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Welcome to F.O.C.U.S. Resources

Empowering Your Business to Thrive
At F.O.C.U.S. Resources, we help businesses succeed at every stage, launch, growth, recovery, and beyond. Led by Lea A. Strickland, MBA, MA, CMA, CFM, CBM, GMC, our team combines strategic insight, operational expertise, and hands-on execution to tackle your toughest challenges and achieve your boldest goals. Whether you’re focused on navigating federal funding, launching a startup, or turning around a struggling business, we deliver the tools, knowledge, and partnership you need to build a thriving future.

Our Core Services

  • SBIR/STTR & Federal Compliance: Expert guidance for government grants and contracts, from proposal budgeting to audit-ready compliance, ensuring you maximize funding and focus on innovation.

  • Startup & Early-Stage Advisory: Strategic support for founders, including business model development, financial planning, and funding readiness to launch with confidence.

  • Turnaround Strategy: Clear, actionable plans to stabilize operations, restore profitability, and drive long-term growth for struggling businesses.

  • Fractional C-Level Expertise: Executive-level financial and strategic leadership tailored to your needs, without the full-time cost.

Why Choose Us?
With decades of cross-industry experience and a proven track record, we don’t just consult, we partner with you to deliver measurable results. Our personalized, results-driven approach ensures strategic clarity and operational focus in every engagement.

Specialized Services
Beyond consulting, we offer board leadership, expert witness services, and media commentary, bringing Lea’s expertise in finance, compliance, and strategic leadership to corporate boards, legal cases, and public discussions.

Let’s Move Forward Together
Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact us today to schedule a consultation and discover how F.O.C.U.S. Resources can help you achieve your next milestone.

Schedule a Complimentary 30-Minute Consultation

Ready to learn more about how we can work together! Let’s schedule a phone call or Zoom session.

Custom Solutions.
Decades of Experience.
Holistic Business Perspective.

The Four Cornerstones of Business Success

Viability

The first test of any business isn’t the product — it’s the problem. Viability is about one core question:

Is there real demand for what you offer?

Without viability, even the most brilliant product or service will fail to gain traction.

Emotions at Work: Ensure You and Your Team Thrive

Emotions are an essential aspect of everything we do. They are what make us human. They are what enable us to temper our behaviors, to have both empathy and sympathy. They can also be what causes us to cling to a single person in our company at the expense of the viability of our business. That may seem an extreme statement, but if you have ever witnessed the effects of an emotional entrepreneur who is so loyal to an original founding employee, co-founder, or friend in the business to the point of sacrificing the relationships, morale, and effectiveness of the rest of the organization, you wouldn’t think so.

Balancing Short-Term Performance with Long-Term Growth

Balancing short-term performance with long-term growth requires aligned incentives, strategic foresight, and stakeholder engagement. Executives can drive sustainable success in a competitive landscape by fostering a culture that values both immediate results and future potential.

Manufacturing Inventory Crisis Uncovered: Mismanagement and Financial Fraud Exposed

Acme Contract Manufacturing (a pseudonym to protect the company’s identity), a division of a publicly traded industrial conglomerate, is grappling with a severe operational and financial crisis. The company’s mismanagement of inventory, coupled with incompetent leadership and fraudulent financial reporting, has led to a situation where excess and obsolete inventory far exceeds the components needed to produce current products.

Leading Through Uncertainty: CEO Lessons in Crisis Management

CEOs must navigate uncertainty with resilience and adaptability in this era of rapid change, marked by economic volatility, technological disruption, and global crises. Effective crisis management distinguishes exceptional leaders and ensures organizational stability...

Growth Requires Clear Vision, Defined Action, and More

The Key to Turning Opportunities into Profits Every business has an inherent opportunity to grow. No matter the industry or the stage of development, the potential for expansion and increased profitability exists. However, your challenge lies in identifying the right...

NIH Data-sharing Requirements Put Funding and IP at Risk

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is updating data-sharing rules (public access) to its funded research. Researchers must quickly share everything from datasets to protocols in public repositories. This bold step, tied to the NIH's $47 billion budget, aims to...

Trump’s Tariffs: Strategies to Thrive in New Landscape

Trump's tariffs and economic strategy have refashioned the global trade landscape. These tariffs have sent ripples (and, for some, tsunami-like waves) through markets, creating challenges and opportunities. For U.S. businesses, small and large, these tariffs level the...

Do Business Like a Coyote: Why Opportunistic Predators Thrive Anywhere

The Nature of Coyotes If asked, you would probably express a negative view of coyotes. However, coyotes have many admirable characteristics. Most notably, the coyote can adapt to thrive in most environments and habitats. We can learn a lot from the coyote and apply...

