Northern Star Consulting helps owners of growing businesses identify the constraints limiting their performance, strengthen their organizations, and build businesses that can grow without becoming increasingly dependent on the owner.
Revenue may have plateaued. Profitability isn't keeping pace. Your management team isn't carrying enough of the load. Problems keep finding their way back to you. Or you're simply working much harder than you believe you should be.
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The answer usually isn't working harder. It's identifying what's actually holding the business back.
Does Any of This Sound Familiar?
Your business is successful—but you know it should be performing better.
Revenue growth has slowed or become increasingly difficult.
Sales are increasing, but profits aren't keeping pace.
Too many important decisions still end up on your desk.
Your managers are good people, but you're not sure they're prepared to lead the company to its next level.
You're spending too much time solving problems other people should be able to solve.
Accountability isn't as strong as you'd like.
You keep fixing problems, only to see different versions of them return.
The company has grown—but the organization hasn't grown with it.
You'd like to step away occasionally without worrying about what will happen while you're gone.
These may look like separate problems. Often, they're symptoms of something deeper.
Don't Treat the Symptom.
Find the Constraint.
When a company isn't performing as expected, it's natural to attack the problem that's easiest to see.
Sales are down?
Hire another salesperson.
Projects are late?
Install new software.
Employees aren't performing?
Provide more training.
The owner is overwhelmed?
Hire a COO.
Sometimes that's exactly the right answer.
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And sometimes it's an expensive solution to the wrong problem.
Northern Star looks across the organization to identify what is actually limiting performance.
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We examine eight areas:
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Direction
02
Owner Dependence
03
Leadership
04
Management Team
05
People
06
Execution
07
Growth
08
Financial Performance
Because until you know what's actually constraining the business, you don't know what to fix first.
Growth Doesn't Eliminate Constraints. It Moves Them.
Our job is to help you identify what is limiting the business now, address it, and prepare the organization for what comes next.
The Constraint Changes as the Business Grows
The systems, people and leadership that successfully built a $3 million business may not be capable of supporting a $10 million business.
01
Solve a sales constraint and operations may become overloaded.
02
Build operational capacity and management capability may become the limitation.
03
Develop the management team and the owner's unwillingness to delegate may become the next constraint.
Where Is Your Business Constraint?
Our Business Constraint Assessment examines eight areas that commonly limit the performance of growing companies. In approximately 10 minutes, you'll begin to see where your organization is strong—and where a constraint may be developing.
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The assessment isn't designed to give you a simplistic "business score."
It's designed to answer a much more useful question:
Build a Business That Doesn't Require You to Carry It
For many owners, success creates an unexpected problem.
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The larger the company becomes, the more people, decisions, customers, projects and problems there are to manage.
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Eventually, the owner who created the company's success can become the person everything depends upon.
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That's not a personal failure.It's an organizational problem—and it can be solved.
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Northern Star helps owners build the leadership, management structure, accountability and operating capability required for the business to function without their constant intervention.
The goal isn't to make the owner less important.
It's to make the owner important for the right things.
What Changes When You Fix the Right Problem?
Our work is designed to create measurable changes in the business:
Stronger leadership.
Better management decisions.
Greater accountability.
More predictable execution.
Improved profitability.
Less owner dependence.
Greater organizational capacity for growth.
And ultimately:
A stronger business that gives its owner more choices.
Let's Figure Out What's Holding Your Business Back
You don't need to prepare a presentation.
You don't need to know exactly what the problem is.
And you certainly don't need to know what the solution should be.
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That's what the conversation is for.
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We'll spend approximately 30 minutes discussing:
Where your business is today
Where you want it to go
What's working
What's frustrating you
Where you feel stuck
What you've already tried
And what may actually be constraining the business
This isn't a sales presentation disguised as a consultation. It's a business conversation.
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If I believe Northern Star can help, I'll explain what I think the next step should be. If I don't believe we're the right fit, I'll tell you.