Services & Products

• METAMANAGEMENT  Managers of companies both large and small can learn how to tap their entrepreneurial talents and become innovative leaders and change agents. With this manual they learn how to strategize, seize opportunities, organize and motivate teams, take calculated risks, and move quickly and decisively.  This eye-opening workshop shows how an established firm can keep itself fresh and vital by using mission charters, team structures, participative planning, shared learning, “follower empowerment,” and performance-based compensation ( "virtual equity" ) to creatively build an enduring edge in the marketplace.
• “LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE” — DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE “FOLLOWERSHIP   This chunk of Brass Tacks BrainFood shows business owners and managers how they can become dynamic forces for change and progress within their organizations. Drawing on a wide range of examples, it explores what is needed to be a successful leader. Most importantly, this monograph  thoroughly explores the techniques for establishing a motivated followership. The essential personal attributes of a leader are explored. The capacity for independent action is stressed, and suggestions for empowering followers, facilitating their participation, organizing their energies, and supporting their initiatives are provided. Going a step beyond the traditional systems approaches of TQM routines, this manual focuses on people rather than processes, and shows how organizational performance is a direct result of enlightened leadership.
• THE “HOW TO’s” OF STRATEGIC PLANNING  This workshop helps business leaders define the essential nature and purpose of an enterprise and plot the fundamental paths that it will follow in seeking the broad, long-term goals necessary for unique achievement. A proven Strategic Planning Action Template is provided to participants to help them ensure that all the bases are covered as their organization concentrates on the long-term, macro issues that will determine the roles and routes that will afford it unmatched success. This approach helps principals establish priorities and focus their energies on the most appropriate initiatives. 
• CREATING A BUSINESS PLAN THAT WORKS  This how-to workshop provides established enterprises with a practical, step-by-step guide to compiling and presenting a comprehensive, understandable Business Plan. The product is a Plan that will motivate, provide critical direction, and produce results. Advice is given on essential plan contents, structure and organization, and about what works and what doesn't. Emphasized are the things that turn plan readers on and spark positive responses. The checklist format of the workshop manual can help a business owner zero in on the most important short-term goals and devise the most effective, economical ways to achieve them.  Each manual also provides a“C\Prompt Planning Matrix” to guide and facilitate a comprehensive planning process. This tool prompts planners to consider all relevant conditioning factors, and to relate their ambitious ideas to the realities of their company’s cash flow, the lifeblood of the enterprise.
• THE BOSS BASHER  This timely workout shows a company owner or manager how to secure a helpful "upward evaluation" from his or her employees. It explains how workers’ appraisals of their bosses’ performance can benefit both the boss and the firm. It shows how such bottom-to-top reviews can be a positive experience for all participants. The workshop also provides an easy to use "report card" with which selected employees can anonymously evaluate their boss's performance, leadership style, communication abilities, and entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses. Copy-ready forms are included to conduct and score the exercise. This exercise is a must for sensitive bosses who really want to know how to improve their performance and expand the accomplishments of their firms.
• INTRAPRENEURSHIP: Building a Company Within A Company  Starting a new venture within an established business is a good way to multiply company profit and give the firm an additional edge in the marketplace. But the formula for “intrapreneurial" success in a given business situation is difficult to determine and apply. This workshop tells how to find the right people to do the job, and how to structure their mission so that it has the best chance for success. Intrapreneurs have to be motivated, influenced, and compensated differently than the typical manager. Since they will only flourish in the right environment, this program explains how to create an organizational climate conducive to successful venturing.
