Total Business Reset
Your firm’s growth story starts here.
The Total Business Reset is our flagship service.
We conduct a holistic, objective assessment of your firm—leveraging decades of creative industry experience. You receive a customized plan of attack across six modules, specifically designed for businesses at a transition point. You emerge with expert guidance and grounded systems to punctuate your business story through expansion, repositioning, acquisition or sale. The difference is that this version of the TBR is on-site.
Replace your question marks with a clear path forward. Read a detailed article about the process. (This describes the remote version, but you’ll get the idea.)
We conduct a holistic, objective assessment of your firm—leveraging decades of creative industry experience. You receive a customized plan of attack across six modules, specifically designed for businesses at a transition point. You emerge with expert guidance and grounded systems to punctuate your business story through expansion, repositioning, acquisition or sale. The difference is that this version of the TBR is on-site.
Replace your question marks with a clear path forward. Read a detailed article about the process. (This describes the remote version, but you’ll get the idea.)
What it is
A comprehensive advisory service that helps you write the next chapter in your firm’s story.
We’ll start with performance benchmarking to assess where you are in key areas and what metrics you should focus on as you grow. Then, we’ll move into positioning to help you carve out a unique, defensible position in your marketplace. Next, we’ll help you craft service offerings around that positioning and develop a rock solid lead generation plan. Then, we will assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses and help you develop a plan for optimizing your team’s performance. Finally, we’ll help you plan for your particular future, whether that means growth, selling the firm, a sabbatical, or anything in between.
We’ll start with performance benchmarking to assess where you are in key areas and what metrics you should focus on as you grow. Then, we’ll move into positioning to help you carve out a unique, defensible position in your marketplace. Next, we’ll help you craft service offerings around that positioning and develop a rock solid lead generation plan. Then, we will assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses and help you develop a plan for optimizing your team’s performance. Finally, we’ll help you plan for your particular future, whether that means growth, selling the firm, a sabbatical, or anything in between.
Why it’s needed
You’re frustrated with or uncertain about your firm’s results. You want more for your business. More profit, more efficiency, more relevance – with less reliance on you personally.
How to get started
With a phone call. Or complete the contact form. We arrange a time to speak briefly about your situation, and identify whether a TBR is a good fit for you.
Who it’s for
Founders of marketing and creative firms. We specialize in resets for digital, dev, design, advertising, PR, communications, UX, and consulting firms.
When the time is right
Typically, when your firm is at a pivotal moment. You are worried about losing (or have already lost) a key client. The work is there, but profits are not. You can’t find enough good clients. You’re becoming burnt out and need to reinvent.
Punctuation has made a tremendous impact on my business and on my life. I’ve hired Punctuation to conduct their Total Business Reset at two different points. They are the premier management consultant in the creative entrepreneur space. Period. Take my advice and take their advice seriously.
– Tim McAlpine, CEO Currency Marketing
– Tim McAlpine, CEO Currency Marketing
What to expect
You’re ready to get started. What happens next?
1.
Put bluntly: paperwork.
You’ll receive an agreement, an NDA, and invoice. Then, the bulk of your assessment begins.
2.
Gathering materials.
It should take you, or someone with access to the firm’s finances, no more than 1-2 hours to pull together the documents we will need to get started.
3.
An employee census.
Including principals. Once received, qualitative surveys and quantitative personality profiles will be issued to your team. A synthesis of the results will be considered when helping to mark your firm’s strategic direction.
4.
Discovery and insights.
David presents key observations and custom recommendations across six critical modules, in order:
- Performance Benchmarking
- Positioning
- Service Offerings
- Lead Generation
- Structuring Roles
- Future Proofing
Positioning is one of the modules that might require extra work after the on-site portion. We will provide some prep materials for you to read ahead of time, each designed for a specific session (thoughtfully considered, and no more than an hour or so each).
5.
Implementation.
You continue writing your firm’s story with newfound clarity, and our team will assist with execution over a period of up to three months.
Logistical matters,
for your perusal
Location.
On-site, or wherever your exec team prefers.
Duration.
Several weeks of prep (on our part), two days on-site, plus three months of implementation.
Scheduling.
A TBR can usually be scheduled and locked in on the calendar within 2-6 weeks, depending on the time of year.
Implementation
Guidance.
Guidance.
Up to three months of guidance including up to three significant interactions. Interactions are agenda-driven, which means you’ll keep a log of questions and we’ll address them in a batch. We don’t count quick phone calls or email exchanges as interactions during the three month period. (Our work is not like a coach.)
Participation
Requirements.
Requirements.
- A principal or someone from finance gathers materials for roughly two hours.
- Employees each answer a survey and complete a personality profile, each requiring about thirty minutes.
- Principals participate during over both days, with an optional dinner before that first day.
- Selected managers and key employees can participate for several hours, based on their role.
Qualification
Overview.
Overview.
To engage in the Total Business Reset (Plus), your firm must be independent and a principal must be willing to participate. As a principal, the TBR will be most effective if you personally are already making above $140,000 in fixed compensation before distributions of profit. Or, if your fee billings per full-time equivalent employee should exceed $150,000 per year. The best use of our expertise is to take ordinary firms and make them extraordinary. If you don’t feel you are there yet, consider a Performance Benchmarking to help illuminate the road signs for you.
Cost.
$25,000, for firms of up to twenty employees, plus reasonable travel expenses, billed after. Each employee above that number adds $200. So, for example, a firm with 24 employees would pay $25,800 plus travel.
Payment Terms.
Prepaid and non-refundable. Via wire, ACH, check, or credit card.
You can also
visit our FAQ page.
You will almost certainly find answers to additional questions on your mind.