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NEWS, UPDATES & RESOURCES.

‘Resilience: We know we can … overcome any challenge that is presented to us.’

Deborah Steinthal, Managing Director I Scion Advisors I McMinnville, Oregon This is a follow up to my May 2020 article, ‘How COVID-19 is making ‘warriors’ out of wine entrepreneurs’. I wrote how the events of 2020 ‘would make warriors out of Northwest wine and...

How COVID-19 is making ‘warriors’ out of wine entrepreneurs.

Author - Deborah Steinthal, Managing Director I Scion Advisors I McMinnville, Oregon COVID-19’s toll on the wine industry is substantial, with potential long-term consequences. Everyone’s context has been scrambled. Things are super fluid. It is impossible to guess...

Learn to control less and delegate more

For the last three years, I have been coaching a wicked-smart, millennial winemaker and G2 winery owner – let’s call him Mark to give him a face. Lately, Mark and I have been working on how to build effective teams during high-stress, high-change periods, such as this...

17 Points on Strategic Leadership – from food and beverage CEOs

Strategic leadership consists not only of the vision element, but also encompasses other wide-ranging factors. These 17 points from successful CEOs, offer winery leaders a powerful place to start exploring strategic leadership, deepen their practice - to continue...

Four steps to building a business that’s worth more and achieve your goals!

A successful business exit strategy is normally a two-five year process depending upon a number of factors. This article lays out important steps for preparing your business so it can be worth more to a buyer: building business, emotional and financial readiness.

Why small businesses rarely scale and big ones die-off.

At Scion Advisors, we have worked with over 130 private business owners to drive profitable growth. Through this article, we address: what can we learn from businesses that grow and thrive, sustainably? When things don’t work out, we discover a combination of ‘misses’...

Transitioning Your Brewery to the Next Generation

Over the years, plenty of craft founders have discussed the idea — Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione and Sierra Nevada’s Ken Grossman come to mind — but it’s not something that grabs headlines. As the craft brewing industry continues to evolve, (publisher)...

How to drive a 30%+ increase in customer lifetime value through a great Customer Experience.

This article outlines best practices for driving increased customer loyalty and advocacy though thoughtfully designed customer experience architectures. Research is showing a 10% rise in customer retention can yield a 30+% increase in value to the company

How to grow cash and equity for more financial security: The cigar box approach

by Hank Salvo, Managing Director, Scion Advisors. Let’s face it -- owning your own business is about having the freedom to make choices and to take risk at your own pace. Winery owners today are increasingly concerned about how to get to financial...

Four steps to building a business that’s worth more and achieve your goals!

Scenario example: Building cash by building EBIT (a cash flow surrogate).

Hank Salvo, Managing Director. A 100,000 case winery owned by a first generation (G1) founder plans to sell his business to his kids. To achieve their objectives, the family business must grow to accommodate more second generation (G2) owners and generate more cash...

Personal Readiness for an Exit.

Are YOU ready for a sale - emotionally and financially? Most entrepreneurial owners have worked 7 X 24 to build their business and have an excruciating time letting go once they sell. Have you figured out what you want to accomplish in your life post sale? If you...

Why small businesses rarely scale and big ones die-off.

Nine innovative ways companies are winning.

The past six months have been less stellar than predicted in this post crisis environment. Four factors stand out that are driving flat foodand beverage trends and weak growth prospects through the remainder of the year: (1) market variation ; (2)...

How to expand your digital sales channels.

What will it take to scale online wine sales to a billion dollar sales channel? Last night when I watched my husband shop for garden chemicals through AMAZON.COM on his IPAD, two things struck me as odd. First, the IPAD: my husband is the last adopter...