Every Business Problem has a Solution:
Listening to Experience
Listening is a discipline.
My first step as an advisor and consultant to businesses for needs such as financing, refinancing, restructuring, reorganization, marketing, sales and other business operational needs is to LISTEN.
Nothing can begin until I first hear the issues, needs and goals that my business clients are facing and aiming towards.
Around 2006, I was brought into a real estate and food service group as an operating partner to help clean up some business debt distress as well as operational issues plaguing the company and threatening it as a going-concern. While I was getting acquainted and settled with all the employees, operational procedures and key vendors of the business, I heard the founding partner speaking to one of his employees in his office who just wasn't understanding the objective and who did not want to hear the solution to the issues the business was facing.
He said, "Now this is where I talk and you listen".
I always think of that moment when I first speak to my potential clients on an initial consultation call because I cannot begin to care or help my clients until I first listen to them. Listen to everything that is going on inside their businesses. In my experience, there are always a few issues at any given time troubling a company that need adjustment or fixing. Some are urgent and some are not as urgent. But business is an ever-changing machine that can turn quickly for the good or the bad, at any moment!
There is estimated to be over 30-million small and medium-sized (SME) businesses (businesses with less than 500 employees) operating in the United States today. By operating, I mean CASH FLOWING. That is the simplest and undisputable base measurement of a business and its success. Is it operating (cash flowing) or not (stopped cash flowing)?
Small and medium-sized businesses or enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of the United States of America. They account for over 90%+ of the total US employment and new US jobs created or added. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are critical to the economy of the entire United States and their existence and ability to flourish affects everyone in every economic class.
We have all heard that 1 out of 10, or 1 out of 9 businesses fail, so it must have taken 300-milion businesses to generate 30-million operating businesses, right? But what about the estimated 300-million businesses that failed since there are 30-million businesses operating? That is a lot of crushed entrepreneurial hopes and dreams.
A lot of businesses no longer exist compared to the many that were started. Businesses can fail in the 1st-year, in the 2nd-year, in the 3rd-year, in the 4th-year, in the 10th-year...in any year. There is no guarantee in business of longevity or continued success, and like I said, businesses and their stability can change very quickly, overnight, over a few weeks or months or years or even from doing just one bad transaction or deal that can change a business significantly for the good, or the bad.
Don't you want to know what happened to all of those businesses to make them fail? To make them stop cash flowing?
(Of course...any business owner and entrepreneur would want to know.)
I have been an advisor and consultant (and partner/investor) to over 400+ businesses in my 30+ year career, so far. My advisory and consulting partners at Bernarsky Advisors also have deep experience in many areas of businesses such as accounting and tax services, marketing, legal services, sales growth, financial modeling and projections, board advisory, business debt refinancing, IPOs, wind-downs, executive placement, business debt restructuring, capital raising, private investor debt and equity placements, etc. We cover and advise our clients on every business situation.
I have seen just about every business scenario that can arise in any stage of a business' life cycle, and if I haven't, one of my partners has. This helps my advisory and consulting firm and I serve our clients with the utmost care as well as with deep experience and knowledge of how to best navigate businesses financial and operational issues on projects which we are retained to advise and consult.
My point is that there are a lot of businesses out there and lots of lessons and scenarios to learn from. We learn by listening because only then can we help our clients win (succeed) by either doing or not doing so their business issues can be fixed and business goals achieved.
I do not know of any entrepreneur, business owner or investor that has a 100% winning track record in business, do you?
But what I do know is that there are a lot of successful businesses, business owners and business experiences that I have learned from throughout my career which help me, help my clients.
[LEARN FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S MISTAKES. ITS CHEAPER.]
So why not be wise, and learn from other people's failures and successes? I was told long ago by an influential business mentor that stupid people never learn, smart people learn from their own mistakes and wise people learn from other people's mistakes. The less business mistakes that are made, or the more you avoid or correct them quickly, the higher the probability of success and continued cash flow within your business.
So is this all negative? Meant to be de-motivating? Certainly not!
This is all meant to arm you with how to succeed by not making the same mistakes others (including myself) have made, over and over and over, resulting in serious business issues, or worse yet, business failure (stop cash flowing).
I want you and your business to win and to succeed. I want your business problems to get fixed and business goals to be achieved. That is the result that I want for you.
It has been said many times that "Champions believe in themselves when no one else does" and every entrepreneur surely knows that scenario!
[CASH FLOW MATTERS MOST. KEEP IT FLOWING!]
So no matter how you slice it, or spin it, or twist it or wish it was or wasn't, or look at it or analyze it, or deny it... THE REALITY IS for a business to succeed over the long run and sustain itself, there is ONLY ONE BASE METRIC OR MEASURE that is literally the heartbeat of business.
Money.
CASH FLOW!
