Intentional Growth #225: Owning Your Exit (Part 2): How Saud Pivoted PolicyMedical, Grew Exponentially and Sold to Private Equity
This is Part 2 of a 2-part series with Saud Juman, who last week shared his sensational journey on becoming intentional. This week, we talk brass tacks about pivoting his business model, exponentially growing into a multi-national company and his eventual exit to private equity—all while staying true to his original vision and ‘why’.
What You Will Learn In Today's Podcast Interview
- What forced Saud to pivot PolicyMedical's business model and why those changes enabled exponential growth.
- How to identify the real problem your clients are trying to solve.
- Why finding and catering to the right clients and customers is important.
- How to involve your clients in your marketing and service offering development.
- How to turn your company into a revenue-generating engine.
- The cost of complacency as an entrepreneur and the impact it has on the business.
- Why hospitals in the US sign up with accreditation agencies, what is involved and how it impacts business.
- The impact meditation has on focus and staying true to your ‘why’.
- Why mentors matter, Saud’s formula for finding mentors and what makes a good mentee.
- The value in face-to-face contact as a vendor and what questions to ask to strengthen your ties.
- How to turn clients into raving fans that will go to bat for your company.
- Why your exit number can be a date and not a dollar value.
- How to use your personal ‘why’ when vetting potential buyers.
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Podcast Summary:
In the second half of this two-part interview, we’re going to cover how Saud started PolicyMedical, pivoted the business after it hit a wall, and what he did to explode their growth.
Saud grew PolicyMedical into a multi-national business that developed numerous hospital data management systems trusted by over 3,000 healthcare organizations. He shares the tactical strategies implemented to enable this exponential growth while also staying true to his ‘why’ and the impact he wanted to have on the world.
Saud gives expert advice about turning customers into raving fans that generate value for your company that you didn’t pay for by addressing the cost of complacency (or 'what happens when you stop paying attention to what your customers really need').
His own journey to learn what his clients wanted involved a huge road trip, at the advice of his mentor, that ended up accelerating his growth in ways marketing hadn’t.He also gives some great advice about finding a mentor and what it means to be a good mentee.
Saud’s episode is a lesson in intentionality and how planning can help keep your focus on the big picture while allowing your business to be flexible to changes that happen without warning. Knowing who you are, what you want, and what strategies you need to employ to get you there is essential for success.
Saud eventually sold to Private Equity for a very large number. How did he do it? Today’s episode covers the tactical decisions that led him to exit PolicyMedical and how he was able to negotiate all the things that mattered to him and his ‘why’.
About the Guest:
Saud Juman loves basketball and business. At a young age, his mother encouraged him to get out and form his own league so he could follow his passion. After that, there was no stopping him.Saud created such a successful business in university that he had to find a way to spend their profits or else pay them to the university.
He created scholarships, funded trips and events, and found creative ways to give the money back to the students. Fast-forward to today and Saud has grown, run, and sold a multi-national business called PolicyMedical Inc. that developed numerous hospital data management systems trusted by over 3,000 healthcare organizations. He’s passionate about mindset and serving others.
Quotes:
17:04 - “We listened to the customer in terms of what their problem was, what their pain is, and we were singularly focused in always being able to provide a solution.” - Saud Juman
19:31 - “When you start getting a little bit of success in the form of sales or whatever else, you can easily become complacent, lazy, and lose sight of what the customer really needs.” - Saud Juman
31:28 - “That’s one of the greatest shortcuts you can give yourself in business: finding the right mentor.” - Saud Juman
32:25 - “The number one qualities of a great mentee are: Responsiveness, proactiveness, and showing you’re listening to what your mentor is saying. - Saud Juman
48:32 - “I instinctively think, ‘Why not me? If it’s going to be someone, why not me?’ There are not barriers, there is just effort, and energy, and work to create this. And, by the way, it’s not that hard.” - Saud Juman
60:01 - “I realized that I was still running the company as an entrepreneur and not as a CEO, even though it said CEO as my title. My actions were still running it as an entrepreneur and there is a difference.” - Saud Juman
61:51 - “And so someone broke it down for me: [Investment bankers] are pretty much real estate brokers for your business. So then I got really specific. I came up with a criteria for an investment banker.” - Saud Juman
66:36 - “Know who you are because for me... at the end of the day, I’m just a kid from Scarborough. I wrote down, on a little piece of paper, my deal makers and breakers and I put it in my wallet.” - Saud Juman
70:26 - “I wish I would have listened to my wife more often. For those of you that have a significant other that’s not a part of your business, just because they’re not a part of your boardroom table, that doesn’t mean that they’re not one of the best advisors that you can possibly have.” - Saud Juman
Links and Resources:
LinkedIn: Saud Juman
Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course
Episode 224: Owning Your Exit (Part 1): Underground Nightclub Owner Turns Healthcare Tech Entrepreneur
Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!