2015 Small Business Award Finalist: Layer 3 Technology

When John Horton and Ryan McCoy started Layer 3 Technology in 2004, they decided focusing on sales could hurt their bottom line. Instead, they promoted the new information technology services company as focused on increasing its clients’ profitability.

“Sales don’t drive us, our customers drive us,” Horton said. “Instead of trying to build a sales organization, we’ve built a customer-service organization. We take time to understand our clients’ business needs, not on selling them a bunch of bells and whistles.”

The shared vision of providing great customer service as well as secure networks convinced the men to join forces after meeting through a mutual client, Horton said.

“As we got to know each other, we realized we would be a lot stronger together than we could ever be apart, because we believe in taking care of customers first.”

That approach has helped the partners build a firm that grows more through client referrals than aggressive marketing. Revenues continue to increase year over year. Layer 3 reports yearly growth of 10 to 20 percent, with over 30 percent increases in 2011 and 2014.

With 16 employees, educating clients on the rapidly changing world of IT is a big part of the support Layer 3 provides.

“Networking security risks have increased millions of times over what they used to be when I started,” Horton said. “A lot of people think, ‘Who wants my data?’ We can do penetration testing to prove if it’s safe or not, to identify openings that can be high risk.”

To help clients combat risks, Layer 3 offers what Horton calls a “managed environment,” which allows Layer 3 to take care of a network from desktop to printers to servers to overall infrastructure and security.  

“That’s our primary goal, to manage everything, to say, ‘let us worry about your security and your servers and where you’re going with all of this,’” he said. “‘Let us take the burden off your staff.’”

Clients appreciate that level of service. Since Layer 3 opened, Horton said the company has lost very few customers.

“We’ve had customers go out of business, but only three or four have gone to a competitor,” he said. “I’m a business guy; I don’t take it personally. I want the customer to do what is best for them. But when we get a customer, we plan on having them for life so we take care of them like they are family.”

Horton credits his staff, which he calls his “single biggest strength,” for Layer 3’s success.

Working in IT “is not an 8 to 5 gig,” he said, noting computer problems can strike at any hour and companies can’t afford to have their networks offline. “My guys end up having to pull all-nighters from time to time. They understand our livelihood is taking care of our customers. I have hired great people. They care about my customers and they work their butts off.”[[In-content Ad]]