In today’s day and age, just about every business is fighting for the same thing; the key to creating long-term revenue.

Many of the solutions lie within the idea of enhancing the customer’s experience for a long-term relationship. Currently, customer attention is at a premium, due to the thousands of advertisements, spam emails, and telephone calls they receive every day. Consumers are simply looking to different avenues to learn about products and businesses of their interests.

Big Data has been the talk of the century. Firms are constantly searching for new strategies to collect and analyze big data for predicting consumer behavior, leveraging business segments, and improving the overall business. But when does "Big Data" become "too much data"?

Over the last few weeks, we have worked with some customers on identifying ways to decrease employee turnover. In our discussions, I have been amazed at the benefits and incentives that business owners have provided to their teams. The interesting thing is that regardless of what they provide, they tell me that the turnover KPI still does not decrease. I have done some extensive research and found the number one way to decrease turn is sometimes the most overlooked.

Over the last 20 years, my career has been rooted in professional services. As anyone knows, professional services is all about time. The only inventory you have is the time of the people that you have on your team. Efficient uses of time result in a thriving organization, non-efficient uses of time result in an underperforming organization.

When launching a new product or starting a new company it is very important to be able to explain what you do and the benefits of your services in a one-minute elevator speech. I have found that although this is much needed, people are much more visual than we believe. Furthermore (even in this digital world) there is something brilliant about putting the visual on a piece of paper, providing not only a visual but also a tactical experience.

As our firm consults with clients we continually hear growth plans that center on hiring more salespeople while expecting immediate results. When asked about marketing strategy, sales process, or leading indicators we get a variety of responses, but only in rare cases is the plan fully outlined. Without this clarity, it is impossible for the team to understand the expectations and leverage the individual skills they are good at.

No matter the size of your company, you must always be looking for new talent - even if you don't have available positions. Multiple times throughout my career I felt like we had a solid team and no one was looking to leave. In some cases, I followed my own advice and had individuals "on deck".

I believe innovation is derived from collaboration and that genius comes from a group - not an individual. As organizations become more mature they become very process-oriented. This allows people to become complacent and less innovative. In short, innovation burns more calories than just following the process.

As a company grows so does its structure. A small company with under 30 employees has a less complex challenge to segment staff into functional units or practice groups. The company is small enough that everyone works together to accomplish the end goal.