Business Resource Services

Welcome SBDC Counselors and Clients!

Facilitator Newsletter
May 2010 - 2nd Quarter Newsletter

Facilitator's Guide Update

We recently finished editing, and have now produced, the 3rd edition of our Participant’s Guide. These books are now being shipped, and can be identified with the copyright date of March 2010 on the inside front page. There are several upgrades to the workbook, which will make it easier for participants to follow the curriculum. You will be receiving these new workbooks when you order them for your upcoming classes.

 

I have also produced an update to our Facilitator’s Guide. This is the first update we have done since the 2nd edition of the workbook was published in July 2008, and will help you to work more easily with the new edition of the Participant’s Guide. The update provides new pages for your book, is easy to complete, and is in a PDF file on our website.

 

Please open the PDF, copy it double-sided on 3-hole paper (or 3-hole punch it along the left side). Follow the first page of instructions regarding which pages need to be removed from your current Facilitator’s Guide and which pages replace them. (The whole process should take you less than 20 minutes.) 

 

When it is complete, the pagination in your Facilitator’s Guide will match the new edition of the Participant’s Guide. In addition, we have corrected several typos, and have changed the order of some of the post-video wrap-up materials in Section 2, which will keep the flow of this section moving at a faster pace.

 

Pre-Training Assignment Process

As you prepare to teach classes, I would like to encourage you to utilize the pre-training assignment process that I require when I'm doing the program. 

 

I do not show Section 1 in class because it takes over an hour of time and slows the pace of the class down. 

To learn more about Profit Mastery training before the ASBDC Conference (September 20-21 in San Antonio) please click here

To order Participant or Facilitator Guides, click here click here (.pdf)

To print out the May 2010 Facilitator’s Guide update click here (.pdf)

To read the ASBDC Core Competencies document click here (.pdf)

To learn more about Profit Mastery University (PMU) click here

To register for PMU for $395 click here

To watch the Profit Mastery PowerPoint slideshow click here (PPT)

To learn more about Profit Mastery for your Center click here (.pdf)

To print off Evaluation Forms for your Profit Mastery class click here (.pdf) Please send completed forms to Rod Bristol

To read Letters of Reference for the Profit Mastery program, click here (.pdf)

To download a Profit Mastery 11x17 brochure click here (.pdf)

To read the Profit Mastery 2009 Annual Report click here (.pdf)

To read "Not So Frequently Asked Questions" click here (.pdf)

Having trouble making your PMU video play?
Please click here for troubleshooting info (.pdf)

 

Instead, I have the participants watch Section 1 on their own time, utilizing our Profit Mastery University online curriculum, and I would encourage you to do the same. 

 

You may issue your username and password to them, approximately 2-3 weeks prior to your program, and provide the following instructions with your specific username and password filled-in.  This will give participants an opportunity to watch the video on their own time and will give them a feel for what they will be experiencing when they come to your program. They will also have completed the "End of Video Activity: the Quiz" on page 1:9.

 

As you begin your class, I encourage you to do introductions, a quick review of Chapter 1 (including the Seven Steps) and the quiz review on pages 1:12 and 1:13. Answer any questions that your participants have and then proceed directly to Section 2. 

 

If my class starts at 8:00am, I like to get through the introductions and the Section 1 review, start Section 2, and have the participants working with their calculators doing ratios by no later than 9:00am. This drives the class forward at a faster pace, which you will appreciate as you get into Section 3 "Price–Volume-Costs" later in the afternoon!

 

Here are the pre-training instructions for you to copy, personalize and use. 

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Profit Mastery Program

Pre-training Assignment

 

I’m (your name here) and I will be your instructor for your upcoming Profit Mastery training in (location of your seminar). I’m looking forward to working with you over the two days we have together. 

 

The program will begin promptly at 8:00am, so please be on time. In preparation for the training, I am asking you to complete the assignment below and to report back to me that you have done so.

 

The assignment is to watch Section 1 of the Profit Mastery curriculum on the Profit Mastery University online learning portal.  Section 1 is divided into two chapters and lasts approximately one hour. 

