OPSQC INC Podcast

In todays episode we welcome Mark James President and Lead Advisor at Performance Advisors based in Greater Chicago Area. Performance Advisors are B2B business process improvement practitioners with over 40 years experience in a diverse range of midsize to Fortune 50 companies. Mark helps companies eliminate barriers relative to people processes, strategic planning and deployment, and precision marketing. Mark and I discuss how he started, where he is going and lessons learned along the way. 

Website: https://www.performadvisors.com

Have you created your business and are now looking to move or improve your corporate office space? Or, your business is currently under a lease that you want to change? Maybe you are completely happy with your lease agreement and simply want to sign an extension. Listen this week to learn from Craig Nadborne of Bradford Allen. His business is finding lease agreements for small to medium size businesses at no cost to the customer. This service allows you to continue to work on your business while Bradford Allen finds the perfect location per your requirements. Additionally, we discuss the impact of Covid19 on the corporate office and what the industry is expecting for 2021 and into 2022. We are in a tenant's market right now. Listen this week to learn how services from Bradford Allen could save you on your corporate office costs.

Have you been thinking about starting your own business? Do you want to challenge yourself? Listen this week to draw inspiration from Ed Egan, founder of Double E Workplace Solutions. Ed was in the corporate America workforce for 2 decades but wanted to be his own boss and more importantly, wanted to challenge himself. Double E Workplace Solutions offers customizable services to identify performances gaps in the workplace. They offer coaching and training solutions to small and medium size businesses. Ed's mantra that he brings to his customers is efficient execution and constant evaluation. You have created your startup but are now struggling with communication channels and/or want to improve your employee's behavioral efficiencies? This week's podcast is perfect for you. We hope you enjoy this week's show.

Ever heard the term category king? Co-Founder Locke Berkebile discusses how he and his co-founder Aaron De Zafra approached digitizing the aircraft maintenance industry over knocking around the idea at a poker game. He also discusses the importance of a Founder's Agreement, and why its important. Making the leap from corporate to starting a business with friends or family is wrought with risk, so having those hard conversations in advance makes sense. In addition, the potential to be a disruptor in other industries simply by looking at growing industries and looking at what supporting processes need improvement.  You won't want to miss what Locke has to say about this, starting a company during COVID and other topics. Enjoy!

What happens after you have built a profitable and successful business and you want to pass it on? That’s why today we are bringing in Jason Pittman, President of Exit Advisor. Jason is in the M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) space to help business owners that have revenues of $300,000 upwards to $10,000,000, plan their exit and/or retirement. Whether you want to pass the business to other members within your family or want to sell to the highest bidder, there is more than 1 way to achieve your goal. What started as a blog and a hobby has now grown into a full-time business for Jason. Now that your business is profitable, it's never too early to begin planning your exit strategy. We hope you like this week's show!

Today we bring in Keith Kriegler and Randy Cavaiani, founders of Savvyeur. Savvyuer focuses on marketing for entrepreneurs via programs designed specific to their customer through their 3-pillar programs, Knowledge, Coaching, & Marketing. The end product is optimized for the customer depending on how much or how little they require from Savvyeur. Savvyeur was founded in August 2020 during the Covid19 pandemic and now has 11 full time employees. Both Randy and Keith have startup and large multinational experience bringing well balanced focus to Savvyeur. We discuss some of the bigger obstacles they came across starting Savvyeur and the path to overcome these challenges. Listen this week to learn more and we hope you like this week's show!

In this episode we interview Neil Schwan - Owner of Schooley Mitchell Chicago. Schooley Mitchell is a large franchise network of independent and objective cost reduction experts, handling repetitive billings, traditional expenses relative to services like telcom, waste handling, small package shipping, etc.  allowing you to focus on your core business knowing your systems are fully optimized and any wasted money is recovered. Neil and I are also co-founders of an Efficiency Mastermind Group.   

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-schwan/ 

https://www.schooleymitchell.com/telecom-merchant-services-small-package-shipping-courier-consultants-chicago-illinois-nschwan/

Welcome to OPSQC Podcast 011. Our mission is to help entrepreneurs, innovators, and small business owners scale their business profitably. The goal of this podcast is to showcase real businesses and real owners, and learn through their experiences. This week we talk with Paul Van Metre, co-founder of ProShop ERP. The company didn’t originally start as an ERP systems company but rather was founded in 1997 as a CNC shop. As their CNC business grew, Paul realized that their spreadsheet record keeping was not going to scale laterally with the business. For this reason, they developed their own system and through 8 years of organic growth eventually became Proshop ERP. The history of Proshop ERP is truly a story of “What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.” Proshop was heavily involved in Aerospace in 2001 and the 9/11 attacks nearly bankrupted their company. They learned from this and adapted because during the 2008 financial crash, they didn’t furlough nor let go any of their workforce. Fast forward to the Covid19 Pandemic, they are thriving. Proshop ERP has doubled their workforce in 2020. Listen this week and learn how Proshop ERP grew from a CNC shop to an ERP company and overcame the many obstacles along the way. We hope you enjoy the show.

Welcome to OPSQC Podcast 010. Our mission is to help entrepreneurs, innovators, and small business owners scale their business profitably. The goal of this podcast is to showcase real businesses and real owners, and learn through their experiences. This week we bring in Joe McDermott of Carma. Joe is the COO/CFO and the co-founder of Carma with his brother Frank. Carma was formed to provide professional services for telecom and data centers, creating a platform to inventory data collection systems to reduce ridiculous defect rates and improve the efficiencies. Joe has experience with startups and was also the co-founder of Arcanum Alloys, a steel venture.  Joe has seen and experienced what it takes to be a good leader. He knows how to build a good company and instill a positive culture so the employees are excited and engaged in their work. Joe also spent time in the Air Force,  went on to graduate from Princeton and later attend the prestigious Harvard Business School. Carma ‘s path is a bumpy one, but doing well now. Enjoy this week's episode!

Welcome to OPSQC Podcast 009. Our mission is to help entrepreneurs, innovators, and small business owners scale their business profitably. The goal of this podcast is to showcase real businesses and real owners, and learn through their experiences. This week we talk with Bailey Kramer of Property Dogs. Bailey is a Managing Partner with Frank LaMark Jr. whom he met on an online networking platform. After many zoom calls and emails, Bailey and Frank decided to start Property Dogs which debuted about a year ago and now currently has 4 employees working full time. To this day, Frank and Bailey have never met in person, face-to-face. Property Dogs focuses on Residential and Commercial real estate. They have isolated their approach to the market and instead of being a “Jack of all trades, master of none”, they have taken the opposite approach. They become a master in one area before moving onto the next. Listen this week to learn more about Property Dogs as well as about the power that networking and social media can bring to those that want to start a business but don’t know where to begin.