On The Road

On The Road E07 - Avitus Technology Services: Cole Halpin

Key takeaways: * Clients who want a high level of technology expertise but can’t afford to hire a staff of specialists internally will get it through our managed service offering * Technology is powerful tool that can change a business and save a business * We work with clients whose recurring fees are as little as $300 a month to those spending nearly $30,000 a month * Business owners are demanding more flexibility from their tech, and we help them achieve agility while still keeping their systems secure Eli Johnson: Welcome to another episode of On the Road. Today, we have guests Cole Halpin, director of Avitus Technology Services. We're going to be talking about all things COVID and virtual office related, managed services, Pac-12 football cancellation and this is On the Road. Let's go. Eli Johnson: You started with Altitude Technologies. Cole Halpin: That's correct. Eli Johnson: Which became Avitus Technology Services by way of an acquisition and you started as a help desk guy, moved into a service team engineer, then became a project manager and now you're the director of the entire department, which has been so fun to watch unfold. Tell us about your story. Tell us about your department. Tell us a little bit about Avitus Technology Services. Cole Halpin: Sure. Yeah. When you put it all like that, I always forget kind of the whole journey myself. Again, starting as a help desk, tier one, you're fielding all the calls from all the clients. That was really fun. You get a lot of personal relationship with your clients. I feel like that's where I almost started to care so much about customer experience and it just carried with me through the years. Cole Halpin: And then obviously when we came in through the acquisition with Avitus Group and became Avitus Technology Services, that was incredibly exciting because we had access to a lot of resources we never had when we were a super small company. And then, for my journey from there, I always just found a way to fill the gaps. Every single business outside of technology, if it's marketing, it's for our clients, every business has a need. I was always able to identify that and be, our weakness right now is we don't have a strong service team engineer, so I can be that guy, so I go be that guy. And then I'm like, we need a project manager, so I can go be that guy. And then obviously, I always had ambitious goals, but director was an interesting one that kind of opened up. And I was like, that's definitely one where there's an obvious need there. And I knew that because I'd been with a company up at that point for eight years dating back to Altitude Technologies. Cole Halpin: It was really exciting. It's been a whirlwind of a challenge. I've really enjoyed every moment of it, of course. Leading a few acquisitions or finishing up acquisitions and part of that same process for the ones that we've had internally, just for ATS. Again, it's just been a wild ride. I really can't put it any other way. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Well, the fun part about listening to your journey is that it relates to everybody who is listening right now, whether you're an Avitus Group business development rep or you are an appointed consultant from a given division within the Vensure family, because all of these are really great acquisitions that have happened and they're evolving into something entirely new. You started with Altitude Technologies, which looks very different compared to what ATS is today, Avitus Technology Services. And that version of ATS is going to look very different here, even in a couple of months with where your team is trending. We're going to run through some questions today that is going to help our audience by the end, understand what you want our group, our audience, to know, what to feel and what to do with regard to ATS. With that, technology is one of those things that we all use, but not all of us are just extremely well versed in it. Tell us why you love technology. Cole Halpin: Man, that's a loaded question, but if I had to put it very simple, it's probably the reason I love technology so much is because it literally changes the world because it empowers everything that we do. Every single thing that we do from a business perspective, from our personal lives, is impacted and empowered by technology. If you think about it, everybody goes around with our smartphone. We have access to the infinite world of information at our fingertips at all times, which is really cool. But one of the neat things I don't think a lot of people realize is, people had to design and cater that phone to an experience so that you could use it. Yeah, you have access to all this information, but how do you use it? And then people come up with things like Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all these cool ideas and Uber and all of these ways that without technology we living in the golden age, if you will, of having to hail a taxi and wait for them to show up at the airport. Eli Johnson: Hail a taxi. Cole Halpin: Man, who loved that? Eli Johnson: You've never done that by the way. Cole Halpin: I did it once and it was absolutely terrible. But that's the point is technology allows you to just do things that we were so preordained in like, oh, that's just how things are, and just think about it differently and do things differently. And when I look at it from our client's perspective, we have the ability to do that all the time. Our clients get stuck in that mindset of, well, we just do it this way because we've always done it. Not realizing that there's a technical way to do that way better, way easier, way faster. Cole Halpin: And that's really just impactful from an end user’s perspective because again, maybe that was that really monotonous tasks that they came in every Monday, they spent four hours and they just hated it. It was the worst part of their week. And then through conversations, we're able to implement a technical solution that instead of four hours takes 15 minutes. Just potentially changed their life and way that they approach work. Just technology in and of itself is extremely powerful in the way that it can impact all of our lives from both our clients, to my personal life. I think that's why I've always come to appreciate it so much. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Well, so in the new world with venture and pointing consultants and divisions that are all looking to be as successful as we possibly can on the PEO space, we've now got additional tools in our tool belt with marketing and IT and recruiting. Tell us about managed services. You're talking about what you love about technology. How do we impact that client that's using us for PEO and maybe now tax as well? We're doing their year-end return for the husband and wife and also a couple staff members and their corporate return. That could be something that's happening as we speak, but then tell us how we get in there with managed services? What is that? What do we need to know? Why is it important? Cole Halpin: Yeah, definitely. Managed services in kind of at a high level is simply taking their IT experience and outsourcing it to us. Every single business has technology and IT needs, that does not change for any business out there. Every single one has it. It's like your electricity. It's like a utility. If you don't have it, your business isn't operating. Eli Johnson: Is it reasonable to say they're there utilizing some sort of outsource something that most companies don't have somebody sitting doing their IT, do they? Cole Halpin: Most businesses are going to be outsourcing. And if they're not, we'll call it insourcing, but that's really like, they have maybe an administrative assistant around the office that maybe he or she is pretty good with tech and they're doing a few things, so they could have somebody who's doing it in house, but at the end of the day, they're not doing it correct, is probably the best way that I would frame it. And they're not doing it efficiently. Usually what you'll see in that if they have an in-house person is just that they're handling the day to day, but technology isn't intended to just be band-aid. It's not patched. It's supposed to empower the business, make it more productive. A lot of businesses when they're doing that, they're not taking advantage even of the technology they already have. They're already paying for it. They're not just not using it because they don't have that expert who knows how to, that spends the time, week in, week out learning all the things that you need to know so you can drive that value. Cole Halpin: Managed services is really a service where clients who want that level of expertise, but they can't hire a full team staff of a security specialist, a phone specialist, a server specialist, application support. There's a lot that goes into running an operational IT and doing it well, but small to midsize businesses can't afford that. It's just not economically feasible. Managed services is the ability to engage with us, to get that level of experience and service that would otherwise not be accessible to them. Eli Johnson: I had the chance to attend the global leadership summit last week, which is something I love doing every year. And one of the speakers talked about the decision funnel and within the decision funnel, everything should fall into three categories, what can be eliminated, what can be automated and what can be delegated. And I think that plays really well into what the ATS space does for our clients. How does our pricing work? How do we help a client get all of these corporate style IT benefits to them when they only have 10 work desks? Cole Halpin: Our pricing model is defined essentially by how many workstations and servers and things that they have out there, but on a very high level, most industries there's a pretty easy correlation that even if you don't know that, or even if the business owner or the prospect doesn't know it, a lot of business owners or business operations, I should say, have a pretty close to a one to one ratio, which means if you have 10 employees, you probably have 10 workstations. Maybe there's another one hidden around the office somewhere and maybe a server on the back. A 10% ratio for how many servers to workstations. Again, not to turn this into a math formula, but our pricing model essentially works on how many devices they have, impacts our labor and how much we need to support them because outside of just delivering IT services and IT support, which every business needs, security is a huge thing with every business owner. Cole Halpin: Nobody wants to build this awesome business and then have all their proprietary information taken for ransom and have to close their doors and pay this ransom at the same time. That's a kill shot for a lot of businesses. Every single one of our clients gets a defined security stack to make sure that they're protected, they have the best practices in place and we don't compromise on our client's security because that's at the end of the day, that's that piece of mind that they're looking for when they look for a managed services provider, like we are, is they want to know that they're trusted, they have somebody they can call when they need the help but that also that we're taking care of the things that they don't see and they shouldn't have to see it. That's our job. Eli Johnson: Yeah. And I think on another episode of On the Road for technology specifically, we'll talk about some of the ransom stories you've shared with me because we could spend the entire episode talking about that. It's a world that I've never even understood or come across until I met you. And it's a real thing with our clients and you guys do a great job getting in front of that. Tell us, so I guess before we get into what is a good client, what's not a good client, give us the range of what you currently work with in terms of size. Do we have a $300 client and a $20,000 