Bardeen Business Consulting is a Small Business Consulting firm, previously affiliated with E-Myth Worldwide (founded by Michael E. Gerber, author of E-Myth Revisited, E-Myth Contractor, and E-Myth Mastery).  Bardeen Business Consulting is a Small Business Consulting firm located in Lake County, in Northern California, (www.LakeCounty.com).  Thomas O. Bardeen is one of the leading Small Business Consulting Professionals in the United States, having worked as a Senior Consultant for Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Worldwide for nearly 15 years (see Michael’s testimonial herein).  For 15 years before that, Tom worked for Bank of America and American Savings Bank (now Washington Mutual).  His knowledge combines the Best Business Practices of small and large corporations, enabling him to demonstrate to Small Business Owners what they have to do to grow and one day become a larger business.

Mr. Bardeen specializes in helping businesses with revenues between $500,000 and $50,000,000 develop Operations Manuals, including 1) Leadership Documentation, 2) Organizational Charts, 3) Position Agreements, 4) Action Plans, and 5) Policies and Procedures.  Over the past 15 years, Bardeen Business Consulting has been privileged to help more than 200 business owners increase their revenues and profits, and get better organized, enabling these business owners to get "free" of their businesses and to have "more life".

Bardeen Business Consulting recognizes that even highly competent business leaders, including those with Harvard MBA's, get so busy working inside their businesses, they fail to develop and implement an Operations Manual, which would get them into "standard best business practices condition", a.k.a. "franchise prototype condition".  Bardeen Business Consulting helps small businesses help themselves by reviewing from "a" to "z" the 50+ business systems that constitute "best business practices".  Consulting is done by phone and fax, meeting weekly three times or more each month, to alter your experience in real time, while you are still devoting your energies to running your business.  The attempt is to "buy" time for you to undertake this program, and to buy time for the documentation you, your managers, and your employees need to complete in order to get into "franchise prototype condition".  This is done by teaching and training your entire staff to meet one-on-one, religiously for 30 minutes each week, holding all but the most "drop dead" urgent issues (a.k.a. Key Frustrations) for those one-on-one meetings.  After completing just the first 10 of 50 lessons, many of our clients have "cut" their work week by 50%!

This program covers virtually every aspect of Business Development.  We begin with Leadership, with the task of identifying your Primary Aims, translating them into Strategic Objectives for your business, so that your business serves you and your life, rather than the other way around.  We then introduce modern Marketing principles, helping you understand that your clients are not doing business with you just to buy products and services; they are primarily at your door, rather than your competitor's door, because of some "unconscious mind fulfillment".  For example, people flock to Nike for "excitement and adventure", as expressed in "Just Do It!", not to "buy shoes".  Indeed, Nike sells more sports equipment and clothing today than shoes, so it's not product.  We'll teach you that, and we'll discover how you should be positioned in the marketplace.

Then we do Management. In Management, we go from "a" to "z", from Organizational Charts to Human Resources to Policies and Procedures.  Next comes Finance.  We show you how to create "management" reports that serve you and your business, rather than "tax" reports, as prepared by your CPA, which likely serve only the IRS. 

Next, we focus on Client Fulfillment.  You may have been calling it "Production", or "Operations",  After we are sure your company is in "franchise prototype" condition, we focus on Marketing, and growth .  Most clients assume that all they need to succeed is to grow Sales.  But if your business has cancer, rapid growth will surely kill it.  More of our clients have "hit the wall" because of fast growth than because of slow growth.  As we will cover in Finance, you need to be sure that every single thing you do is profitable, or you would be well advised to do less of it, not more.  First, get profitable, then grow!  Proper pricing, combined with optimum management of your business, to assure profitability, is the formula for success.  Once we are sure that you are "at your best", we concentrate, heavily on Marketing.

The Program works as follows:  We establish a "regular hour", e.g. Mondays at 7:30AM.  Then, you receive a call each of the first 3 Mondays in any given month at precisely that hour.  The 4th Monday becomes an "automatic" reschedule date; alternatively, if we have already met 3 times, your consultant will typically be available for an "extra" inbound call from you on the 4th Monday.  The "extra" meeting acts as a bit of a "reward" for having met our schedule during the first 3 weeks, and avoids significant gaps in our communication.  In general, Bardeen Business Consulting likes to go beyond "contractual" obligations in terms of Customer Service.

Another way that Bardeen Business Consulting tries to "over-serve" clients is by offering up to 70 minutes each meeting, instead of the "standard" 50 minutes offered by other consultants!  This usually allows us a few minutes to say "hello" at the beginning of each meeting, and to "summarize" at the end.  Additionally, in point of fact, your consultant tries to be available