Welcome to Optical Strategies, LLC
Optical Strategies is a business development consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses operating in markets including distributed fiber optic sensing, specialty photonics, and other niche areas of fiber optics. The team is led by Mike Hines, an industry veteran with over 30 years in these spaces.
That’s why we begin the process with your team and a series of mind-mapping interviews. This allows us to assess your current state and fully understand your desired future state – combining this with market intelligence we develop powerful solutions to help you succeed.
At Optical Strategies, we believe that the key to success is understanding our customers' needs.
Services
Our services include a range of offerings designed to help businesses grow and thrive in competitive markets. These include:
Business Plan Assessments
We can help you optimize your business plan to ensure it aligns with your goals and objectives.
Deep Market Analysis
Our team grew up in these markets. We provide in-depth, customized market analyses to help you understand the competition, identify new opportunities and stay ahead.
Competitor Research
We’ll help you identify your key competitors, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and help develop strategies to grow your company.
Strategic Planning
Recognizing that no “one-size-fits-all” approach works, we team with you to develop a customized strategic approach, taking into account your goals, strengths, weaknesses, and desired future state.
Business Growth Roadmapping
Our team can help you develop a roadmap for growth and expansion, whether you’re looking to launch a new product line, enter a new market, or scale your current offering.
Outside Perspective
The view from outside your core team is often different from that within. We add perspective, arms-length openness and honesty, providing insights to bring balance to beliefs and counter blind spots.
Support of Entrepreneurs
We augment your business expertise with decades of experience, freeing you up to focus on growth.
As a consulting firm Optical Strategies, LLC is flexible in terms of working arrangement. Identifying this usually takes an informal conversation or two to develop a clear sense of client needs and whether a good match exists between the client and us. While under contract we commonly work in one of two ways:
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For short-term or introductory projects, we provide services on an hourly rate. This helps the client understand our talents and weigh value and impact for their decision-making preparedness and business health. Such projects are usually 1 to 3 months in duration.
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The second approach is to consult and advise under a Pay for Access Retainer, whereby the client pays a monthly fee in advance of each month for the duration of the project. These are often longer-term projects lasting from 3 months to more than a year. This approach may also be more convenient for firms with longer-term needs.
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Our Principal, Mike Hines, has extensive experience in the fiber optics, distributed fiber optic sensing, and specialty photonics markets. Mike has worked with a variety of businesses, from startups to established companies, and has a track record of success in developing purpose-built solutions that meet business needs. Mike works with publicly available information, spending time that the client doesn’t have, to gather comprehensive intelligence, make informed assessments, and report back – the most important value is Mike’s ability to connect-the-dots and help clients navigate the commercial and technical maze that surrounds them.
If you’re looking for expert guidance and support to help your business thrive in these competitive markets, look no further than Optical Strategies. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you achieve your goals.