Riverstone Business Consulting Services

Television pundits and politicians say small business is the key to the global economy. They remind us that small businesses create most of most of the jobs and sustain local communities.

With all the talk, it can feel like everyone is “for” the small business owner but no one is “with” him or her. What’s missing is seasoned expertise focused on the special needs of the men and women starting businesses, growing them, and then selling them to passing the business on to the next generation.

The Riverstone team stands “with” you, bringing a unique mix of small business and corporate experience targeted for the real life problems of growth or decline. Many of the outstanding tools we use with our corporate clients can help you untangle the knot of issues you pull at every day. Often, a Riverstone Business Consulting engagement provides the forward momentum required for a breakthrough.

• Business Alignment

• Owner or Manager Consulting

• Key Team Member Development

• Team Development

• Business Strategy and Implementation

• Business Succession Planning

• Business Real Estate Planning

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Consulting and the Life Align System

To maximize the impact of our Business Consulting Services, we incorporate the Life Align System. The practical tools included in our system help us add greater value to business clients in less time.

Effective leadership in any sized business begins with effective thinking. The Life Align System provides a transferrable set of “thinking maps” that help leaders order their work and align the work of their of their business and their lives.

Business Alignment

Alignment is important in every business but vital for small businesses. There’s no margin for error. Every part of your business either supports your alignment or undermines it.

We’ll work with you to evaluate how you’ve structured your your business, the people on your team, your approach to strategic planning and how you get things done. The good news is that often a limited number of adjustments can change the trajectory of a business. We’ll work with you to identify those changes and lay out a plan to get things done. The Life Align System provides a flexible way to map out the changes you want. Usually, a one to two-day consultation provides the insights needed for you to move forward with confidence.

Owner or Manager Consulting

Leading a company requires a particular mindset, an ability to see the big picture and how all the parts. Finding a consultant to be a trusted advisor is tricky. Lots of people have business experience but fewer can step into your company, help you figure out what is causing problems and provide practical ways to fix what’s not working.

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Running a company can be lonely work. You can’t afford to say everything you are thinking to everyone on your team. Who will have only your interests in mind? The Life Align System provides a straightforward way to structure a series of consulting days, spread over a number of months. These monthly sessions combine one-on-one time with you along with time with you and your team. Often, six one-day sessions spread over six months provide enough input and ideas for a personal leadership breakthrough.

Key Team Member Development

You can’t grow your company without developing a strong team to make the journey with you. Sometimes, you have a promising new team member who needs help seeing the bigger picture. She may have been effective working with a narrower set of responsibilities but now you need her to step up. Taking that step can derail a promising career but a strategic investment in her development at the right time can make all the difference.

Other times, you may have a team member in a key position struggling to deal with an increasingly complex problem. Maybe he does a great job when he’s working alone but alienates people. Can he step up and regain momentum? Can his role in your business be salvaged? It’s hard to say but one thing is sure—without intervention things will end badly for him and for your company.

For leaders with potential and those currently struggling, a Key Team Member Development engagement offers a cost effective investment in the future strength of the business. Leveraging the core concepts of The Life Align System, your people can gain insight into how to accelerate their progress or confront the things that are tripping them up. Three one-day sessions spread over three months allows time for us to work with up to three of your key team members, positioning them for personal success and giving you peace of mind that you’re investing in your people.

Team Development

It’s impossible to align what is not clearly understood. That’s why a Team Development engagement can help you and everyone move forward with less friction and increased synergy. Whether in an off-site retreat or in on-site session, the Riverstone team will use various assessment tools and team interactions to help you and your team strengthen your work together.

We have found that the best way to align your team is to work together on an important project with the assistance of a Riverstone consultant. In this way, the team development activity contributes to ongoing work while strengthening everyone in a real-time, laboratory environment.

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Business Strategy and Implementation

As a business leader, you have a strategy. You implement what you plan. Chances are you do one part better than the other.

Perhaps you enjoy the excitement of starting new things. But once you kick off the new idea, you lose interest in implementing it. Later you wonder why that great idea failed to get traction.

Maybe you’re a leader who thrives on digging into the details and getting things done. Sometimes though, the constraints of your business can squeeze a great idea until it is bland, nothing that will set you apart in the marketplace.

Other leaders are good with both strategy and operations but they allow things to spin into complexity. A great idea becomes a rock too big to pick up.

There is a better way. One part of The Life Align System is the RSSP and the RSOP – the Really Simple Strategic Plan and the Really Simple Operational Plan.

During a Business Strategy and Implementation engagement, usually a three-day process, the Riverstone team meets with you and key members of your team to evaluate your current strategic and operational planning processes to determine how both can be balanced and simplified using the “Really Simple” tools.

Business Succession Planning

You’ve built a business. Now it's time to think about the future. Do you plan to sell the business? Do you want to pass the business on to a family member or to a younger team member?

It’s impossible to begin planning too early for business succession. Most business owners wait until it’s too late . . . at least too late to ensure an optimum transition. Stay out of that trap and take action now.

Through a Business Succession Planning engagement, the Riverstone team will help you determine what you want to do and then coordinate work with our associates – lawyers, accountants, bankers, and others you’ll need to establish your plan and timeline for transition.

Once you have your plan in place, we’ll work with you over a series of years as needed to implement the plan and help you maximize the returns from the business you’ve built.

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Small Business Real Estate Consulting

Business leaders have to be good at many things to launch and grow a successful business. Few though are prepared to make important real estate decisions. Yet those decisions can have an enormous impact on your company.

• Do you have a dream for your business but don’t know what kind of space or place you need?

• Have you outgrown your current space?

• Are you trying to decide whether to renew your lease or look for a larger or smaller space?

• Do you want to own your own building?

• Are you a retailer preparing to open a second store?

The Riverstone team offers you the expertise to evaluate options, make wise choices and then select a course of action. Why risk all you’ve gained in building your business by blowing a real estate decision? Play to your strengths and let us play to ours for you.

Consulting Rates

Riverstone consulting offers services for half-day and full-day rates plus expenses. Rates vary based on the nature of the engagement as well as the size and location of the organization. Contact us and we can discuss your needs and the cost of the engagement.

Contact Information

Office Phone: (615) 791-9782

Fax: (615) 595-6845

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 680338, Franklin, TN 37068

Office Address: 106 Mission Court, Suite 901, Franklin, TN 37067

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John Krampjohn@theriverstonegroup.com

David Atchisondavid@theriverstonegroup.com

© Copyright 2012, The Riverstone Group

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