Strategic Business Solutions

Professional Catalyst

A catalyst is an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action. A professional catalyst can help you jump-start important projects, analyze your current situation, identify your most promising opportunities, and deliver solutions that achieve significant results.

Do you neglect critical long-term projects because you are so busy fighting urgent fires every day? What effect would successfully completing such a project have on your life and business?

For more than 20 years, Strategic Business Solutions founder Steve Mortensen has helped initiate and manage positive change for many individuals and organizations. His hands-on experience in front-line, management, executive, and entrepreneurial problem solving is coupled with a lengthy background in training and coaching. He is a realist who shares insights gained from personal experience with both success and failure, while maintaining an energetic and positive outlook on the future.

Steve has worked for five companies in the capacities of CEO, Vice President, Sales Manager, Product Manager, entrepreneur, troubleshooter, salesman, clerk, teacher, and coach (Thermal Source, Keith Company, Harper International, Xerox, Edison Brothers). His experience includes 4 years in retail (consumer products), 14 years in manufacturing (custom-engineered capital equipment), and 5 years in information technology (hardware systems, software development, and Internet services), interspersed with many teaching and training assignments since 1983.

He attended Mt. San Antonio College, Xerox Northstar (electro-mechanical troubleshooting and repair), Los Angeles Broadcasters (radio on-air and production training, maintains an FCC radio station operators permit), and has spent more than 24 months on international assignments throughout Asia, Latin America, and Europe. He has also been an active member of The Executive Committee (TEC), and is an Eagle Scout.

In addition to his personal experience, Steve's affiliation with experts in key disciplines provides a broad range of problem solving and creative capabilities, all focused on helping you or your company discover and achieve your unique potential for greatness.

A sampling of results . . .

Created and led a training and mentoring program for 5 sales personnel that enabled a company to grow by 43% from $2,100,000 to $3,000,000 in a 2 year period while the industry was declining by 78%.

Created and implemented a sales plan that resulted in international sales growth from $82,000 to $1,410,000 per year in 3 years, an increase of 1619%.

Developed a sales proposal and customer qualification methodology that reduced the time required to quote projects by about 75%, and increased the firm proposal closing ratio from 12% to 38% within a 12 month period.

Led a product development team that sold a $340,000 prototype machine, managed the project to within 2% of budget, and won 3 additional orders for duplicate equipment based on the success of the prototype.

Developed standard procedures for field service personnel and provided training that within a 90-day period increased gross profitability of service jobs from 29% to 42%.

Analyzed five competitive manufacturing businesses for sale, and played a key role in determining which one was the right acquisition. Within 9 months, this acquisition was producing more than 70% of the sales of the entire company.

Wrote a business acquisition analysis and strategy that helped the buyer reduce the purchase price from about $400,000 to $275,000.

Wrote the business plan for a start-up company that raised $200,000 in seed and venture capital, helped establish $200,000 in unsecured supplier credit, and nearly closed an additional venture capital round of $440,000.

Developed a plan for promoting an industrial website that within 4 months increased the number of users by 478%. Also optimized many web pages containing unique content so they consistently appear in the top 10 Google search results.

Created a virtual online tour of historic sites for a 12,000,000 member worldwide religious organization.

. . . and much more.

Are you ready to explore and seize your opportunites?

Call 951.765.7664 to make it happen.