Frank Cianciulli
About Our Guest
Frank Cianciulli is a self-made entrepreneur. Frank nurtures ideas, connects people, and helps grow promising businesses.
His holding company and legacy, The Wish Group, is constantly looking to invest in, acquire, or spin-off companies with the potential to surpass the competition and set new and/or higher expectations in the marketplace. It is focused on becoming one of Canada’s largest diversified providers of business solutions, continually producing award-winning, high-growth businesses driven by a social responsibility to the communities in which they operate.
Frank has been awarded Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, the New Generation Business Excellence Award from the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and York University’s prestigious Bryden Award for Innovation in recognition of his extraordinary success at company development, financial performance, and personal commitment to his businesses and his community.
About this Episode
How a Focus on Culture Will Help You Scale
In an industry that was growing and expanding quickly, Frank Cianciulli saw an opportunity to simply do teleconferencing better than his competitors.
Growing rapidly to $14.5 million in revenue five years after starting Enunciate Conferencing, Frank attributes his success to an unwavering focus on culture and employees as the key to fast growth.
That kind of success inevitably led to interest from an acquisition firm who were hot on his heels to purchase the business.
In this latest episode, Frank talks about his secret sauce for fast growth, what the acquisition process involved for him, and how a technical glitch spooked him into getting more serious about exiting the business.
Tune in for great insight from a natural (and very successful) entrepreneur who sold on his terms.
What you will learn in this episode
In this episode we’ll cover everything from:
- How an unwavering focus on culture and employees will drive growth for your business
- Why you should always consider acquisition offers even if you’re not ready to sell
- How entrepreneurial values are core to fast growth
- How you can achieve fast growth even if you are self-funded
- Why hiring the right people at the right time can make or break the growth of a business
Connect with Frank Cianciulli
Website: https://wishgroup.ca/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankiewish/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wish-Group-343031396097623
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wishgroupofficial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frankcianciulli
Show Notes
(12:10) Starting a business is better with a partner. At least that’s what Frank believes and practices.
(19:00) Frank talks here about how his business employed cutting edge competitive advantages like digital billing, being more of a DIY offering, and just doing things differently from their competitors.
(28:34) After starting a second business, it was then when Frank realised that building a business is a duplicatable.
(34:30) Scaling from $3 to $5 million is possible. Getting to $10 million is where hiring the right people comes more into play.
(57:00) Frank’s advice for accelerated growth is all about nailing down organic growth first. He shares his top pieces of advice here.