Brand Story Using Narrative & Client Testimonials
Client Testimonials
Website Content + Client Testimonials
Gloria Sica of Fulcrum Drive wanted to create a new website and re-introduce her executive consulting work to future clients with the story of trust and results best told by four of her current clients. As a highly respected facilitator and business growth advisor, Gloria’s clients shared how their organizations benefited from her strategic partnership.
Doris Yeh
CEO and CoFounder, Mirapath
Cupertino, California
When Gloria started working with Mirapath, a digital infrastructure company based in Cupertino, California, she quickly assessed the company’s financial situation for founder and president, Doris Yeh.
“In 2 days, Gloria said, ‘Doris, this is how much you need to make to be profitable,’ and she started working with my accounting manager to do this,” Yeh said. “She also advised me to hire someone on a higher managerial level to oversee my finance. She helped me write the role and, ultimately, helped hire our Vice President of Finance and Operations.”
“She has the leadership skills to know what’s best for the company. As a leader, you have to be selfless — to do what’s right for the organization. She’s been this trusted person who looked at our business from the outside and wanted to bring the best to Mirapath and help us continue to grow.”
Gloria also focused on Mirapath’s leadership development and sales coaching. She facilitated multiple leadership team meetings as well as the “all-hands” annual meeting.
“Most consultants want to come on and stay on forever, but Gloria writes herself out of a job by looking out for the company. She truly cares for the success of Mirapath, and as a CEO, that’s important to me.”
“She cares beyond the parameters she’s been hired in. She wants to make an impact, holistically. When a CPA looks at the books — the books don’t explain everything. Gloria extrapolates herself from the numbers to see how it relates to the whole business.”
Gloria is the first person Yeh will call in the future for Mirapath’s growth or change. “Surround yourself with people who want you to be successful and tell you where you are strongest and where you have work to do.”
“When push comes to shove — what did your consultant do for you? Gloria has been different in many ways. When a consultant becomes a trusted friend and advisor — you’re going to call on them for the lifetime of your business.”
Jim Consolo
President, Integrated Power Systems (IPS)
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Gloria was referred to Jim Consolo, President and Founder of Integrated Power Systems (IPS), by his CPA.
With Gloria's help, the power reliability technical firm implemented and streamlined accounting systems and software.
"I have a business degree, and I have an accounting degree, but I'm not a CFO. I needed to know we were doing our books correctly," Consolo said. "She showed our team the right way to handle the books and close them out every month .... which means the world to our bank. I have a great credit line, and the bank loves Gloria. They know our books are spot-on accurate. Banks don't give out loans to small companies without seeing their books are in order."
"We upgraded to QuickBooks Enterprise, and Gloria helped me hire an incredible bookkeeper. She likes to find out what's going on and fix things. She digs in, and then we laugh about it. She's easy-going and fun to work with."
Gloria's advisory role began in March of 2016 and continues today. She reviews IPS's monthly financial statements and serves as a sounding-board for Jim.
“She used to be a CFO — so you can go from very low-level ‘how do we enter this in QuickBooks?’ to a high level ‘should we be expanding across the country?”
When IPS acquired another company, Gloria was involved.
"She helped negotiate the price of the business. It was game-changing for us. We now do inter-company business. She's asking 'what products should we drop what should we pick up and what are our margins?'"
"Gloria helped us merge the books between the two companies from two different platforms. There are strategies for that. Now, if we get audited, I know everything is done right."
"We don't have human resources; we're 12 people, so Gloria's invaluable to me. She understands my business, and I call on her for C-Level decisions."
"Most small business leaders don't have anyone to collaborate with and would benefit from Gloria's partnership. She brings up aspects I haven't thought of and is always available to me. During the start of COVID, she stayed up to date with the Paycheck Protection Program. I had help from my bank, but most small businesses didn't know what to do. Gloria kept all her clients updated. She called to check in on all of us."
Kate McCarron
Founder and President
Portland, Oregon
In early 2019, Kate McCarron, Founder, and President Portland Pet Food Company was referred to Gloria to streamline her accounting system for growth. PPFC was a fast-growing, private equity funded, new consumer products venture with success in its sights.
"We're an emerging growth company, and I had a part-time bookkeeper and brought Gloria in for her expertise on a CFO level," McCarron said.
PPFC was transitioning from QuickBooks desktop to an online version. Gloria helped with the transition and restructured the chart of accounts to meet industry standards. She also designed and implemented inventory and sales channel tracking and processes to capture manufacturing costs without investing in a high-priced ERP system. In 2020 she created a model to produce 5-year financial projections based on business planning and marketing assumptions, helping PPFC secure bridge financing.
Gloria also advised on expanding and helped hire a marketing manager, wrote management job descriptions, and helped screen and select two key management personnel for the fast-growing local manufacturer. She continues to train the internal bookkeeper and close the company's books monthly.
“Besides just looking at the business’s financials, she’s always looking at our overall growth, company health, and plans for expanding our space and production facilities.”
"Gloria's responsive and open to working with several team members. She truly understands small business, which is very different from corporate."
"We have a weekly call where we review the books and financials. This past year, Gloria has been instrumental in going after our successful fundraising round."
"When COVID hit, there was much confusion in the beginning. We applied for the Payroll Protection Program and secured it, and she advised us through that. We've been operating through everything. We are an essential business — dogs still need to eat, so we've had very aggressive production for this year. We're extremely fortunate to have Gloria on board in 2020."
Cory Hesseltine
Founder and Owner, Eco Electric & Plumbing
Seattle, Washington
Having three QuickBooks databases for a single company was a considerable hurdle for Cory Hesseltine when he was referred to Gloria in 2016. The Seattle-based founder and owner of Eco Electric & Plumbing needed help — and fast. The company’s already overly-complex financial system was compromised further when Eco’s QuickBooks advisor walked off the job.
"Gloria rode in on her horse and picked up the pieces and helped us tremendously," Hesseltine said. "She reacted incredibly fast, so we didn't lose much data. I don't know how we could have done it without her."
After merging and cleaning up the databases, Gloria also oversaw the integration of Service Titan, a field service software. She tied the two systems together, combining all reports.
Gloria also helped Hesseltine and his accounting staff conform to accrual-based accounting instead of cash, allowing Eco’s team to analyze the business's performance adequately. She trained and mentored the staff to manage several previously outsourced accounting functions.
Today, Hesseltine and Gloria continue to meet weekly via Zoom calls with Eco's operations manager and lead bookkeeper. The four discuss and address accounting and other business issues, including collections and proper job costing.
"They quickly determined regular meetings help me stay informed and help the team prioritize and solve problems proactively," Gloria said.
“She’s phenomenal with projections and forecasting,” Hesseltine said. “She’s incredibly in tune with business models. Gloria is just sharp. She knows the processes; she knows systems to handle our work and industry practices we don’t.”
"I trust her implicitly and know she's guiding my employees. She's very good at that. Nothing is going in or out that we don't know about."
During the COVID onset, Gloria also helped guide Eco through Payroll Protection Program logistics to ensure the small business stayed ahead of a precarious and complicated moment.
"She's straightforward and very opinionated. When you work with Gloria, you get someone who is very direct and honest with you, but you have to be ready — not everyone wants to hear the truth."