Some Questions Appear More Often than Others

There are some quesitons which which come up frequently in discusssions with small businesses, and the questions themselves describe pretty well what we do:

+ Where can I get capital / cash / funding / a loan?

Don't. In all seriousness, though, first examine carefully if your essential business model is profitable on its own. While incurring debt can allow you to grow, you have to be certain that your basic assumptions and actual process are sustainable. Have the management tools in place to monitor your profitability in real time. We can help you determine if your current business is sustainable without requiring any kind of artificial input other than profits, and build the tools to monitor and stay on track.
Grants are the next best option; while the applications can require a lot of effort, your obligation is usually in follow-up documentation which is easier than committing a lot of future profits. You need to be certain that your business's solvency isn't predicated on future grants: in other words, grants should be used for specific limited purposes, and not factored into your business's sustainability. We can help you find appropriate grants and write the application.
Zero- or low-interest loans can be a logical choice, particularly if you are scaling up and need expensive equipment or a significant operational push, but you need to ensure that you can pay it off in a reasonable time frame. For farms and food businesses, the FSA can be a good source for appropriate loans. We can help you discern if a loan is the right tool to help you grow, and model the factors involved in scaling up to determine if you can afford the debt.
Investment may mean that you don't need to pay back directly, but receiving investment in your business almost always dilutes your ownership: in other words, you could lose some control. Sometimes investment brings with it investors who have skills and experience valuable to your busines - it can be a "win-win" situation for both you and potential investors. We can help you evaluate potential investment and prepare an investors package if that makes sense for your business.

+ What do I do next?

Know where you are going. Have a clearly articulated, objectively measurable goal. This, in tandem with the next two points, will answer this and many other questions. We can help you articulate your goal and test its assumptions and realism.
Know your limits. We call them "non-negotiables" - these are the conditions that define your values and quality of life. What are the things that you must or must not have in your business, and if you don't have them, you'd want to cease operating? A living wage for your employees? Zero debt? Carbon-Neutral operations? At least one day off per week for you? These things are personal, but once known, will help you make better decisions without second-guessing yourself, and make them faster. We can help you define your personal non-negotiables and understand their implications for profitability and sustainability.
Know where you are. Make sure you have the financial reporting and operational dashboards to give you honest, accurate information about your business. The most common will be finanical reporting that shows the overall health of your company, sales reporting that compares goals with progress, and production information that helps you make better operational decisions. We can help you determine the management dashboards that make the most sense for your business and design them.
Understand how you Get Things Done. Workflow is the circulatory system of business; it's how the product and decisions get made. You should understand and document every critical function of your business; that is the central value of what you do, and will be essential not only for scaling up, but for selling or transferring your business if you plan to do so in the future. We can help you understand, document, and improve your business workflow. A nice side effect of well-documented workflow is increased profitability and happiness for all concerned!
Make a plan and stick to it, until proven otherwise. Every business should have a Business Plan, containing Sales and Marketing plans, and it should be a living document. That is to say: the whole point of the plan is to describe "what happens next" and decide what to do if something unexpected happens (something unexpected always happens). If you're not referring to your Business Plan regularly, or it doesn't answer quesitons for you, then the Plan isn't complete or correct. We can help you write complete and correct business plans.

+ What will it take to become profitable?

If you already undestand and monitor the fundamentals of your business (see the section above on "What do I do next?) then you'll need to test the fundamental factors of your business. These include Sales Volume and Velocity, Gross Receipts and Gross Margin, COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), Fixed and Variable Expenses, Labor Costs. Start with updating and reviewing your business's financial reports no less than once a week. If you aren't profitable you'll need to understand why you are burning cash, and if you are, you should know if it can be improved. The only way to achieve this is understanding the interaction of those fundamental financial facts. We can help you set up and understand the basic financial facts of your business, and determine the steps you need to take to move towards profitability.

+ How do I "Scale Up"?

Scaling Up, particularly moving from Self-Distribution to 3rd-Party Distributors and Brokers, is one of the most challening changes that businesses face.
Not only do you lose another 20-30% of your profit margin, but you're changing the nature and size of your operations and workforce, which has significant implications for your workflow. If you haven't already defined and documented your workflow, it becomes super-critical at this point.
You'll need to understand the best product/channel mix of products in each of your market and distribution channels, and the barriers, latent potential, and needs of each market/channel combination. We can help you with the market research to determine the best areas for growth with the lowest barriers to entry.
In order to test your assumptions of profitability and costs, you'll need to build an accurate and flexible Business Model. This is usually a spreadsheet which allows you to project over several months (12, 36, 60) increases in sales, the number of discrete accounts required to achieve those sales, changes in margin and profitability across product/channel mix, changes to your fixed and variable costs, and periodic large capital expenditures (for space or equipment) and the implications to monthly debt payments. We can help you build projection models for scaling up, evaluate their validity, plan for growth, and make appropriate decisions to manage the process.