Business Infrastructure - Curing Back Office Blues

What does an orchestra have in common with your company?  Plenty, according to Maestro Roger Nierenberg.  As CEO, you are the conductor charged with listening and leading to ensure harmonious results.  By seating your team within a live professional orchestra, Roger teaches you how to look at it "as a mirror reflecting how you want to be and how you actually are."  In this episode, Roger not only...

There's no escaping the reality of having a strong online presence.   In this Season 4 finale, Alicia Butler Pierre, business infrastructure expert and host of the Business Infrastructure show, shares the two-pronged approach she uses to design a content management process that is practical, sustainable and rooted in data science.   Listen as she candidly shares the series of events that led her t...

In an ever-changing economic landscape, it's difficult for small businesses to find salespeople willing to work on mostly commission.  Have you ever thought about empowering your existing employees to become intrapreneurs?   IBM started this concept of intrapreneurship as an affordable, alternative way to foster innovation and sales while bringing new products and services to market faster.  In th...

Trust, but verify.  There's a reason certifying and accrediting agencies exist – to protect end consumers and ensure quality.  This is especially important when it comes to our health!  No one is above reproach or investigation, including medical professionals.  Dilsa Bailey has 30 years of experience developing policies, processes, and training to keep healthcare providers compliant.  In this epi...

Around 543,000 new businesses start in the U.S. each month.  Those fortunate to hire employees often cannot afford the high cost of Human Resources (H.R.).  That's where Jason Cavness comes in.  Through his technology, he delivers employee manuals to small business quickly and inexpensively.  This ensures compliance and reduces risk while scaling to meet operational demands.  In this episode, Jaso...

Buy or build?  One way to quickly scale a company and dramatically increase market share is via a Merger & Acquisition (M&A) with/of another company.  However, improper alignment and conflicting objectives can turn that M&A into an M&D (Merge & Destroy), warns Karen Walker, a proven M&A strategic advisor.  Having led one of the fastest growing American companies to $1 billion in revenue, Karen sha...

"What are you fighting for?"  According to Hasani X, the answer to this question sets the foundation for everything you do.  But people need to know and hear this story in order to be compelled to work with you on a team or do business with you.  In this episode, Hasani, a communications and performance expert, shares the people, processes and tools he leverages to help his clients dramatically tr...

"Fail fast doesn't mean pray and spray," warns Ron Carucci when asked about companies who rush to market without due diligence and suffer from "EBITDA addiction."  Ron has a 30-year track record helping organizations articulate and execute strategies that lead to accelerated growth.  In this episode, he shares two examples that demonstrate how he uses organization design to encourage clarity-drive...

When Alissa Carpenter worked in higher education, she became inundated with students confiding that their happy exterior was a façade.  Troubled by this growing trend, she started a company aptly named Everything's Not Ok and That's Ok to specifically bridge communication gaps across generations, job functions, and geographies in various organizations.  In this episode, Alissa describes how she su...

Do you have a product, service or idea that the world needs to know about? Are you frustrated that you aren't gaining traction in your promotional efforts? Nowadays, becoming an online influencer is more important than ever for capturing and converting attention into sales. In this episode, accomplished author and entrepreneur Heather Havenwood, a.k.a. "Chief Sexy Boss," shares her tried and teste...

As an app developer, Tim Bornholdt is no stranger to process automation.  Yet it wasn't until he "put up a mirror" to his own company's sales process, that he realized they were losing sales as a result of different people doing the same work in different ways.  So he automated the sales process leading to service consistency, better tracking and ultimately increased sales conversion.  Listen as h...

As an energetic author, artist, podcaster, journalist, teacher and fashion designer, Win Kelly Charles cannot afford to waste time nor let a physical disability slow her down.  "Just Do It!" is her response to anyone contemplating their next business move, especially aspiring authors.  In this episode, Win shares the essential people and tools she relies on to streamline her book writing process. ...

