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Partner Spotlight: AZ Business Solutions
7 Keys to Smart Business Growth
ARLIN SORENSEN
Like IBM or Kleenex, Arlin has become his own brand. Everyone, it seems, knows Arlin. As the CEO of Heartland Technology Solutions, a managed services and IT consulting firm in Harlan, Iowa, Arlin has successfully grown his business into an 80-plus-employee company that spans several states. But Arlin will be the first to tell you that growth didn’t come easy, and offers his advice for successfully expanding your business, learned through experience over some 20 years.
ALEX ZIOGAS
Likewise, Alex has found growing his business to be somewhat painful, at least in the beginning when good advice like Arlin’s was hard to find. Alex, who is president of Chicago-based AZ Business Solutions (AZBS) Inc., started his IT services company in 1993 as a sole proprietor and currently has 12 employees. He also offers his perspective on smart business growth, but from the vantage point of someone who is on the path but has not yet reached his ultimate destination.
1. The Growth Mindset
Arlin: The number one key to growth is the attitude a partner takes toward growth. There are too many VARs who think because they got up and opened the doors today that tomorrow their companies will be bigger. It doesn’t happen like that. People have to choose to grow.
Alex: Everybody says they want to grow, but growth is just a buzzword. They simply want to make more money. Growth means having a larger company, a broader span of clients, more service offerings, and geographic reach.
Arlin: That’s exactly right. Some partners think that growth is adding a few more customers or having more dollars at the end of the year. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Only 15 to 25 percent of VARs understand what it means to grow, and 10 percent or less are effectively growing. It’s easy to add a few customers and take care of them with your current skill set. But when you add employees and new markets, you need business skills.
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