Nature’s Way Resources is and always has been a small mom and pops company with many of the problems that come with it. The owner of the company retired mentally long before he retired physically while leaving people in a position of power that did not have the skill set or drive to do so. When I came on board, I created a plan called Operation Swiss Watch, which was a two-year plan to help the company get back on track. Unfortunately, this plan was highly focused on operations and neglected what was happening behind the scenes. When Cogent Analytics came on board, they helped fix and streamline several different problems ranging from accounting, manufacturing costs, and sales. With the help of Cogent Analytics, a path to leave the mom and pops size company and grow into a small business has been developed.
Things that happened behind the scenes often when unnoticed by me as I was focused on the operation side of things. This is my strong suit since I have worked every labor position in the company which made it hard for employees to give excuses and easier for me to train them on how to do things in a more effective and efficient manner. I was looking at the finances completely wrong and in a way that would stunt growth moving forward. It was an extremely simple view of cash on hand and not how money moved through the company, what the true cost of labor and benefits are, and what the true overhead cost are. Through the help of Cogent Analytics, we have created several different workbooks to monitor, predict, and highlight areas of concern. This was accomplished through weekly meetings establishing better cash management procedures, creating a flex budget, and how to use the workbooks created. This included changing roles in our accounting department, so the lead employee is now a controller instead of a bookkeeper.
Another huge problem that we overcame was determining the manufacturing costs of our products. This was done years ago on a piece of land that was ten times smaller and with equipment that the company no longer owned. Through a series of exercises, I was able to figure out how to quantify and assign costs to specific tasks within the manufacturing process. This has given me a true and accurate cost which in turn allowed us to have a solid profit margin in the products we manufacture. Like the accounting department, several different workbooks were created so we can know the costs of different products at a moment’s notice. This would include things like price changes in feedstock or new equipment being introduced to the company. I now have an in-depth knowledge on how to calculate these things and price them as needed.
A year prior to Cogent Analytics, Nature’s Way Resources went through a significant changeover in employees, especially in the sales department. Along with the new employees we encountered a significant problem with our trucking company. It went under and we had less than a week to find new companies to deliver our products. While we were putting out this fire another one began to grow that flew under the radar. Our pallet sales dropped off significantly by almost a half million dollars in 2023. Cogent was able to identify this and create new job descriptions along with KPI’s to revitalize this department of the company. Through training, we changed the way sales were approached. Instead calling and trying to close deals the day of, we now are building relationships with our customers and offering extra services to better help and educate their staff. Again, like the other departments, a workbook was created to track sales through the initial contact, meeting, and closing dates. This allows me to keep my sales manager on track and a way to hold him accountable if things start to go wrong. Along with the workbooks, we have been able to develop commission for this position and figured out how to compensate deliveries when a customer reaches a certain price point on purchases.
The team members here at Nature’s Way have a better understanding of their position and what is required of them to help us succeed. Not everyone was on board at first but as time when on and their understanding became better, they accepted and embraced their roles within the company. Our accounting manager, now controller, benefited the most from this experience and will be able to catch or predict where issues will arise financially. Our sales manager has been reinvigorated and embraced the outside sales which is a key step in growing the company, plus he will enjoy the commission the Cogent helped us to establish. As for me, the CEO, I was woefully unprepared for this mentorship. I have been a blue-collar worker my entire life and the few management roles I did have were well defined and I knew the roles of the people below me and above me. This however is completely different as every decision comes from me and a mistake here has drastic impacts on the rest of the company. Many of the topics were completely esoteric for me and difficult to grasp. Cogent help explain things in a manner that I could understand and take small steps in understanding the bigger picture. I thought I would get more from this experience but wasn’t able to since I was so far behind or lacked the skills needed to properly perform in this position. I have high hopes for the future as the training does not end here and I will have weekly support from Cogent to ensure we keep pushing forward and we do not back slide.
Ian Ferguson
CEO
The purpose of Nature’s Way Resources is to provide Environmentally Safe and Effective Solutions for their customers. These solutions range from organic waste disposal, to gardening and landscaping supplies, consulting and much more.
