Lisa Toenniges “Tailored to Fit”

How do you get ahead in this economy as an entrepreneur? According To Lisa Toenniges, (C.E.O. founder of the Innovative Learning Group) You have to look ahead and see what’s next. Whatever business you are in, if you cannot look ahead and forecast some trends for the future then your business may be in trouble. After finding out, on a Thursday that her company was folding in a couple of days, Lisa instantly started creating her own business and was ready to operate by Sunday. She stayed in the same line of work and mananged to keep most of the same clients. With 8 employees, she was able to become profitable in a month and a half, and her company is now worth approximately 3 million dollars.

She was able to take her experience in her former company and apply that to her own. She realized that the most important part of any business is the customer relationship. Many speakers have mentioned the fact the customer relations and service can make or break a business. Lisa also have to make sure that she has a very good relationship with her more than 250 free lancers that she contract to do certain jobs. She was very clear that she makes sure that all eight employees set expectations and give feedback whenever it is neccessary.

Innovative Learning Group (ILG) is a company that focuses on companies that have an annual revenue of over half  a billion, and need a customized training program. ILG is a service based company that focuses on companies who have something out of whack, a lack of skill or knowledge, A lack of technology, or a lack of core capabilities. The company can customize any program and works mostly with businesses trying to implement new programs or technology.

I was impressed with Lisa’s presentation and could tell right away that her school teaching experience has been very helpful throughout her career. She hit on a lot of great points such as, her companies integrity. They will tell a company if they do not think the training will help them solve their problem. As she puts it, “We do not want to train butts in a chair.” She also mentioned the importance of giving, whether it was money, time, or knowledge. The most important thing she said was for entrepreneurs to make sure they have a vision and know what they expect there business to look like down the road. She could probably easily expand her employees to 50 instead of 8, but she has decided that she wants to grow her company “Steadily and Profitably”.