Terence Clark of Akron is more than happy to be just one of 10,000.
The owner of 15-employee ClarkTel Tele-Communications is participating in the intensive Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative.
“With 10,000 Small Businesses, I can really see a path to grow” after a couple years of relatively flat sales, Clark said.
Clark’s Akron company, which installs, repairs and maintains business phone systems, is one of 36 Ohio businesses chosen for the second round of Cleveland’s 10,000 Small Businesses program. The national initiative with seven sites, including Cleveland, provides free business education and mentoring.
Clark said a major plus of the program is that each participating business owner is assigned a business adviser, who helps to write a company growth plan.
“I meet with my program business adviser once a week,” Clark said. “I’m really going to miss his input when this is over.”
Participants in the Cleveland 10,000 Small Businesses program attend 11 full-day classes and several shorter “clinics” over several months at Cuyahoga Community College. They study a business and management curriculum developed by Babson College of Massachusetts, a top-ranked school for entrepreneurship education.
Clark experienced big-time growth in 2010.
That was when he merged his ClarkTel with a similar company, Tele-Communications Inc. of Brookpark. Clark located the combined company at ClarkTel offices on Copley Road in Akron.
Sales of the combined company, Clark said, were double those of ClarkTel. But since the 2010 merger, he said, sales have been relatively flat.
Kirby Freeman, Clark’s business adviser with the Cleveland 10,000 Small Businesses program, said he and other advisers sit with the business owners in the classes and clinics and have frequent in-person or phone meetings with them.
“The business owners get a chance to step back and really look inside their businesses, almost like looking in the mirror, to see what is holding them back from further growth,” Freeman said.
Clark agreed. “Most small-business owners, we’re usually too focused on running our business day-to-day to step back from it. … This program allows you to do that, analyze, strategize.”
Clark and Freeman said they have had lengthy discussions about ClarkTel possibly offering cloud-based telephone services, involving off-site computer servers that are part of the “cloud.”
Clark said the program also has prompted him to look more frequently at separate company expenses, as opposed to looking at the overall business expense. He said he’s looking at using more smaller vehicles in his fleet, to save on gas.
Clark founded ClarkTel in 1996, making use of his telecommunications training in the Army, as well as his experience working for two Northeast Ohio communications companies.
He noted he started out at the “very bottom” of the industry, working as an installation technician in 1981 for Tele-Communications Inc.
Clark worked his way up to management positions before setting up his own business in 1996 in his West Akron basement.
He bought his company’s current quarters — a former doctor’s office on Copley Road — about seven years ago.
The company is Ohio MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) certified; companies and public institutions set goals for spending with MBEs.
Several years ago, ClarkTel began offering installation of business security systems, and last year began delving into the residential market, offering burglar alarms, as well as security camera systems that allow homeowners to monitor the footage remotely, from a smartphone, tablet or other computer.
Homeowners can view the footage remotely, from a laptop or smartphone, to check on deliveries or monitor a baby sitter.
The company also opened a computer repair facility last year and offers basic repair of home computers for $39.
“It’s not a moneymaker for us,” Clark said. “It’s an opportunity to let the community know what types of services we offer.”
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.