3 Startups: How does business change from 500 to 5 million?

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The successful establishment of two technology companies with little money has made Maik Miscialovic Mike Michalowicz the next firm to invest in obsidian start-ups. But this became "do not easily wish" footnote, Maik Miscialovic received investment funds, unfortunately, his project failed. In hindsight, he was so well off that the lack of urgency led to making bad decisions that the project failed.

Maik Miscialovic, author of "toilet Paper entrepreneur" (The toilet monitors entrepreneur), said: "I have started from scratch, and I have a lot of money to start a business, I have to say, I prefer starting from scratch." "He recently founded an enterprise accelerator Provendus in New Jersey. "It's not forced to make better and quicker decisions, but because you can really feel the pain of every mistake." When you don't have the money, you can quickly detect what works and what doesn't. After the failure of obsidian, I did not feel pain, I just wasted money and time, which made things worse. ”

Starting with Mike, we're going to talk about some of the same entrepreneurs who have started from scratch. From the following 3 successful enterprises, we can find that the founder through their own wisdom and efforts to forge ahead, creating a value of millions of of dollars of business. What are the secrets of their rapid growth?

Door to Door: achieving "organic" growth

16 do 26 million dollars

Door to Door is expected to grow to 40 million dollars this year

When he opened the carton in the garage, he set up Door to Door Organics in a warehouse, and the intuition of the organic farm delivery service, David Gosenham David Gersenson, told him that the company would have a future ahead.

"I broke the record and I knew it was going to work," he recalls, 1997 years after he foresaw the company's future. His first bucket of gold began in Pennsylvania State, in the upper Basque county, where he made a business of about 700 dollars. The company was based entirely on his ideas. He had the idea after eating organic vegetables in India at the age of 20.

Although Gersenson's vision proved his prophecy, he did not anticipate that the decision made the organic farm company a success today. At present, his natural organic products online retail employees have more than 200 people, the country has 5 underground market, 2013-year income of 26 million U.S. dollars, is expected to be more than 40 million U.S. dollars this year.

From the start, Gersenson focused on family-style individual clients and shunned commercial clients because he felt they were easy competitors. Companies rely almost entirely on word-of-mouth to cultivate customer base. He was very frugal in his business, and after several years (until the company had hundreds of customers) began to hire employees. During that time, Gersenson was responsible for customer service, all the bills were recorded by him, and even some of the delivery work was done by him (using UPS instead of others).

This unique approach helps deliver door-to-door operations in two years to achieve profitability. But in 2004, when the company's performance growth in eastern Pennsylvania State stabilized, Gersenson decided to move to Boulder, Colorado State. This is an individual-motivated lifestyle decision (which is entirely personal) and a testament to the greatness of the business as it establishes the company's core position in organic food and local diners.

Once in Colorado State, Gersenson established a direct supply relationship with local farmers and regional trucking and distribution companies to help deliver goods. In this way, he saved a lot of cost from the preparation of funds. Gersenson immediately formed an internal delivery team, and then he no longer needed to rely on ups. These actions, he argues, have significantly improved service quality, strengthened supply chains and lowered costs.

Finally, in 2009, the company's annual revenue hovered around 3 million dollars, and Gersenson found a business consultant to manage the business. 2010, the consultant, Chad Arnold, became the CEO of the company. "At that time, David was obsessed with ' What am I going to do? '" Arnold said, "He's trying to figure out how to expand the business, and I know what the company's future is." ”

As for Gersenson, there is still a seat on the board of directors and a handful of important stakes in the company, and he regrets that he is too late to delegate. "Hiring Arnold is the greatest decision I've ever made in my life," he said. I am always a step away from my goal and should be taken over by others. I can't make it myself. ”

How he did it.

• Low operating costs, even after years of profit and growth.

• Regularly evaluate operations, improve efficiency and reduce spending.

• A sense of abdication aside.

Peach New Media: Adapt to change to develop

12, do 5 million dollars

Peach New Media's customer service team rests during the outgoing meeting.

Rebuilding is a dangerous move for some companies. This is part of the regular business for Peach NEW Media. Software reseller Dave Will (Dave would), putting 2001 years with 2600 dollars to launch his own basement, as a solid SaaS provider content learning and management space as the beginning of his business. This is also the fulcrum of his many strategies in the future.

Today, the company has its own webcast and learning software platform (freestone Learning Management System) and related tools and services to help clients (such as the National Bar Association and CPA Association) to provide education and training. Last year, the Atlanta company's revenue grew to millions of, with about 250 clients and 36 employees.