• GOING WITH THE GOLD  The “firm” is a typical entrepreneur's most valuable personal asset. But since it is an illiquid asset, it is important to have realistic plans for “cashing out” and ultimately converting business equity to usable wealth. While "going for the gold" is a way of life for most entrepreneurs, ”going with the gold” should be one of the primary goals of that life. With the guidance of the “Business Ownership Audit this workshop provides owners and their families with the tools needed to harvest the personal wealth a business represents. Techniques covered include family limited liability companies, trusts, gifting programs, non-qualified retirement plans, employee stock ownership programs ( ESOP's ), and leveraged buyouts. The roles of buy/sell agreements, shareholder agreements, pre-nuptial agreements and life and disability insurance are also examined. In addition, this workshop explains how to prepare both management and ownership succession plans for mastering transition challenges like retirement, sale of the business, wealth protection and distribution, estate planning, management succession, and transfers of equity among family members or employees. 
• HOW TO LIVE WITH -- AND LOVE ?? -- AN ENTREPRENEUR  Here's the inside scoop on what makes an entrepreneur tick and on how a venturer’s background, education, personality, and experience influence performance. In the spirit of David Letterman, this workshop features a "TOP TEN LIST" that shows how to discover and benefit from the strengths -- and weaknesses -- of the entrepreneurial personality. This exercise is invaluable for individuals who want to gauge entrepreneurial aptitudes. It provides worthwhile insights for those who routinely deal with entrepreneurs, including franchisers, distributors, bankers, attorneys, accountants, professionals, spouses, managers, corporate directors and vendors. A custom-designed "E.Q. Test" is administered to help participants understand the unique personality, behaviors, and interests of an entrepreneur. 
• SHOULD I ??      OR SHOULDN’T I ???   This is the key go/no go question that confronts everyone who enjoys an entrepreneurial spirit. With this workshop, potential venturers -- and their investors, lenders, or employers -- learn how to evaluate the personal strengths and weaknesses of an aspiring entrepreneur.  Readers find out how to assess a person’s potential for success as an owner of a new business or as an innovative manager in an already established enterprise. Methods for appraising an opportunity are also explored, and participants are aided in formulating a prescription for what will be needed, personally and situationally, to launch a successful entrepreneurial career. With this input, prospective venturers gain an objective understanding of their abilities and of the “payoff potential” of a business opportunity.
• MATCHPOINTS     A Communication Exercise   This enjoyable and insightful workshop is designed for a business owner and his or her spouse or "significant other." Neither difficult nor time consuming, it helps each party in a relationship to understand the goals, motivations, and problems of the other. It provides a hands-on exercise that stimulates the kind of dialog that leads to greater mutual appreciation and to enhanced abilities to help one another. It shows how a self-test can be tailored to cover those specific issues that are of greatest concern to those in the relationship.
• SELLING A BUSINESS AT THE RIGHT TIME   AT THE RIGHT PRICE FOR THE RIGHT REASONS    This workshop shows business owners how to value and sell an enterprise for maximum payback. Participants learn how to locate qualified buyers, "dress up" a firm for sale, price and negotiate a transaction, deal with business brokers, and prepare for a healthy and wealthy life after the sale. Tips are also provided for effective and economical use of professionals like attorneys, accountants, appraisers, business brokers, and estate planners.
• PROTECTING YOUR ASSETS: A SELF-AUDIT FOR BUSINESS OWNERS  This workshop helps a business owner identify the present and potential threats to his or her business wealth. It explains the most effective asset protection techniques presently available, including: limited liability companies; ownership trusts; stock certificates, pre-nuptial agreements, funded buy/sell agreements, disability insurance, gifts to family members, and employee stock ownership plans. With the help of the “Business Ownership Audit"manual owners are able to determine the steps that must be taken to insulate their business related wealth from the many things that “can go bump in the night.” The manual shows them how to develop custom-designed “shopping lists” for advice and assistance from professionals. It aids owners in “speaking the language” necessary to effectively and economically use the inputs of professionals and advisors.

Articles and columns 

• BRASS TACKS TIPS   This is a bi-weekly, 1000 word newspaper column designed to answer the questions of business owners anD entrepreneurs.  Having run in sOme of America's top newspapers for over a dozen years, it provides succinct, to-the-poInt tips, bred of real-world experience.