Today we face an ever-changing business environment. Understanding your marketplace, effective use of resources and doing business strategically have never been more critical. While the challenges to business have never been greater, neither are the opportunities. It is imperative that you have a clear and intentional vision while understanding your competitive advantage.
Our For-Profit Services include:
- Strategic Growth Planning
- Business Feasibility
- New Venture Creation
- Merger and Acquisition
- Harvest and Exit Strategies
- Business Valuation
- Capital Funding
- Financial Budgets and Controls
- Profit and Cash Flow Analysis
- Marketing Plans and Sales Analysis
- Organizational Analysis and Structure
- Continuous Improvement and Accreditation Programs
- Cultural Strategies and Code of Ethics
Small and mid-sized enterprises play a critical role in the social and economic environments in which we work and live. According to the Small Business Administration, over 98% of all organizations are considered small enterprises. Together these enterprises employ 53% of the nation´s private sector workforce alone although they possess only 25% of the total business assets. Because they are primarily labor intensive, they create significantly more jobs than large companies do. Historically they have created 70% to 75% of all new jobs, and they bear the brunt of training workers. Small companies offer more general skills training and instruction than their large company counterparts do.
Research conducted by the National Science Foundation concluded that small firms created 24 times the innovations per research and development dollar than large companies do. On average, small companies contribute 20% more of these innovations per employee than large companies.
Small and mid-sized companies also produce over 50% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and account for 47% of business sales. They directly or indirectly provide the livelihoods of over 100 Million Americans.
Small and mid-sized businesses play a critical role in local and global economies. Despite all these accomplishments and contributions, small and mid-sized enterprises have a failure rate that is staggering. It is significantly higher than large companies. Studies by the Small Business Administration suggest that 65% to 95% of all small enterprises fail within the first six years.
The primary causes of these failures are:
- insufficient business knowledge and skills
- lack of experience
- poor financial controls
- lack of strategic management
- etc.
Despite the cause, the impact of this business failure and turn over is dramatic. The impact is most significant on local economies and communities.
By their very nature, small and mid-sized enterprises own or have access to a limited pool of resources. These limited resources include time, talent, and money. These limited resources can have both a positive and negative impact on the business. They provide the organization the ability to change quickly to the market and be responsive to customer and employee needs. However, they are more vulnerable to economic, political, and market shifts.