The Mag
Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast CEO with CMIT Solutions. Mr. Roger Lewis. Good morning, sir.
Roger Lewis
Good morning. Thank you for having me today.
The Mag
Well, we're excited to learn about CMIT solutions, Roger, so why don't you tell us a little bit about it.
Roger Lewis
Sure. CMIT Solutions, a leading provider of information technologies. We are MSP focused on the small and medium business space, which is kind of that, let's say 5 to 500 employees. And we have more than 200 locations throughout the United States.
The Mag
And then was CMIT built originally as something that was going to be franchised or did it start out as kind of somebody out there goes, Hey, I'm good at it. I can help somebody.
Roger Lewis
Ah, well, it's a very great question. Back in 1997. person by the name of George Brown actually started a company called Computer Mom. And it was a residential service, computer IT company and really just servicing residential break-fix needs. Over time, sometime around 2002, she realized that no, residential was a very tough environment to be in. And she started focusing on small and medium businesses that started taking off, and she started to open a franchise.
And around 2007 is when they really started to make inroads into franchises and locations. Bringing on in 2007, I think they were about 94 locations, franchises. And then since then, we've grown every year to more than 225, I guess, to 225. Plus, since I last checked locations across the US. So, this all started back from computer moms into what we are today.
The Mag
So, the CM was originally Computer Mom?
Roger Lewis
The original founder was who is the founder of Computer Mom's the CM no longer stands for computer.
The Mag
Right? Obviously.
Roger Lewis
That's where it came from.
The Mag
Wow, that's an amazing story. So, and I guess in the 90s, residential computing issues were pretty out there. We’re paying for a lot of people, you know, they wanted computers, but they didn't know how to deal with them.
Roger Lewis
Yeah, you want to go back then any viruses and viruses getting on machines, and you had a lot of break-fix, you know, where your hard drives, you know, getting the steam to stop working or needing replacement. So, she focused on the residential market. And that was kind of a reach then. But like I said, around 2002, she realized there was even a bigger segment and opportunity for small-medium businesses.
The Mag
Right, but I could see how that's a natural evolution. That's a great story. Yep. Now is the person who buys the franchises the ideal franchisee. Are they somebody that is a techie person, or is this somebody that just has to manage technical people?
Roger Lewis
You know, it's interesting you say that that's another great question because many people who are reached out to us initially believe that they have to have an IT background in order to be successful as a franchise owner. And that's just not the case. When I look across, again, our franchisees, some of them came from marketing backgrounds. Some of them came from sales backgrounds. Some of them came from service delivery, some of them were operational oriented.
And so, we have a wide spectrum of franchise owners. You have to remember that we provide a lot of training so we'll train up people on sales will train them up on marketing and our marketing playbooks and delivery service. And then we have wonderful support from our alliance partners, who will also help, you know, onboard people and help them through rolling out equipment. So, background and it is not necessary in order to launch a franchise.
The Mag
Now are the services that you offer to the potential franchisee or that is it kind of a turnkey, where you're doing most of the, you know, not most but a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of technology solutions for their clients. And they're just kind of selling it or they have to do some of the work behind the scenes.
Roger Lewis
Now it's a turnkey, where we come in and essentially as it were their outsource it, providers, in most cases, in some cases, we do work with their IT department too. But in general, we're coming in and providing the backup and recovery, we're doing the computer monitoring, we'll provide the Help Desk support. And nowadays, cybersecurity is really hot. I mean, you can hardly go a week without hearing another company that was attacked and had their files locked down and corrupted. And so, we provide sim and sock solutions, again, to help prevent the cybersecurity threat. So, it's, you know, we can provide an end-to-end solution. Or we can work with your IT department, if you have an IDT department to find, you know, to kind of solve a piece of the pie.
The Mag
But in the person, that's in, you know, that franchisee and local market, they know that they can kind of offer lots of solutions and solve lots of problems for that person that's in their market, because they know that your folks at corporate are going to be, you know, in the cloud playing with all this stuff, and texting and keeping it protected.
