By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Back in 1993, Chris Willis founded her business as a developer of interactive learning programs in the back bedroom of her farmhouse on her husband’s 40-acre blueberry farm in Nunica. This year, her company was is on target for $1.7 million in sales, and was one of only 13 women-owned businesses to be named one of Michigan 50 Companies to Watch.
Media 1, located at 605 Elliott Street in Grand Haven, creates self-paced custom training programs for Fortune 1000 companies. Their client list includes Dematic, Hewlett Packard, Meijer, and Siemens.
The programs and tools created by Media 1 are self-paced training or decision tools for the client’s intranet or a secure Internet network virtual classroom. The customized software might include teaching employees a strategy for selling a new product, how to use new software, or how to partner with strategic vendors.
“We don't do anything off the shelf,” Willis said.
The business was stagnated at $1 million in sales for over three years, then took a major step backwards after September 11, 2001. But last year all that changed when sales jumped 50% after the company radically changed their sales model to incorporate an employee bonus system where everyone has a stake.
“We all work on a bonus program of one to five percent of base income, based on billable hours,” Willis said. “It’s a combination of selling clients on the opportunity, then working on time, on budget, and satisfying the customer. It's a symbiotic thing.”
So symbiotic, in fact, that if billable hours exceed estimated hours, the overage hours are deducted from the bonus pool.
“Everybody knows that going over on the estimated hours affects everyone,” Willis said.
The company is bringing on two more employees this year, bringing its workforce to 18.
Source: Chris Willis, Media 1 www.media1.us
Deborah Johnson Wood is Development News Editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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