https://bridgebuildingstrategies.com/

BridgeBuilding Strategies, Waterford Township, MI (2026)

11/04/2026

He ain’t’ heavy, he’s my brother.

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” Maya Angelou

Here we are in November....and Giving Tuesday is nearly upon us - one day where we can express love for our community and those who serve. For nonprofit teams, you've been planning for this day for a long time...probably the day after Giving Tuesday 2025. For those who are thinking of starting, volunteering, or leading in the nonprofit world, this week's message is for you.

Nonprofit founders must follow steps similar to or the same as those a for-profit business, with additional hurdles to clear due to compliance, the workforce, measures of success, and a different way to think about customers and "competition."

Compliance is a key difference. Just like a for-profit, you establish an LLC (typically) and put all the other controls in place to separate the entity from yourself. You must also apply for 501 (c) 3 status federally for tax-exempt status, and a fundraising license in the state.

A second difference has to do with the people involved. While for-profit LLC operators are wise to have an advisory board, it is not required. A non-profit must establish a board and bylaws from the start. Often the work is done by volunteers, not paid employees.

Customer definition and operating goals are also very different. While a for-profit business targets profit, a non-profit will define success differently. The tool is a logic model that focuses on a vision for the future and the inputs, process and outputs that will achieve it. As a nonprofit, your customer is bifurcated - the consumer and the payor are often not the same.

Finally, other entities - in the for-profit space, we call them competitors. In the non-profit sector, where entities "operate for the public good," it is more nuanced. Funders want to see partnerships and alliance. Customers are shared. Financials might favor mergers to save on administrative and structural spend. I prefer the term "coopetition" to define this tenuous balance.

Many of the readiness indicators I've shared for someone thinking of starting a for-profit business apply as well. Make sure you are clear on your goals, that you know who you are serving, and who wants to pay you to do the work. More importantly, try to find someone else already doing the work, and support them first.

Three great places to learn: the book "A Path Appears" by Nick Kristof. Find your tribe in the Michigan Nonprofit Association. Go to the Annual Conference put on by the Troy Chamber of Commerce.

If you'd like to dig deeper, please contact Judy Wilson about the fabulous one-year Nonprofit Management Certificate program offered by Oakland University. You'll learn about all the topics I shared, and more, from those that are the best at what they do to bring love and caring to our community.

Next week, I'll start sharing some thoughts on operational risk management.

10/31/2026

Great opportunity in a beautiful building!

10/28/2026

Big Time

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Benjamin Franklin

Much is written about being successful once you've started a business - sales, funding, advertising, location, etc. But yet, one of the most important times in the start of the business is that moment BEFORE you start a business.

In my work, I've learned that the biggest challenge often originates from the owner's personal situation. If you are a business owner starting out or continuing on after the loss of a partner, please ask yourself these questions.

The Big Picture: Motivation and Financing
WHY?
Are you starting or continuing in business because it was your vision, or are you trying to carry on with someone else's dream? Some of the people that I have met that are struggling the most in their business started with a partner that is no longer there due to death, divorce, disability, or partnership dissolution. They keep trying, using a loan, consumer debt, legacy, severance, 401K or home sales proceeds to keep going, hoping things will get better, but they are not really sure of the destination. Grief also plays a huge part. If you are in this situation, PLEASE take the time to address the grief and make sure you have a solid business plan and a clear goal before you invest another dollar. Hope is not a strategy.

Are you thinking of starting a business because the job market is so challenging? You are not alone, but please make sure you've really exhausted the search for a W2 role. Several people I've coached have changed their job hunt approach and landed the direct role they needed. One used his experience to help others in their search. Another note on this: fractional is a potential path, but there are a lot of people exploring this approach and it takes the same level of commitment as starting any type of business.

Self-Support:

Do you have funds to live on while the business scales? In your first months or years, you will learn a lot and probably lose money. Can you still feed and house yourself? I have met too many wonderful people whose backs are against the wall because they started without this support in place. Hint: it will likely take longer than you think to build revenue, which is why the Shark Tank panel often advises even successful startups to "don't give up the day job yet."

