Does your company have a backup system for your computers?
What if one of your key executives was stricken unexpectedly?

What if you could backup your team –in just 90 seconds?

Ted’s 5 year old company was in the midst of introducing a new product in the medical endoscope field. Jerry, his VP of operations was his right hand.

As the visionary, Ted came up with the features and Jerry in operations translating production into a saleable process which was cost effective.

Parts were designed, vendors were being selected, the beta customer was ready
Then Jerry ended up in the hospital.

Jerry was a diabetic. A series of personal health issues turned into complications and his doctor finally sent Jerry to the hospital. It’s been 4 weeks so far.

Ted shared with me that he was not sleeping much. He had taken over as much of Jerry’s role as he could, in addition to his CEO responsibilities.

Ted was operating from assumption:
• he did not have the time divert his attention to address this issue because he was overwhelmed with the additional responsibilities.
• he did not have the money to pay for help.
• Delegation was not possible!

So I asked Ted, “Who is the most knowledgeable person in Jerry’s department?
“Well Micheal has been on Jerry’s operations team for just 8 months, but he has been a fast learner, but, I don’t think Micheal is VP material.”

“No problem”. I said.
“You don’t need to make any decisions about VP level solutions just now.”
“What you need is management leverage.”

“You need to avoid having your entire company hostage to the absence of a single key talent. Does Micheal know what’s going on with regard to the new product?”

Ted had to admit: “Sure, he is our best engineer and is taking the lead in discussion with several of the vendors. He knows how to be efficient in assembling the product.”

“Perfect! All you have to do is tell Micheal that he is now your BACK UP for Jerry!
If you have any questions about the Operations Department, Micheal is on alert that if you can’t get to Jerry, you will go to Micheal to get any info you might need.

This accomplishes 3 things:
1. lets Micheal know that you VALUE him- and just might unlock some very surprising talents
2. gives you automatic management BACK UP
3. lets you determine if Micheal will RAISE TO THE OCCASION and become VP material

OK, it’s nice to have a backup for emergencies, but turns out Ted was not the only one losing sleep!
When we looked at Ted’s team overall, each VP was underperforming:
The VP sales was only performing at 80%;
VP service was 50%;
VP finance was 35%;
VP IT was 25%.
Each of these critical players, while very enthusiastic, were unable to focus forward because they had no one to let go of day to day stuff- they had no back up.

Each of Ted’s critical players was suffering because of assumptions Ted had about scare time and resources.

I could tell Ted was still harboring some resistance, so I asked Ted, “how long will it take for you to identify the backup person in each department?”
“30 seconds” he responded.

“How long will it take to have a phone call with each of those individuals to let them know:
If I need any info about your department and cannot reach your boss, I will be looking to you to get the information I need.”
“1 minute” he said.

90 seconds- that’s fast….for a solution or a mistake! Even a mistake has a silver lining:
Make mistakes fast, give these BACK UP people an opportunity to prove-themselves as worthy…or move on to next person, if necessary.

So in 90 seconds, Ted resolved the management depth issue that was keeping him up at night, and his company hostage.

How about you?
Are you ready to give up assumptions about time and money to create a MANAGEMENT BACK UP for your fast growth company? Try this 90 day solution to leverage your team and let me know what you discover.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

Do you consider your company to be passion-driven: Are you on a mission?
Do you have a business plan, whether written or at least a game plan in your mind?

Consider this:
It’s not enough to have a BUSINESS plan for your passion-driven company.
You also have a PERSONAL plan.
A Personal Plan to rejuvenate the PASSION behind the business builder you are.

As the driving force behind your company, if YOU are not in TOP condition, is it really possible for your company to be sustainable in this fast changing world?

This year, my company CapitalLinkUSA is celebrating its 23rd birthday.
That’s after 15 year career on Wall Street as an undercover business builder.
You see, I’ve been perfecting my career for almost 40 years.

After 40 years, others are considering retirement.
But how can I retire from something that is part of me?
What I want is a game plan for the NEXT 40 years!
Yet I feel a need for a break.

Should I feel guilty about this feeling?
I’ve spent my entire career laser focused on helping my clients build passion-driven companies
In the last few weeks I gave myself permission to be laser focused on ME.

I realized it’s not enough to have a business plan, you need a personal plan.
A personal Plan focused on rejuvenating my passion.

Do a little mental check.
You know what it’s like to be on fire with passion. You’ve probably come to think of that energy as part of who you are. That it could never change. But has it changed?
Are you as energized as when you first started your company?
Do you have the same inexhaustible energy to apply to your mission?
Do you still jump out of bed 7 days of the week/52 weeks of the year with drive and clarity for the next phase of your passion-driven company?

How can you grow a passion driven COMPANY if you don’t have a passion driven LIFE?

Here is a way to turn this around.
If you hate your job- it makes sense to retire from that job.
If you are just burnt out- take a vacation.
If your passion deserves rejuvenation, perhaps it’s time for a sabbatical.

Sabbatical comes from the word Sabbath.
Sabbatical is a break from your normal routine.
Even God needed a break from his work of creating the world.
Universities offer extended leave to top performing professional, originally 1 year in 7 for research and to acquire new skills
If you think about it, our employees get a paid break from what they do during the week. Sunday is a day of rest for smart employees who avoid errands and customary work that day.

IMAGINE what a sabbatical could mean for you.
Have you ever heard of the Genius Awards?
The McArthur foundation each year makes a list of people to whom they grant $500,000 with no strings attached to do what they wish.
In the charter of the MacArthur foundation, this grant “…is NOT a reward for past accomplishments but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight and potential.”

