“If bad things happen don’t waste time by blaming someone, or some earlier decision:  Take control, focus, communicate and redeploy a new plan to solve the problem.“  Leo Pound, Turnaround Specialist, President of Pound Consulting

The Rich Niche Group blog interviews and enables you to hear directly from successful entrepreneurs and product managers about the steps they took to grow their businesses/products and how they were able to create, penetrate, and/or dominate their niche.  This week we interview Leo Pound, the founder of Pound Consulting, a turnaround consulting firm often brought in by outside investors or the Board of Directors to fix ailing companies and get them back on the right path.

Interviewee:  Leo Pound, Turnaround Specialist and Financial Expert. 

Why Selected:  Mr. Pound is the President of Pound Consulting Inc., with over 30 years experience in many industries. For over 18 years Mr. Pound has specialized in high growth and troubled situations, with a focus on increasing customer and shareholder value. Mr. Pound’s in-depth knowledge of operational and strategic planning, M&A, forecasting and budgeting, cash flow, cost containment and re-engineering is balanced with his understanding of the customer and market needs. He is a team leader who builds consensus while moving a company forward. Mr. Pound is a hands-on professional who is sensitive to the pressures and challenges facing a troubled company and their management team. He has been active in the CEO, CFO and COO roles in manufacturing and further processing, distribution and service industries. In addition, he has been responsible for managing banking relations, Big Four auditors, outside legal counsel, the financial community and investor relations. Mr. Pound has had direct accountability for Sales and Marketing, Manufacturing, the Controller function, Treasury, Human Resources, MIS, Risk Management, Contract Administration, Customer Service, Real Estate, Purchasing and Administration.  Mr. Pound serves on many public and private company boards and consults with companies of all sizes.

Several years ago, Leo was brought into a firm I was working with and his insight and advice helped us get that company on the right track and eventually sold.

In the following interview, Leo discusses the issues he most often finds when brought in to help turn-around a company in trouble.  The key points you’ll take away include:

1.  The key to success is having a well rounded team that compliments each other and a focus on executing a well conceived plan.

2.  An early warning sign your company may be in trouble is if your revenue cycle is out of synch with your payable cycle. 

3.  Keep your lenders fully informed when bad things happen and what you plan to do about them.

4.  Don’t be afraid of change, it’s what growth is all about.

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“We originally had visions of building a little bit of a client base, selling to AOL, and retiring in the Caribbean. Well, we were a little late for that, so we had to opt for Plan B which was to buckle down and build the business.“  Dale Coyner, Serial Entrepreneur, Founder of Communicast and Open Road Outfitters

The Rich Niche Group blog interviews and enables you to hear directly from successful entrepreneurs and product managers about the steps they took to grow their businesses/products and how they were able to create, penetrate, and/or dominate their niche.  This week we interview Dale Coyner, the founder of Communicast (which was sold to PrecisionIR Group), Open Road Outfitters and a noted author of several motorcycle touring books and a motorcycle touring blog

Interviewee:  Dale Coyner, serial entrepreneur. 

Why Selected:  Dale is a two-time entrepreneur and one of the pioneers in the use of interactivity and streaming technologies within the web conferencing and webcasting industries.  Dale is also a motorcycle touring enthusiast and author of several books and a blog on the topic. Dale is also a member of the Virginia Governor’s Motorcycle Advisory Council.

I had the pleasure of first consulting to and then partnering with Dale (and David Paul, co-founder of Communicast) as we grew the company and eventually sold it to PrecisionIR Group and their Vcall division.  Under Dale’s guidance, Communicast became known as the leading interactive webinar platform and was one of if not the first to integrate streaming audio and video.  Dale’s foresight and unique ability to understand problems and break them down to their smallest and easiest to solve position enabled Communicast to continue growing while delivering its famed “white glove” service.  Dale also understands himself, his strengths, and the strengths of those around him and he has the ability to bring those strengths together to make the team more productive. 

In the following interview, Dales takes us through how he was able to keep Communicast growing without ever taking any venture capital and how the start-up of Open Road Outfitters differed from Communicast.  During the interview, Dales makes several points about what it takes to grow a company, the key points you’ll take away include:

1.  Know your buyers.  Possessing a solid understanding of your buyers will enable to you understand their problems and build products they understand.

