After Chris acquired NTI in 2018, Michael Erath's coaching and quarterly strategy sessions helped the school scale from $200,000 to over $6 million in annual revenue in less than three years. The leadership credits him with resolving people and process issues and increasing accountability across departments.
Questions this video answers
2018
Approximately $200,000
Over $6 million in annual revenue in less than three years
419th fastest growing company in the United States
Quarterly (quarterly sessions)
Chapters
When we acquired NTI in 2018, we inherited a business structure that was putting through 72 students a year. So as you can imagine, lots of things had to change if we were going to grow the business the way we had thought.
Chris has brought me in to work with a number of his companies, and he's got a real knack for sensing great opportunity. And so he had found this trade school, realized that as there's just this continuing growth in the trades as a great career path. What he realized was that he could take this company and if he got the right people at the kind of the helm of the ship, the right people leading the company with him, they could have explosive growth sitting around a.
Table with smart individuals. We thought we knew what we were doing, but we needed some direction. We needed somebody to say, this is what you need to do. This is the guidance you need to have.
Most businesses struggle with issues that at their core are really rooted in one of two areas. It's either people or process.
We brought Michael in from day one. So when, when I made the acquisition, what we anticipated was exactly what we're experiencing today, which is hyper growth. He has the uncanny ability to help us as a leadership team, smoke out issues. Your ability to scale the business is really a direct result of how fast and how capable you are of solving problems.
Having an outside party look and say, hey, this could be bigger. Have you considered this? That's what Michael has brought to the table for us to make sure that we're thinking through every decision. And as a result, we've had conversations, say, hey, wait, we could do more than what we initially thought. I worked for a very large multi international or international company. The biggest frustration I had was the accountability between departments. We get things done because we're accountable to each other and he holds us to it. Everybody checks their ego at the door because it's hard to have sensitive conversations when the person's sitting in front of you. You don't want to offend them, but yet at the same time, it might really be inhibiting your. I recommend Michael to other entrepreneurs because I don't think we're as successful today as we are without him. He's an integral part of our team.
We have had the opportunity and the Fortune to take NTI from a $200,000 organization annually in revenue to over $6 million in revenue in less than three years. And I attribute most of that success to the quarterly sessions that we engage with. Michael allows us to step back, get away from the business, and work on the Business with my leadership team.
Keith is very passionate about educating himself to make sure that all tools that are out there are available for us to use. And he'll take his knowledge and bring it to us and present it to say, hey, here's something that may be useful to you guys. And we talk through it and if it is, we run with it. If it's not, then he searches for another tool. Just always trying to make sure we have what we need to be successful.
I can speak to how it's impacted my life and changed the way I look at business. Michael caters each of these sessions specifically to the teams and to the individuals. Right. He really cares about each of the people. He's gotten to know me and my family. He's gotten to know all the leaders within my organizations. He does one on one check in calls. He makes sure that he's never out of, out of reach or out of touch. If we have an issue or if we have a concern or something that we're dealing with that we can't solve as a group, you know, he's a phone call away or a zoom call away.
Anybody who's considering working with Michael at, I would say absolutely do it. I love his guarantee. If you're not satisfied with what he brings to the table for the day, you don't have to pay him. And he's serious about that. But with my experience, you'll be very happy with what he brings to the table. Great asset to our business and we consider him a part of our team and we wouldn't be the same without him.
We are the 419th fastest growing company in the United States. We did that with good people being led by a great coach.
You know, as the cfo, I'm trying to make sure every dollar spend is a good investment for us going forward, whatever that may be. And Michael is a no brainer for us. Absolutely. Every time we get together with him. Money well spent, time well spent and we're a better company because of it.
