#7 One on One Marketing

   One on One Marketing wasn’t supposed to last six months. Well, according to the building manager of the company’s first office space. “He told me he’d be surprised if we lasted longer than that,” says Nick Greer, founder of the American Fork-based company that provides lead generation in the for-profit education industry. “But it didn’t offend me. I was able to talk him into a six-month lease, and then I got to prove him wrong. It motivated me like you wouldn’t believe.” Eight years later, One on One Marketing has nothing left to prove. The company is one of the largest lead aggregators for for-profit and post secondary schools in the nation and did more than $22 million in revenue in 2009 alone. And with a company focus of employees, employees, employees, One on One is here to stay.  

In 2002, I had a company with a partner, and one of our clients was Ancestry.com. They paid us $10,000 to generate free trials for their genealogy subscription service. We went to a group in Salt Lake, and they said they could generate those leads for us. 

They generated six free trials, and Ancestry.com wanted their $9,910 back. My partner said, “We’ve got to give the money back.” I told him we couldn’t. We had to come through for them on those leads. Within six months, we became Ancenstry.com’s No. 2 acquisition leader. 

Around that same time, I broke off from that partner and company. I love that partner to death — it was just time to move on. We were both ready for a change.

So with $2,000 in the bank, I loaded my 1997 GMC Suburban with a desk from my old company and a chair I got from ZCMI, and I went over to our new office space and prepaid $750 for my first month’s rent. I was almost in tears. That was July 17, 2002, the day I created One on One Marketing. In August I was moving into a home, and it was the first time I was going to have a mortgage. But I knew it would be good motivation to have something (everything!) on the line — I knew it would take mental toughness 

We started cranking. We generated leads for Ancestry.com and also for a health and fitness club in Logan. We quickly started getting clients. We did a lot of work for Nordic Track, and we started doing some leads for customers in the medical billing industry. Then we got into the education arena, which is where our focus is today. Education is really where we skyrocketed. One great thing led to another great thing. 

We are excited about where we’ve been and where we’re going. It’s fun to tell our story because we have a unique culture here. Our employees are rock stars. I know a lot of companies say that, and it may sound typical or like you might read in a textbook, but truly there is a special vibe here. The people we have are vested in the company. They fight for us each and every day. If I say, “Let’s turn it up,” they instantly crank it up. They’re a machine — a good machine, not a robotic machine.

Everything is hard if you look at it as hard. I’ve always looked at work as enjoyable. Each and every challenge is motivation to do better. When I look back at everything in hindsight, every time there has been a challenge, a reward has been just around the corner. Every time a challenge seems impossible to overcome, the second we overcome it is when we take the business to the next level. Challenges push us to become better. Every business has challenges — it’s the way you approach them and the way you grow from them that matters. Running a business isn’t rocket science. It’s a simple process so many of us overanalyze. 

What I love about Utah Valley is the people. The talent you can find here is incredible — it’s like a hidden golden chunk of talent. I was talking to a group the other day who asked me about the talent pool here, and I told them to come out and see for themselves why businesses thrive here — it’s the talent. 

The best part of being an entrepreneur is having a vision in your mind and implementing that vision. And then it’s taking those around you and watching them expand that vision to greater heights than you could imagine. It’s such a rush. Some people love to go ice climbing, some people love to jump out of a plane. Building a business is my rush.