Business Coaching, Strategic Planning, Leadership
At Incrementa we’re not consultants. We’re (un)consultants who work together to help small and medium sized businesses thrive.
We help business leaders, just like you, solve the problems you can’t. Be it developing your strategy, an operations issue, building a healthy culture or increasing your revenue, we end the frustration and help make your vision into a clear plan. Then we’ll work side-by-side to make that plan a reality.
Our core services include:
- Business coaching & strategic planning
- People & Culture
- Operations & Operational improvement
- Sales & Growth
headquarters
Focus
Portfolio
Non-Profit Strategic Planning
Upon discovering West Coast Kids Foundation (WCK) there was no doubt that Incremeta would become a partner in supporting the organization firm up its strategic plan and educate the passionate team behind WCK how to run with it.
With a mission of creating the ultimate support system for families of children with cancer, the organization entrusted Incrementa to lead planning for their ambitious future.
Incrementa facilitated a two-day planning session with WCK to create clear strategic differentiators, a three-year plan and taught the group how best to execute on their vision. The session created clarity and accountability for WCK’s board and well-defined steps to steer plan execution.
"As a new foundation, WCK is oozing with passion to make a difference in the world. What we needed was… well, Mike. Mike helped us to channel our passion into satisfying, tangible steps. We are crystal clear on where we need to go, how we’re going to get there, and who is driving each step. As a direct result, our goals are being reached so more families tackling childhood cancer will receive much needed support."
-Shannon Hartwig, Executive Director, West Coast Kids Cancer Foundation
Business Coaching & Strategic Planning
Banhall Consulting is one of the top SR&ED firms in BC, with over a 96% success rate on claims. They’re the experts on SR&ED, but new to building a scalable business.
Mike Knapp worked with Banhall’s leadership team to develop a plan to scale the business. This includes:
- Creating the right culture
- Creating role clarity
- Building their “A-Team”
- Systemizing key processes
- Developing project management practices
- Building in working “on the business”
This process helped ownership shift from being at the center and holding back the organization, allowing him to focus on the strategic tasks in building his business.
"I’ve recently started working with Mike Knapp at Incrementa and he has opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. I’ve learned a great deal in the past few months and expect to continue to learn a lot more. With Mike’s help, I’m confident we can take team and business to the next level. I would strongly recommend Mike and his team to anyone that wants to take grow their business."
-Bikram Johan, President, Banhall
Business Coaching and Strategic Planning
At Intuition Liners, it’s what’s inside that counts. Intuition makes the top boot liners and accessories for sports such as skiing, snowboarding, water sports and inline skating.
Intuition Liners was ready to shift from being a small, family-owned business with organic growth to planned scalability.
In the first phase, we focused on process improvement, reducing the top bottlenecks in their systems. With the application of the right technologies, Intuition was able to dramatically improve their order and accounting processes.
After this was completed, the leadership team enrolled in our Growth Breakthrough program, with Mike Knapp as their business coach and guide.
From Crystal Macguire, President:
As our company ages, and the team and scope of business grow, we felt the need to get a good foundation in place before it was too late. We were lacking structure, process and general clarity. This was holding us back from much potential growth, both for the company and as individuals.
Incrementa was recommended to us by an IT company we had worked with. We met Mike and Dave to work on general process optimization, which ultimately led to our team working with Mike on on-going business coaching to further improve and optimize our company.
In the first six months, we’ve been focused on leadership, communications, knowing our WHY, and building the right foundations for our organization.
We’ve already seen awesome results – happier staff, better communication, more clarity with finances and achieving our goals.
Mike adapts easily to the teams’ different personalities. He continues to have patience while we figure things out for ourselves, through learning from his advice and helpful options/suggestions.
We look forward to our ongoing success and achieving bigger goals!
Business Transformation
BM&M Screening Solutions is a second-generation family-owned manufacturing firm that was ready to supercharge their operations and grow to the next level. While very successful, the company needed a significant change to achieve its growth goals.
Incrementa worked closely with the leadership team to discover their goals, set priorities, create alignment and then lead the transformation process.
Three months later, the leadership team had integrated the plan into their daily operations and began making headway toward their growth goals. The plan also uprooted the culture and created a workspace where staff felt less frustration and gained a sense of ownership, increasing overall engagement. Processes were engineered properly, leading to over a 4x return on investment.