client? Do we have an average size? Some of the team listening, that's such helpful context when you're dealing with a given prospect. Cole Halpin: Sure. From a monthly, looking at it only on the monthly revenue side of things, our smallest clients are right now, there are about 300 to $400 a month. On our highest end, in terms of total recurring services that we do, we have one account that's about $28,000 a month. But on top of that, technology is, we have a lot of transactional is basically what I always term it. Is every client needs hardware, they need services, they need servers, they need projects. There's a lot of things outside of that $28,000 that that client does for us. In total, they probably do about $750,000 with us in terms of all of their needs because they're about a 500-user rental property management company in this case, but all across the nation. Cole Halpin: Again, we had to figure out our service model, how do we service everybody across the nation? Because that's a need. Every business at some point wants to get to a point where they're not just in Billings, Montana or Denver, Colorado. They want to grow that brand or that business and in a lot of cases to be national. They want to be all over the place. Eli Johnson: If I'm a rep for Matrix and I'm in South Florida and I have a managed service client prospect that I want to bring on, could our team handle it? Cole Halpin: Absolutely. One of our biggest prospects right now is one of our reps is working is in California and we don't physically have an office in California, but I also don't need one. We vetted and built subcontractor partnerships on the national level. Technology at the end of the day, it's virtual. Again, if you have an internet connection I can get to you and I can service everything. And even if your internet service goes down, I can use an app that's almost like a FaceTime. You can show me what's going on, we can get you back up and running. And even in the case of that doesn't work again, I have access to the subcontractors. They will go onsite and they'll be our remote hands. Our clients still don't have to worry about anything. They work with us. We manage the whole thing, like a project management team. And then the client gets the service that they need. And they're not paying the inflated rates. When you talk about Florida and California, a lot of times just from payroll dollars to have the same level of IT experience. Eli Johnson: Right, that's a great point. Cole Halpin: It's a huge cost. They charge a huge amount. And again, we operate out of Billings, Montana and Springfield, Missouri is very competitive from a labor market perspective. We offer extremely competitive pricing, especially if you're looking at local markets or even if you're just trying to bring it in house. Eli Johnson: Yeah. That's a phenomenal segue into one of our last two questions. Where is technology heading with the statement you made of everything's going virtual? Where is technology heading, especially in lieu of COVID? And we're probably going into another wave. I just saw the Pac-12 and the Big Ten just canceled their football seasons. What the heck? This is the beginning of a new normal for all of us. Where are we heading with technology? Cole Halpin: Yeah. You had to blow my mind on the football right before this podcast. I thank you for that. Cole Halpin: Yeah. Where is technology going? The reality again is it's all going virtual or is going as virtual as possible. We have a personal project goal of getting all of our client server lists within the next two years. That's our goal. At very least 50%. At the end of the day, the reality is, businesses are becoming way more flexible and they're demanding more flexibility and agility. And what that means is that no longer means you have a server and some workstations and you have this office you go into all the time and everything sits there and nothing ever leaves. That's just not the business model that businesses operate in these days. All the major players already speaking to COVID or Google and Twitter and Facebook, all those guys are letting their staff work from home pretty much forever. Cole Halpin: But the reality is that's where things are going is people want to be able to travel, go from Duluth, Georgia, to Denver, Colorado, and still be able to do everything that they wanted to do. Doesn't matter if they're in a hotel, at a coffee shop, they want to be able to do everything that they need to do. Technology is moving in that direction. And the challenge that a lot of businesses are facing obviously now, but are only going to increase is that that's, in some cases, that can be a very complicated process if you don't know what you're doing and if you don't have a trusted advisor or a resource that you can leverage to get there, you're going to stumble a lot and it's going to be very expensive. You're going to have to have a lot of painful downtime or learning experiences or there's a lot of pain points that will come with somebody who doesn't know what they're doing properly. Cole Halpin: But again, essentially, we've started the migration to the cloud dating back to ATS days about three years ago, is when we started moving as much infrastructure as we could to clients that they would allow us to. Back then the cloud was very, I guess it was very young so it was a newish idea even just three years ago from a business perspective. You had to get a lot of buy in and have a lot of conversations, but one of the things I always like to highlight is, when COVID happened, at that point we were supporting about 4,000 users and we had to spin up 2,000 of those users to be work from home in the course of about 24 hours, because pretty much the nation shut down pretty much in a day. Cole Halpin: Luckily, most of our infrastructure, we'd been talking and designing client infrastructures for years to kind of support this endeavor. We were able to get that spun up relatively quickly. Obviously that 24 hours, I was really proud of my team, but at the end of the day, that's the new norm. As everybody has working from home or working in a variance of in the office and in home, they're more flexible schedules. Businesses are looking at that. We're talking to businesses about not renewing lease space. The reality is technology is going to be more virtual, more cloud oriented, more modern workplace. Eli Johnson: Yeah. I think what I'm hearing is your department, just technology in general, but what your department allows for our clients is for us to be more secure. We didn't talk enough about that today. We're running out of time, but we need to get back to that. Just the basics of what you do on the technology front is security, but then also the agility. You make our clients very agile to be able to be nimble and move around, just like what we've done now with our staff that's working from home and that self-imposed glass ceiling of limitations on thinking and how work should be. And what hours you work, that's all been changed. And that's probably going to be with us for a long time. Eli Johnson: I love this statement. We're going to end on this question. This comes from Craig Rochelle. And so I want you to think about answering this from you being at the front lines with our clients. The farther away you are from a situation, the more ignorant you become. You're in the battle line. You're right there at the front, dealing with our clients' heartburn and headaches with IT. You can speak to this really well. To the ACs, the appointed consultants, and to the BDs, with context around companies, what do you want us to know about IT for them? What do you want us to feel that's their kind of their heartburn that they experience? And then what do you want us to do? What are your expectations from this group listening to bring new activity and new opportunities? Because ultimately we're out there to be a blessing and a support to our clients, no matter recruiting, IT, marketing, whatever. What do you want us to know? What do you want us to feel? What do you want us to do? Cole Halpin: Well, if it comes to what I would like everyone to know is again, technology is just so critical when it comes to what we deliver and what we do for our clients. Again, I kind of made the reference, technology in a lot of ways like electricity or water to their building. If your electricity goes out, it's critical, you can't do anything. Technology is the same way. If it goes down, you can't do anything and you're frustrated and we can work with our clients to make sure that that's just not something that they need to experience and make sure that we know for a lot of the appointed consultants, especially that don't know about technology and what we can do, that it's a completely different lever or pain release, if you will, that we can alleviate for those clients outside of just the PEO relationship that we used to do in the past. Cole Halpin: And when it comes to what I could encourage everybody to make them feel is I wish I could get across through a podcast, but man technology is powerful. There are so many things that it allows us to do, that it allows business owners to do, completely change business models, completely save a business. An application install or a migration to something new can save a business. They could be nonoperational, that could be losing money, they could be trying to keep a door open and through a technology implementation, they could be excelling. Eli Johnson: Yeah, that's powerful. Cole Halpin: They could be growing that business. And then what I would like to do is just or I would ask everyone to try and do is just understand, obviously, that technology can be so impactful and that we have the team of experts and I never ask or want any of the appointed consultants or BDs to feel like they have to be technology experts. Of course, that's our job. And that's what we're going to do. But when you can get that relationship and get us engaged and get us introduced, we can help close those deals but we can also just help alleviate those pain points that every business is seeing, because I talk to all of our clients all the time and those are the pain points and where we see so much success is where they don't feel like they had somebody who had their best interests at heart from a technology perspective. Cole Halpin: And at the end of the day, our entire model from the IT side is delivering that best in class customer experience that we can so that they just feel good about everything that's happening. Not just that they have somebody to call when they fix it, but they've got someone to call when they want to plan for the future. When they want to open that new location, they want to open into a new state. What does that look like? How do they source material? All of those sort of things. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. That's very well said. And what I'm hearing on the what do you want us to do? At-bats, at-bats, at-bats. We've got to bring opportunities. And so, for those listening, this is Eli Johnson, speaking myself, Alex Mozota, and Sarah Staus, we are all very well prepared to help be the conduit between your prospect's need and in this instance, Cole, helping in his Avitus Technology Services. We want to be a blessing to clients. We want to help them get unstuck and get to where they're ultimately wanting to get to with one location, seven locations, or just a really well automated machine. This has been very helpful. Eli Johnson: I love getting you in the room because you're such a passionate guy about your product and you know it inside and out. We're going to bring you at-bats. We're going to bring more opportunities like the one that Mikey Ryder has right now, $4,000 a month residual and it's already a great PEO client. How many of those are out there? And we just get to be a better support to somebody who's already in the family of services. This has been ATS, another episode of On the Road. Have a great week. We will see you all next time. Cole Halpin: Thanks guys.

