Pro Serv Podcast by Collective 54

The yield of a boutique is the ultimate measure of productivity. Yield is simply the average fee per hour times the average utilization rate. For example, $400/hr x 75% utilization rate = a yield of $300/hr. Increase yield and make more money. But, how? One effective technique is to tech-automate service delivery. On this episode, Collective 54 member, Ehsan Mirdamadi, explains that small service firms can now afford to tech-automate service delivery by leveraging a fractional CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Listen to this episode and learn how the fractional executive model has entered the technology office. Many Collective 54 members use fractional finance, HR, IT, and Legal executives. Now, they have the opportunity to leverage fraction technology executives. And those that do will see an increase in yield. Members who attend the exclusive Q&A session can explore with Ehsan how to apply this to their firms. http://www.collective54.com/

In a post-Covid world, does geography still matter? Should you pursue clients, and employees, based on where they reside? It used to signal to clients that you were legit when your name was on a building downtown. Is this still true? Listen to this show and learn how Collective 54 member, Ashok Sivanand, thinks geography is still a mission-critical element of strategy, but not for the reasons you might think. He moved to Detroit and is building a firm based on mid-western values. And it is these values, concentrated in this geography, which is contributing to his success. Members of Collective 54 can attend the private Q&A with Ashok and hear from him his remarkable story which started with him driving a forklift in a factory during the graveyard shift. http://www.collective54.com/

Key employee risk is a very real threat to founders of boutique professional services firms. Small, people-driven businesses are overly dependent on key employees. If a key employee resigns, the pain inflicted on the owner is intense, and the financial impact on the income statement is large. Listen to this episode and hear how Collective 54 member, Kimberly Kraemer, suffered the loss of a key employee and how she survived it. In addition, hear how Kim re-engineered her firm to prevent this from ever happening again. Members are invited to attend the private Q&A with Kimberly and ask important questions. Kimberly does not hold back and we can learn much from her experience. http://www.collective54.com/

Boutique professional service firms need to listen to their clients intentionally. One effective way to do that is a client advisory board. In this episode, Collective 54 member Luke Johnson, shares how he launched a client advisory board recently. Luke shares the early benefits, some mistakes to avoid, and how, exactly, he runs his. Listen to this episode, and if you are a member, attend the private member Q&A, and learn how a client advisory board can help you. http://www.collective54.com/

Generating revenue from sources other than the billable hour is a key part of scaling a consulting firm. In this episode, Collective 54 member, Robin Way, shares how he is generating revenue from training products, licensing tools, and generating reports. Listeners of this episode will hear from Robin how he went from a single source of revenue- the billable hour- to four sources of revenue. Members who participate in the private Q&A with Robin will get to bounce their ideas off of him and get his advice. http://www.collective54.com/

Someday you will sell your firm. After all, none of us can run our firms from the afterlife. When your time to exit comes, you will need to know what your firm is worth. The tool often used to calculate a purchase price is called a QOE, or the quality of earnings report. In this episode, Collective 54 member, and QOE expert, Elliott Holland, helps founders understand what a QOE is, when it is needed, who creates one, how it gets used, and why founders need to get familiar with it. By listening to this episode, you will know what you need to know about the QOE. Members attending the private Q&A with Elliott will get to ask him questions about using a QOE for their firms. http://www.collective54.com/

Hiring, or promoting, a person into an executive role often requires the Founder to offer an equity incentive to the key employee. This requirement drives a need to understand what the firm is worth today, and how much of the future value should be shared with the key employee. In this episode, Collective 54 member, Michael Daoud, discusses how he valued his firm, and how he structured the equity share with the key employee. By listening to this episode you will learn when to use an appraisal firm, when to do-it-yourself, and get introduced to a new tool, The Firm Estimator. Members who participated in the private Q&A with Michael will hear the details of the offer, and the negotiations. http://www.collective54.com/