Within three months of working with Incrementa, BM&M Screening Solutions was operationally prepared to meet its aggressive growth goals in a healthier workplace.
Business Transformation & ERP Selection
With the help of Mike Knapp of Incrementa, Magnum Trailers launched on a business transformation for their three divisions.
This program launched with change management—helping their long-term team see the value in the transformation project and become champions. Over the course of a year, Magnum Trailers performed upgrades to their current ERP, streamlined workflows, improved reporting, implemented a new CRM and project management tools and selected a new ERP solution.
The quick wins alone saved the company more than $100,000 per year.
Reviews
the project
Strategic Planning for Tool Manufacturing Company
‘‘Incrementa (un)consulting is accountable, keeps everyone connected, and helps us drive our business forward.’’
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the managing director of Leitz Tooling Systems LP. We provide new tooling and service equipment that goes inside large machinery.
What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting
We hired Incrementa (un)consulting to provide us with strategic planning.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Incrementa (un)consulting helps us develop our business and strategic plans for the next 1–10 years. They give us a clear vision for our mission, helping us set our differentiators against the competition. They also help us set actionable items every quarter, so we can meet our yearly goals.
What is the team composition?
We work directly with the business owner.
How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?
We came across Incrementa (un)consulting through a contact of a friend of mine who designed their website. This person connected us, and we started conversations with them.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about $30,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started having conversations in January 2019 but the project officially began in August 2019, and it’s still ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We measure success based on how well we do as a business. Incrementa (un)consulting has been able to provide us with the right guidance to get our actions delivered, which is why we rate our engagement as successful.
We have a huge trust factor between our teams. We’ve developed a better relationship with them, and each time we’ve had to work with them on a quarterly basis, the excitement level increases. In the beginning, our team was a little bit hesitant about having an external team as a partner, but they really embraced Incrementa (un)consulting once they came on board.
How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?
Incrementa (un)consulting’s communication was excellent, and they were great at meeting deadlines.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, they’re great. Incrementa (un)consulting is accountable, keeps everyone connected, and helps us drive our business forward — whatever they’re doing, they can keep doing it.
Any advice for potential customers?
I advise any potential client to be transparent with their expectations and what they want as the end results. They’re experts in their field and going to help clients get to where they want.
the project
Compliance Consulting & Audit for Data Center Business
“The whole experience was amazing.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the CEO of Provision Data Systems Inc, which operates a data center facility in British Columbia, Canada. We have a small IT group, and our primary business is the data center colocation.
What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?
There were a couple of different industry certifications that we wanted to acquire, and one of them was an AT101 SOC 2 Type 2. We needed it to get more business in the public sector and government, but we had no idea what was involved in acquiring it.
It was a certification that always popped out as a requirement for larger companies, and many of our peers were already in pursuit or had pursued it. As a result, we engaged Incrementa to assist us with the acquisition of that certification.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We reached out to Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor) and began the journey. He laid the process out for us. He built a roadmap and assisted us in creating a framework for our policies and documentation that we were going to need to pass an audit.
What is the team composition?
We worked primarily with Mike. We worked with another Incrementa employee regarding some sales issues, but Mike was predominantly the one we dealt with the entire time.
How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?
It was a referral. Once we identified what we wanted, another person in a similar industry referred Incrementa to us. She’d worked with Mike before and told us we needed to engage him because he’d help us put things together. Then, we had a kickoff meeting with him and talked about what we required and what we needed to do. We started working with Incrementa then.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested between $50,000–$60,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We used their services from October 2017–November 2020. We still work with a consultant that Mike recommended, but I don’t think the person works for Incrementa.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
He took us right from ground zero all the way up to passing the audits with flying colors. We were extremely successful. Our first audit was 100% passed. In our second audit, we had one minor notice, which was a penetration test that hadn't been done within the timeframe required. That was the only thing they could find wrong, and it wasn’t really wrong — just delayed. That was our fault, not Mike's.
He scored two for two with getting a successful audit, minimizing costs, and minimizing the amount of work that we had to do as a compliance team. He was able to structure things in such a way that we had checklists of things we needed to do. We went with Mike and never looked back. He was amazing and did a lot for our business.
How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?
