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Accesssment Of Your Business

Business Assessment Tool
Short diagnostic tool to check the vital signs of your business

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Here is a link to a company that I find interesting and I hope you agree. It would be great for you to visit and we can share our ideas on their offering in our Blue Room Blog.

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“Our interaction was due to a client-consultant relationship whilst I was Manager. I found Terri-Ann to be friendly yet very professional in her approach. She displayed vast knowledge in strategic planning as she guided the management team in developing the company’s strategic plan. She was straightforward yet tactful in giving advice and direction to managers and executive. She made a tremendous impact in the company’s first experience in using a participative approach to its strategic planning process. Personally, I felt Terri-Ann acted as a coach as she was always willing to share her knowledge with me. Working with Terri-Ann allowed me to develop as a professional given that I was able to hone my analytical and questioning skills.”

Charlene Pedro, BSc., MBA

Principal Consultant

Conventus Consultinc – Your HR Business Partner

Fitt Court,

9-11 Fitt Street, Woodbrook,

Port of Spain, Trinidad, W.I.

Mobile: 868-352-0423

http://about.me/charlene.pedro

http://tt.linkedin.com/in/charlenepedro

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“Terri Ann is always ready to engage at a profound level to ensure that I am acting from my soul force to realise my true potential. Because I do it for others, I am committed to having someone in my life who does that for me … and I need the best.

As a result of our interactions in my business I stay real, authentic, and grounded; my business remains an extension of me and evolving.”

Dianne Job

Performance Architect & Life Coach

http://www.growingyourperformance.com/gp/about_us.html

http://www.performanceandimage.com

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“Terri Ann’s effectiveness is rooted in her sober approach to problem solving and total commitment to finding a suitable solution and then executing it according to plan, in a professional, firm but pleasant and engaging manner.”

Judith Francis

Senior Programme Coordinator Science & Technology Policy

CTA Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation Netherlands

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Mrs. Barbara Chandler-Bridgewater is the founder and creative director of The Discovery Learning Forum and the Inventor of The River Lime Game. Her work is in support of improving the ability of teachers to deliver their various curriculum and increasing the learning ability and capacity of students.

http://www.riverlimegame.com/ and http://www.discoverylearningforum.com/

On February 10^th 2016, she gave her feedback assessment to Sandstone Consulting on our intervention for Branding and Positioning of her company during the period Nov 2015 to Jan 2016. Her comments are summarized here:

At the end of this project, the purpose, operations and nature of Discovery- Learning Forum has been made much clearer and with a plan to move forward.
Meetings were always engaging, insightful, always being mindful of the vision of DLF and added relevance to current experiences
Processes used were participatory and strong in visual content. This helped to consolidate an understanding of DLF’s position. The participatory approach and journaling helped to consolidate the new perceptions about DLF. Suggestions for going forward were also given.
I would recommend Sandstone Consulting to other businesses since I have recognized that the methodical and thorough approach when applied, would enhance any business.

Barbara Chandler-Bridgewater

Founder and Creative Director of The Discovery Learning Forum

The Discovery Learning Forum

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I have known Terri Ann Brathwaite for over 20 years as an astute and successful Leader in the field of Retail and Distribution. In recent years her reputation of working with Business owners as a Consultant and Coach drew my attention to her as I noticed the growth and transformation of the companies she worked with. In 2017, my company was at a stage where it was in need of a Strategic Analysis of our current status due to the impact of intense foreign competition and a challenging economy. This was necessary so that we can better manage and Grow our Business more efficiently. When I started working with Terri Ann I soon realized that her competencies and in-depth insights impacted me and my team from day one. Working with Terri-Ann during 2017 has caused us to have better insights, and allowed us to have a clearer view of our strengths and weaknesses. This exercise gave birth to our Business Re-Structuring Plan all re-engineered by the help, interventions and support of Mrs. Brathwaite.

Her Coaching and Consultations sessions provided the following value to our company:

An in-depth scope and identification of our internal organizational gaps
An effective and Restructured Organization flow
An enhanced and Proposed Managerial team
Growth in awareness of the Family Roles in the Business
A Systemized and Monitored Trade Selling System
An enhanced Business Model
A refreshed awareness of our Brand
A Re-aligned Strategic 3-5 year Business Plan

The above-mentioned achievements for 2017 would not have been possible with the interventions of Mrs. Joseph-Brathwaite, I give God much thanks for sending her my way.

I cannot thank Terri-Ann enough for the work she has done, her wonderful insight, her support, her encouragement and her belief in our company.

Our company is embarking on a new path and I am so excited!

