Growing by leaps and bounds

Richard Hearn used to professionally
race power boats, but now he’s a business professional racing his company toward success.

Seven years ago, he met with two colleagues at the Delta Crown Room at the
Cincinnati airport. The three decided to
start a business to
provide electronic
content management
(ECM) software
consulting services.

Within a few
months, Crown
Partners LLC was
born, and the three
brought in $500,000 in revenue that
first year. The goal of ECM software
is to eliminate paper from companies’ processes, and as Hearn helped
his clients do this, revenue quadrupled in the second year of business.

As Crown Partners continued growing,
Hearn knew that fast growth could
quickly lead to burnout or failure, so in
the next year he slowed revenue
growth by, he says, “building the
machine.” This process entailed
strengthening the company’s infrastructure so it could handle the
rapid growth he foresaw in years to
come.

This chairman, president and CEO’s
efforts paid off, as Crown again
rocketed in growth in 2004 and was
named one of the Hot 100 fastest
growing small businesses in the
country by Entrepreneur magazine.
This pace continued over the next
two years as well, and Hearn led an
acquisition in 2006. The deal established Crown Partners as the largest
dedicated ECM software integrator
on the continent and positions the
company to continue rising to new
heights in the years to come.

HOW TO REACH: Crown Partners LLC, (937) 723-2323 or
www.crownpartners.com