For deadlines and communications, Mike drove the boat. He kept us going and managed us through the process to ensure that the bits and pieces were all done in a timely manner. He was excellent.
Our organization isn’t the speediest in the world. We’re a relatively small company compared to other operators our size, so we’re busy people. Mike was able to streamline the process to the point where even we could get it done, and that was amazing. If we had questions, he was right on it.
From a project management perspective, he was always on the ball, telling us what we needed to do and by when.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The whole experience was amazing. Mike was a well-oiled machine. He knew what we needed to do when we needed to do it, and he had his finger on the pulse of the whole project the whole time. I just can't say enough good things about Mike.
He was personally part of the team, and he was a great fit. He was there to speak to us in our language. If he needed to coach something out of somebody, he could do it. He understood the people that he was working with and could adjust his approach to match who he was having to get the work out of.
We’ve also had some amazing conversations even offline, and I appreciated him as a consultant. He really became part of our team, and that was awesome.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there’s none. It was perfect as far as we were concerned. As a small business owner, we always think of getting the services for half the price. That would be great. But we learned the hard way that we get what we pay for. With Incrementa, we received good services. As a result, I really don’t have anything to say that could have been done better. The task was extremely well executed.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Depending on who they are or what they’re doing, they should let Incrementa drive the boat where it needs to go. They’re going to get there in the fastest and most cost-effective way possible when they let the Incrementa team do what they do best. Some people prefer sitting there and micromanaging consultants. With Incrementa, that isn’t required.
We told Mike it was his show. He told us what to do, and we did it — and we had the best results we could hope for.
the project
Culture Consulting for Machinery Manufacturer
"They were very strategic in their delivery of the culture piece."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
When I was the president of BM&M Screening Solutions, I worked with Incrementa (un)consulting. I’ve since retired.
Our company manufactured machines that screen things by size. We had machines that cleaned the dirt out of greens or lumps out of sugar.
What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?
Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor) helped me make our corporation more corporate. We had a few business plans, but I was having trouble getting people to engage with the bigger company philosophy.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Mike came in to help develop a strategy for my plans for future direction. He provided tactics to move forward with my management team and then to roll out in our factories.
The biggest part was establishing our culture. We had to set up measurements to gain traction to the business plan so that it would be executed on the plant floor and by the management team. We put together tactics to lay out all of the KPI measurements and deliverables.
What is the team composition?
We mainly worked with Mike, but he did bring in others on an ad hoc basis. He brought in a few people for training and to write the content we needed.
How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?
I found them through my networking group. Mike presented to our group, and some of my peers were using him. After his chat, I was interested in him, so I brought him in.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent around $25,000–$30,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from late 2017–late 2018.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Their services assisted with us selling the business to a large American conglomerate. Mike was very good, and his deliverables and metrics were set up very quickly. The more challenging part The most challenging part was getting the culture shift. Mike did a really nice job of being the sunshine when he needed to be and being the hammer when he needed to be. They were very strategic in their delivery of the culture piece.
How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?
From a project management standpoint, Mike did better than we did. He actually brought some tools into the company that we ended up using more globally.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Mike is an A-to-Z type of guy. He can help with the basement or the penthouse. He was able to present on the shop floor, but he also was able to be a peer of mine. We were able to sit down and be present with one another.
He’s good at executing at all levels of the organization. His energy is boundless. He’s great at selling his message because of that high energy.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Mike needs to clone himself. He has extremely high standards for his own people and clients. Everyone has to run pretty fast to keep up with him.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Start very high. Make sure Mike understands the long-range plan and the execution roadblocks. Make sure he understands the big picture.
the project
Business Consulting Services for Collection Service Company
“They were stellar.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of client services and administration for a collection service. We’re a financial arm company that has a BPO and purchase division.
What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?
We brought them on for several projects. Most recently, we were trying to take the nature of our business and obtain some current certifications; for example, ISO and PCI. We wanted to move forward and restructure our business in order to obtain those certifications.
For another project, we had to look at our structure, strategic planning, and goals for the course of the next five years. We needed assistance in shaping that to make them tangible, attainable goals.
What was the scope of their involvement?
The ISO project involved a lot of different aspects. We needed our company to have a certain certification with the ISO. First, we had to understand the philosophy and have the company’s leadership adopt the new philosophy on how we looked at risk and managed process.
