The Challenge
Washington Archives Management grew out of a moving and storage business launched in the early 1980's. The two brothers who owned the businesses wanted to consolidate resources, sell the moving business and focus on the more profitable archives management business. The goal was to build the business up by 30%- 50% and eventually sell to a competitor.
The Solution
Identify potential buyers and engage a business broker to sell the moving business. Build up the archives management business through strategic business planning and the development of sales, customer and marketing strategies. Plan for the eventual acquisition of the archives business by developing effective exit strategies.
Solutions and deliverables included: repositioning archives management business from boxes to information by redefining core business, developing new industry based service offerings, creating value propositions and rebranding the company. Preparing organization for growth by conducting financial analysis and developing budgets, cash flows and forecasting to support the new business model, identifying organizational gaps and reorganizing staff by function, refining management roles and developing formal communication methods. Build and execute comprehensive business plan to support 3-5 year growth goals including growth through acquisitions. Conducted market and competitive analysis/research, identified target markets and customers, created service matrix and new pricing models, developed and implemented sales and marketing strategies, trained field sales group, identified strategic partners for complementary service offerings. Developed exit strategy scenarios.
The Result
Washington Archives successfully sold the moving business for a profit. Within the first year of implementing the business plan archive service revenue grew by 10%. Customer acquisition grew steadily over the next three years. Revenue increased and customer retention improved significantly due to increase in cross selling and up selling opportunities (new services). To support the rapid growth Washington Archives Management opened two new storage facilities over the next five years. The firm was successfully acquired in 2012 by Access Information Management.