Financial Fundamentals Part 1 September 7, 2021A fundamental dynamic of business is paying attention to the organization’s financial performance and stability, not just for now but sustainable into the future. The best way to do this is dropping the old mentality that the accounting and finance department is strictly for reporting history and counting widgets. The financial department should be

Value enhancement implements a change which creates long-term benefits for you and your business. The valuation process combines the knowledge acquired by the discovery of key value drivers within a company, along with our expertise in process improvement. This enables us to provide you with a plan to improve the value of your company.

More than 1,000 professional services firms from organizations across six continents participated in this study designed to shed light on what drives extraordinary growth in professional services organizations. The participating firms represent all types of professional services with a wide range of firm sizes. Participants have over 70 billion dollars in combined revenues and employ more than one million combined full-time staff.

If you’re over 25, it’s time to begin retirement planning! Without a plan in place, your family, your partner, your team, your company — your LEGACY — can all needlessly suffer. If those aren’t worth an investment of your resources, I ask, “What is?”

This summer, the Eagle team continues its work with several clients focused on growing the value of their businesses. Our team has been trusted with delving into the framework of these companies. We ask the tough questions and then we roll up our sleeves as integral team members in problem solving. All the while, we continue to actively strengthen our own business by implementing the same principles.

It’s true that you can’t serve everyone, yet you can certainly still choose to positively impact many lives. That’s leadership – and it’s how to truly take care of your people. Some industries are having challenges finding talent. Owners need to know the best ways to identify highly skilled, competent employees.

Competitiveness isn’t always the best mindset, especially if you lean toward a take-no-prisoners mentality. After all, business is not a zero-sum game — it’s infinitely expandable. When your approach is based around the paradigm that there are enough resources and successes for all to share, you can more easily see all the possible solutions regardless of the challenges you are facing.

Our days are often filled with the completion of necessary tasks. Oftentimes, you may feel stressed and busy as you try to keep up with life. As you strike items off your to-do lists, you must find ways to be productive rather than busy. If the completion of your daily tasks only results in simply maintaining you, your businesses and your family, are you truly making progress?

No matter where your business stands today, you’re likely to agree that change is once again in the air, and that optimism is prevailing. Reflecting on a year of change, I have witnessed survival of the fittest in full effect. The companies who have prevailed were already carefully handling all aspects of their business, many with contingency plans in place. I’ve seen astounding resiliency and creativity – businesses adapting operations and evolving to find new ways to reach customers. The challenges have certainly strengthened many businesses.

Growth is both wonderful and desirable. At Eagle Corporate Advisors, we continually plan and prepare, as we strive to stay one step ahead of our clients’ ambitions, and our own. We see self-examination as key to making the most of any growth effort; we ask plenty of questions of ourselves and of those we advise.

Overcoming changing obstacles is critical to success in 2021. In this challenging time for business, owners can absolutely come out on top after weathering the coming unknowns, but doing so requires effort. And effort means work — a new type of work. We feel the change in the air, yet too many owners remain in their default mode, precariously positioned without a contingency plan. When unexpected obstacles are, frankly, inevitable, “I’ll figure it out” is simply not a plan. What happens if you lose a major player? What if a lender pulls out? And what about the notorious “5 Ds”?

Business owners mention retirement from time to time. When I ask these folks what they’re doing to make sure it happens, I usually get some variation of the deer-in-headlights gaze or I hear “I’ll work on that in 3 to 5 years,” or “That’s a long way off!” The truth is, if you don’t take steps to make retirement happen, your “Someday” simply won’t come. Or, when you get there, it won’t be what you wanted, at all. Crazy enough, your dream will not happen magically!

Christmas carols and thoughts of a traditional winter holiday have a warm familiarity that’s comforting—a glow of timeless optimism. Some things are different this year; for one, many caroling choirs have moved to Zoom. A year of challenges makes all the trappings of Christmas even more comforting.

2020 seemed to come with built-in challenges that have easily distracted many of us from the wonderful things in life. Stress can be brought on by obstacles and change, yet this can be offset when we take time for gratitude. In my experience, it sometimes takes a conscious effort to make sure we’re not taking many of the wonderful parts of life for granted. I’m sure you have heard the phrase “Have an attitude of gratitude.” However, gratitude is something that we must practice implementing—the word “practice” refers to us taking the time to list or log the items, people, or things that we are grateful for to help us create an increasingly strong appreciation for the blessings we enjoy. This means we may sometimes forget, or feel like we aren’t “good at” gratitude; however, continuing to practice it will undoubtedly yield rewards.

Questions and issues seem to pop up continually when you’re a business owner. These issues fall into so many different categories– marketing, sales, legal, operations, planning, people, financial– business would go so much more smoothly if we could each be an expert in all of them! When your area of specialty simply doesn’t cover it all, you rack your brain and come up with a way to get support or find someone who’s a good fit to help.