Finding business solutions that make sense for your company

From the October 27 edition of the Haney Bugel

“Everything happens for a purpose,” says Tom Manion of Manion and Associates Financial Services, so when Dean Barbour stepped down from his post as executive director of the Chamber of Commerce last summer Tom saw it as an opportunity – a chance to round out the services he was able to offer clients, especially those who owned businesses.

To that end, Dean and Tom set about establishing Manion and Associates Business Solutions in an effort to help existing business clients and others with developing not only their businesses, but also their lifestyles.

Dean’s small business and marketing background, his knowledge of public relations and market research, and his understanding of start-ups and growth opportunities will form the core of what Manion and Associates Business Solutions can offer clients.

“We’re looking to assist people who are currently running a business, or who need help getting one off the ground,” says Dean. “We’re offering customized solutions to the problems and issues that face business people on a daily basis.”

“What I’ve discovered after more than 15 years in the small business industry is that the owners of small and medium-sized businesses usually don’t have a lot of people they can turn to for competent, reliable advice.

“Our goal will be to act as a sounding board, and then help to figure out solutions that actually work. We’ll do that with appropriate market and industry research, efficiency planning, expansion planning and whatever else it takes to help these business owners to succeed.”

In addition, however, Manion and Associates Business Solutions will also help business owners look at how to balance their lives so that business isn’t all consuming.

“Balance is essential to any successful business person,” Dean stresses. “Personal issues compete with business issues, and when either is out of balance the whole picture can be thrown out of whack. We have strategies for helping people get all facets of their life in order so that they can succeed at all levels.

“At the end of the day, what we want to do is help our clients create long-term investments in their lives. Not just their business lives, but their personal lives, because, really, business success is just a tool for achieving personal success.”

Dean says that can all be accomplished because Manion and Associates Business Solutions has a large network of professionals in a wide variety of fields who can be called upon to help create solutions.

“If our personal knowledge base isn’t adequate, we know whom to call in to help,” he notes. “Common sense approaches are the paths we take, and Manion and Associates takes its motto – Service, Integrity and Knowledge – very seriously.”