Journey To $100 Million

A little while back, Erik got a phone call from a previous business associate. This individual shared a workspace with Erik about five years ago, where they discussed their businesses, ideas, and strategies on how to grow their companies. In episode 241 of Journey to $100 MIllion, listen in to see what advice Erik gave to this individual. Erik received the call because this individual found a really good employee after having experimented with numerous employees recently. After realizing how good of an employee she hired, she called Erik for advice on whether or not to extend this employee’s hours from only ten a week. Once Erik found out she could afford to pay this employee and needed the employee to meet her work demand, Erik advised to double her employee’s hours. From Erik’s experience, when he got a full-time developer, not only did his supply double, but the demand increased as well. Instead of saying “I can do this work,” he would say “we could do this work.” It changed the dynamic of the conversati

Do you share your clients’ personal information as a reference source for new potential clients? In episode 240 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Kevin as he shares how we have decided to not share our clients’ direct info in order to give references here at Array Digital. We have plenty of reviews, video testimonials, and case studies all over our numerous online platforms. Kevin and Erik decided to only send out an email/link of our reviews, testimonials, and case studies to potential clients in order to give them a reference for our work before they sign with us. We also let them know that if they feel compelled they are more than welcome to call the office of a client, but we will not supply them with specific contact information. If we send out our clients’ email addresses, phone numbers, or other information that could potentially upset them. If our clients are getting calls on a consistent basis asking about us that could annoy them very easily and potentially make them not want to continue wo

As you may have already heard, Erik has a goal to run 1,000 miles in 2019. In episode 239 of Journey to $100 Million, Erik talks about how small improvements over time can greatly advance your personal and business efforts. Currently, Erik is at the point where he feels comfortable running three to four miles every day. Recently, he did the math to see where he would be if he ran an extra quarter-mile every day. Taking the miles he had already run, and adding an extra quarter-mile every day, it turned out to be about an extra 40 miles overall! That is a significant improvement, for an insignificant addition to his daily routine. Small improvements multiplied by volume (or time) equal BIG results! This is not just with running, but in business as well. For example, the 1% rule: if you make a 1% improvement anywhere in your business over time, it multiplies out to greatly improve your company. If you make small changes on a constant basis, you will see significant improvements in your business, your life, a

Back in the day when Erik ran a software development company, it was just him and a couple of employees and the company was flush with cash. We still do very well for ourselves at Array Digital, but we do have more employees and more obligations, leaving less excess cash. In episode 238 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains how he threw business parties with his previous company’s extra cash, which ended up gaining him a very lucrative deal. Erik found a local event coordinator that educated him on a very useful approach to correctly utilize these business parties. The goal was to have a strategic approach, plan who was going to be there and follow up with the attendees. He also spoke to another friend of his, who was also a business owner, who explained to Erik how he should ask everyone invited to invite one other person that they feel would be a good fit to use his company’s services. Erik found that only about 25% of individuals brought someone else with them, but one of those ind

At Array Digital we put out a lot of really great educational information out through our social media platforms, our podcast, blog, and more. We pride ourselves on constantly producing content, and we hope it is always educational to our followers. In episode 236 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains how we have recently injected “asks” into this content. We have constantly put out content that added value to other people, but didn’t for anything in return. This is generally a good thing, as we want to give-give-give so that people recognize us as digital marketing experts, and come back to us when they are in need. But at some point, you need to have an ask so that you can gain clients. Every week we inject an explicit ask in an online video, and after every episode of our podcast, we have an outro about one of our services. Our team comes together internally every week and decides what our ask of the week is going to be, and then we record a short video that asks the public to do

When running a business, you should have a deep understanding of the work you do and be able to help and fix problems at any time. In episode 235 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Kevin as he talks about how he recently stepped in to help out operations and do some of the dirty work himself! We recently have been redesigning Array Digital’s services and home page. Kevin saw the team struggling with what they should do, and felt compelled to step in and do some of the work himself. Kevin decided to go back to his roots and do some design, developing, and coding. He was able to come up with some solutions that were well received by the team. In addition, Erik helped out with some of the copy, while our web developer, Jason, optimized the pages while also making it mobile-friendly. These new pages were crucial for prospects in order to provide the information they need to make a decision whether or not to reach out and work with us. Sometimes, you have to go back to your roots, jump in to do some of the

Back in the day, Erik tried a lot of different things throughout his entrepreneurial journey. He was not exactly sure what he wanted to do, so he dabbled in many different areas. In episode 234 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains how being involved in many different business ventures led to different personas in different scenarios. When Erik was an employee, he had a particular persona, whereas when he was working on different side jobs, he was in a different realm. He kept these different worlds separate from each other, hoping these different worlds would not collide. But, unfortunately, when you have different personas for different situations, none of them get the attention they need. When Erik started his first commercial company, 80/20, he needed to let everyone he had been working with know that this was his sole priority. All of these various personas needed to be consolidated into one so he could focus all of his attention on this new company. In order to be successful,