The second objective was to look at all of the items that were deficient in the company in order to identify and gauge what needed to change. It was a gap analysis to understand what it took to get there. The third piece of it was the implementation and rollout on how to make those changes over the course of time.
The fourth and last piece was going through the process and assisting with the auditing certifications and getting us to the final issue. The project lasted over a year. We were changing the company philosophy on many items right down to implementing the new processes and new ways to handle data and everything.
What is the team composition?
We worked directly with Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor). Over the course of the engagement, we’ve worked with 4–5 members of his team.
How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?
Someone in our internal team had some dealings with Mike and his team so that team member brought them in.
How much have you invested with them?
We invested $60,000–$70,000 on this project.
What is the status of this engagement?
This specific ISO project was from January 2016–January 2018 but we’ve had an ongoing engagement with them since January 2009.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Having the education point of Mike's team to accurately articulate to our team why the philosophy change was required and where the benefits were was excellent. Once the buy-in was there from the entire team and we could move forward, that was a measure of success.
How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?
Incrementa did not miss deadlines. They reached out and followed up with us continuously. They provided a lot of communication while we approached deadlines. Their team had the foresight to see when a deadline wouldn’t be met. Incrementa has a wonderful ability to predict when something isn’t going to happen weeks before it’s due. They were stellar.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They have great attention to detail and an understanding of our business. Our business is unique so the ability for them to understand the impact of how making a change in one area would affect the other one was spectacular. Their team was constantly able to come up with little pieces that we found to be very valuable. This showed their great attention to detail because they picked up on things that not everyone would.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They’re in high demand so sometimes their availability was limited. However, once they committed, they never faltered.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be open to the questions they ask and explore all aspects of your business. They’ll be very detailed in the beginning so give them your time because that’ll set you up for success.
the project
Business Consulting for Computer & Network Security Firm
"Their communication has been open and transparent."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO of a small business called Kobalt Security. We provide security as a service for small and midsize technology companies, so cybersecurity services primarily across North America.
What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?
Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor) has been providing business coaching. As we have naturally encountered various challenges and problems to solve as our business grows, Mike has been providing ongoing advice, suggestions, and strategy to help us overcome those challenges.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Our engagement for the most port has been relatively simple. We do bi-weekly calls which we refer to as a ‘walking call’. I typically come with 3–4 topics to discuss and run with Mike who will then have specific suggestions. They suggest what books we can consider reading and the people we should talk to. Mike takes note during our meetings and he’ll follow up with specific topics that we’ve discussed. So far, they’ve provided us assistance on a number of strategic items, but mostly on a simple advice basis.
I’ve also engaged Mike with some process design work. He uses a tool called Nero which we’ve started using ourselves internally to help design and identify a process around opportunity nurturing within our sales process. He has worked with a cross-section of my team to identify the process and document it so that it could be executed.
What is the team composition?
We only work with Mike.
How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?
I had a previous relationship with Mike. I’ve known him for a few years and as their company has shifted towards business strategy, I had an opportunity to start engaging with him on that basis. Additionally, since I worked with him previously, I liked his principles and ethics, and I thought it would be good to work with him in this area.
How much have you invested with them?
I’d say we’ve probably spent $5,000–$6,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve started working in June 2020, and it’s ongoing. We have a monthly agreement in place, and we’re expecting to continue both use their advisory services through coaching calls and on tactical projects on an as-needed basis.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I mostly base their impact on the value that I’ve been receiving from the engagement, and I’ve been absolutely satisfied with their services. He always has some really thoughtful and insightful contributions to make to my thinking on the process — and that’s been very consistent through our partnership. However, I don’t have any specific metrics to evaluate its impact.
How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?
We don’t typically establish deadlines because of the nature of the project, but their communication has been open and transparent. As I’ve said, Mike is good with follow-ups. For the one project that we’ve had a fixed scope, it was delivered in a timely fashion.
What did you find most impressive about them?
What I really like about Mike is it doesn’t really matter what business problem I bring to him. He is drawing on a wealth of experience in conversations and connections from a variety of different businesses he’s worked with.
Are there any areas they could improve?