Where is Your Business Located? Realist Road

Normally when I am writing about the location of your business, I am focused on the physical or virtual locations of the business. Today I want to focus on the mental or psychological location of your perspective on your business. In working with clients, the success...

Is your Business Performance FINE?

Does your day start something like this? “How are you today?” “Fine.” This is a typical exchange that occurs for most of us daily. A variation is going to a networking event or business function and “How’s business?” “Fine.” But is your business really FINE?...
Capability

Once the business proves that demand exists, the next hurdle is delivery. Capability is the backbone of business success — the systems, processes, and infrastructure that allow you to serve customers reliably, efficiently, and profitably.

Teamship Model: Pros, Cons, and Impact on Leadership

Introduction The concept of "teamship" emphasizes collective collaboration, mutual accountability, and shared purpose within a team. Unlike traditional hierarchical models, teamship fosters a culture where every member contributes to decision-making and goal...

Bold and Fearless Leadership

Leadership that reshapes the world demands courage, decisiveness, and an unrelenting commitment to action. This article distills key lessons from that era, focusing on strategies that any leader can apply to inspire, disrupt, and achieve transformative results.

SMEs Standing Out in the US Manufacturing Resurgence

The US manufacturing renaissance offers big opportunities for SMEs. Develop your plan, specialize in niches, use smart tech, stay agile, tap the government for help, build relationships, get funding, act fast, research manufacturers, boost capabilities, network now, connect with MEP centers, update your website, and attend industry events. SMEs with bold moves will win.

Reshoring in the US: How Companies Identify Suppliers and How to Become One

US tariffs, global supply chain risks, and other factors are driving onshoring and reshoring of manufacturing. Manufacturers seeking suppliers are looking for financially stable, capable, local SME manufacturers.

Strategic Customer Acquisition: Organic vs. Cultivated Growth

Effective customer acquisition is the lifeblood of a new business, especially in its early stages. When customers organically discover and buy your products or services, it proves your business is viable. Early wins can mislead you. The real challenge isn’t attracting...

Trump’s Tariffs: Strategies to Thrive in New Landscape

Trump's tariffs and economic strategy have refashioned the global trade landscape. These tariffs have sent ripples (and, for some, tsunami-like waves) through markets, creating challenges and opportunities. For U.S. businesses, small and large, these tariffs level the...

Seven Mistakes Businesses Make in Their First Year

The first year of business is exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time. You're excited about the potential and eager to prove your idea's worth. You may also be simultaneously anxious to be your boss and scared of leading the organization; your money is on the...

Why Viewing Employees as Cogs Undermines Leadership

In today's fast-paced business world, effective leadership is a key factor that separates thriving organizations from those that struggle. However, when leaders become overly focused on their own perceived uniqueness, they risk overlooking their employees' inherent...

Want a Thriving Business? Focus on Building Your Business Capability

A great marketing campaign without operational capability is a recipe for failure. Sales don’t equal success. Delivery does. Build your capability, priorities, processes, and people first. Then unleash your sales machine. Your customers and your bottom line will thank you.

Is your Business Performance FINE?

Does your day start something like this? “How are you today?” “Fine.” This is a typical exchange that occurs for most of us daily. A variation is going to a networking event or business function and “How’s business?” “Fine.” But is your business really FINE?...
Credibiilty

Before customers buy, they look for proof — proof that you can deliver, proof that others trust you, and proof that you’ve solved similar problems for others.

Credibility shortens sales cycles, reduces objections, and builds loyalty.

Boeing’s Challenges: Production Woes, Air Force One Delays, and New Orders Amid Uncertainty

Boeing, a cornerstone of the global aerospace industry, has faced significant challenges in recent years that have tarnished its reputation and strained its operations. The path forward demands a return to engineering excellence, strategic contract management, and transparent communication to restore confidence among customers, regulators, and the public.

Strategic Customer Acquisition: Organic vs. Cultivated Growth

Effective customer acquisition is the lifeblood of a new business, especially in its early stages. When customers organically discover and buy your products or services, it proves your business is viable. Early wins can mislead you. The real challenge isn’t attracting...

The Five Mental States of Unethical Behavior

heavy lifting to maintain ethics and fight unethical behavior

Imperfect Pitches You Can’t Make Them … or Stop Them

Tough Lessons: You Can’t Make Them … or Stop Them Parents know it and live it. Consultants and other advisors have to learn it. You can’t force anyone to make a wise choice or the best decisions. You can't stop companies from making imperfect pitches to potential...