Without sufficient access to money, cash, cashflow (AKA liquidity/credit/financing), then a business is GUARANTEED TO DIE.
A medical doctor client of mine who owns a network of practices told me once long ago that every human dies for the same reason. Their heart stops. Every business dies for that same reason. It no longer has money or access to money. No more cash or access to cash to keep the business' heart beating. Of course this happens for many, many reasons which we will discuss later and in the future in more detail. But for now, I want to leave you with that seemingly obvious and stark fact about business:
BUSINESSES FAIL WHEN THEY RUN OUT OF MONEY.
THEREFORE, BUSINESSES FAIL ONLY FROM LACK OF MONEY.
Now the reasons businesses run out of money one can write a whole book about. Insufficient sales volume, burdening debt loads, marketplace changes, negative cash flow, ineffective marketing, etc...the list goes on and on.
[THE ENTREPRENEURIAL BUG]
The majority of my business experience throughout my career and life has been in business consulting and advisory roles. I began learning about business in high school from entrepreneurs and small business owners in my family; first being my mom's parents, my grandparents, who were raised by parents that immigrated from eastern and central Europe to the United States to escape difficult economic and living conditions.
Since the age of about 9 or 10 years old, I was exposed to and fell in love with business and entrepreneurship, especially as I learned more and more about it by seeing businesses being run first hand by my family and my family's friends. I started noticing lifestyle differences between people that owned their own business and ones that worked for an employer.
I have owned (and still own) stakes in private businesses, have bought businesses, participated in startups, closed and wound down businesses, and had successes and failures in a wide variety of business situations throughout the past 30+ years. I have put all of those experiences as well as the experiences I have had advising and consulting directly with more than 400 business since 2003, which when I started my first internship in college. (So with 30-million plus businesses in the US, I still have many, many people to meet!)
Like the medical doctor client of mine, I have seen the "guts" of plenty of businesses through the years; their ailments, their issues, their concerns, and also throughout a handful of business cycles of economic boom and economic bust. Would you rather see a doctor with more than 30-years of experience practicing medicine, or with only a few years? I have had the opportunity to examine many small, medium and large-sized businesses in a variety of industries during my career as a business advisor and consultant, as well as being an entrepreneur myself.
That is a lot of LISTENING. That is a lot of LEARNING.
I have seen essentially every business industry, every business size, every business problem that can come up, every business solution, every type of business success (exit), every type of business failure (wind-down, bankruptcy, liquidation, etc), every type of business equity investor, every type of business lender...every business situation.
What I have learned the most is simply:
***Every business problem has a solution, and the faster a business gets to implementing it,
the healthier the business will be and the more the risk of failure is reduced.***
Whether its catastrophic failure (closure, stop cash flowing) or failure of an individual or list of business objectives or business goals.
Business situations and goals like taking on business debt, business refinancing, finding equity investor capital, employee recruitment, business debt restructuring, management or operational restructuring / reorganization, spin offs, wind downs, acquisitions, disaster or risk mitigation / prevention, succession planning, financial modeling, business financing or funding, the list goes on and on...
So this is why my role as a business financial advisor and corporate consultant is first and foremost, to listen. Listen to identify the problem, objective or situation that requires a solution or needs fixing. (Like I remember G.I. Joe saying in cartoons as a kid, "Knowing is half the battle.")
Listening goes for everyone. Once we identify the problem or objective with each client, we create a plan of action with a specific time frame and all of the details of how to succeed. This plan of action is the solution to the problem or the bridge to completion of the objective. Then we help our clients implement the plan which is the most important step since it affects business change and progress within the organization.
[ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN AND A DIRECTION, OTHERISE YOU ARE GOING NOWHERE.]
Business owners that do not have a plan, listen to the plan, then implement it, rarely obtain the business objective or solve the business problem.
So the paramount advice is: Listen to experience, then think objectively about the best solution, best strategy and plan of action. Then get to implementing it!
This can be difficult or near impossible for a majority of business owners because it is hard to step back from your business and see it objectively, let alone HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO DO IT! That's where a business advisor (consultant, counselor, fixer, ally - whatever you want to call it) comes into play.
There's a common saying that a business advisor or consultant will "look at your watch and tell you what time it is". Wouldn't you and your business benefit from an experienced ally that has been through the problem or issue that you are facing, 1000s of times before?
What is the value of business experience and advice?
What is the value of receiving and listening to advice?
Or more importantly, not listening...
If you would like to discuss your business issues to be fixed or goals to be achieved on a video or phone meeting, setup a free consultation call here:
https://www.bernarskyadvisors.com/consultation/qualifier
I look forward to meeting with you.
Until then... Keep pushing!
Godspeed.
Stefan Bernarsky
BERNARSKY ADVISORS
Business Financial & Strategy Advice
Refinance. Restructure. Reorganize.
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