You don’t need to wait for the Genius Award. Create your own Sabbatical!
To get the most out of your sabbatical consider these 3 core elements:
1. Define
2. Analyze
3. Measure
These 3 elements make up the acronym of “D-A-M” .
DAM your passion for sustainable energy, consistently available, just as we dam water to make consistently available power.
• Define your rejuvenated passion
• Analyze the “where” and “how” to make it happen
• Measure your progress

Define
Personally the definition of rejuvenated passion for me is to give ALL of myself so that I can access ALL of others.
My clients could be my best friends, but I am not building the kind of relationship I know is possible. There is a gap I want to eradicate so all my relationships with passion driven friends.

Analyze
Today, technology naturally links people effortlessly.
The where and how to make rejuvenation happen seems to immerse myself in places that embrace mobile internet connections to the maximum.
Places where I could practice relationship-building, as if I were re-born; a kid coming into the world that always operated with connectivity of the internet, yet with my 40 years of business experience to leverage.

I am thinking about China, India, Brazil.

Measure
As business people we are encouraged to measure all with an income statement and balance sheet.
Passion progress cannot be measured that way.
My passion progress will be measured based on eliminating the barriers between MYSELF and others.
Progress will be measured by my success to build multi-dimensional relationship so that I may access all the dimensions of those I interact with to create relationship that are a source of energy which fuels my passion.

Define, Analyze, Measure creates a sabbatical that can D-A-M your passion for sustainable use.

Don’t sabotage your sabbatical.
Here are 3 myths to bust.
1. The company can’t operate without me
A sabbatical is the ultimate test of your succession plan.
2. Sabbaticals are supposed to be related to your carrier/business.
Take a page from the MacArthur genius award. YOUR sabbatical is NOT a reward for past accomplishments, but rather an investment in YOUR originality, insight and potential
3. Sabbaticals are unpaid
More than 20% of companies have formal sabbatical programs, 5% of which are PAID, according to the Society of Human Resource Management. You’re an entrepreneur: Bet you can figure out a way to get paid!

In Conclusion, to grow a passion-driven company, it’s not enough to focus on your business plan. You need a personal plan to rejuvenate your passion.

If you don’t nurture your passion, you won’t be able to build a sustainable business in this fast changing world.

If your passion needs rejuvenation, a sabbatical may be just the thing.
DAM your passion for a sustainable source of power:
• Define
• Analyze
• Measure

Are you ready to explore what a sabbatical could look like for you?
Hope you will share your story with me

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

Parents love their children- at least most of the time. Yet, sometimes they need a break from those little bundles of joy. A harried mother deserves some adult company.

I’ve been a competitive sail boat racer in small boats for over 26 years. yet this year I needed a break from the exhilaration of “I’ll never say no”; that “go for broke” attitude that inevitability leads to heavy weather competition in gear busting conditions. Instead, for the first time I did some pleasure sailing this year – selecting only sunny conditions with pleasant 10 knot wind conditions.

I love my company, and all my clients.
It’s no exaggeration that I consider my clients my corporate kids.
It’s my passion to help my clients grow through their corporate adolescent.
Like any proud parent I strive to have my kids achieve their full potential in life.
OK, my attention is their BUSINESS life so as a Corporate Mom, my focus is for my clients to pursue THEIR passion and achieve profitable, fast growth in a safe way.

My company is all about passion.
So it was a surprise that I recently felt a need for a break.

Can you really need a break from your passion?
Am I not in love with my mission of 40 years?
What is going on?

What’s not to love about what I do…
• dealing with all those exciting break thru companies
• engaging with business owners genuinely excited and confident about their mission
• empowering businesses willing to brave economic recessions annd depressions to making a difference in the world

But I need a break!
I’ve been perfecting my career for 40 years.
I started my first company in 1972, spent 15 years on wall street as an undercover business builder, then building on all that, my current – and third company –is now 23 years old.

Should I feel guilty?
Is my passion any less genuine?

What kind of break will rekindle my fire?

I don’t have the answer, but I hope this discussion will open a dialogue which might serve you because as business visionaries, we need to protect our passion

Consider these 3 questions:
1.What is the longest you have been away from your company—your baby?
How differently have you allowed yourself to experience life?
If you live in NYC, have you just gone to san Francisco or have you sought to experience a city where you don’t speak the local language and the culture is foreign?

2. What is a source of energy for you?
Have you become addicted to the adrenaline high of fight vs flight for every challenge?
If you are a type A personality, have you just applied your same make-it happen energy to a volunteer organization (same adrenaline, different venue)? Or have you explored new sources that energize you like painting or sculpture -where the only person who needs to be satisfied at the end of the day is YOU!

3. How do you measure your progress?
As business owners we are encouraged to keep score with our income statement and balance sheet.
• is the top line rising
• is the bottom line increasing at the same time
• how much do we owe others
• is the value of what we keep appreciating in value?
How do you measure your passion?
If you are like many business owners, do you apply the same dollar and cents indicators? Or have you considered the spiritual aspect of what you do for a living in the context of progress toward your purpose in life?

When I answered these questions for myself, I had a revelation.
After 40 years of working hard to built a “passion-driven” company, I am finally ready to explore the many dimensions that make up the “passion-driven” me!

I was never a one dimensional person.
Yet, my focus was on advancing the progress of my business passion- and that one dimension has gotten a lot more of my conscious attention over the last 40 years. Today I have discovered a craving to nurture my other dimensions- which make my passion whole.

I want to share all of me and seek to engage with those who share all of themselves.

Does your passion need a break?

What did you discover?
Hope you will share your story with me.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

How do you drive value in your business? Is it planned or spontaneous?
Opportunistic or predicable?

Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for new profit-making opportunities.
But is your process Re-active or Pro-active?

98% are entrepreneurs are REACTIVE.
What do you think the growth of a Reactive Entrepreneur looks like?
Yes, reactive Entrepreneurs:
• take any client that is willing to work with them to feed their organization so they struggle with commodity prices in an ever increasing world
• can’t attract top talent so growth is exhausting
• these Entrepreneurs are chronically short of cash
This reactive growth like this is more risky than the Optimum Growth Strategy which is proactive.

