In Theory & In Practice: Best Practices for a Theory of Change
BY: BEN ROMERO, Advisory Services Associate Not since “.org” has a buzzword spread through the non-profit world with such saturation and expediency. You hear it exalted by funders, muttered by staff members, shouted in the middle of the night by…
Growing Pains: Common Challenges to New Orleans’ Businesses and Non-Profits
On my first day at trepwise, I found myself sitting in a sea of rabbis eating guacamole. This was not what I expected for a first day at a consulting firm, to say the least. I was helping make patterns…
The Importance of Budgeting
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear budgeting? You might think it sounds like a lot of time to spend in Excel just to build financials that won’t be “correct” anyway. But building a budget is as…
Perfecting Your Pitch
The first step for every venture as it evolves from idea to reality is belief— belief on the part of the entrepreneur that their idea is one worth investing energy. Obviously, one believer is not enough — the rest of…
How Non-profits Can Use Impact Metrics to Keep Their “Eye on the Why”
Running a successful organization is an exercise in balance between short-term needs and a long-term vision. We all get caught up in the “tyranny of the immediacy”- when operational necessities and challenges demand our attention at the expense of strategic…
How REI, Southwest and Whole Foods Built Company Cultures that Drive Their Success, and So Can You
In today’s business world, there are few corporate clubs more elusive than being known as a “top place to work.” Organizations with the reputation of having a great work culture continue to attract top talent and thrive, while others with…
How to Master Your Sales Process For B2B Sales
Like everything else in business, effectively selling requires a process. Whether you’re a member of a sales team or an entrepreneur, defining and mastering a systematized sales process is a key element in operating a successful business. The focus of…
How to Run Your Life More Like a Business
It is common practice in the business world for owners to take time to work “on” their business instead of “in” it, to use frameworks and build strategies in order to achieve specific goals. Whether you are running a stand…
Growing your Business by Building a Network
Love it or hate it, everyone has some sort of opinion on networking. And let’s be honest, it can seem like a daunting task, especially if you are attending a conference filled with events, seminars and after-hour meetups. One such…
Are you Netflix or Blockbuster? How a Clear Vision is Vital to Innovation
There is tension in our modern business economy, between scalability and adaptability. On one side, start-up companies are agile, rapidly evolving as they look for a successful business model. Their goal is to standardize this model and scale. On the…
Finding Your Inner Entrepreneur
Spending a few seconds searching the Internet for “what it takes to be an entrepreneur,” will net you thousands of responses and opinions. Likewise, there is a growing field of academic research analyzing how entrepreneurial principles have sparked growth in…
Scaling Your Business
In the first Trep Tip we discussed how to construct a value proposition—distilling the fundamental premise of your business into the problem you’re solving, the solution, and the corresponding price. Nailing down a value proposition is complicated, and will likely…