Business

Item Description

(Andy Birol is donating the opportunity for him to facilatate a Business Roundtable program for the winning bidder.  Andy will host this opporunity at his Solon home and provide refreshments.  This opporunity is ideal for a  peer group of business owners.)

Do you belong to a peer group of business owners who would benefit from hearing Andy's message of growth? Fellow business owners, including your customers and suppliers, love being invited to join a small group moderated by a national expert resource sponsored by a peer like you. 

Below are sample topics you may find worthwhile or Andy can customize one that best fits the needs and agenda of your group.

Here are five examples of recent Roundtables Andy has held for small groups of 6-10 CEOs:

1. The 5 Catalysts of 7 Figure Growth: Propel Your Business to the Next Level.
   Based on his fifth book, published by CareerPress, Andy presents the five key drivers of small business growth. In this interactive workshop, every owner will learn what they can do to enjoy more profitable growth with less effort and risk. The Five Catalysts are:
   
   
   1. From Apprehension to Conviction: How an Owner's Mindset Drives the Firm's Growth
   2. The Conviction-to-Customer Connection: Developing Your Best and Highest Use
   3. From First Dates to Diamond Anniversaries: Enhancing Your Sales Funnel to Find, Keep, and Grow Customers
   4. To Market, To Market: Tending Your Systems for Fulfillment and Delivery
   5. Keep On Keepin' On: Repetition and Consistency for Stable Growth
      
2. Taking Your Business To The Next Level: Why and How You Can Choose To Grow Your Business.
   As a business owner, do others ask, "What are you going to do next?" Growing a business to the next level is risky and may or may not be right for you given your goals and lifestyle. This interactive workshop will address the questions of why to grow, and if so, how along the following milestones:
   
   1. The First Day of the Rest of Your Life: Growing from Start-up to $1,000,000
   2. Gaining Traction: Growing from $1 million to $5 million
   3. Tasting Confidence: Growing from $5 million to $20 million
   4. Who Have We Become? Growing from $20 million to $50 million
   5. The Times, They Are A' Changing: Succession and Transition
      
3. Get All You Are Worth: Pricing Your Products and Services for Profitability
   No matter how long we have owned our businesses or how many big customers we have closed, why do we still feel a pit in our stomachs when we give a price to a customer? This moment of truth, when all of our marketing and prospecting converge into a single moment, comes down to our prospect's response. This interactive workshop explores the Seven Commandments of Pricing, where owners and sales professionals alike can learn the key steps and tactics to assure that they are in control of their pricing, and are doing so for maximum value and profits.
   
   
4. Discovering and Leveraging Your Best and Highest Use^®
   To achieve professional and personal development we are told that if we: "Follow our passion, find our focus, and, have fun," that success will follow. Yet many intelligent and driven owners, consultants, and companies are frustrated with this. How can something so simple be so unobtainable and so hard to execute? This interactive workshop will outline a process and key steps for determining what is your Best and Highest Use? For both individuals and organizations it is when:
   • "Your best" represents your preferred choice amongst the things you do well
   • "Highest" represents that most valued by employers, customers or partners
   • "Use" is the value you provide to others
5. Growing Your Knowledge-Based Business
   Many of us own or manage professional services firms whose key product is our knowledge. Learning how to harness, leverage, and profit from one's expertise is a life-long undertaking. In this interactive workshop, owners and conceptual sales professionals alike will learn how to succeed in the EXPERT Industry (Entrepreneurs EXchanging Expertise through Relationships and Technology). Participants will learn and share the core building blocks and latest trends in growing their knowledge business for maximum results and profits.

Andy's Bio

Andy Birol, owner of Birol Growth Consulting, is an international business growth consultant, author, keynote speaker and business coach. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Andy empowers small and mid-sized businesses and their owners worldwide. Known for his creativity and his candor, Andy's Get ThereSM approach, based on an owner's Best and Highest Use®, provides clients and audiences with renewed passion, new potential and profitable results.

Andy's business consulting philosophy is to passionately understand his clients' condition and aspirations and then bring as much in-depth influence, external objectivity and breakthrough thinking to help them "Get There." Following twenty years of management experience, Andy has helped many firms introduce new products, enter markets and develop new distribution channels. Andy has also designed new pricing, compensation and sales incentive plans as well as restructured and staffed marketing, sales and customer service organizations.

Throughout his employment, Andy was rewarded for discovering and implementing new ways to target and grow markets profitably. When Andy realized his passion for helping owners "Get There" by aligning their skills, confidence and mission with their companies, he established his own consulting firm and since then has advised over 350 business owners. On average, Andy has grown his clients by $100,000, thus having a $35 million impact on the economy.

Andy's professional career began in 1977 during his first year at Boston University where he was selected as a Kemper Foundation Scholar and worked for the Kemper Group Insurance companies in marketing, customer relations and public affairs roles in Boston, Chicago and New York's World Trade Center. In 1981, Andy graduated summa cum laude from Boston University and was awarded The Scarlet Key, the university's highest honor for academics and leadership.

Deferring his admission to Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Andy went to work for Union Camp (known today as International Paper, the second largest pulp and paper company in the world) as a Marketing Analyst. He developed the firm's strategy to replace the US dairy industry's plastic shipping case with the Uni-Trip® corrugated packaging system that generated $2 million in sales. During his time at Union Camp, Andy trained 25 box factories across the country in just 30 days for which he was promoted to Manager, New Product Planning and became the youngest manager in the corporation.