On The Road E06 - Marketing: Dan Jeziorski

Key takeaways: * Branding isn’t just about the look; it’s about messaging that inspires confidence and trust * The first questions that should be asked is about brand, not advertising * Consistent marketing of a strong brand can grow businesses in good times, and it can help sustain businesses in rough times Eli Johnson: All right. Welcome back, everybody. To another episode of On The Road. Today, we're featuring Danno, DJ Marketing, talking marketing- Dan Jeziorski: On the road again. Eli Johnson: ... and all things branding. Dan Jeziorski: Whoa. Eli Johnson: Let's go. Dan Jeziorski: Okay. Let's do this. Eli Johnson: All right. Welcome back everybody. Thanks for joining us for another episode of On The Road. This is marketing specific today. I hope you've enjoyed the recent episodes on Avitus Dental and accounting, but now we've got DJ Marketing. Welcome, Dan. Dan Jeziorski: Thanks, Eli. Pleasure being here. Eli Johnson: You've been in a Avitus group since 2014? Is that correct? Dan Jeziorski: Yes. Six years. Eli Johnson: All right. Six years. Tell us about your life prior to Avitus Group and how that prepped you and prepared you for everything you've done in the last six years and this next chapter as we lock arms with Venture. Go. Dan Jeziorski: Okay. Prior to Avitus Group, I actually, well, I'll step back about 30 years. I actually got into the business to become a graphic designer. I was actually going to go to college to be a physicist. In high school, my senior year, I won a national postage stamp design contest. Dan Jeziorski: It was like, "Tada." The light came on and I felt like I needed to pursue a career in graphic design and illustration. That's how I got into the business. I worked a number of different jobs, had some fun design jobs, kind of moved up to where I was actually graphics manager at a place. We did some projects at one of my previous employers where we actually bombed. We had big budgets, no restriction on spend and produced zero results for clients. I care about the people that I do work for. I kind of take their spins real seriously. The fact that we bombed, I was embarrassed. The place I was working for at the time, it was really important for me to figure out why we bombed, but it really wasn't for them. I kind of felt like maybe I wasn't a right fit there. Dan Jeziorski: Fast forward, about nine months after that, and I had the opportunity to meet someone who had actually worked as a brand manager for Coca Cola. I asked him to evaluate a couple of these projects that we had done. He told me after looking at them that our branding stunk. That's why we didn't have any conversions out of those jobs. Working with him made me realize that I was more of a brand guy than I was an advertising or a graphic design guy. I actually pivoted my career completely, went into the branding realm. Part of the thing that happened there is when digital came on board, this is interesting. All of you listening to this podcast, back when I started in graphic design and marketing, there was never a computer in office except the receptionist who was doing the bookkeeping. Dan Jeziorski: That was the only person that ever had a computer on their desk. Everything was done by hand. Computers came on and digital marketing came in. I had to shift what I was doing with my career. I actually got introduced to a Venus group because I had worked for this company, became a brand expert, did a lot of brand training, took it real seriously. When digital came on, I realized that I needed to either jump into digital myself or I needed to find somebody who I could partner with. My passion was branding. I was looking for a partner and we found a partner that was actually an Avitus Group employee that was using Avitus for co employer. We actually hired Willie to do a business assessment. We spent two days with Willie Chrans and Ken Kerber in a room looking at both business' financials, comparing notes, seeing where we had an employee and talent overlap, client overlap. Dan Jeziorski: Out of that assessment, that's how I got introduced to Avitus Group. I was totally impressed with Willie. He came out of the assessment recommending that we didn't bring our companies together, that maybe we try sharing a space together and see how we worked. We wound up not merging with that company. Then, so after that transpired, Avitus approached me about coming in and managing their marketing department, strictly on the client facing side. Eli Johnson: Wow. For those listening and for the appointed consultants, Willie as our former majority owner, founder of Avitus Group, phenomenal entrepreneur, and one that led the strategic planning portion of our company for many, many years, where we'd sit down and consult with a client, go through a five year growth plan and so forth. I had forgotten, Dan, that you had gone through that until I'm hearing this story. You got to see a glimpse of some of what our financial services are going to actually do, thanks to Andrew Miller in CFO maintenance, CFO planning. That's like a light version of what strategic planning used to be, but nonetheless, what a helpful glimpse that you got into the Avitus Group world. Then also preparing you for leading the marketing department. Six years, I can't believe it's been that long. You're a brand guy, clearly. Dan Jeziorski: I am. Eli Johnson: Why is brand so important? Because marketing can mean so many different things depending on your understanding of it. Why is brand such a big deal to you, to our clients and to what we do in the marketing department? Dan Jeziorski: Sure. The thing that I like about branding is, it's kind of the outward facing emotional side of the business. I look at branding as brand is like a promise that a business is going to make to me. Say for instance, let's talk about maybe the BMW brand. Their brand and their slogan is the ultimate driving machine. Their brand, by saying that, I believe that if I walk in and consider buying a BMW that I better experience the ultimate driving machine, it better outperform anything else I would get behind the wheel and test drive. Branding to me, I'm an emotional guy. I'm very sensitive. Anybody who knows me, Eli, and I had some great conversations. [crosstalk 00:00:06:11]. Yeah. Well, thanks. Eli Johnson: He's hurt right now. Dan Jeziorski: Exactly, exactly. Hand me a Kleenex. Really, branding, it gets the people's hearts. That's the thing I like about it. Advertising and marketing a lot of times is driven by visuals. Brand is a connection to the heart and the emotional side of somebody. People create loyalty to brands. A lot of times they buy based on impulse because of something that they're eyes see. A lot of times, it doesn't satisfy what they're really looking for. Dan Jeziorski: If they become connected to a brand and have this emotional connection to it, the loyalty they have to a brand is incredible. I've just always loved that part of it being that scientific side of me, wanting to be a physicist, I believe that branding involves both science and artistry. The combination of the two is what makes great branding incredible. There's a lot of brand people in the world that are good at visual branding, but they're not good at the messaging and the emotional side. Eli Johnson: Yeah. If we think marketing and getting to engage with a prospect that eventually should become a client, we better be prepared in the field as BD reps of Avitus Group, of appointed consultants of other divisions, that brand is going to be a topic of conversation. Before we can go and build them a website, understand how to do digital hyper targeting well, whatever the thing might be, we'd better first have a conversation about brand. Is that fair? Dan Jeziorski: Absolutely, absolutely. Because branding, a lot of times, you can market a bad brand and people aren't drawn to it. They don't decide to engage with the brand. A brand's got to be attractive. It's got to create confidence and trust so that people want to work. Eli Johnson: Yeah, absolutely. That's a good segue into what we actually do within our marketing services, which is something we really want our audience to understand today. Thinking of the tiers of marketing, the ideal client, what we need to engage with and then spend being part of that conversation as well. Tell us about what me, Eli Johnson's construction company, signing up to be a client of Avitus Groups' marketing, what that would look like? What do you expect of me? What do I need to be doing? What do I need to plan to spend a month. Set me up for success in that. Dan Jeziorski: Sure, sure. First off, you need to make sure and we'll advise you as a owner of a company that we need to look at your brand and seeing if your brand is influencing the growth of your company and whether you're able to grow and meet your growth goals. We always start with a conversation about the brand and about the assessment of that brand. Then once we know, and sometimes a brand literally takes an overhaul. We've had clients where we've gone in and told them they need to rename their business, which has created some very interesting conversations. Literally if it's impacting a business from growing, we want to talk about it. We're super transparent because their brand is as emotional to us as it is to them. Another thing we try to help them do is understand that their brand is not about them. Dan Jeziorski: Their brand is about their prospects and their clients. They're the ones that they need to satisfy the most and with that brand. An example I'll use is a lot of people come to us and their business is an acronym of names, and it might be EBC. That might be named after their kids, Eli, Brock and Charlie. That's not for them. It seemed like it was a good idea and a fun thing to do with their business. They've got to understand that the guy who might be looking at using them for technology or for mechanic work or service work, that that means nothing to them. Dan Jeziorski: When they ask them what that means, why they named their business that, it kind of sets them up to think, "Okay. These people maybe aren't as sophisticated as other brands that might have a more, a name and a brand that's based on reasoning." That's kind of the first step. Then we talked to them about how we can market their brand. You take a great brand, you set it up for success and then you take it out to the masses. You got to kind of have your house in order before you go out and start working people to get them to come and trust your business. Eli Johnson: Yeah, absolutely. Recently at the business development quarterly meeting, something we do at the Avitus Group side of things with our sales team is get together quarterly as you would have imagined. We got to have Phil Urso there with us and got to see his PEO diagnostic that he does, which is something I think will parlay well into what we do on the expert service side of things, with accounting and ATS and all the services that we offer. One of the things that really stuck with me was a question that he asked to prospects that he hopes to have become clients when, and it's just a little bit of healthy pushback, feedback he gives in that, "Hey. I heard you want to be the best in class and you want to be the best business period, but you're not willing to spend on your 401k. You're not willing to double down on the health insurance that your employees need. How do you expect to be the best if you don't attract the best?" Eli Johnson: I liken that to what you've coached our clients in, in the marketing space. That you're probably not going to reach the audience you want by spending $200 a month and think you're going to be the greatest name in the Pacific Northwest. What should expectations be to our audience when they control the conversation with a prospect about marketing spend because that's a big conversation right now with people. It's something that goes fastest. If something's going to get cut in a budget, it's been historically our experience that marketing budget is first to go. Why is that not a good thing? An equally important question, what do you want our prospects to be prepared to spend if they're going to engage with us and actually be a good partner? Dan Jeziorski: Sure. The marketing spend and man, we know it's going to happen in marketing when something changes in the market. In 2008, when the market crashed, I had 10 big clients in my business and we talked to all 10 of those clients about how this was going to impact them and how it was going to impact their marketing spend. I had three clients who chose to continue their spend, basically the way it was, keep engaging, keep getting their name out there, keep doing all of these things. Seven of the clients cut their spends anywhere from 30 to 50%. over the course of the next three years, the clients who kept spending, kept keeping in front of prospects. They knew that their prospects weren't going to spend as much with them, but they knew they needed to keep their name in front of them so that they knew that they were still around when. Dan Jeziorski: By the time 2015 hit, fast forward seven years later, all three of those clients got bought by Venture capital companies because their businesses had catapulted ahead of their competitors by light years that they actually got on the radar of people who were looking for companies to buy. All three of those owners of those businesses have no longer had to work. Marketing proved that it helped grow them and sustain them through that effort. As far as the marketing spend, when we were to coach people on marketing for our team, they actually need to spend about $2,500 a month as kind of the minimum where we need to be, because that enables our team to do great work for them and get the full access to our team of experts. If they're not willing to spend that, we really can't do a lot for them. Dan Jeziorski: I'll liken it to someone who wants to say, for instance, get their car in a race. You might be able to get your car on the race track with a minimum spend, but you're going to get run over and lapped by people that are spending more day in and day