FAQ

Smart Company Growth brings best-of-breed business services for growing small and mid-sized companies at an incredibly high value based upon our virtual business model.  You’re able to accomplish critical tasks, campaigns and company objectives without the unnecessary cost of bringing on additional human resources that likely aren’t warranted.  We focus on boutique services to provide you with a competitive advantage, and we’ll also be able to cut costs and provide necessary cash flow as well.  

Net result =  You Profit More!

We’ve partnered over the years with notable experts in areas as diverse as website generation and copyrighting to on-site Lean Manufacturing Project Managers.  In most cases we make intelligent use of these people’s talents on a contract basis and leverage them for our clients.  The virtual model is further exploited because many of the services we provide do NOT have to be performed on-site.  We make the best use of today’s technology to be able to “meet” clients over the phone, video-conference, and web meetings to minimize the need for them to absorb travel reimbursement costs except where on-site talent is a requirement of the job or requested.

Our virtual business model can be yours too, filling in for needed projects and objectives to help grow sustainable business that in the past were either ignored due to cost or lack of time to find resources, or were “overfilled” by recruiting and bringing on full-time talent that subsequently searched for a place to add organizational value (sometimes unsuccessfully).  Smart Company Growth can be your virtual arm for these valuable but short term initiatives.

Any service or activity that leads to more Sales.  Most often people associate Business Development with something new–new sales channels, new markets, new products.  From our perspective, it can be new revenues from existing customers for your business as well.  Smart Company Growth services are designed to provide a Competitive Advantage for firms who otherwise look a lot alike.  Unfortunately this applies in large majority to professional service firms: lawyers, financial advisors, accountants, consultants and the like, whose value proposition is not a hard product but their intellectual firepower and relationship.

This is our primary value proposition.  Competitive Advantage services are strategies to expand your online reach via our SmartVu Executive Video Interviews and LinkedIn Optimization. 

One cool new way we are helping companies more globally are our Mastermind Groups through Virtual-Mastermind, a specialty service developed to deliver a virtual board of advisors to small and mid-sized firms, replete with executive coaching and monthly learning & development opportunities.

Non-consulting services are straight to the bottom line value products (listed under Business Cash on the menu) where Smart Company Growth may not necessarily provide strategy or direction.  We currently provide Equipment Leasing as a non-consulting service.  We no longer offer Energy Choice Solutions at Smart Company Growth.

For starters, Smart Company Growth CEO Karl Walinskas has 22 years of manufacturing experience to draw on using various types of equipment, so he’ll talk the lingo.  That experience, which includes supply chain management operations, can also help you to negotiate a better deal.  Find an equipment finance company who does that.

We’ve partnered with Lease One, a firm with 19 years + experience leasing equipment to small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) that leverages more than 80 lenders on your behalf to get you the best overall deal for your situation.  We also finance USED equipment, something many lenders won’t go near.  In the unlikely event that your situation is not funded via this route, Karl also has personal relationships with a few more specialty lenders.  Learn more here.

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Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness.  His Smart Blog covers leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and was recently named by Buyerzone as one of the Top 20 Business Blogs of 2011.  He is the author of Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the SmartShop and Amazon.com, and has been a featured expert for Inc.com with articles published in Selling Power, America Online, and Site Pro News to name a few.  Get your FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & video course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.

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Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness.  His Smart Blog covers leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and was recently named by Buyerzone as one of the Top 20 Business Blogs of 2011.  He is the author of Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available on the company website and Amazon.com, and has been a featured expert for Inc.com with articles published in Selling Power, America Online, and Site Pro News to name a few.   Visit www.SmartCompanyGrowth.com to get a FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & video course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.

Now if it’s in the Shop, well, that’s another story.  Free downloads may be available at any given time, or download for a small fee.

Primary competitive advantage services are our SmartVu Executive Video Interviews, LinkedIn Optimization, and now chairing Virtual-Mastermind groups.  Having said that, for clients and those really interested in creative content as a means to differentiate themselves, Karl will consider custom articles, blogs, and creating content products (eBooks, videos, etc.).  Submit a contact inquiry to propose your project.

There is a chance that you may be able to blog for us, depending on your content and writing style. We like to have fun in writing but still offer value besides pure humor. If you’re all comic sizzle, go get some steak and give us a call or inquire on our Contact page. Karl will review your work and if he likes it, this may be an outlet for you to be published.

Smart Company Growth partners with companies that provides something unique and valuable to our clients.  This goes beyond consulting and strategy to leveraging resources that we can provide through the partnership.  Currently we partner with Lease One for Capital Equipment Financing.  These are formal partnership arrangements as brokers for our clients’ benefits.  We form informal partnerships for specific engagements or service delivery.  If a new service makes sense (it’s relevant to smart and sustainable growth for business) and we can partner with that company to benefit our clients, we will consider adding the service.

Like any consulting firm, when it comes to special services, prices are generally scope dependent for individual projects and are outlined in a Profit Improvement Proposal (PIP).  In most cases after Scope is agreed upon, there is a downpayment or retainer in place with progress payments made during the course of the project, depending upon it’s length.

We have developed standard package pricing that you will see offered throughout the Service sections of the site with relative increases in the level of service ordered and impact desired.  Any standard priced service can be added to your shopping cart and ordered via Paypal on the spot.

Obviously as we develop learning products using audio and video or the written word, these products will have a fixed price and be available on our Shop Smart page.

Smart Company Growth consulting services are warranted with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE for any unused services that have not been delivered upon cancellation of a project.  This applies to deposits, retainers, and future payments as outlined in the initial scope of work.  If a service has been delivered and is not to your satisfaction as a client, your written notification to Smart Company Growth will initiate a remediation process until that service meets with your absolute delight.

Certain packaged services, like SmartVu Executive Video Interviews, have a money-back guarranty if not completely satisfied within a given time period. Check each service page for warranty details.

For the partner service of Equipment Financing, Smart Company Growth makes no warranties on performance.   Leasing agreements are two-party agreements between a company and an institutional lender.  Our service is finding a funding solution for your equipment needs.  Neither Smart Company Growth nor Lease One make any representations regarding the equipment vendor or equipment supplied.  Warranties on equipment are between a company and the vendor of the equipment sold.