From Small to Strong: How IT Nation Evolve™ and IT Nation Grow™ Helped Big Sur Technologies Build

Big Sur Technologies

Big Sur Technologies, founded by Sam Sandusky in 1999, is an IT services provider with traditional values. Its highly driven team of technology professionals provides dependable, affordable, forward-thinking solutions to clients of all kinds, including private cloud hosting, cyber security, backup & recovery and help desk support.

Challenge

Sam Sandusky and Big Sur Technologies attended IT Nation Grow™ to learn. For smaller MSP companies, topics like mergers and acquisitions can be intimidating. How do the smaller businesses who are ready to sell approach these challenging conversations?

Solution

As a member of IT Nation Evolve, Sandusky found a well-connected community of experts who could help answer pressing growth and innovation questions: What’s next? What does the exit look like? What does succession look like?

Results

With the help of the wider community of IT Nation Evolve and the IT Nation Grow™ boot camp, Big Sur Technologies has achieved an operational maturity level (OML) of 3.7 — and it’s rising.

“When it comes time to either merge or sell your company, you're becoming a part of a bigger group,” he said, viewing these major decisions through an optimistic lens. “It can be an opportunity to grow.”

“Smaller business owners can join our group and join our company and be just as fulfilled — or more fulfilled — within our company culture,” said Sandusky. “And that's exciting to know — that the Evolve community wants to invest in me.”

Based in Tampa, Florida, Big Sur Technologies is an Empire Builder, according to founder and owner Sam Sandusky.

Even though Sandusky has done some mergers and acquisitions over the years, he admits he’s still relatively new to this type of business transaction. As part of Big Sur Technologies' growth strategy — to grow through acquisitions — it was pivotal for Sandusky to gain more knowledge about the subject. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” he said.

Setting the Groundwork for Growth

Whether you’re an up-and-comer or a seasoned business professional, it’s always a good time to be thinking about transition and growth strategies.

“We've heard of mergers and acquisitions or just merging,” said Sandusky. “But who do you ask the questions of? If you think about it, there's no class for it. There's no finance major that tells you how merger and acquisition work.”

And it’s easy to get caught up in the swirl of business transitions. If you have employees, what will happen to them? What about your customers? Is it all about money?

These are questions that Sandusky was asking — and he was elated to learn that transitions like this aren’t just about dollars.

Providing a Platform for Acceleration

Leaders at IT Nation Grow™ put emphasis on culture. “I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they're [experts at IT Nation Grow™] really looking at culture,” he said. “They're looking at the future of your employees.”

Sandusky notes that many business owners may feel conflicted or sad when deciding to sell, but that there’s hope and, in fact, tons of options to help them through. “When it comes time to either merge or sell your company, you're becoming a part of a bigger group,” he said, viewing these major decisions through an optimistic lens. “It can be an opportunity to grow.”

Evolve and IT Nation Grow™ provide the platform necessary to help owners make these important and sometimes scary decisions about the future of their business and themselves.

“[IT Nation Grow™] is gonna give you the ideas. It's gonna give you the tools. It's gonna give you the forum to ask those questions on how you become the best in class,” said Sandusky. “The two-day experience is very well structured. It’s action-packed, and it really gets you thinking.”

High-caliber presenters — “the who’s who of mergers and acquisitions” — are a big part of what makes IT Nation Grow™ so special, Sandusky noted.

“It’s where you go for that source, for the very core of what's happening with the managed service provider (MSP) network. And, it is very much a friendly community,” he said, which is an invaluable aspect of the collective — especially since there’s an equally-large precedent of accountability. “This [accountability] is something that I think the IT Nation Evolve™ community uniquely brings to the MSP owner that can be found anywhere else.”

Fine-Tuning the Future

Being a part of Evolve has meant all the difference for Sandusky and other leaders just like him. It’s a place to learn and to grow — not just individually, but as an entire leadership team — to boost OML and prepare for the exciting question: What’s next?