out. Actually, if you can't spend enough to get in the race and be a competitor, you're better off to try to save your resources or look at other things you can do to grow your business so that you get it to a point where you can actually spend that amount. We did some surveys back when I first came to a Avitus Group and we know that every business owner pretty much wastes about 30 to 35% of their marketing spend on areas that are guaranteed to get them no results. Eli Johnson: Yeah. That's very, very helpful context. $2,500 a month, that's an easy conversation piece. There's a lot of companies we've worked with that spend way, way, way, way, way more than that. Like you said, it's wasteful. Yeah. Really helpful. Thank you. Now, final question with regard to the Venture partnership. You are very passionate about our clients because you are a small business owner and everything we do at Avitus Group and across all divisions is to get owners back to their why. What excites you about this new partnership that we have as a division within Venture? Not only from the marketing branding perspective, but also just the fact that we get to help more business owners? Dan Jeziorski: Right. Yeah. What really circles back around to the beginning of when I talked about why I got out of graphic design and into branding. It really is because I care about clients. When they do a contract with us to do their marketing, they are trusting big dollars to us to make a difference and move the needle for their business. With Venture, that opportunity has just grown exponentially by more than 10 times, in my opinion, they may only be so much bigger than Avitus Group, but I think the opportunity is times 10 because A, they've got great brand presence in a lot of markets that we are not in and B, their brand delivers a powerful product. When Phil talked about, you mentioned the diagnostic. That's a great example of something. They have really never branded that diagnostic. After I heard about the diagnostic at the meetings last week, I've already talked to [Heion 00:15:35] And he's going to allow us to help brand that diagnostic because it's a differentiator. Dan Jeziorski: All PEOs provide benefits and they provide payroll and they provide risk and safety management. They all basically bring the same offerings to the table. Venture is the only one who has a diagnostic like that. That is a huge differentiator for them in the marketplace. They really had never even thought about branding it, but we're going to get them to brand it now because when you're in a meeting with a prospect, the conversation that they need to have, or they need to look at as if they're looking at five companies to help them with something and all five proposals are on the table and they're all within 1% of each other in price and price isn't a consideration, how is one person going to stand above the rest? Dan Jeziorski: Usually, it's because of excellent branding. If there's five people looking at PEO and Venture does this diagnostic that no one else does, that's going to give that business owner insight into their business that they weren't aware of and data that could really change the projection of their business or the trajectory of their business going forward. They are going to look at Venture really hard. It's what to brand, when to brand and Venture gets it. They're a company who understands the power of branding. That's another thing that excites me about them. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Very cool. For us to take home, and then I have one final question for you, brand. We're going to start with brand. We've got to have our clients understand this is a longterm play on marketing and branding. We got to be willing to stay the course for a while. We're going to pivot with our approaches. We're going to be adaptable. We're going to help them be adaptable, but a five month client, a 10 month client, that's probably just not the right fit for us. Dan Jeziorski: Exactly. Eli Johnson: Then also be prepared. That $2,500 is the floor and we have clients that spend way, way more than that, which is great. We also want to get a return on people's investment. We're not just going to spend and waste, but we want them to get to where they ultimately want with their goals. Final question, and then I'll bring it home for our listeners, but you have an amazing amount of experience in the marketing space. Just recently, let's say in the last year and a half, two years, what would be a case study, something you could share, a really great win or a great story around a client that we've gotten to engage with that can give full context to our listeners because we want more of those opportunities. When we get to be a blessing to our clients and that small business owner family, and everybody that impacts that is such a fun thing. I've seen it go really, really well in the marketing world. Go ahead. Dan Jeziorski: Sure. Absolutely. Probably the one that touches the closest to my heart is Rimrock Art and Frame. We actually did a rebranding of their company. They're in a space that there's a lot of the people in their business and their business sector have gone out of business. They've been replaced by big box stores like Michael's does framing and Hobby Lobby and places like that. Their impact of their business by these big box retailers has really cut into their business because a lot of them have turned it into more of a pricing war for framing, as opposed to the value of making the artwork look beautiful. We talked to them about what was happening in their business and how we could differentiate them and demonstrate to people that the value of the artwork is far more important to what the frame does to it than the cost of the frame. Dan Jeziorski: We walked them through a complete rebranding and changed their logo, updated it and modernized it. Really the important thing we did is we rewrote all of their brand messaging so that people understand that their product has what they offer has a lot to do with the frame. It's more the value of the artists at Rimrock Art and Frame that get the right piece on there to make that piece that's so value to them, whether it's a family heirloom picture or a painting that someone has done, or a photograph a hobbyist took. That no matter what that piece is that somebody walks in the door with, they're going to treat that with respect and they're going to try to make it be the best piece of artwork anybody has in their house. Dan Jeziorski: It's just a completely different thing. I think it's one of the best slogans that we've ever came up with or descriptions for a client. Underneath their logo, it says, "Our work is art." There's a double meaning around that. It truly capitalizes and communicates what they do for their clients beyond just throwing a frame around a picture. It was a big success for us. I think what we did for them dynamically is going to really change who they are as a business and how people pursue perceived them. They're really connecting a lot more now with artists and professional photographers, people who spend more often and spend more, invest more resources in those. It's getting them connected to a better audience and it just has transformed their brand. Eli Johnson: Yeah. That's a great story. You and your marketing team have changed just about everything imaginable on our marketing side of things at Avitus Group since you arrived in 2014. The website, the brochures that we have, our applications, it all started with you changing our messaging from a family of business solutions to a Avitus Group, simplify, strengthen, and grow. It doesn't surprise me. You got another story right there. I know Scott, the owner of that company. That's a great story. I didn't realize we'd even changed that recently. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you, everybody, for being with us. DJ marketing, Dan Jeziorski. Thanks for joining us. You have been awesome. We look forward to this next chapter and all the prospects out there that we're going to be able to support by way of marketing thanks to you and your team's help. This is On The Road. Dan Jeziorski: Absolutely. Brand matters. Don't forget it. Eli Johnson: That's right. All right, everyone. I don't know how to end it.

On The Road E05 - Dental: Krysten Garduno

Key takeaways: * Revenue cycle management addresses the payment of a claim, from before the patient comes into a dental office through the time the insurance pays the claim * Medical has been outsourcing billing for 20 years; dentists are now beginning to outsource it…and we’re at the forefront * Phrase to use: “Increasing collections, decreasing A/R” * We only are paid on performance—it’s not tied to hourly work; if our clients don’t make money, we don’t either Eli Johnson (00:00): Another episode of on the road. I am here today with Krysten Garduno out of our Denver, Colorado office. We are going to be talking about Avitus Dental billing and all things dentists. Let's go. Eli Johnson (00:32): How was your flight in from Denver? Krysten Garduño (00:34): Bumpy! Eli Johnson (00:36): Bumpy because it was United? Krysten Garduño (00:38): Delta. I shouldn't say that out loud. There's a lot of Delta lovers... Eli Johnson (00:43): Lotta Delta lover's at Avitus Group. Yes, there are. I thought that was a soft toss there. That's okay. Alright. So first question. We've got appointed consultants listening on the Vensure division side. We've got Avitus Group, business development people, many of which you are very, very familiar with. But, I'm a dentist, and I hear about this thing called revenue cycle management. Break it down for us. What exactly is this? Krysten Garduño (01:07): Yeah, sure. So revenue cycle management is just a phrase that really coins the cycle of a claim. Okay. So a claim in dentistry is how doctors get paid. It's insurance companies paying them. So when revenue cycle management comes into play, it's three days ahead of the patient coming in up to sending the claim out with proper coding, down to tracking the insurance AR, patient AR, and really long, you know, long story short is it's how the dentist gets paid. Eli Johnson (01:38): Okay. So if I'm a dentist, anywhere in the United States, I'm dealing with this, whether I'm using a company, I'm using Avitus dental services or I have a staff member doing it, or I'm doing it. It's a thing. That's the only way I'm going to get collected. Krysten Garduño (01:50): Right. So, it's specifically insurance collection, so they need to be PPO providers, and be in network with some insurance companies, but 95% of dentists nowadays are because that's how you get new patients. Eli Johnson (02:04): Gotcha. Okay. So when you look at the landscape of all the services that are under the Expert Service umbrella, we've got Accounting, we've got Avitus Technology, we've got recruiting. The dental one kind of sticks out there as what Lance Harris out of our San Ramon or Sacramento office would say "left footed". That seems left footed. It doesn't seem like it goes with everything else. Right. So tell us how we got into this space, why it's important and why our appointed consultants and our team members need to continue to bring this up with our prospects and dental clients alike. Krysten Garduño (02:35): Yeah. I mean, the story is kind of cool actually about how Avitus Group got into dental. Willie actually went to the dentist one day and he had an experience where his claim wasn't getting paid, I believe is what the story is. And then he thought to himself, well, these guys go to school for eight years and they don't have any knowledge on how to do this type of information. And then he identified the need. So Willie had some sort of a personal experience. But at the same time, you know, Chris Balster and I believe Ken Balster had a contact with the CDA, the Colorado Dental Association. And so from those two kinds of ideas, it branched into what's now Avitus Dental and the revenue cycle management program. We... Eli Johnson (03:22): And full steam ahead now, right? Krysten Garduño (03:24): Yeah, absolutely. So we have...full steam ahead. We were in the dental management solutions area where that was kind of providing consulting services for doctors, realized that there's not much of a need in that space, but the virtual dental billing took off instantly, getting clients. Every doctor needs this service. So, there's not one dentist that you could approach that wouldn't need this service within their practice, whether it be somebody in their practice doing it well, and maybe they want to unload their plate, maybe somebody they don't have in their practice at all. Eli Johnson (03:59): That is extremely helpful. Thank you for that. And I think I relate this to some of our other services. The question I'm about to ask in that, as business development reps in the field, we like to have tag lines attached to our service understanding. So for accounting, we like to know that we do accounts payable and accounts receivable. That's enough ammunition sometimes just to get to the next conversation. Dental billing is one where I think a lot of people could be feeling insecure about, or I'm not sure how to have enough confidence to move this forward, but really what are just a few things they need to know, revenue, cycle management, being a tagline, right. What else do they need to just feel real comfortable to share, to get beyond that gatekeeper? Krysten Garduño (04:38): So "revenue cycle management" is great. Also some key words are "increasing your collections and decreasing your AR". So it's the same. We have accounts receivable, whether it be outstanding in insurance claims or patient balances. So increasing collections, decreasing AR, submission of claims, insurance verifications, um, those are all big words and, you know, to be a little fluent in dental, that would be helpful. I think another big piece that's really helping some of our business development that's doing well is, you know...medical has been outsourcing their billing for 20 years. So now this is something new that dental is leaning towards. We're always 20 years behind medical. That's just