Community Business learns sustainable business growth comes from intentional realignment with people-first strategies.
MEET THE CLIENT:
Vinnie Camenzuli founded Taddeo Electrical Contractors in 2010. He began with the principles of integrity, learning, and persistence. His business is named in honor of the man who taught him these values – his late father Guida Taddeo Camenzuli. At that point, Camenzuli had two decades of experience in the electrical field. He knew he wanted his business to be more than just a service provider. He wanted to be a responsible and trusted member of the community.
From the beginning, Camenzuli endeavored to put people first – both as a business owner and as a community leader. As his company grew, this goal proved challenging. Camenzuli felt personally responsible for ensuring high-quality service for his clients and a healthy work environment for his employees. Work began to feel like a never-ending hamster wheel, and he knew that something needed to change.
THE CLIENT’S CHALLENGE:
Taddeo Electric soon earned a reputation as a quality, trustworthy contractor. Finances were stable. Camenzuli had also joined the local chapter of Business Network International (BNI). He made a point to use his position as a business leader to help other tradespeople in the community to succeed.
But Taddeo Electric was facing three central challenges:
- An inadequate physical workspace,
- An imbalance in working hours and responsibilities, and
- A plateaued growth trajectory.
An early lesson for the team was that sustainable business growth requires physical boundaries.
Taddeo Electric began with less than a handful of employees who worked out of a home office. Even though the team was small, this situation was stressful on a personal level. As many home-based business owners know, it’s difficult to maintain your personal space when there’s a company HQ in the garage. They needed a separate professional space that would give them room to grow. A separate space would also help Camenzuli place better boundaries around his personal and professional lives.
Renia also helped Taddeo Electric’s leadership understand that energy and time were their greatest assets - and the key metrics they needed to manage them.
Camenzuli and the Taddeo leadership team were putting in 60+ hour work weeks. They could never take time off to rest and enjoy all they had achieved. They needed systems and training that would help employees take on greater responsibility. This would give the leadership team a chance to step back from the day-to-day running of the business to focus on leading the company into the future.
Going from six to seven figures required a shift in strategy and priorities. Leadership must learn to shift from doing the work to developing leaders.
The biggest frustration was with Taddeo’s growth. They had been stuck in the mid-six figures for more than five years. Camenzuli could not see how to make the transition to a seven-figure company. Every time they got close, it felt like the lights went out on their progress. He wanted to be able to do more for his employees, their clients, and the community. But the growth had stalled, and he knew he needed a spark of something to help overcome their stagnate position. The key question he kept asking himself was this:
How do I achieve sustainable business growth when my key partner and I are already stretched so thin?
Camenzuli knew he needed to bring in outside help. He had heard about Strategy Consultant, Renia Carsillo, from another local business owner. He had never considered working with a consultant or a coach before and wasn’t sure what it would entail. He was especially concerned with how someone outside the industry would mesh with his leadership team.
Although Camenzuli knew Carsillo for years, he finally decided to reach out in early 2016. Renia and his key team members immediately hit it off. They had a shared no-nonsense commitment to helping Taddeo and its people succeed. Renia impressed the leadership team in the way she took their disorganized systems and routines and made them make sense. Camenzuli appreciated that she was straightforward and realistic.
Renia helped them see that growth was not just possible, but achievable and sustainable.
Camenzuli says that what surprised him the most about those early stages of working with Realign Consulting (then called Genevieve Digital) is Renia’s insistence on stepping out of the day-to-day hustle to plan. Before the work could begin, the leadership team was required to step away from their work for two whole days for strategic planning–a first for Taddeo Electric.
THE SOLUTION FROM REALIGN CONSULTING:
As a business strategist, Renia knew the power of implementing a full strategy that goes beyond simple marketing to address some of the core systems issues holding back the Taddeo Electric team. For a business to be both profitable and sustainable, the change needed to start with accountability and core processes. Marketing alone wouldn’t solve this team’s stagnation issues.
If Camenzuli wanted to live out the ideals of his father, simply going through the motions of a marketing strategy would not be enough. Camenzuli knew that he also needed to learn what it was to be the impactful, people-driven CEO his company needed.
Creating a Sustainable Brand Strategy Requires a Two-Pronged Approach
To help Taddeo scale to a seven-figure business sustainably, Renia knew they would need a two-fold plan:
- Incorporate a coaching component for the leadership team to create structural accountability and overcome resistance among key players, and
- Create a personalized marketing plan that focuses on customer needs and the capacity of the Taddeo team.
Ultimately, this broader brand strategy would impact every level of the organization, from communications to hiring practices to budgeting. The aim was the make sure the entire company – people and systems – was aligned with the same goals.
It would take time, but this approach would ensure the changes became embedded in the structures of the business. It would give Taddeo the foundation it needed to grow with lasting strength and resilience.
Creating the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Business Growth
HOW WE CO-CREATED TADDEO ELECTRIC’S SUCCESS
First, Renia facilitated a two-day strategic planning consultant intensive with Taddeo’s leadership team. The end goal was to co-create a comprehensive strategic plan. This plan would be unique to the company’s needs and the team’s capacity.
Day One’s focus was on data gathering. The team…
- Reviewed current business structures and routines,
- Took stock of financial, physical, and human resources, and
- Created a clear picture of the business in its current state.
