Fastest 50: Hilyard’s Business Solutions

Photo by Eric Crossan

Hilyard’s Business Solutions
Location: Wilmington
Hilyards.com

Hilyard’s Business Solutions is a 60-year-old, second-generation, family-owned business. Hilyard’s is a B2B provider of office equipment, voice solutions and computer network support. Hilyard’s customers range from your doctor to the medium-sized law firm up to Fortune 500 companies.

What have been the biggest factors that contributed to your company’s growth over the past three years?
In 2017, we acquired Collins Business Systems, allowing us to expand our offerings to include voice solutions. In 2018, we acquired Automated Copy Systems and that brought a new group of customers to the Hilyard’s family. These two acquisitions, along with a strong economy, have set the groundwork for good growth opportunities.

Looking back, what’s the biggest mistake you made and what would you do differently if you could?
Sometimes you get so busy doing your job that you forget to do your job. One of the biggest things you can do (or forget to do) is communicate. Ensuring that you are getting your message out to your staff is important. In turn, that will communicate the right message to your customers. Try your best to proactively get the “how to do business with us” message out to your new customers.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned over the past three years?
Growth is good … controlled growth is better! When you are in growth mode, you can experience growing pains. No matter what those pains are, keeping your finger on the pulse of your staff is very important to keep everyone on the same page.