Yet only 2% of Entrepreneurs are PROACTIVE about focusing on their Optimum Growth Strategy
What do you think the growth of Proactive Entrepreneurs looks like?
Yep, Proactive Entrepreneurs:
• Have their choice of the right clients who happily pay premium prices
• attracts top notch talent to implement their vision
• are a magnet for cash
These proactive E are energized by pursing their Passion and their growth is FAST, PROFITABLE and SAFE.

To shift from REACTIVE growth to PROACTIVE growth,
You must be laser focused on DRIVING VALUE, unique to you building on your PASSION
Proactive business builders are value drivers who have figured out HOW to leverage their passion in a predicable manner.

It helps to have RULES to drive value so you don’t get scattered and dilute your value with inconsistent opportunities. Rules that keep you aligned with your Optimum Growth Strategy.

Proactive Business Builders benefit from a TOOL I call a VALUE DRIVING plan.

Just like investors who manage their own money in the stock market will write out personal rules and follow an INVESTING Plan, Proactive business builders can write out personal rules and follow a VALUE DRIVING plan.

To get you thinking about what a VALUE DRIVING plan might look like for YOU,
Let’s see what we can learn from an Investor’s INVESTING PLAN

An Investing plan typically has these key elements
• Definition of success
• Watch list, Entry and Exit guidelines
• portfolio risk allocation
• and a check in routine
Let me share an investing Plan for a stock investor an example of how YOU we can create a Value-Driving plan for your company.

An investing plan starts with a
DEFINITION OF SUCCESS
Protect, Preserve and Grow my Capital.
I will gauge my Stock performance against the S&P index

WATCH LIST
I will compare alternative STOCK opportunities against the S&P index
I will use fundamental and technical analysis to select STOCK candidates

ENTRY GUIDELINES
Initial entry: stocks must be outperforming and S&P on the comparison chart
Add to the position: When stock is trending up

EXIT GUIDELINES
Reduce ¼ of the position triggered by any of the following:
When the intermediate trend of the Stock changes
When most recent support is broken by 1%
When performance falls below the S&P comparison
When we get too overweight in any STOCK
All 4 triggers means I will eliminate the position

An Investor’s Investing plan will also include: Portfolio Risk allocation (i.e. 70% stocks, 20% bonds, 10% cash) and ROUTINE.

Now let’s apply the concept of a written n investing plan for you as a PROACTIVE Business Builder to predictably drive value for your company.

As you think about your company, consider rules like these:
DEFINITION of SUCCESS
• Pursue my Optimum Growth Strategy to achieve the highest return with the lowers risk, building on my passion and unique value-driving skills.
• document my PASSION in a Corporate Resume in the universal language of business- dollars and cents so my team understands our Optimum Growth Strategy and how success is defined for our company
• I will gauge my performance based on how fast we are moving the promise of the future into the present evidenced by growing profitability margins over the prior year on higher revenue levels.

If you don’t articulate for yourself what the definition of success for your company is, you surely won’t be very efficient about arriving there.

WATCH LIST
• Prioritize a list of critical relationships to help me implement my Optimum Grown Strategy: not just clients, but vendors, employees, trusted advisors, outsourced resources, funding sources and the like.

Funny how we know planning is powerful, but instead of being proactive, we often wing important relationships in a reactive way

ENTRY GUIDELINES
• Enter relationships only when a prospect evidences they value our company’s unique and proprietary approach.

Imagine the time waste avoidance if you religiously applied a rule like that across the board in your company.

EXIT GUIDELINE
Reduce our concentration by 25% with any current relationship when they:
1. slow down innovation in their marketplace
2. don’t keep up with technology efficiencies for their own business
3. revenue growth declines for a protracted period
4. lose money without responding to update their business model

These are the kind of tell tale signs we all know, but by keeping so much in our head rather than reduced to RULES that help us make unemotional decisions, we don’t act. How much easier this is- as a written and regularly revised RULE!

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
• Never be hostage to any single source- not a customer, vendor or funding source.

How much pain would this simple rule eliminate!

ROUTINE
• Annually convene a Team Discovery Meeting to update my Corporate Resume with input from all those responsible for driving growth and profit in the company.
• revise this Value-Driving Plan for consistency with our Corporate Resume

Of all the meetings you schedule in a year, how valuable might the team discovery meeting be for you and your team?

Rules like these that will prevent you from falling into a typical entrepreneurial reactive mode

Now you can flesh out this template with greater detail to make it a real Value driving Plan unique to you to ensure you are a PROACTIVE business builder: Rules like these can prevent you from falling into a typical entrepreneurial reactive mode.

Before you leave, hope you will let me know how you think a Value Driving Plan like this, with RULES to help you take action to reduce the emotion of decision –making, could boost your confidence to build your business by pursuing your passion —in any economic environment.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

Do you spend your time focused on growing your company’s best future? Or are you really relegated to just focusing on today’s immediate needs? Is there a tug of war between short term cash flow and long term big profits? Between survival today and quantum leap success tomorrow? It’s the business builders’ challenge.

What is your passion-driven growth? Consider your revenue today; what is your profit margin on your current level of sales? Now, project out 5 years capturing all your best profit making opportunities. What is your revenue out 5 years from now? What is your new profit margin? Is it 1.5x, 2x or more bigger than today? So, what’s holding you back?

3 Stages of growth. You are a successful business owner with a passion to make a difference in the world. You had a salaried job, but you saw a better way to serve your clients. Your commitment to excellence drove you to break out. You are a special breed- a business owner, ready and willing to build a future only you could see. Your reputation, integrity and laser focus is paying off. Your innovative products or services delivered better than you promised and word of mouth has resulted in raving fans who encourage others to buy, because your solution is that important to them; sales and profits followed. You remember with fondness stage 1 of the passionate entrepreneurs’ growth stage: Passion dictated every decision. The team culture was cohesive. Such a pure message and experience in the marketplace fueled the early years of the company’s growth. Instinctively, at stage 1 you pursued a passion-driven growth strategy.

