Fastest 50: Assurance Media LLC

Photo by Eric Crossan

Assurance Media LLC
Location: Wilmington
Assurancemedia.com

We are a locally owned, Women Business Enterprise that provides security, audiovisual systems, and structured cabling to businesses in the mid-Atlantic region. We design, install, and service our technology solutions. Combining these services with technology from today’s industry leads to the solution of many of today’s business challenges including connectivity, security, and communications. 

What have been the biggest obstacles your company has faced over the past three years, and how did you overcome them?
Staffing. Low-voltage technicians with the necessary skills that are hard to find. There are few development programs for our line of work in Delaware. In order to overcome this challenge, Assurance Media has taken steps to create a core curriculum of internal skills development courses, and we have been working with the state to develop and deliver a apprenticeship program. Many of the members of our sales staff began as technicians and were internally promoted.

Looking back, what’s the biggest mistake you made and what would you do differently if you could?
Compromising a good company fit for talent when hiring. When faced with a significant staffing need, we became more focused on skills and resources that a particular candidate would bring to the table, but we did not give the same amount of importance to whether they would easily fit within our team. If we could go back in time, we would have taken more time in interviewing, gotten the opinions of multiple people, and listened to our gut.