About Us
After having built multiple rapid growth companies, two beyond $100 million, we are now sharing the many lessons we learned in over 40 years of building companies. We coach business owners how to scale their company to $20, $50 and $100 million or more in 3 to 5 years.
Do you know there are over 49,000 $100+ million companies in the USA? We founded and built 2 manufacturing, 1 high tech and 1 service company before being recruited by VC's to fix their investments that were not doing as well as they wanted. We have done it and will help you do it too.
How We Got Started
Has your company hit a glass ceiling? Are you trying to get to $20, $50 or a $100 million in revenue?
After more than 40 years of building companies, we moved to Florida for family reasons. I took this opportunity to reinvent myself so I could give back. Now we coach business owners how to scale their company like I have done over 4 times.
Any company can be scaled beyond $100 million. Call us and in less than an hour we will help you learn how some changes in your thinking will transform how you see your business and open your eyes to new possibilities.
The products and services we offer
Recommendations Received (17)
"I have known William for well over 20 years. He is a hard working & trustworthy business man who..."
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"I have known William for well over 20 years. He is a hard working & trustworthy business man who will help your business grow.
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"Antirion helped Me get startup capital for My business."
Products & Services
Antirion Bridges Entrepreneurs Knowledge, Strategies and Profits.
Having founded and built 4 Rapid Growth companies. Which included raising An...
Recommendations Given (39)
"I have known Tim Johnson for 7+ years and watched all the projects he has worked on. You will..."
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"I have known Tim Johnson for 7+ years and watched all the projects he has worked on. You will never find a more helpful dedicated executive to help you with your project. "
"The World Trade Center is a great organization is a great benefit to every business that wants to..."
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"The World Trade Center is a great organization is a great benefit to every business that wants to expand its market share. It helped me land numerous contracts over many years."
Recent Activity
Let me turn this question around. When you are Networking who is it that you really want to connect with? If you are smart you want to network with the decisions makers. Normally this is the business owner or senior executive at a company.Now how do you get them to recognize You as a person...
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Let me turn this question around. When you are Networking who is it that you really want to connect with? If you are smart you want to network with the decisions makers. Normally this is the business owner or senior executive at a company.Now how do you get them to recognize You as a person they should respect and want to talk to?You do this by having real recognizable credentials. To do this you must not only be active in various organizations but you must also be a leader in these organizations. When you hear a speaker being introduced what does the introduction consist of? The speakers credentials. It lists what organizations they belong to or have belonged to. It lists what Boards they have sat on. It may also list what books they have written.You too can gain these credentials. Find the Organization you believe in and ask to join their Board of Directors. Whether they accept you write away or not, ask to be allowed to attend their board meetings. Listen to closely to what is being discussed and when you have something beneficial, speak up and share your idea. The more you participate, the more respect you will gain and soon enough you will become a Board Member and then you need to offer to take on more responsibility and ultimately become the Chairperson and run this Board.You will gain insight into many challenges all board members face and from this new respect for others that hold similar positions. Now work to find operating companies that have Boards of Directors and work to get on them. As you do these things you will be building your own set of credentials and in the process the respect of those you really want to network plus those whose business you want to earn by being a highly respected person in your business world.
Do you want people to notice your business or become customers? I assume from your note that you want more customers.
To get more customers you need to ask for the order. We see this with many companies. They have not developed a good sales team to ask for the order and just expect prospect...
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Do you want people to notice your business or become customers? I assume from your note that you want more customers.
To get more customers you need to ask for the order. We see this with many companies. They have not developed a good sales team to ask for the order and just expect prospect clients to buy.
There must be a Call To Action in your posts. A good process is to give the prospect something valuable for free, so they can get to know the value of the service you provide. You can write a booklet on your field of expertise, give it a great title and the give it away as an ebook so potential customers get to learn more about who you are, what you do and how you can help them.
Don't forget to follow up and ask for the order. If sales is not your forte then higher a sales person. You can pay a sales person on commission if you price your product or service properly so they can earn a reasonable income.
There is a solution for every problem. We have a long track record of delivering solutions for every problem and every time we do, we are enriched because our clients are growing their business, bigger and bigger constantly.
