People are investments, not expenses. So many companies look at hiring people as an expense on their balance sheet. It is not. Just like any investment, you need to give it time to mature. Stop looking at people as being a burden. If you are doing it right, with the right people, it will pay off eventually. You need to support them and give them opportunities to be successful or make mistakes. Just like you would invest in new process or tools.
The best example I can think of is how we approach this internally. We always look at where we want to be in the next 12 months and find the right team members to invest in to help us be ready when that time comes. This allows us to have our team members be onboarded, coached and trained without them feeling the pressure of everyday demands when they get thrown into a job and expected to be a high performer on day one. This has allowed us to build an incredible team of originals that are all passionate, focused and driven to deliver results that matter to our clients.
AS a part of my series called “Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Greenwood. He is a seasoned leader with more than 25 years of international experience driving growth, building teams, and executing innovative business strategies as both a senior in-house executive and as a trusted advisor. Tom is an expert in managing, structuring, and scaling businesses for explosive growth organically or through strategic acquisitions. His thorough understanding of global business cultures, operations, markets, and sales channels; combined with his extensive network of senior-level contacts across Canada, the USA, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East; allows him to effectively bridge global business practices in order to achieve substantial, quantitative results.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
At 23 years old, I was hired by a multinational manufacturing company to head up a division for them. I was so young, the CEO of the company called me ‘Boy Wonder’. Essentially, this particular division was underperforming so I was brought in as a turnaround specialist. I successfully grew the division by millions of dollars and expanded their footprint. It was my first acceleration of an underperforming company and it was a huge ‘zero to hero’ moment for me. Since that time, companies would hire me to help them get the acceleration their business needed for survival.
I went on to support international expansion efforts for various companies which took me to places like Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and the Middle East. Many business owners are intimidated by international expansions, but I’m a student of learning and was able to realize that every business and business owner in the world is fundamentally the same. Every area of the world is so different from another but once I started to understand and meet those needs, I found success for our clients.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
It’s not really a story, but an interesting realization I had since I started the company, that there is absolutely no support from anyone to help non-established entrepreneurs. When I started Evolve, it was just me and we couldn’t even rent an office space, no banks would loan us money without giving up about three children and a dog. Even if a small business owner is able to find an investor with a nontraditional financing method, they quickly learn those investors are ‘dream crushers’ where they give you money in exchange for a significant percentage of their profits which kills their business.
This is why I structured the business model Evolve in the way that it is. I knew there were other people like me out there that wouldn’t stand a chance without someone like us.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Every successful business owner has more than one person. Just like with humans, it takes a village to raise a child….it takes a village to raise a business.
With that said, when I was 33-years-old and in a significant corporate job, I realized I didn’t have the skills to get to the next level. I ended up hiring an executive coach named Warren Lundy. I knew I had that fire in my belly, but Warren was pinnacle in shaping me as a business leader by helping me understand who I was, encouraged me to do executive leadership courses, sent me to an image consultant, and showed me the power of getting out there to network. He helped me reach the next stage in my career/life and I will be forever grateful for his guidance.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I’m uncompromising in my approach and in what drives me. I like to take chances and think outside of the box — or better yet I like to destroy the box, and I encourage or team to do the same. We try to strip out the fear of failure in order to constantly take chances and deliver amazing results. That’s why we go by the mantra of “FUCK IT™️” at Evolve. Some might use quotes like “dive in head first,” but we think ‘FUCK IT™️’ has an unrestrained quality in how we approach business and delivery of dreams for our clients.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. We’d love to learn a bit about your company. What is the pain point that your company is helping to address?
Our goal at Evolve 360 Group is to be ‘dream makers’ for marginalized small business owners and we achieve that by providing a fresh strategic outlook on the business, access to new services, financing, and international contacts that can accelerate growth, with a nimble and passionate team of experienced experts.
We’re very passionate about helping marginalized entrepreneurs because, unfortunately, a lot of them will likely fail because there is no one out there to help them. Banks won’t back their businesses. Private equity won’t support them because the business owner doesn’t have anything to tie into so business owners often get into major debt.
I often hear people refer to Evolve 360 Group as a Venture Capital company, but I really don’t like that comparison because many VC’s will take 75% of the business that it is claiming to support. Is the growth a VC can offer worth that much of a company?
Our model at EBA is to provide an alternative option that can provide entrepreneurs the horsepower it needs to succeed and scale. We offer a subscription service that can be scaled up or down, and provides access to an international team of people and services at a fraction of the cost of having your own team.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Our passion for small entrepreneurs is what makes us stand out. We have the humility of working with partners that enable us to join their success. We have an uncompromising focus and dedication to ensuring their success and we put our money where our mouth is. Our business model shows we don’t take our piece until they are successful.
Our most recent success story is WeeSleep, a provider of sleep solutions for infants & toddlers, founded by Janey Reilly. We started our partnership with Janey in early 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Janey is a single mother entrepreneur with a deep desire to see her business become successful. She had built the company out of her home office and then plateaued. We’ve been working with her to help her think big, and to support her growth in sales, marketing and other business areas, as well as a little funding support to continue that growth. We anticipate that in the next 2–4 years she’ll be a multi-million dollar company offering sleep solutions to families everywhere.
