For many small businesses, their growth can hit a stumbling block over one simple question: “What does great look like?”
Alison Grizzle launched Clearview Strategy Partners in February 2017 to help businesses answer that question, clarify their company vision, and educate and evaluate employees. She can guide companies in creating not only their goals, but also strategies to get there.
“I think small businesses have problems going from startup, when two people are doing it all, to scale. From startup to scale, there’s some things that have to be put into place, and that’s a hard transition,” Grizzle said.
She sees her role for her clients as a conversation facilitator and the person who asks the right questions, even if they’re sometimes tough. With her outside perspective, Grizzle can see the conversations that need to take place for a company to achieve its vision.
“Sometimes the elephant in the room that no one will talk about is what’s keeping the business from growing. The only way to reach growth sometimes is to take a bite out of the elephant,” she said.
Grizzle began teaching in 1999, and she quickly excelled. She was honored as Alabama Teacher of the Year in May of 2013. In July 2014, Grizzle joined the Alabama State Department of Education as an education administrator, working with individual school districts around the state on creating individualized teacher evaluation processes that aligned with local goals, district strategy and professional learning opportunities.
“Through that I’ve learned how to address the different personalities in a room, and that’s a lot easier to do from an outside standpoint,” Grizzle said.
In that time, Grizzle has also acted as a sounding board, adviser and executive coach for her husband, Dan Starnes. Since she became involved with Starnes Publishing’s daily operations in 2009, it has grown from a single newspaper with one full-time and one part-time employee, to a company with 30 employees, a digital marketing agency and a total of seven community newspapers, including The Homewood Star. Grizzle has served as the company’s director of organizational development since early 2017.
A common problem for small businesses is “a gap in the conversation” between supervisors and employees on where they want to go and how to achieve it. This has only become more important as businesses move away from the traditional annual performance review toward ongoing evaluation and feedback of employees.
“You have a manager who has an idea about what good looks like, you have an employee who has an idea about what good looks like, but it’s never been discussed. There’s never been clarity on how to define overarching goals for that position,” Grizzle said.
No two businesses have the same needs in order to succeed, but Grizzle and Clearview Strategy Partners can equip them with the right tools.
“I want us to have a collaborative relationship, where I have clarity on your needs and your vision, and at the end, I want to have a transformative effect,” Grizzle said.
► WHERE: 2712 19th St. S.
► CALL: 240-1553
► WEBSITE: cvstrategy.com
