Sergi is keeping the company in growth mode by emphasizing the Four Decisions in my Scaling Up platform: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. His battle plan for surviving and thriving in chaos and uncertainty holds powerful lessons for any entrepreneur who has found the rug has been pulled out from under them. 

Cash is king 

With no line of credit, Sergi needed to put the company’s oxygen mask on first. He focused immediately on building the cash reserves he needed to ensure he could make payroll. 

Working with Scaling Up certified coaches Ethan Martin and Jonathan Mond, Sergi applied the Power of One to improve the company’s cash flow and cash reserves. This concept (outlined in my book Scaling Up by chartered accountant Alan Miltz and his colleagues at Cash Flow Story) shows there are seven levers in a business that can improve cash flow: price, volume, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, accounts receivable, inventory/work in progress, and accounts payable. Making a 1 percent or one-day change to any of these variables can dramatically improve cash flow.  

Sergi initially focused on two key levers: raising prices by 1 to 2 percent for recruitment process outsourcing services and negotiating pay with new hires for a 1 percent savings per job. He correctly determined that he could add about $1 million to the bottom line over 12 months, helping the company survive and thrive. 

Building a big hairy audacious goal around people 

At the time Warriors Solutions lost more than half its revenue, its big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) was “20,000 new hires by 2030.” It had a big bell in its office that it rang every time it put someone to work. Despite efforts like this, the goal had become a lifeless number on the wall. “We weren’t talking about it; it just needed new life breathed into it,” Sergi says.  

Under their coaches’ guidance, Sergi and his executive team changed the goal to “15,000 teammates by 2035.” Changing “new hires” to “teammates” had a surprisingly large impact on the culture in emphasizing that the individuals placed were part of the organization and its story. “By calling them teammates and sharing their stories, we’ve expanded our team,” he says. That proved highly motivating. 

Operation 43 

To rally the team around growth, Sergi’s coaches led the company’s first offsite in 27 years. There, they identified a new critical number for rousing the team: “Operation 43.” The theme was mountain climbing.  

“We wanted to create the idea that we were climbing the mountain this year together, and the first 12,000-footer was Operation 43,” he says. “We had to retain 43 of our teammates that we put to work on the new program. We had to find a way to keep those folks, because they all work on six-month contracts.” Although the company didn’t quite hit the goal, he says, “We came close, and that was enough.” 

To keep the team aligned around goals like this, Warriors Solutions holds both daily huddles and weekly meetings. The weekly meeting, held every Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. for the six-person leadership team, has replaced six one-on-one meetings that Sergi had with his executives.  

“Eight to 12 hours of my time is now condensed into one hour, and all of my leaders can hear what I’m saying to each person, so there’s a collaborative learning piece we were missing before,” he says. “I was repeating myself and wasting a lot of time. It was inefficient. So, in the midst of all of this crazy stuff and growing the company, I have freed up my time as an owner. It saved me a day and a half of my week.” 

Climbing the mountain 

To keep the company aligned on reaching the 15,000 placements set out in its BHAG, Sergi assigned one junior team member to provide an updated number showing progress on that metric, which is shared at the daily huddle.  

To ensure these placements go well, recruiters are asked to email hiring managers three memorable facts about each new hire prior to an engagement. And to celebrate its success in placing new hires, the company has added a “BHAG Wow Wall” featuring its Google reviews. 

The company is now focused on achieving “Summit 61,” a new critical number aimed at winning new business. The 61 refers to the number of new prospect meetings per quarter. Every teammate has a green and white wooden mountain statue at their desk to remind them of the climbing theme. 

“We needed to grow our business development team, and we needed everyone in the company to be thinking strategically,” Sergi says. “They’re on the phone with potential clients all the time. We wanted to see if we could introduce leads to our business development team while we were talking to candidates on the phone.” Halfway through the quarter, the company is already close to meeting this goal. 

Investing in the future  

To find new efficiencies, the company has targeted the talent sourcing component of its business, which takes the most time. Investing approximately $25,000 in an AI-powered applicant tracking system (ATS), it has chosen one “designed for us to come in every morning, and the system has already sourced résumés that might fit the jobs we’ve been assigned,” he says. The firm has also invested about $80,000 in LinkedIn licenses that allow it to use AI to connect with candidates it couldn’t reach before.  

Although Warriors Solutions now has positive momentum, Sergi is staying proactive. “It’s a difficult time to be in the business we’re in, and I’ve seen a lot of my competitors go out of business,” he says. “There’s a little bit of ‘Don’t take your eye off the ball.’ We have a runway of revenue, but it could go away if the White House wants to make changes in the areas we are supporting.” If that happens, he’ll be well prepared with the systems for scaling—and surviving—that he’s put into place.