When you first started the business, what drove you, what was your primary motivation?
I started Evolve 360 Group when I recognized there was no one to help marginalized small business owners in this particular format and that rings true today.
There are so many companies and entrepreneurs that won’t realize their dream without support. They have that fire under their belly, they have great ideas, they work 20 hours a day, yet some of these ideas and opportunities won’t come into fruition. What motivates me is figuring out how I can help them.
What drives you now? Is it the same? Did it change? Can you explain what you mean?
What drives us are our partners is our teams and their families. Sometimes executives talk about the burden you have as a business owner of your employees and their families. It’s not a burden. It’s’ a gift that people have trusted me to provide support for them.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
The most exciting project we’re working on right now is our ‘Cultivation’ offering. It’s the first step in our acceleration model. During this pandemic, most companies will struggle to make it and will have to cut costs (usually team members) to help them survive. Unfortunately, that will challenge them further as they don’t have the horsepower (a team) to become successful as a result. Our Cultivation program provides a solution for any size of business. You’re essentially using our team as your team and get your business to a point of stability and growth where they can move on to the next level in our Eco System (financing, incubating, etc.). If we can help even 5 or 10 companies succeed, think of the positive social and economic impact that can have.
The topic of this series is ‘Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue’. Congratulations! Seven figures is really a huge milestone. In your experience what was the most difficult part of being able to hit your first million-dollars in sales revenue?
It might sound corny, but I didn’t find it that difficult. Because I’m more open to new ideas and opportunities, I’m able to be nimble, pivot and massage my approach. I always tell our clients that in order to build a successful business, you cannot give up if you know you are doing the right thing. It will eventually come as long as you have the vision, passion, work ethic and uncompromising belief in their dream that all successful entrepreneurs possess.
The most difficult part is encountering people that won’t change their ways. They want to do things the same way that’s been done. It’s impossible to grow with that mindset.
Could you share the number one sales strategy that you found helpful to help you reach this milestone?
At a very young age, I read the book Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service. I highly recommend it for any business or salesperson. The premise of the book is to make Raving Fans of your clients. Essentially provide them with everything they need…plus one. As a result, we listen intently to our clients and provide them with everything that they need to be successful…plus one. In our case we provide manufacturing support, short-term interest-free financing support, global PR agency support all without charge. It’s our Plus One and it makes our clients appreciate everything that we do. We’ve grown by millions of dollars as a result.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you or your team made during a sales process? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Our mantra is ‘fuck it’ so we make mistakes every single day. I can’t think of anything funny, but recently we did send one of our clients an incorrect quote for packaging. I sat down with the person who made the mistake to ensure there’s a process moving forward, yet didn’t make them feel belittled, but rather empowered to continue to do an amazing job.
Does your company have a sales team? If yes, do you have any advice about how companies can create very high-performing sales teams?
Sales teams need to remain accountable…that’s a given. We believe that what is as equally as important is failure. You have to allow and be OK with your sales team failing…not closing the big deal all the time. We know that people learn by making mistakes and we support our team by working with them to understand the mistakes they made and supporting them with coaching to help them learn from it and grow. I still make mistakes every day and it’s important for our leadership team to assure our team feels valued and supported, even when things don’t go right, to assure that they will continue to give us their all.
Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”. Please share a story or an example for each.
1. Change, Transform, Grow
Take a couple of steps back and get ready to change your mindset. This is the time to transform your business by focusing on leaner marketing strategies while also looking at ways to expand your revenues.
For example, consider PR and social media marketing strategies as lower cost marketing strategies. Then look at ways to expand your revenues beyond your own region or even country.”
We have a client in Mexico called TEISA. They are a manufacturer of stainless-steel tanks and have been in business for over 42 years. They do amazing work, have amazing quality and have a significant customer base in Mexico. However, they were stuck in Mexico and needed to expand their reach into the USA and Canada. We worked with them to build their marketing promotional deck, build their social media presence and accelerated them into the USA automotive market, a vertical that they have not really explored, and now they are working with a car company on some major projects. This all happened within 18 months.
2. Do a 360-degree evaluation of your business
Do a deep dive review of your business practices and efficiencies. Look at where you can save costs, see how you can use technology to maximize your efficiencies, find fresh ways to connect with your customers.
Many business owners can’t fathom adding an additional salary to their costs, but I always advise that hiring top-quality talent is an investment into your future. Key timing is now.
When we first started with WeeSleep, we took a pretty deep dive into their operations to determine what building blocks needed to be put in place to assure the foundation was there to accept the explosive growth that we knew was going to come. We determined they had a need to add internal admin support, senior sales support and marketing/PR support to allow the founder of the company to be the Chief Evangelist of the company.
3. Rethink company’s go-to-market strategy / Find new streams of revenue
Many business owners are intimidated by expanding internationally especially in countries they may be less familiar with. I’ve helped companies expand into the UK, the US and Saudi Arabia. The advice I always give our clients is to find the right sales partner and hold them accountable.
