Passion for Pets Pays Off

Pawtropolis in Athens, GA

Crook acquired the loan and opened her business. About five years later, she approached McDonell for help obtaining a $1 million SBA 504 loan, which she used to purchase land and build the first Pawtropolis. Five years after that, with 25 employees and trainers, an award-winning business and a facility filled to capacity, Crook again turned to the SBDC. After attending the GrowSmart™ program, she asked McDonell to help her create projections for a $2.2 million loan she received and will use to build a second, larger facility on land she had purchased.

Times Are Tough-Scrutinize Every Input Choice

Seems like most everybody who retails ag inputs is offering products that they profess will boost yields, even make ‘em skyrocket. Only problem is, claims often aren’t backed up with unbiased data to prove that these materials provide growers with a return on investment–that ROI that should guide every decision.

Foreign Receivables Insurance: A Tool to Grow Your Business

If you have a business that sells product or service internationally, or if you are considering selling your product or service to foreign buyers, you may want to consider using receivables insurance as a way to grow your business and mitigate risks commonly associated with international sales. If you are selling internationally, the least risky […]

Front Desk Employees

During our Medical Practice Profit Drivers class we ask participants what area of the practice they think is the most critical to driving profits: clinical, front desk or billing?  The question always generates lively debate with an almost equal split among people forcefully arguing for one of the three departments. When the front desk faction […]

The Answers Are Different This Week

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower For many of us, allocating time to plan becomes a significant challenge of priorities. Do we work on the urgent or the important today? Frequently, this becomes the question of the day. In most cases, if […]

The Most Important Cost You Never Consider

Small Business Opportunity Cost

John is a web designer.  He owns a small web design company and carefully considers the cost of labor, especially outsourced jobs, when he bids on a new website project.  Sometimes, to save money, he’ll do most (if not all) of the work himself, especially on smaller jobs.  He makes a profit most of the […]

Adding Employees in the Medical Field

Owners of growing medical practices often ask if they can afford to hire a new provider or bring their medical billing in-house.  We have developed tools to determine the cost of adding medical practice employees.  Clients are often shocked at the calculations. Our tools examine one-time upfront costs such as recruiting, credentialing and legal fees, […]