The Big Idea with Ron Davis
March, 2009

Taking a Leap of Faith

McEvilly’s company has a little less than $1.5 million in sales and probably not much more than a couple of hundred accounts, but when I asked him how he could possibly think of acquiring a company almost 10 times his size, his answer sparked this month’s great idea.

“Simply, we made up our minds and came to the decision to go into a growth mode for our company,” McEvilly says. “We’ve been around long enough and have had enough experience to handle large volumes of accounts as a result of my previous management assignments at other companies.”

I’ve been working with McEvilly in structuring a transaction for him to acquire one of the real quality businesses in our part of the country. I’ve gotten to know him and, frankly, I’m impressed. He seems to have the necessary dedication. He has learned the skills required to run a business and, although relatively small, it has shown real potential.

In addition to his management skills, he has one other quality that seems to stand out above all. It was obvious that to acquire a company 10 times his size, he was going to have to secure a line of credit, some capital and probably put up much of his own cash.

Get Back Up if You Fall

When I asked him what might happen if the company didn’t make it — especially with the economy now and the problems inherited in building a company and finding the people needed for the job — his response was the one that absolutely convinced me he was going to be successful.

“First, I would do everything in my power to make sure that [failing] did not happen, and, frankly, I don’t see it happening. But if for some reason it did, I would pick myself up, get back in the industry somewhere and do it all over again,” he says. “I have a passion for it. It’s something I’ve been doing since I was a young kid, 20 years ago.”

I almost knew that’s what McEvilly was going to say, and that’s all you really need. That’s really the essence of this month’s great idea: Don’t quit!

Make note of the wise words from American industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller: “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.”

When things go bad, when times are rough, that’s when real winners shine. And they do one thing that people who are not winners don’t do: They don’t quit!

Ron Davis is Security Sales & Integration‘s “What’s the Big Idea?” columnist and contributing market analyst. He is president of Davis Group, a full-service consulting firm serving the security industry, which also includes GraybeardsRus. He has 35 years of industry experience, including founding Security Associates Int’l in the 1980s.