Financing a Small Business: Ryla Teleservices
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This woman represents the many telephone service workers at Ryla Teleservices, a minority-owned call center based in Kennesaw, GA. Ryla provides many excellent employee benefits. |
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The CDVCA Central Fund recently completed a new co-investment with one of its member funds, SJF Ventures. In the deal, CDVCA invested $250,000 in Kennesaw, Georgia-based Ryla Teleservices, a minority-owned call center, providing contact center solutions and business process outsourcing to clients, such as Dun & Bradstreet, LexisNexis, and the State of Louisiana.
Ryla’s original growth financing came in the form of a $500,000 investment by SJF Ventures in 2002. Since it began operations in 2001, the company has expanded to three call centers and currently employs more than 200 people, 20 of which are located in the company’s most recent location in South Providence, Rhode Island.
Ryla shares with its venture investors a commitment to good, sustainable employment practices. The company seeks to create a job environment with reasonable pay; opportunities to advance from within; excellent employee development; and benefits, such as broad-based stock options (put in place with the help of SJF). These benefits have put Ryla’s turnover rate at about 35 percent per year, much lower than competitors who have 70, 80, or even as high as 90 percent turnover. |
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