Will admits that he has not drawn a tortuous path to deliberately guide Peach New media to prosperity. But he also said that the company will not be in a thriving today, free from one business model to another. For more than 10 years, the company has gained double-digit growth each year, and in 2013 the growth rate reached 32%.

"Many companies have detailed rules about what should be done and what should not be done," he said. So for the market and customer needs, they often do not give enough attention, "he said. "We have changed our traditional business model to better grasp the opportunities, which also makes us more profitable," he said. ”

"It was an unexpected layoff," will added. 2001, his original job is a system integration consulting work, unemployment let him stand at the crossroads of life: "continue to work for others, or do their own things." "He chose the latter, he spent 2600 of dollars, and got a sales license to sell web conferencing tools to consumer goods retailers." It took hundreds of yuan to set up a temporary underground office.

For a while, the company's income is enough to sustain itself and even to have a surplus. But after years, as the competition grew, will made his first big decision in life, leading the peach New media transformation into a customer management network event, like Wal-Mart.

Soon, he realized that the company Web-based Learning Portal template is a good consumer area. It is time to open up the second fulcrum of the company, a service and product-centric model. "We realize that we are creating something that people want to buy-our learning content management software." So we move to SaaS mode, enabling us to sell services on top of our software and build a new source of revenue with existing customers, "he said.

The company's transformation, will has always maintained a firm determination to develop their business methodically. The shift, he claims, has been a boon to himself. He refused to accept venture capital because he could retain control of the company. He did not even hire an administrative assistant until he had been in business for more than a year; it took him three years to move out of the basement, had an actual office, and in the fourth year he hired the first salesperson.

Not only that, we should also focus on the rise of the company. "One of our criteria is to shrink and expand first," he said. "Throughout the history of our company, we have been careful not to pursue every new concept, to grow-as tempting as that can be-but to be motivated to focus on what we are best at." ”

How did he do that?

• Limited debt and rejection of external investors.

• Only when the opportunity is ripe.

• Only create excellent products, it must be able to bring long-term income.

The Kingston Group: "Build" is for enduring

6 years, 3.9 million dollars.

The Kingston Group's renovated office in Nashville

Setting up a construction company, the timing is very important, and once you make a mistake, it's too bad. In 2007, Richie Scott (Ricky Scott) and his childhood partner, Robbie Edwards (Robbie Edwards), founded the Kingston Group in Nashville, Tennessee, where the main business was residential construction and renovation. However, a few months later, the accident occurred, the local real estate market suffered a setback.

It was not long before the contractors and developers who competed with Scott and Edwards, who were now idle because of their borrowing, are already bankrupt. On the contrary, the Kingston group has been down-to-earth and risk-averse practices that keep them accumulating customers and generating revenue in the context of a deteriorating environment.

The survival of the fittest, binding and witty help the Kingston group survive in the economic slump and thrive as one of the few companies still standing.

When the company was founded, it cost 500 dollars to pay the operating licence fee. The company spent the first two years in one of Edwards's spare bedrooms, with tools, equipment and computers smaller than he and Scott. Drafted a cheap legal document and used as many Internet tools as possible. The company's initial marketing campaign was woefully low, with a page that was smaller than Facebook, with regular email mass and two founders consistently promoting on a personal network. "Having a good network and using it well is important for businesses to save money," says Scott.

When there is income, the partner resists the temptation. They do not like many competitors, just focus on housing decoration. Instead, they focus on their core competencies: tailor-made personalized building and retrofit programs for those who advance the deposit and the entire payment.

"Although we were slow to develop at the beginning of our business, we laid a solid foundation," said Scott. "We didn't put the company on the mortgage, and we repaid the debt with the money we earned." Instead, we have adopted a conservative and reinvestment approach to business, and now it seems that we are not in debt. ”

Even without a formal business plan, the company gained 340,000 dollars in the first year, with a record 2013-year income of 3.9 million dollars, up from $2.38 million in 2012. Now, in addition to the company's founder, the Kingston Group has 8 full-time employees, one of which has assumed Scott's executive position so he can focus on sales and strategy.

Part of the company's development strategy is to continue to invest in companies that are still young, such as the recent renovation of an office building that has just been purchased. "We've reached a point where we can now focus on building our physical and human assets," said Scott. ”

How they do it

• Earn money to reinvest in new hires and improve equipment and office environments.

• Hire a high level of staff.

• Establish initial customer base through network marketing and Word-of-mouth communication.

(Via:entrepreneur, pioneering state compilation; The entrepreneur content authorizes the pioneering state exclusive cooperation, do not reprint without permission