Expanding will help you catapult your product or service and garner a new market and revenue stream that you haven’t yet tapped into. Focus on how to catapult your product or service into as many countries or regions as possible for the lowest cost as possible.
This is the time to diversify your product offerings and to rethink your distribution and marketing plan. As a result of the pandemic, seven out of 10 CMO’s have asked their employees to get active online in order to promote the company. Use this time to implement new technologies like mobile chats, apps, email and video.
One of our internal companies, ECR provides contracted technical labor to manufacturers. What we realized is that their clients needed us to step up and provide more turnkey/project focused solution instead of just human capital solutions. They determined that because of ECR’s passionate approach to make “raving fans” of their clients, their clients came to them to ask them to do more. The new streams of revenue will potentially add more than $12 million of revenue to the company by the end of 2021.
4. People are investments, not expenses
So many companies look at hiring people as an expense on their balance sheet. It is not. Just like any investment, you need to give it time to mature. Stop looking at people as being a burden. If you are doing it right, with the right people, it will pay off eventually. You need to support them and give them opportunities to be successful or make mistakes. Just like you would invest in new process or tools.
The best example I can think of is how we approach this internally. We always look at where we want to be in the next 12 months and find the right team members to invest in to help us be ready when that time comes. This allows us to have our team members be onboarded, coached and trained without them feeling the pressure of everyday demands when they get thrown into a job and expected to be a high performer on day one. This has allowed us to build an incredible team of originals that are all passionate, focused and driven to deliver results that matter to our clients.
5. Acquire a smaller competitor for immediate impact
Unfortunately, many companies today are faced with the reality of closing their doors and going bankrupt. For some, this can offer an opportunity to buy out a struggling company at a deeply discounted price, while opening and expanding your business in a new area — and can even save jobs. This makes expansions easier to do as the product and service are already in the market with an existing customer base.
One of our clients, Anderson Process in Wisconsin, was looking to expand their footprint into Michigan. We worked with them to find a company that was literally on its last legs and potentially would have put over 45 people out of a job. We worked with our client to assure a successful acquisition and then ultimate integration of the people in Michigan into the Anderson family. Today, this addition has kept the people employed and added over $6 million in a brand-new revenue stream to Anderson which was never part of their business before.
What would you advise to another business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill? From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth or sales and “restart their engines”?
I often see commonalities within businesses. Here are a few pieces of advice that I share with companies that are experiencing a plateau:
1. All answers are within your business: Look to your team for responses
Issues typically stem from the senior leadership teams having the humility to chat with the team to see what they think the business should be doing. The reality is that senior leaders aren’t in the trenches executing tactics. It’s the people doing their operations that are closest to the customer and have the answers.
2. Change should not be feared
Take a couple of steps back and examine the business units that aren’t as profitable but are taking a lot of time and energy. Often I hear “but we’ve been doing this for years” but that attitude needs to change. You either change and grow or continue to do something mediocre and continue to plateau.
3. Invest in outside support
All businesses have levels. Skill sets within a business have levels. At some point, every business will hit a plateau but outside support can help you grow. New relationships can help you get into new markets as an example.
Different businesses require different skillset at different points. Every company needs people that moves them to the next level.
In your specific industry, what methods have you found to be most effective in order to find and attract the right customers? Can you share any stories or examples?
I like to use old-school tactics. Your clients should be your friends. I want to work with people that I like and hold the same values and core that we do. For example, we have a partner in Mexico that does steel manufacturing. He started as a client but now we’re great friends. I’ve been to his house, met his family. It’s a great feeling to be able to call him my friend. We’ve created a long-lasting relationship that goes beyond dollar figures.
Based on your experience, can you share a few strategies to give your customers the best possible user experience and customer service?
At Evolve we 1. Deliver 2. Communicate 3. Give our customers what they want 4. Give them one additional thing.
Communication is key and over-communicating if needed. A lot of new and small business leaders go to a very dark place if they don’t hear from you, so ensure they’re aware of your efforts.
As you likely know, this HBR article demonstrates that studies have shown that retaining customers can be far more lucrative than finding new ones. Do you use any specific initiatives to limit customer attrition or customer churn? Can you share some of your advice from your experience about how to limit customer churn?
We make ourselves incredibly valuable in the beginning, then we make ourselves irrelevant. What I mean by that is, our goal is to set small businesses up for success so that they can eventually walk away from us and be independent with their own team.
Wonderful. We are nearly done. Here are the final “meaty” questions of our discussion. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I came from a low-income background, raised by a single mother who raised four kids using social welfare. I am a convicted felon and I never finished university. This drive has drawn me to support clients with great social causes. In fact, 75% of the clients we work with are female or minority-owned businesses. If we start to support this segment of the economy, by providing a hand up, everyone will benefit.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
I would love to sit down with Elon Musk because he is driven and uncompromising in his efforts to be successful. His vision is going to change our world. There is not a lot of people you can say that about right now. On top of it, he’ll walk around his manufacturing floor without any arrogance. I feel the same way. I don’t care about having a yacht. I care about the success of other people and businesses.
Thank you so much for this. This was very inspirational, and we wish you only continued success!
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