how it is. And so when they're talking to prospects, they're just saying, you know, we would like to kind of propose this new wave of how dental billing is being now outsourced, and it's becoming more and more popular in the dental industry and we're kind of on the cutting edge of it and we're kind of pioneering it. Eli Johnson (05:38): Yeah and you were at business development quarterly meetings, not too long ago. And that was something I took away, that what we're doing in the dental space — and what we've only tipped our toe into the water with, but it's just beginning to, I mean, push way forward, way faster than we thought — is a concept that's new to people. It's not something all over the United States they're doing, but we get to pioneer that, and that's exciting. And it does delve well into the other services we do, which we want to be a support and a blessing to our small business clients, whether you're a construction company or a brewery or a dentist. So very, very helpful. Now when it comes to Avitus Dental, one of the questions that we've gotten in the field a lot, when we bring these subjects up around this service is: do you handle all of healthcare? Can you do other things outside of the dentist space? So is Avitus Dental only for dentists? What about orthodontist? What about endodontists or whatever? All the "dontist" names out there. What else are there? Krysten Garduño (06:36): Yeah, so we deal with general dentistry and specialty. So anything ending in "dontist" we take care of...orthodontist, endodontist, prosthodontist, periodontist, general dentist, all of it. Um, oral surgeons. We take care of any specialty, anything in the ADA realm, which is the American Dental Association. Eli Johnson (06:57): Yeah. But be prepared for us in the audience that are all in the field listening. We just need to remember this is a relatively new concept. So we might be met with a tiny bit of resistance and, "Oh, that sounds strange compared to what I know now, which is what I've always known", but what an opportunity for us, correct? Because whether you're a construction client or anybody that has AR, if you get to increase accounts receivable, that gets everyone excited. Right? Krysten Garduño (07:20): Yeah. And you know, what's a really good tagline actually, if I go back? We are paid off of our performance. So our services are paid off a percentage of the collection we bring in for the dentist. So it's not...a lot of dentists across the country are at 50% capacity because of the pandemic. So they are constantly paying a flat rate, direct labor to their people. It doesn't matter how many hours they're doing or...Hourly wages obviously matter, but it doesn't matter if they're sitting there on their phone or if they can be there full time. We are paid off our percentage off of our performance. So the way we like to say it is that our values are fully aligned. And if, if you don't make money, we don't either. Eli Johnson (08:05): Yeah. That's awesome. Years ago we had CFO assistance similar to this. And when the companies did well, or the company that we were helping grow did well, we did well. And vice versa. If, if we weren't helping them scale to the rate they wanted, our piece of that was less. I love that concept. Everybody should feel good about that type of relationship. Alright. Time to dig deep. Uh, we do business with people we like, we like people we trust. That takes time. You've got to get to know the Krysten, right? So just from the human element here, what are three to five things you want our audience to absolutely "must know" about Krysten, our team member in Denver that does Avitus Dental. Krysten Garduño (08:42): Oh gosh. Eli Johnson (08:43): Hidden talents, favorite beverage. It's your time to shine. And you can tell us whatever, whatever you want. Krysten Garduño (08:50): Well, um, I am a very good rapper. I'm a very good rapper. Business development did get to witness... Eli Johnson (08:56): That's a fact! That is fact. You and Kendra Hatch could team up and just spit some serious rhymes. Krysten Garduño (09:01): Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm not a great rapper. That was just fun. And so one thing that...I do coach two sports. I coach fast pitch softball and competitive volleyball in Colorado, which is super fun. Um, I've lived in California and Hawaii and Wyoming. And so that's pretty cool. I like coffee at all times of the day. I run on afternoon coffee, morning coffee. Doesn't matter. I'm very sarcastic, hopefully only in the good times. But, if I'm ever saying something that you're like, "I don't know if she's joking." I'm joking. And I don't know, I think that's five? Eli Johnson (09:40): Yeah. That's good. Volleyball, softball, Wyoming, and Hawaii. I've got some things to remember. Krysten by. Thank you. Final two questions. And I'm gonna let you drive it home here in just a minute with the last one, but we've got some pretty darn exciting news. That's happened very recently in the Avitus Dental space with a new partnership. Tell us about the Cosentus partnership, the team, the structure, why that is such a monumental win for our company and to our clients. Krysten Garduño (10:07): Yes. Yes. So huge, huge win, huge partnership that we have officially got completed on July 1st. So Cosentus is an offshoring company based out of new Delhi, India, and they also have some onshore resources in California. We've partnered with them and the way that we're going to be able to service our clients is going to be insane. So we're going to be able to take on the big clients and scale. So instead of getting a new client and me scrambling, trying to find out who I'm going to assign this to and how we're going to do a great job. Well, we have a bench of people over in India that are being trained every single day, and that are just waiting for us to assign them accounts. The way our structures have changed is: in the past, sometimes we just don't get to insurance AR or something like that. Krysten Garduño (11:00): It's pushed on the back burner. But, with the Cosentus partnership, we have somebody specializing in claims, somebody specializing in insurance AR, somebody specializing posting payments. So all of the services that the doctors sign up for get worked every single day, but managed by an onshore account manager that has 10 to 25 years of experience. That's the experience on my team right now. So they only work with the account manager. There's one point of contact, but she's got a team below her. She's got a team doing a lot of things. So that allows us internally to have not five clients, but 15 clients. You know, before, we would have to be overloaded and move on to someone else with filling up their plate. Eli Johnson (11:47): Yeah. Well, what I...that is super exciting. We got to meet the owner of Cosentus recently, what a phenomenal entrepreneur. And so this partnership is such a perfect collision, no different than the Avitus group and Vensure partnership is. But what I like and what's happened in the Avitus Dental space with that Cosentus partnership is similar to what we've done in the PEO world, where for years and years and years, we've had the concept presented to companies and they love it. "Of course I'd want to engage in the co employer relationship", b–ut not always the software—from our standpoint—that delivers to the same experience that the overall service concept does, right? Now, we move over to Vensure and we've got access to V-fficient. We've got access to Prism HR, which are the same thing. Better options by way of technology. Oh my gosh. Eli Johnson (12:35): It just makes these conversations we've had in the past be able to come back to the surface and start again because companies that we couldn't engage with because they couldn't see the technology advantages or disadvantages. They couldn't see beyond that. Now we get to go back and say, "now we've got everything", right? I think it's the same in the dental space. I think that you have the opportunity now that Dan Bowers, the appointed consultants, that people on our team that are going to present this, they can have such confidence in the deliverable to the client. And I think when you're in a sales role and you get to do that, things get really exciting. We are on the cutting edge and the cusp of some very, very exciting things. So ACs and BDs, let's go crush it because Krysten is doing a great job in the Avitus Dental space. And we are excited to have you as a team member. Because this is such a unique service to leave our team with a three to five final things you want to know about dental, because that's probably what they're going to recall after this On the Road episode. Krysten Garduño (13:32): Okay. Three to five things we should know.... Ideal clients for us: 2 to 20 providers. We can take on, as our BDS like to call it, we can take the whales, now. We have the scalability and we want to stay away, necessarily, from the smaller dental practices because the insurance revenue needs to be a little bit higher for us. And we can scale with that. So the ideal client: 2 to 20 dental providers. The second thing is: everybody needs us. There's there's not a dental practice in the U.S. that doesn't need this service. Third thing is: call me anytime you have questions. Anytime day or night, weekends, doesn't matter. I'm very available for business development and ACs. I wanna make sure that, you know, their growth, their success is our growth and our success. So I want to make sure that that's really clear and always give me a call and just jump in, just jump in. Some people think, "Oh, I'm, I'm uncomfortable with dental." "I don't know what to say." Well, throw a couple of words their way that we talked about earlier—"insurance AR". Get me on the phone and you'll learn as you go. Reach out to, you know—some of the BDS on the Avitus side are very strong with the dental reach out to them. Right. They have some great, great kind tag lines or by Eli Johnson (14:52): Yeah, 2 to 20 providers. What does that mean? Krysten Garduño (14:55): 20, dentists or hygienists. Eli Johnson (14:57): Okay. So that could be a smaller practice or a pretty darn big practice practice. But I think the takeaway that you just left our audience with is what I want to drive home. Just jump in. It's like any of our expert services, we've grown these over the years. We used to only have accounting. Then we added Avitus Technology. Then we added marketing. Each time you add that service, you think, "well, I don't know anything about that." You get one at bat, you get one opportunity with a prospect that becomes a client and it all becomes clear afterwards. All right. It has been so fun having you. Thank you so much for being here. I love doing this and I love getting to know more about Avitus Dental. This has been very helpful for me. Final thing to leave our listeners with...case study, recent win, something you want them to understand with full context of a scenario, let them have it. Krysten Garduño (15:44): Yeah, well, we've had a lot of, a lot of great wins lately. I would say one of the biggest things is that our last five signs, the average annual revenue has been $85,000. We think that's gonna be the average. So I'm coming out of this pandemic where we are doing some numbers, searching and whatnot, but that ranges from a big client from $180,000 annual revenue down to one of the smaller clients. And I'm doing quotations that you can't see, but the smaller client was, you know, $25,000 in revenue and in dental, we think that's going to be on the smaller end. To my understanding, for other other departments that's not necessarily on the smaller end. But yeah, our average is around $85,000 in annual revenue. I think another great point is that a couple of big signs that have come through? Um, I can say names, right? Yeah. Yeah. I can say names here. Um, Kody Boles, he Eli Johnson (16:44): Kody Boles, Kansas City, shout out, go Chiefs. Krysten Garduño (16:47): Go Broncos. Just kidding, Kody. Um, no, but he pursued them. I know he's so mad. We do this all the time. Um, so he pursued them back in January and February. Two of his big clients, one was around $68,000, one was $180,000 in annual revenue. He pursued them back in January, just signed them in June. And that's one because he was comparing us. One of the offices comparing us to hiring an office manager instead of us. Well, they came back because she quit. So now, with turnover high in dental they're coming back to us. They don't want to deal with it anymore. That's the $180,000 annual revenue one. And the other one was simply because he's scaling into a second practice. So maybe it's not instant signs, but they've been coming back. A couple of Tristate area ones have been coming back. They're out there. The commissions are high and we're able to deliver now. So... Eli Johnson (17:45): I love that. And just for everyone's understanding around that $85,000 average number, that is enormous. That is unlike anything else we experience. We have great averages across all of our Expert Services, but accounting would probably be 12 to $15,000. Annually marketing would be 24 to $30,000. We like to start clients at $2,000 a month and then go up from there. Recruiting can be, you know, up and down, but, you know, everybody that's listening sells PEO. A lot of PEO clients are $15,000 in revenue, plus the premium in work comp profit. That is a lot of PEO clients. That is a lot of accounting clients that you've gotten with one dental billing service client at 85,000 bucks. So good on you, Kody Boles. Getting a shout out today, but we will need business. We will need clients next year. So all the seed planting we do, all the conversations we're having right now...like you said, it might be a longer term play, or it might be a perfect collision where we meet them, right? When they have a significant need, everything is changing out of this COVID environment. And I love that you're pioneering a service that is on the cutting edge. So great job, Krysten. So fun having you, enjoy your time here in Montana. July in Montana, it doesn't get better. This is an episode of On the Road. Thank you.