"When you call yourself the CEO, you have to make hard decisions."  This is how Forrest Tuff describes the revelation that led to him redefining what success is at his film production company.  In this episode, he describes the two specific actions he took to reduce overhead that radically transformed his business model.  Find out how this transformation also increased his company's operating capa...

In this first episode of Season 4, Paul Nicholaides shares an example of how he used processes to help a fast growing company scale without compromising their culture.  He specifically explains how he helped shape his client's business infrastructure based on their value chain and processes.  Processes are a valuable component of business infrastructure because as Paul says, "Without it, there is...

Alicia is the founder of Equilibria, Inc. – the world's largest repository on business infrastructure for small businesses.  And it happened quite by accident.  In this episode, she candidly shares the story of how this came to be by weaving together the messaging of each expert featured in Season 3 while acknowledging the mistakes she's made along the way.  In doing so, Alicia candidly describes...

Just because the word "cult" is a part of "culture," it does not mean that your company has to function like one in order to attain sustainable success. As small businesses grow larger, the transformation into becoming more corporate can be jolting and founders and employees alike may fear losing the very essence of what makes a business so special. In this episode, Lakeisha Poole, a workplace fut...

 Visionaries, whether executives or entrepreneurs, are great at developing and articulating strategy but may find difficulty in execution.  This is where Kim Farmer comes in.   As a certified project management professional with 30+ years in corporate business experience, she knows how to get stuff done!  In this episode, Kim graciously gives us an excellent primer on project management to help yo...

As your small business grows, it will eventually need a layer of middle management.  These front line leaders are the change agents who ensure the execution of your company's growth strategy.  But they cannot live their proverbial best life unless you, as the top leader, help them realize their best work .  In this episode, leadership consulting expert Victoria Rodgers stresses the importance of p...

Strategy represents the vision, purpose and long-term position of a company, but it does you no good to develop one unless you "plan your work and work your plan."  So says strategy expert Mark Pegues.  In this episode, Mark compares the relationship between strategy and execution to a camera – zoom in to execute and zoom out to strategically plan.  However, he warns, like business processes, a st...

" Kill Bill ."  Kill the hourly bill to be exact.  This summarizes the sentiment of investment banker turned CFO-for-Hire and pricing consultant, John Ray.  John reminds us that our clients care most about results. Therefore, charging the right price means having a value conversation with your clients to understand how to price.  In this episode, John   unpacks the psychological factors involved i...

"Don't be flashy" when operating your business warns seasoned commercial lender, Charles H. Green. Armed with 38 years of experience in funding small businesses, Charles knows plenty about running a business by the numbers and not by hunches.  In this episode, he stresses the importance of being able to interpret your financial statements to understand your company's financial story so that you kn...

Kymone Hinds is in the business of helping people get stuff done!  As an implementation strategist, he prides himself on bringing ideas to life.  Every solution to a problem and every business starts with an idea, so its important to jot them all down no matter how far-fetched they may seem.  In this episode, Kymone explains his 4-stage ideation process for vetting and focusing on which ideas will...

There's nothing more frustrating than to invest in a newer software technology only to discover that it does not "play nicely" with your existing software.  In this episode, software and web developer Garrett Massey talks about the benefits of middleware as a cost-savings solution to facilitate communication between software.  Listen as he reveals a 4-step process to guide you through mapping how...

Making decisions is risky business.  As a small business owner, you might not have the deep pockets of a larger enterprise, so making the right decision the first time around can be critical.  Decision science gives you the ability to compare multiple ways of solving a problem with the opportunity to add value while minimizing risk and bias.  This is what Rob Brown specializes in.  In this episode...

According to global freelance matchmaker, Upwork, 57.3 million people freelanced in 2017.  In 10 years, they predict that the majority of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers.  As a small business owner, this means you will likely have more freelancers rather than employees performing work for you.  Managing these dispersed, virtual teams can be challenging.  This is where Sherry Heyl comes in....