But the brunt will go toward building a regional sales force. A year ago, Paycor employed 10 salespeople, including four in Cincinnati, which still accounts for 75 percent of revenues. That number has since risen to about 20, and Coughlin expects it to reach 35 by the end of the year. For help, he has hired a recruiting firm and a full-time staff training manager to oversee the new hires' development. We have to prove we can be as successful elsewhere as we've been here.
Early indications are positive.
In the past six weeks alone, Coughlin said, Paycor has picked up 150 clients, bringing the company's total to almost 3,000, and expects to sign up to 400 new customers quarterly going forward. For Coughlin, the end goal has remained the same throughout the past decade. Sometime around 2004, he expects to take his company public, raising money for further expansion and potential regional acquisitions. Paycor's strength, however, is in the smaller-company niche, serving firms with between 50 and 1,000 workers. Combine that with the fighting attitude, lower cost and service mentality of a still-small company, and investors are upbeat about Paycor's prospects.