One of our biggest competitors sends an article from the Dallas Morning News that quotes me (Alexander Muse, co-founder of Architel) to our clients suggesting that it means that Architel is somehow failing as a business.  Here is the quote from the newspaper:

Among the few that are hiring is Big in Japan, a 4-year-old Dallas company that creates applications for mobile devices. Big in Japan has added 50 developers and designers since May – half in the U.S. and half overseas – and is hiring more, said co-founder Alexander Muse.

“Mobile applications markets are exploding,” he said. “If the economy were doing better, we might not be hiring as many people because we might have more competitors. The irony is, the economy is actually helping us.”

However, three other Dallas businesses that Muse is involved with are not hiring. He said one – Architel, an information technology outsourcing company – would have to start gaining more clients than it has been losing to justify more hiring.

The competitor suggests that this is ‘proof’ that Architel is ‘blowing up’. This is NOT true.  Ironically, if you have ever been quoted in the press you might know that what is printed is not always exactly what was said.  For example, in this case I was asked if Architel was hiring and I indicated that we are ALWAYS hiring, but that we were not increasing headcount.  I explained that the Architel business was flat – i.e. that we were gaining new clients at a rate that equaled our loses.  Several of our clients have been sold, some have filed bankruptcy while others have downsized considerably.  Scott and his sales team have been doing an amazing job of replacing troubled customers with new customers – Architel’s monthly recurring revenue is actually at an all time high (i.e. albeit only slightly more than it was last year).  Flat is the new up, right?

What the article fails to mention is the fact that we have been buying IT services companies that haven’t been able to weather the current financial difficulties.  Ironically, the Dallas Morning News wrote about our growth via acquisition in an article titled, “Dallas entrepreneur buying struggling tech startups“.  We have not been expanding our headcount, but we have been acquiring our competitors, their clients and some of their more talented employees.  Architel has more than 100 employees today – much of this is through our acquisitions and not organic hiring.

So if you receive an email from one of our competitors suggested we are not doing well – ask them why they aren’t talking about their own success.  This specific competitor claims they have 99%+ rate of client retention – I know for a fact (unless than have 5,000 clients) that their retention rate is lower.  How do I know?  Their clients are now our clients.  Why?  Hopefully because we offer a great service.