What Private Company Index CEOs are Saying

 

"One of the great challenges of small business is forecasting and operationally managing fluctuations in demand and sales. This is why we don’t lock into formal one year goals documents . . . it limits our ability to respond quickly to a changing environment.  Our focus is on our 3 to 5 year planning horizon, and on the next 90 days.  Our focus is learning to deal productively with unforeseen events and create opportunity from obstacles." - Tim Staub, CEO, Elko Products

"[Monthly revenue] fluctuations make us question the near-term plan and the temptation is to adjust everything. We are working on the discipline of sticking to the plan despite the short-term swings. Since we are committed to the long view (3 to 5 year horizon), it makes it easier to overlook these fluctuations and stay on track." - James Mauch, CEO, Tenmast Software

“We’ve experienced tremendous growth every year since 1998—on average about 42% per year.  But, I feel that 2007 will represent our most significant growth year ever. [The] business climate is poised for a dramatic upturn solidifying the last 4-6 solid quarters. I could not be more excited!” - John Ratliff, CEO, Appletree Answering Service

"Watching the PCI for a year, I am pleased and impressed to see other private companies' numbers echoing what we've seen in our market. The sharing of trends in the private company space is a valuable addition to public data in our decision making." - Gregory Keyes, CEO, Affant Communications

"December it typically the largest month of the year. So, coming out of '06 with a focus of 70% target growth for '07 we didn't anticipate starting the first month surpassing that target....but we did. January turned into a tremendous growth month for us and a great start for 2007." - Andy Bailey, Presidient, NationLink Wireless

"While larger competitors in our market worked their way through slow growth across all four quarters, HPTi was able to record 21% revenue growth in 2006.  This was attributed to significant increases in development work for homeland security and counter terrorism customers supporting our national defense.  It is growth like this, and the opportunities attendant to it, that allow us to attract and retain some of our industries finest individuals." - Timothy P. Keenan, CEO, High Performance Technologies, Inc.

“January was a strong month for consumer spending in the health and wellness sector.  The demand for our balance training products is increasing...both via web and catalog.  ...Most interesting is the increasing number of web based orders, over all other order channels. 2007 will be a year of significant change in way we deal with clients. " - Louis Fitter, President, Fitter International

“2006 has been a fantastic year for Headsets.com - so far. We started out the year trying to reign back in our growth a little. I believe that organizations that don’t take the time to build solid financial foundation get into hot water when high growth rates are sustained over multiple years...Although it’s been harder than we imagined to slow things down, it’s had the desired effect, and now we are gearing up for a strong Q1 and are running 'full steam ahead' for 2007. We expect month over month increases for at least the next 8 to 10 months.” - Mike Faith, CEO, Headsets.com

“Kudos to the Entrex process…[it] has been valuable. As a result of expecting funding, we set out to increase sales using the additional working capital... With a business plan in hand, and several Entrex related reports...we were able to double our existing line of credit with its current bank. The end of result…is that we increased revenue by 17% in 2007and now anticipate an increase of 50% for fiscal year 2008.” - Patrick Whittaker, CEO Reset Electronics Inc.     

"Although our overall sales are flat year-over-year, our sales related to Microsoft business solutions are growing at over 40%. In June we reorganized to take advantage of the surging market opportunity for Microsoft Dynamics and related financial management solutions, and the results are already showing. Our forecast for the coming twelve months is for overall sales growth approaching 30%."- Michael Mahoney, Founder & CEO Brittenford Systems