After 15 years at the helm of Epoch Concepts LLC, Marcus Smiley’s goal is to build the company into a $1 billion-revenue business and beyond. That benchmark figure would help establish the company as an industry leader and show the company’s ability to adapt and grow over a long period, he said.
“The significance of this endeavor would establish us as not only relevant in our space, but also as a success story,” he said. “It’s important because it would demonstrate our ability to plan and execute through uncertain times and shifting competitive landscapes.”
The first step, though, to finding success and reaching a revenue goal is establishing a culture. Without that, you’re lost.
“Culture is everything,” Smiley said. “When we hire employees, we ask them what attracted them to our company. Without question, the answer is always the same … it’s always the culture of the company.”
Epoch Concepts is an IT company based in Littleton, Colorado. The company spent much of the last year refining a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, set to go live in 2022. The new ERP will create enhanced customer service, improve accounting and streamline orders, tracking and logistics. The ERP will ease workload on existing staff and, Smiley predicts, push the company past his $1 billion revenue goal.
Smiley values his role as a mentor both to colleagues in his company and to those outside of it, too. He serves as a sounding board for associates in several industries, including the restaurant, hospitality, accounting and real estate industries, and more. One of his mentorship success stories is an employee he hired nine years ago with a background as a counselor in the healthcare industry. Today, she’s pursuing her executive MBA at University of Colorado Denver and is on track to become Epoch’s chief operating officer, Smiley said.
This is Smiley’s second appearance on the titan 100 list.
“As a Titan of Industry, I feel that I have a responsibility to evolve the business in meaningful ways that differentiate my company from others,” he said. “In the technology space, it’s not enough to grow existing business lines and execute better than the competition. In terms of growth opportunities, we will be providing a suite of post-sales services, in addition to providing more products and solution sets to customers that are totally different than what we currently provide.”
Smiley anticipates these new lines of business will create up to 50 new jobs.
