Small Business Strategy Consultant and Coach

24/7 Strategy Solution for Small Business

In a big business, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has the vital role of strategy coach and tracking what’s going on and using that information to recommend future strategy.
Most likely, you are too small to afford a CFO on staff at the moment!
So you are missing out on the analysis and independent thinking that a CFO can bring to your business
But we provide the same CFO benefits at a fraction of the cost

Benefit 1: Understand your historical data

Today, the business owner is drowning in information.  The problem is that no one is helping to make sense of it all.

Consider your accounts;

• Your annual accounts are designed to serve the Tax Office; not you
• by the time you get them, they are out of date; often by 6 months or more
• they intentionally (and sensibly) focus on showing as little profit as possible to minimize your tax.  But that won’t help you make more profit when its unclear how you got this one!
• they show profit when any business owner knows that the real issue is cash.  Can I pay my wages, interest and tax when they fall due?.  Your annual accounts won’t help with this.

Our Strategy Consultant / Coach Deep Dives into your Accounts for Hidden, Useful, Information

We have two families of tools to identify issues and suggest solutions;

Diagnostic Family: When you go to a doctor, she diagnoses the problem and suggests a treatment.  We do the same with your business ailments

Board Family: Its often hard to look beneath the data you get from your sales or accounting professionals to better understand what this information is really telling you.  We have a number of dashboards (Boards for short) that do just that.  They also come with a ChangeBoard that lets you model the impact of changes so you can better understand what to focus on in your business.

Here is a partial list of just 10 of the many, many things your Boards will tell you;

1. Imagine finding out (for example) that a 1% change in product price led to an average of 11% increase in profit in 1,000 firms sampled.  ChangeBoards will tell you that figure for your business
2. find what your cashflow trends are and where they might be weakening
3. how prepared is your business for the odd, unexpected, crisis (think COVID 19)
4. are your staff becoming more or less productive?  And why?
5. how much cash have you got tied up in working capital and how can you release some of it to direct towards growth of your business
6. what is it costing you to acquire a new customer?
7. how much do I have to invest at the present success rate to get another (say) 100 customers to speed our growth
8. how efficient is our production cycle?  What is the best place in the cycle to focus for maximum productivity gains?
9. sooner or later, you will exit the business.  Is it becoming more valuable with that goal in mind; or not?  What can be done to improve the business’s sale value?
10. are your overhead costs growing disproportionally with overall growth? Why?

The answers to all these questions probably exist in your accounting and sales recording systems
But no one is turning it from information to useful intelligence for your planning
We do!

Want to know more on Strategy Consulting / Coaching Services?

See what extra information you can get from your existing annual accounts with a free, no-obligation, case study of our TrendBoard and associated ChangeBoard

Email us requesting your copy of the Case Study ⇒

 Would you like to know more about the 12Faces Strategy service?
Take advantage of our no-obligation, free, 15 minute consultation to learn more

 Benefit 2: CFO-grade Strategies Matching Your Goals

 Lewis Carroll (of Alice in Wonderland fame) said “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there!”
Nothing could be truer of your business

To move your business ahead in the direction you want, you need a strategy.
There are not that many different types of strategies
But there are thousands and thousands of ways, or tactics, to implement any strategy
So, we assist with both!

Our Strategy Consulting / Coaching assists with Strategic Direction

Step One is to have a clear goal or destination in mind.  We can help you focus on that.
Step Two  is based on Step 1 and sets out a means of achieving the goal.  For simplicity, we offer 5 Accelerator Strategic Campaigns that cover most needs but we can hand-craft a strategy to suit your particular goals;

• Turnaround 90: Rapid 30 day intervention if your business is in trouble. Just like a hospital stabilizes a patient, we help to stabilize your business
• Optimize 100: over time, your business will accumulate “barnacles” that are slowing it down and sucking out resources like time and money. This 100 day Campaign aims to help you “scrape off the barnacles”.  By the way, its not uncommon to double profit during this process!
• Grow 365: This Campaign helps plan a year long growth strategy that you can “rinse and repeat” each year
• Innovate 1000: Many industries are being disrupted. Think Uber / taxis, Airbnb / short term accommodation.  Your industry might be next!  This is a 3 year (1000 day) rolling Innovation Campaign to keep you abreast of, and respond to, trends
• Exit 1000: At some point, you will want to exit your business.  Experts say it takes you about 3 years (1000 days) to optimize your exit.  But, you might get an unsolicited approach tomorrow!  Moral of the story is to “be ready”.

Then it Advises on Tactical Implementation

There is a huge amount of information available on what you can do about any conceivable business problem
But, most sources stop at telling “what to do” and leave you to work out from scratch “how to do it”
We don’t!

Today, the business owner is faced with an overwhelming supply of information on any topic under the sun.
The big problem is, finding out how to interpret, and then implement, those solutions quickly and effectively – while already facing tremendous pressure from demands on your time – is far less common!
Plenty of blogs tell you what to do.  Few tell you how to do it.

In Step 3, our Strategy service provides tactics for implementing your strategy and achieving your goals!

The 12Faces team has faced these types of problems for years in our own businesses.  So we focus on providing you focused, fast and effective solutions to just what ails your business.

12Faces has distilled out from our personal experience, and the advice of leaders in their respective fields, how to implement solutions;

• rapidly
• in small “bite-sized” chunks tightly focused on a particular issue to be resolved
• effectively and long lasting
• adapted to your knowledge level and
• to the amount of time you have available to work on your business while still being actively engaged working in it.

 Our solutions follow a standard cycle:
.. Locate the issues to address.  Sometimes you know them and other times you don’t
.. Design a plan of attack to deliver measurable successes quickly and often to maintain the focus and enthusiasm
.. Provide you, personally, with support to work though any implementation issues
We work with you on your current goals
Then help with a roadmap of strategic solutions
To ensure an effective future for your business

 Would you like to know more about the 12Faces Strategy Consulting Service?
Take advantage of our no-obligation, free, 15 minute consultation to learn more

Benefit 3: Your Strategy Support System

Do you feel all alone!

As the business owner, it can often be hard for you to get impartial support to brainstorm about problems and put together solutions.
Often you can’t discuss issues with your staff if they are controversial.  Maybe they don’t have enough management skills to help you with complex issues.

No doubt you are technically competent to get your business this far.
But you might be breaking new ground with some of the management issues arising from growing your business.

12Faces knows this can be a problem so it has a portfolio of support solutions to suit your preferences including;

• Virtual Coaching:
• Online Chat:
• Email Help Desk:
• Q&A Forums
• And all this is PRIVATE. Other users don’t even know your names.

 Would you like to know more about the 12Faces Strategy Consulting / Coaching service?
Take advantage of our no-obligation, free, 15 minute consultation to learn more

Benefit 4: Money Back Guarantee

We aim to provide you with a service that you value and willingly continue to use
However, if you are disappointed at any time, we will refund or credit payments made for the service that disappointed
In this event, we would appreciate your comments on why the service did not meet expectations so that we can improve for other users