Then came the terrible 2’s- the 2nd growth stage. When your business gets to about $3 million in sales you start to experience serious growing pains. You won’t know this at stage 1 but in that range of $3 million or so, if you have not thought it out and put in place the elements you need, you will start to experience a serious problem –you are at risk of losing your focus, your passion, your control. During this stage of the terrible 2’s, to support your growing client base, you invest in infrastructure; hire staff, invest in technology and equipment. The company becomes a hungry child, and you are forced to take on any business that helps offset the cash flow demands of your growing organization. The problem at Stage 2 is a cash-flow driven growth strategy which puts you in a terrible position for getting cash on your terms- you are at risk of losing control.

Accepting a cash-flow driven growth strategy over a passion-driven growth strategy takes a company that could be massively successful and makes the business owner struck at a plateau. To be controlled by your access to cash is never good. Fortunately, it’s never too late to make a change. The good news is that no matter where you are, if you are at $3 million, or you have persevered under incredible stress and duress and you are now $10million or even $30million in revenue, the good news it’s never too late to put the critical elements in place.

At stage 3 you are at a critical juncture for your company. Will your passion and vision dictate your future, or will the bean counters dictate?

Ask the BANK “We’ve dedicated all our personal credit and assets to the bank to support the company. We can’t get any more credit; our personal guarantees are to the hilt. If the bank would lend us money to grow, we would not be having this conversation! But it is clear we will not get to our goal with our current bank.”

Ask other people “I’ve tried to get other sources of cash many times. We are inundated by low level consultants, merchant banks and advisors. They promise the world – demand fees up front and then run. We’ve been burnt too many times. The sources they come up with want too much ownership and don’t even offer the amount of money we really need to make the difference. My trust is spent.”

There are 2 worlds: the 98% vs 2% 98% of business owners operate in a world where getting cash to grow means they have to beg. 98% of business owners operate in a world where getting cash to grow means giving up the thing they value most, after their dream for their company…. the autonomy to operate as they see fit: Control. Yet 2% of the business owners operate in a different world and actually get large sums of money to grow their company and keep control- of their ownership and their destiny.

What is the difference? The difference is the Missing ELEMENT. It takes a different approach to get a different outcome. The missing element is Control: Not just money to fuel your future: Cash And Control to meet your company’s present needs, foreseeable growth needs, AND the growth you have yet to envision!

98% of business owners can ONLY get cash if they don’t care how much they have to give up for it. If you want to get money and keep control, you need the MISSING element- Control and I’m the only one with a system to show you how to do it. It’s time and market tested. It works for $5 or $10 or $25 million of institutional private debt and/or equity; and it works for $50,000, $100,000, $500,000 or a million of debt and/or Angel funding.

You see I’m different from others you have dealt with in this arena. Has anyone else ever offered you access to cash that keeps you in control to grow the future you want?

Who is Stefania? Like you, I am a fellow business owner; a visionary; an entrepreneur. So, I speak your language. After personally experiencing the pain of losing control of my first company to investors, I spent 15 years on Wall Street learning everything I needed to know about how to get cash and keep ownership control, as an undercover business builder. My 2 takeaways are:
• only ownership control assures your ability to determine your future
• Value is in the eye of the beholder, so the highest valuation is a confirmation you have identified the best source of funding- one that sees your future and values YOUR ability to get there (regardless if the source is debt or equity).
I share what I learned for myself with fellow business builders like you, so you don’t have to practice on yourself; I am a make it happen coach, from discovery to delivery to driving your optimum success.
Unlike others in this industry, we are not silo-ed in just the analysis, or just the strategy: nor just one kind of money. I am both a growth strategist and funding expert because growth and funding are integrally related so we consider the gamut of funding (from bank to non bank debt, equity both Angel and venture capital or private equity);We are not quick in and out: ours is a relationship to ensure your success. Unlike national brand name firms, you don’t get wined, dined and sold by the gray haired Managing Director with the rolodex, only to have the 25 year old analyst show up, who has only questions, and no answers, diverting your time from building the value you intend to sell: you deal with me and my 30+years of successful business building. I only work with people like you- who have a BIG future. My clients operate in a wide spectrum- high tech, low tech, service and manufacturing. I select only a handful of clients who are really focused on achieving their full potential and grow our own clients. I succeed because they do. The Cash And Control System works for all kinds of money.

Do you really want to pursue your passion to build the business you know is possible? What’s holding you back? What are the key obstacles? Time? People? Money?
 Not enough information to make confident decisions: a fear of making the wrong decision;
 fear of loss of control- fear of outsider influences;
 insufficient resources to capture all your best profit making opportunities; to hire the best talent.
The 4 stages of the Cash And Control System, measured in days, address all these issues:
DISCOVERY includes the analysis and strategy of your choices and options of cash and control to meet your current growth needs, your foreseeable growth needs and growth you have YET to envision.
DESIGN-package your FUTURE value to monetize with customers, vendors as well as funding sources.
DELIVERY- 2 phases of resources that want YOU in control:
-cash with no fees: we always start with low hanging fruit including non-bank debt, bank debt, non-equity and Angel equity.
-Cash with fees: Venture Capital and institutional debt and equity, only when appropriate for your next level of profitable growth.
DRIVE- maximizing your passion-driven profitable growth, faster, safer than you thought possible.
The result is Cash And Control for the company you know is possible.
Each of the 4 steps has their own outcome, time frame and price. At the end of each you are in possession of all the information you need to take action on your own, or you can take advantage of my expertise. Based on your experience of the outcome at each step, you control the process, with confidence.