On The Road E04 - Accounting: Andrew Miller

Key takeaways: * The new departments means we are now aligning accounting and tax services to provide CFO-level services, including customized strategic planning * We diversify what we offer to every single client—doing as much or as little accounting work as the client might need * Ideal client: a company with 5-50 employees run by an owner who appreciates how good financial information can help them run their business better * All of the Avitus Group accounting team are Quickbooks-certified Eli Johnson: Well, welcome, everyone, to another episode of On The Road. I am joined here with Andrew Miller, director of our accounting services at Avitus Group. We're going to be talking all things balance sheets, P&L's, and even a little bit of fall football... Eli Johnson: So you've nearly had a coast to coast journey over the past six years prior to coming to Avitus Group. Tell us about that journey. Tell us about how it prepared you for your part in our team and how that's gotten you ready for being the director of our accounting services. Andrew Miller: Yeah, so I've been blessed enough to start off my professional career here in Billings, Montana with a public accounting firm and spent a little over five years working as a auditor and just really gained a lot of knowledge and insight into a multitude of industries and business practices and best practices, and then spent about the last nine years traveling around. I've spent some time in Missoula, in North Carolina for a few years, working for some larger organizations in private accounting, a few different roles from controller to CFO and landed back here in Billings with Avitus Group about 10 months ago. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Well, welcome back to Montana. So glad to have you, and you've done nothing but awesome things in the accounting world. So the role you had prior to coming to Avitus Group was pretty heavy in the acquisition space if I remember correctly. So tell us a little bit about that because we can all relate to it in the venture world now, and that probably helps in your interfacing with a lot of our clients. Andrew Miller: Yeah, it's a very similar business model as to what we're working with on our partnership with Venture, where we were a very steady company that had retail store locations across the US and the business model was essentially to acquire our competitors and just grow that way. And so, one of my roles was to help ensure that those transactions were recorded appropriately, and the records and all the financial information was properly reported. Andrew Miller: And it was extreme growth mode, similar to what we're encountering now. And it's just really exciting and I love that type of thing. Eli Johnson: Yeah. So you cut your teeth in the tax space, right? KPMG and some other companies, I think that you had worked for. Cut your teeth in the tax world, moved into the acquisition space. Now you're all things accounting. And even we have an update on a new division within Avitus Group, a new department I should say by way of Avitus Financial Services. Very, very exciting. Tell us about that. Andrew Miller: Yeah, so we're really excited about this. This has been a longterm vision of leadership at Avitus to kind of align the accounting CFO-level services and the tax services that we to our clients. They just go hand in hand. It's something that if you talk to a business owner, those types of services just blend well, they work well together so we just wanted to ensure that we're streamlining those services for our clients. So we're really excited to offer that new financial services division. And as my new role in that will be to oversee that as the vice president of Avitus financial services. And I'm really excited to start that here effective August 1st. Eli Johnson: Well, that is huge. Congratulations. Much deserved. And what's exciting for me as I'm listening today is that we've got clients across the country that uses for a PEO services, have for a long time, we might do their payables and their account reconciliation, and all of a sudden now we can also turn on, hey, you want us to be your CFO on a monthly basis? You want us to act like we can almost be your board of directors, so to speak, for your hardware store or whatever it might be? We can now do that. Andrew Miller: Yeah, it's exciting. I think what we can do is really get into the weeds with a business, understand their financial information, put together some strategic planning sessions, some budgeting projections, and really try to help a business grow in the way that they want to and reach their goals and hopefully exceed them. Eli Johnson: Yeah, love it. Well done on that vision. Thank you. So Avitus Group and Vensure Services, we know are all designed to help small business owners, period, right? That's our audience, that's the heart of our company in all divisions. Why is accounting so dang important to helping a company achieve their goal, helping them achieve where they want to get from A to B to Z? Why is accounting a significant thing for our point of consultants and our business development team to understand? Andrew Miller: Yeah. So that's a great question. From my perspective, accounting, it's the language of business. And I really feel that in order to propel a business forward, they need to be able to speak that language, or at least have somebody there that can help them interpret their financials. And so we want to be there to provide accurate, complete financial information that shows a business where they're at and hopefully where they're going and help them achieve those goals. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense. And so you don't have to tell me necessarily an actual client name that we have or even a company that you worked with, but to the best of your ability, share a story where you've seen that come to life. It could have been in your previous career, which would have delved well into what we're doing now, or even an existing client we have, or you got to get in there and clean up some of what would have been messy prior to them becoming an Avitus Group accounting client. Andrew Miller: Yeah. So, a pretty specific example I've had without naming names is when I left public accounting and went into private accounting, it was with a large organization that was in growth mode as we discussed earlier. When we got there, they just weren't really taking care of their financial records, their accounts weren't being reconciled, they were not getting financial information timely. So myself and another former public accountant that I worked with, we really went in there and cleaned house, made sure that all the financial information was accurate so that leaders of the organization had a clear picture of what was going on with the business. And then we could help them drive success going forward. And we really went from in the matter of seven years, we went from a $100-million company to almost a billion dollars in sales a year. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Well, I've heard Willie, our former majority owner, say many times in strategic plans, which is some of what you guys are going to be doing now in the financial services space, that numbers don't lie, liars lie, and that just always stuck with me. And so, it is so important for our clients to have clear black and white financials to make good, pragmatic business decisions off of. So thanks for that, that makes total sense and just excited for our team and the appointed consultants to get to have access to that now. So I hear you are a knife juggler. What is this? Andrew Miller: Okay. When I was a kid, I taught myself how to juggle. And I think I saw on TV one time, probably around the age of 11 or 12, somebody juggling knives and I thought, I think I need to try this. So the trick is to start off with something like butter knives and not actual steak knives or anything like that to protect the fingers. But yeah, with a little bit of practice, I can do it. Eli Johnson: Okay. So this is recently, or this has been an ongoing thing? Andrew Miller: This is when I was a kid, but I can still do it. Eli Johnson: Yeah. You've also burned sheds, I've understood. So another story, another On The Road, but he did burn a shed down and I've heard both sides of the story. I believe that you were the culprit. Okay. So I think it's pretty safe to say that not every client needs exactly the same level of accounting that the other client does, right? You actually have tiers of accounting services. This may be one of the most important things for our audience to hear because many of them do not currently engage with our accounting services, i.e., the appointed consultant audience. Share the details on that, the tiers, how we can support people, how we can get our foot in the door just to be an entry-level blessing, and then it can go into something greater. Andrew Miller: Yeah. I think that's a really key point is that we really do try to diversify what we can offer to every single client. And it's real simple. The way I like to describe it is we can do as much or as little of the accounting work that a client might need. That can be from just being available for an hour a month to be a sounding board and answer questions for them to the other end of the spectrum, where we're completing all their entire books, and we're posting all their journal entries, reconciling all of their accounts, paying all their bills, putting together their monthly financial statements, and analyzing those financials. So it's like I said, it's as much or as little as somebody might need. Eli Johnson: Yeah. So knowing that then, and what we're able to deliver for our clients, what is an ideal client? Is it a huge corporation? Is it a company with one employee? Is it everything in between? Give us a picture of who the ideal client is us to be able to bring into our service and lock arms with to say, "Hey, we want to do this for you." Andrew Miller: Yeah. So within the accounting services team, in particular, it's more of a focus on the smaller businesses, maybe somewhere between five and 50 employees. There's not really like a revenue target or anything, but it's mostly clients that have an appreciation for needing to see financial information and owners that understand that if they are getting good financial information, it can help them run their business. So if the owners appreciate that, they're willing to have a team like us come in and really get them financial information on a monthly basis that they use to run the business. Eli Johnson: All right. So very helpful on the ideal client. There's a lot that we can do there. But help us also understand to everybody listening, what we do in interfacing with accounting softwares. Is there a lane you want your team to run in? Is there certain softwares that we should stay away from? Because there's a lot out there. There's Master Builder, there's Sage products, there's Peachtree, and QuickBooks. What is it that we do best in, in understanding? Andrew Miller: Yeah. Currently, we are set up to stay in the lane of QuickBooks. And so that's QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, which is cloud-based, that's really where our entire team are QuickBooks Pro certified. We know that software in and out. We can work with clients to convert to that software program. Right now, we are also exploring working with some other softwares, including a product called Xero, which is actually spelled X-E-R-O. It's a lot of international clients that use that software. So we're currently working to provide that as an alternative to QuickBooks. And as we grow, looking at other softwares as well, but right now we're QuickBooks-focused. Eli Johnson: Yeah. Good. So maybe Emily Reynolds or David Berkow, if you're listening, that could be applicable to some of the clients that you guys interface with. But for us to know, QuickBooks, QuickBooks, QuickBooks, that's what lots of companies deal with anyways, especially the target that you were talking about, that five to 50 employees. So very helpful. Eli Johnson: Last question. What's going to happen with this football season? You're back in Montana. Are we going to have a fall football season? Are we going to get to go to some Cat and Griz games? Tell us about that in this environment. What is your hunch? Andrew Miller: Yeah, so my focus primarily has been on the business world and not so much the sports world, just recently moved, but I think that I'm very optimistic that we will have some sports, at least here in the great state of Montana. Eli Johnson: So am I. Andrew Miller: Yeah, we need it. Eli Johnson: A fall without football would just be- Andrew Miller: It'd be sad. Eli Johnson: That would be sad. Well, another episode On The Road. Andrew, thank you so much. Congratulations on a new promotion, vice president over financial services, CFO, accounting, tax. Very, very exciting. We look forward to bringing some great prospects, new clients to your team. And this is another episode of On The Road. Let's go.