In 1984, Andy began his accelerated four-quarter MBA program at Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. After earning his MBA degree in marketing and finance, Andy took the less traveled path. He interned with the United States Association of International Development (USAID) who sent Andy to Nairobi, Kenya where he helped a wire and nail factory reduce material loss. Andy's Kenya experience was a practical complement to his academic training. He understands that before success can be realized, survival must be assured.

Andy's Kenya experience reignited his passion for international travel which was born during his six years of living in Istanbul, Turkey where his father was an executive for Pan American Airlines. Since then, Andy has traveled to over 60 countries, and soon will have been to all seven continents and fifty states.

Following his MBA and Kenya experiences, Andy joined Management Analysis Center/CAP Gemini where he consulted with Harvard Business School's leading experts on such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Union Mutual and Hutchinson Group. Andy then worked for Bank of Boston (now part of Bank of America) where he developed relationship banking products sold through direct and database marketing which generated $2 billion of new deposits.

From Bank of Boston, Andy was recruited as Market Manager for New England Business Service (NEBS) of Groton, MA to assume P & L and staff management responsibilities for their $40 million Retail Market. During his time with NEBS (acquired by Deluxe in 2004), Andy increased the profitability of his market by reducing NEBS' customer acquisition, retention and development costs while developing the Fresh Impressions floral product line. In 1990, Andy was promoted to Director where he was further responsible for advertising, direct mail, product development, prospecting, and database management development.

After leaving NEBS, Andy followed his wife, Joan, to Cleveland, OH when she was recruited as an executive for National City Bank. During this transition, Andy consulted with organizations including IBM Corp., Staples, Inc. and Keithley Corp. After settling in Cleveland, Andy joined Voice-Tel Enterprises, a franchisor of telecommunication services for small business (acquired by Premier Technologies Inc.). Andy joined as Market Manager, was promoted to Product Marketing Manager and later named Senior Marketing Manager.

During his time at Voice-Tel, Andy developed and introduced his PACER® process, an integrated lead generation and sales management system on Windows-based software. DM News and Teleprofessional featured Andy and the success his PACER process has created for Voice-Tel's 200 franchisees.

In 1996, Harris InfoSource, now a part of D&B, recruited Andy as Vice President, Sales and Marketing. Andy grew sales by 10% and restructured and rebuilt the marketing department but developed a different business vision from that of the firm's owners who ultimately sold the business.

Andy's defining point came as he left Harris. Joan called to tell him that their daughter, Margo, was being rushed to the hospital. Margo, born with Cystic Fibrosis, had contracted a severe lung infection and was fighting for her life. As Andy headed to the hospital, he knew this was his time to fight for his business beliefs and for his family. Throughout Margo's three-week stay at the hospital, her strength and focus inspired Andy. So Andy put his Best & Highest Use® to work and founded Birol Growth Consulting where he wanted to help business owners "Get There."

Since 1997, Andy consulted and coached business owners all over the world. Andy has a knack for showing business owners and their firms how they can discover and arrive at their desired outcome with his Get ThereSM processes. Andy's roster of clients consists of every kind of family and entrepreneurial business including manufacturers, distributors, contractors, and service companies. In addition to consulting with businesses and coaching their owners, Andy also speaks and holds workshops for various associations and organizations such as PPAI (Promotional Products Association International), Microsoft, The National Paint & Coatings Association and international groups such as Turkey's KALDER and Australia's NRSA. Andy's topics include but are not limited to: Refining & Exploiting Your Best & Highest Use, The 5 Catalysts of 7 Figure Growth: Propel Your Business to the Next Level (CareerPress, 2006), and Focus. Accomplish. Grow.

The media has turned to Andy for his expertise in business growth, marketing and strategic planning. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN's Dollar Signs, Entrepreneur, Business Week, and Inc. Magazine. He has published over 200 articles and is the author of the following five books, The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth (CareerPress, 2006), Accelerating Your Growth; Growing Your Business During Succession or Transition; Returning Your Business to Growth; and Focus. Accomplish. Grow.

Birol Growth Consulting has won four Weatherhead 100 Awards as Northeast Ohio's fastest growing single-employee business and 34th fastest growing company of any size and was also recognized by Inside Business Magazine, and Team NEO which awarded him the NEO Success Award in 2005, 2007 and 2008. In November, 2007 Andy was named amongst the top ten best financial performers in StartupNation's first ever home-based business awards.

Andy continues to bring his drive and passion to all aspects of his practice (consulting, coaching, speaking and writing) and continues to develop and publish articles, books and programs. Andy, Joan and Margo currently live in Solon, just southeast of downtown Cleveland. His family is involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and travels extensively. In November, 2007 Andy was named amongst the top ten best financial performers in StartupNation's first ever home-based business awards. Andy is living the "American Dream" by practicing his Best & Highest Use®.

Item Special Note

(Andy Birol is donating the opportunity for him to facilatate a Business Roundtable program for the winning bidder.  Andy will host this opporunity at his Solon home and provide refreshments.  This opporunity is ideal for a peer group of business owners.)

The executives will meet with the winning bidders at a time convenient to both parties, on or before December 1, 2009, except in the case of some celebrities which may carry over to the first quarter of 2010.

Once the winning bid has been validated and collected, CAAO will request the winning bidder's bio/resume and reason for wanting to meet the executive and communicate that information to the executive. CAAO will also pass on the necessary contact information for the winning bidder to make their appointment.

If the winning bidder cancels or wishes to change the date/time of the meeting once it has been scheduled, the winning bidder will be responsible for contacting the executive to communicate any changes.

The winning bidder is responsible for all travel expenses to attend this meeting.

We accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express payments, and cash payments.