CBT Q&A: The pulse of local business: Uncertainty hindering business development in Columbia

The CBT asked four business consultants and two certified public accountants what they’re hearing on the street and from their clients: Cathy Atkins, president of Savant Business Development Systems; Jim Gann, director of technology business at MU’s University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Gene Gerke and Joe Weston of Gerke & Associates; Jim Marberry of Marberry & Company, PC, CPAs; and Troy Norton, audit partner with Williams-Keepers LLC.

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Haskel Thompson & Associates is the leading executive search firm in the industry serving a client base composed of independent jobbers and resellers, family-operated companies top industry vendors and Fortune 500 corporations. Beyond longevity and a unique search process technology, Haskel offers his expansive client base flexible engagement agreements, candidate replacement courtesies, and a slew of top-tier references and testimonials all serviced by a highly experienced senior team of recruiters

Retaining quality, productive employees is key to business success. Salaries and benefits can impact retention and productivity. But often it is the non-financial factors that have the greatest impact, particularly for entry level and hourly employees. This paper looks at employment as a process: from recruitment to termination, from start to finish.

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Day to day business processes serve as arteries to carry the life-blood (data and information) of an organization. Whether these business processes are efficient, inefficient, effective, ineffective, boring or exciting (rarely are they ever exciting), they are the foundation required for all companies to function; yet they are too often ignored.

This 31 page guide outlines the steps leading to successful process mapping:

1. Purpose statement
2. Internal response
3. Team members
4. Project scope
5. Conducting mapping sessions

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Successful Strategic Planning for a family business has to consider the family’s philosophy regarding business, family and community. This worksheet can help define that philosophy.

G&A Family Business Philosophy Drivers

Gerke & Associates has been customizing benchmarking applications since 1977.  Clients include small independent retailers and entire consumer products industries.  One 10-year benchmarking engagement involved working with North American and European distributors of consumer products, an led to nearly 100% increase in profit margin for the group.  Contact us for details on how we can develop profit-improvement benchmarking for your company or your industry.

For more than 30 years we have been helping clients develop sound strategic plans. During that time we have also seen firms make mistakes in tackling the strategic planning process. This report highlights the pitfalls to avoid in planning.

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Are you considering the outside Board of Directors or Advisory Council? Or are your current Board or Council members unclear on their roles? This checklist can help you and your advisers establish the desired roles and responsibilities.

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People moving into supervisory roles can often benefit from training in the art of supervising others. Take a look at the Supervisory Skills Training that Gerke consultants can provide for your company.

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Effective business benchmarking involves continuous measuring and comparing of any performance metric so it can be improved over time.  Anything that can be measured can be benchmarked, whether it is the number of shelf items sold, the number of man hours spent unloading trucks, the average collection period for receivables or average sales per salesperson. Read the rest of this entry »