Bruce Roles is a mechanical engineer with a solid background at manufacturing companies in the rubber, concrete, and precision tooling industries. In his roles as Director of Operations he has developed extensive experience with Lean, ISO, Continuous Improvement, and EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System). When he found himself in transition in late 2019, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to his job search, networking extensively with people in the community with close ties to manufacturing companies.

That is, until he began hearing about the "fractional space" and the "gig economy." He explored this growing area of the American economy, and it intrigued him. Bruce met with people who could explain to him how the gig economy works, and by February he had expanded his networking to include fractional opportunities.

He created an LLC, got some business cards, created a logo, and did all of the other things that a person does when they start a company. When the pandemic hit in March, he didn't even slow down.

He continued to network for both full-time jobs and consulting gigs, but by mid-May he had decided to "plant his flag" and go out on his own as an independent consultant to small manufacturing companies. He felt that was where his passion was. People he networked with told him they could see it in his eyes when he described his desire to use his years of manufacturing experience to help companies grow.

So Bruce stopped networking to find a job and instead started looking exclusively for consulting opportunities. He was pleased to find that there were lots of people who were happy to help or partner with him as he built his business.

Bruce was no stranger to having his own business as he had had his own home repair and remodeling business years earlier. He wrote a business plan for his new venture, but, while he is comfortable with numbers and his ability to read financial statements, he was struggling with how to put the numbers together for his new company.

Bruce didn't need the numbers for any bank. He needed them for himself. He needed the confidence to pull the trigger and make the leap into the unknown. He needed to know things like: how much cash he would need to get started, how long it would take him to get to positive cash flow, how much he needed to charge per hour, and how many hours he would need to bill for.

He had tried using a spreadsheet to come up with answers, but then someone told him about an upcoming ProjectionSmart workshop. There he saw a demonstration of our ProjectionSmart financial tool and realized that this was exactly what he was looking for.

"I didn't have to create anything," Bruce said. "I did it that night. I had all the data I needed, so I plugged it in. I saw things I needed to change, so I just tried different scenarios to see what would work best. It was try, change, and see the results. ProjectionSmart painted the whole picture for me. It was perfect."

Bruce used the results to transfer the required amount of money into his business account. He landed his first client in June, and he has already paid back the loan he gave himself to start the business.

"ProjectionSmart gave me the roadmap for the financial side," Bruce said. "It helped me connect the dots. It gave me the confidence I needed to pull the trigger and go out on my own. It told me what to expect so I could relax and jump into my first gig knowing that I understand the numbers of my business."

Bruce Roles
BMR Business Optimization LLC
Leadership | Running EOS® | Manufacturing Operations | Process Improvement | TPM
763-221-5048
brucer928@gmail.com

Manufacturing/Operations Executive with over 30 years in a variety of manufacturing industries making a wide range of products. Fractional COO / Director / GM support leverages leadership experience in Manufacturing, Scheduling, Quality, Engineering, EHS, Procurement, Warehousing, and Maintenance. Providing the Fractional leadership necessary to support the business leader's ability to visualize, focus, implement and drive the changes necessary to support continued growth of the business. Hide full case study

Hello, everybody. Say, I want to talk to you just for a second about something called ProjectionSmart. So, I am on, I don't know how many businesses I've done. I've done a few. But the last two since I've met this Roger Scherping individual and his product called ProjectionSmart, the last two I ran through what ProjectionSmart does as a filter to kind of give me a go/no-go, and had I not done that, had I not had that initial discipline of using ProjectionSmart to sort of cast a future look at what I was about to do and spend the next, well I'm on year 3 of one and I'm on year 2 of another, so two entrepreneurial businesses. Had I not taken those disciplines – actually there were 3, there was one with ProjectionSmart I yanked – so had I not taken those steps I would not have had the ability to say, this is a good use of time, there's a future and growth there, and this is a bad use of time and that's going to hurt you later.

Well, what would six or seven or eight or nine months have looked like without that? Probably devastation. It probably would have really hurt my businesses, and I certainly wouldn't have been focused and wouldn't be making the kind of revenue that I'm making now.

So, I'm very happy with ProjectionSmart, a lot of props for it, and if you are looking at projections down the line, I highly recommend using it. It's one of the easier things that you could use. I'm surprised no one has come up with it yet, but I'm very happy that people have, Roger and team have, because it's a fantastic product. Hide full case study

Judy Praska purchased a FasTest Labs franchise when she was in job transition and decided that she wanted to own her own business. She liked the product and was confident that with her strong networking skills she would be successful.

Judy attended a ProjectionSmart workshop because she wanted to learn more about business planning, and at the workshop she discovered our ProjectionSmart tool.

"ProjectionSmart is exactly what I was looking for," she said. "I felt uncomfortable not being able to see exactly where my business was going. I was looking for some way to figure out what the future looked like."

Judy signed up for ProjectionSmart at the workshop. She put in her history and her budget and answered a few simple questions about her business. Now in just a few minutes every month she updates her numbers and reviews the results.

"ProjectionSmart shows me that I'm moving in the right direction. I put in my expected sales, and I can see what it projects for me. I didn't have a tool to do this before. It's a slick little tool."

