FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


Q: We’re very busy in our day-to-day operations… If you come in to help us now, aren’t you going to disrupt our business?

A: There’s two answers for this. Firstly, when is there a time you're not apt to be busy? Small businesses seldom have “free” time or any length of time when they are not busy. Secondly, when you are busy may be precisely the best time for us to work with you. This may also be the most likely time you are apt to notice your problems, but as is often the case with typical “growing pains” you are usually too busy to do much about them. During busy times problems and solutions are typically more readily identified, and can be the most revealing to you. This is likely when you handle the greatest part of your work load and make your biggest profits. It may also be the time when you experience your greatest losses in any areas of your company that are operating inefficiently and possibly losing money. The fact is, any problems or inefficiencies become more obvious and can be more advantageously corrected when you are operating at your busiest times.


Q: Our business is unique and not necessarily like others. How can you possibly know how we operate to be able to help us?

A: To be sure, every company we work for is different. All companies are not created equal. They’re all at various stages of growth and have some similar and some very different realities. They have different people and products and services, as well as different approaches to doing business. The fact that every business is different is what keeps us all in business and enables us all to have a piece of our respective “market pie”. We are not interested in the deepest inner-workings of your company or the technical side of your operations, so as to become experts in what you are before we might render any services to you. Essentially, you're in business to make a profit. We are interested in helping you with your invested dollar as it progresses through your business cycle. All businesses, though different, do share similar growing pains. There’s not a lot that’s particularly unique when it comes to those typical challenges of many evolving, growing companies.


Q: Do you have experts in every type of business there is?

A: NO, of course we don’t. Nor are we afraid to tell you what we know or what we don’t know. We’ll never purport to be something we’re not. We ourselves, are also a purposely small consulting firm and are looking to help, likewise, smaller companies, whether they be new start-ups or evolving smaller businesses. We are not ‘business magicians’, nor ‘jacks of all trades’ or industries, and thereby masters of none. However, our combined backgrounds can provide you with a substantial base of ‘real-world’ experience and as we like to call it, “common-sense consulting” expertise. We will carefully evaluate and then make recommendations regarding your business practices and procedures.

After all is said and done, our desire is to be for you, or do for you, what you don’t have the time to be or do for yourself. We are flexible in accommodating the diverse needs of emerging smaller companies. The inner technicalities of your business are not our interest. You and your staff are already experts in that area, so our role is not to be that of another expert stating what you already know. Rather, we will provide you with an objective and fresh perspective on your company’s operations. We will bring our business acumen and creative marketing talents to your table. We believe this is most beneficial for you. This objectivity and reflective viewpoint (taking time to sit back and review and analyze “where you’re at”) is not something that many business owners and their employees find very easy to do with their own company.


Q: Are you going to tell me how to run my own business?

A: We’re not looking to “run” your business. Our mandate is be for you what you need or could use at this time in your business life. We will help you, and work with you, bringing out the best in your team and equipment, and ways and means, augmenting your own team’s efforts in whatever capacity, we together determine, that best suits your needs. We will “enhance” your business and will provide you with some means and tools to operate your business more effectively.


Q: Can you provide us with some references of other companies you've worked for?

A: We, personally, would be pleased to do this for you. However, the services we provide for our clients are confidential and many clients prefer their anonymity, for whatever their reasons. In fact, where desired we do have a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement that both we and our clients sign and take seriously. Some business owners do not want it known that they've used a consulting firm to assist them. We respect their feelings. Others have no problem with this and have allowed us to describe our work with them (or in some cases, are available for you to contact them, should you so desire).


Q: We’re not a new company; we’ve been in business for some years already and we know all about our business. How can Nexus Business Group help us?

