With many start up and early stage companies focusing on their product or service and not having the requisite business background and experience, we can manage a wide range of business affairs.

This ranges from working with the client to negotiate its business arrangements, to various administrative functions and to acting as an interim CFO/COO, enabling the client to concentrate on matters directly related to the product or service.

A business plan without vetted strategies and tactics is merely a document. 

In a business and strategic planning engagement, iShindler develops a plan for the business, whether for a startup, early stage company or one that has operated for many years.

We begin with an uninterrupted strategy session with the management team in which we discuss, dissect and challenge the team on a series of pertinent topics related to the many business functions of their enterprise and the underlying strategies that will differentiate the company from its competition.

This process enables us to write their plan, not our plan, with the resulting document providing a strategic roadmap that is defensible when presented to prospective financiers.

An independent and knowledgeable advisor to facilitate discussions proves beneficial to management teams.  Resolving differences within management teams on issues ranging from strategic planning to research and development, marketing and finance, as well as interpersonal issues within the group is a service offering that iShindler has provided to the benefit of our clients.

Attorneys often need knowledgeable business insight when working with their clients on a variety of legal matters.

Our independent business perspective, gained from experience at many points on the value chain, has enabled us to provide counsel with services ranging from expert witness reports and testimony to direct consultations on the issues and challenges in their cases, all from the business perspective, taking into account the legal ramifications. 

Growing entrepreneurial companies, especially those with roots in creative and technology businesses, often need independent advice on how best to grow their companies. In many cases, the companies have grown to a certain level and plateaued, and are unable to move forward from there.

We have been retained by many organizations to analyze their businesses and to provide solid, well thought out implementable recommendations that enable them to have a map to the future, enabling them to get to the next level(s) in a smart, practical manner.

Evaluating products and services, either for deploying new concepts into the market or for determining which should be purchased for their own internal use, is a dilemma faced by many entrepreneurial companies.

Our independent and knowledgeable insight has been effective in client engagements where we have provided our assessment of new concepts, sometimes from the point of view of detailed research & analysis and sometimes from a pure intuition.

Many business plans include a high level analysis of the markets in which the client company is involved and an overview marketing plan.

More details are often required for internal use, including, but not limited to development of budgets for advertising, PR and personnel as well as identification of the many outlets that are fundamental to the successful branding and marketing of the company.

We have been involved in specific marketing functions for clients, including business development, newsletter, bio and other document writing assignments.

iShindler prides itself on the many successful operational and organizational reviews we have prepared for clients.

The reviews take into account the challenges and concerns identified by top management when retaining us as well as the many that we identify through our proven process of analyzing the organization.

Aspects of these engagements include, but are not limited to assessments of:

• policies and procedures in business functions;
• adequacy of the infrastructure to support the organization currently and most importantly to support growth into the future;
• business models;
• structure of business terms and procedures with work orders, purchase orders and contracts;
• communications, internal and external;
• control over payables and receivables; and,
• many other functions that come to our attention during the engagement.

Our implementable recommendations that are included in this type of engagement have resulted in enhanced communications, more efficient operations, and very often in significantly improving cash flow.

The best new product or service deployed into the market at the wrong time or through an ineffective plan, can destroy many years of hard work in creating the product.

Our insight into the value chain and having witnessed many product launches, enables us to provide our clients with the unbiased perspective required for successful implementation.

As a result of the many panels and speaking engagements at industry conferences, clients have retained our services to moderate discussions or make presentations at private, invitation only events, trade show booths or at other forums where the company presents its latest products and innovations in a more subtle and personal fashion.

Understanding trends in the marketplace is vital for companies in order to position themselves for the future as they assess development of new products and services or how existing products and services will fare in the highly competitive environment of the future.

Our analysis draws upon our industry knowledge of the entire value chain, from the impact of the competition, vendors along the supply chain and, of course the trends occurring in the client’s target markets.

Throughout the years, we have been involved in a variety of other types of projects that do not fall into the above categories. These include, but are not limited to the following:

• Consulted with select investment banking firms to provide insight into entertainment industry trends and business practices, including technology, trend analyses, new product assessments and competitive factors. Invited to consult based upon industry experience and knowledge.
• Represented a published author for movie/TV projects.
• Wrote chapters anonymously for a book for a leading technology industry executive.
• Designed, conducted and authored an Economic Impact Study for a trade organization of specialty theaters that included strong implementable recommendations for how the industry economics could be improved for the benefit of the entire value chain.