My stories tend to vary based on the topic. One of my favorites is about a client I had right out of college that illustrates the importance of operational audits and best practice documentation to building company value. The client wanted to sell his business but was getting no interest. He owned a factory that made magnets and had been in business for more than 30-years. The majority of his manufacturing team were immigrants who spoke little English. None of their processes were documented. Most of the workforce was nearing retirement age.
I showed up my first day eager to prove my value in high heels and a three-piece suit. I was introduced to the three engineers who were to show me the ropes so that I could start from square one creating their documentation. They snickered as I tried to wipe away the magnet dust at my desk deposited by the AC vent just above my head without ruining my new suit. They laughed as my heels kept getting stuck in the sidewalk grates that hovered over toxic sludge on my first tour of the factory. I am sure they thought I would not be back.

I came back, the next day and the day after, and the day after that dressed in jeans and tennis shoes, with matching shirts that I thought might have a chance of surviving the dust. I spent the next week in what felt like tropical heat watching the manufacturing line and documenting what I saw.

When I sat down with the Engineers to go over my work they were surprised. We went over the first procedure. They said "Oh we don't do that. We can't because that would be an EPA violation." I responded, "My suggestion then is that you stop." We went over the next procedure. They were equally dismayed, "We don't do that. We can, but we don't." I responded, "I can't make this up. I didn't know how to make magnets before I came here." We went over the next procedure, and you guessed it, they could not believe what they read. Again, the conversation started with, "We don't do that," except this time one of the Engineers jumped up excitedly and responded, "But we should.!"

You see, as it turned out, the biggest issue in creating magnets was the fact that they had to be fired like clay pots. However, the magnets were prone to breaking in the heat. I had asked to watch the best person at each job. The gentleman I watched did an extra step his co-workers did not do. The extra step helped prevent the magnets from breaking in the heat. He had quietly solved the biggest problem, not just at the factory, but in the industry and NO ONE knew until that day.

We not only documented the steps, but we patented the process. The owner sold the company in a bidding war for four times what he had originally hoped to get. Along the way, I asked the man whose job it was to fire the magnets how long he had worked at the factory. He had been there 21 years. I asked him how long he had known to do the extra step. He told me he had figured it out the first year. The company had, had the answer to the industry's biggest problem for TWENTY YEARS and hadn't known it. I asked why he hadn't told anyone. He said, " No one asked."

If you own a business, it pays to know what your employees are doing.

Capacity Squared (C2) (http://www.capacitysquared.net) Sheryl Hardin has a deep concern for the health and wellbeing of small businesses. Her concern grew throughout 2020 for business owners faced with surviving the Pandemic. successfully. Sheryl wanted to connect isolated small business owners with the people, tools, information, and education that they needed to grow to their fullest capacity. Capacity Squared is a community platform and national small business directory dedicated to bringing together the key components of necessary for success:
 SUPPORT for business owners in a free community designed to help end the burden of being isolated through chat, webinars, podcasts, and services designed to encourage diverse business owners even in underserved communities
 CONNECT business owners with customers, suppliers, and potential partners using a state-of-art national small and diverse business directory. This strategic alliance provides a national supplier management portal, a simplified RFP request portal, and small business registration database composed of certified diverse, veteran, women, minority, and small businesses perfectly ready to supply goods and services to member businesses of all sizes
 GROW businesses with free or low-cost education provided through one stop access to some of the best trainers, accelerators, and incubators in the world including access to Training / Coaching members in the SRM database who provide guidance and training at a reasonable cost
 HIRE more resources with greater flexibility creating the opportunity for business owners to access the right people and not just the people they think they can afford by including hard to find part-time professionals and fractional leaders on their teams

Once Sheryl discovered her passion for small businesses and the diverse group of people who own them, she became dedicated to providing education and training as a way of paying forward the education she received.