The Origin Story - TTP Solutions
In honor of TTP Solutions LLC transitioning into their 15th year of service, I spoke with Founder and President, Doug Erwin, to dive deeper into the company's origin and discover his tips for small businesses during these unprecedented times.
How did TTP Solutions get started?
When I came out of the corporate rat race in October of 2002, I didn't want to go back to a corporate environment. I was tired of the corporate atmosphere and wanted to do my own thing. I was then invited to be a partner with a small, three-man consulting company. After three years we decided to dissolve the partnership and pursue our differing career directions independently. So, on October 25th of 2005, I formed TTP Solutions as an LLC to focus on enterprise business process solutions and workflow automation.
I had developed a web application for B2B collaboration in EDI and non-EDI messaging. I named it The Trading Portal and built the site under the URL of TheTradingPortal.com. I named the new company TTP Solutions because I wanted to build workflow solutions and business applications that would drive traffic to the new web site, TheTradingPortal.com - hence TTP Solutions LLC. So, it was October 25th when I actually started the company.
I focused on nothing but building the workflow business and got that off to a good start. That's what yielded what we are today. It's now been 15 years and we have gone through a lot of changes... we've grown and done a lot of different things for different customers around the world. One thing they all have in common though is that all of these are focused on business process and workflow applications. Though we can't disclose our customer list, it has a lot of big names in it and I can say that the contextual topics include healthcare, high tech manufacturing, contract management, supply chain management, manufacturing quality, sports networks and entertainment. It's been fun and exciting over the years making new friends in different companies and learning about new topics all the time.
What Inspired you to start your own business?
When I first left GE, it was pure necessity! I had a house payment, two little boys, and no job! After the first three years in the partnership, it was focus. Serena was a thriving business with their TeamTrack/SBM tool and I was really good at it. It was just something I enjoyed and had a knack for at the same time. Additionally, there weren’t many people in that industry providing high-end professional services for TeamTrack and/or SBM. There was a need I could easily fill so it was easy for me to pick that up and run with it.
What was one of the biggest challenges you discovered along the way and how did you overcome?
The biggest challenge was all of the bookkeeping, paperwork, and filings for the business. It is constant! It seems like every month there is new paperwork or government form I have to fill out and send in, on time. Thankfully, my accountant's office has a team of wonderful ladies that take good care of me in that aspect. They keep me in line, on time and on track.
What has the company grown to in present day and what are the plans for the future?
Presently, we have myself plus six employees, but we have some exciting stuff going on in our marketing team as well as our technical teams and my operational plan is for continued growth. Simply put, we will continue to grow by meeting the needs of our customers during these difficult times. Our company culture is a family environment and even amongst all of the virus and the personal tragedies of the team members this year, we have continued to grow. We’ve had employees who have had the COVID virus, others have lost family members, others have been recovering from cancer and other things like that. Everyone has been challenged this year for sure, but we've taken care of everyone and still had our best year ever. This is just a blessing from God above, not only have we been able to stay in business when companies all around us have failed, but we are actually growing. My goal is to continue that growth and add more customers and more staff.
How have you pivoted your business strategy in a COVID world?
We've pivoted our marketing - we used to do trade shows and those just don't exist anymore – not for a while anyway. I used to travel all the time. I'd go on-site with a customer and travel, then come home. I racked up frequent flier mileage like crazy. Then I realized, that if I can talk a customer into letting me work remotely, I could save them $2,000 to $2,500 a week on travel expenses. Over a four-week engagement, that's $10,000. I'd rather increase their value proposition and have them spend that with me than on airlines and hotels. I started pivoting the business to do that back in 2007 & 2008. Even 2 years ago, we started working remotely for local clients when they began to run out of office space. My whole team was were totally working from home 6-8 months before the virus even hit. For us, we were ahead of the curve when everyone else was struggling to figure it out. We kept business as usual and that enabled us to keep doing what we needed to do to help our clients as they struggled through it. In fact, the workflow tools and solutions we deliver have become even more important in today’s business world that is constantly having to adapt to changing COVID regulations.
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to start their own company?
It's a monumental task these days, so I would advise them to seek out the assistance of a small business specialist who can do all the accounting and government filing. They will be your best friend. You may be really good at what you do to run your business and service your customer, but there's just not enough of you to go around and service your customer, as well as filing your taxes and accounting, which has to happen.
Seeking that help and then growing your business, not only with the technical people who can do the job to service the customer, but also people who are into the operational side of the business and marketing in order to grow the business. Honestly, it's the marketing and sales that begin to create the need and then it's my job with the technical team to be able to fill those needs. It's not just "we're a technical company and all we hire is software developers." That was my philosophy for a little while, but I had to change my mind. Software developers make good consultants, but they don't make great sales and marketing people. By myself I'm beyond the capacity that I can maintain. That's why I brought additional people on to start the marketing strategy and help run the operational side of the business.