Lavidge's Financial Success and Scalable Growth Fueled by Workamajig

The Lavidge Company in Phoenix, Arizona, is an advertising agency that specializes in health care, education, and PR. Sandra Torre, Executive Vice President and CFO, Rick Crosby, Controller, and Rebecca Sheehan, AR/AP Clerk, share how Lavidge grew through Workamajig.

QUICK HIGHLIGHTS

CHALLENGES

• The CEO was running too many things on his own
• They had reached a no-growth dead end
• Difficulties in setting up a financial team in a creative environment

SOLUTION

• Using Workamjig’s collaborative software to get the creative and financial teams working seamlessly together
• Saving time by pulling reports and getting financial information straight from Workamajig
• Using the visibility Workamajig provides to gain deep financial insight

RESULTS

• Time saved thanks to Workamajig’s automated reports and billing capabilities
• Major growth in number of employees and revenue

CHALLENGES:

Finding a more efficient way to run finances so that the business could grow.

When Sandra came on board, her task was to make sure that Lavidge was financially sound and forward-thinking. The CEO was running a lot of things himself, personally running interviews, personally writing checks, and approving expenses. At that rate, Lavidge was going to remain 25 people and stay static at their current revenue. Because there was no real focus on finance, he understood that he needed to bring that in house. However, doing that in a creative environment is easier said than done.

“Then, we found Workamajig!” - Sandra

SOLUTIONS:

Lavidge now uses Workamajig’s powerful financial tools to pull reports and get the financial insight they need to make strategic business decisions.

“The most important thing that Workamajig has done for us is given us visibility into division, clients, and projects. Without visibility, you cannot grow, you cannot monitor, there’s nothing you can do to improve. Workamajig has been able to scale with us through acquisitions, through down times, through everything over the last 20 years.” - Sandra

“Workamajig provides us, as well as the client with a listing of how we’re doing. If we have a $5,000 a month retainer, how much did we spend on the $5000 - did we spend $4000 or $7500? Workamajig very easily represents that.” - Rick

As well as providing the necessary software, Workamajig provides Lavidge with constant, ongoing support.

“Looking back now, Workamajig was not only so critical to us during the implementation, but for the month or two afterward, when you’re going live and walking through all that stuff, Workamajig just stood next to us. We’d reach out with questions, and they would help us immediately.” - Sandra

 “It’s nice to be able to reach out to Workamajig specifically because they’re always very responsive, usually on the same day.” - Rebecca

RESULTS:

Tremendous business growth gained from deep financial insight

Since they began using Workamajig 20 years ago, Lavidge has expanded from 25 employees to 70 and increased their revenue from $2M to a whopping $40M.

“I honestly think that we could not have done it without Workamajig. It’s just been tremendously helpful in helping us see the financial health of the organization.”

Transcript:

Sandra Torre
"I am Sandra Torre and I am the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Lavage company and we are an advertising agency. We specialize in lots of different areas, we do healthcare and education and we have a robust PR department."

"When I came on board the task was to take a look at the accounting piece and make sure that Lavage was financially stable, sound, and forward-thinking. Our CEO was kind of running a lot of things himself. He was personally doing interviews, writing and signing checks, and approving expenses. I think that he understood that lavage was going to remain 25 people and could not scale with the way it was being run and because there was no real focus on finance, I think he understood that he needed that to come inhouse. Creating that in a creative environment is easier said than done. We really needed the right system and we found Workamajig!"

Rick Crosby
"Workamajig is an easy-to-use program. One of my responsibilities is the monthly close so I use Workamjig to pull reports and get financial information. It's powerful enough that it gives you the information you need and the output is very clear."

Sandra Torre
"So the most important thing that Workmajig has done for us, is given us that visibility into all of the numbers. We have visibility into divisions, clients, projects, etc. Without visibility you cannot grow, monitor, or improve, there's nothing that you can do. Workamajig has been able to scale with us through acquisitions, downtimes, and through all those times over the last 20 years."

Rick Crosby
"Workamajig has reports that are available that provide real time information on how their projects are being profitable or not.
Workmajig provides that information to provide the AE as well as the client with a listing of how we're doing. If we bill them a $5,000 a-month retainer, how much time did we spend on that $5,000? Did we spend $4,000 or $7,500 on the retainer? We can lay in there very easily to present that."


Sandra Torre
"You know, looking back now, Workamajig was not just so critical to us during the implementation, but the month and two after when you are going live and you are walking through all that stuff, that was really where Workamajig just stood next to us. We'd reach out with questions and they were able to help us immediately." 


Rebecca Sheehan
"I am in Workamajig every day. It's nice to be able to reach out to Workamajig. They're always very responsive usually on the same day and they're great at following up."


Sandra Torre
"I honestly think that we could not have done it without Workamajig. Over the years we have grown we've added staff and services going from a company of 25 and maybe 2 or 3 million in Revenue to now a company of 70 at 40 million in revenue.
Workamajig has just been tremendously helpful in terms of helping us see the financial health of the organization so that has just been a huge asset in terms of us measuring our own financial success."