3 lessons learned from making the Inc. 500

Summary

PT Biz hit number 447 on the Inc. 500 with 1394% growth, and we just applied again for this year. the application is no joke. CPA verification, audited returns, a real fee, minimum revenue thresholds. it’s legit. here are the three biggest things that got us there.

1. lesson one, good business partners. I run multiple companies and PT Biz is the only one with partners. I assumed I’d hate partners because I’m independent and decisive. Danny Matta and Yves Gege are different. same values, families align, ethics align, all of us had already built our own successful companies before we built one together. that’s the key. don’t grab a friend and start a business. partner with proven operators whose interests genuinely align. when it works, you go way faster than you ever would alone.

2. partnerships can also wreck people. you don’t need one to succeed. but if you find the right A players, the speed alone justifies the equity trade. we lucked out, but we also developed those relationships for years before we did anything together.

3. lesson two, data beats feelings. every decision in our business is database. know what it costs to acquire a customer. know your profit margins. know your conversion rate from lead to customer, your retention, your average revenue per user. if you’re not at scale yet, at least know revenue and profit and lead volume. then start chipping away. running on gut at any size past zero is how businesses stall and die.

4. lesson three is the biggest. have a damn good product or service and never stop making it better. all the partnerships and dashboards in the world won’t save you if the thing doesn’t work for the customer. it has to deliver on what you promised, then over deliver.

5. you won’t get it right on the first try. that’s fine. iterate. ask for feedback in writing through surveys, on calls, in DMs. don’t tell yourself the product is good. ask the people paying for it. their answers will tell you what to fix, what to amplify, and where you’re being delusional. better product is the ultimate marketing hack, the ultimate referral hack, the only sustainable retention play. try harder.

Transcript

what the inc. 5000 actually is

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. Hey, Jerred Moon here and welcome to the Better Human Business podcast. I want to go over a kind of like a retroactive look real quick at the Inc 5000. So if you don’t know what that is, I’ll explain what it is.

Because why this is top of mind for me right now is I just finished applying and doing all the revenue verification stuff that you have to do to be able to make on this list. We’re applying again this year to see if we’re still in the running. So that’ll be announced in a few months. But ultimately, what is the Inc 5000, Inc 500?

And what were my lessons learned in actually making that list? So the Inc 5000 is a list of the fastest growing companies, privately held companies in America. So they can’t be investor backed or publicly traded on the stock market, those kind of things. So it’s a fastest growing, and this is by percentage wise, fastest growing companies in America.

And so the Inc 5000 is like a ton of companies throughout the United States apply. And then they narrow that down to a 5000 list. And then you might ask, okay, so what’s the 500? 500 is just the top 500. And with the top 500, you get a little bit more recognition, you get put in the Inc 500 magazine, and you’re highlighted a little bit more.

Our company Physical Therapy Biz was number 447 on that list, with 1394% growth. And like I said, we applied this year, I think we’ll hit it again. What number we crack out to be or whatever, I’ll definitely come on the podcast and let you know, but they don’t typically announce that till late summer, later in the year.

So a little bit more about like what it is and like kind of what the stipulations are, and is it legit? Is it like a legit listing? So here are the eligibility criteria for this year. And so number one, the company you have has to have generated revenue by March 31st, 2019. Okay, so by March 31st, 2019, your company must have generated revenue.

The second stipulation is you must have generated at least $100,000 in revenue in 2019. Since it’s a percentage growth factor, they have this $100,000 in revenue stipulation, because they don’t want you to come in and make $1 in 2019. And then in 2022, make $100,000. And then you win first place, right?

good business partners

So they have a minimum threshold of how much you had to make to kind of control for that percentage thing. So you had to have generated at least $100,000 in revenue in 2019, and have generated revenue in general by March 31st, 2019. And then the third stipulation is last year, 2022, you would have had to have generated at least $2 million in revenue in the full fiscal year of 2022.

And the fourth is be privately held for profit based in the US and independent. So not a subsidiary or division of any other company. And the only reason I’m telling you all this is so you know what it takes to make the list. It’s no small feat. And having gone through the verification process twice, once last year we got it, this year we’ve applied.

And like I said, I just finished all the documentation. If you have any numbers that are turning heads or anything like that, you have to get your CPA involved. And there’s like an audit process. They have to see your tax return and your books. I’m actually pretty impressed with it, because there is an application fee.

When I first did this last year, I thought it was going to be more of just kind of like a marketing thing, an income thing for them. And they definitely produce money and like highlighting companies and taking application fees. But they’re pretty serious about the eligibility criteria, making sure that you’re legit.

And everyone on the list is a legit company. So it is legit. And we made it last year, like I said, number 447. And I’m hoping to make it again this year. But what are my three big lessons learned from making not just the Inc. 5000, but the Inc. 500 last year? And number one, and these are in no particular order.

These are just the top three things that I thought of. Number one is having good business partners. So I’ve run many other companies as a sole owner, the CEO. And I still run those companies. And, you know, just me. And then hired employees, all that kind of stuff. I’ve never, this is, PT Biz is the only company I’ve ever done where we’ve had, I’ve had partners.

I didn’t think that I would ever like having partners, to be honest. I’m very independent. I don’t, I like to make the decisions, so on and so forth. But I don’t want to say business partners are the secret. It’s good business partners. So my business partners, Danny Matei and Eve Gigi are great dudes.

We have the same values. Our families align, like, just really good people. And our ethics align. And we are, you know, we have, we had already worked through a lot of the entrepreneurial troubles that every entrepreneur is going to encounter. So when I say, hey, if you want to go, if you want to take any lessons learned from what I’m saying, I’m not saying, hey, you’re not going to succeed alone.

data beats feelings

Go, go find a business partner. That’s not what I’m saying. Because we all had successful businesses in our own right, doing other things. And we came together and made this new successful business, this new venture together. And so having experienced business partners that align with you ethically, morally, you know, in the business, what you guys are looking to do, the impact you’re looking to have, which I think that is very hard to do.