Vision, Strategy, Structure, and Results

The successful organization – one that is both productive currently and viable long term – has integrated the vision, strategy, and structure of the organization to enable financial success. The ability of an organization to achieve every iota of success it is capable of delivering depends first upon the organization’s clarity of vision, second on its to select the appropriate strategy (or strategies) to accomplish the vision, and ultimately on the structure the organization puts in place to deliver the “goods” to the customer.

Too Big, Too Soon – Too Far, Too Fast

Enthusiasm. Confidence. Passion. Belief. All of these are important to the success of any new venture. They can also be the biggest pitfalls for the new venture. The momentum and the drive to do everything at once can lead an entrepreneurial team to expand before the...

Product, Resources, and Customers – The Three-fold Objective

Every organization begins with the same three-fold objective: develop the “product”, obtain sufficient resources, and capture the market/customer. The manifestations of this three-fold mission vary in magnitude, scope, and timing. The underlying processes and...

The Tyranny of Customer Choice

A truism for any organization is that its customers have choices. They can chose from a range of products, services, and alternatives to satisfy their needs, from doing nothing to “do it yourself,” to doing it the most expensive way possible to finding a cheap...

The Façade

A façade can be an appearance—the surface image of care, interest, integrity—either projected by a person, group, or organization or attributed to them by others through observation or perception. Whether intentional or not, we all have a façade, an outer image that...

Commercialization : Viability, Visibility, Capability, and Credibility

To begin a discussion of commercialization, we must begin with a few definitions. First, for convenience, the term “product” will be all inclusive of the following: technology, software, protein, textile, device, system, component, etc. Second, “commercialization” is...
Visibility

Even the most capable and credible business can’t grow if the right people never hear about it. Visibility ensures your message reaches decision-makers in the market you serve.
But visibility isn’t about broadcasting to everyone — it’s about targeted, consistent, and strategic positioning.

Balancing Community Service and Work

Community involvement is a powerful way to enhance employee engagement and corporate reputation, but it must be carefully managed to avoid disrupting business operations or unfairly burdening coworkers.

From Cattle to Customers: Build a Powerful Brand on a Budget

Did you know branding originated as a practical method for farmers to mark livestock with unique symbols (logo) to indicate ownership and prevent theft? Over time, this concept evolved beyond agriculture, as craftsmen began using distinctive marks to signify the...

Strategic Customer Acquisition: Organic vs. Cultivated Growth

Effective customer acquisition is the lifeblood of a new business, especially in its early stages. When customers organically discover and buy your products or services, it proves your business is viable. Early wins can mislead you. The real challenge isn’t attracting...

Do Business Like a Coyote: Why Opportunistic Predators Thrive Anywhere

The Nature of Coyotes If asked, you would probably express a negative view of coyotes. However, coyotes have many admirable characteristics. Most notably, the coyote can adapt to thrive in most environments and habitats. We can learn a lot from the coyote and apply...

Organic or Cultivated Clients? Which Do You Want?

These days the term “organic” seems ubiquitous.  Organic has come to mean more than the traditional dictionary definition. In this instance, I want to talk about organic growth as it relates to a natural process that is without direct intervention or influence....

Marketing, Branding, PR and the NC 100

LISTEN NOW! Marketing, branding, and PR play pivotal roles in business growth. They increase visibility and convey your message - what it is you DO! Guests: Chuck Norman and Deneen Bloom Chuck Norman, Owner/Principal of S&A Communications and Publisher of The...

Imperfect Pitches You Can’t Make Them … or Stop Them

Tough Lessons: You Can’t Make Them … or Stop Them Parents know it and live it. Consultants and other advisors have to learn it. You can’t force anyone to make a wise choice or the best decisions. You can't stop companies from making imperfect pitches to potential...

It IS About the Customer! Know and Serve Them.

Whether our organization is for-profit, not-for-profit, or a government agency, what we do is about the customer. Sometimes we forget that. We get so caught up in "the business" that we lose sight of "the customer." What’s worse is that sometimes we aren't really sure...

How to Grow Your Business, One Relationship at a Time – Network!

Grow Your Business — Build Relationships Previously published in MWorld, The Journal of the American Management Association Volume 8, Number 3 Summer/Fall 2009 In today’s economic uncertainty, having a solid network can help your organization. However, it isn’t easy...

Networking: Relationship Building, Not Hard Pitch Selling

I have a developing list of bad behaviors in networking. It seems after every event I can add either an entirely new “don’t” or an innovative variant of the core list. Chumming – Method of “baiting” the water to entice sharks to take the bait and encourage feeding...

Schedule a Complimentary 30-Minute Consultation

Ready to learn more about how we can work together! Let’s schedule a phone call or Zoom session.

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