Transformative business leader and Paychex founder Tom Golisano shared the inspiring story of how he turned a mere $3,000 into $44 billion, overcoming an array of obstacles to lead his incredibly successful life.
Golisano joined "Mornings with Maria," Monday, to share his secrets to success and discuss his freshly-launched business school, the Golisano Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship.
"Well, when I started Paychex, I didn't have the idea that I would do anything that accomplishing. But, how it happened is I started with a very small ambition. I wanted to be in Rochester, New York, and get maybe 300 clients that we did the payroll processing for, and live happily ever after. But we accomplished that in a few years," Golisano explained Monday.
"We started establishing franchises and partnerships for people that I knew from the Rochester area and sent them around the country in various cities to start similar operations. After a while, maybe five years, and we got those established, we decided we would consolidate into one company, and we did that in 1979, and we had a five-year plan. We were going to work very hard for three years on building new locations and building our sales organization. Then the next two years we were going to focus on profitability, and we did that," he told host Maria Bartiromo.
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Paychex made a massive financial leap when the company decided to become public in 1983, growing the company's market valuation to $65 million.
"And the great thing about it, Maria, is the market we chose, doing payroll processing, their payroll preparation and human resource services for the small business market… I mean, you know, there are millions of them out there and it's such a big wide open marketplace. We're still being very successful. We have over 700,000 clients and still growing," Golisano continued.
The Paychex founder also touched on his most recent business venture, the Golisano Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship, a post-high school upper education school that offers students a two-year certification program with lower tuition.
"There are two key things about the institute. First of all, it's the calendar. As you probably know, the typical calendar for high higher education these days is pretty loose and liberal. I mean, the kids just don't go to classes that often. What we're doing is putting together a full year-round calendar, 11 weeks of classes and two weeks of vacation," Golisano started.
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"So, combining the calendar and doing away with the mandated electives, we can put together a package of two years of business courses. Actually, if you take our two-year program, you're going to end up taking 1.3 quarters times the number of business courses you would in a normal four-year business degree."
The Golisano Institute is set to open in the fall of 2023 and plans to admit only 500 students. Golisano is endowing the institute, charging $4,900 for a half year and $8,900 for a full year.
"We are financing for their benefit. My goal is to turn out 250 new entrepreneurs into the Rochester area every year," Golisano concluded.
