Our Approach
You’ve put your life into a building a successful business. You want to see it continue to grow and reach it’s potential; you want to see that the employees that have followed you are taken care of, and you want to find the “right partner” to take your business to the next level. The right partner will help you realize your legacy. The right partner should bring a plan: their “Playbook” for exactly how they’ll carry forward your legacy and build on the success you’ve built. The key elements of GrowthFire’s Playbook are outlined below. As GrowthFire’s founder I welcome the conversation to talk in detail about how our Playbook would help you achieve your goals.
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Vision
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Human Capital
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Market Alignment
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Business Model
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Capital Structure
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Momentum
The Challenge
You feel a lack of underlying drive across your team. Key strategic projects are languishing; deadlines are missed, and results are limited but not consistently great. Team discussions are focused on tactical departmental issues rather than on strategic business opportunities. Key customers and employees aren’t able to articulate the company’s direction or purpose. Employees seem more focused on living to their job descriptions rather than pushing forward on a mission. Budgets are used as top-down management tools instead of leveraged as a strategic investment spending plan. There’s lot of activity, but very little strategic value being created toward a clear goal.
The Opportunity
Research shows that only about 20% of a typical team is truly engaged and working at their best. Imagine the impact of a 3-4X improvement on the business outcomes if you had a fully engaged team, aligned and working toward a clear vision with purpose and conviction.
The GrowthFire Value
One of the first steps in the GrowthFire playbook is working together with leadership, management, and the team to create a clearly defined and articulated target outcome. We bring the tools and processes that help create strategic clarity. We work together to document a winning game plan to achieve the agreed-upon goal that includes key milestones and metrics, processes and systems, required capabilities and competencies and key challenges and opportunities. We work with the team to create a regular cadence and model for celebrating progress and successes.
The Challenge
You’d like to scale the business up but you’re not sure you have the right talent in place. All too often, you find you’re doing the work that your team should because “it’s easier”. You’re spending a lot of time coaching but it’s not getting better and coaching isn’t translating to results. On top of it all, you’re regularly losing the best performers it took you a long time to find and hire. You don’t feel you can rely on your team and it’s all left you stressed, tired, too busy and unable to take the business to the next level.
The Opportunity
The choice of the talent that makes up the team is the single greatest decision that impacts the ultimate success of the business. According to management experts the wrong hire can cost upwards of 15X that person’s salary. A hiring mistake on a $75,000 - $100,000 role may cost the business upwards of $1.2 - $1.5 million. On the other hand, the top 3% of salespeople produce up to 250% more than the average sales rep; the top 20% of salespeople produce 120% more than the average. The top 3% of programmers produce 1,200% more lines of code than the average, while the top 20% produce 320% more than average. Having the right people adds up in the end as ownership returns for companies that consistently hire and develop the top 20% of the talent in their market earns more than 20% greater returns than the average in the industry.
The GrowthFire Value
We’ve committed years of exploration, trial and error, measuring and refining people development approaches, recruiting competencies and retention strategies. What we’ve developed are the integrated processes and tools for human capital management that builds high-performance teams; brings fun back into running the business; gives the business the ability to scale and increases the ability of the business to command above-average returns to shareholders.
The Challenge
Growth has slowed or stalled. Your initial flagship product was received with market fanfare but the latest product, enhancement, release, version isn’t getting traction. The competition is taking away customers and you’re losing market share. Customer acquisition cost is increasing, sales cycles are lengthening, and customer long term value is declining. You’ve delivered the “best” product to the market but customers aren’t buying it. “If only customers really understood how great our product is they’d surely buy it”.
The Opportunity
Companies that get the Product/Market Fit right are, on average, 31% more profitable; 2X as likely to lead their market, 2X as fast bringing products to market and have a 20% higher customer satisfaction rate. Greater profitability, market-leadership, speed to market and higher customer satisfaction all lead to higher company valuations.
The GrowthFire Value
We’re experienced in the science and art of defining and delivering products that “resonate” to the market. We’ve looked at culture, organization, and processes across many organizations for how products are conceived, built or acquired; how strategies for go-to-market plans are designed and implemented; and how results are tracked, delivered and reported. We know how to help companies create and sustain better alignment and Product/Market Fit with their markets and customers. We know how to reduce the risk of all-too-expensive product launches that fail to thrive, and we know how to maximize company value by delivering the right value to the right customers.
The Challenge
The company is winning customers and profitable, but profit margins are eroding. As the owner you find you’re the essence of the company’s value proposition and business growth stalls if you’re not involved in the deals and details. Each new customer sale usually means new processes have to be developed. More headcount being called for but there isn’t clear line of sight to the return on the added headcount cost. The business approach, systems and processes that were working so well before aren’t working any longer. You’d like to create separation from you and the business operations but you’re not confident that the business would keep operating at a high level it needs to.
The Opportunity
As any business grows and the market around it changes there’s a regular need to look at how the company creates customers and generates profits. What may seem like a challenge is an opportunity to rethink and redesign the business in a way that works better for the team, the customers and the business, and scales with greater profit.
The GrowthFire Value
Scale and profitability rarely follow a straight line. Investments in new technology; new systems and processes or the development of new business competencies most often involve a Step-function with periods of unprofitability that strain cash and resources and that could easily put the company out of business. We’ve seen it, we’ve experienced it and we know how to create, build, gain funding for and implement the necessary economic and business models that identify how to reach the next profit zone, achieve the right scale and generate greater profitability.
The Challenge
The more successful you are as a high-growth or emerging stage business the more likely you are to run into the “Capital Gap”. You’re more profitable than ever but you don’t have the cash to support the business. You’re in the “Gap” and the business needs cash to get through it. Bank debt, if you can get it, is expensive and comes with highly restrictive covenants and/or onerous personal guarantees that lock up your house and any other assets you have. Debt service adds cost and increases business risk. You stand to lose the most just when things seem to be going the best.
The Opportunity
Undercapitalization is considered the number one reason companies fail. Having the right debt and equity capital partners, and the right capital structure, is critical to successfully navigating the “Gap” without the business going under. Having the right capital partners means not having to take a pass on potential growth or scale opportunities and it means having the resources available to help the company achieve its potential value.
The GrowthFire Value
We understand the challenges and trade-offs in developing the right capital structure for a business. We’re experienced in bringing in the right capital partners, banking or equity, with the right capital structure to meet the business’s needs. We bring experience managing the relationships that help the business navigate the cash challenges that come with growth, and realize the vision, the potential, and the dream.
The Challenge
You’ve worked hard to build the heart and soul of the business, and then the unforeseen happens: Your most profitable and long-time customer announced they’re moving to a competitor; a high-performing, critical team member just resigned; the last product release is foundering, and customer satisfaction issues are overwhelming the support team; the bank called and your working capital line has been cut in half. The distractions are mounting and you can feel momentum stalling as energy across the organization drops. You feel all eyes are on you as the team looks for direction.
The Opportunity
Building an organizational culture of health and resilience reduces reliance on a single individual and gives the business the strength and ability to scale despite challenges.
The GrowthFire Value
There isn’t a single checklist or set of rules that create organizational resilience. Resilient and responsive cultures are a result of the combination of all the other elements coming together to create the sustaining positive energy that overcomes challenges. We bring a combination of proven approaches and processes that help create clarity, celebrate failures and learning, encourage candor and critical conversations, empower the right decisions and actions and recognize and create momentum from incremental successes.