1. BRINGING A
BIG
BUSINESS
CONFIDENCE
TO YOUR
BUSINESS
I used to joke years ago when I ended my career at Siemens Canada to
start my own business that I had just left the biggest company in the
world, for the smallest company in the world.
KEVIN SIMPSON
Business Edge Coaching,
M 403-688-3668,
Ekevinsimpson@businessedgecoaching.com
www.businessedgecoaching.com
My business’s Open sign was only going to
hang as long as I showed up to hang it, my
customers would only be served by the solutions
I had to deliver myself, and biggest of all, my
company’s supply and access to cash was going
to have be secured by my own house I had
worked so hard to buy.
Stress took on a new and real meaning.
I realized quickly that gone were the days of
international diversity, big budget revenue
forecasts and a large team of experts dedicated to
showing up and contributing every day.

2. international bank, trading in
multiple currencies and working in
every time zone on the earth
everyday - there was no question the
company would survive, and thrive.
Its success, given its corporate
diversity was almost guaranteed.
Resources seemed limitless
Key strategic corporate decisions
were made in the corner offices
either thousands of kilometres away,
or floors above me.
Of course all of that changed
when I opened the doors of my
own business, a high end
boutique bike shop in the
Canadian Rockies, an hour from
Calgary.
I had waited 13 years to be in a
position where I could be the one
who made all the decisions, and now,
everyone one of them was seemingly
Terrifying
Working for a German company
like Siemens had huge advantages.
The Germans aren’t world leaders in
worker productivity by accident.
Although my colleagues worked as
hard as other companies I had
experienced what was different was a
commitment to developing,
learning, and mastering processes
that described virtually everything
we did.Training was not an option, it
was a way of life.
Being at that time the 2nd largest
company in the world - virtually an
As days went by, one decision lead
to another and I quickly realized that
the biggest danger I faced was not
making a wrong decision - it was in
fact not making a decision at all.
I’m going to repeat that.
Making no decision was worse than
actually making a bad decision.
This knowledge really stuck with
me and when I started to reflect on
the similarities (or lack of
similarities ) of skills I had learned as
a leader at Siemens versus the skills I
relied on every day in my new life
one commonality hit me hard.
Despite the differences in size, in
staff, in capital, and in history all
companies have three core pillars
that define them, direct them and
ultimately decide their fate:
Assets Processes Priorities

3. Assets: Obviously the first thing
that comes to mind is equipment,
cash or intellectual property but
assets are also people, and a
companies ability to hire and retain
those assets through their brand.
Big companies are usually ripe with
assets, have entire departments to
manage them, their growth and their
future. Still choosing great people
can be any company’s biggest
challenge - big or small.
Processes: Are the methods,
procedures and actions a company
takes to utilize, develop and refine
those assets.
Processes are a methodology to
define operation in a repeatable,
efficient and (hopefully) profitable
way.
This is the number one area lacking
in small to mid-size businesses - the
failure to define, document and
commit to process, and as a result
they forfeit any chance of consistent
repeatable success.
Priorities: A company’s priorities
are usually defined by their vision
and mission statements. Often they
are forgotten about if times are
tough financially or otherwise.
Priorities define the way we decide
how we will deploy our assets, what
processes we will choose and why.
This is consistently the number one
area where big companies fail. For
example, flush with resources and
world leading processes, bad
decisions made to cut corners that
result in an otherwise avoidable
accident.

4. By the time I was 5 years into the
ownership of my business, I started
to understand that not only were the
three pillars I mentioned above
always in play, but more importantly
the degree of importance for each
one was constantly shifting -
sometimes yearly, sometimes
monthly, most often daily.
So the question must be posed: If
the three supports of my business
are always moving and changing
how do I know if my business will
ever be stable - how do I decide
which pillar must be given attention
now and why?
It was the ability to break
these questions down for my
business and others I worked
with that led me to the
world of Consulting,
Coaching and a new career.
A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
As a consultant working in my own company, I was proud of my ability to help
other business owners successfully manage and prioritize the three foundations.
To provide them with more tools then they had, guiding when needed, coaching
when asked to do so, and building a new tool when required. But I realized that
on my own, my ability to reach a wide array of business, with their myriads of
opportunities was limited by my own time.
Every tool created from scratch, every customer acquired on my own.The “Do” in
my world would be all consuming, and it was this formula, BE x DO = HAVE -
shown to me by Nagui Bihelek from Business Edge Coaching - that made me
realize I wanted to be a part of something bigger than me.This formula and its
ability to define my own company’s challenges brought me to Business Edge
Coaching and ActiveCoach.

5. ASSETS
• Hiring & Employee Profiling
• Business Valuations
• Personal & Professional Coaching
• Inventory Analysis
• Tax Strategies
PROCESSES PRIORITIES
• Process Evaluation & Mapping
• Best Practice Analysis
• Business Consulting
• Policy & Procedure Definition
SOLUTIONS
• Personal & Professional Coaching
• Strategic Planning/Way-finding
• Exit Strategy & Financial Planning
BE DO HAVE
I’m excited to join Business Edge Coaching and ActiveCoach.To share my experiences, learn from my customers, and support the team of
professionals here. It’s obvious that there is a wealth of information and a fully stocked tool kit supplied by Business Edge which can only
make this journey more rewarding for me and my future customers.
As I go through the three pillars of business we serve, I look forward to BEing the best I can, DOing the best I can, and HAVING a fabulous
time along the way. Let the journey begin. Kevin Simpson
A PATH TO SUCCESS