Guided Star Consulting, through a broad reach of Associates, Independent Professionals, and Partner firms with in-depth expertise in their disciplines, can deliver an expansive range of custom designed professional services in just-right doses.   We deliver advanced consulting services to Small to Medium Business customers at reasonable prices, without trying to make the engagement perpetual.   We will incorporate legal, accounting, technical, engineering, manufacturing, distribution, creative or other talents as required to complete the services.   If we don’t have a relationship that can deliver the expertise, we’ll assist you in selecting one.   Much of this becomes a Management service for clients that see their time better spent on business functions within their own core competencies.   We strive to find the right balance of participation for each client on an individual basis.   So while we will create a service package customized for you, below are several offerings we enjoy participating with clients in. Be sure also to see our development offerings for Executives and Employees under Sales & Staff and Simulation Training.

Devil’s Advocate – A Sanity Check

Too often in life, we struggle to find a sounding board, an independent voice with no agenda, honest and forthcoming.   We offer to provide that third-party counsel.   Whether a ten minute phone call for some input on a minor business decision or a day-long retreat to review major considerations, we’ll offer an opinion, think of potential pitfalls, and consider alternatives with you.   We’ll argue both sides and help prepare you for the risk that any decision contains.   Billed as either an hourly service or bundled in a retainer agreement, it’s inexpensive insurance and we hope you’d find greater peace of mind having had our counsel.

Investor’s Investigation Services

If you are responsible for directing Investment Capital, of your own or that of an organization or fund, we’d like to think that we may be able to add value to the information stack you rely on in making decisions.    We spent time in numerous Angel-funded and Venture-backed businesses, and we understand the challenges.  

The net of what we think we bring to the table is custom-designed research and evaluation services performed by intelligent, multi-disciplined professionals.   We can provide, in a package of any size with an ability to grow dynamically, an effective review from many angles.   Marketing and Sales competency, Product or Service viability, Competitive review, Technical or Engineering review, and more summarized in a few hours or exhaustively researched and interviewed.   It’s about cost-effectively adding a layer of security to your investment decisions and maximizing investment performance.

We are also available to collaborate on developing original business plans and finding opportunities to leverage, for either investors or individuals.   Call us and let’s talk and see if we don’t find some common interests.

Understanding the new Corporate Governance

Whether or not Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, GLBA, CA1386, Basel II, or any of the other and growing list of regulatory compliance requirements apply to your business, you need to understand at least the broad strokes and what the trends mean to you.   Increasingly, even doing business with corporations that do have to comply will require meeting those regulations.   Especially designed for Small to Medium-sized Business that lacks deep internal resources, we can help provide resources and guidance to help you know what steps you should be taking now to comply and prepare for the future landscape.

Handling Privacy and Security Concerns

With names like ChoicePoint and Lexis-Nexis rocketing to household familiarity due to recent security breaches, we now have well documented examples of just how fast corporate value can dissipate.   ChoicePoint lost nearly 20% of its stock value within 30 days of its February 2005 announcement of a security breach, representing $763M in shareholder value, and months later was still trading at roughly 15% off the February high.   New data and privacy compromises can be seen on the evening news almost daily, and congressional hearings into the matter almost assure that new regulatory requirements on the subject are coming.   We hope that executives everywhere are finally addressing long-overlooked security practices, compelled if not by good business practice then by a grasp the potential damage to the business.   If you have questions about the way your business is handling data, security policy, information risk management or any other facet of this topic, we can help bring the proper resources together for you.

Corporate Alignment Check

If you’ve read our Guided Tenets, then you’re now familiar with our use of the term Alignment.   And if checking your organizational status or  re-architecting an organization into one that embraces similar higher purposes is of potential interest to you, you’ve just excited us.   To make stepping forward in this process easier, we’ve packaged a quick organizational review that yields a summary presentation and report card.   It is a simple process that also leaves you with suggested first steps towards improving your business alignment, and business performance.   Participating in that process is Guided Star’s highest purpose.  No incense or candle burning required.

Guided Star Consulting offers high-impact Marketing, Sales & Business Consulting services

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