Health

Are you keeping up with preventative health care? The constant stress of running a business can make it challenging to keep up with regular doctor visits, allowing chronic and serious health issues to sneak up without warning. I've had clients experience cancer, diabetes, serious infections and other critical issues, attributing their malaise to stress. Ignored dental health can cause irreversible damage. . Please care for yourself while you care for the business, and don't forget the medical insurance.

Working vehicle

Your car is the least of your worries, right? Yet it needs to be foremost in your thoughts. I had a client whose publicity was growing, and who almost missed an amazing radio interview opportunity because his worn-out car finally would not start. Yes, you can rideshare in a pinch (if you have the funds), but then you're scrambling to get a replacement. Please make sure your transportation gets as much (or more) attention and planning as your growth.

Building a business is challenging and your readiness forms the foundation.

Next week, I'll share additional startup considerations for a nonprofit.

10/21/2026

Who are You?

Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength.” — George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

Last week, I shared the initial steps to establishing a business entity. Nain, LLC, EIN, website, all done, Whew! now its time to start selling. Right? Wrong. Once you know who you are as a small business, you'll need to do a few other things to tell others who you are and be ready for business.

Branding: some things to consider - colors, fonts, logo. Here is the thought process I followed.

My Colors: teal because blue inspires trust/green connotes growth + gold says premium

My Font: I picked Aptos for clarity

My Logo: I picked the triquetra knotwork to express unite and

My Logo: I picked the triquetra knotwork to express unite and integration

My Words: 1. Set the strategy 2. Find and engage the people 3. Document the processes

Branding does not come naturally to most of us. Need some help? Contact Melonie Summers at meloniesummers.com. She is fabulous.

Next - set the structure

-Written business plan, marketing plan, and high-level goals/scorecard - keep it simple

-Bookkeeping system - it can be a spreadsheet

-Basic software - decide if you want to use Google or Microsoft tools

Next Week: I'll share some thoughts about personal readiness to start a business, and why it matters.

10/14/2026

New Day

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Laozi

One of the riskiest times in a company's lifecycle is that moment when success starts to spiral. The pain points are understood, the concept is proven, the revenue is flowing, awards are coming your way. As the leader, you are now facing more complexity than you can manage alone.

Work harder, swim faster, sleep less, go. Or make sure you have the right structures in place. For the next few weeks, I'll share some thoughts on organizational controls, and how they, boring as they seem to be, can save you from the hard part your own success, from doing things right at the start, to managing resources, to managing other drivers of risk.

Start it right. Starting a business is like trying to solve a quadratic equation. There are a few pieces that really should be done together, vs. sequentially. They are:
Understand your pain point/select your name/secure the right domain/think about the email. Although you may learn more over time about what value you bring to your customers' pain points, it helps to know the general theme. You will want to make sure that that translates into a strong name, for which you can then buy the domain and email. Be careful about long names, and how they might translate into an email. Case in point, someone I know came up with the gem: Integrated Product Management. What? Now imagine the email: [email protected]. Oops. Don't do that. Because then when you finish steps 2 and 3, and realize what a terrible name it is, you have to go fix everything, which is harder to do than setting it up in the first place.

Get your LLC/EIN and business bank account. Although you will have to front yourself some money to get started, get the wall up immediately between you and your company. Get registered at the state and local level, and establish a bank account

Set up some rudimentary marketing tools. At minimum, think about your LinkedIn/website, business cards, and a capability statement or some sort of flyer...and the description of products and services to support. Because you'll need a little cash to put in that new bank account.

Next week, I'll share some thoughts on the "next" phase of initiating a business.

10/07/2026

A change would do you good.

"Leave it better than you found it." Girl Scouts Environmental Policy

Over the last few weeks, I've shared some thoughts on people-related training - knowing yourself, knowing and leading others, and dealing with challenging situations. I'll wrap up the "back to school" training messages with some thoughts on great process learning opportunities.