On the Road E03 - Solvo Global

Takeaways: * Employees at Solvo Global (called Soulvers) are selected based on their quality, loyalty and service-centric focus. They are well-educated, speak English flawlessly, and are in it for the long-term. * Solvo employees are dedicated to individual clients, allowing them to become an extension of that company. * Clients who work with Solvo receive exceptional value for their investment; the cost savings is just one of the benefits. Alex Mozota: Welcome, everyone, to On the Road. This is our podcast strictly for the business development team, but if you're not from BD, you can still listen to it because it's free. Today's episode is focused on Solvo. Alex Mozota: Solvo is a global company that is part of the Vensure family, and we are very lucky to be joined by their business development manager, Henderson Watkins, as well as Jorge "Zubi" Zubiria, who is the CEO of the US operations. Welcome guys. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Thank you, Alex. Henderson Watkins: Yeah, happy to be here. Alex Mozota: Perfect. Perfect. So, let's just jump right in. The goal of this podcast is so that if I'm on the road, literally, and I'm driving to a prospect and I'm thinking, "How can I best sell Solvo?" I just want to know everything about you guys. I want to know why Solvo is around. I want to know what it does. I want to know how you do it. And then ultimately, how do I benefit from it as a BD? So we can talk about that. The fact that we just came from presenting it to our BD people in Avitus Group makes it really fresh. So let's jump right in. So I think this question is for either of you. Why does Solvo exist? Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Okay. Do you want to explain that one? Henderson Watkins: Yeah, I can start. Zubi was there a little bit earlier, so he knows the ins and outs of the process, but really it started in the steel industry, our owner, Guillermo, they own I don't know how many facilities now, but it's a family-owned steel business that they started 40 years ago. They expanded to the US 20 years ago. And Guillermo was very responsible for that growth. They now have nine facilities in the US, four in Mexico, two in Colombia. They do around a billion dollars a year in invoices, Zubi? Correct? Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Henderson Watkins: Very large company. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: That is just for the US, sorry. Henderson Watkins: Oh, just for the US. Okay, got it. I think they're the second largest producer of wire rod in the US? Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Correct. Henderson Watkins: So that's the little bit of the backstory on how it got started. And Guillermo was responsible for opening up the two facilities in Colombia, and he quickly realized that the mills that they were running in Colombia were operating as well and even better than some of their best mills in the US. Henderson Watkins: And Guillermo fell in love with the people, the culture, the work ethic, the business environment in Colombia. And really kind of a fortuitous circumstance, they had a position that they couldn't get filled in the States and they said, "Well, we like the people down here. Why don't we try this?" They started with a dispatcher for their logistics unit, and long story short, it worked so well that they moved their whole back office down there. Henderson Watkins: They have 160 ... Zubi, what is it? 160, more or less, people down there doing front office, back office. They have an inside sales division, AP, AR, you name it and they're doing those jobs down there. And what that means to Guillermo and his steel business is that's about a seven and a half million dollar savings per year. And in an industry like steel where you have razor thin margins, that can be the difference between making and losing money. So that's really how it got started, and Zubi, maybe you can elaborate a little bit more on how Solvo was actually born just from that beginning. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Sure. So couple years ago, we had a client in that office here in Houston and he was like, "Hey guys, I know how big you are. I mean, we know that it is a pretty big company, but here in your corporate office, you only have like five, maybe 10 people. Explain me more, how can you do that?" So we explained him that we have all the back office in Colombia. Actually, he ask us for a particular person, Jose. And we told him "No, Jose, he has been in Colombia for the past three years." And he was like, "Really? I thought he was here in Texas with you guys. Such a nice guy. I didn't know he was there." Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: So we explained more about the business model and he asked like, "Hey guys, can we do something together? I mean, we'll pay for the service, but we would like to try this." So we're like, "Sure, why not?" Actually, we didn't charge that one. We saw an opportunity there because he was working for us, he was working for this client, so we opened Solvo. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: We opened Solvo almost two years and a half now, ago. After that, we have this great partnership with Venture, which was a year and a half now, ago. And currently we have both operation around 700, maybe 800 people down in Colombia. And that is, Alex, that is only back office. So, as Henderson was saying, when we opened, Colombia was just operation, manufacturing, nothing related with back office. Now we have all the back office down in Colombia. Alex Mozota: Right. No, and I think anybody that hears Solvo for the first time, they start connecting the dots to, "What does it mean for me?" And that's why we really focused on the why. Every service here at Avitus Group and Vensure that we try to offer is we're trying to create the why factor for the customer so that they know, "Okay, this is exactly why this is important to me." And that's what's so exciting about Solvo, because it's so dynamic and malleable. If I'm coming from recruiting, I'm listening and saying, "Wow, not only can I get excellent labor at a better value than I would in the United States, but I can also then turn that value to the customer and give them talent that they wouldn't have had before." Alex Mozota: So, now that we've talked about the why of Solvo, which is to solve this talent problem that we have in the United States, what exactly is Solvo? Meaning, what positions do you cover? How do you find these people in Colombia? Why nearshore this? Why is Colombia such an asset to this operation? Henderson Watkins: Yeah, I'll take a shot at that, Alex. At its core, Solvo is a team building company. We build support teams around our US clients. Technically we do outsource, we are outsourcing that part of their business, but what separates us from India, the Philippines, some of the offshore markets, as we call them compared to the nearshore markets, and even within nearshore, Solvo is very different between the way that we operate our business, is that the agents who work for these call centers, these operations in India and the Philippines, they're typically working for five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 different companies that they'll work for. United Airlines, you got a problem with your ticket with United airlines, you call that rep, he pulls up his United Airlines script, answers some questions, then he goes on to Travelocity or hotels.com. I guess I have travel on the brain. I guess we're cooped up with COVID. Henderson Watkins: So that's a little bit of how the traditional model is. With Solvo, just because of the backstory and how we got started, all of our employees are 100% dedicated to our clients in the US, so that's how we become an extension of their operation. Just like you have an office, well, we have an office in Houston and an office in Atlanta. I'm on the phone with Zubi constantly. It's going to work the same way. There's going to be the same, I guess, "fluidness" of communication between the two parties. So that's really what we're striving for, is to create an extension of their operation and build support teams around our US clients. Henderson Watkins: Why Solvo? I would say it's our people. We discussed it briefly, but why Guillermo fell in love with the people was there is such an opportunity right now in Colombia, where before COVID you were looking at about 20% unemployment. And you have this incredible opportunity and timing where you have an educated workforce where everyone that we hire is completely bilingual, they all have college degrees, a lot of them have master's degrees. I know we work with a lot of the international business guys who have majors and had actually traveled to the States. They've done internships in the States. They're incredibly talented people and they're looking at 20% unemployment. So you're looking at a country where you've got a very educated workforce and not a lot of jobs to go around. So people fight for jobs and they stay with jobs longterm. Henderson Watkins: And another thing that separates Solvo, I know I'm bouncing around, but I guess- Alex Mozota: Yeah, there's a lot here to pack in. You're fine. You're doing great. Henderson Watkins: Exactly, exactly. The other thing about Solvo that we're very proud of is our brand within Colombia. Solvo Global's not a household name in the States, so it's something we're working to get recognized with, and part of that comes with the Avitus Group partnership. But in Colombia, we have people beating our doors down to come work for us. It's a very reputable brand. They know that they work for US companies. If you're working for a traditional BPO, even in Colombia, say, you're going to be working for five, six different companies. You feel like you work for X, Y, O BPO company. Whereas with Solvo, our employees feel like they work for the US clients. So I feel like I work for client X in the United States, because, Alex, they're going to be on their Slack channels, they're going to be on their Teams channels. They're a member of that team. Alex Mozota: They're an extension of the company. Henderson Watkins: Exactly, exactly. So that's a few different answers to that question. Alex Mozota: Yeah, that was great. Henderson Watkins: Zubi, you can help me fill in the gaps. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Basically we have the quality, loyalty, which nowadays is super, super difficult to get, and that willingness. I mean, they want to work for you, they will give everything, and they will keep loyal. I'm being honest with you, Alex. Savings are great, for sure. It's very important. But at least for us, even if we can hire at the same price we prefer in Colombia because of these key points, quality, service-oriented people, loyalty, all that kind of stuff. And then when you add the savings, it is a no-brainer. So you have the whole package there. Alex Mozota: Right. We always want to sell value-driven propositions. We don't want to say that we're the cheapest, because customers ... I mean, there are customers that are driven by price, but that's why we focus on the why, because then you don't become a commodity, then you don't become transactional. I know Phil [Urso 00:10:38] said, "Don't lead the witness. Do the diagnostic, do the value." And for me, I love that Solvo gives me the ability to say, "Okay, I'm running an accounting division," which I'm not, but let's pretend I am. "Could I solve this problem for this customer that before I couldn't, because my team was too expensive?" Alex Mozota: In recruiting, it's the same thing. I have customers that say, "I can't pay you a 15% fee," which is already a very competitive fee in the market, "for every person that you place in here, because I'm just going to go broke in a month. Could you give me some sort of retention model deal?" And before Solvo, we couldn't, and now we can. And we have a couple of those wins, which we can talk about at the end, but walk me through, from start to finish, how does the Solvo process work? I'm a BD rep. I'm talking to a client. They express an interest in either nearshoring or solving a ... let's say that they have an executive assistant position that they don't need to have in the office. Where do we go from there? Henderson Watkins: Yeah, that's a great question. And just to simplify it, it's three steps. So you have the sourcing process, you have the training process, and then you have the operations process. So the sourcing process is that conversation where you're speaking to the client. Where are they having problems? They're speaking to you, "Okay, let's start this conversation. What can I give you guys? What can you guys provide me?" And that's where we go and find out are they having an accounting issue. Henderson Watkins: Some of the questions I ask are, "Tell me about your last hire. Tell me about your last