98% or 2%. There really are 2 worlds:
• conventional or unconventional
• normal or extraordinary
• average or rare
• reactive or pro-active
• cash flow driven or passion driven
The future is your choice: which world do you want to operate in to grow your business?

98% without my help
98% of business owners struggle despite their passion, and a market that wants more of what they have to offer; they are profitable (on paper) but can only get funding based on yesterday in a collateral world which is insufficiently to finance their future, a future which is much much bigger than their past.
98% let the bean counters decide their growth options;
98% don’t hire, or invest in technology to become more efficient- work is stressful, disorganized;
98% are not building on all their unique strengths to profit from all of their best profit-making opportunities;
98% allow cash flow growth to dominate and put their culture at risk, their innovative reputation begins to slip.
98% of business owners don’t even recognize huge profit-making opportunities that pop up every day, blinded by their lack of confidence of the funding to make them real.
98% practice on themselves. The title of “serial entrepreneur” is not necessarily a complement. On average, the visionary founder/ successful business builder has already failed 2 times before, having put all his/her effort, time, reputation and family at risk –and failed twice, before….if they are luck … succeeding with a third company. Check the details next time you hear about an “overnight success story”!

You can make your cash flow problems go away if you just stop growing! The only reason you need cash is because you are investing in new hires, software, and technology to position your company for that future in the twinkle of your business builder’s eye. You are top heavy for today, as the bedrock for building that future. But to feed that infrastructure today, you cannibalize that future—just for the moment– you rationalize to yourself.
98% suffer the curse and the blessing that no prudent business owner will exceed their cash flow, so they stop nurturing their passion-driven growth, all together.

Where do 98% of business owners look for help?
CPAs, experts at documenting the past, are history-focused;
Investment Bankers are current focused: what is your current EBIDA?
Lawyers are experts at risk- aversion.
In contrast, as a fellow business builder, I know you intimately personally and professional. I have worked with business owners over 3 decades-in booms and busts.

You see I’m different from others you have dealt with in this arena. Has anyone else offered you access to cash that keeps you in control?

2 % with my help. 2% of business owners actually get large sums of money to grow their company and maintain control. This 2% access the power of the missing element: control, to be able to get the money they want to grow the business of their dreams. My clients and I chose to operate in the quantum leap zone. My clients are in the 2% world where they get cash on their terms.
The 2% that have free time to think strategically, to see and prioritize their best profit-making opportunities.
The 2% that attract cash that WANTS them in control and liberates their passion–driven, future growth.
The 2% that pursue their best profit-making opportunities to:
• expand geographically to reach more clients nationally and globally
• introduce new products and services; selling more to existing clients and capturing new ones
• invest in additional technology for greater efficiency (to do more with less)
• increase capacity, with the right talent and equipment, to address new demand being uncovered.
These opportunities are not wishful thinking because now you can access the right resources to build upon your unique strengths which include:
• the excellence of your team/management
• loyal and repeat customers
• an excellent reputation in the marketplace
• proprietary and/or highly efficacious product/service

Clients tap my expertise to access the missing element- Control. When the Missing element – Control- is in place, you can pursue your passion with cash on your terms so you are no longer at odds for today vs. your true vision. You don’t have to sacrifice your future to stay in business near term. You can do what is best for today, and have the right resources to methodically implement for tomorrow. Your vision is the guiding force, the team is empowered, your customers are clear on your expertise and want you to succeed. As you maximize revenue today, you are well positioned to accelerate your growth to tap and leverage the full force and potential of your business concept. My clients get cash on their terms: Cash And Control: You Can Have Both. That’s why my clients achieve their 5 and 10 yr business strategies in 2-3 years. They live in the 2% world.

Clients tap my expertise for getting cash that wants YOU in control. It’s a 4 step process, measured in days.
But I don’t expect you to suspend disbelief, so I provide you a FAST experience of it: Step 1 provides you the entire game plan, based on your unique situation. While it takes 3 days of my time it only takes a few hours of yours. At Step 1 you can immediately execute it on your own, or take advantage of my expertise. The future is your choice, and I am here to make sure you get the Cash And Control you deserve.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

“I wanted to grow, but I was afraid to grow. Didn’t want to add more staff to manage.
My time is scacre as it is. Don’t know I can handle any more.
Sure I know there is opportunity out there, but financing is always a struggle and I just don’t have the energy to fight so many battles
Wonder if I would be better off with a corporate job again”.
On our worst days as Entrepreneurs, do you ever have secret fears like those shared by Bill, above?
When Bill shared this with me I offered him a solution, in the form of a question:
Are you pursing your OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY?
“Growth?! Our growth is what I can finance.”

That is the beginning of the problem for too many Entrepreneurs.

What is at stake is your Optimum Growth Strategy: the one that delivers the highest return with the lowest risk.
As entrepreneurs, we all know that Growth does not occur without Finance to fuel it.
But too many entrepreneurs link these strategies in the wrong way.
The right way is to insist that GROWTH strategy dictate FINANCE strategy, never the reverse.
If you try to address FINANCE first, you end up reaching out to the wrong types of sources and you don’t get full value so you end up paying more than you should.

Consider what it is like when Entrepreneurs determine their growth strategy based on current financing:
– Check the bank account
– Got any funds in?
– OK to buy inventory
– OK to do some marketing
Can’t do any long term planning because don’t know if you’ll have the cash. Got to do the work yourself because can’t hire staff if you aren’t sure you can pay them.

Marketing is campaign to campaign- just to get some clients to pay the bills. Then you have to stop and do the work, so marketing has to go on hold.

Feast or famine.

Can’t get out of survival mode: always selling. No wonder it’s harder to win clients- they feel you are desperate.

Who would want to come into this rat race? So what is so glamorous about being this kind of an Entrepreneurs?
Where is the FUN
Where is the upside?
When do I get time off?
Vacation? You joke!