The design of your boutique’s organization can either aid or hurt a successful exit. Any astute buyer will factor this into their decision-making. This is why simple integrations are attractive. They are cheap, quick, and have a high success rate. On this episode, Mike Desjardins, CEO at ViRTUS, shares their firm's best practices for a successful reorganization, including the much-awaited backstory of how his team redesigned key roles to keep their top individual contributors. http://www.collective54.com/

The number one reason that exits fail is a decline in performance during the sales process. Going into the sales process, you must ensure that you can sustain performance. On this episode, Phil Alves, CEO at DevSquad, recalls how his firm was able to demonstrate sustainability to potential buyers by expanding their service offerings and reinforcing their business development efforts. http://www.collective54.com/

Those who buy boutiques buy management teams first and firms second. The due diligence process is heavily weighted to assess the quality of the management team. On this episode, Amy Pyles, President at Saxum, examines her experience as the person replicating the founder, what worked vs what didn’t work, and how they continued to work together in this second installment of the Saxum series. http://www.collective54.com/

It is harder to sell a service than it is to sell a product. A service is an intangible that makes it harder for clients to buy it. Therefore, understanding your client takes on significance when starting a boutique. The better you understand your client, the better you can serve them. On this episode, Jay Mitchell, President & Founder of Mereo LLC, shares how his team built their Ideal Client Profile and the results of this highly targeted approach. http://www.collective54.com/

When starting a boutique, it is best to begin with the problem you will solve for clients. Why? There are lots of boutiques with solutions that no one is going to buy. On this episode, Kyle Romaniuk, CEO & ECD at Vantage Studios, sheds light on the process of truly understanding the problem he’s solving for clients. http://www.collective54.com/

Existing client revenue growth is key to scale. This requires having more to offer clients over time. If you keep bringing them the same thing, they will become fatigued. This is where service offering development becomes a priority as boutiques scale. On this episode, Beth Trejo, CEO + Founder of Chatterkick, takes us on a journey of launching a new service line, how they identified that opportunity, experimented with it, before landing on the right service model. http://www.collective54.com/

Many boutiques are conventional in their approach. They convert their expertise into a methodology and train staff members on how to use it. They are then reliant on expensive labor that ultimately constrains growth. The firms that accelerate growth take a different approach. On this episode, Julian Lumpkin, Co-Founder & CEO at SuccessKit, shares how they drove profitability by leveraging technology to streamline, productize, and automate their service delivery. http://www.collective54.com/

Marketing and selling professional services as you grow and scale your firm is one of the most popular topics at Collective 54. You must focus on attracting new clients while generating additional revenue from existing clients. On this episode, Noah Berk the Co-Founder of OBO shares how he has mastered his go-to-market strategy to accelerate revenue growth. http://www.collective54.com/

Scaling a boutique professional services firm requires effective replication of the founder and a focus on delegation. On this episode, Bryon Morrison, Co-Founder & CEO at Proxxy, talks about the power of replication to remove the founder bottleneck so they can work on this business. http://www.collective54.com/

Have you defined your growth strategy to build a sustainable firm? On this episode, Todd Rapp, Owner and CEO at Rapp Strategies, Inc., speaks on how the firm continues to grow and flourish by focusing on their key clients. Listen to this episode of The Boutique Podcast in the Resource Center and read the chapter in advance of the call. https://members.collective54.com/resource-center/tag/typethe-boutique-podcast http://www.collective54.com/

Growing and scaling a professional services firm requires management of the firm's lifecycle. On this episode, Gregory Hausheer, CEO at Lightmatter, shares how he is evolving the firm through 5-year phases to grow revenue, and how his firm is focused on productizing and tech enabling services. http://www.collective54.com/

How do you successfully exit your business without sacrificing your legacy? On this episode, Jay Smith, President of Security7 Networks, talks about how he built his business to be ready to sell, and the biggest lessons learned in the exit process. http://www.collective54.com/

