What We Are

Navigating a Cloudy Future is a group of small business leaders and entrepreneurs along with experts in finance, sales and marketing, operations and other disciplines critical to the success of small businesses. We have stood in your shoes and have learned many lessons in business, at times the hard way. We have many scars to show for our experience, yet we’re still at it, still learning and still enjoying it. To us there is nothing more rewarding than building a successful business.

While some of us are relative newcomers and some of us are old hands we all still have much to learn. We learn from each other’s experience and in so doing we will suffer fewer scars ourselves. You, whether you think so or not, also have experience and insights that we can learn from. Maybe you’ve been somewhere we haven’t or maybe you simply have a different perspective that can help us to see the changes that are coming. In any event, there is much we have to learn from each other.

Membership and access to the forums of Navigating a Cloudy Future is by invitation and all members are screened to ensure that they are here to contribute and to learn. Members are not here to promote their own agenda or products. While there are many impacts on small business as a result of government action and regulation and we will certainly discuss how best to cope with them, we do not allow political wrangling or promotion of political ideologies. Once again, we are here to learn from one another and to help each other reduce costs, improve operations and understand how to make our businesses better.

If you would like to learn more about our group and perhaps become a member please contact us at info@ncfuture.com. We’d love to hear from you!

 

Who We Are

Navigating a Cloudy Future was founded in 2011 by Jim Klenk, Tracy Nelson and Conrad Eggan. We believe that by creating a place where small business leaders can come together to share ideas and learn from one another all of us and our businesses will be stronger than if we are all going it alone.

 

James T. Klenk
President, Profitpoint Management, Inc.
Jim was with Coopers & Lybrand, CPAs (Currently PricewaterhouseCoopers), as a certified public accountant for ten years; was vice president and chief financial officer for a $150-$200 million corporation; started and ran his own small business; and has been providing financial, operational and management services to corporations in high stress, transitional stages since January, 1987.

 

Tracy Nelson
Senior Vice President, Asset Based Lending
Mr. Nelson joined PrinSource Capital Companies in 2006 as a co-founder of PrinSource Business Credit, and has been instrumental in loan administration, credit functions, new business development, participation relationships, and audit. Mr. Nelson has 22 years of asset based lending experience including loan structure, workouts, and asset recoveries through liquidations.

Mr. Nelson’s years of asset based lending experience have been in the small business market in the Midwest. He joined Itasca Business Credit (Marquette Business Credit) in September 1996 as a Sr. Account Executive and contributed to the growth of the organization through loan administration, credit, new business development, and audit. Prior to employment with Itasca he worked six years with Republic Acceptance Corp, a small asset based lender located in Minneapolis.

In addition, Mr. Nelson spent eleven years as Controller of various small, highly leveraged companies with under $10 million in annual revenues. His accounting background and many years of experience give Tracy a practical and thorough understanding of the financing needs and pressure points of a small business.

Mr. Nelson attended Nettleton College in Sioux Falls, SD receiving degrees in Accounting and Business Administration.

Mr. Nelson has been a member of the Midwest Turnaround Management Associationsince 1998.

 

Conrad Eggan
President, Red Cat Manufacturing Solutions
Conrad founded and spent 28 years as President of a $7 million manufacturing company. While many years of running a small manufacturing company have given him a great deal of knowledge in Sales & Marketing, Finance and Administration, his heart and his strength is in Manufacturing Operations. Conrad's areas of special expertise include:

  • Manufacturing management
  • Process planning & improvement
  • CNC machining systems
  • Capacity planning
  • Scheduling
  • Materials management
  • Job costing
  • IT integration to shop floor

For the last 2 years Conrad has been helping small manufacturers to improve their systems, processes and overall performance helping to move companies to greater profitability using methods that are practical, appropriate and affordable for small businesses.