Roger Lewis
Exactly. And again, we have some great Alliance partners we work with, like Datto, and connect wise and Microsoft and Dell. And all these are partners that we know we bring solutions to the table that are again, are really enterprise-class solutions. But we provide them at like we like to say a small-medium price point for their infrastructure. And so yes, the home office, we have sales engineers, that will usually kind of help guide the sales process. And then we have a service delivery director, who again can help the franchisees learn how to implement along with following our playbooks and working with our partners.
The Mag
Now, how much training is there to get that person that maybe isn't a techie person to be confident to have those conversations with somebody that's in their prospects? You know, IT department, or the person that knows the most? And in that situation? Like, how do you help them kind of get over that mental hump of, Okay, I can do this, you know, I don't know any of these words, I don't know how everything connects together, but I know I got a great team behind me that's going to be able to really help them and serve my client?
Roger Lewis
Right? So great question. So, before we launch a new franchisee, we go through two weeks of training. And in that training, we do actually role-playing where they go on a sales call like you know, and they would we put them in front of, you know, make-believe clients or prospects. And so, we have them pitch, you know, quite frequently throughout those two weeks. So, they kind of learn what to say, a lot of this is about building relationships, we try to build relationships where we become the trusted adviser of that small or medium-sized business.
And so, there are two weeks of initial launch training. And then for the first two years, they have a coach that meets with them every week, again, who helps guide them on what they should be doing. And then again, when they landed an opportunity, we have sales engineer supports, who again, can show up on-site if necessary, or remotely zoom in to help to do support calls. And then we have great like I mentioned our alliance partners Barracuda for firewalls. They'll actually roll out and set up the firewall for the franchisee you know why they're getting up to speed which is called a managed firewall solution. And so, there's a lot of hand-holding, but I would say usually after the first three to six months, our franchisees are really up and going and know this solution and know the playbooks and an off going.
The Mag
Now, what's the from the franchisee standpoint when they're going to market and they're selling their services? Is it being you providing a bunch of inbound leads for them and they're just following up on it or do they have to kind of immerse themselves in the community and kind of go out and go to those maybe specific industries where they're where your prospects are heading? Yeah, to just become that trusted advisor in that resource.
Roger Lewis
It's a combination of both. So, home office, we have these marketing playbooks that we execute, they see exactly the lead gen of things we're executing on. For instance, we're doing a national Lunch and Learn program, right? Where we'll invite prospects out to have lunch with us and educate them on cybersecurity, or whatever topic of the city is. And, and so we'll do lead generation from a home office. At the same time. The expectation of the franchisee is we hand them a marketing success wheel. And we tell them roughly about percentage from a percentage of revenue.
And at lunchtime, about exactly dollars amount about how much they should be spending in my outbound marketing, like maybe, you know, telemarketing, to the businesses in their area, and how much they should be spending on a digital or digital advertisement. So, it's a combination of the franchisee, you know, is doing a lot of networking in their own area, NGOs, and doing following our success wheel. And then the home office is doing lead generation through the playbook.
The Mag
And then so that's giving them a pipeline full of people to contact and to communicate with to, I'm sure at first, your first play is to educate, right? Is that part of the selling process, I would imagine is to educate the person on Hey, there's cybersecurity risks, and here are some tips and tricks to help you take care of it. And if you need us, then we're available is that your, the way you go to market?
Roger Lewis
Yeah, well, there's actually a whole sales process that we actually take them through, which is very consultative solution selling in nature. So again, they'll do a lot of role-playing at the home office before they ever launched. So, they're educated on the products, they actually get to touch and feel like the backup and recovery data devices. You know, so they can see and the actual types of products they'll be proposing to the businesses in their area. So, there's this product education, so they understand what they're selling. And then there's, again, there's a whole solution selling process and model we follow that we found effective.
Again, at the end of the day, the small businesses there, you know, people buy from people, so important to understand relationships. In most cases, we have our franchisees are focused on the customer's needs. And remember our customers, they have dreams about growing their businesses. And really, IT is just one aspect about how to help them support and grow their business. And that's how we approached the market in a lot of times, that is what separates us, you know, we're not going in just to do a break, fix and a vendor who's in and out, we're really there to help support that business helped them grow to meet their objectives.
