Gaining the Business Edge - Small Business Finance featuring Tom Steen

Join Tom Steen and your fellow New Iowa Entrepruners group members for this excitiong new presentation about your opportunities to reposition your business and connect it to new financial resources in the community.

Tom will share how the vision and operations plan for his business operations have changed since the recent dramatic impacts in the world of business financing and the financial markets.

Featuring Tom Steen - of Transition Capital Management
http://www.transcm.co... and Business Edge LLC

Business Edge to help mid-market businesses
BY TODD RAZOR
Three business veterans have combined their experiences, resources and knowledge to provide consulting for small to medium-sized businesses through a new corporate venture, Business Edge LLC.

"Together, we have 90-plus years of experience," said Barry Pace, co-founder of Business Edge and owner of PaceSetter Consulting LLC. "We can walk in and make an impact from day one."

Each of the three co-founders brings different areas of expertise to the table. Pace specializes in leadership, marketing and sales services. Terry Myers, a management consultant, has experience with operations, finance and general management. Tom Steen, owner of Transition Capital Management, works in venture capital and private equity management, company acquisitions and sales of companies.

"This group is designed to get involved as consultants on a temporary basis," Steen said. "We are not trying to stay in permanently. We get in, identify the real issues and address them quickly (so that the companies) can move forward in the corporate marketplace."

The Business Edge professionals can help middle-market businesses by providing insight into areas such as sales and marketing, how to improve operations, advising on the use of assets and how to efficiently and effectively attract capital, Myers said. "Businesses need to be cleaned up to attract capital," he said.

Steen hopes that their services can help foster a "serial entrepreneurial environment" in Iowa, which in recent years has been on the bottom of the list for the amount of "venture capital flowing into private companies" in the state, he said.

The company's motto states that Business Edge will be "helping organizations revitalize, restore or create stakeholder value."

Though Steen began building the concept of Business Edge more than three years ago, he "brought it to life" in fall 2007. Pace and Myers joined him around the beginning of the year. The company was incorporated in March and, Pace said, the founders are now actively soliciting clients. They have made various proposals and are in negotiations with some businesses.

Future plans for Business Edge include expansion and adding staff "as success is generated," Pace said, but, the company will not offer peripheral services, such as advertising and graphic design.

"We are more than consultants; we are operators," Steen said.