firing." What we do is figure out where they're having problems and provide solution to those problems with our workforce. So that's step one, is having that initial conversation with the client. To start that process, all we need is a job description, job req, scope of work document if it's something along the IT side, and then we go out and find that talent in the markets in Colombia. Henderson Watkins: Step two is the training process. So just like you hire an employee in the States, you're going to have to hire and train that person. Same thing with Colombia. Although Solvo is doing the hiring, the training process is actually our guys need to know what their job's going to be. So if it's appointment setting, they might read scripts for a day and then they're good to go. If it's something more technical, there might be a longer training process. But just like you'd onboard a new client, it would be the same synergistically. Henderson Watkins: And then the third part of the process is the operation side, where people are actually going in and doing their day-to-day jobs. Something that's ... I actually didn't mention in the presentation that I'd like to mention here is that each hire that we have, we provide a manager and a supervisor. So the supervisor's role early on is really the training aspect. So they get to understand the whole training process. They document everything, they'll make recordings of videos. And so in the unlikely event of turnover, we can go in there and quickly replace somebody, sometimes even without a client even knowing, where we can actually fill and replace somebody. At the end of the day, you're dealing with people, things happen, but we provide ourselves a winning process to allow us to quickly transition if something happens. Henderson Watkins: So, the operation side is where we're going to be providing KPIs. That's the third step where they're doing their jobs and we'll provide them with KPIs, analytics. As much data as we have, we'll give it to them. So that's a long, verbose answer, but I hope that got to the crux of the process. Alex Mozota: It did. I think, if anything, it's thorough. And these business development guys, you're one of them, you want to know that, if I'm bringing a service to a customer, that I can trust you with that service, that the process is thorough. I loved what you said in the meeting that you even allow for video capabilities so that, if I want to look at my team, I can do that. If I want to go on Teams and do a quick team meeting ... I can tell you from experience that I've only known these guys for 30 days ... It sounds like I'm doing an advertising, like, "Yeah, before I met Solvo, I was ..." Alex Mozota: No, but I've already spoken to two Solvers, as you like to call them, which I love. I've spoken to two of them. Their English was impeccable. They were both really, really interested in the opportunity and recruiting that we were talking about. I actually had one of them in front of a customer in California interviewing and she held her own tremendously. To me, those are the kind of real world experiences that I know that BDs want to hear that exist. Alex Mozota: So why don't we take this down ... I don't know if we need to necessarily drill down into the cost and the commissions, but why don't we talk a little bit about, if I'm selling the service, what does it mean for me from a commission perspective? Henderson Watkins: Sure. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Do you want to- Henderson Watkins: Yeah, from the commission perspective, anything that you sell, you're getting $100 per seat. It doesn't matter. Colombia, the Solvo operation will provide you the price to provide to the client. Something that I'd like the BDs to know is that we can't come up with the price unless we have the job description. Alex Mozota: Right. You need to know the specs. Henderson Watkins: Correct. So we can't just tell you a price. If you ask us for a price going into a meeting and you don't know what they want, it's going to be very hard for us to tell you a price. But once we have that, we provide the price to the client. And if it's $1,800 for the job, you sell it at 1,800, you're going to get $100 a month. But just to make the numbers easier, let's say it's 2,000. If the base price is 2,000, you sell it at 2,000, you're going to get $100 a month. Henderson Watkins: But what Solvo allows you to do is to actually upcharge on that. So if you know the base price is 2,000, but you know your market very well for, let's say recruiters, for example, you know that an internal recruiter in, let's use San Francisco, that's going to command at least 60 grand a year. So if you know that the high end of the market is $5,000 and our base, our cost is 2,000, if you snag it at 3,000, you're going to make 10% of that deal for the life of the deal. Henderson Watkins: So that's the other great thing about Solvo. Two parts of that. First of all, for our clients, we have month-to-month contracts, so they can cancel at anytime, which is great for them. Knock on wood, we haven't had any cancellations, so we're very happy about our client retention rate. But from the commission perspective, with using that example of $3,000 a month, you'll get 10% of the revenue of the account for the life of the deal. So at $3,000 a month, you're looking at $300 a month per seat. So if that guy needs a few recruiters, I'm not the best at math, but those numbers get quite large quite quickly. And I guess that's a good overview of the commission structure for Solvo and for the BDs. Alex Mozota: And there's some incentives on top of that. Henderson Watkins: Correct. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Correct. And just going back a little bit with the commissions, the only thing here, the difference between the 100 bucks and the 10% of the revenue is you need to increase the price at least 10% of the base position price. So going back to the example of 2,000, at least you should sell it at 2,200 or 3,000, 4,000. You can go wherever you want to. Alex Mozota: Yeah. Yeah. I know this is really, really new as well. I'm so excited to be in this room again, just 30 days from having met Zubi and Guillermo, because we know that whoever's listening to this right now has customers. I could see their eyes lighting up the way they lit up for me thinking, "Man, I lost X, Y, Z deals because I couldn't figure out a way to afford it." I know our accounting division and our tax division is using them for some PPP loan origination documentation. In recruiting we're talking about it, we're talking to marketing, we're talking to IT. Really any opportunity where you can add value to the customer and save them some money, that's business. That's just business. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: And as you were saying, there are more incentives there, so [crosstalk 00:18:30]. Henderson Watkins: Yeah, I can get into the whole more incentives- Alex Mozota: Those are really fun. Henderson Watkins: ... structure. Yes. Alex Mozota: Go for it. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: It is like a TV show. Henderson Watkins: "And there's more!" Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: "On top of that ..." Alex Mozota: Right, "Call now." Henderson Watkins: Right, exactly. Yeah. Just to go along with the infomercial vibe, but we did discuss this in the meeting, but for those of you who were not there, for the first 15 positions, each BD that brings Solvo 15 seats will get a $15,000 bonus. Yeah, so that's always nice. And that's only the first incentive. Any BD who brings us five seats, we're recording this in July, but anyone who brings us five seats by October will win a trip down to Colombia to meet the team, see the facilities. So five seats, Colombia. 15 seats, $15,000. Henderson Watkins: I had a pretty good month last month in June, and it's my full-time job though, but those numbers start to get large quite quickly. And with Avitus's client base, I was very impressed by the sales team and the BD team today. I know you guys are going to crush it. We're going to see each and every one of you in Colombia. Alex Mozota: Right. And that's what Logan said. He's like, "Just book my flight now." Henderson Watkins: Yeah, exactly. Alex Mozota: I think it's amazing ... Not to get into the granularity of money here, but if I have 15 seats at, say, base $100, I'm already making $1,500 a month on these seats. And on top of that, you're going to give us a $15,000 check. And look, I've been in business and around for a decade and a half, and that is a fat bonus, man. That is no joke. I'm thinking about leaving the recruiting department and joining BD, so is Brock. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: It is fat, and also easy to get. I mean, we're not asking something difficult, even like a close PO deal of hundred million. If something simple is there, just take it. I mean, [inaudible 00:20:28] is there. And also there is something very important. Henderson, please tell us more about how can they win deals through Solvo? Henderson Watkins: Yeah. Just speaking to the PEO side. Alex Mozota: Oh yeah, like the offsetting? Henderson Watkins: Yeah, the offset example that Phil likes to use. I'll use a good example of a client of ours. This was actually a Harbor America referral. And they're a cable company by trade and they have 1,100 full-time employees doing all sorts of different things, dispatching, recovering cable boxes, sending out cable boxes. They're an interesting company, but a lot of people. And because of some incentives that we were running through the Vensure Group, they just started off with a conversation. David knew the owner from, I believe their kids played soccer together if I'm not mistaken, and just started off with that conversation, got the Solvo team on the phone. And they said, "Man, this is a good opportunity." Henderson Watkins: So they started with five people with us doing what we call hot transfer. So that's everything but the collections payment. So they'll call people, say, "Hey, I'd like to make a payment, get out of debt," and we'll transfer that call to the US. So currently we have five people. Actually yesterday they added three more people to that. But their renewal date is in January. It is now July. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: That is for a PEO. Henderson Watkins: Sorry, so that's from the PEO side. And David is now making commission since June, until January, and he's already got a leg up on the competition. He already knows that we provide great service. And now he's in a great place to win their PEO business, PEO on 1,100 full-time employees. That's a big deal. And not only that, no matter what happens with the PEO side, he's still going to be making commission on the Solvo side. So from a salesman's perspective, it's a way to knock down doors that were previously closed. Henderson Watkins: And Solvo can be sold on its own, but I think really where it does the best is being used as a tool to win other business. I know with Avitus, you guys sell a lot of ancillary products as well, whether you're trying to get in with accounting, you could use Solvo on the accounting side. Alex Mozota: Yeah. Yeah. Not to cut you off- Henderson Watkins: No, no, please. Alex Mozota: ... but the basic math of, "If this service is going to cost me $10,000, but I can give you a Solvo person that's going to save you $20,000, the offset is actually in your favor." Alex Mozota: And I know that we got to wrap up here, but I can tell you, if you haven't met Guillermo and Henderson and Zubi, they are willing to work with you on whatever you need. They are very dynamic. They want to disrupt the industry. So if you come up with an idea, say that there's a big dearth for truck drivers. I'm not saying that we can solve that today, but if you want to sit down with them and say, "Hey, I want to come up with this proof of concept idea," they will more than gladly invest in you with that. Alex Mozota: And with that, I think that's a good way to finish. Is there any parting words besides "Go Barcelona" that we can say? We're just going to throw that in in every video, in every podcast. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: That's for you, Guillermo. Alex Mozota: Yeah, yeah. Guillermo's a big [Real Madrid 00:00:23:45] fan. Henderson Watkins: Yeah, and he's two games away from winning the league. So he's like, "I don't care what you say." Alex Mozota: Yeah, fair enough. Well, I guess we'll see you in Colombia. We're excited to get everybody down there. Henderson Watkins: Absolutely. Jorge “Zubi” Zubiria: Exactly. Thank you guys. Alex Mozota: Yeah. Thank you guys. Stay tuned. Thank you so much for listening to On the Road today. And yeah, we love feedback, so if you guys want to let us know how to make these shows better, bring it on. Henderson Watkins: Thank you guys. Speaker 4: (singing).