Whether you have a wonderful business idea – or – you are investigating business opportunities for yourself or a client, it is critical that you put each idea through a “reality check” – an analysis to determine if they are truly valid and worthy of further effort. All of your ideas must have a demonstrated need, ready market, and ability to provide a solid return on investment.

Is the idea feasible in the marketplace? Is there demand? Can it be done? Are you able to pull together the persons and resources to pull it off before the window of opportunity closes? These questions must be considered and answered.

The 1/3-1/3-1/3 rule is defined as a formula that is used by many professional service firms – legal, accounting, etc. to give structure and incentive opportunities for their professional staff.

For many companies in the field of management consulting, the reward system mimics this well established and proven compensation program.

Beyond what happens within the management consulting firm is what firms do when outsiders – affiliates or sales professionals bring in new business. In my research on this topic, compensation varies from a straight “finder’s fee/commission” to a percentage of the project on a on-going basis. Inbetween is any number of permutations and combinations.

S

Growing profits today is no longer just a “nice thing to do”. It is now critical today in an era of escalating expenses e.g. benefits, insurance, energy, cost-of-goods-sold, labor costs, etc. It is unlikely that even the savviest business executive/entrepreneur can successfully impact these new facts of doing business without a strategy/plan to do so.

Expenses can be chopped but, typically, only over a period of time e.g. you can’t chop fixed costs quickly. Even “variable” expenses are subject to short or long term commitments e.g. insurance costs, benefit costs, facility costs, etc.

So what does a company need to do today to bring the costs back under control?