Are you selling the right solutions to your customers? In episode 233 of Journey to $100 Million, Kevin explains how we do our best to make decisions to sell to our clients in a way that is most beneficial to them. We recently signed a new client, and the customer desired a service we did not feel was right for them. Therefore, during the onboarding period, we notified the client that it was not wise to pay for this particular service based on their size and budget. We removed this service for them and offered them a cheaper solution that would provide them with more immediate results. Although the service this client originally wanted would’ve allowed us to gain more profit, we did not push for them to keep it as we thought a different service would better suit them. When you are selling to your clients, ask yourself if you are selling for profit or client satisfaction. You will have much more success if you sell what you believe in. In addition, you will acquire a positive reputation along the way. If yo

Erik sometimes, like all executives inadvertently do, frustrates his team here at Array Digital. In episode 232 of Journey to $100 Million, Erik talks about a recent situation where he was supercharged up in a recent management meeting about hiring two new employees. When talking about these hires, he stated he would do it at any cost, even if we had to borrow money. What happened was the team found candidates, then Erik got nervous. Erik came to the realization that it was frustrating for his team when he asks them to do something in a timely manner, then asks them to stop and wait. Not only that, but it frustrates Erik as well due to the fact he has a vision of $100 million dollars, and that is not going to be easy, especially without an abundance of talented team members. We must hire people that can execute what we are selling as well as have people that are selling - without both, we are not going to hit our goal. But, there also needs to be a very equal balance between the sales and operations team, be

Are you effectively keeping track of the growth your company is gaining? In episode 231 of Journey to $100 Million, Kevin shares a very positive growth update for us here at Array Digital. When we started our podcast this past January of 2019, our ARR (annual recurring revenue) was at $1.2 Million. As of August 30th, 2019, we have exceeded $1.6 Million in ARR! This is incredible news, knowing that we still have one more month to go in the third quarter. Not only that, but we recently received our bi-weekly financial report from Katya, and our growth rate is currently at 100%! At this pace, it is looking like we will not only meet, but exceed our goal of $2 million in ARR this year. For 2020, we plan to set our goals even higher due to our growth rate. If we maintain this pace and stay the course, we predict that Array Digital’s future is very bright. That being said, the reality is, if we hit the $2 Million ARR mark this year, we have to continue to double these yearly goals annually in order to hit the $1

Recently, one of our team members here at Array Digital sent an email to a new client with the contract attached, as we have all done before. In episode 230 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains how electronic signature systems can help streamline your contract signing process. When you send a contract attached as an email, the prospect has to print the contract, physically sign it, scan it back to their computer, and then email it back to you. This is a very long, tedious, and sometimes confusing process when you are trying to sign a client quickly. Luckily, there are electronic signature systems, such as DocuSign and Hellosign, that can help you take the friction out of this process. With electronic signatures, a prospect is able to click the contract link in an email, then simply click another button to sign. We have adopted this electronic signature process into contracts within our company as it simplifies the signing process for prospects. HelloSign is the software we currently

In episode 229 of Journey to $100 Million, Kevin shares some exciting news. The sales team at Array Digital has just surpassed our quarterly goal in just two months! Our goal for the quarter was $30K in MRR (monthly recurring revenue) and we have already passed this goal with one more month to go in the quarter. We would like to give a huge shoutout to Glen, our business development manager, for helping us reach our goal. Glen started with us about 4-5 months and has already hit the half a million mark in ARR (annual recurring revenue). If we are able to continue at this pace, we believe we can attain our $100 million goal, although that is still far out as of right now. Kevin is very pleased to have reached our sales goal, especially being this early in the quarter! We are crushing it with sales right now, and cannot wait to watch our progress and see where our sales are at the end of the quarter. Do you have sales goals? If not, you are not going to be able to track your progress or meet any expectation

This podcast references times where there have been problems, either current or in the past. In episode 228 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik explains why he focuses on problems that have affected our company and how we have recently been winning - a lot! Erik focuses on these problems because he views them as opportunities to improve. If you can learn from your mistakes, you can incrementally get better until you start winning - something that has recently been happening with us! We have experienced a lot of wins within our KPI dashboard, leads, and contracts. This glimpse of winning makes all the issues we face and hard work we put in that much more worth it. That winning feeling is something that we strive for each day here at Array Digital. Erik does not find joy in continuously pointing out aspects of our company that need improvement, however, he knows it will lead us to more wins on a regular basis and position us for success in the long run. To emphasize the importance of winning to our