The first item you must come to terms with is that "You Are Not A Bank". These customers are using you like a bank by using your money to operate their business.
So you must change the way you do business so they cannot use you as a bank. I do not have enough information about your business to...
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The first item you must come to terms with is that "You Are Not A Bank". These customers are using you like a bank by using your money to operate their business.
So you must change the way you do business so they cannot use you as a bank. I do not have enough information about your business to know if you are working on a project basis or an on going basis, so here is a solution you can modify (slightly) to solve your problem.
Do you have your clients sign a contract? Good Corporate Governance says you must have every customer sign a formal contract. Doing this raises your stature from a smuck to a professional. Just this one step alone will raise your credibility with your clients.
Next, make your contract attractive by giving a prepayment discount. Tell your clients that business is so good that you need to increase your prices due to high demand for your services. Then offer them a 25% discount if they prepay you for three months in advance. This also raises your professional stature to your clients. (Make certain that even after the 25% discount your fees are 10% greater than you currently charge.)
Understand, some people will pay the extra 25% which incentivizes you to do a fantastic job.
Time and time again, I see small business owners under sell their services. Successful companies like to use successful businesses and will pay more for what they consider professionals. Remember, when negotiating, you can always bring your fees down, but you cannot take them up.
Also, you need support staff to grow your business. Admin help, marketing and sales help, etc. You need to charge enough to cover these costs and still pay yourself a fair compensation for the work you do.
It is important that every entrepreneur understand they have one and possibly two innate skills. They have have another one or two skills that they are fair at. What every business owner must realize is there are 8 Primary Practices every business must have for it to achieve real success.
No...
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It is important that every entrepreneur understand they have one and possibly two innate skills. They have have another one or two skills that they are fair at. What every business owner must realize is there are 8 Primary Practices every business must have for it to achieve real success.
No one, even with years of training, can develop all 8 of these Primary Practices. Some of the practices are more natural for right brained people and some are for left brained people. That is why every successful company has a well balanced Team.
A Team that comprises all 8 Primary Practices creates synergy that is impossible to create as a solo-preneur or in a small business that chooses to stay small.
Synergy grows and grows as the team grows. And the greater the synergy, the greater the bottom line profits after paying yourself a salary commensurate with your skills and abilities.
We coach all our clients that their company must make 20% net profit after all salaries are paid. Anything less, means there is a problem in the company that needs to be fixed to heal the company and allow it to scale.
I hope I have you thinking and realizing that it is the lack of a good team that causes everyone to fall short.
There are a number of major organizations that have researched this including Harvard Business School, Kauffman Foundation, Forbes, the SBA and others. The results of each and every research study found the #1 and #2 reasons for business failure is Lack of Experience and Insufficient...
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There are a number of major organizations that have researched this including Harvard Business School, Kauffman Foundation, Forbes, the SBA and others. The results of each and every research study found the #1 and #2 reasons for business failure is Lack of Experience and Insufficient Capital.
As the founder of 4 rapid growth companies, the first one I boot strapped and the next three I raised various forms of capital to grow them. I have raised Angel Capital, Venture Capital, gotten loans and been through the IPO process.
The biggest lesson I learned, is all these sources of capital put their money at risk based on the founder and the management team they planned to have or had.
This is why when I got bored in retirement that I chose to build a company that Coaches Business owners how to scale their company. Having grown four rapid growth companies, two manufacturing, one technology and one service company I know how to do it. My very first company that I founded in the 1970's, I grew to over $12 million in annual revenue. In today's dollars it would be over a $50 million company and it was the smallest company I founded and grew.
You will find real Freedom when you scale your company and have a strong support team behind you. I encourage everyone to think of what they need to learn to achieve success. Learn about the 8 Primary Practices every company must have to achieve success and the 4 Primary Practices they must have to achieve massive success.
There are over 49,000 $100 million companies in the USA. Join the crowd and become part of this group of companies. You can do it.
There has been a lot of research conducted on how much time people need to have off to be totally disconnected from their work to receive beneficial results from time off, vacation or quality R&R, or whatever other term you wish to use. One of the items that is extremely important is recognizing...
