Modern-Day Miracle: Small Business Beats Million-to-One Odds

It’s rare to see a miracle take place; it’s even rarer to be part of one. Fishbowl is a miracle. Several incredible coincidences happened in the past six months to allow Fishbowl to plant itself on the soundest financial ground it has ever been on.

Fishbowl has been in business for 10 years, and in that time it’s grown from a struggling startup to one of the fastest-growing software companies in Utah and in the country. It’s also held the title of #1-selling QuickBooks inventory software for the past several years. Most of that success is thanks to CEO David Williams and his commitment to the company. He came to Fishbowl in 2004 and quickly turned it into the successful business it is today.

Miracle #1 – New President

But even Dave couldn’t solve Fishbowl’s biggest problem alone. In late 2010, he needed to raise a lot of money in a short amount of time to buy back the company from its majority shareholder. That’s where the first miracle took place. Through a providential series of events, Mary Scott joined the company as president at the start of 2011, and she brought her knowledge of finances and many contacts in the financial world with her. If it hadn’t been for Mary, Fishbowl probably wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with the right people to get the funding it needed.

Miracle #2 – Flawless Accounting

Potential investors came and went for several months until finally a bank in Utah expressed interest in Fishbowl. But, of course, it required an in-depth look into our accounting records before it would even consider making a loan. Luckily, the books were flawlessly organized by our crack team of accountants. With everything in order, it looked like a sure thing that the bank would give out a loan. But then something unexpected happened.

Miracle #3 – The Business Loan

Nothing. Nothing happened for weeks and weeks. No contact, no questions, no nothing. That’s usually a very bad sign. But just when it looked like all hope was lost, Dave got a call from his contact at the bank and found out they had finally decided to approve the loan. Fishbowl was the only business to receive an enterprise loan from this bank in the past six months. In the current lending climate, that’s nothing short of a miracle. However, even as one problem was solved, another immediately popped up.

Miracle #4 – The Perfect Month

The bank couldn’t lend the full amount Fishbowl needed. If the company didn’t have the best monthly sales in its history in May, it wouldn’t be able to make up the difference. Dave and Mary put the future of the company into the hands of their employees, hoping they could work hard enough to make one more miracle happen. Their faith was richly rewarded. Not only did Fishbowl have record-breaking sales in May, it followed that up with another of its best months ever in June.

Everything fell into place perfectly to allow Fishbowl to buy back its stock from its previous owner and remain a distinct business entity. When there are this many coincidences taking place, pretty soon you start to realize they’re not coincidences at all. Fishbowl is on solid financial footing and plans to stay that way as it keeps expanding for its next 10 years and beyond!

To see how Fishbowl Inventory can help your business, sign up for a free inventory software demo.