A: And so you should know your business very well. However, we encourage you to take our “Nexus Challenge”. The reality is, few business leaders take the time to proactively think about where their company is "really at" and wants to be in the future. Finding the time to “think about everything” is the first challenge. Upon doing that, it’s often surprising to see what comes to mind that you may not have thought to articulate, or face before. While knowing your own day-to-day business so well, you may be "too close to the forest to see your trees"… and some of those trees may need some help to grow better. In other words, can you recognize all of your problems? We can provide you with some outside objectivity and impartiality. We will look at your company’s “bigger picture” and longer time-line, too. It is not uncommon to be viewing operations and plans narrowly, but we can help you see what you might have been missing and may need to proactively address.


Q: Our bottom-line is actually quite good - why should I hire your services when I'm satisfied with the profit our company is making?

A: We might ask you, “What is your measuring stick?”. “What is your time-line and frame of reference?” “If you have nothing to compare to (apart from yourself), is it possible that you may not know nor see what could be better”? Upon careful examination, and reflection upon your original company vision and mission statement, only you know just how well your company is doing these days. Are you TOTALLY satisfied with every facet of your company? Is your company doing everything you had planned for it to do? Or would it be beneficial to change or enhance anything to make your business even MORE successful?

The competition is ever increasing. Customers’ expectations are way up as well as the increased demand for better value, more immediate services, and more feature-laden yet simpler to use cost-effective products. It’s a challenge, a never-ending competition with peers, often times vying for the same customers. The fact is, the market never waits for us to have the time or ideal resources to do “all” that we may need to. Seldom does anybody get time anymore nowadays for the market to ‘catch its breath’... But,complacency has also destroyed more prosperous companies than any other business attitude. Very few people are ever truly satisfied with the money they are making or the level of their company' success. And they shouldn't be if they want to continue to maintain or exceed that success in the years ahead.

Are all of the departments in your business making money and contributing to your company's success? Are all of your team members contributing effectively, or do you perhaps not really know for sure? Would your employees reject an increase in earnings? And do they all have that same passion for your business as you do?… (or perhaps once did?) To maintain, and especially, grow your business and your piece of the market pie in the days ahead, you and all your team will necessarily require that passion and drive to enable your business to keep ahead of the mainstream. Do you want to be just a safe follower from behind, or would you like to chart your own course?


Q: We’re quite secretive and protective of our proprietary processes and procedures within our company… I’m not sure how you could really help us?

A: We are not interested in the technical inner-workings of your operations nor your deepest financial secrets. Our services focus on those facets of your business that typically do not include secret processes. Remember also, that we have Confidentiality/Non-Disclosure/Non-Competition Agreements that we regularly utilize for both parties’ security, too. And most importantly, it is obviously in our best interest of maintaining our reputation by ensuring your confidentiality and business privacy. This is your best assurance that all confidences will be respected and maintained. This has never been a problem with any of our clients.


Q: How can you help my company when our prices are essentially based on what our competition is charging, and there's nothing much we can do about it?

A: Well, perhaps we can help you take a good close “re-look” at that. Your prices may be set by your competition, but your costs are not. Your distinct “differences” may need to be re-emphasized, too. Your ‘sales proposition’ to the marketplace may have hidden value that can also be capitalized upon. Prices are not everything that will determine your success or failure. By improving upon some of your business practices, you will have the opportunity to become the “thorn” in your competitors’ sides. We can help you give them something to worry about. Perhaps with some business fine-tuning, better facilitation of staff and resources, some basic management help, or some creative marketing, you'll be the one establishing the prices in your Industry, instead of others. Our experiences have always shown that companies unduly focused on price as their means of survival, are usually missing out on realizing considerable inherent value in other aspects of their company, people and products. Upon activating these other areas, and making changes where applicable, life becomes suddenly less narrow and ‘the same old, same old’, and quickly transforms and rejuvenates the team and especially, the company’s revenue picture.


Q: If market demand is our major problem, can you still help us with our customers?