Day Two’s focus was on planning for the future. The team…
- Developed intentions and agreements for the future,
- Defined the core values, mission, and vision of the company,
- Created personas to help them identify the key desires and needs of their target audience, and
- Used the Trinity Principle to determine which three marketing platforms Taddeo would focus on.
These intensive two-day sessions have become an annual event at Taddeo Electric, expanding to include new leadership team roles like sales and field support as the company has expanded. Early on, these sessions often became intense and emotional, but Camenzuli feels the level of hard talks and emotions was a key factor in why they were able to break through previous barriers to create a more engaged team that could handle their growth.
When you hire Renia you often think you’re getting a marketing coach, but what you’re really getting is a partner, a mentor, and counselor all rolled into one.”
Renia and the Taddeo team used this information and resources to create the strategic plan. By involving the entire team in the process, they were able to design a plan that everyone could be committed to and engaged with. This plan would serve as their foundation over the next several years as they not only developed a marketing strategy but also overhauled their business operations to better align with their core values and vision for the company.
Developing a Sustainable Brand Growth Strategy
Once the strategic plan was in place, it was time to develop a sustainable marketing strategy. To develop the specifics of the plan, the Taddeo leadership team were guided by key questions like…
- What digital resources will help Taddeo the most long term? (ex: reworking key pages or a whole site rewrite?)
- Where are there weaknesses in the customer journey that we can strengthen?
- Where does the leadership need training to take ownership over sustainable marketing processes?
- How can we help the sales and marketing team work together toward a common, company-wide goal?
Their work helped to guide their local search strategy (local SEO) and create a more effective customer journey. To start, this meant redesigning their website to make it more customer-focused. It also meant refining their SEO strategy so that Taddeo Electric appeared higher in search results.
These initial efforts brought almost immediate results. Over time, the Taddeo team continued to refine the strategies and techniques to further grow their client base.
Transforming Business Operations to Go from Six- to Seven-Figures
As the leadership team worked to put their marketing strategy in place, they also began regular coaching meetings with Renia. They had four main areas of focus –
- Learn how to communicate more effectively,
- Create boundaries to help people feel safe and be more effective at work,
- Negotiate growth strategies, and
- Put in place sustainable solutions for core processes.
These weekly meetings have been taking place weekly since 2016. Camenzuli credits them with keeping him and the team on track as they continue to work toward their goals. He also says that the team is more confident because everyone knows what their job is. They can trust him to lead the company, and he can trust them to keep things running smoothly even when he’s not there.
The Plan Guides Strategic Decisions for Sustainable Marketing
Key Decision #1 – Incorporating Key Technology
As the team steadily worked on building out their brand strategy, it became clear that they needed something else to help them move forward more efficiently. Because they now had a better idea of what systems worked best for them, they were ready to incorporate job management software. After careful deliberation, they chose a platform that would work well with their newly optimized systems. They were able to dramatically reduce the load on serving clients, scheduling, and marketing.
Key Decision #2 – Being Strategic About Marketing Investments
As Taddeo grew, Camenzuli saw an opportunity to increase profits by expanding Taddeo’s digital marketing presence. But Renia pointed him to the plan and he could see that the timing was not right. They needed time to get systems and infrastructure in place that could handle an increase in sales volume. They needed a larger sales team, as well as more contractors who could complete the projects.
The time the Taddeo team took to streamline processes and get support in place is exactly what they needed to grow to 7-figures. They now have plans to ramp up their marketing over the next several months, knowing the results will be sustainable coming from a stable foundation.
In 2016, the Taddeo team made a commitment to ensure their digital marketing decisions adhered to the company’s strategic plan. As a result, they have achieved sustainable business growth while staying true to the company’s values.
THE BUSINESS RESULTS CREATED:
The Taddeo team has now met every goal they set in the initial strategic plan. During their time of working with Renia, they have…
- Sustainably scaled to a seven-figure business,
- Moved out of the home office space and moved to a 2-bay facility,
- Tripled the team size,
- Built and staffed a fleet team that serves customers in three counties,
- Increased salaries for every position, and
- Increased benefits, including expanding their paid time off program, and scheduled long weekends.
At a 4.9-star Google rating, Taddeo is the highest-rated electrical contractor in the area.
What Sustainable Business Growth Looks Like for Taddeo Electric
The Taddeo Electric team is working less than they were five years ago, yet the company continues to grow. Camenzuli feels like his stress level has been cut in half. He credits the experience with making him a better person both in and out of the office. He says he has learned how to truly partner with others so that everyone succeeds. Working with Renia has helped Camenzuli live out those values instilled in him by his father to make an impact he can be proud of.
THE TAKEAWAY FROM TADDEO’s EXPERIENCE:
Sustainable business growth requires more than a short-term digital marketing gimmick. It first requires a values-driven comprehensive strategic plan. And it requires a people-first focus with an eye on community impact.
The plan must then be used to create both an evidence-based marketing strategy and a deep transformation of business operations. This two-fold plan creates a cohesive business-building engine that will drive business growth for years to come.
Lasting success requires hard work and dedication, which business owners have in spades. Sometimes it also requires some outside help to see the way forward. With the right plan in place, growth is not only achievable but also sustainable.
