- Company: Bazar Solutions, Inc.
- Founded: 2009
- Headquartered: Lubbock, Texas, with a second office in Houston, Texas
- Geographical Markets Served: Texas Panhandle is the primary market.
- Top Growth Indicator: New monthly recurring revenue (MRR) added
- YoY Percentage Of Revenue Growth: 52% growth in 2020 and up 60% in 2021 so far
- President: Mike Bazar
What Are The Top 3 Business Indicators You Use To Measure Your Company And Why?
Revenue and margin together as one because revenue without profit is worthless. I view that as a historic number, but it’s a measuring stick more than anything. Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) growth is another one because that is the growth we want. MRR is repeatable, and it shows us that we’re doing things right. The third one revolves around stale and aging tickets. We’ve found that when we start to see tickets getting old, it means we’re too busy or something’s out of whack. It’s an indicator that we need to start paying attention, or customers aren’t going to receive the experience we want them to have.
You Were Growing, On Average, 107% Per Year For 5 Years And Then Plateaued. What Is The Top Lesson You Had To Learn That Allowed You To Kick-Start Your Business Growth Again?
I had to learn to do the right type of work and do it correctly. Finding time to carve out and do the sales and marketing work where we were dedicating some level of time to do the best quality sales and marketing work we could do was key. If you can only send out 10 of a mailer and make the phone calls and do it correctly, then only send 10. Build on that habit, and in a couple weeks, you can do 15 in the time it takes you to do 10. Keep ramping that up and strive for better. The other half is delegating. Robin Robins talks about that you can’t abdicate responsibility, but you have to be able to delegate low-value work. I was constantly getting dragged back into the day-to-day minutia, so I had to delegate being the primary tech.
Were There Any Partners Or Businesses That Helped You Along The Way?
We use ID Agent, a Kaseya company, and their BullPhish ID suite of products for customer security training and security awareness when making sales. It’s a powerful tool that we’ve been using for years. Being able to show a customer, ‘Here are your passwords that are for sale on the dark web,’ has helped us close sales. It’s also helped us build a security mindset for customers because we can do monthly training. Plus, because a lot of it’s automated, it’s not labor-intensive on our side, either. I also appreciate Dan Tomaszewski, Kaseya’s SVP of Channel and Community, and Matt Solomon, Kaseya’s former VP of Business Development, who want to help us succeed. They do whatever they can to help us and push us forward. If you have questions, issues, and so on, they are all ears and take it seriously. It’s good to find people and vendors who care.
What Would You Say Is The Biggest Challenge You Had To Overcome This Past Year Related Reaching Your Growth?
The biggest challenge was resisting the urge to put on the brakes as everything started to shut down in March and April. The tendency is to not spend money and conserve cash flow to make sure we could weather the storm. It’s a good survival instinct, but what we did well was to instead sit down and make a plan: If this happens, this is who I have to let go. If this happens, this is what I have to do. That plan acted as guard rails and allowed me to say that until those things happen, I can push forward. Part of the plan was also to help our customers push forward. We were able to get dollars out of people in April because they were worried about lockdowns, and we’d prepared them to push forward by asking them what equipment they needed for their employees to work from home. Do you need laptops? Do you need VoIP?
Who Would You Say Is The Most Impactful Business Leader Whose Techniques Or Leadership Style You Try To Emulate Or Are Influenced By And Why?
That’s a hard question. There are many. However, there is a lot of value in what Robin Robins does. She will tell you the truth that you need to hear but encourage you when you need to be encouraged. She’s running a successful, service-oriented, phenomenal business. She’s built a culture where her team truly all care. During COVID-19, while pivoting her own business, she reached out, helped all her clients, and did all the things that any business owner wants to do. I admire what she’s built, the thought leaders she brings into the Producers Club, and the exposure to so many things that help her clients. I respect how open she is with the hardships she’s been through and the pivots she had to do. The way she pivoted to a virtual platform for the bootcamp in four weeks was freaking amazing. Watching someone do that makes you throw your own excuses out the window.
If You Were Going To Recommend A Book To Other MSPs Or SMBs Trying To Grow Their Business, What Would You Say They Should Read?
“Banish Sloppiness” by Paul Akers and “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. It’s all about continuous improvement.
How do you get better and how do you build better habits? There is a lot of power in that in terms of changing and transforming your business and moving it into something better. These books help you build a culture where everybody is constantly looking to get better.
What Words Of Wisdom Would You Give To Other MSPs Who Are Either Looking To Grow Their Business Or Build A Successful Exit For Their Business?
There are two things. Being a business owner can feel really lonely. You must ask for help and engage with a group that can help you. The other side of that is when you’re not in the hard times, engage with that same group of people who will then push you in the good times, so you don’t get lazy and complacent. That’s what makes you end up with 50%–60% growth and 200%–300% profit. With 300% profit growth, you get on stage and win a car. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have a group where everybody else was doing well. It pushed me into saying, “I need to do well, too.” We dragged each other forward.
The second thing is that excellence doesn’t just happen all at once. It’s small pushes in the right direction and momentum built over time that finally blooms into excellence.