Now consider when Entrepreneurs determine growth first – articulate your OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY, then get funding
It’s a mind set.
What if resources were not a constraint?
What would you do, right now, to build on your strengths, capture your best profit making opportunities, eliminate your biggest obstacles?

You declare the future.Assume resources are unlimited so you can build on ALL your strengths, capture ALL your best profit making opportunities, eliminate ALL of your biggest obstacles?

Now, how would your day to day be different?
You operate from the FUTURE you want: a FUTURE so clear you can share it with all.

You need inventory- so you tell the vendor about the future- it’s contagious- he gives you consignment inventory worth $1million – you build the product and only once you ship, you pay out of revenue—its free money.
There is currency in your passion

Customers enjoy your call- you share your vision of the new features that will make their business more efficient, based on your conversation with them.
One of your favorite customers offers to pay 50% cash with order, so you can order equipment you need to build in the new features this customer really wants.
Your future is contagious
There is currency in your passion

Another customer is happy to encourage their contacts to buy your product, because your solution is that important to them
Wow- an outsourced sales force you don’t have to pay
There is currency in your passion

Prospects take your call because you know a lot about their problems and your innovations are so unique they don’t hear these options from others
One prospect is offers you a consulting contract- $100,000 over 3 months- something you never did before apart from the products you sell,
Wow- a new revenue stream!
Your passion of the future is contagious
There is currency in your passion.

That’s the story of one my clients, Lane who surprised himself when he attracted $275,000 in just 5 days

What do you think is the likelihood of success?
When you grow based on current financing you limit your creativity, your innovation, your message to the market.
Scarcity becomes a way of operations
Scarcity repulses customers, prospects, employees, and MONEY!

In contrast, when you grow based on your Optimum Growth Strategy you are a magnet for resources that see themselves as benefiting from your company’s success.
Abundance becomes a way of operation
Abundance attracts customers, prospects, employees and MONEY on your terms.

A day in life of Entrepreneurs pursing OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY vs day in life of Entrepreneurs limited:
 fun vs stressful
 time liberating vs overwhelmed (too many hats/scattered)
 freedom vs controlled by others
 Do what you LOVE not what no one else will do!
 good growth (with high profits) vs bad growth (
 proactive decision-making vs reactive
 safe vs risky
 abundant money vs scare resources

WHY you have to choose the OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY
Entrepreneurs who don’t have an OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY are commodity entrepreneurs have no choice.
Entrepreneurs who pursue their OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY are business builders who can see a future bigger than their past and have a valuable currency to sell.

Entrepreneurs who don’t pursue their OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY give up control because they don’t have value, so all they need costs more than they have to give.
Entrepreneurs who pursue their OPTIMUM GROWTH STRATEGY keep control, of their destiny, their contribution to the world, get to keep their business, and get liquidly, freedom and wealth.

Lane profited from pursuing his Optimum Growth Strategy – the only growth strategy which delivers the highest return with the lowest risk – any other growth strategy is sub-optimal and more risky.
He transformed himself from an Entrepreneur struggling with bad growth (which sucks energy and profits) into an Entrepreneur who profits from good growth which is a source of discretionary time and perpetual wealth creation.
When you pursue your Optimum Growth Strategy you can use your new entrepreneurial freedom to pursue your passion to build a more profitable company, faster, safer than you ever thought possible.

Which future do you want?
Let me know what you think. I would love to share your story.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

YouTube, Twitter, Groupon, and Zynga are members of a new club– “fastest from founding to $1B valuation” club, — Zynga, the social gaming pioneer, earned its membership in just 19 months.

Explosive growth is not confined to social media companies.
Costco (the membership warehouse retailer chain was the first company to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales in less than six years and today is $78 B in revenue.

Think of other fast growing companies you admire.
Disney, Four Seasons Hotel, Patagonia, South West Airlines, Harley Davidson, Green Mountain Coffee, Target, Legos

Why do all these companies grow so fast?
My interpretation is that successful fast growing companies leverage cheap customer acquisition models!
To be a sustainable growth company in the 21st century you need to build a cheap, scalable, automatic model to acquire customers

Please note: customer acquisition is NOT the same as sales acquisition.
• sales and marketing strategies are about how to get people to buy what you have to sell today
• customer acquisition is building a continuous pipeline of people who will buy
anything you can sell them today and in the future at, at higher prices, with accelerating frequency.

This distinction is a fundamental business model shift:
if the 20th century was product centric
then the 21st century is customer centric-
• In the old days, since companies created a product and attracted customers, to get more customers it was natural they developed more products.
• In the 21st century, companies create a community of like-minded people.
This community provides insights into what products they want to buy.

This is NOT at all limited to social media or on-line businesses. It’s a shift in consumer behavior in the 21st century that effects on line and Off-line business.

Think of Apple. Apple started as a little computer company. But it’s not a computer company now.
It’s the creator of the Apple community of raving fans.

Apple leverages a cheap customer acquisition models to make the sales process irrelevant!
Because Fans buy what Apple offers…today and in the FUTURE!

We can learn a lot from these fast growing companies about how to build a cheap, predicable, scalable customer acquisition model because they all share 3 common keys:
1. DEFINE your community
2. SHARE your passion
3. ENGAGE your customers
Let’s look at each building block

The 1st Key is DEFINE your community
Think of your circle of friends. The better people know you, the more valuable you are to them. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder

Value grows inside a community

Successful fast growth companies take advantage of the fact that creating Friends is Free.
DEFINING your community is the 1st KEY because a community unique to you contributes the “CHEAP” part of our client acquisition model; a pipeline of buyers.

