Hidden Gems: Meet Chris Ronzio of Trainual

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Ronzio. 

Hi Chris, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started a video production company at age 14, and through that experience, I learned what many small business owners are faced with- in order to grow, you have to streamline your processes and make your business less reliant on you. I saw an opportunity once I realized I wasn’t the only entrepreneur facing these issues, so I started a consulting business. I began to notice one common thing plaguing many of our clients- institutional knowledge that remained trapped in the minds of business owners and their employees with no central place to be referenced. Trainual started as something we would offer to wrap up consulting projects, and we soon realized that it was extremely marketable on its own. We went all-in on Trainual in January of 2018 and haven’t looked back since. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have been many bumps along the way, beginning with the decision to launch Trainual as a company. We transitioned from a healthy consulting business to a brand-new software start-up. I took on massive personal credit card debt while we bootstrapped the company in the early days. I also underestimated how difficult it would be to sell software. I was used to sitting down for a half-hour coffee and selling a $10,000 consulting package, and they would give me a check on the spot. When I first started selling Trainual, the process took a lot longer. l would have a demo meeting, and then afterward they would want to schedule another demo with someone from their team, and then they would want to check back the next quarter when they were less busy, etc. All before becoming paying customers. There’s a big difference between selling someone a service vs. selling them a tool that they need to make successful on their own. It took us a while to adjust our sales pitch and to make the product easier to use. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Trainual is a business playbook that encapsulates your company’s story, brand, values, people, roles, responsibilities, policies, and processes in one centralized software, and gets your new hires up to speed quickly, and keeps your existing team aligned on how your business works. 

In growing my first company, I had to stitch together a dozen different products (websites, emails, CRM, quiz builders, database, documents, etc.) to create a system of accountability so that all of my employees were on the same page. Documents lack the accountability required for true training, and sitting down to draft the systems and processes of a business is frankly too hard. Trainual exists to solve that problem. We want to make it easy for every company to capture their how-tos and consistently train their teams, so that time and expertise are no longer an excuse for not creating a playbook. 

A lot of business owners are told to work on their systems and processes with no clear direction on what that means. With Trainual, we’re helping companies make tangible progress on building businesses that work better. As thousands of companies continue to adopt our system around the world, I’m most proud of unifying the community of people that want well-run, well-organized businesses. 

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love how everything out here is wide open, you can see for miles! Even the highways are landscaped beautifully – everything has an intentionality to it, and it all feels so big. It inspires me to want to create something because there are new things being thoughtfully built everywhere in Phoenix. The 300+ days of sunshine help too! 

I love the heat, but if there’s anything that makes it hard to recruit people to relocate here, it’s the summer weather. If I had to pick a negative it’s that I can’t force everyone to move to Phoenix! 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://trainual.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trainual/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/trainual
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/trainual