A: We will work with you to help you get the lion's share of the available business. We will re-look at your product marketing and help you re-position yourselves in situations where the long-term market forecast may be unfavorable, targeting new markets and new customers, and new approaches. New business and product development and creative marketing is a passion of ours.


Q: My company is relatively small compared to even many of my peers and competitors. Will you be able to help a business of our size?

A: You are exactly the size of company we prefer to help. We believe the needs represented by smaller companies and new start-ups are some of the greatest. It is this stage of business life that presents some of the most daunting challenges and ‘growing pains’. All companies, no matter what their size, experience normal problems as they grow. It’s 'par for the course'. In any size company, there can always be, and should be room for innovative, creative, and practical ideas that can improve operations and make businesses better. Our mandate is to help your size of business grow bigger and better, and “more” successful, and to be more prepared for the future, and at a measured momentum that’s just right for you.


Q: My company has its own in-house experts and trouble-shooting computer guru’s. How will you provide us with anything of greater value?

A: The answer to this is sometimes simple…. If you are still experiencing any degree of problems with your computer equipment, or anything that isn’t giving you the full confidence and assurances you need that your company’s computers are always TOTALLY safe and secure, and performing optimally, then you could use our help. We do this for a living and necessarily keep abreast of the latest technology developments. We've also learned all the "tweaks" and short-cuts and don't necessarily "go by the book", which has proved to be a sginificant advantage to our clients. It’s a fast-changing world and your own people may not be as aware of everything as may be assumed. Remember also that your people are on your company's payroll and controlled by the dictates of your company's policies and procedures. Because of these factors, it’s not uncommon for internal ‘experts’ to often times be influenced by the very issues that may sometimes need changing.


Q: How is your approach to consulting any different than all the other consultants’ out there?

A: Firstly, our mandate is to focus on the smaller business community. There is an over-abundance of consultants catering to the needs of larger businesses. And it’s perhaps for one very good reason, too, amongst others to be sure. That being that though smaller businesses may have an abundance of needs, they typically don’t have an abundance of wherewithal to pay for meeting those needs as they’d really like to. We obviously have to survive, too, but we do “have a heart for small businesses” and that’s the business crowd we are looking to serve.

We differ from other consulting firms not only in what we believe is our “down to earth, common sense, passionate and creative approach” but also in our diversity of “real-world” experience we can bring to our clients. We also are willing to be and to “do for you what you may not have the time nor resources to do for yourselves”. We will don whatever ‘hat’ we can that with our abilities enables us to help you in whatever way we may. We are accustomed to being “servants”. We’re not just “fixers”, we’re educators, too. We like to “give” to those we help, not just “take”. The business world has enough of that. We’ve all had our bad associative conditioning in life with such experiences.

A key difference with Nexus Business Group is our flexibility. We will customize our approach where many others have their particular formula and criteria that YOU must fit into and then they’ll come and help you. However, we’ll work with you on your terms and in accordance with your particular level of need and stage of growth. We also will accept no engagements without first making a thorough evaluation of the needs of our clients to determine the appropriateness of a potential consulting arrangement. This initial evaluation confirms, for both you and us, that your business has areas that will benefit from our services, and enables us to outline potential problem areas within your company. We take an active approach to help solve your company's problems. We'll assist your business in developing and implementing innovative and creative strategies and solutions for each individual problem, and stay through the process until those are in place. Every step of your custom-tailored “Critical Life Support Services for Business" program, will be documented, and your personnel will be advised and trained by our team. We don’t “leave you in the lurch” upon the completion of our services, to go back to your own ways… We will ensure that your team is readied and able to carry on with the ongoing implementation and practice of any new ways and means or enhancements for your company.

We are looking for the “right fit” between our two companies - It goes both ways. We’re also not afraid of our own limits. We’ll only provide the highest quality of services we are able to do to the best of our ability and in keeping with Industry standards and practices. Occasionally, we will also draw upon the expertise and services of key alliance partners we sometimes utilize to assist us or to further the services we can offer you.

