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Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR Business development, sales, and marketing guru

San Francisco Bay Area

I am an Entrepreneur and Business Development/Marketing Guru who loves to brainstorm on how start ups can scale and thrive. I help have worked with over 100 small businesses to help them move from start up to thriving company of 25M+. My experience crosses many disciplines including, sales, sales management, sales process design, marketing survey and planning, human resources, business development, strategic planning, financial management, and dealing with crisis or cultural issues within an organization. I am available for part time consulting and am happy to take 15 minute phone calls to understand your problem and verify I am a correct fit to address your…

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Chris donates to Special Olympics: Home Page ($70.82)

Startup Consulting

Sales Management

Early Stage Startup

Strategic Planning

Insurance

Human Resources

Risk Management

Employee Management

Business Development Consultancy

Member since May 2013

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Answers 25

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We have developed some unusual software & have been struggling to find the right expert who understood early stage software, construction and safety requirements. Chris helped us immensely in one call. He helped us (1) validate that our software solved a big problem, (2) frame the problem; (3) think about diff ways to structure our pilot deal ; & (4) give context for understanding the business (and people) we were selling into . Chris was open, knowledgeable and a clear communicator.

Source: Clarity Amanda Wang Valentine Feb 19, 2015

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Clarity

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR

San Francisco Bay Area

I am an Entrepreneur and Business Development/Marketing Guru who loves to brainstorm on how start ups can scale and thrive.

I help have worked with over 100 small businesses to help them move from start up to thriving company of 25M+. My experience crosses many disciplines including, sales, sales management, sales process design, marketing survey and planning, human resources, business development, strategic planning, financial management, and dealing with crisis or cultural issues within an organization.

I am available for part time consulting and am happy to take 15 minute phone calls to understand your problem and verify I am a correct fit to address your needs.

$1.00/min

Chris donates to Special Olympics: Home Page ($70.82)

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Startup Consulting Sales Management Early Stage Startup Strategic Planning Insurance Human Resources Risk Management Employee Management Business Development Consultancy

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Human Resources

I am designated as a professional in human resources and have experience working with companies of all industries with their HR strategy, staffing plans, talent acquisition strategies, etc. I can help your company leverage talent as a competitive advantage and show you how to retain and manage the talent.

Business Development

I help companies develop strategic marketing plans to move from start up through revenue generation. Starting with product/idea testing or focus groups and moving all the way through building a sales process or culture within an organization. I believe all organizations can sell better, brand better, position product better. The most successful organizations innovate their sales process as fast as they innovate their product.

Risk Management

I help companies assess economic, political, judicial, HR, EPA, and OSHA risk as well as traditional risks. I also help clients understand and exercise enterprise risk management as they look at M&A, new products, etc by helping them understand hidden costs, probable money leaks, cost of risk of decision, etc. If you are starting a company and need to understand possible compliance risk, product risk, legal risk, etc feel free to reach out.

Early Stage Start Ups

I work with early stage start ups with a variety of services including helping them comprehend and understand the risk and insurance difficulties their business model ideas may face. I can also help early stage companies with recruiting, human resources, and early sales strategy. Most importantly I have passion for doing this type of work and enjoy mentally engaging in the challenges entrepreneurs face during the first 24 months of their journey. Often I become, part of the start up team as a trusted adviser.

Answers 25
Reviews 1

Answers

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

How to improve cash flow in a dental lab?

So you do lab work for dentists? If you post your website or some other info it might be easier to help you with the issue.

If you want to improve cash flow you can either reduce expenses or grow revenue. My experience is that it is usually way easier to grow revenue since expenses are so thin for companies like yours unless you have wasteful habits.

Figure out who your ideal customer is and develop a marketing plan. Make sure the marketing plan uses multiple marketing medians to get brand recognition with the target market. Follow up with phone calls and offer test orders or test lab work. Make sure you can demonstrate a clear advantage to working with you compared to others.

Any clients you work with should respect your professionalism to sign an agreement with their orders to pay within a specified time frame. The agreement might also clearly spell out how the collections process works. Get signatures on orders, if they can order online include info like this in your TOS.

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Finance

Cash Flow

Cash Flow Management

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

How do you prevent turnover within your company? I am the founder of a 200 employee technology company that is seeing roughly 25% annual churn.

