I am Stephen Taylor with LeadingIT. We specialize in monthly, all-inclusive IT and cybersecurity for organizations in all different industries, with 20 to 200 people, all across Chicagoland. We understand the technology needs of businesses and offer computer, network and cybersecurity support to help people get the most out of their technology.
Over the last two years, we’ve now made four acquisitions (including our latest in January 2023), bought a
total of $4.6M in business, added atop our original $3M, and now we are an almost $10M business with
50+ people
3 Ways To Add 80% Growth In 12 Months
It started in 2021, but last year, saw almost 80% in growth. We did that through:
- Hella Hard Work
- Organic Marketing
- Acquisition
The first thing I did was challenge myself and went on a road trip. I did some reflection and introspection and found that I was not challenging myself enough. I wasn’t taking on enough risk. That is when I decided I need to take on some acquisition work and it’s been the fuel that’s given us our rocket ship.
I was completely out of my wheelhouse. I knew nothing about acquisitions, but I could see there was a lot of opportunity in them. Instead of just signing 1 or 2 customers, we could bring on 30 or 50. It is super risky in a sense and challenging, but that was the fun and the excitement that I needed. So, this risk is what really helped to catapult us, and it doesn’t mean that we’ve taken our foot off of marketing and getting net new customers – we are doing both at the same time. It has been a lot more fun and exciting with all the challenges that come with it too.
Read Stephen’s entire essay on how he added $208,897 in MRR by clicking here.
We were probably less prepared than maybe we should have been, but that’s kind of how I operate. Go fast, don’t die. We could have been in a better place and had more systems and processes, but we were able to accomplish this growth through hard work and dedication. I think sometimes we might overanalyze things and it keeps us from making that next shift, and that next jump. I say go fast and you’ll figure it out.
“If it doesn’t feel like it feels safe, you’re not going fast enough”. Mario Andretti
Go Fast And Make The Time To Do The Work
Go fast worked for me but I also had to make the time to do this. Whatever we put on our calendar, 95% of that stuff really gets done. I’m both a driven and a lazy entrepreneur, so I find a bunch of stuff that I have to get done that I don’t like doing, and I’ve grown the business to then be able to hire the people that then can do that role that I don’t want to do anymore. But really, it’s a choice. There are 100 other things in life we can be doing, or we can do the thing that’s going to be hard and painful but will get us to where we want to be.
Getting out of tech all day, every day is important. I look at what the next thing that’s really going to get us to where we need to be is and if that’s a marketing person or a salesperson, it’s just building the business big enough to where you can bring in those people to get the next iteration.
3 Step Follow Up Process To Increase Revenue
We used Technology Marketing Toolkit’s Sitting Duck and Aspirin Campaigns for our marketing efforts. What really made it work for us was rounding it completely out. Following the process and not just sending the campaign out and hoping for the best. You have to follow the process.
3 Step Follow Up Process:
- 3 Email Follow Up
- 3 Follow Up Calls
- Social Connections
You have to do all of it. There’s no way in hell that they can ignore you at that point.
The number one thing for me was learning to paint a vision for my life and my business. Really looking at where I want to go and what the hell do I want to do? And then from there is backwards math and a shit ton of hard work.
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