 

The entire assignment will take you approximately 90 minutes to complete.

 

We will not be watching this first section during our two days together, so this is an important part of your preparation. We will begin our time together on Section 2 "Financial Position." 

 

Watching the video will give you an overview of the course, a sense of Steve’s teaching style, an introduction to working on financial material, and a good sense of where we are headed when we get together. 

 

Please contact me if you have any questions! 

 

Please go to: http://www.profitmastery-university.com/home/

 

Enter username ___________and ___________ password.

 

Click on:  Profit Mastery Series-Module #1:INTRODUCTION TO PROFIT MASTERY:CREATING A FOUNDATION FOR CHANGE

 

Click on "Course handouts," and download and print them off. You do not need to bring these with you to the program, as you will be receiving your Participant's Guide on-site.

 

Then click on Chapter 1 which will start the video program.

 

If you wish to have the image larger, double click on the screen. To return back to the normal image size, double click on it again.

 

Watch Chapter 1, and then review pages 5, 6 and 7. Next, do the "End of Video Activity" on page 8.  If you are not a business owner, think of a client, and answer based on how you think they might rate their Seven Steps.

 

Next answer the Quiz questions on page 9.  (Don’t worry, Steve answers them on the video!) Then turn to page 10 and watch Chapter 2, Parts A and B.

 

When you have finished the video, read the review on pages 12 and 13.

 

Next do Activity 1 on page 14.  You will be directed to turn three pages back, to pages 1R:1 and 2, and asked to complete the checklist.  Again, think of your clients as you consider the questions.

 

You may skip the End of DVD Activity on page 16.

 

Finally, please write your name and contact info on page IR-28 (which is called the "Action Steps" page) and scan it and e-mail it to me at (your e-mail address) or fax it to me at (your fax number) when you are finished viewing the video and have read the Introductory Chapter attached. I do carefully monitor who has and has not completed this work, so please complete it and communicate back to me at your earliest convenience (one week prior to your class).

 

Thank you for your advance prep work, please contact me with any questions, and I look forward to working with you on the rest of the program in (your class location)! 

 

Sincerely,

 

(your name and contact information)

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Profit Mastery University Username and Password

At the end of March, you received your username and password providing access to our Profit Mastery University online streaming video. If you haven't tried it out yet, I would encourage you to do so. 

 

Profit Mastery University is a terrific way to provide financial education to clients in your center that cannot afford the time away from their business to pursue financial education. Through PMU, they have the opportunity to take the class on their own time, at their own computer. They can rely on you to answer questions, or they can access me directly through the class mailbox feature. 

 

When they have completed the class, they will become excellent prospects for a longer-term, more in-depth counseling relationship, which will drive improved financial performance into their companies, and improved economic impacts in their communities. 

 

Profit Mastery University Sponsorship

We would like to offer your Center or State the opportunity to sponsor PMU and provide the curriculum to your clients online.  We would prepare a custom shopping cart specifically for you, and would offer your clients a $100 discount off of the regular $595 price. We would then rebate back to the center from which the client registration came, a $100 rebate for every new registration. Your State Director can decide if the rebate should go directly to back to the local center or to the state office. 

 

This online system makes the Profit Mastery education significantly more scalable to business clients. 

As I said above, many clients cannot take the time away from their business to attend a one- or two-day class, and sometimes you have business owners in remote areas not convenient to SBDC locations.  Profit Mastery University provides the solution to their financial education needs through offering this curriculum as an online self-study, and once the client has completed the class, you then have the ability to work with them to drive the implementation of their new financial knowledge into their business operations. The response to this new delivery format has been overwhelmingly favorable. 

 

Profit Mastery University is not intended to take away the opportunity for you to provide classroom instruction for your business clients who wish to participate in the standard 16-hour program. It is designed for those business owners for whom classroom instruction is simply not feasible, or for those who wish to take the class on their own in smaller "bite-size" pieces. We believe that Profit Mastery University represents a tremendous opportunity for the SBDC to expand the benefits of the Profit Mastery education to a significantly greater number of clients. 