Leaders all bring different abilities to the table when it comes to managing, motivating, and retaining employees. At your size company it would be normal to have a single HR executive making sure that your company culture is developing in a positive direction, with a shared common energy and goals. Engaging employees in this manner can be difficult especially for full time entrepreneurs who are running all over wearing 50 hats and don't have HR experience. Compliance at that employee count is also a great concern. It is EXTREMELY easy to lose focus of internal relationships as time availability diminishes and the company grows. Many entrepreneurs ego prevents them from fully engaging employees, taking calls, texts, or shooting off quick emails while in meetings instead of focusing on respecting others time where you have demanded it.

Take action now, your losing seasoned knowledge and that can be costly in terms of innovation and problem solving.

Do a company wide survey of all employees and ask 4 things, have them submit the survey printed with no name, to one single person that everyone trusts and make sure it is very clear that it is confidential. Give $200 in cash to the 5 best responses through the mole.
1. What 3 things can senior management do better as a leaders?
2. What 2 things do you like least about working here?
3. What 2 things do you like the most about working here?
4. What off the wall idea would you like to see implemented?

Make sure you and your team read every single response, if you can't find the time to do that then you have already learned you aren't prioritizing the employee relationships.

Institute initiatives to make employees better understand their roles within the organizations, and how their careers can develop. One of the leading reasons of high turnover other than poor communication is a lack of definition of role, responsibilities, and opportunities. People don't like working jobs where they can't see their work develop and mature, or opportunities to advance within the company.

Lastly, always make sure employees are appreciated uniquely and in person. Saying thank you even to the most distant employee to your work flow can be important to that employee in terms of feeling connected to the company. At least annually get the whole staff together and give out awards based on highest performance employees as measured on your employee review scale. Give those employees 2 extra VK days along with the trophy, explain to everyone how they went the extra mile for the company and how much value it provided.

You could also review your employee benefits including time off, flexible work hours/telecommuting, insurances, retirement saving opportunities, etc.

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Human Resources

Staff Retention

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

Comp package consultant to advise startup exec candidates?

An HR Consultant can help you form a compensation plan and package supported by job descriptions. You should also have clear job offer letters and an employee handbook.
The HR consultant should be able to reach for you (or know) lots of data on salary by position, benefits offered, etc. They can coordinate with vendors to get you lined up to support the on-boarding of the employees.

The job descriptions should be detailed so you can be clear on what sort of work is within the role, what kind of qualifications you expect in the candidates, etc. This will in turn move toward goal setting with the employee as you develop a working relationship and they get comfortable in the role.

The compensation part is easy, just don't forget that you get what you pay for and geography and industry count for a whole lot. Tech in Nor Cal for example, is a very hot market for comp and competing with the larger employees here takes some serious comp plans.

Compensation can also be substantially different in structure from one job to the next. Say, a VP of sales vs a product manager, or software engineer.

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Legal Advice

Talent Acquisition

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

How to find the right business coach? And not spend thousands searching for them?

I believe any credible coach even one that charges substantial rates for substantial advice would be open to providing a 30 minute Q&A, in which you can try to present situations to them to see if they have the right sort of expertise and can properly communicate it with you.

Often times, you can approach other start ups with a similar product or service type and ask them who they are using. Former founders, VCs, and board members are eager to help out others within the same niches to continue to grow opportunities in the areas they already have interest in. They are also usually right on top of the knowledge waves.

Make sure you respect the coach enough to be able to take candid constructive and sometimes difficult feedback. If the coach isn't challenging the way you think and bring change to you and your organization, you probably aren't getting the value out of the relationship you need to for the rates you mention above.

Lastly, understand the difference between a coach and an area expert. Coaches are frequently there to help with broader macro strategy and the development of leadership. They can help you season faster and identify problems to proactively manage instead of being reactive to them or letting them dent your business model. Area specialists are people who can help you in specific segments or areas of the business where your company doesn't have the right mix and isn't looking to add full time talent. Think of marketing, sales management, human resources, public relations, supply chain, finance, etc.

Good luck on your hunt, I believe you will know when you have met your correct match. If it doesn't feel right or you aren't seeing clear value don't continue with it.

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Coaching

Executive Coaching

Business Coaching

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

Is it unwise for an entrepreneur to sign a non-disclosure agreement?

Most established entrepreneurs aren't fond of signing NDA's because they can be too open worded and may prevent the entrepreneur from developing ideas and businesses off the fringe of the idea/trade secrets covered within the NDA. I certainly wouldn't sign an NDA unless there was an extremely compelling reason to. I would also be inclined to make sure the NDA was applied equally to both parties involved, and was very specific as to scope.

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Entrepreneurship

Legal Advice

Legal Assistance

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

What qualities do you look for when hiring for an executive operations position?

