Phase I – Comprehensive Business Review (CBR)

Foundation Documents

1. Financial Projections and Pro Forma Financial Statements – presents 4-year integrated prospective income statements, balance sheets and cash flows, based on comprehensive assumptions developed by a Trusted Business Advisor and the company, using an “other comprehensive basis of accounting” (OCBOA), and providing assurance that the use of proceeds is sufficient to achieve the company’s goals.

2. Valuation Opinion and Intellectual Property Appraisal – determines the fair market value of the entire enterprise (100%) and minority interests. The objective is to express an unambiguous opinion as to the value of the company, which opinion is set forth in a Report that is supported by all procedures that a Trusted Business Advisor deems to be relevant to the valuation, and thereby validates the worth of the entity.

3. Summary Pitch Book – a marketing presentation in the form of a PowerPoint “deck” that presents a summary of the Business Plan, emphasizing the main attributes of the company and a “Transaction” for prospective investors (i.e., equity investors, convertible debt lenders, and other financing sources (the “Financing Sources”), to determine their level of interest in a Transaction. This market-smart document highlights mission, timeline, primary operational, financial, and business development opportunities for the Financing Sources, integrated to the Financial Projections, and discloses and mitigates risk factors with clarity for pricing of the offering based on the determined value. Other information will include a brief history of the company, products and services, explanation of processes, business model, customers, industry reviews, geographic coverage, marketing and personnel strategy for growth, ownership, legal structure, facilities, competitors, competitive advantage, management, assets and capital expenditures.

4. Comprehensive Business Review (“CBR”) should be supported by all procedures that your Business Appraiser and other members of your professional deems to be relevant to the valuation, and thereby validates the worth of the entity. The Business Plan Summary sets forth the (a) business concept, (b) financial features, (c) financial requirements, (d) current business position, (e) unique attributes, and (f) major achievements. Information in the CBR will include a brief history of the company, products and services, explanation of processes, business model, customers, industry reviews, geographic coverage, marketing and personnel strategy for growth, ownership, legal structure, facilities, competitors, competitive advantage, management, assets and capital expenditures, and other material disclosures to include all the elements of a Business Plan.

Phase II – Financial Analysis Review

Financial analysis helps in assessing a company’s financial performance over time. Past sales and earnings, while not a guarantee of future performance, can provide an indication of future growth potential and can put the company’s current performance into a historical context. For example, a company with steadily rising sales and earnings is worth more than one with little or no growth.

What to expect:

LIQUIDITY
A measure of the company’s ability to meet obligations as they come due.

PROFITS & PROFIT MARGIN
A measure of whether the trends in profit are favorable for the company.

SALES
A measure of how sales are growing and whether the sales are satisfactory for the company.

BORROWING
A measure of how responsibly the company is borrowing and how effectively it is managing debt.

ASSETS
A measure of how effectively the company is utilizing its gross fixed assets.

Phase III – Dashboard

Displays pertinent business information at-a-glance views of KPIs (key performance indicators) relevant to a particular objective or business process (e.g. sales, marketing, human resources, or production). The idea is to present the most important information about the business in a single display, so you can see at a glance how a KPI is performing and whether action is required.
1. What is in place now, what is needed to shift to a new system, and what management ultimately wants.
2. Work with management in an interactive approach to participate in the development, testing, deployment and training phases of the project; getting the requirements, prototyping the design (with data), getting business feedback, regularly refining the design.
3. Have someone focused on getting data to populate it
4. Define relevant or consistent key performance indicators (KPIs); validate that those metrics measure performance with executives, are relevant to the entire enterprise
5. Consider the diverse information needs of the people in the enterprise. Different groups, business processes and management levels need different data, KPIs and analytics from a dashboard.
6. Create a dashboard so management (and other employees) can easily find what they need. Also, graphics and pictures are used to support telling the story and to grab your attention. In the same way, graphs on a dashboard need to grab a businessperson’s attention and visually depict the data in a clear, meaningful way.
7. Set up a system for current iteration of the data
8. Allow for drilling into the detail to see what is causing the trend and in what area the business user needs to take action.
9. Determine how the dashboard helps in analyzing information and making decisions: the context of a businessperson doing something with the information.
10. Design the information so that it is important, and not too much.

Phase IV – Balanced Scorecard

A strategy performance management tool supported by design methods and automation tools that keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these actions.
Four quadrants – outcome and driver type measurements Linking Objectives to Create Cause and Effect Relationships
• Financial – outcome
• Customer – outcome
• Internal Processes – driver
• Learning and Growth – driver