Q. How do you measure your progress toward
the long-term plan?
It’s not just about revenue. It’s
about quality of clients. That
was the big metric for us. When
we first started the business,
you had to work with any client
you could. We were just trying
to survive that period.
Then our focus was could we
add larger regional clients. That
gradually led us to winning larger national clients.
At the beginning of each year,
we would clearly articulate how
we were looking to grow, like,
‘We want to increase revenue by
15 to 20 percent.’ But then the
other, more intangible things
are, ‘We want to launch into this
market; here are some of the
new client prospects we’re
interested in going after.’
Approach (progress) from
some of those intangibles, as
well.
Q. How do you manage
business growth?
You definitely see growing
pains. Back when we launched
the company, we had two small
offices and about 15 people. You
really feel like you know people
on a more personal level. When
there are only 15 people, it’s not
hard to get to know folks. As the
company grows, you get into different offices, different regions.
Take my Washington, D.C.,
office for example. I haven’t
made it to that office in about
four months now. There are two
folks in that office that I haven’t
even met. You have situations
where it’s not as personal as it
was when it was a smaller company. It’s a big challenge because
you’re not interacting with the
same level of frequency.
Another thing is the financial
challenges. As your company
gets bigger, your benefits cost
more. Your office space requirements go up. When you have
100 people, that’s 100 computers that can potentially break.
Q. What lessons have you
learned from your company’s
growth?
Sometimes you have to take a
step back in order to take a step
forward. In 2006, we realized
we’re going to have to go hire
two or three top senior people.
For instance, we needed a GM
for the San Francisco office
because I had been wearing
both hats. It got to the point
where I couldn’t be the CEO
because I was also trying to run
the San Francisco office.
We made the decision that we
were probably going to have to
sacrifice some of the short-term
profits because, in some
instances, we had to use
recruiters, bigger salaries, all
those things. Our margin actually dropped in 2007, but once
everything started flowing, we
grew and it freed me up to do
more things. It really paid off
this year when we actually saw
not only an increase in our top
line but a really nice increase in
our bottom line, as well.
HOW TO REACH: Allison & Partners, (415) 277-4900 or www.allisonpr.com