2.  Take advantage of the numerous open source and low-cost solutions are now available to help small businesses. 

3.  “It’s the rare opportunity that can stand up to the scrutiny you’ll put it through if you write even a simple business plan.”

4.  The biggest threat to losing your position as a market leader is to become complacent to the changes in your niche/industry.

You are now on your 2nd start-up, how has the start-up Open Road Outfitters differed from starting Communicast?

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“Most services have little impact – if you can push the client to use the results you go beyond the standard company that moves onto the next customer and seldom looks back.“

 John Goodman, Co-Founder & Vice Chairman of TARP Worldwide and Author

The Rich Niche Group blog interviews and enables you to hear directly from successful entrepreneurs, product managers, venture capitalists and others about the steps they took to grow their businesses/products and how they were able to create, penetrate, and/or dominate their niche.  This week we interview John Goodman.

Interviewee:  John Goodman, Vice Chairman and co-founder of TARP World­wide. 

Why Selected: As a pioneer in the science of quantifying, managing, and optimizing the customer experience, John (and his company TARP Worldwide) gives us the opportunity to glean a little bit of his knowledge on how a start-up, small business or any business can perfect their customer’s experience.  It is not often we have the chance to hear from someone running a company referred to by renowned author and consultant Tom Peters as “(TARP is) perhaps America’s premier customer service research firm.”  John is also an author, and in his new book Strategic Customer Service: Managing the Customer Experience to Increase Positive Word of Mouth, Build Loyalty and Maximize Profits, he shows how successful companies use customer service as a “catalyst,…making the organization more proactive, accelerating responsiveness, and boosting its effectiveness.”  John also points out the financial impact good and/or bad/no customer service can have on an organization.

In the following interview, John takes us through how TARP got started and how the importance of moving customer service from a complaint department to one that can have a positive financial impact on your organization.  The key points you’ll take away include:

1.  The impact of great service on your financials is ten to twenty times the cost. 

2.  Many companies that hire a market research firm to conduct a study read their final reports then put them up on a shelf.  Find ways to make sure your clients use information and the advantages you bring to them.  This will lead to repeat business.

3.  When clients and prospects want to negotiate on price make sure you take out work/services/product accordingly.  Just reducing prices can lessen the perceived value of your offering. 

4.  In order to gain traction in a market dominated by one or few companies , look for ways you can out innovate them and find the one or two people at some of their clients who are the most unhappy and then deliver outstanding service to them.

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This week we are going to review a new U.S. Government initiative you may not be aware of: The Department of Commerce’s new Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  These new programs are designed to help entrepreneurs launch and/or grow their businesses and help lead the economic and jobs recovery. 

Why is this important?  According to a study by the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurism, “More than half of Fortune 500 companies were founded in recession or bear market.”  The current economic challenges have lead many Americans to look at starting their own business and for many these budding entrepreneurs, they need to understand where and from whom they can get reliable advice.  According to a Department of Commerce spokesperson, this is exactly what the new Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurism is designed to accomplish.

Here are some of the key takeaways regarding these new programs:

1. The home page for the new Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurism can be found at http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/
2. The National Advisory Council will advise the Secretary of Commerce and the Administration on issues relating to innovation and entrepreneurism and they are taking statements of interest from anyone who is interested in serving on the council.  More information is below:
3. Entrepreneurship.gov is designed to streamline the process entrepreneurs need to go through in order to find and get access to U.S. government assistance.

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“As a small business leader, what skills should I possess in order to better serve our clients, partners and employees?” – Karen Y., 1st-time entrepreneur

This week we are taking a break from the normal interview of an entrepreneur to answer a question we frequently get at The Rich Niche Group.  While there are several ways to answer this question, we have boiled it down to 5 skills which we have seen lead to a more effective leader and company.  The 5 skills are:

1. A passion for providing an extraordinary customer experience and an understanding of your client’s and prospect’s problems.
2. An unwavering focus on your core strengths and using those to solve your client’s and prospect’s problems.
3. Being a source of innovation for your clients and partners and a leading innovator in your market.
4. An understanding of finance and financial statements. 
5. Company culture plays a very important role in the success of your business.

Let’s examine each of these and look at some examples how possessing these skills have aided in a company’s growth.

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