I think that we honestly lucked out in that regard. We developed relationships for a very long time. And we were able to, you know, have this amazing partnership. So I think partnerships can be a horrible thing for a lot of people if you don’t have a significant relationship before getting started.

And when I say significant relationship, we weren’t all like best friends. And we decided to, you know, form a company. We’re all business owners. And we had aligned interests, really just on the business side. Then we develop friendships after the fact. And so I think it’s way better to go that direction as opposed to just picking up some friends and trying to start a business.

And the reason why it’s become a superpower is because I think any one of us individually of the three partners could easily go be successful in a business. And we all have proven that we can do that on our own. But, you know, when we get together, we’re able to move faster. So I think that’s the real speed.

Because we can say, hey, you’re in charge of this, you’re in charge of that, and you’re in charge of the other thing. And we can all run. We can trust each other to do the best of our ability. None of us are going to slack. And we’re just going to move forward and press hard. So I think that a business partnership is not required for business growth.

But I think that it does move you fast. And it gets you to some, you know, unprecedented numbers and growth that you otherwise probably would not achieve. So I think that business partners are a huge one. And that’s why I listed it there. If you think that you can make that work, definitely go for it.

But I’ve seen a lot of partnerships fail. So that’s why I’m just kind of reiterating this over and over again. You do not have to have a business partner. You can have a successful business on your own. But if you want to move fast, and you have some just like absolute A players that you want to partner with, it could be a good idea for some really quick growth.

You have to be willing to give up some equity, some, you know, some of the business, whatever, if you really want to operate as part of the team and move fast. The second thing I wrote down was data is greater than feelings. I just love that quote, because everything that we’re doing in the business is database.

amazing product is the marketing

So we don’t, every decision, if I ever get asked anything, basically to make a decision in this company, I’m always going back to looking at data. And if you listen to this podcast, or you just know me, you know that’s just how I operate. And that’s really, we’ve been very data centric. So this is on the back end.

Even on the front end with our customers, we collect a ton of data from them. But that’s more to make their own experience better. And I’ll get into that in a second. But just know your data, know what it costs to acquire customers, know what it costs to fulfill on your on your product or service. Know your profit margins, just know all the data and look at those things.

Because the only way you can really scale is if you know, know what everything costs. If you know how to acquire a customer, and it costs a certain amount of money. Okay, how profitable can we do this? How repeatable is it? So definitely know your numbers to the best of your ability. And if you’re not playing the game at that level yet, you’re not looking to scale, just do know your numbers at a basic, know your revenue, know your profit.

You know, you know how many leads are coming in on a monthly basis, how many customers requiring on a monthly basis, and then try to chip away making those things better. We go way more in the weeds than that. But if you just want to know some different some like basics, hey, how many leads do we have coming in?

How many of those leads are becoming customers? So we have a percent there now of leads to customer. And then you can look around how long do customers stick around? Do I have a method for them to stick around? How much revenue total revenue did I generate, which is ultimately useless without profit.

So you have to make sure that there’s the profit number know all of those things. And that is the data that you will need to know and not ever like, I feel like things are all right, or there’s enough money in this account. That’s not how you want to run a business. There’s no way you’d survive at the next level if you do not get those things under control.

And the third and last thing is have a damn good product or service and never stop making it better. And, you know, I work a lot on the back end, but I’ve also worked a lot on the front end and develop stuff for customers. But I mean, you just have to have a product or service that works that gets a change for the person that you’re working with that helps them move in the right direction.

And it just it has to do that. Like it has to do what’s promised and it has to over deliver. It has to be amazing. And you probably won’t get it right your first try. And it’s going to continually need to be reiterated, rebuilt, broken down, pushed to the limits and just find out how can I give my customers, my clients everything that they would need to be successful?

ask for feedback constantly

And I still maintain a profitable business. Like, how can I do that? How can I make that offer? How can I help them to the best of my ability? And really, this is our focus above all else. The business partner thing, yeah, we have the good partnership and good relationship there. We look at a lot of data on the back end, but we’ve always driven with having an amazing product or service that gets results.

That is the ultimate thing. It’s your ultimate marketing hack. It’s your ultimate referral hack. It’s how you get word of mouth. It’s how you grow. It’s how you keep people around. Sometimes people and entrepreneurs like to focus too much on lead acquisition, marketing, Facebook ads, like all these other things that you could be doing.

And all those things are important, but they are not important at all if your product or service is lacking or sucks or does not get the result the person had the expectation of when they entered in. So always and forever, this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my entrepreneurial life. And I recommend that you do the same.

Focus on making your product the best it can possibly be. Get the results that you want. Get the results that your client wants and go above and beyond their expectations. I can’t hit on that enough. And I’ve talked about it in a lot of marketing podcasts and marketing acquisition, customer acquisition, things like, yes, we can talk about the math.

We can talk about copy. We can talk about ads. We can talk about all the data that you need to know, but it will not matter if your product or service sucks. And not just does it need to be good enough. It needs to be amazing. And you need to continually get feedback from your customers to make sure not just, you know, going back to the data is greater than feelings.

Not just, yeah, I think it’s pretty good. Ask them, pull them, send them surveys, send them emails, check in on them. How are we doing? Could we do better? Ask for the feedback. It will go a long way. So those are my three biggest takeaways for making the Inc. 500 last year, and hopefully we make it again this year.

I’ll definitely let you guys know. And if I have different lessons learned between now and then, I’m going to definitely do another podcast. Thanks for listening. Remember, try harder.