Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRevenue growth FY 2022 to 2024: 109.06%
2024 revenue: $3.44 million
Beginnings: Rachel Leslie started Terre Haute-based RJL Solutions eight years ago as an advocacy and lobbying business with the goal of influencing positive change in west-central Indiana. “I recognized that there was an opportunity for the region to be more competitive,” she said. “I’m from Terre Haute, so the region is certainly important to me.”
From there: Over time, Leslie has expanded the firm’s offerings, getting into marketing and communications, then grant writing, then, over the last two years, adding economic development and association management services. She compares the additions to the children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” “The community sees, or the client sees, an opportunity to do something good, and they celebrate a success—and then they want more.”
Successes: RJL initially was Leslie herself; today, she has 24 full-time employees. Their work has included marketing and communications for the Larry Bird Museum in Terre Haute, a government relations effort to pass a food and beverage tax to fund construction of a convention center in Terre Haute, and working with the Indiana Ironworkers Political Action Committee to get the General Assembly to pass a law that steel welds on public works projects be performed only by welders certified by the American Welding Society.
Getting here: Leslie spent the first 7-1/2 years of her career at the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, then worked at the vice presidential level for Saint Mary of the Woods College before starting RJL. “It didn’t take me very long to figure out how to lead. It certainly took me a minute to figure out how to run a business.”
Their advantage: Leslie said RJL differentiates itself by having a 3-to-1 ratio of clients to full-time employees. “It allows us to be fast-moving and meet the current needs of our clients.” Leslie said RJL will continue to grow by “doing more of what we’re doing today. We’re in an environment all the time that’s changing both from an economic perspective and a political perspective. Our job is to try to understand what’s happening, educate our clients and help them get things accomplished in real time. That can be exceptionally challenging because things are so fast-moving, but I would say it’s worked for us.”•
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