Along the way, Judy learned that she needed to change her QuickBooks income statement because it wasn't reflecting any gross margin, which ProjectionSmart emphasizes as a part of its projections. "So I learned a little bit of accounting theory, but that's good because my numbers make much more sense to me now."

Judy is using ProjectionSmart to model different business decisions. She's looking at product mix and marketing expense to determine the most profitable way to grow her business.

"I've always looked backwards at my QuickBooks reports," Judy said. "But now with ProjectionSmart I can look forward, too. I put my numbers in once a month. It just takes a few minutes. It's real easy because it's all on one screen. Knowing what the future looks like gives me peace of mind and confidence."

"This is important enough to me that I make the time to do it every month. As a small business owner I know that I need to work not only IN my business but also ON my business. ProjectionSmart helps me take a step back and work ON my business. Without ProjectionSmart I'd have no idea – I'd be blind. ProjectionSmart gives me a guide to follow every month."

Judy Praska / Owner
Phone 952-999-9490/Fax 952-999-9491
Judy.P@FastestLabs.com

FastestLabs offers immediate and comprehensive drug testing services focused on helping individuals and employers.

• Individual Drug Testing
• Individual Alcohol Testing
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• D.O.T. Testing
• Employer Solutions
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Fastest Labs of Bloomington
9055 Lyndale Ave S
Bloomington, MN 55420
https://fastestlabs.com/bloomington Hide full case study

Nic Gianino has been an ops guy his entire career, managing manufacturing operations for sheet metal fabrication, precision machining, and electro mechanical device assembly companies. Early in 2020 he wanted to go out on his own and purchase a manufacturing company, but talking with a banker quickly made him realize that the middle of the COVID crisis was not the time to try to raise $2M. "All we're doing right now is processing PPP loans," his banker told him.

A friend in the recruiting space planted a seed in Nic's mind about his industry, and Nic's research brought him to the Global Recruiters Network, an executive recruiting franchise that specializes in the manufacturing industry. At first Nic scoffed at the idea of becoming a recruiter, but eventually he realized it would be a great way to use his many years of manufacturing experience in a business of his own.

He launched his franchise mid-year and found success quickly, generating his first sale in just four months. He was fired up by his success and eager to grow his business.

Then he began to learn many of the things that all first-time entrepreneurs learn once they make the leap. He had only a basic understanding of his finances, so he wasn't clear what his financial future looked like. He also had to make quarterly income tax payments for the first time in his career. Finally, he wanted a system similar to what he had used in manufacturing to help him with the financial management of his growing new business.

"At my core, I'm a planner, and I don't like surprises," Nic said. "I knew I needed financial controls." He was going to use QuickBooks, but he didn't know how he was going to look forward. "My expenses are predictable. My revenue, less so. I tried to keep track of things in Excel, but Excel is not where I want to spend my time."

That's when he learned about ProjectionSmart. "ProjectionSmart saves me a lot of time. I like the structure. I just follow the process, and I can't screw it up. I download my history from QuickBooks, enter a budget, and answer a few questions, and I very quickly have a clear vision of where my business will be in 12 months."

"Now every month I reforecast 12 months out. I make changes to my budget based on what's happened in the previous 30 days, and everything flows through automatically to the cash flow and the balance sheet. I'm always looking 12 months ahead. It's not just a calendar year. It can be July, and I can see all the way to next July. I'm always looking forward, and I like that."

Another thing that Nic likes about ProjectionSmart is how it helps him model his business decisions. He said that if he was considering adding a new sales employee, he'd change his budget to reflect the increased cost and then add the expected revenue. ProjectionSmart would then show him the expected profit and cash flow from making this hire. In this way, the manufacturing guy found what he had been looking for: a system to model his business decisions and show him their financial impact.

"The beauty is its simplicity," Nic said. "I'm just a manufacturing guy, but ProjectionSmart gives me everything I need to make informed business decisions. ProjectionSmart only includes the critical pieces that you need to drive your decisions. It's simple business modeling."

Now that his business is growing, Nic is using ProjectionSmart to keep an eye on his cash flow, especially those quarterly tax payments. "Cash flow is huge. I don't want to get into a pinch. ProjectionSmart is great. It tells me everything I need. It makes me focus on what's important."

When Nic learned about ProjectionSmart, which is designed for entrepreneurs considering starting a business, he just shook his head. "I did it all in Excel. If I had used ProjectionSmart, I could have done it in one quarter of the time. Entrepreneurs like me don't know what we don't know. It would have been great to have ProjectionSmart walk me through the process so I didn't miss anything."

"ProjectionSmart is simple and effective," Nic said. "You've taken a huge weight off me. I was in the middle of the ocean, and you threw me a life preserver. Thanks, ProjectionSmart!"

Nic Gianino / Owner
Global Recruiters of Saint Paul
612.405.4966
http://www.grnsaintpaul.com

Nic provides recruiting services for operations, engineering, and supply chain positions at custom manufacturing companies with $25-$250 million in sales and anywhere from 50-400+ employees. Typical clients are in the contract metals fabrication, precision machining, and device assembly industries. He likes to work with growth-minded companies and help them build a team that will drive their growth. Hide full case study