I would try to hire into your weakness and might take an inventory of exactly what you expect the candidate to aggressively deal with that will help your company scale. It seems probable that you are hiring your ops employee before an HR employee, and finance employee so if that is the case you will want to make sure the Ops candidate you select has the ability not only to just handle those roles but to also transition those responsibilities as the company grows. When I think of ops I think of day to day management but also strategy.

Promoting someone from within might be an easier and more comfortable route but an external candidate will most likely challenge you in the right sort of ways and compliment you in others, this uncomfortable chafing will lead you to be a better leader and strategist within your business. Good luck!

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Human Resources

Strategic Hiring

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

We are negotiating our first enterprise pilot with a health insurance company, they are asking for exclusivity for a six month pilot, should we agree?

I work quite a bit with healthcare and also have clients who actively sell software into the healthcare industry both to carriers, providers, and even government orgs. I would be inclined to provide them contract options with three and six month exclusivity terms, and then even provide a long term rate that makes it worth your while to maintain exclusivity in that territory with specific terms you deem reasonable so you can push the product elsewhere. You may request in turn for the exclusivity period, different terms so it is worth your while to provide the exclusivity. Perhaps they provide reference to any other sales opportunities outside the territory, pay increased rates per longer term they request the exclusivity, agree to let you use their band in advertising in the future pending they stay a customer, etc.

This is just a negotiation point, they have come out in want of exclusivity, figure out exactly what it is what you want out of the opportunity and start the negotiating points there.
Good luck!

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Piloting

Contract Negotiation

Enterprise Software

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

Struggling 8yr Old Startup on the Edge.

Based on your position it doesn't sound like you are confident in your companies ability to utilize it's competitive advantage to take market share from the funded companies you seem to be up against. If I were in your shoes I would be proactively considering all of my options and digging deep as to what they really require. If you want to continue you need at least enough funding to be able to properly market and sell your established product to take market share. You could "shut down" as you mention, but with the IP you have probably already developed, why not contact some of your more admired competitors and ask if they are interested in buyout including taking you on in a role that they feel could add equitable value to their positions?

I would be happy to do a free call to understand your specific product/service and position better to dice it up a bit more. Winding down the company would be a nightmare, I'd avoid that if at all possible.

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Start-ups

bootstrapping

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

What permits/licenses and insurance would be necessary to let people sit in your air conditioned van for an per hour fee?

Actually, since your doing a form of possible ride sharing you might be subject to the beefy insurance regulations found here
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml;jsessionid=f4d692baeba37abf7ce3b0b61b6e

If you need that policy, it starts at 50k!
Local transport companies are subject to different regulations but are required to carry by law in CA:
Work comp for driver
General Liability
Vehicle insurance including liability, accident, and possibly physical damage.

I can help for a reduced fee if you have additional questions on this topic as we are also compensated by the insurance companies for the policy placement.

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Small Business

Legal Advice

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

How do you ensure you can access health insurance when you leave your job to begin your startup?

Cobra is expensive, your best bet is to utilize the cobra election period for free coverage until you are forced to elect, then get on the Healthcare.gov insurance. If your income while you start the company is below thresholds, you will be eligible for substantial subsidies that will help make the coverage far cheaper. Your location may have a state exchange (CA) or you may have to use the federal exchange. You can also buy individual policies straight from a broker or carrier and those are mid priced options to the other two alternatives.

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Health

Employee Benefits

Benefits

Chris Larmore, GBA, CRM, CIC, CISC, PHR answered

I am working on creating a sales compensation plan for a recurring revenue model are there any pitfalls I need to be aware of when creating this?

My concern on something like this would be the contractual obligations to pay out the tail portion of the incentives, even in the event your arrangement with the sales person is terminated. You are going to want to have an attorney draft a bullet proof contract. I had a client who failed in that regard and had to pay out sales people even after they had departed the company.

Also, if it is structured as you mentioned you might expect sales people not to provide much if any support after the initial sale but instead to just focus on the new growth, since the commissions reduce so strongly after the 2nd year. No big deal but you will want to make sure you have adequate account management staff depending on the required support of the product.

Also, how would the sales people be compensated if the cross sold or increased product/platform usage after 2nd year? Would their be incentives to that?

Hope some of this info helps!

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Sales Management

Reviews

We have developed some unusual software & have been struggling to find the right expert who understood early stage software, construction and safety requirements. Chris helped us immensely in one call. He helped us (1) validate that our software solved a big problem, (2) frame the problem; (3) think about diff ways to structure our pilot deal ; & (4) give context for understanding the business (and people) we were selling into . Chris was open, knowledgeable and a clear communicator.

Amanda Wang Valentine Source: Clarity

Member since May 2013