Here's a confession. I am a process geek.

It's not the rule-following that gets me, it's the profitability gained when a process works well and serves the enterprise.

Two of the best learning opportunities AND revenue improvement opportunities I had were tied into process tools: Value Stream Mapping and Theory of Constraints.

Value stream mapping, at its simplest, is drawing a picture of the process and identifying where it could be better. The "current state" picture in and of itself is an important outcome from Value Stream Mapping. JUST WRITING IT DOWN improves the future value of the company. The less that the process lives in the mind of the founder, the more a buyer might see value in the company that can run without the founder.

The bonus is finding the things that aren't working as well as they could (sources of waste) and identifying fixes in the future state and monitoring the ex*****on plan. One of my favorite IT quotes from years ago is relevant for AI automation today - if the "paper" process is poorly designed, automating it just leads to faster chaos.

I was able to apply this training by illustrating a compliance process I had inherited. After observing the work and interviewing the stakeholders, I was able to share an (almost) humorous picture of a process with multiple handoffs that led right back to the initiator. That "open loop" often resulted in late, expensive change and risks of recall. Our team was able to drive the development of a closed loop process, which saved over $2M saved per year just on processing work orders...not including air shipping, overtime and other costs of speed. And then we automated it.

Add constraints evaluation to your process map, and you now have makings of increased revenue. By knowing where your bottlenecks are, you can eliminate them or optimize around them.

When putting together a strategy that required prioritizing engineering work through a constrained resource, we were able to improve the revenue impact of the strategy by $80M by focusing on the highest aggregate contribution margin products first.

Would savings like these encourage you to become a process geek?

The 4th quarter of the year is a time when many of us are working on strategic planning, next year's goals, and the like. Next week, I'll start sharing some thoughts around risk management...as risk management and controls form a key part of the strategic plan.

Confession: it's possible I'm also a controls geek.

09/30/2026

She Drives Me Crazy

"L'enfer, c'est les autres." (Hell is the others - Sartre)

Moving from an individual contributor role to a people leader is a huge step. Whether in a corporate role, cafeteria supervisor in college (my first leadership role), leading a nonprofit team, or hiring for your business, no level of preparation can seem enough for this major step. And that's usually what we get - no preparation. We all hear that people leave bosses, so tools for success are critical.

This week, I'd like to share two tools for people management.

For a first time people leader, I cannot recommend enough the learnings from Situational Leadership, by the Center for Leadership Studies. Based on over 50 years of leadership research, this one day training helps a leader understand their default leadership style and learn ways to adapt to their team members' readiness and willingness for different types of work. I learned that I tended to underlead in most cases, and overlead in one. I strongly recommend reading the newly-published book and then taking advantage of the trainng. It is truly transformational.

For everyone, Crucial Conversations gets you out of constant fighting or avoidance mode to have the courage to address important issues productively. I generally dislike and therefore avoided conflict, until I found a better way to respectfully open the door to talk about important things collaboratively.

Of course, both of these tools need to rest on a foundation of performance management that ties to an organization's mission.

Would love to hear about your ways to move past the "crazy hell" of people leadership.

Next week, I'll close out this "back to school" series by sharing some fun learning opportunities around process development and improvement.

09/23/2026

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” — Epictetus

You're sitting in your office, after six hours of meetings that were supposed to be four, went nowhere, and have followups scheduled. Then the team member pops by: "can I have a quick five minutes?" Forty minutes later, you're both frustrated. Also, your day is now officially toast.

Take your time back. As part of my "back to school" thoughts on learning opportunities, I'll build on last week's tools for knowing yourself, and share some great learning opportunities for communicating with others.

First - meetings. Often a massive waste of time, revisiting complex issues time and time again with no resolution and a lot of irritation. We've all learned about meeting best practices, but unless you have taken "Essential Facilitation," with Interaction Associates, you haven't learned about the phases of a conversation, preventions, interventions and what to do when you don't know what to do. This training is truly life changing.

