GPS Reviews: We Have A Clear Vision
By 
Situation
A home inspection firm had lost their founder to cancer six months prior. His wife and daughter had a major decision in front of them, either to continue the company or to close it and find other jobs.
“My husband started our company over ten years ago. He wasn’t a businessman, but he was an inspector and he could see that owning a company would be far more profitable than just working for one. He was right. He started getting contracts and performing inspections. Before long, he had many inspectors working for him all over the city, which had just entered a major re-gentrification period and there was a lot of construction. I bought a copy of QuickBooks and did all the office work. Within a very short time, we had dozens of inspectors and a busy office filled with clerks. We were making quite a bit of money…”
While the business was very successful, “here’s the cautionary tale: we didn’t have a business plan in place. We let QuickBooks and CPAs give us 100% of our advice and soon account receivables started getting away from us and we didn’t have the sales that we needed to weather us through the slow times in construction that began a few years ago. We also didn’t have an exit strategy when my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. We stopped paying attention to the business and let the employees run it. We amped up our bucket list and enjoyed our last years together. When he died, we were able to keep the business going due to insurance, but we knew that it wouldn’t be in our best interests to run the company as a hobby.”
Process
The GPS consultant “came in and made positive adjustments to every single aspect of our business. Not a moment was wasted and yet many hours were spent pouring over old projects and figuring out what we should do with new projects. Figuring out the kind of salesman that we needed, showing us how to put just the right advertisement, in just the right places, he helped us find a fantastic new account executive to get us some sales. He also helped us pour over all the resumes that arrived and assisted with interviews.”
The client appreciated that their consultant was open-minded about how they liked to run their business. “We started out as a ‘Mom and Pop’ company and we are now hoping to move into a more corporate mentality, however, our consultant understood that we wanted to keep some of the familiarity that we have within our office. Having him be open to these ideas was helpful in creating a business plan, while also creating a business plan that we are more likely to pursue since it follows our company’s ethics. The initial person that we met regarding the GPS program explained to us that the person that they sent to help us with this project would be a good fit and he was definitely right.”
Result
“After he leaves today, we have a clear vision of our successful future and the tools to make it happen.”
In addition to management training, making the right hiring decisions and developing a business plan will allow this family business to continue and to grow. “His ability to share his insight to business and to people has been like a slingshot for us. We now know what is expected of us and can now see what our future holds. I can’t imagine a better experience.” Jodie and Stephanie, Co-Owners
