2025 Dynamic Dozen No. 7: Paladin Managed Solutions LLC

SBJ: What has been key to your recent growth?
Donald Mihalevich Jr.: Over the last year, we’ve integrated additional tech solutions into our product line. When we first started the company, we had to concentrate on the office equipment piece, but as the company has matured, we’ve been able to take on more technology and more capabilities on that side. Managed services is really where the majority of our growth has been coming.

SBJ: What are your top issues when it comes to managing growth?
Mihalevich: Holding on to all of our best people and being able to grow at a steady rate – not too fast, not too slow. It’s very easy to outgrow your capabilities too quickly. Managing growth within some guidelines for us is the most important thing. At least in our industry, you have a certain amount of bench strength in a company. If you don’t have that, you’re only one or two people away from not being able to provide your services.

SBJ: What has the company’s growth enabled you to do?
Mihalevich: It allows us to have more resiliency. You can be a five- to seven-person company and provide a service, but you aren’t very resilient. Growth has allowed us to spread that out a little bit. Now we’re not so scared of losing one or two people.

SBJ: Is your fast growth sustainable?
Mihalevich: I believe it is. Some people want to put the cart before the horse – sales in front of service. I’ve always tried to have very robust service, and I’ll let sales tag behind. We’ve accelerated the training of some people on our service side, and now we’re positioned to be able to add more salespeople and expand our territory.

SBJ: Where is the tipping point?
Mihalevich: For us, it’s when you don’t have enough service to keep up and the quality of the product dips. The long-term goal is not to lose customers. That’s going to be price-dependent – for the vast majority of people, if your price is fair and they’re happy with your service, they’re not going to move.

SBJ: What is the best business advice you’ve received?
Mihalevich: My first boss, Jim Quesenberry, used to say cash is king. I didn’t understand it until I owned my own business, but it’s the flexibility of having money in the bank to be able to do things and buy at better rates when you have opportunities that maybe aren’t convenient for you. I try to run my business by always having money to fund any deal or anything I want to do in cash. Maybe 3% or 4% here or there doesn’t seem to make a difference, but it absolutely does when you’re buying things that cost $3 million or $4 million a year. I can pass those savings on to my customers.

SBJ: What is the worst business advice you’ve received?
Mihalevich: Do something that you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. People get it backwards. Do something you’re good at and make enough money to enjoy the things you love. In high school, my dream wasn’t to sell copier machines. I got a degree in biology and chemistry because I thought I was going to be a doctor. Sometimes your degree drags you to strange places.