Frequently Asked Questions

The software facilitates the systematic STUCK Breakthrough Strategies advisory process. Businesses who follow this process get to create an actionable, simple single-page business plan and are then provided with the execution tools needed to achieve it.

Businesses who use the software say it has increased their team’s accountability, engagement and helped align everyone to their single-page plan.

Our Growth Tools for Businesses page explains more about how we can help your business grow.

To learn how we helped small-to-midsized business grow, please refer to our success stories page.

Business owners and/or the leadership team will partner with either an internal (current employee of your company) or external (3rd party) certified STUCK advisor to use the software. It offers data, information and file storage, report generation and access to numerous tools in order to help businesses grow. The utilization of these tools and storage follows the time-activated and flexible STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process.

After getting registered to use the Platform, the advisor and designated business users of it will get access to their account by going to https://platform.getunstuck.com/index.aspx. 

For interested businesses: learn how our tools and strategies can help you grow.

For interested advisors: please refer to Become an Advisor.

The software is as simple as we could make it while still having the ability to take advantage of advanced features, such as:

• The ability to accurately record and compare your monthly results
• The storage of your external documents used at team meetings
• The option to add unlimited users to your account
• Add your budget and update your financial forecast
• Email and print your work

Our advisors are trained to use the software and will be available to answer any questions.

We want to get that question answered right away! Please call us at 414-837-5337 so we can help you resolve it.

The cost is dependent on how you plan to use it. We are happy to discuss the different options including:

1. • whether you want to self-implement the software
   • individually go through the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process with a Certified STUCK Advisor
   • join a facilitated Peer Advisory Group

We understand all businesses all have unique needs when it comes to paying for software and services. That’s why we made this tool affordable with the option of paying either annually or monthly for the license and any services requested.

We are excited to help you grow your business! First, please contact us so we can learn more about your business and how we can help you maximize the impact of the tool.

We will talk about:

• who will help you go through our advisory process (whether that’s an advisor we pair you with or an employee we certify for you)?
• if you want to work one-on-one with an advisor or if you want to join a Peer Advisory Group.
• More information about pricing. However, the numbers will be dependent on the answers to the two previous questions.

Absolutely!

We have methods for how we can help grow your business association membership. Please refer to Business Associations for more details!

Likewise, if you are a service provider that would like to know how our tools can help your clients grow and remain loyal to you, please refer to our strategies on growing service organizations.

Yes! The STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process is flexible and accommodates other tools and processes. We find that companies with offerings that align with our fundamental processes are more successful in our partnership than companies that have completely different processes (and that’s okay!).

Many of our Certified STUCK Advisors work on behalf of other coaching firms. Our software makes it easy for coaches to securely upload their own tools in order to make those documents accessible for when they are with clients.

The STUCK Breakthrough Strategies Platform software:

• is hosted on Microsoft Azure’s server, which states a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%.
• has 24/7/365 service through a hosting company. This contract covers service for monitoring and attention to any outages, errors, or downtime that may be experienced.

This 99.9% is irrespective of any unforeseen operational issues of the Platform itself (including any bugs or major functional updates that affect the uptime of the software):

• An outsourced software developer guarantees a 24 hour response time, with resolutions expedited to the greatest extent possible, to those issues
• Updates are tested on a different server before they are pushed to the server the customer uses
• Downtime is anticipated to be minimal and has not yet experienced downtime due to updates or issues

Your data is protected in a couple ways:

1. Webroot cyber security software is used to protect the server and data from viruses.
2. Continuum Fortify For Endpoint Security is an additional layer of security that monitors, detects, and remedies any security threat
3. Encryption. The Platform is hosted within the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Please read the following description for an overview on how Azure encryption works.
4. Data is backed up daily (if used that day) and weekly (if not used that week)

Encryption

Your data is stored within a SQL Database. This database supports both server-side encryption via the Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) feature and client-side encryption via the Always Encrypted feature. This simply means that your data is encrypted on the back end (in the database) and on the front end (which prevents administrators from seeing things like passwords).

Your data is secured with ‘data at rest’ encryption. “Data at rest” includes information that is not being used and resides in persistent storage on physical media, in any digital format. Some examples of media includes files on magnetic or optical media, archived data, databases, and data backups.

Along with data that is at rest, Azure has mechanisms for keeping your data private as it moves from one location to another.  Microsoft uses the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol to protect data when it’s traveling between the cloud services and customers.

Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) protects connections between customers’ client systems and Microsoft cloud services by unique keys. Connections also use RSA-based 2,048-bit encryption key lengths. This combination makes it difficult for someone to intercept and access data that is in transit.

