Services

Creative Collaboration Solutions (CCS) offers practical, straight forward solutions for a variety of business needs. The packages below can be customized to meet the specific needs of an individual or business. Additional custom tailored training or solutions are also available. Contact us via email with questions or for a quote using this link: Email CCS

For small business and artisans:

Lisa Glaser of CCS has owned and successfully operated a jewelry and retail small business for over seventeen years and through these trainings, can help others avoid some expensive pitfalls while finding ways to maximize profits.

Initial Consultation: Our goal is to promote and grow other small businesses and help people follow their dreams. We offer an initial discussion about plans and to assess whether our services may add value. There is no cost for this option with up to 1/2 hour of discussion. Contact us using the link above for more information.

Where to start? Thinking of starting a retail, craft or art business and need guidance on where to start? Topics that can be tailored to fit the planned endeavor include: potential startup costs (both expected and unexpected), pros and cons of websites vs. social media as well as financial considerations including tax implications¹. Two hour session $100 that can be split as needed.

Selling at Shows plus Online Considerations: This package covers common questions and information about start up costs, show expenses, how to increase profits and build repeat customers. It also includes pitfalls to avoid plus selling online and in person. Three 1-hour sessions customized to your business needs: $140

Custom Consultations & Support: We can also provide on-site or virtual support for efforts such as booth set-up, product packaging/marketing, pricing suggestions, advertising and more. Ad hoc service costs range from $50 to $75 per hour plus expenses as applicable.

For Government & Larger Businesses:

Lisa Glaser of CCS worked for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services for over 22 years. During this tenure, Lisa gained expertise in: Contracting, RFP development, strategic sourcing, quality improvement resulting in increases to Federal funding, budget development standardization, projections and analysis of spending trends, solutions for tracking assignments as well as legislation and led the cross-agency development of an intranet using Microsoft SharePoint. Lisa has trained over 100 staff on the practical use of Outlook and Excel as well as trained staff as administrators who develop and create sites, solutions and communication in Microsoft SharePoint and One Drive.

Practical Microsoft Excel Training²: This training will focus specifically on the business needs and will minimally include formulas, auto-fill, tables, pivot tables, pivot graphs, slicers, and other basic functions. The package includes two hours of discovery meetings to identify the specific business needs and assessment of current Excel use. Training preparation will include creation of a PowerPoint guide customized to the specific group. Preferred training location would be at the customer’s site with staff using familiar equipment, but virtual training is possible. Training session will be one four-hour block for up to 10 people with a one-hour follow up session one to two weeks later to answer any additional questions and to assure assimilation of the material. Cost is $2,400 for the preparation, material development, training and followup along with any consultation needs for 30 days beyond.

You’ve got (too much) mail: This package includes training on how to effectively manage and balance time with email, chats, calls and meetings as well as repetitive document storage. Depending on the platform used, discussions can cover Gmail and Google Drive or Microsoft’s SharePoint, One Drive and Outlook and network drives. There will be up to three hours to meet with management, users, IT (as needed) and other involved parties to assess the current structure and evaluate the best approaches. The training solution will be developed with business specific example using PowerPoint or Google Slides. Onsite training at the business location with users’ equipment is recommended. Package is for up to 10 participants and will be set up as a four hour session with a one hour follow up session two to three weeks later. Cost for the package is $1,800

Consultation Blocks of Service: We also provide consultation and advisement on complex solutions within business. We can work from vision and mission statements to develop strategic plans with specific target dates and milestones as needed. We can work with your group to develop Microsoft SharePoint sites, workflows to streamline business, custom forms and inputs. We bring a quality improvement mindset and expertise that help you find ways to connect electronic tools and options in a simplified format that is easy for all to understand. Hourly rates are $125/hour or can be purchased in blocks at a discounted rate dependent on the services required.

¹ – We recommend businesses consult their tax expert for the legal and financial impact of business expenses and costs as we are not tax experts, but have over 15 years of successfully operating a small business in varied markets.

² We have experience in Microsoft from pre-Windows 95 to Windows 10 and the current cloud-based options with spreadsheets of over 180,000 lines and 50 columns of data used to track budgets, project expenses and analyze over $150M in agency expenses connecting this data to pivot tables, combining other data sources, generating BI reports and more.