Services for Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs

Is your business the result of a special passion that you just had to follow? Are you a “reluctant entrepreneur” who struggles with the perils of the business world? Or maybe you’re just now reaching the important decision to become your own boss.

Toussaint & Company has a proven track record of helping small companies and entrepreneurs thrive and grow. Whether you need assistance with staffing, training, coaching, employee care programs, business development, or planning for the future, we can help you achieve the next phase of your company’s growth.

Executive Consulting

Team Dynamics and Team Building

Many people tend to avoid managing their own business because it’s scary! They have a passion and flair for their specialty, but they need help with the business aspects of company ownership. Our executive programs can take the mystery out of entrepreneurship, and free small business owners and senior level managers to do what they do best.

Let us help you with:

Financial planning and consulting. Put our experience in business management to work for your company. We can help you with pro formas, balance sheets, cash analyses, and other ways to predict revenue flows and follow proven fiscal management processes.

Strategic planning. Is your business heading in the right direction? Terrific! We can help you develop strategies to keep the arrow pointing upward.

But more often than not, we get the call when things aren’t going well. In those cases, the first step in any turnaround is to stop going in the WRONG direction. We can help put on the brakes; then, once the turnaround begins, we’ll partner with you to create a strategic plan that leads to sound business growth.

Leadership training. The secret to small business success is to understand that management and leadership are two different – and equally necessary – qualities. We can help you and your leadership team understand the differences, and react accordingly.

Too many entrepreneurs fall into “management mentality,” when they really need to demonstrate leadership skills – maximizing the interpersonal relationships that drive businesses toward a single goal. We’ll help you keep your business focused on a clear vision.

Management training. Sound business management practices are still important, and we can work with you to understand the processes that drive the key areas of Sales, Operations and Administration. Success in these areas will create the environment you need to achieve your company vision.

Sales training. Companies succeed by selling both products and services. But people who sell products effectively are rarely as successful selling services – and vice versa.

A small company salesperson needs to be a master of communication, and a master of opportunity-to-need conversion. Toussaint & Company can help train your sales force to be customer focused. They’ll be adept at identifying the true need, not the perceived need. And they’ll involve the customer in the process, making your customers an indivisible part of your organization. Just as importantly, you’ll be a valuable asset to your customers as well.

Team Dynamics and Team Building

Smaller organizations are almost always underfunded and understaffed. Therefore, people have to wear multiple hats, and perform tasks that are outside their core strength. That’s why team building is so important in the small business arena. When individual contributors recognize each other’s strengths, the collective strength of the team is greater than the sum of the individuals.

Toussaint & Company applies its decades of experience to help you with the key areas of successful team dynamics:

Creating highly functional teams. We can help you leverage each team member’s competency, style and passion, so that all members do what they do best. Everyone – team members, customers, and the small business owner – benefits.

Most importantly, when your team members are placed in their strongest areas of natural behavior, you’re minimizing the stress level in the workplace. Again, everyone benefits.

Fixing dysfunctional teams. Sometimes there’s a person on the team who shouldn’t be there. Or the goal is wrong. Or worse still, there is no common goal. Sometimes there’s no accountability. And sometimes team members avoid communicating as a way to avoid conflict.

Our proven team building techniques are most effective when they’re used proactively. But we can also help you determine why a team isn’t achieving at its proper level, and then develop ways to get everyone focused on the common goal.

Team assessments. Each worker is unique, with a unique combination of competency, passion and style. Toussaint & Company knows how to recognize each person’s strength, and help determine the right role for every worker on every team.

Through a combination of formal (such as DISC) and informal assessment programs, we can help managers assess their teams, place employees in their most desirable roles, and maximize each member’s contributions.

Coaching. In many ways, coaching is mentoring – especially when there’s a difficult management situation that needs immediate attention. Our expertise in conflict resolution can help identify the reasons why team members aren’t working together. Often this relational coaching results in a common ground where all team members are working together toward an acceptable outcome.

We can also assist with outplacement coaching, where a troubled employee can be pointed toward a different, more productive role.

Team performance results. Traditional teams are normally located in the same place geographically. Their proximity and focus on common goals generally leads to solid performance in output, profitability and the creation of a positive work environment.

But much of today’s business is performed by virtual or distributed teams, located in multiple sites, where the goals – and sometimes the language and culture – are different. We’ll help you create ways to build loyalty that crosses geographic and cultural boundaries, so that distributed team members are just as invested in your business as their traditional team counterparts.

Ongoing consulting services. The secret to long term business success is making sure that change – organizational, process and behavioral change – is consistent, ongoing, valid and productive. Once we’ve identified the key areas to address, we’ll work with you to develop ongoing programs that ensure accountability and prevent backsliding.