Even in the current economic climate, some entrepreneurs are looking to grow. We were hired last Fall by two women who felt their business had been in a slow but steady decline for the last year or so.

When they first approached us they said that they wanted some help re-branding their company. We've learned that whatever the cause of a company's problems, poor brand identity is usually only a symptom of a bigger issue.

It took some time for the two partners to agree amongst themselves to bring us in. One really wanted to, one did not. We often see that dynamic in stagnating businesses. In some cases they never get past the debate. Which is part of the essential problem.

Increasingly they were being forced to either turn down work or reduce their margins to the bone. They didn't want to do either. They were right. Once you accept a lower price for your core services you establish a new normal. There's no return from there.

We suggested the open a new division which would give them the ability to attract less profitable but more innovative work while maintaining their brand profile until budgets loosened up again.

The key for us was to make sure that the expansion was sustainable and scalable. We asked them to put a formal three year profit and loss projection in place that underlined the kind of investment this would require. It also gave them a context to measure future requests by managers of the division for new staffing and equipment.

Then we asked them to take us through their information systems so that we could make sure the business could support the added workflow. In a couple of places, we introduced them to some inexpensive technology that streamlined how information was being gathered and showed them a new way to analyze the core business. Getting bad news is more important than good. And we wanted to make sure they had either systems or staff that would give them bad news.

Lastly, we worked with them to develop a series of job descriptions for the new division. That allowed them to look at their current staff with an open mind, and assess who they might want to move based on attributes - not salaries or titles.

Last time we talked to them, the new division was contributing twenty percent of the company's overall profits. By this time next year it's on track to be half. And because of the way we set up the division's systems, they have discovered they can open new locations virtually everywhere with very little capital.

Five year projections are for the business to double, of which the core business will be contributing less than a third.

And both partners were effusive in their thanks. In every way their company has come a long way.