When one thinks of company turnarounds, it’s normal to imagine outside investors bringing in their own people, restructuring everything, perhaps chopping off various company operations, or even pointing the company to a brand new market. More common, however, is the internal turnaround, sometimes led by a new CEO, but often simply initiated by a transition in thinking within the existing executive team. Some attempts are successful, others are not. Indeed it is said that the quality of a company is best measured by how they respond to difficult times.
Such is the case with SilverSun Technologies, a nationwide small business IT services provider operating through its subsidiaries. Just 18 months ago, the company was facing a long string of flat annual sales, generating a little over $7 million in yearly revenue, together with significant operating losses, $2 million in convertible debt, and an industry still reeling from the recession. And yet, instead of outsiders swooping down to kick the company in a different direction, rescue came from the inside. The economy was still a struggle, but one thing the company seemed to have going for it was a team of people that, as company CEO Mark Meller put it, “refuse to accept mediocrity, much less failure as an outcome to any challenge”.
Through a broad mix of operational, product, and service evaluations and transformations, the company essentially pulled itself up by its own bootstraps. By 2012, SilverSun was a different company. Not only did they achieve record annual revenues for 2011, a jump of some 40% over 2010, the company realized an operating profit of $260,000. At the same time, they eliminated all debt, other than ordinary accounts payable, and secured a revolving line of credit to the tune of $750,000. They even closed on the acquisition of selected assets of IncorTech (an accounting, technology, and business consulting company), and signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of HighTower, a Chicago-based Sage business and development partner.
Turnaround or not, SilverSun is convinced that it is just beginning. The company is now on a stated mission to grow their annual revenues five-fold from their current level of approximately $10.5 million to more than $50 million in the next 36 months.
For additional information, visit SilverSun’s website at www.SilverSunTech.co
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