The Next Step to More Success - AMSI

The Next Step to More Success - AMSI
You are a person who has worked hard, made good business decisions, you are making good money, you don’t have much debt, you have good customer demand, but you want more from your business. Living in the Calgary area where there are many oil and gas service companies, high tech companies, and other successful businesses, I see many companies that are making “good” money, but want to move up to the “great” money. I also hear, particularly lately with all our financial meltdowns, “I’ll never qualify for a loan”. That is a myth and if you have the roadmap in place you get the capital to take your company to new heights.

As long as you can stand up to the scrutiny of what the banks call, “Due Diligence”, you have a good track record, you have a good plan, you are honest, and can make changes to the current way you are doing things, you can take the next step. The best thing you can do is create a “Credit Binder” or all the common things that a Bank, Lender, or Investor wants to know about your company, about you, and about your Team. The more open you are the faster the process goes. The faster you respond to the Due Diligence requests the faster you will get your money. I recommend using your favorite SECURE and online file sharing system that you can invite the Bank and their Underwriters to have access to PDF versions of the documentation. The online site should be in addition to the hard copy Credit Binder that you will provide to the Due Diligence Team.

What is the next step? I like to structure the series of steps to as AMSI, this is a methodology that I learned from Dr. Konrad Lang and translated as Auditing, Modeling, Strategizing, and Implementing as the following:

1. Audit your company relentlessly. Dig into all the processes, policies, and procedures and determine if they can be improved, removed, or new ones added. We generally focus on what you are doing today and the checklist of Due Diligence documents required to get financing for your next step. We also create the snapshot of all the ratios the Banks and investors require. At the end of this part of the process you should have a report with a current view of your company.
   
2. Model your path to success and keep it updated monthly, weekly, or even daily. Make a spreadsheet that spans each month of your projected path to success for the next five years. This is based on the Audit results and is almost brutally realistic. You need to be able to stand in front of your banker and answer all their questions with confidence and conservative projections.
   
3. Build a Strategy Plan to succeed – Business Plans and Marketing Plans need to be based on the Model you just made and need to realistically support that model. The strategy needs to be not only believable to you and your colleagues, but to the bank or investor.
   

• Gather the Capital or money you need. Once you have the strategy in place, you can take that to the Bank and
  

4. Implement the Strategy by first getting the right people on the bus, don’t take my word for it, read Jim Collin’s book, Good to Great. The minimum implementation the consultant provides is to manage the loan or investment draw, it is up to the company to execute the Business Plan and make it happen.

By the way, there are people out there that specialize in this very process and they can help you, in fact I am one of those people, give me a call and I’d be glad to help. You can also visit our website to get a bit more information on the subject, click here.