The Mag
And then I see on your website that you serve a bunch of niches inside of a market like there's healthcare, there's accounting, there are professional services, how do you help the person that the franchisee kind of immerse themselves in each of those individual groups?
Roger Lewis
What we've found is, again, across our locations, there are certain areas of the country that have a tendency towards a specific industry. For instance, in the northeast, it's very, very heavy on finances. And so, we do a lot of financial industry marketing campaigns. And they'll have a lot of financial customers just because, you know, you have a lot of just financial small businesses and the New York in the northeast area. And there are certain regions of the country where we'll see healthcare and medical. And so, we run is like we call these industry campaigns.
And we certainly have certain franchises that really specialize in specific verticals. And then we have others depending on where they are like here in Austin. Most of the franchisees are across verticals, those service lawyers, and medical and technology companies and so they're servicing all verticals.
The Mag
So, you mentioned it doesn't take very long for a franchisee to get up and running and feel confident and really serve the market. Do you have any success stories you can share of somebody that maybe started out with one and then is expanded and is you know, kind of an Empire Builder in the CMIT Solutions world?
Roger Lewis
Oh, sure. We have Larry Kerrigan out of Boston started out with just one and you know, I don't think he would appreciate me who brings his financials, but he's certainly grown one of our fastest growers. Its tremendous success story regards to year over year growth is probably growing at 25% a year, year over year growth in the industry and clients that he's brought on. Ian Miller on the West Coast another he's a very region reason franchise owner under two years, you know, could be hitting us, you know, what we call like, the seven-digit club very shortly.
And so, there's, there are quite a few franchisees again, it's no, once you train, if you're kind of all in the process, and if you embrace the process, and the playbooks, you really do maximize your chances of success. And that's really the key to franchising and whether it's CMIT solutions, or I think any franchising is having great processes in place, great training in place, and great partnerships. And then having the franchisees individuals who are kind of all in on growing their business, and willing to embrace those processes that have established, instead of bringing preconceived ideas, we like to say if someone's really good, coachable, they make a great candidate.
The Mag
And then for you, what's the most rewarding part of the job as the CEO?
Roger Lewis
Oh, I still am. You know, I, myself have been a serial entrepreneur, I've done two startups and to exit successfully. And so, for me, this is a way a little bit of giving back in working with these franchisees really helping them educate them on how to build your business and grow to be a successful company. And so being able to provide some of that, like sales and marketing, that a lot of the franchisee’s kind of the first walk into, that's kind of their number one job, when they first launch right is getting that first client, I find that very, very rewarding, working with the franchisees and mentor him.
And then the other thing that's really rewarding is, is solving the business needs of the small business. Again, every small business we work with has dreams and aspirations of growing their business, right. And so, when your part of helping them accomplish their dreams, that brings great satisfaction, both to the franchisee, and to me personally.
The Mag
And then you mentioned that you don't want to be kind of this commodity vendor in terms of dead, it's broken. So, we fix it, and thank you, bye, you want to develop a relationship so that you can become a resource and maybe proactively help them rather than reactively help them? How do you kind of thread that needle? Because I mean, I guess it's a matter of choosing the right franchisees that really buy into the culture because that to me is a culture choice, not necessarily a solution choice that that's you're choosing to behave that way.
Roger Lewis
Oh, I agree. And look, one of the things I walked into is CEO CMIT Solutions was an outstanding culture I've worked with many companies before. And I'd say CMIT is one of their differentiators is their culture, they have a passion to serve a passion to help each other, we have these mastermind groups where the franchisees, like maybe a dozen they of similar sizes will work together, they'll do business reviews help each other review about how much they should be spending on different aspects, and they'll lend text to each other.
And so, there's the whole culture and community that was established here. And a lot of that, I think, has to do with, you know, some of the core beliefs that they were founded upon the company, right. So, I think that helped them a lot of regards to having these core beliefs, which are, you know, they want franchisees that have character integrity that is passionate, that believe in professional and personal growth. And it, you know, this has to be fun for you, at the end of the day, you know, you're starting a business, you're building something, you're gonna work hard for it, you want to have fun. And so those core beliefs that they're established, led to a great culture, which then builds a great community.