It would probably be helpful if Mike actually came with a little bit more structure with our weekly and bi-weekly calls. That way we could have a better sense of continuity as we were progressing.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Come prepared with specific questions or problems and be fairly open in terms of the scope of problems that Incrementa (un)consulting can work on.
the project
Business Consulting for Packaging Manufacturer Company
"Mike’s positive attitude and instilling fun working on a project that is daunting or perhaps painful was impressive."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the project manager for Great Little Box Company, a packaging and distribution company. We produce and sell corrugated folding cartons, stickers, protective packaging, and shipping supplies. Our company is modeled as a one-stop-shop for all packaging needs. We have different sites on the West Coast and in mid-Canada.
What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?
We were looking for consulting services to help us with our transition project from ERP to the EFI Radius program.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Incrementa (un)consulting provided business consulting services for us. Mike (Strategic Planning & Execution) was the consultant for the project. We had weekly core team meetings with Mike to align with the executive team on project status, action items, strategy, and think tanks. Incrementa (un)consulting is my personal soundboard and coach as I’ve never had experience implementing ERP.
We were getting insights from Mike's previous experience on how to manage risk and change an organization from one program to another. Mike’s role is more of a strategic partner and mentorship. He helped qualify our current IT manager when we were going through a change with our IT management. Mike sits in our meetings and provided guidance, but sometimes his assistance is not needed.
Incrementa (un)consulting also provided consulting when we were undergoing a change of management for the organization and this was a pretty big part of the project. They helped with transitioning our employees who were used to using our old program for the past 20 years to a new data loading and data entry program.
They also gave me advice on the best way to manage a project and proposed a couple of tools that I used for a long time to stay organized. Our ERP project was delayed multiple times. Mike provided strategies on how to communicate this message across the company without negative connotations or implications.
Incrementa (un)consulting understood how to manage upwards and how to manage the executive team. They provided me with advice on how to correctly communicate with the executive team in terms of accountability.
What is the team composition?
We worked directly with Mike.
How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?
We had a previous project manager for about four months before she went on maternity leave. When I took over, Incrementa (un)consulting was already onboard. Incrementa (un)consulting was referred to our president when he was leading the project at the time.
How much have you invested with them?
My company spent $15,000–$17,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
I worked with Incrementa (un)consulting from October 2017–April 2020. They were on board at least 6–10 months prior. We stopped working with them in April 2020 because of COVID-19 and the project went live again in August 2020.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
With Incrementa (un)consulting, we weren't tracking metrics, it was about coming to a common understanding between me and my president. Mike is here as a soundboard and my mentor. As long as I found value by having him onboard, that was enough.
How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?
Incrementa (un)consulting was consistent. There wasn’t a time when Mike couldn’t make it to a meeting without a heads up. It was reasonable that it only happened on a couple of occasions during the two and a half year period.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Mike’s positive attitude impressed us, he always worked to instill fun into a project that could be daunting or painful. He displayed transparency and candidness throughout the project. I found it refreshing that Mike had this positive demeanor in our meetings. The technical aptitude of Incrementa (un)consulting was outstanding. The trust and confidence we had in Mike is something I found valuable.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, Mike’s mentorship has been fantastic.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
It’s helpful to understand and establish the scope of the project.
the project
Business Consulting for Snow Sports Boot Liner Manufacturer
“Their personalities are great.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the owner of a custom ski and snowboard boot liner manufacturing company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?
We hired them to increase our productivity and process within our Vancouver office.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Initially, they helped us brainstorm our shipping process and implementing new computer programs. We ended up signing onto their leadership program.
What is the team composition?
We work with Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor).
How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?
They were recommended to us by our IT team. We started out with a small plan and now we’ve committed to them for the year.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $25,000–$50,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in September 2019, and our work is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I can see the success in our team and what they’re learning. The staff is really happy, too. We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s had a big impact for us already.
How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re amazing. Now we even use Asana for our own team management and projects. It brings a lot of structure and organization to our company.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their personalities are great. The team is flexible and we all get along well with Mike. We’re all very comfortable working with them.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, nothing comes to mind. They’re like our role models in a way.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Good communication is key. It’s important to follow through, too.
Incrementa (un)consulting has played a key role in getting the client’s strategic projects successfully delivered. They integrate smoothly into internal teams, making everyone eager to collaborate. The team’s great communication and result-oriented approach make them a trustworthy partner.