Marketing Promotion Sales Leverage Tool
Client needed an analysis of the effectiveness of a variety of product promotions run in an attempt to drive sales. Understanding past performance was a foundation to setting new promotions, moving certain products and gaining potential insight on moving slow moving products. Parameters of inquiry were provided by the marketing department.
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The Big Box Retail Paradigm
We’ve seen the fall of numerous retail stores in the last few years, some are the classic big box like Circuit City and others might be classified elsewhere like Borders. Select the classification you want and the problem is really mostly the same in the end. They all maintain expensive bricks and mortar location specific stores with visibility controlled by real estate location and store hours. Even so, all of them have (had) also embraced to varying degrees online commerce with difference levels of offerings and functionality. But is the problem really that such animals have the physical presence or is it something more?
Price Negotiation Leads to Improved Profitability
A client required an analysis of a specific product line containing several hundred sub-products within a master 250 product line catalog offering to determine the sales and square footage sold… Read the rest of this entry »
QuickBooks Pro User Manual Documentation
Non-profit minority community service client needed accounting and QuickBooks training and documentation due to lack of internal knowledge and resources.
Non-profit and small organizations often lack the specialized skills on staff to execute on unique one off projects.
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Built a PowerPoint presentation in a step-by-step process from beginning to end, cut out repetitive and non-value added narrative arriving at meaningful and concise bullet points, images, steps, etc. We tapped our existing knowledge base, researched information online, condensed, refined, selected, and applied information.
Knowing when to outsource business functions is important to growing the business and not spending time on wasteful non-core activities better left to the professionals.
result
Delivered PowerPoint presentation used to train and educate the business community on accounting and QuickBooks. The presentation is now part of the regular small and start up business development program.
Moisture Control Apparel
Accelerato is conducting research on a new project related to moisture control and wicking for apparel. As part of our efforts we are seeking input from people related to the apparel they wear and how effectively it controls moisture while still maintaining a sense of fashion. There are a wide variety of brands, options and quality along with varying degrees of price. The market is litter with lots of competition and product knowledge and information can be confusing or hard to come by and some cases very vague.
For years people have worn standard cotton clothing for working out. The advent of moisture control fabrics now offers a combination of comfort, fashion, and performance. Since cotton tends to absorb water it is a poor selection for high performance activities. But since it is an inexpensive option so people tend to gravitate to it. Add on top of that there is a high tendency for screen printing designs, which fade away quickly in the wash so durability and longevity are suspect.
It’s not significantly more expensive to purchase high quality moisture control apparel than cotton and the life expectancy, color fast, washability are far superior performance performance. So it seems perplexing that people would select an inferior option.
Controlling Overhead Production Costs
A manufacturing organization with United States and Mexican production plants hired us to analyze the production cost of two comparable plants to determine if consolidation would save money and improve quality. The initial plan was to consolidate US to Mexico.
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We worked closely with the VP of Manufacturing operations to build a model to report and analyze product costing inputs, labor time, and other variables including the impact of currency exchange and trucking.
result
Our analysis demonstrated that consolidating operations to the United States would reduce waste by 13%, overhead costs by 21%, and delivery time by 18%. In the end consolidating to Mexico proved to increase overall costs, reduce quality and complicate delivery even with the NAFAT, which at the point of this project still encompassed restrictions that added delivery costs.
“sometimes what appear to be logical initial conclusions prove to be incorrect and the only way to know is to do the investigative work”
Building a Profitable Business
Window blind and treatment design and installation company needed assistance with problems related to high expenses, excess inventory, and poor profitable model.
“Letting things get out of hand before trying to put the fire out is a risky and costly approach to managing a business.”"
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Analyzed and sorted through expense information, past due bills, and a manual check register to arrive at conclusions about revenue and expense. Reviewed catalog and web site initiatives to ensure appropriate steps and material were being addressed and delivered.
result
Empowered and focused business owner on design functions of business. Determined that owner was actually storing expensive product with limited resale potential in an effort to save money in the near term. Suggested order only 10% more than required and price jobs accordingly. Identified that the commercial market was a profitable target segment.
“Knowing target market, price sensitivity, and competition are key components to building a more profitable enterprise.”
QuickBooks Optimization Key to Success
Owner of a multi-site chiropractic and sports clinic required assistance in QuickBooks setup and process optimization.
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We quickly learned business needs requirement, included high value expense categories to implement new company setup and drive ongoing attention to key factors. Discussed internal processes with owner and the created a SWOT analysis for the client. We worked with owner on decision making in regards to hiring staff to handle admin roles while owner focused on customer care.
result
Reduced administrative time by an estimated 12% and delivered information for decision making around accounting and business performance management.
“It is important to realize strengthens and weaknesses in business management. Hiring the right staff or out sourcing the activities are essential to aligning owner skill set with the right activities.”
Restructuring Cost and Revenue Streams to improve profitability and cash flow
Owner and publisher of leading custom cake magazine required assistance with excessive cost structure and realignment of revenue streams to improve profitability and cash flow. An additional needed was around helping the owner to jettison unprofitable business line.
Settting a Pricing Model – Dilemma for a Customized Job Shop
A specialty job shop manufacturer hired us to determine whether it could create more profit from a three-tier pricing model than the traditional time + materials that are more commonly applied.
“Change agency and process improvement are two fundamental methods that can be applied to address seemingly common decisions that might otherwise consume significant amounts of time internally under discussion.”