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There has been a lot of research conducted on how much time people need to have off to be totally disconnected from their work to receive beneficial results from time off, vacation or quality R&R, or whatever other term you wish to use. One of the items that is extremely important is recognizing the difference in the level of responsibility in the persons job.
It is recommended that business owners and senior executives take a minimum of 2 two week vacations and 2 one week vacations each year. The research pointed out positions of high management responsibility have a have significant amounts of stress in them. And even though people in these positions tend to like the challenges that create the stress, the human mind and body are not designed for continual high levels of stress.
The research went on to say that it takes seven to nine days for the average business owner or senior executive to truly decompress and relax. Therefore, taking 2 two week vacations each year gives the business owner the time to really relax and recharge themselves. Taking a week vacation midway between the longer vacations significantly increases the business owner or senior executives relaxation and rejuvenation abilities.
Additionally, the report went on to say unless you totally disconnect from your business - no email or phone calls - during this time off, you will not achieve the benefits you need.
After reading through this whole report I instituted mandatory vacations for all my management and did the same for myself. By the end of the first year of implementing these required policies, we saw significant improvement in productivity of the executives that truly disconnected verses the ones that took their work with them.
When the results were brought to everyone's attention, we instituted a Corporate Governance Rule into the company By Laws and added it to the employee handbook. We also changed the vacation policy for staff, increasing it to starting all employees with two weeks vacation a year from the day they started and required the vacation to be taken every year.
After this policy was instituted we saw greater productivity company wide.
I love entrepreneurs and all the various businesses they start and build. I also concern myself with how much they work and how wearing every hat in the business wears them down over time. Small shops, especially, one person shops, have even higher stress than executive positions in larger companies. This is why I constantly encourage small business owners to think bigger, it is actually easier, less stressful and will result in better personal health.
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After reading all the answers to this question it is my opinion that too many people are thinking too small. For any company to achieve success it must have all of the 8 Primary Practices that create the synergy that results in success. These are:
1 - The Founder Visionary who has the...
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After reading all the answers to this question it is my opinion that too many people are thinking too small. For any company to achieve success it must have all of the 8 Primary Practices that create the synergy that results in success. These are:
1 - The Founder Visionary who has the passion that will drive the business2 - A Marketing person that will find the prospects for the business3 - A Sales person that will convert the prospect into a customer4 - Operations that will deliver the product or service that has been sold to the customer5 - Finance that makes certain the company is being paid and more importantly has real margin so the company earns 20% net profit6. - HR that not only recruits great staff but also ensures everyone in the company is properly trained for their position and understands how their job creates synergy with other departments7. - IT that is not only responsible for the computers, the network, websites, landing pages but also the software, preferably some form of ERP, that tracks everything that happens in the company. This gives management the ability to make real time informed decisions.8. - Next is what I consider the magic most small companies don't understand and therefore don't invest in - Quality Assurance and Quality Control. These people document all the processes and controls, understand how to make every position more productive and most importantly are there to analyse when any problem occurs and determine if it is a human error or a process error. They can help ensure the problem never reoccurs which improves the companies productivity and most importantly the customer satisfaction so you receive more repeat orders and more referrals.Real freedom is attained through great team work and to have great team work you must have a team. I created Antirion to help businesses scale by sharing my over 40 years of Experience, Knowledge and Wisdom so you too can build a successful and highly profitable company. Any business can be scaled to a $100 million company. Learn how you can scale your company email WelcomeTeam@Antirion.com
There are some great answers here however from my decades of experience as a President and Board Member of a number of companies both private and public, accountability starts with hard data. I have seen too many situations where you have - he said, she said statements.
To create workplace...
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There are some great answers here however from my decades of experience as a President and Board Member of a number of companies both private and public, accountability starts with hard data. I have seen too many situations where you have - he said, she said statements.
To create workplace accountability you must have hard historical data points. Then you can establish goals, get staff and management commitment to achieving these goals and track the actual results frequently to ensure everyone is on track to achieve the objective or determine why they are not on track so changes can be made to achieve the objective.
