2024 in Review - Cheers to 30 Years!

As 2024 winds down, I first want to take a moment to say “thank you” to all of TriCom's constituents. We are filled with gratitude for the trust bestowed upon us by both our talented consultants and corporate clients alike. Thank you! We genuinely appreciate each of you and wish you all a safe and happy holiday season as we enter 2025.

Hiring is hard. Deciding on where and who to work with is also hard. For most of us, a vast portion of our lives is spent working in a profession that affords us the personal lives we want to lead. At TriCom, we don’t take that lightly. Connecting IT professionals with corporations can be quite messy. It can be maddening. It can be humorous. And it can be everything in between, all at once (I have always said a staffing firm would make for a great sitcom).

2024 was no different - maddening, humorous, busy, slow, and everything in between. As I mentioned in last year’s review, the staffing market experienced a significant slowdown late in 2022. It continued throughout all of 2023 – and unfortunately, bled into a significant part of this year as well. As we celebrated our 30th anniversary in May, the way we typically do in our north parking lot with food and libations, the mood was fun but subdued.

We all take great pride in doing what we do at TriCom. It's a lot of fun and can be lucrative when times are good. It takes a different breed of people to hold firm in the midst of a storm, especially a LONG storm that lasts almost two solid years which was longer than both the dot-com bubble and the financial recession. There were a lot of long faces from both my team and the tech talent we try and place. It's been a slog. There's been a lot of sacrifice.

The great news is that in August, it turned. Finally! Our job order base from our client organizations increased 40%. It has ebbed and flowed slightly but, for the most part held steady at that increased level throughout 2024. Thank goodness! At a macro level and just this week, Staffing Industry Analysts confirmed this uptick (which has, in turn, helped immensely with my sleeping habits)

I read once that the funny thing about being an entrepreneur is that you really only experience just two emotions during your time; euphoria and terror. And the lack of sleep enhances them both. Amen to that.

So for me, the many highlights of '24 seem to pale in comparison to finally being able to help IT individuals in desperate need of work. Seeing my team finally win at the level that affords them the lives they want to lead has been awesome too.

Yes we had a 30-year anniversary, which is a big deal. Yes, we changed a lot about how we market our business, including our new logo and value props. Yes, we added new business lines including nearshoring and were able to secure new clients. Yes, we continued to give back to the communities we serve thru i.c.stars |* Kansas City and others. But mostly, it's just good to be able to make recruiting connections that build better IT teams. And to see how those crucial talent connections help transform a good business into a great one.

Onward and upward TriCom-ers! Thank you Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and many places far and wide. Let's all thrive in '25! And sleep better too!