 

More importantly, we provide the information regarding each registration to your Center so that you can know that the business owner has registered and can prepare to follow-up with them, both while they are taking the class and after they have completed the program. We believe that this could be an excellent source of new potential extended engagement or long-term engagement clients for you.

 

Core Competencies Training

The ASBDC Board recently passed a set of core competencies that, over time, all counselors are going to be expected to provide to their clients. We have reviewed the 75 items and I have prepared a document that shows how Profit Mastery training enables a counselor to meet 27 of those items after they have completed the program.  This document is also located on our website here. 

 

Providing core competency training is a direction that I would like to take our Profit Mastery curriculum.  You are certified to provide the training to counselors in your home states, and I believe that your providing this training would provide your center or state with an excellent return on the investment that they have made in you.  Please let me know if there is any way that I can help you communicate to your state leadership the fact that you are available to assist in this very important initiative across the network.

 

SBDC PowerPoint Program

We have had many requests for additional marketing/communication materials to help counselors convey to their constituency what the Profit Mastery program contains, and how it works.  I have updated our SBDC PowerPoint program and have placed it on the website here. 

 

This program contains great looking slides that you can utilize to do a Chamber of Commerce presentation or program overview for a possible bank sponsor, etc. I am also happy to personalize the show for you if you will provide me the logo of the organization that is receiving the information. I can also help edit the presentation to meet your specific needs, and can offer suggestions on how to incorporate a segment of the video into your presentation. 

 

Upcoming San Antonio two day program

I will be presenting the two-day training program in San Antonio on September 20 and 21st, the two days prior to the annual conference which begins on Wednesday the 22nd. The program will be training for Counselors who wish to be Certified Facilitators and those who wish to be Profit Mastery Consultants. A brief write-up on the difference between the two designations is on page 4 of this document.  

             

The program will also be open to any counselor that is interested in working on their financial core competency training. 

 

I am limiting the program to 64 attendees and hope to fill it up. Please let any counselors in your area that are interested in the training know, and ask them to contact me if they anticipate attending. I will have the first information on the program going out to the network in early June. 

 

With that many attendees I may be asking if any of you might be willing to join me as facilitators, specifically helping monitor the participants work on the case studies. I will let you know as registrations progress. 

 

Kansas Program

I recently had the pleasure of presenting the two-day training program to 22 counselors in the state of Kansas. They were a terrific group and I greatly enjoyed being with them. Subsequent to that program their state director, Wally Kerns sent this kind letter. I deeply appreciated what Wally and the counselors had to say and wanted to share it with you as well.

 

I would be grateful for any assistance you can provide in helping me bring Profit Mastery deeper into your state by training either more counselors or your clients in the curriculum.

 

I hope you have a great spring and I look forward to talking with many of you in the coming months!

Best regards,

 

Rod

Vice President, Business Development
Business Resource Services
206.284.5102 ext 13
bristol@brs-seattle.com

Facilitator Newsletter
 January 2010 - 1st Quarter Newsletter

Profit Mastery in 2010

We are looking forward to a great 2010 and hope that you are as well.  It is good to share success stories ― and the one below will give you an insight as to how the Profit Mastery program is working for a client in Michigan.

 

Success Story

From: Darin Sizemore
Accounting Manager
Northern Initiatives

"Hi Rod, I want to share a success story and a bit of fun we are having with your program:

Northern Initiatives (NI) rolled out its 1st Profit Mastery course with a client in October 2009. The client we are working with is a manufacturer and a current SBA loan client of NI’s. In the initial stages this client had difficulty getting time to focus on Profit Mastery, he was very busy due to the daily demands of running his business with a short staff.

After our initial 4 hour session with him, he was hooked on Profit Mastery and has had several “aha” moments since then. After our first session, we would meet weekly for a 4 hr session and he was always ready to go.

Once we got to the ratios, he was amazed, that he, now for the first time understands what his banker wants and why his banker looks at his business so differently than he does. He is now using all 14 ratios and is tracking them monthly and has closed the financial understanding gap with his bank.