Consider Whole Foods Market (which had $9 billion in revenue in 2010).
Here are a few ways Whole Foods creates their unique community:
• informs consumers about healthy food
• influences legislation on organic certification/labeling
• sales staff educate each store visitors
And here are a few ways Whole Food’s unique community is a source of cheap customer acquisition:
• redefines the problem to its strengths
• clear differentiation from competitors
• supports rationale for premium prices

The 2nd key is SHARE your passion.
There is currency in your passion

Share who you really are; be multi dimensional; be authentic; be passionate because that is what makes you special. Your passion is your unique intellectual property! No one thinks like you do!

When you pump your IP into your unique community as a passionate thought leader, you create an informed community of friends capable of providing critical market intelligent to help you define your best future and build your brand

Successful fast growth companies let an informed community of friends help package your passion for them to buy.
SHARING your passion is the 2nd Key.
An informed community of friends contributes “PREDICTABILITY” to your customer acquisition model; predicable because new products are what prospects want to buy which supports escalating price points and increased frequency purchase.

Consider Zappos (which was purchased by Amazon for 1.2 billion in 2009).
Here are a few ways Zappos shares its PASSION inside their unique community:
• authentic passion of “extreme” customer service
• culture of high human touch
• fun loving, WOW outrageous
• free 2 way delivery overnight with 1 year return policy and 24/7 call center
Here are a few ways sharing PASSION provide ZAPPOS a source of predicable customer acquisition:
• prioritize a proliferating product offering the market is ready to buy- from shoes to suits to handbags to sunglasses even kids’ merchandize
• reputation spread virally, through blogosphere
• 75%+ revenue from repeat buyers and word of mouth referrals- an “automatic” customer acquisition process

The 3rd KEY is ENGAGE your customer.
Know your customers like you know your best friends.
Customer concerns exist at 3 levels
1. known, spoken
2. known, unspoken
3. unknown, unspoken- secret fear
When you know your customer concerns at all 3 levels, customers experience that you understand them intimately.

I’ll use my own firm as an example to provide an example. Initially, prospects will share their KNOWN and SPOKEN concern. I often hear clients say:
“I’m not sure how to best grow my company”

Under that, I hear something else: the known, but UNSPOKEN concern prospect keep close to their breast:
“I have a fear of making a mistake.” A fear of making the wrong financial decision or a fear of pursuing the wrong growth strategy.

The most interesting concern I have learned about my clients is their UNSPOKEN, UNKNOWN—the SECRET FEAR.
“AM I REALLY ENOUGH TO GROW MY DREAM COMPANY?” This is a fear of success; a fear of the unknowns.

When you know the 3 levels of concerns your customers have, you can close the gap between your costumer’s wants and your solution

Successful fast growth companies treat Customers as Friends they know intimately.
ENGAGE your customers is the 3rd Key.
ENGAGING customers contributes the “scalability” to the customer acquisition model because customers sell themselves, and want their friends to have the same experience.

Consider AMAZON (with its $34 billion 2010 revenue):
Here are a few ways AMAZON knows its customers:
• knows what you purchased yesterday (customer’s spoken concern)
• relationship between purchases (customer’s unspoken intimate desires/fears):
o you are going on vacation
o looking for a job
o having a baby
• patented “one-click” buy now button
• Confidence-bolstering buying experience via consumer reviews, “look inside” books, guarantees
And here are some ways Amazon’s ability to engage customers as friends contributes scalability to its customer acquisition model:
• up-sales are fast, easy and lucrative
• 80% customer retention: customers share their satisfied experience with lots of word of mouth/ extremely high referral
• member discounts/super saver mailing/affinity group
• Amazon chooses how to expand its product portfolio based on buying patterns of existing customers, who keep coming back to buy different needs.

Fast growth companies in the 21st century are leveraging a cheap, predicable and scalable customer action model. These successful companies share 3 key insights we get to use too:
1st DEFINE your community
Because creating friends is free, and that contributes CHEAP.
2nd SHARE your passion
Because your informed community of friends tell you how to package your passion for them to buy, and that contributes PREDICTABILITY for customers today and in the future.
3rd ENGAGE your customers
Because customers deserve to be friends. And that contributes SCALABILITY.

It’s time to irradiate the need to SALE!
Instead, invest in a cheap, predicable, scalable pipeline for customer ready and willing to buy all your products today and tomorrow at higher prices and escalating frequency.

What is your experience? Tell me your story. I’d love to hear what you think.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

I love science. Many people know me as an entrepreneur. Not too many people know that I was president of the biology club in high school in Westchester NY. I still retain a fascination with the Discovery Channel: how exciting that we can actually SEE what is going on inside the body.
My delight is learning about how we can understand what makes our incredible human engine work!

Just discovered a book called The Talent Code. Greatness isn’t born. It’s grown. Here’s how.
Daniel Coyle does a remarkable job of story telling backed up by exhaustive interviews with the cutting edge neurologists and scientists which he puts into English!

I’m only on page 69, but I wanted to tell you about this! Something we entrepreneurs can take to heart.

It’s about how people become geniuses.
One story explains about how Brazil is a hot bed for nationally renowned soccer players.
Coyle explains that a soccer coach Simon Clifford wanted to know why so many supper national skills were found in Brazilian soccer players.
Here is what he discovered.

Many Brazilians are too poor to play on the large green fields and practice (like so many soccer kids in America). But driven by passion and love for the game, they play a different version of the game.

“It resembles soccer, if soccer was played inside a phone booth and dosed with amphetamines. The ball was half the size but weighed twice as much; it hardly bounced at all. The players are trained, not on a vast expanse of grass field, but on basketball court sized patches of concrete, wooden floors and dirt. Each side, instead of having 11 players, has 5 or 6. In its rhythm and blinding speed, the game resembled basketball or hockey more than soccer; it consisted of an intricate series of quick, controlled passes and non-stop end-to- end action.
This game is called futebol de salao, Portuguese for “soccer in the room”

Why is this important?
Kids that practice like this, spending hours and hours, are incubating the genius level skills reflected in such players as Pele. Brazilians dominate this sport, winning 35 of 38 international competitions.