Innovation is a new idea. A new service. A new business model. Boutiques that innovate grow and scale rapidly. Continuous innovators become the market leaders. On this episode, Craig Dreiling, CEO at Solutions-101 LLC (S101Medical), shares how his firm was able to innovate and create a new product that commands a higher price. http://www.collective54.com/

Investors’ default position is to find reasons not to buy your boutique. They are looking for the risks and approach due diligence as a way to de-risk their investment. On this episode, Harry Dugan, Managing Director at STS Capital Partners shares how to build your firm to minimize those risk for a potential acquirer. http://www.collective54.com/

Profits take a big hit as a result of under delegation. Many leaders of boutiques would rather do something themselves than delegate it. This destroys morale and leads to high turnover. On this episode, Jeff Pruitt, CEO & Ed Borromeo, President of Tallwave share how they built a powerful leadership team by focusing on replication. http://www.collective54.com/

A boutique requires different things from its leaders and partners as it scales. On this episode, Peter Bilello, President & CEO at CIMdata, shares his journey as a non-founder to becoming President & CEO. He will dive into how he championed the culture shift to drive scale and put the firm in a position to be able to sell one day. http://www.collective54.com/

Scaling a boutique requires scale capital. Adding more headcount, entering new markets, launching new service lines, and other initiatives require capital. On this episode, Matthew Lescault, President & CEO at Lescault & Walderman, shares how he has financed his new acquisitions and how he has been able to successfully integrate the acquired firms into his processes and culture. http://www.collective54.com/

There is an inflection point that all boutiques run into head-on. This is when sales generation happens by the employees and not by the partners. On this episode, Hamid Akbari, President & CEO at Blanc Labs, shares how the firm built its internal sales engine in 18 months and his key takeaways. http://www.collective54.com/

Culture can be described as how things get done in your firm. Intentionally focusing on culture is critical to the success of a boutique professional services firm. On this episode, we invited Jing Johnson, Founder & CEO of PRISM Renderings, to share how she built a highly effective culture and the positive impacts it has had on retention and the success of her firm. http://www.collective54.com/

Strategics are usually filling a gap. Either the market shifts or the market leader’s service portfolio is lacking. This gap can be filled by building a practice internally or through an acquisition. On this episode, Randell Mauricio, VP of Operations at WorkerBee.TV, discusses how they built a sustainable firm to attract market leaders. http://www.collective54.com/

Supply and demand will impact your ability to sell your boutique. On this episode, David Jorgenson, CEO at Equiteq, shares how the leading global investment bank for professional services firms has uniquely positioned themselves to understand acquisition needs, and how they are able to add value to founders who want to sell their businesses. http://www.collective54.com/

Scaling a boutique takes a team but firms are often started by a single founder. On this episode, Tom Abbott, Managing Director of SOCO Sales Training, shares how he transitioned from being involved in every aspect of the business to focusing on team development. http://www.collective54.com/

The value of your firm is influenced by the comparables for recently sold firms like yours. On this episode, we invited Frank Williamson, Founder & CEO at Oaklyn Consulting, to share details about comps, valuation, and the benefits of an investment banker. http://www.collective54.com/

Decision making evolves as your firm scales and the founder must be replicated in the successor. On this episode, Rob Rankin, CEO at Clarity Coverdale Fury (CCF), shares his perspective on developing the next generation of the firm, with a focus on succession planning and how decisions are made. http://www.collective54.com/

The ability to sell your firm will be impacted by the environment. There is a good time to sell and a not so good time to sell. On this episode, Craig Dickens, CEO at JD Merit & Co., will shed light on the financial market trends and how it influences your exit strategy. http://www.collective54.com/

There are many ways to split up a partnership. And the equity split needs to evolve over time. On this episode, Kelsey Raymond, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Influence & Co., shares how she successfully replicated herself by developing a key employee into her COO, so she can run the business on her own terms. http://www.collective54.com/

