My Company is in Trouble: What do I do?

Is your Company in trouble?

Is your Company in trouble?

Every business entity is different. Signs of financial distress of one company may not apply to another. Notwithstanding, common problems most companies experience tend to be warning signs, signals, of pending trouble regardless of type of business, industry, size, etc.

Your company may be experiencing these types of symptoms:

  • Revenues experiencing a decline over several quarters or not meeting budgetary levels. Or your cash position is getting low as your product or service sales fallen off. You are constantly keeping an eye on the business cash cycle trying to avoid an imbalance of cash in take to cash outflows.
  • The business has lost one of more key customers and the indication of replacing the lost income is not looking promising.
  • The business is struggling to meet payroll.
  • Secured creditors are requesting for more collateral.
  • Creditors as well as suppliers have restricted lending the business as the business working capital gotten tight.
  • Key employees and managers have quit
  • The bank has threatened to call the loan.

It is normal human nature to avoid difficult problems and put off dealing with the issue. Hence, you may minimize the business problems or assume that time is on your side and it will go away. It will not!

Reality is here. As a manager or entrepreneur you must avoid being in a “state of denial”. These problems will not go away. When the business is heading downhill, you must decide whether or not you want to remain in business. This is an important issue to must not be put off.

Spend some time thinking about what you are going to do. It is critical that you think with your head and not with your emotions. Put aside your ego, sentiments, and pride. Think of what is best for you and your family. Family will be affected by your decision. Consider the following:

  • How difficult will it be to raise fresh money that you will need to turn around the business? The money to pay the bills and the money needed to execute your plan.
  • Question yourself do you have what it takes to save the business? For a small company, running it is hard enough. As the side time, the turn around process will be a monumental challenge. So do you opt for:
  1. Institute a turn around by either hiring a turn around specialist or lead the restructuring by yourself
  2. File for chapter 11 reorganization possibly losing control of the business
  3. File for chapter 7 liquidation
  4. Ramp down the business by sun setting the company in an orderly shutdown.
  5. Sell all or part of the business

Do not underestimate the time, effort, and commitment required of any choice. Not to mention the amount of money it will take to meet the challenge.

If you decide that you want to save the business, know that the potential benefits outweigh the sacrifices you and your family will have to make. So think clearly about the options.

Gary Rushin, CPA/CIRA (GaryRushin.com)

Gary Rushin, a licensed Certified Public Accountant and is a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor mentors entrepreneurs and business executives on business strategy and corporate renewal. Gary Rushin taught executive level business students in the U.S., India, and China and has advised donor agencies and a central bank on prudential underwriting and supervision.

For free online accounting mini course “http://AccountingMiniCourse.com” designed for entrepreneurs go tohttp://AccountingMiniCourse.com

 

Doing Brainstorming, Right!

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is both art and science

Working with other consultants on the $100K Business Makeover means we do a lot brainstorming.  And despite with many think there is right way of doing it.  

The key to effective brainstorming: Not stepping on other people’s ideas.

And there is one caveat: You are not the smartest person in the room.

Here are some steps to have a productive brainstorming session:

  1. Prep your session. Establish criteria to rate the ideas that are generated.
  2. Identify the goal.  Should should be stated as clearly as you can in one sentence.  That’s it.  think of it as the session mission statement.  It should contain the what (a specific outcome) and the why (future state). Send this out to the team in advance so they can start gathering their thoughts or do any research before the session. At the beginning of the session restate this goal.
  3. Keep in short and sweet. Brainstorming sessions should never last more than an hour without some sort of break. They should not be too large, usually between five or seven people; diversity helps, so bringing in people from other areas is encouraged. And finally set ground rules: no critiquing; no editing; and, most importantly, DO build on each other’s ideas.
  4. Have a way to capture notes and ideas.  Have plenty of post-it notes, flip charts, colored markers, tape, and small colored labels. And don’t forget to take a picture with your smartphone before you leave the room.
  5. Know your overall outcome:
  • Our ideal solution has to be actionable within the next 30 – 90 days.
  • The ideal solution solves a specific problem
  • Identify stakeholders and key influencers that can help or detract from the ideal solutions

The brainstorming process is a lot of fun and can bring out some creative ideas. Be aware not to take a Laissez-faire attitude or a casual approach.  Taking time away from the day to day work is costly and the last thing you want to do is never implement or act on after the session is over.  A guarantee way to deflate innovative thought and engagement is to waste peoples time on things that don’e product an outcome.

Call a senior consultant with Ember Carriers at (513) 984-9333 for a no cost, not obligation, strategy session for more ideas for your company.

Web: www.embercarriers.com|Facebook: www.facebook.com/EmberCarriers

Twitter: www.twitter.com/embercarriers|LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mhladio

 

Feedback is Useless: FEEDFORWARD for Productivity

When I dig into the most frequent failure of managers – the failure to give timely, effective feedback – I find both fear and frustration. Fear that giving feedback will make people angry or shut them down, that they will disengage with their manager. Frustration that conversations often turn to excuses rather than solutions.  I’ve heard it at every level, from first-time supervisors and from CEOs.

The best managers are great coaches. They use “feedforward” instead of feedback. The idea is not new.1 People often get defensive and make excuses when we hold them accountable, especially if we find fault and place blame.  After all, they can’t change the past.  They are much more cooperative, committed (and engaged!) when we talk about their future – what to do differently to get a better result next week and next month.