Our approach may be comparatively a-typical. We’re flexible and highly motivated to action. We aren’t the kind of consultants that employ endless meetings to discuss and study rather than “getting on with the job”. We won’t give you endless lengthy reports and analyses telling you what’s wrong but doing little about it. We are realistic and accurate in our time projections for tasks and we won’t recommend you have to spend money for anything new, if in fact, your current equipment, software, facilities, or team, or “way”, may only need some re-configuring, fine-tuning, or more advanced utilization. We fully realize that our clients are willing to make an investment in their business’s current and future growth or else they wouldn’t be calling upon us. However, we also know they expect to see some good results and good value for any money they spend with us. We’re pleased to humbly state that we have always satisfied our clients and usually exceeded their expectations.


Q: We've been considering hiring a consultant for quite a while now. We're just not sure if now is the right time to do it?

A: If you have needs, now is always the time. You may not have had the chance nor taken the time to regularly review your business realities and present or future needs. But you probably have that sense of where you want to be and what kind of company you want to continue building. You see what others are doing, too. If yours isn’t ‘THERE’ yet, then NOW is the right time. It’s unlikely there will ever be a time when you’ll have enough spare time to think about everything and plan it all out for yourself. All our clients have had that same desire but have never been able to really get a handle on it. Why? They’ve simply been too busy surviving from day to day. Also, if your business is too much “your baby” and you’re afraid to change your status quo, and grow, or do what it takes to manifest your dreams, you’re not ready (though the time is maybe past ready…). Likewise, if you cannot accept sincere constructive criticism, you'll probably never find the right time, either. Or…if you are waiting for the market or others to change before you may be willing to proactively face your future, you may be outstepped by your peers and your growing pains may increase unnecessarily. The right time is when you want to do something about it bad enough…. If you recognize any of the following and it sounds at all familiar to you, then IT IS THE RIGHT TIME…NOW.

“We’re swamped with just trying to survive from day to day to make ends meet… The work never stops… We never seem to be able to catch up, and yet our bottom line isn’t showing us what we need.”

“There’s never enough time nor resources to do what we want to, let alone, take time to think about the future…”

“There’s more ‘players’ jumping into the market than ever before and unfortunately, MY market and MY customers - Our competition is getting worse and if we don’t do it, someone else will.”

“We’d love to be more efficient and productive; we know we have some organizational problems which we need to get around to addressing…”  

“Simply too much to do, too few to do it, and too little time…is where we’re currently at… I wish I could clone myself.”  

“We’re just getting started and already find ourselves overwhelmed with what needs to be done… I don’t know if we’ll ever be prepared enough…”  

“We can’t afford another employee just yet, but we sure could have used half of one for quite a while now…”

“What I need is a joe-boy, a manager, a consultant, a business counsellor, a mentor, and an objective friend, all in one. Do you know anybody who has someone like that for hire?”

The market never waits for us to have the time or ideal resources...

Any company that’s been there, will tell you they’ve had their share of challenges and “learning from the marketplace”.

Is there some help you could use?

Few can dare claim to be crystal ball readers nor business Houdini’s. You can’t tell what’s going to happen and you can’t always escape it when it perhaps doesn’t go like you planned or hoped for. So what do you do about it? That’s the real question… For some of you, you’re just beginning and perhaps grappling with how to best get from Point Here to Point There… And for others, perhaps doing “the same old, same old” just isn’t enough anymore and you know you have to do something about it, but just aren’t sure what…

Is it the right time to finally get some help? If you’ve browsed our website you will have seen what we can do for you. Only you know just how well your business is doing TODAY and where you want it to be for TOMORROW.. Are you totally satisfied? Or is it time to make some changes, and make some things better?

Diverse real-world experience, objective common-sense and proactive foresight, mixed with some creative thinking and a tireless passion for what we do… is what we can offer you.

Give us a phone call. We’re at your service.

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