Katherine Bethel

Managing Director

B’s Ice Cream Ltd

Trinidad and Tobago

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HBC Services was incorporated in December 2014 with a view to offering affordable websites for small and medium enterprises. While we were comfortable in the technical aspects of the business we were in, we were struggling with how to present and market in order to bring in the type of clients that we needed. We started attending training sessions which targeted entrepreneurs to improve our business skills, one such session was offered by Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business (ALJGSB) BizBooster incubator entitled “Marketing for SMEs” in November 2015. The panellists presented on different aspects but the one by Terri-Ann Brathwaite from Sandstone Consulting really stood out to me; it was one of those presentations that “speak to you”. The content of her presentation wowed me as it touched on all the areas that we felt uncertain about and we also realised that while we were focusing on making sure we had the best product offering and packages, Terri-Ann’s spotlight is always on the customer. “Business success is not determined by the producer but by the customer”- Peter Drucker; I hurriedly wrote this down as Terri-Ann said it; thus was my introduction to Terri- Ann Brathwaite as an audience member attending a ALJGSB BizBooster event.
We officially enrolled in the BizBooster incubator programme in 2016. Terri-Ann was assigned as our Mentor, we were so excited that the person who I had seen present was now to assist us to make strategic improvements to our business. Since we were in operation about a year, we had been able to acquire a few clients in our target grouping, small businesses like us, however we were having cash flow issues. Terri-Ann was the facilitator for one of the training sessions of the incubator programme entitled “Business Development and Marketing”. This 2 day course exposed us to theory on the market planning process and practical exercises on evaluating the current marketing situation, customer analysis and developing strategies for 3 initiatives that would be implemented in our business.
Our one-on-one mentor sessions with Terri-Ann helped us to define what our business is about and helped us focus. Terri-Ann helped us to realise that we were focusing on the wrong target market for the services that we offered. While we were focusing on structuring our web packages into price levels ie the product, we should have been focusing on the customer, their needs and how our service could provide solutions to their business problems in innovative ways. Her insights as our mentor and the 2 day course helped us to pivot and we count it as a significant event in our business history. Each session with Terri-Ann helped us to make a fundamental change in our business, she helped us better define the business we were in. As a result, we changed the type of customers we were targeting, the way we introduced our services to name but a few and thus became more customer focused. Terri-Ann instructed us to do a complete evaluation of what the customer needs are, how our services could provide solutions to our potential clients and were rewarded with better quality clients who have signed subscription based contracts with us; thus we now have long term customer relationships instead of short term transactional arrangements.
We now approach all decisions with Terri-Ann’s advice and guidance in mind – how is what we are planning going to result in solutions to a customer’s problem, can we use this software to solve multiple business problems, how can we better utilise the skills of the team to offer more comprehensive solutions. The contracts that we have been awarded now are worth 10 times more than our invoices just 2 years ago. We were able to immediately implement Terri-Ann’s guidance and solutions and saw improvements very quickly. Terri-Ann provided invaluable advice and guidance during our negotiations with one of our largest clients which allowed us to secure double our initial asking price. We were able to negotiate professionally and avoid mistakes a novice would typically make when dealing with more experienced negotiators. The negotiations took over a year, but in the end, we were able to agree on a contract that provided the client with a superior solution and us with a major influential client.
While HBC Services has a long way to go, with Terri-Ann’s coaching, HBC is like a pull back race car; she pulled us back from the direction we were heading, pointed us in the right direction, helping us take off in a better direction for our business.

Yours sincerely

Dulcie Furlonge
Director,
HBC Services

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Kudos to you and Ms. Brathwaite and the Small Business Initiative team at GATE! The sessions were quite informative, instructive and timely. I have experienced a sort of paradigm shift in my business outlook: It will not be business as usual at Amphoebean Trails Travel & Tours! I am not going to simply, ‘passively’ rely on my website to attract visitors but will vigorously, ‘aggressively’ seek out my potential customers (hotels, colleges etc) because, according to Terri-Ann, that would be like hanging a sign on a tree…if no one passes by, no one sees it!

In contrast to the plethora of seminars and workshops I have attended in the past (hosted by other agencies), that one was not clinical and full of rhetoric; you two were a dynamic duo! You really made us face the stark reality that we really did not have a full grasp of our business ideas and that we needed to rethink our positions in order to maximize our potentials (and profits!).

Two main points that resonate with me are: a) an entrepreneur, contrary to popular opinion, is not necessarily a risk-taker: If I study my market and its vagaries I will know how to “bob and weave” around the potential dangers! b) an entrepreneur is market-driven and customer oriented: We must know, respect and appreciate our customers and, most importantly, what the business is selling to the customer is not the same as what the customer is buying! For instance, when I sell a tour (sun, sea, sand, historic sites etc), the visitor is buying into my promise to satisfy his/her need for individual attention, pampering, VIP treatment!

I particularly enjoyed the group, elevator pitch and studio sessions. I cherish the time spent with the other small business persons who share similar concerns and aspirations. I am grateful for the opportunity to have met with others with whom I could collaborate or partner with in future endeavours. I have learnt a great deal from each participant.

I would be extremely delighted to participate in other entrepreneurial workshops facilitated by GATE. I wish both you and Ms. Braithwaite success in your endeavours and hope that you return for future training sessions.

Best Regards,

Vellie Benta
(268)728 2088/723 3998
Amphoebean Trails Travel & Tours

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Accesssment Of Your Business

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Charlene Pedro, BSc., MBA

Dianne Job

Judith Francis

Barbara Chandler-Bridgewater

Katherine Bethel