If you wish to learn more about how your data is protected, please refer to the following articles from Microsoft Azure:

Overview of Encryption in Azure

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/security-azure-encryption-overview

SQL Database Encryption

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-technical-overview

Compliance Certification

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-technical-overview

Backed-Up Data

The server is backed up nightly, and data is backed up once or twice a day (if that data is used), or once a week (if that data isn’t used). Data is also placed in two different areas (with each area corresponding to a different physical location). This means that if there was an outage in one area, customers could still access their data from another location.

In order to be successful while using the Platform, we do require you do have an advisor. There are three ways to get one:

1. Selecting an external certified STUCK advisor. These advisors come from various backgrounds including expertise, disciplines and skill sets.
2. Picking your own internal coach. This person is an employee of your business and will act as a facilitator. This employee will have to get trained and certified through us to administer the advising and software.
3. Joining a Peer Advisory Group with other growth-minded businesses

The Platform was designed to work on any browser. As it does work on mobile devices, it is recommended to use it on your laptop or desktop computer as it’s easier to view, type, download and email materials.

Absolutely!

We have methods for how we can help grow your business association membership. Please refer to Business Associations for more details!

Likewise, if you are a service provider that would like to know how our tools can help your clients grow and remain loyal to you, please refer to our strategies on growing service organizations.

Yes! The STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process is flexible and accommodates other tools and processes. We find that companies with offerings that align with our fundamental processes are more successful in our partnership than companies that have completely different processes (and that’s okay!).

Many of our Certified STUCK Advisors work on behalf of other coaching firms. Our software makes it easy for coaches to securely upload their own tools in order to make those documents accessible for when they are with clients.

Classroom and follow-up training will take place either in our office or online (via an online conference room). Any other questions after this training will take place over the phone, email, or in special circumstances, online.

Classroom and follow-up training, as well as miscellaneous support thereafter will happen from the STUCK team.

Below is the criteria we use when assessing advisors:

Experienced

• Experience as a successful business owner or manager
• Proven track record in business or leadership
• Someone who can focus on the client’s overall business (both soft-skills and hard-skills)
• Has/Had a fulfilling career
• Prior client longevity
• Single or multiple disciplines a plus

Personable

• Charismatic and thoughtful
• Supportive, motivating
• A good facilitator
• Ability to drive company and individual initiatives

Ambitious

• Someone who wants a career opportunity
• An ambition to be not only successful in their own business, but in their advising with STUCK
• A desire to partner with company opportunities
• Consistent advising work

Flexible

• Someone who is open to being trained by us and who wants to use the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies® Platform and the tools within it
• Ability to bring their own expertise or tools into their services
• Ability to multitask and move from client to client
• Able to be trained in multiple disciplines

If this sounds like you, please contact us! We will review your qualifications and if we think you are the right fit, we will get in touch. For more information, please refer to our Become an Advisor page.

The process typically entails a half-day of becoming trained on the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process and a half-day of being trained on our cloud-based business planning and execution tool.

Please refer to our page about becoming a Certified STUCK Advisor as it provides more details and how to start the certification process. We look forward to hearing from you!

Every advisor will apply to STUCK. If we feel that they are a great fit, we will get in contact with them to train and certify them. The training process involves:

• Classroom training that will involve the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies® process and the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies® Platform.
• Support from the STUCK team with any questions you may have about the process or Platform. This support will be in addition to our classroom training, instruction manual and follow-up training.

We want to help grow our advisors. This being said, we will not get clients for you, but will give you tips to get you right on track.

We encourage you to contact us so we can learn more about your business. From there, we will either match you with one of our Certified STUCK Advisors, train an employee at your company to be your coach, or decide to work with you directly.

We enjoy speaking about topics including strategic planning, company culture, accountability, effective business processes and employee alignment. Whether you are a business association, coaching organization, or business chamber, please feel free to contact us so we can talk about your event.

We are not actively looking for businesses to invest in. If you are a business owner that is looking to grow their business, we encourage you to look at our business advisory strategies and tools.

Yes! The STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process is flexible and accommodates other tools and processes. We find that companies with offerings that align with our fundamental processes are more successful in our partnership than companies that have completely different processes (and that’s okay!).

Many of our Certified STUCK Advisors work on behalf of other coaching firms. Our software makes it easy for coaches to securely upload their own tools in order to make those documents accessible for when they are with clients.

Our strategies and tools helped grow our previous business, EMTEQ, from a basement start-up to an international 100M organization. These strategies and tools are consolidated in our advising structure, STUCK Breakthrough Strategies®, which offers a time-activated, simple, and organized approach to helping businesses get to the next level. In addition to this process, the tools help with the development of both soft-skills and hard-skills, helping businesses get unstuck from any inflection point that may occur.

Our typical clients range in size from 500k – 50M in annual revenue and are from all industries. Interested businesses that aren’t in this size range can contact us so we can learn more about how we can help!

For businesses, our goal is to help them achieve substantial and sustainable growth by providing our simple and effective strategies to them.