His biggest success has been growing this business; his sales have jumped from 800,000 to 1.4M in the past year, and will increases to 1.8M or greater in the coming year. However, as he has learned and as you already know, a growing company is tight on cash. The Profit Mastery program has helped him to understand that his inventory turn is out of round and if his company got in round with his average business peers he could have over $250,000 in cash in his company checkbook. And on top of this, his monthly scrap/ rework is $5,000.

Seeing the dollar calculation and working into the dollars himself with Profit Mastery was one of the keys to successfully getting him to address the inventory issue. Once he saw the potential $ saving he wanted to go after it.

NI has a staff member that is versed in inventory management and has started working with this client. Prior to Profit Mastery, our staff member made calls to him but could not get him to bite as he and his staff were too busy and could not spend time on inventory to put in scheduling and stronger inventory management systems to assist them in getting their inventory in round and to get all or a large portion of the $250,000 in inventory into cash.

Once the inventory is in round we will start to review quality control, shop layout, lean process etc… to get the $5,000 a month in rework down to $0.

This will be a reoccurring annual savings of $60,000.

Another unexpected bonus for NI and Profit Mastery is that this particular business owner is a member of their counties EDC and has been promoting Profit Mastery with all the other members. Due to his word of mouth advertising, we have 2 more customers, (from a bank none the less) who are willing to pay for PM. Just wanted to say thanks for the program and as we get through the inventory systems and attack the scrap issues. I will update you on this company's savings."

 

Suggestions for 2010 - Adding Profit Mastery to your website

You are encouraged to utilize the Profit Mastery logo (contained on the administrative CD provided to you at the end of our training) to announce that your Center now offers Profit Mastery training on your website.

Here is a sample of how the State of Washington has set up their site: http://www.wsbdc.org/specialty-training

First Profit Mastery class
If you have yet to teach your first program, now is the time to carefully select your first client. It is important that they be respected in your community, hopefully well networked, and willing to talk about their positive experience with their peers. You can present the program in a variety of time segments (refer to your administrative guide) that will work for you and for them.

When they have completed the course it is very important that you get references and quotes from them to utilize in your communications to your client base. We have learned that this is really a client-to-client communication process and that “word of mouth” is what drives new attendees to your Profit Mastery programs, as you saw in the Michigan example above.

Teach one segment to a small group
The next step in utilizing the curriculum in your area can be for you to arrange to teach one small segment of the curriculum to a local business group. This can be a Chamber of Commerce, EDC class, or even a night class in your community college. We suggest you teach break-even analysis. Begin with a short intro to the class explaining that this is a piece of a larger curriculum, do the warm-up activities and start the video. You may remember that Steve does a short recap of where they are in the beginning curriculum of the segments.

We will work with you to create the handouts for that specific class and you should allow for a minimum of two hours to present it. This presentation will further increase the visibility of your Profit Mastery curriculum in your area. It’s important you continue to get quotes and references from the participants to use in future marketing activities and to put on your website. We will not require the attendees at a “One Section Program” to purchase an entire participant guide. However, if there is going to be a fee charged for the program, we would like to be involved in a revenue sharing arrangement with you (please call to discuss this option).

Teach a complete course
You should then be ready to schedule and teach your first complete class. We recommend a group of no more than four clients, divided into teams of two, and scheduled over time segments that work best for the group. When you finish the course, have the clients complete evaluations (send copies to me) and begin to utilize their testimonials as part of your marketing. We will create specific marketing materials, which will incorporate participants’ quotes for your upcoming subsequent programs.

Let us know your potential training schedule
We will add your training schedule to the master calendar on our website. When a client wants to find out if Profit Mastery is offered in their area, they will be able to see your class and contact you directly.

At this point you should be well on your way to a successful utilization of the Profit Mastery curriculum in your area for your clients, with the goal of providing both Extended Engagement Consulting and/or Long-Term Counseling relationships with your clients.

Thank you again and if there is anything that I can do to help you in these next few weeks as you get going in 2010, please do not hesitate to call or email and I will get right back to you.

Regards,

Rod Bristol
Vice President, Business Development
Business Resource Services
206.284.5102 ext 13
bristol@brs-seattle.com

 
   


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