I encourage all of our clients to use an ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) or its equivalent for their business. A fully functioning ERP system (there are many different systems out there, designed for specific industries) will track everything in your company from marketing, sales, operations, finance, HR, IT, QA and QC.
It will provide every level of management a dashboard so they know exactly what is happening in their area of responsibility and gives them the knowledge to make changes immediately when a problem arises rather than waiting for a week end or month end report.
I recognize the question was about attending "a leadership workshop on accountability" and my answer may seem off base to some. But I have seen too many small business owners and young managers get side tracked from their core responsibilities by attending touchy, feely, seminars and loose focus on their core responsibilities.
Every person needs to be held accountable for their responsibilities and have to deal with the consequences of their results. Good consequences receive appropriate results as do poor consequences.
There have been some great answers provided to this question however, in my experience of hiring and managing over one thousand employees over the past forty plus years I believe the biggest problem arises from small business owners not knowing how to hire properly. One of the first things we do...
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There have been some great answers provided to this question however, in my experience of hiring and managing over one thousand employees over the past forty plus years I believe the biggest problem arises from small business owners not knowing how to hire properly. One of the first things we do when we are brought in to coach a company how to scale to $20, then $50 and then a $100 million in annual revenue is to review every employee in the company starting with the management team and working through each department until we have discussed every employee in the company. What is most amazing to us is learning that on average there are over 5% of the employees that management knows are not doing a good job for the company, yet they are doing nothing about it!!!
We all know the old saying one rotten apple spoils the barrel. When you have employee related challenges, I highly recommend you look in the mirror for the cause of your employee related challenge then find an unbiased third party to help you evaluate your whole situation, then develop a plan to inspire a change in your organization and finally weed out any truly rotten apples.
It is imperative you use a third party to assist you with this process because no matter how honest you try to be, you will have biases for some employees. These biases will not only be against your challenging employees but also for your favorite employees and on a fairly regular basis we have found these favorite employees feed management with biased points of view that may result in you taking the wrong action.
Owning, managing and scaling a company are all wonderful things we want you to do because we want you to create a great sustainable company that can grow and that will create many new jobs because over 70% of all new jobs are created by small businesses.
These wonderful things also challenge every business owner to grow in ways they often do not realize they need to grow in. Even after all my decades of building companies "I don't know, what I don't know". And our client companies constantly teach me things about new things all the time. However, one thing I and all my associates at Antirion do know is Business Management and how to coach our clients so they can learn and grow as better managers and executives.
Sir Richard Branson recently said: Even the greatest Entrepreneurs had help. Be wise, learn from those that have more experience, knowledge and wisdom than you do. It will accelerate the profitability and growth of your company.
More experience. There have been numerous studies done by Harvard Business, Kaufman Foundation, Forbes and the SBA. All of these studies reported the same findings. The
#1 cause for small business failure and lack of growth is INEXPERIENCE and the
#2 cause is INSUFFICIENT CAPITAL.
There...
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More experience. There have been numerous studies done by Harvard Business, Kaufman Foundation, Forbes and the SBA. All of these studies reported the same findings. The
#1 cause for small business failure and lack of growth is INEXPERIENCE and the
#2 cause is INSUFFICIENT CAPITAL.
There are only two ways I know of that you can gain experience: the most common and frustrating way is to spend decades learning from your mistakes. The second is by being wise enough to learn from others which is what I did from my very first company that I started in the 1970's. Yes, I spent my whole career gaining experience and knowledge from the business coaches I hired and they helped me build 4 rapid growth companies.
They also helped me overcome the 2nd problem, Insufficient Capital. With the help of my business coaches I was always able to keep my companies properly capitalized so we could achieve consistent rapid growth.
The first book I wrote is called Raise Capital Quickly where I share over 12 different sources of capital most business owners don't know about.
It was all the lessons I learned during the 40 plus years I have been building companies that motivated me to give back by sharing my experience, knowledge and wisdom. We help all our client companies scale far faster than they dreamed possible and we are extremely happy at the results they achieve as you can find by watching their testimonial videos on www.Antirion.com
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