Impact Networking History and Growth
Starting from a basement and four employees in 1999, Impact has relied on perseverance, innovation and a commitment to excellence to become what it is today.In the final installment of the Impact Video Culture Series, we’re sharing the story of Impact’s unique journey. Starting from a basement and 4 employees in 1999, Impact has relied on perseverance, innovation and a commitment to excellence to become what it is today. Thanks to our employees, our clients and the community for being part of our continued growth and success.
Video Transcript
We started in 1999, out of my basement. When we got our very first deal, and it was a church on the south side of Chicago, we put the machine together in my garage. We delivered it in my wife’s minivan, and when we got to the church, the pastor stopped the prayer service and said “Praise the Lord. The copier has arrived.” That was a memory I’ll never forget.
Impact was built at the very beginning on things we didn’t want to do, which is kind of unique. Most companies say, “Hey, we wanna do this, this and this.” I had worked at three or four other companies before this, and I made a list of all the things that we shouldn’t do, and didn’t want to do, and we still have that piece of paper today.
We believe that our growth is due to a few things. Most importantly would be culture. I think when you’re in a services business, which we are, the differentiator is people. So we thought, when we started the company, that the best way to do that is to develop a culture that people were thriving. And it’s worked.
When I first started it was just me on the service end. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know that we were gonna be as big as we are now. I mean, I knew where the CEO wanted to go, but in such a short amount of time, I didn’t expect us to get here as quick as we did.
I’ve seen a lot, from building branches to diversifying our portfolio of offerings, but I think what’s really been an eye opener is the type of transactions. When I started, it wasn’t uncommon that we were really, really excited about, you know, $10 or $20,000 transaction. Well, that game has completely changed. You know, we’re seeing quarter-million, half-million, million dollar deals constantly.
Impact has grown substantially since I first started. We’ve grown almost five times what we had. It’s been exciting. We’ve had a lot of changes. We’ve had a lot of growing pains, and we adapt, and the partners are very forward thinking, so that helps us to be ahead of the curve.
The management is aiming for the sky, and everyone underneath them is running right along as fast as we can.
The growth has been fast and steady, and I am looking forward to doubling our size over the next few years.
Since 1999, Impact grown 26% a year. I think the future growth of Impact is gonna be in the managed IT services, creative services, and those different areas that we diversified in.
Our future growth plan is to get to $100 million by 2017.
$100 million will be easy to hit, and it’s just a matter of what the next goal is after that.
People know here that we won’t settle for being second-best.
We’re not just an IT vendor, we really are a partner and it shows. Everything we’re doing is based on the idea that we’re the best at what we do, we’re worth every penny of it, and that we’ll continue to dominate the market place because of the partnerships that we’re creating.
I think they set out to be successful and create a company with an environment that suits their personalities. And I think they’ve really done well. Take pride in what we do and we’re second to none.