Host: Jim Fitzpatrick
This interview of Alicia Butler Pierre on CBS46’s Atlanta Small Business Show also featured one of her clients, Dan Merchant – COO of CDE.
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Are You Prepared for Growth? How to Address Pain Points and Scale for Success – Alicia Butler Pierre & Dan Merchant
A solid growth strategy involves more than just increasing profit; it requires a well thought out plan and precise execution. Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with Alicia Butler Pierre, Founder and CEO of Equilibria, Inc. and one of her clients, Dan Merchant, COO of CDE Services, to learn more about the benefits of hiring a growth consultant.
Alicia began her career as a process engineer for various chemical plants, where she was responsible for analyzing and fixing problems related to the manufacturing of faulty products. Fast forward to now, and Alicia has transferred those skills into her business called Equilibria, Inc.
Equilibria, Inc. is a small business consulting firm that specializes in helping fast-growing small businesses scale successfully and without pain. One of the founding principles for Equilibria is what Alicia calls business infrastructure. Business infrastructure is a system for how you link your people, processes, and tools to insure that scale happens in a profitable and sustainable way.
Alicia is also joined today by one of her clients, Dan Merchant, of CDE Services. For over 30 years, CDE has been providing POS solutions and enabling card acceptance to retailers and merchants. Over the past decade, changes in the business model have required CDE to grow its employee base, take on new skill sets, and enhance operations. According to Dan, it was difficult to define the new internal organization and structure which led them to seek out Alicia and her services.
To address these pain points, Alicia says it all starts by answering the question, “what work needs to be done?” To find out, CDE engaged in an intensive brainstorming exercise that identified over 650 tasks and activities that the company is currently doing and what it needs to do in the future to meet that growing product demand. Once that is completed, the tasks are then organized into departments and eventually employees. Alicia says this methodology really helps businesses visualize the process, and it creates dialogue and participation that possibly wasn’t there before.
To find out more about Alicia and Equilibria, Inc. be sure to watch our full interview above.
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Source: https://www.myasbn.com/small-business/growth-strategy/prepared-growth-address-pain-points-scale-success-alicia-butler-pierre-dan-merchant/