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Studying his customers' business translates to success for

Long Island Business News, May 9, 2008 by Ambrose Clancy

On a fairly regular basis, Michael Grossberg takes time out and questions whether he would hire himself.

President of Greenvale's LCK Services, a full-service payroll and employee benefits company, Grossberg stacks his firm up against the competition to discover how his company rates.

"If I was going out to shop for payroll or benefits, who would I turn to?" Grossberg asks himself. "I look at alternatives and then try to figure out how and what to provide for clients to make them more comfortable."

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This is one of several strategies that has fueled LCK's rapid growth. Coming from the world of programming and systems analysis, Grossberg started five years ago with one other employee, renting space in a bank. Now in its own office, expanding the staff to six and handling $9.1 million in revenue, "full-service" is not just a phrase for LCK. The company also handles human resource management, employee background screening and insurance.

Grossberg believes in making himself indispensable to clients. If a company needs a special report, he doesn't begin to give a lengthy time frame or charge something exorbitant.

"Whip it up as soon as you can and get it out," Grossberg said.

He also has a unique perspective on the sales function. Selling is merely a way of letting a client know they will make more money by hiring LCK, Grossberg said. He remembered speaking with an ear, nose and throat physician who said he spent close to an hour a week cutting payroll checks, wrangling with benefits paperwork and working with his accountant on depositing taxes.

Grossberg said he had only one response to the doctor: "Why?" "I told him, 'Hire me and you'll have time for another examination, maybe even two.'"

Growing his business means taking aim at the status quo.

"If you walk into any office you face impediments that are accepted because that's the way it's always been," Grossberg said. An example is when companies need a paycheck cut the same day; they're told it can't be done.

"I process it and drive it over," Grossberg said. "You can always find something better than your current arrangement."

Growing also means continually investting in your own operation, not just in infrastructure - a given - but in people. "Hire the best people and give them good reasons to work hard," Grossberg said, which translates to good salaries and benefits but also a good working environment. "Treat people right and it's a great investment in the future," he said.

Don't look at clients as just a contract, but care for them, Grossberg said. And the easiest way to show you care is going to school on their business from top to bottom.

"Learn how they open the bag of widgets to the assembly line to when they go out the door," he said.

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing passionately" is a growth- strategy mantra for LCK. Networking is crucial, but it shouldn't be looked at as just a night out. People can tell if you believe in yourself, and that you will work hard to keep their trust as clients, he said.

Boundaries are meant to be breached, Grossberg believes. "Be innovative," he said. "If you hear, 'I can't find decent health benefits anymore,' be ready to respond. Ask them if they've heard about health savings accounts, for example."

The reason you're in business can seem like a no-brainer, but it's often lost in the daily shuffle. "I never forget that I want to make more money for my clients by taking over functions that don't make them money," Grossberg said.

Studying his customers' business translates to success for

Long Island Business News, May 9, 2008 by Ambrose Clancy

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