Second - meandering, unplanned conversations. You can turn these conversations into incredibly focused and impactful outcomes. Spend four hours with Strategic Rebellion and learn about their Two Minute Revolution.

You're welcome.

Next week I'll share two more "people" learning opportunities,and then will wrap up with some great process/tool education.

09/16/2026

Know yourself.

“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment." – Marcus Aurelius

To celebrate the start of the school year, I’m sharing some of the best learning experiences I’ve had, and I’ll start with the start…knowing yourself. Four assessments really helped bring clarity for me and people I support: Myers-Briggs, Clifton Strengths (formerly StrengthsFinder) Enneagram and purpose assessment.
Myers-Briggs can be incredibly helpful for personal understanding, and from knowing how to best manage your drivers of energy…and to really understand why you may plan everything out to the nth degree and relish quiet time, while your partner likes to wing it and socialize. INTJ.

From a career perspective, Clifton Strengths posits that it is generally more impactful to focus on and build from your strengths, and find roles that best fit those strengths vs. trying to remedy weaknesses. The assessment provides insights on which types of roles will be the best fit, and the who might best complement you. Categories include: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. One of my most satisfying work moments was working with a colleague who was considering a role change. He was completely focused on technical roles so he could use his engineering degree….until his assessment came back with all people-related strengths. Context, Achiever, Responsibility, Analytical, Learner.

I have found that an Enneagram assessment really complements both Myers-Briggs and Clifton Strengths, bringing together the personal and professional in a very insightful way. 5 -Quiet Specialist.

A purpose assessment brings it all together. Thank you, Doris Hage, for an eye-opening reading that’s helping me navigate a number of recent transitions.

Next week, I'll share some thoughts on great educational opportunities to work with others.

09/09/2026

In My Life

"The most important things cannot be measured." W. Edwards Deming

I've recently shared thoughts about things that can and should be measured, and how to track them on a scorecard for either a small business or nonprofit. Lots to do with the head.

Surprise! The most important work I have done over the past three years has nothing to do with numbers or the head, but with the heart. The universe has seen fit to connect me with some amazing people who are building impactful organizations - for-profit, non-profit, and often both. I've been gifted with the chance to be there and help with things that go beyond the business entity. As I share these stories, I'm using "they" to keep these examples as anonymous as possible.

My first client was a successful business owner/nonprofit founder/community leader. They took care of everyone and were frazzled and overwhelmed. We did an exercise to enable more powerful "nos," and established criteria for new requests for this leader's time. We never initiated a scorecard - didn't need it.

The most impactful client engagement I've had involved scheduling a medical appointment, but I didn't know it at the time. I was helping a successful/overwhelmed business leader sort out a number of issues and set a vision for less chaotic operations. I found that they were not taking care of themself. I helped them get insurance and schedule appointments. They were relieved to get an overdue dental procedure done that helped with headaches. They were shocked when they finally got their physical and found that their feelings of exhaustion were due to an untreated, potentially dangerous chronic health issue. When they addressed the issue, many other pieces fell into place. No metrics, no run charts.

The second most important engagement I had was helping an overwhelmed local business owner and nonprofit/community leader simplify a complex situation to find a path that prioritized their well-being. Again, this client took care of everyone else, and carried a tremendous financial and personal burden to do so. They also carried a legacy from a loved one that they felt was important to honor. I listened to their story, acknowledged their grief, and we got started. I helped them sort out personal financials, an exit strategy from each entity, and a plan forward that allowed them to set boundaries. Metrics focused on the person, not the enterprise.

Finally, I've been working with an overwhelmed business leader who has succeeded beyond their planned vision. We are building a scorecard that includes the usual suspects but also includes "joy."

I hope you've noticed my excessive use of the word overwhelmed. That is a key pain point for most of the leaders I support, and it is a blessing to help them clarify and find a path forward.

This note concludes my series on business metrics. In honor of the academic year starting, I'll focus my next series on highly impactful learning opportunities.

BridgeBuilding Strategies

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