As a business owner, Mike Kinter, owner of Kinter Construction Services Inc., used to think “I know my own wrinkles.”

“You don’t,” he realized after completing Business Insight, a Web-based consulting tool recently launched by the Greater Des Moines Partnership as the first step in effort to improve local companies’ business practices.

“If a company is going to grow or improve, they need to constantly be doing a report card on themselves,” Kinter said.

Business Insight, originally crafted as an evaluation tool for large companies, was tweaked to better address the needs of small to mid-sized businesses in Greater Des Moines – financials, products and services, sales and marketing, managing people and managing processes – as identified through surveys and discussions with Partnership members.

“This particular tool hit on those five areas that they look for assistance to make their businesses more effective,” said Mary Bontrager, the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s executive vice president for community development.

Business Insight utilizes a questionnaire that allows business owners – managers, employees, outside stakeholders and some customers may also be invited to participate – to evaluate their organizational strategy and culture and, with larger companies, organizational design. The company is then able to identify performance issues that impede strategy, gain senior management agreement regarding those issues, prioritize performance improvement goals and determine a plan of action.

Issues such as training and development, performance management and sales effectiveness are ranked according to their score and level of impact within the business. Those with low scores that are considered high priorities warrant further discussion and action. Bradford advises businesses to focus on the three issues that will have the greatest effect on growth, profits, the value of the business and the lifestyles of the owner and employees.

“We’re going to allow you to prioritize the most important areas of your business so you can determine those action steps necessary to move the business forward,” Bradford said.

The Partnership will analyze the results to determine businesses’ collective strengths and weaknesses, which will help the organization implement suitable educational programs and online tools, Bontrager said.

In the coming months, the Partnership hopes to launch an online tutorial that will focus on the same key areas of business development that are emphasized in Business Insight. A request for proposal for that project has been issued to several local companies. The Partnership also intends to link businesses to local resources that can provide assistance in accomplishing their strategic goals identified through Business Insight.

“If we can put some tools out there that can increase the success rate of small businesses, then I think we’ve hit the mark,” Bontrager said. “The assessment piece is something they’ll take once and hopefully work off the results, whether that’s with an online tool or local resources or a combination of both.”

Kinter and his three top managers were the first to complete the assessment, which he said “pointed out one weakness that I had suspected, but it put it on paper.” The results served as a starting point for future discussions. The next step will be for his four field managers to complete the questionnaire, and he plans to revisit Business Insight in the future as his business grows and he adds staff.

For Jim Lewis, CEO of Relationship Marketing Inc., Business Insight helped him identify some gaps within his company before he spent the time and money to launch specific initiatives.

Failure to get buy-in from the entire company is one of the biggest barriers when outlining strategic goals, Lewis said. The online tool, however, enables the owner, managers and employees to participate in the evaluation process and come to an agreement about where the company may fall behind, which gives him and other business owners “a high degree of confidence that you’re making the right decision.”

“In a nutshell, it’s worth every dollar if you can get a clear consensus on what you can do right now,” he said. “In my case, it’s been worth every dime.”