And I think that community then carries over how they work with their clients. You know, our goal is not to be seen as a vendor, but again, as the strategic advisor and that, that all happens because the customer knows that, hey, we have character and integrity that we are looking out for them, that we're not going to recommend a solution that less is that something they need. And over time you build that relationship and almost come like that. I'd say like their virtual CTO.
The Mag
right, I would imagine that that's what you're shooting for some at that level of trust where they count on you. And that you're, you're kind of watching their back, not just fixing something that's broken. Exactly. And when you're identifying that franchisee, and they kind of buy into that bigger, why it's probably, I would think that that's an eye-opening thing. And maybe they didn't realize that's what they were getting when they partner, they choose CMIT solutions, that they are getting something that there is a bigger why and that your work is important, and that it's going to have an impact on this small business like you said because you're keeping them going, you're protecting them from danger, and you're helping them grow. So, the impact that they're making is really like it's, you know, the person that's running the business at the CMIT Solutions franchisees working on that could be keeping them going, where they could be, you know, if they weren't working with you, they could be out of business if they get some cybersecurity issue or a hack or something.
Roger Lewis
Exactly, and it looks, and we get great satisfaction to buy that. Both from, like you said, helping people grow to advise them, educating them on the ransomware threats that are out there. Not many people are aware that you know, you know, 10 years ago, they were going after all the fortune 500 companies. Now, all these ransomware attackers are not gonna say all but the majority, I think I read this, the stat recently said 79% are focused on the small and medium businesses.
Right in so, they've, they've found a new marketplace to go after. And again, as we become trusted advisors with our clients, they understand the importance of that, and we educate them on you know, hey, these are the vulnerabilities that we want to remove from your system or from your network and help you put you in a situation where that just doesn't happen to you. Oh, good stuff, or it does happen. We can restore it, you know, really quickly. So, you're, you're not held ransom.
The Mag
Right. And that's the thing, the Quick Response and to be able to say, hey, look, we've got a backup here, it's just gonna take a few hours, and we can get you up and running again. If they are not working with your firm or professional firm, they could literally be out of business. I mean, it's that people don't realize how dire these things are.
Roger Lewis
Oh, yeah, it can be out for if not out of business certainly set back quite a bit and look, their stories you read about it seems like every couple of months where a firm didn't, they thought they were doing backups but weren't. And again, they get their files corrupted and their email corrupted. Right? So, all that gets encrypted. And you know, nowadays, they, you know, ask for some sort of internet currency like Bitcoin, something that's untraceable. And so, if you're a business you could be down from for weeks, if not months if you don't have a reputable provider, again, we like to provide enterprise-grade solutions.
And so, you know, that's a key part of today's You know, IT Technology Services is a lot of its education about what's out there. I saw one Gallup poll it said from the small businesses, their number one concern is IT security and that's a good thing because the threats out there are real. And they're very sophisticated nowadays, very, very sophisticated. In the days where you could identify a bad email not to click on a rover nowadays, you're getting emails that look like different PayPal or look like they're from the real organization. And so, education is a big part of our process.
The Mag
Yeah, and these are, I mean, real threats. And it's, it's not that 14-year-old in the basement with Red Bull. Like there's organizations that this is their day job is to.
Roger Lewis
Absolutely, absolutely. I can't remember where I read it. But I was reading recently that ransomware is a now bigger industry than the drug industry. Yeah, right. So, it's a huge amount of dollars that are flowing here.
The Mag
Well, good stuff. Roger, thank you so much for sharing your story. If somebody wanted to learn more about the CMIT solutions, what's the website?
Roger Lewis
Oh, so they're there two actually go to. If you're, again, a small business LOOKING FOR IT services, you would just go to cmitsolutions.com and then if you're looking interested in starting a franchise, you'd go cmitfranchise.com. So those are the two websites one if you're interested in becoming a business owner, please reach out to us. We're always looking for great It is and if you're certainly a small business and need and looking for, again, a proven IT company with a great culture, great reputation. We'd love to have you as a client.
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