How?
Turns out practice makes not perfect, but practice grows myelin.
Myelin is how you GROW talent.
Here is my CliffsNotes version (read the book for details: The Talent Code; Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. Daniel Coyle, 2009)

All actions are really the result of electronic impulses sent along chains of nerve fibers.
For years, scientist focused on the synapses.

Input Paths_____________________________________Output Paths
(sensory info, decisions) –> | processing | –> (muscle movements)

Now, we know that it’s the “highway” between the input and the output that is “wrapped with myelin”.
Myelin wrapping speeds up or slows down the process, based on repeated practice to perfect the exact response required. Myelin is applied by nature over time—not all at once. It is wrapped/applied in direct proportion to practice. This supports the adage that if you practice something for 10,000 hours or about 10 years, you will be an expert.

Hard work is necessary to become a genius, but the good news is YOU CAN DO IT if you will practice.

That is why passion is required. (or you won’t keep practicing)
That’s why you must never give up.
You are in the process of growing yourself into the genius you want to be!

This is not relevant for just sports figures, but concert pianists, scientists and business builders.

Hope you found this as exciting as I did – and confidence building, that if something is taking you a long time, it’s OK. You are simply perfecting yourself!
And that is exactly what we entrepreneurs, do for love. And Myelin supports us.

Please share what you think. What non-traditional business disciplines might have inspired or nurtured your business success? I’d love to share your story.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com

What have you learned from social media?
You could answer a lot of things, but I think it boils down to this:
People like to connect with each other!

And no wonder.
Your mother thinks you walk on water.
The better people know you, the more valuable you are!

Where are you most valuable?
Most likely your family: that’s your blood and your in-laws. Beyond that smallest community, your value grows as you extend your community reach to include those who share hobbies, sports, and those who know you at church, community work, and your neighbors.
Your value continues to grow reaching out to your class mates, colleagues you know from business, trade associations.
When you reach out even further, perhaps you are viewed as a thought leader in your industry, even in the world at large.

That’s the business of social media: social media makes the case for a cheap client acquisition model for business.
• Friends are a source of wealth! The better people know you, the more they value you.
• When you understand your clients, the more those clients value you.
• Creating friends is free: Customers deserve to be friends

From a business perspective, the 20th century was product-centric.
The 21st century is customer-centric

This is a fundamental business shift:
• In the 20th century, companies created a product and attracted customers. To get more customers they developed more products.
• In the 21st century, companies create a community of like-minded people. This community provides insights into a priority of what products they want to buy.

Look at the evidence:
Facebook is now the 3rd largest search engine in the world.
Facebook did not start out to be a search engine. Mark Zuckerberg started it as a way to get dates! Then he did what 21st century companies do: he used this community of like-minded people to add features they wanted. Using virtually a zero cost of customer acquisition model, Facebook is a $75 billion company effectively recognized as the 3rd largest search engine in the world.

This is not just relevant to social sites. It’s key for mainline business as well. Apple has overtaken Microsoft in market capitalization: Investors in the stock market view Apple as more value than Microsoft. Apple started as a little computer company. But it’s not a computer company now. It’s the creator of the Apple community; raving fans. A community that directed the company to shift its focus to mobile devices and a new life-style of computing and staying connected. Apple’s customer success has been reflected with success in the financial community of institutional buyers and investors in the marketplace who place a higher worth on Apple than Microsoft.

Facebook and Apple are leveraging CHEAP customer acquisition business models.
I’m not talking about “how to” be an internet marketer and SEO expert.
I’m addressing the “how to” of a critical business growth strategy!

How much do you spend on customer acquisition?
Where do you spend money to acquire customers?
Consider your budget for advertising; conference attendance, trade booths at shows, sales people who make call after call and get less than 1 for 1 conversion.
If you consider your revenue to be 100%, add up all the money you spend on customer acquisition and figure own what percent it is: Is customer acquisition 15%? (You wish!); 25%: maybe even 40% — that’s the model of the 20th century, not today.

How well do you know your customers?
Customers are human, they are not statistics!
They live on the same Maslow pyramid as your friends.
At the base of Maslow’s pyramid, they are worried about survival. After survival, they have wants. Ultimetly, just like your friends, they have desires—something much bigger than themselves. All of this explains why community is so important- it’s a human yearning.
Social community is the 21st century version of the age old TRIBE- the need to belong.

The nature of community is that it is custom- specific to you.
What is YOUR community?
If you’re going to spend time away from you immediate family you love, who do you enjoy spending time with? Who would you engage with, even if you never got paid?
I love to engage with business builders. I lose myself in dialogue with business owners focused on creating a bigger future- one that is different, more profitable, more impactful than yesterday. Business builders are my community.
For you it might be homeowners concerned about a healthy living space for their family; or manufactures committed to life-cycle maintenance; or mothers with children age 2 to 5.
Who do you enjoy?

To be a sustainable growth company in the 21st century, you need to build a predicable CHEAP customer action model.
Since you are building customer annuities, it’s ok if you lose money —but only just a little- on your initial client acquisition, but nothing like most companies of the 20thcentury accepted.
Better yet, your customer acquisition model is break/even, even generates a little profit, while delivering a loyal customer who will buy bigger ticket items with escalating frequency.

It’s time to focus on a being more efficient with your customer acquisition model.
Designing a customer acquisition model for the 21st century takes 3 steps:
1. DEFINE your best customer
2. RESEARCH where your best customer prospects hang out
3. ENGAGE them to deliver what they need

The cheapest customer acquisition model is no longer product-centric.
It’s customer-centric
Social media makes customer community easy.
I’m no social media guru, honestly I’m just learning myself: THAT is not my topic. My topic is driving value for a growing businesses.
The key is to apply these 3 steps to your company to design a CHEAP customer acquisition model.
What is your experience? Tell me your story. I’d love to hear what you think.

Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com