Acquirers want to understand your methodologies, how often they are updated, and what changes are coming in the future. On this episode, we interview Alan Haefele, Owner & Managing Director of Haefele Software, to understand how to integrate continuous improvement as part of a company’s culture and DNA. http://www.collective54.com/

Boutiques become market leaders by building a commercial sales engine that is capable of scaling. On this episode, we invited Lenka Lechmanova, CEO at V2 Strategic Advisors. She shares how her firm has cultivated a homegrown talent strategy, established sales processes and metrics to benchmark performance, and moved away from partner selling. http://www.collective54.com/

Your ability to recruit talent is critical to scaling a market-leading boutique. On this episode, we interview Don Goldstein, CEO of 5Q Partners and he shares how he decided to invest in an internal recruiter and its overall impact on the organization. http://www.collective54.com/

Scaling a boutique beyond a lifestyle business takes money and commitment. On this episode, Sue-Ellen Watts, Founder & Global CEO at Wattsnext Group, sheds light on how she embraced a lifestyle business to fund a new venture that she can grow and scale. http://www.collective54.com/

A strong market position can indicate excellent competitive positioning. On this episode, Marc Weiss, CEO of Management One, shares how he positioned his firm for a successful exit with an unconventional buyer. http://www.collective54.com/

Labor is the biggest expense for a boutique and has the biggest impact on profitability. On this episode, we interview Jeff Pedowitz, President & CEO of The Pedowitz Group to discuss how they creatively redesigned their organization to solve increasing pricing pressures. http://www.collective54.com/

Invest in your marketing and let your customers come to you. On this episode, we interviewed Ali Schwanke, CEO & Founder of Simple Strat to share how they elevated their inbound marketing strategy and improved win rates. http://www.collective54.com/

The quality of the leadership team paramount as professional services firms grow, scale, and exit. On this episode we speak with Matt Rosen, Founder and CEO at Allata. He shares how he structured his executive team to replicate himself, develop a succession plan and spend time working on the vision of the future. http://www.collective54.com/

The engagements you sell determines your market position and the team needed to deliver your service. On this episode Cynthia Klint, CEO at BRC shares how she leverages specialists to deliver client engagements and increase sales. http://www.collective54.com/

The cultural fit of employees, clients, and a potential acquirer are all critical to the success of the firm. On this episode Bart Bartlett, CEO at DemandZEN shares how he instills the core values of the firm with his remote team. http://www.collective54.com/

As professional services firms scale, the development of new service offerings is critical to staying relevant with your clients. On this episode, we hear from Marc Cooper, President and Partner at Junction59 to learn how his firm uncovers new client needs and develops new service offerings. http://www.collective54.com/

Firms that focus on delivering a great client experience along with their high-quality work reach scale. On this episode, we interview Bart Mroz CEO at SUMO Heavy Industries to discuss the client experience and trust-building to develop long-term client relationships. http://www.collective54.com/

There is a direct correlation between employee loyalty and the valuation of a professional services firm. On this episode, we interview Renée Safrata, CEO & Founder of Vivo Team to discuss employee loyalty and the invisible balance sheet. http://www.collective54.com/

As a firm scales, it must make a significant change to its sales strategy. On this episode we interview Ken Yager of Newpoint Advisors to understand how he invested in business development, coaching, and training to scale his firm. http://www.collective54.com/

As professional services firms scale, the culture erodes. Bureaucracy creeps in and employees shift from serving the client to serving the boss which stalls scaling. On this episode, we discuss scaling culture with Mike Sullivan, CEO of Loomis. http://www.collective54.com/

The service offering is how firms deliver value to their client. Designing it correctly is mission-critical. On this episode, we discuss how to re-think service design by interviewing Scott Conard, Founder of Converging Health. http://www.collective54.com/

Professional services firms have more intellectual property than they may think. On this episode, we discuss how to monetize and productize your intellectual property by speaking with Adrian Bouten, Founder of Digital Prism Advisors. http://www.collective54.com/