Recently we brought on a business consultant, named Jeff “Ski” Kinsey. In episode 227 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Kevin as he shares how Ski has informed Kevin and Erik about a very impactful concept that has helped Array Digital continue to grow: The Theory of Constraints (TOC). The Theory of Constraints was first developed by Eli M. Goldratt. This theory is the understanding that there is always going to be at least one weak link (not necessarily an individual) within your company that is holding you back from reaching your full potential. The goal is to focus on those weak links one at a time and look for results. When you find a weak link, put all your energy into that one issue and fix it! After you fix that link that has been holding you back find the next one, and the next one, until all of the issues in your company that are preventing growth - vanish! As executives, Kevin and Erik find themselves focusing on 20 different issues at once, attempting to fix them all at the same time - and

Previously, we have talked about how we are discontinuing one of our services: hosting only. In episode 224 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains how that process went. Hosting only has been a legacy service that we no longer sell to new clients. When this occurs, it sends a red flag that you should discontinue that service. We had 28 clients using hosting only, and when we discontinued this service in early June, we figured that we would lose those clients. After our business development manager, Glen, reached out to these clients, 2 of them upgraded to support and hosting service, while another even upgraded to more marketing services. We were able to gain more revenue from these upgrades, while also cutting our client count by 25! You should never assume that your clients will always be content with the services they are being provided. These clients may be looking for a different service, but you have not sat down with them to have that conversation. The key is to continuously loo

In 2017, before we merged to form Array Digital, Kevin made an amazing hire who has proven to be an asset to our team. In episode 223 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Kevin shares how vital our marketing manager, Jake Maines, has been to our team. Jake’s role is to oversee our entire marketing department, including social media, SEO, advertising, and website design. Prior to hiring Jake, our goal was to hire someone who would be able to assist SEO and marketing clients. We are very fortunate to have Jake on our team as he has been essential to the growth of our company. His experience along with his dedication to the company has allowed him to transition from working within a single department to being the head of the entire marketing department. While Kevin was interviewing this new hire, he did not just focus on Jake’s experience and background, but also his personality and character to see if he would fit in with the culture of the company. Jake exceeded Kevin’s expectations and has been an amaz

Have you ever had a problem that stems from a good situation? Recently, we had our best Marketers Anonymous meetup yet! In episode 222 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains the situation we have found ourselves in with the growing size of our meetups. The room that we currently use for our meetups has been perfect in the past with its capacity of 48 people which accommodated the previous amount of attendees. At our most recent Marketers Anonymous meetup, however, we had 60-65 attendees. Although the attendees outsized the room capacity, we were able to improvise. To do this, we had to make-shift tables, bring in high standing chairs to place in the back, and encourage people to stand. Knowing that we recently stopped supporting our Newport News and Orlando meetups in order to focus our time into the Norfolk meetups, we were thrilled to see this turnout. Due to this growth, we feel that we are ready to make the jump to a 100 person room. We feel that we have proven our value in these

Kevin’s previous company provided services that had a high ranking on Google based on their location. In episode 221 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Kevin as he shares how we are now trying to get back on track in Google search results here at Array Digital. This ranking allowed Kevin to acquire more leads than he could even handle, the work never stopped! Kevin’s previous company did website design and SEO, but when his company merged with Erik’s to form Array Digital, these SEO efforts stopped immediately. At first, Array Digital was focused on software and mobile apps, and was not worried about losing those leads. Today, Array Digital provides website design, SEO, and various other services. As Array Digital expands on these services, Kevin wishes he had the leads from his previous company. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been focusing on being present in search engine results by starting to rank for specific keyword phrases. We now have a channel in Slack that includes the entire team an

In Erik’s most recent episode, he talked about how sending an invoice to a client means you are effectively extending them credit. We realized that this can pose a big risk to the company, and needed to figure out a way to eliminate this risk and receive payment prior to completing client work. In episode 220 of Journey to $100 Million, Erik discusses how we plan to do this at Array Digital. In business, you must complete the work, send an invoice, and then wait on payment. The payment is usually in net terms, such as net 30, meaning the client has 30 days to pay the invoice. Understanding that having to wait on receiving this payment can be risky, we decided to have a goal of net 0 for client payments, or requiring that they must pay immediately. To do this, we either need clients to pay by credit card, or ACH (automated clearing house). ACH means that we would extract money from the client’s checking account and be moved into our account in one to two days. We have been trying to get our existing clients

About 5 years into Kevin’s first business, he started to take on bigger projects outside of his wheelhouse. In episode 219 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Kevin as he shares how one of these projects didn’t go as planned, and how he went about handling this situation. One of Kevin’s projects was for a large organization and required designing a website, which posed a challenge for Kevin as it was more complex than other work he had done. However, based on his research, proposal, and eagerness for a challenge, he took on the project. The desired website required things such as a membership portal, a classified section, and advertising. The project was successful at first as the requirements were met and the design was receiving positive feedback. However, soon after, Kevin ran into a few problems. When Kevin got into the complexity of the membership portal and setting up different systems needed for the site, he found the workload to be overwhelming. There were various requests from the client rega