Greetings!  

 

My name is Mark Clark, owner and CEO of Mark of Excellence Financial Analysis & Consulting. 

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I am reaching out to you, the community of entrepreneurs and small business owners who may not be blessed with a staff of accountants, financial analysts, strategic planners, and risk managers; and may even have difficulty managing beyond the hectic day-to-day operations of your business.  If this is the situation in your firm, I would wager you are operating with fears of what you don’t know, and an even bigger concern of how to eliminate these fears without adding yet another hat to those you are already wearing.  So, I put to you a question that is central to the success of any business, big or small.

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• Question:  In today’s hyper-dynamic marketplace, what is the management of business?

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• Answer:  Simply put, the management of business is the management of risk.

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We can all agree that being unaware of potential risk or bad news is worse than knowing it, facing it head on and neutralizing its root cause, painful as that may be.  In business, as with most things in life, ignorance is not bliss, but a state of complacency that provides a false sense of security, generates anxiety, and can lead to misfortune.  Sadly, this is a recurring behavior that has infected most businesses, from small proprietorships to multi-billion dollar conglomerates, many of whom are no longer with us since the 2008 Financial Crisis.  How many former owners of these now-defunct businesses are saying to themselves “If only I had taken the time to see the writing on the wall, perhaps I could have avoided disaster!”  Twelve years later, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic brought the global economy to a standstill for months, with painful financial effects that will no doubt plague businesses for many years to come.  The tragic mistake for many business leaders was failing to learn from past economic crises.  Mistakes are only good teachers if they are not forgotten as soon as things start to look rosy again.  Turbulent times are part of what business managers must live with.  And catastrophic events like the Great Recession and COVID-19 can no longer be seen as rare phenomena.  Believe it or not, their kind will revisit us again in different forms and flavors in the future.  The cycle of recurring ups and downs may not be eliminated, but can and must be an integral part of strategic planning that seeks to manage risk and minimize inevitable downturns when they do occur.

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A manager who wants to succeed also wants to hear the truth, the bad with the good, to make timely course corrections if warranted.

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There are too many unknowns and risks in business for managers to otherwise avoid understanding what those risks are and how to mitigate or even eliminate them.

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You can be assured, your competition is digging into the details; so they are armed with both the strategic and tactical tools to chase you, or very likely, over-take you.  Therefore, you must fight fire with fire---fire as in “effective use of knowledge”.  Charts and metrics are nice, sure, but what are they telling us?  It is not enough to have a positive cash balance, a “good sales month”, or to have impressive charts that often show only what you what to see (or what your accountant thinks will make you happy).  Such behavior is precarious at best, and could result in a sudden gut-punch to your business if the market takes an unexpected nose-dive, or if you make a miscalculated business decision based on not understanding what your financial story is really telling you.

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So, what is it that Mark of Excellence Financial Analysis and Consulting can do to keep you on the path of successful growth and profitability, or to place you on that path if you’re not there yet?

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First and foremost, Mark of Excellence is committed to giving you the truth--the whole picture, both good and bad.  While your accountant or ERP system may be giving you numbers, we will take it from there, using those numbers to give you a holistic view of your business….what I like to call the “story” of your business.  Not "a" story…but "the" story.  Our offerings include specialized financial analysis, consulting and reporting.  Additionally, we offer our professional papers, instructional webinars, and engagement with other business leaders through webcasts and public speaking events.  Personally, I bring over 25 years of experience in financial analysis, project and portfolio management and treasury operations.  I have witnessed first-hand, multiple entities within the same organization coming up with differing versions of the "truth" that are created to either to hide bad news, protect someone's job, gain favor with management, or some combination of all three; yet these stories never seem to present an accurate picture to the owners and key stakeholders.

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Wouldn’t it be great to have a monthly financial analysis, customized for your business, along with one-on-one consultations with an objective observer that offers a clear vision of where you stand and where you are headed?

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Our mission is to provide entrepreneurs, and small-to-medium business owners, with a truly unique, holistic view of their business through competent financial analysis, consultative services, and reporting, by focusing our energies on helping businesses minimize risk and uncertainly while driving growth and sustainability through better financial management.

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Contact us today at info@markofefac.com to set-up a FREE, private, introductory consultation, to learn more about what we can do for you.

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I am looking forward to partnering with you to make your business soar!