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The consultant hiding in plain sight
By Chris Herbert
Being a small business owner is tough.
You work hard. You keep long hours. You love
being your own boss.
But growing your business is challenging.
Curt Fowler can help with that.
Fowler is the owner of Fowler & Company, a
consulting firm that works with small businesses
around Valdosta. His primary goal is to increase the
value of companies and help them grow.
Think of Fowler as your business sherpa. He
can guide companies through developing a business
plan that not only helps provide growth to your
company but does so in a sustainable way.
Why should business owners
trust his advice?
Well, his bona fides speak for
themselves.
Fowler, a native son of Valdo-
sta, graduated with an MBA from
Northwestern’s Kellogg School
of Management. The top-ranked
program at the time, he gained in-
valuable knowledge from business
leaders around the globe. After
graduation, he crossed the Atlantic
Ocean and spent two months in
Tanzania working for the “Peace
Corps for MBAs.” After spending
those two months in Africa, Fowler returned state-
side to Albany, Ga., for a private equity job.
He learned a lot, but Fowler wanted to start
something of his own.
So, three months into his marriage and his wife
pregnant with their first child, he left his corporate
job in March 2011 and came back to the Azalea
City.
He returned to start Fowler & Company and to
work as a director for his father’s accounting firm
Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey while his consult-
ing business got off the ground.
Family is everything to Fowler. He works with
his father. He remains happily married and has four
children of his own, ranging in age from 3 to 8.
“It’s awesome that I get to work with my dad
every day,” Fowler said.
Fowler & Co. operates under three guiding
principles when working with a client: clarity, oper-
ate in excellence and ability to execute a plan.
“You need clarity in your goals,” Fowler said.
“What are you doing and how are you getting
there?”
Part of that clarity is an emphasis on numbers
and data.
“Everybody wants to know if
they’re winning,” Fowler said. “I
don’t want to wonder if I’m win-
ning. I want to know.”
With that concrete evidence,
your company also needs to oper-
ate excellently.
“Are we a great place to work?”
asked Fowler. “Are we becoming a
better place to work?”
Workplace culture and envi-
ronment prove critical to employee
happiness and recruitment. People,
while tremendously important, are
not the only operational concern
as an employer. Money on hand is crucial.
“Cash is king, small business especially where
you have less opportunities. You can’t sell a division.
You can’t do a public offering. You can’t do a bond
offering,” Fowler said. “If the cash runs out, you’re
done. The music stops. There’s no chairs. So, the first
thing you do is figure out cash. How are we doing
on cash and what’s our trajectory?”
Finally, the ability to execute a plan becomes
paramount.
Fowler will give his client a powerful weapon to
execute his strategies: the binder.
“I don’t want
to wonder if
I’m winning.
I want to
know.”
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