Build · VIP Days
A few days on your business, with FNDRS in the room
Nick Long, or a handful of the FNDRS team, come to you, or you come to us. Over a few days the part of the business that is stuck goes up on a whiteboard, is taken apart, put back together, and relaunched toward targets you can measure. Nick explains the days in the film below.
The film
What are FNDRS VIP Days?
Nick Long on what the days are, where they happen, who is in the room, and what came of them for three businesses.
What a VIP Day is
A few days in person, working on the business.
A VIP Day is a specialty engagement. FNDRS faculty and consultants work with you and your key people in person, over whiteboards and laptops, for a few days at a time. The executive team's work is taken apart, assessed, calibrated, planned, and relaunched toward specific, measurable targets.
Where
We come to you, or you come to us. One founder in the film went out to the FNDRS office in California and spent two days with the team in a conference room. Another had Nick come to his office and talk to his employees.
Who
Nick Long himself, a member of the team, or, often, a handful of us. Your exit advisor is the one to ask whether a VIP Day is the right fit, because it is not for everybody.
On what
Most often the sales engine: how a customer is found, spoken to, and won. Sometimes a product that needs relaunching, or a problem inside the business that nobody inside can see any more.
The work
What the days are made of
Five verbs, in order. The targets at the end are specific and measurable, so the relaunch can be checked against them in the months that follow.
What came out of the room
Three businesses, and what came of the days
Nick tells three stories in the film. The manufacturer changed nothing about what it made and everything about how it was sold; the other two are told by their numbers, and by a team that started listening to its owner.
- A manufacturer, forty years in business: ten steps in the sales process became four, then the best quarters in its history and a record month.
- A construction staffing company in Florida: a target of $10 million in revenue for the year, and more than $15 million by the end of it.
- A currency exchange with kiosks across Texas and Florida: profit up 64 percent, and a team that started listening to what the owner had been saying for fifteen years.
steps in a sales process, down from ten
revenue in the year, against a $10M target
profit up at a currency exchange
Request a VIP Day
Give us a few days. Bring what is stuck.
Pick the dates, tell us what to cover, and say who you want in the room.
A VIP Day is decided in a conversation, not a form. Send this and someone from the FNDRS team will be in touch to talk through the dates, the work, and whether the days are the right next move.
The elements
What we work on while we are there
The work in the room lands on elements the FNDRS valuation reads directly: the sales engine, the growth it produces, the team that runs the business without the owner, and the owner's own place in it. Each card links to its entry.
- Se14 · Sales EngineDemand produced by a repeatable system rather than the founder’s relationships.
- Rv07 · Revenue GrowthYear-over-year top-line growth, sustained and explainable.
- Md13 · Management DepthA leadership team that runs the company without the owner in the room.
- Od19 · Owner DependenceHow much of revenue, relationships, and decisions route through the owner. Scored as control: higher is safer.
Who it is for
Not for everybody, and worth asking about
The days are for an owner who wants the sales engine running harder and the revenue moving, and who is ready to have it taken apart in front of them. It is a serious investment, so the first step is a conversation with your exit advisor about whether it fits.
- An owner too close to the problem to see it, who wants a third party in the room.
- A sales team to recalibrate, a product to relaunch, or a problem that keeps coming back.
- An owner on the FNDRS path: the first step is still the free gap analysis call, and a VIP Day is one of the steps that can follow it.
companies in FNDRS scalability assessments listed no CRM or structured sales process among their constraints.
Who comes
Nick, a member of the team, or a handful of us
Nick Long leads the days himself or sends members of the FNDRS team, and often several come. Who comes depends on what the days are for; your exit advisor is the one to ask.
Exit advisor, co-founder, and the author of Exit Elements, the book behind the FNDRS Elements®.
Questions
What owners ask before they book
A few days in person with FNDRS faculty and consultants; both engagements told in the film ran two days. The part of the business that is stuck is taken apart on a whiteboard, assessed, calibrated, planned, and relaunched toward targets you can measure. The film at the top of the page is Nick on what the days are.
Either place. We come to you, or you come to us. In the film one founder went out to the FNDRS office in California for two days in a conference room, and another had Nick come to his office and talk to his employees.
Nick Long himself, a member of the FNDRS team, or often a handful of the team. Who comes depends on what the days are for.
Most often the sales engine: how a customer is found, spoken to, and won. A VIP Day is also used to relaunch a product, or to diagnose a problem inside the business that keeps coming back.
It is a significant investment, and the film says so plainly: it is not for everybody. The terms are not published here; talk to your exit advisor about whether a VIP Day fits.
The first step with FNDRS is a free gap analysis call. After it, the step that fits may be the valuation and the roadmap, a VIP Day built around your business, or one of our events. The Accelerator, the plan that runs the ongoing work, follows the roadmap or a VIP Day, by invitation.
You leave with a plan built to be implemented at once. One founder in the film took it back and put it in place right away; the manufacturer went on to its best quarters and a record month. The work after the days follows the targets set in the room.
Put the days on the calendar
Pick your dates and tell us what to cover. The conversation is where a VIP Day is decided.