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Unlike consulting firms who focus on only one component of your business, Ratchford & Associates has the training and experience to understand each and every aspect of your business. Our professionals evaluate your current situation, your industry, your objectives, your barriers, and other factors that shape the success of your business.
After thorough study, we will work with you to determine the best solutions for your company. We do not take a cookie-cutter approach to your business. We work with you to design individualized solutions. We are more than a business-consulting firm. We are your partners helping ensure your success and your future.
WHAT WE DO
While the needs of each client will differ, the initial services that we provide will generally fall within one or more of the following business areas:
- Business Planning - If you were going to build a $20 million building, what’s one of the first things you would do? Hire an architectural and engineering firm to create the working models and draw the plans that the contractors will follow -- assuring that when completed the building will be structurally solid and people working in it can efficiently accomplish what’s intended. Why should building a $20 million business be any different? Think of Ratchford & Associates as your business architectural and engineering firm.
- Growth Strategies - The concept of strategy originated with the military many centuries ago to help assure victory in battle with a minimum of casualties and cost. Developing an appropriate military strategy involves having a clear set of goals and objectives, knowing our own capabilities and limitations, identifying potential allies, securing necessary resources, having an in-depth understanding of the enemy, and then using this knowledge to develop and execute the best plan to achieve the mission. The side with superior knowledge and the best strategy almost always wins the war. A Growth Strategy for business follows this same concept for the battlefield of business. We can help you develop the strategy to win your business war.
- Capital and Financing - The worst thing that can happen to a business is to run out of cash at a critical time. Having adequate resources available reduces the risk of business failure and allows you to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Whether we are helping you obtain venture capital, growth capital, traditional financing, take your company public or negotiate a buy-out, our professionals can enhance your chances for success. We believe that you should continue working in your business while we work on your business, linking you to the appropriate opportunities and partners in the financial community.
- Market Research - Assumptions are necessary but should be either verified or replaced by accurate facts as quickly as possible. More wars are lost because of poor assumptions and a lack of good information than anything else. Our professionals can help identify the knowledge gaps that are critical to your success, and develop an effective research and reconnaissance process to fill the void. Better information can result in better strategies, better decisions, reduced risks and desired success.
- Profit Improvement - Whether your business is currently profitable or losing money, chances are your profits can be improved. Inefficient procedures, duplication of efforts, employee turnover, under utilization of resources, poor information, unclear goals, ineffective organizational structure, waste, and lack of adequate controls are common drains on profits. We can identify the greatest weaknesses, waste and losses within your business and engineer corrective actions.
- Accounting & Information Systems - Do you and your leadership team know as much about your business performance as you should? Do you know your breakeven point? Do you know your true costs and profits by job or product on a daily or weekly basis? Do you have a business model to help you understand the “what ifs” of your business? Do you sometimes feel like you are “flying blind?” If yours is more of an “historical accounting” than a “decisional information” system, we can help you reengineer or replace it to be the control tool you need for operating and growing your business.
- Team Building - Sam Walton built WalMart far from the major retailing centers, often using talent from the hills of Arkansas who had little business or retail training or experience. His key to developing the worlds largest and most profitable retailer was to get “extraordinary performance from ordinary people.” Well organized teams will beat individual talent almost every time. We can work with you and your team to develop a team that works with a sense of purpose and passion to achieve your mission.
- Leadership Training - Few resources are more important to an endeavor than good leadership, whether in war, sports or business. In growing businesses, talented people are often elevated from a role of “doing” to “leading” -- and the skills required are far different. Learning leadership by trial and error may work, but at what cost and for how long? Our professionals can work with your entire team to develop leadership skills and methods that will work to minimize the costs and allow you to accelerate your growth. And in growing organizations, everyone can become a leader of something!
- Executive Coaching - It’s lonely at the top. As the CEO or other executive leader of your company, you often have no peers with whom to share your concerns, problems, ideas and dreams. Having an effective sounding board for airing your issues and helping you work through them can be invaluable. Our professionals have been CEOs and executive leaders, and can work with you one-on-one or in small teams to help you maintain perspective, successfully resolve issues, and hone your personal ability to lead your team to success.
- Special Projects - Mergers, acquisitions, expansions, new product introductions, reorganizations, better information systems, research projects, turnarounds and crisis management are just a few examples of special projects with which we may be able to assist you. Short-term professional assistance can often provide greater expertise than you have in-house, while your core personnel necessarily maintain your day-to-day business activities. We would be glad to explore with you any special needs you may have.
WHAT WE DON’T DO
We are successful for our clients because we work within the areas where we have the greatest expertise. We recognize that there are many talented professionals who can benefit your business, and we seek to maintain relationships with professionals who complement our work. Accordingly, our professionals do not provide services in the areas of:
- Legal advice or representation as attorneys
- Tax compliance or tax planning
- Advertising material preparation or advertising campaign management
- Technical aspects of any business -- i.e., we do not try to teach law to attorneys, medicine to doctors, or welding to manufacturers. Our focus remains on your business, rather than technical, issues.
If you have needs outside our areas of expertise, we may be able to make appropriate referrals.
If at anytime while you are browsing through our services section you have a question related to any of our services, please contact us by phone or e-mail.
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