transform our companies, we need to improve them incrementally.
In either case the process is not exciting. OK, I?ll say it. It?s tedious, and undermines any picture we have of ourselves as brilliant entrepreneurs with visionary ideas who like to say, ?Just supersize it.?
But the results can be dramatic. All those small steps can make your company thrive in the new year, as they made my pencil skirt fit for the holidays. Start measuring.
? Beth Ewen
editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
