Case STUDIES
Wondering whether Dunathan Consulting can help you grow your business?
From chaos to a well-oiled machine
The owner of a growing residential real estate business felt nervous about adding more agents to increase sales. Although her staff were very hardworking, they were untrained, so even routine activities turned into mini-crises. She knew she needed help, but wasn’t sure where to start, so she brought in Dunathan Consulting to make an assessment.
By spending time in the office to understand how things functioned, we were able to identify several areas that needed improvement, starting with financial management. Dunathan Consulting put simple processes in place for bill payment, deposits, payroll, and bookkeeping. We also identified existing staff who could take on these tasks, and trained them to consistently execute.
Her staff, although nervous at first, soon took great pride in keeping the finances organized and accurate, and even found ways to save the business money through renegotiated vendor agreements. Her office is now a calm, busy, productive, happy space, and she is focused on marketing, sales, and serving her customers instead of worrying about the back office.
Kickstarting growth
The partners of a newly formed event planning company felt like they were spinning their wheels. They wanted some guidance to create a plan to grow their business quickly, based on their extensive industry experience.
When they engaged Dunathan Consulting, we found that although they knew each other very well, they hadn’t explicitly discussed the details of their goals, target markets and key services with each other. The simple planning process we coached them through enabled them to verbalize their ideas and agree on clear goals and activities to focus on. We also brought in a sales coach to give them specific sales techniques and one-on-one practice to improve their conversion rate.
As a result, the partners gained confidence in their vision and their ability to achieve it, and were able to focus their efforts to successfully bring in new business.
Bookkeeping mess
A live-events producer was having trouble pulling her Paypal ticket sale transactions into QuickBooks in a way that would allow her to get effective metrics on her events. She had previously hired two bookkeepers (solo and big firm) to solve the problem, but had no success at bringing order to her books.
When she turned to Dunathan Consulting, we helped her to understand and efficiently process the four types of PayPal transactions that her business generated. Then we taught her how to reconcile her PayPal account with her bank accounts so that she knew she could trust the QuickBooks data for tax preparation and business planning.
With less than ten hours of consulting, she is now empowered to handle the bookkeeping herself, and is able to troubleshoot and solve problems on her own instead of relying on expensive outside support. She also has the reports she needs to manage her business effectively, which was the ultimate goal.
HR Policies pay off
Prior to bringing on new employees, a business owner wanted to establish a clear HR process. Dunathan Consulting helped the owner develop basic policies to cover work hours and time off.
Months later, when one of the employees had a baby, the HR policies provided clear expectations to everyone for the employee’s maternity leave, allowing the employee to take the time she needed while the employer was able to manage in her absence.
The transition period went well and the employee continues to be a loyal, long-term, committed member of the staff.
Visionary startup leader freed up
A visionary scientist who was taking a new medical device to market was swamped with tedious administrative tasks. We assessed her workload and suggested changes she could implement, including better use of staff, outsourcing bookkeeping, and switching to an online vendor with efficient software for management. Within a few weeks, she had more time and energy to focus on the important stuff, and her staff were more engaged and involved as well.
Better data means better management
The board of a nonprofit organization contacted Dunathan Consulting because they were dealing with some negative feedback from a grantor, who was concerned about inaccurate data and how the finances were being managed.
By assessing their current practices and operational constraints, Dunathan Consulting was able to design new processes that fit the work environment. We worked with the organization’s staff to revamp how they captured data, tracked expenses and ultimately reported the information to funders.
