Savantis Group, Inc.
“Our SBDC Business Advisor is the best. He not only showed us how to properly project the numbers, but he also helped us to understand what is behind the numbers and so we can make better decisions.”
When Deniz Mater came to the SBDC in late 2006, she and her husband, Roel Deuss, were managing a one year old company, SAP Headhunter, Inc., from their home office. The company provides IT services to customers of SAP, a German company that is one of the leaders in Enterprise Resource Planning software. Deniz and Roel are providing consultants to these customers and conducting job searches for them. They also engage in a number of in-house projects for their clients. They were receiving a reasonable amount of revenue but the SAP market presented them an excellent opportunity for growth.
Challenges
They had already decided to hire a salesman and aggressively attack the market, however they first needed to get a handle on their cash flows and capital needs for this expansion.
Gameplan
They were referred to the SF SBDC’s financial management consultant, Tom Camerato. He helped them construct a five year financial model that called for an aggressive sales growth of 40% per year. At the same time, our marketing team helped them prepare their sales and marketing plan. Consultant Jerry Ervin advised them that a name change and identity makeover were needed.Malana Moberg assisted them with their marketing strategy and our internet marketing consultant, JP Collins assisted them develop a site plan for their first website. Malana had the job of convincing them, not only that a name change was necessary, but that the identity makeover could be accomplished without an interruption in their planned growth. Director Al Dixon advised them on the bank loan process and also brought in consultant Bob Lane to help them pursue the government market. They’ve even received trade show counseling, as our consultant Khatchig Jingarian has prepared them to attend their first trade show in early 2008.
Results
The new name chosen was Savantis Group, Inc. The branding would allow them to incorporate Savantis Staffing as a separate but connected line of business to their project based business. They obtained $250,000 in loans from Wells Fargo Bank to finance their growth, hired a sales staff and launched their website. The results were phenomenal. Their sales in 2007 have quintupled the results from 2006, far exceeding their target of 40% growth.