The best employee engagement tools provide clear direction for the future – they feedforward.  They are designed to go beyond vague statistics that force HR and other leaders to guess where to start and what to do.  Our Pinpoint Performance™ system asks specific questions to probe actionable information about problem areas, like a “virtual focus group.”

Let’s say, for example, that your people give a low survey rating on “There is an atmosphere of trust in this company.”  Our system then asks specifically, “What could be done to improve the level of trust?”  The resulting written comments detail what you can do to do to improve trust.  The comments reflect people’s hopes for their future. Your people have given you feedforward, not feedback.

The Feedforward Cycle.  And then you have an amazing opportunity.  You can meet with your people to reciprocate.  You can give them feedforward on what you will do, as well as what you need them to do.  Employees love to have their ideas adopted.  And they love it when you talk about specific, tangible changes. And they respond in kind.

No blame.  No defensiveness.  Just good discussion about future action.

Amazing and Rewarding!

Source: Jeff Grip, Pinpoint Performance Blog, Witmer & Associates

Navigating Your Future – Using a GPS

Long before people even imagined gizmos for their cars called GPS devices…there were navigators.

Octant or Hadley's Quadrant - Royal Ontario Museum

Octant or Hadley’s Quadrant  (Photo credit: Al_HikesAZ)

The role of the navigator was to help a ship’s captain determine where he wanted to be and compare it to where the ship actually was. Only then did it make sense to chart a course to align those two sets of coordinates.

I’ve never served aboard a ship, but as a financial navigator, this is what I do every day. And a few years ago, I designed a tool we call a GPS (Goal Positioning Sheet).

It takes five minutes and can quickly clarify where you are and where you want to be.

I encourage you to download the free tool by clicking here:

GPS Checklist

Even if you never share it with anyone, I think you’ll find it a helpful exercise.

But if you’d like to discuss anything after completing it, feel free to give me a call.

Smooth sailing!!

Source:Lyon Group

Red Flags for Hiring and Promotion

Job Application

Hire slow – fire fast

I assume you’ve been there…sitting at your desk, looking at your notes from an interview with a candidate.  You feel the pressure to say “yes”.  You hate to waste precious time interviewing more candidates or asking the recruiter to go back to the well.  But your gut is confused. Something is wrong, but you don’t know what it is.

Statistically, hiring outside candidates is a crap shoot…a 50/50 proposition.  If you’re really good at interviewing, your hit-rate increases to 70%.  The only way to achieve 90%+ success in hiring is to combine several best practices that are outlined on page 3 of our article: http://www.witmerassociates.com/files/RedFlagsV3.pdf.

Page 2 of this article shows our “red flags checklist.”  We compiled these red flags over 25 years of assessing candidates, both internal and external.  Next time you interview a candidate, scan the checklist.  It may speed your decision.  And it might help you avoid a costly mistake!

Source: Jeff Grip, Pinpoint Performance Blog, Witmer & Associates

The Performance of Others will make you a Great Leader

Hello I AM The Boss

Hello I AM The Boss

When I facilitate my “Leaders vs Manager” workshop for clients, the most important quality of great leaders people will mention, the one quality for which many want to be known, is extraordinary performance, with the goal of achieving extraordinary results.  These results then serve as an inspiration to others to perform at equally exceptional levels. People ascribe leadership to those men and women who they feel can most enable them to achieve important goals or objectives.

Why People Respect You

We develop great perceptions of those people in our lives that we can count on to help us achieve what is important to us. Who is for you, teacher, a boss, a parent a civil leader? Men and women who are legendary in our minds. They are spoken about in the most positive way. They have earn our respect.

The Halo Effect

Men and women who are responsible for companies or departments that achieve high levels of profitability also develop charisma and self confidence. They develop what is called the “halo effect.” They are perceived by others to be extraordinary men and women and great leaders who are capable of great things. Their shortcomings are often overlooked, while their strong points are overemphasized. Great leaders are charismatic and display self confidence.

Charisma

Charisma comes from liking and accepting yourself unconditionally as you do and say the specific things that develop within you a powerful, charismatic personality. Set clear goals and become result oriented and purposeful, backing those goals with unshakable self confidence, you develop charisma.

Be Result Oriented and Purposeful

When you are enthusiastic and excited about what you are doing, when you are totally committed to achieving something worthwhile, you radiate charisma and self confidence. When you take the time to study and become an expert at what you do, and then prepare thoroughly for any opportunity to use your knowledge, skill or experience, the perception that others have of you goes straight up.

Accept Complete Responsibility

When you take complete responsibility and accept ownership, without making excuses or blaming others, you experience a sense of control that leads to the personal power that is the foundation of charisma. When you look like a winner in every respect, when you have the kind of external image that others admire, you build your charisma. When you develop your character by setting high standards and then disciplining yourself to live consistent with the highest principles you know, you become the kind of person who is admired and respected everywhere. You become the kind of person who radiates charisma to others.

Focus on Results

Finally, when you concentrate your energies on achieving the results that you have been hired to accomplish, the results that others expect of you, you develop the reputation for performance and achievement that inevitably leads to the perception of charisma and self confidence.

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, ask yourself every day, “What is the one thing that I and only I can do, that if done well, will make a real difference to my company?” Whatever your answer, go to work on that.

Second, decide upon the most important results you can get for your company and make sure that you and everyone else is working on those results every hour of every day.

Please share and comment below! Who are the great leaders in your life?