For advisors, we work to enhance their services by providing them with the strategies, tools, and methods to help them grow their clients’ businesses.

The role we take to help advisors is explained in more detail on our Advisor’s page.

Businesses who wish to learn more about what makes us different can look at our page that describes the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process and tools.

Our advising is a good match for an owner and leadership team who answers yes to all of these questions:

• Is the owner/leader(s) self-aware and willing to change?
• Will the owner/leader(s) embrace change, be willing to make the time to do what’s necessary and be accountable to the success plan?
• Is the owner/leader(s) open and honest? Are they trusting and trustworthy?
• Does the owner/leader(s) have financial stability?
• Are the desired results realistic and is there an agreement on how these results will be achieved?
• Will the owner/leader(s) ultimately be successful or do they just want to be successful?

The STUCK tools, techniques and processes can plug n’ play into essentially any legitimate business from startup to sale. However, there may be situations where STUCK is not the best fit for you. We will be happy to discuss your situation, confidentially, and let you know whether your situation meets the decision criteria we use in selecting clients. This decision criteria ensures a positive ROI for you in engaging with STUCK.

There are multiple times when you may get stuck and need our guidance:

• When you’re mired in the day-to-day of the business.
• When you decide you want to grow your business quicker and easier.
• When you haven’t found the right business partner, or currently have the wrong partner.
• When you “don’t know what you don’t know” about yourself, your partner, or business
• When you, your investors, or board members are not informed about the industry you are in
• When you do not know the value of your business that want to know it in order to offer stock or want to sell
• When you are growing your business only to grow your profits, not your revenue
• When you have unreliable suppliers, leading to dissatisfied customers
• When you make business decisions without having the customer in mind
• When you have a business plan that is too complicated
• When you don’t have a business plan
• When you don’t give up control of your business
• When you don’t let your employee maximize their potential
• When you need help identifying challenges.
• When you don’t know if you can do it on your own.
• When you feel your leadership team is inadequate.
• When you don’t feel confident you can make it to the next level.
• When you simply need help in defining the next level and how to get there.

The experience we gained from growing our business from a basement start-up to a 100M international company allows us to be compassionate, empathetic and allows us to help you get over any sticking point you have. Our services include but are not limited to:

• Strategic Planning
• Sales and Marketing Planning
• M&A prep for business sale to maximize value
• M&A post-close integration to maximize the investment
• Advising owner/leaders (Autocrat to advisor, life plan, etc.)
• Facilitating cultural transformation
• Creating the proper organization structure
• Talent assessment, succession planning
• Business function enhancement (Finance, IT, HR, etc.)
• Continuous improvement strategy
• Compensation and incentive plans
• Owner/leader/key employee hard (job) and soft (behavioral) skill training

Our process. The steps we use to access, create, deploy, and execute the Single-Page Plan is quick as we value the busy schedules of our clients. At the same time, it was created in a way that allows time-activation, simplicity, and organization in order that clients overcome any sticking point that may occur before or during the execution of the plan. In other words, our process was formed to always help you “today”.

Our strategies, tools, and methods came from the experience we gained from growing our business from a basement start-up to a 100M international company. We have the experience to handle all obstacles that arise from business growth while still maintaining the maximization of your investors share value and the empowerment for your staff.

Yes! We relate to small business owners and made our services adaptable to what you need. STUCK’s self-implementation model supports businesses (of all sizes) being personally trained, by STUCK, on our process and cloud-based business management system. These clients pay either annually or monthly for the software and get trained at no additional cost.

You can also contact us about how you can also take advantage of seeing an advisor on a less frequent basis, and using our tools, for an affordable price.

The first benefit is flexibility. By choosing a certified STUCK advisor, you will be able to do as much or as little as you need and can afford at any given time. Another benefit is that our advisors come from various industries, experience, and roles. This allows them to not only provide you with our tools, but bring in their own tools and advice to assist your business.

Yes! Our customers are spread out across America and we are always happy to talk to more growth-minded businesses and advisors. The STUCK Breakthrough Strategies Platform software is cloud-based which makes it easy to accommodate remote advising, visualization boards and Peer Advisory Group discussions.

Yes. We typically start off our process with strategic planning, which includes sales and marketing, before focusing on deployment and execution. In another case, if there is already a strategic plan in place, our process and tools can be inserted wherever your business needs it. The most important part of business growth is in plan deployment and execution, and much emphasis is placed on those two.

The STUCK Breakthrough Strategies process can help any size company, including start-ups. The process involves the creation and execution of your Single-Page Plan which was created to help you achieve your goals. Our advisors come from various backgrounds, skills, and expertise and can help you through the process while using the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies® Platform.

To learn more about our advising, please refer to our growth tools.

For more information about the STUCK Breakthrough Strategies Platform, please refer to Our Platform.