Here follows a little story about my possible fastlane business. Which didn't turn out the way I and my fellow business partners anticipated, but is still in the slowlane sort of, with a possibility to turn fastlane some time.
The background for starting this, was a great moment to start market vice and a 2 year startup in the same field was just aquired for $6mill USD.
-------------------------
2005
I just moved to a big city, not in US terms, but at a 500k people in the city its considered big. Full of ambitions and with an entrepreneur like mindset and over 10 years of programming experience I was ready to take on my salescareer as my direction in school should have been two years in practice out in the field by now. But only 1-2 people got their practice places out of 45 people, time to get something else to do.
Teamed up with one partner and started talking about the possibilities. He knew two other people doing the same as us by now. Teamed up with them and was four people starting out, with practically zero money in our bank accounts.
Some equipment like VOIP phones connected to laptops and a 10% finished product. We did our salesjob, making up to $5k in sales a day, 5 days a week. Great, we are in business!
Short story, two members didnt get along, one skipped the country and ran away with our hard earned money. Back to zero and we where 3 people. Still high spirit after the setback.
2006
The year started good. We was setup withing my one room apartment. A sleeping couch, 3 desks and a table. The first months for me in that place was like. Up at 7:30, 8:00 to 16:30 telemarketing the business, 17:00 to 24:00 programming and making the product. For a couple of months, until we invested in a lease of a bigger apartment with 1 bedroom and a livingroom, the bedroom became the office. Also had 2 salespeople in there with us, how they accepted that as an working environment is quite strange, but they did Got us enough cash to buy out a neighboors city callcenter with 4 salespeople and started getting bigger. After the summer, we did get a big office for about 15 people downtown, moving all the salespeople there and shut down the operation in the neighbour city. Life is getting better, easier.
2007
Big happenings this year was hiring and firing a lot of people, getting a stable salesforce. Also expanded to a bigger nearby city to get even more salespeople and a new partner after we realised money handling wasnt the CEOs best strength, so we got help.
2008
Upgrading and moving the office in the neighbour city, aquiring a new salesteam, actually had 3 different offices. Sales goes up, all looks good. High spirit!
Big splash party before the summer celebrating before going on vacation.
BOOM: A phonecall from one of the partners. I gotta talk to you. The other partner had left. He was the CEO. Piles of bills, unpaid hidden in his drawers. Bank account empty. We are bankrupt.
It was a hard hit on the EGO, self esteem and the spirit. But a very good situation to learn from. What went wrong, what could have fixed it?
Splashing new fresh beginning. We got some of the people working for us to continue, setup new offices and got going again. A new team of partners, 4 of us. This is going to be great! Expect one of the partners left as other priorities got to the partner.
2009
I was the only one left from the beginning. With all the expertice in the differnt fields, knowing what works and doesnt. Which led me to move the employees to one location. Some had to travel a long way, and quit after doing that for a period of months. But a great new teammember got the spirit really high as he had great salesexperience. But drugs and work dont comply, which led him to actually rob the office of all equipment worth something.
How I discovered this was in the autumn, I opened the office. Walked in to setup coffe and turn on the computers, staring with mine. Oh damn, I forgot the laptop at home. Going into the salesteams office. WHAT? ALL COMPUTERS GONE? After 2 hours, the salesteam had gathered their personal computers, new backup cellphones ready to make sales. Nothing should stop us! I also found out about a great company leasing out computers short time for only some days upto a month or two, delivery time: 1 hour! Big setback but got going again.
2010
It was a quite normal start of the year. Going steady, got some great salespeople, happy customers. Bought out two of the partners because they did everything to destroy my plans, better this way. Also got recruiting, some new people.
The new people rotted themself together, making life a living hell. Phoneterror, not showing up, pressuring us. Its like having someone standing beside you poking your head a 100 times an hour. Not good. They only did this to move out and start a competing company. Finally christmas, some time off as all businesses shut down this part of year.
2011
My team of 3 people still holding in. One brand new and upcoming, one mostly away, but delivering good results when in office and one on an extended vacation after the horrors from last year.
This is also the first year for me as a CEO, total control, I am in the control seat. What direction will I lead this company?
I need more people. I need salesfigures to go up!
I laid a plan. Go to about 10 salespeople, and stumbled into a great system to keep activity on the salespeople up. Everything went fine, I should have done this when I started out. Or should I, everything up until this point have teached me a lot, maybe thats why I get this to such a great level?!
Almost all of 2011 went just fine. Learning more about accounting, excerciesed regularly to keep my energy, motivation and brain working at peak. Nothing of the past should be a stopper.
2012
It starts out well, some members of the team quits after a year of this telemarketing business. Most people do it for 1 to 2 years, the rest quits before, and stayers do it for life! Because they make good money and knows whats getting their numbers high, its a no stress for them.
I tried recruiting some more poeple to fill the empty spaces, only to be disappointed when they didnt make it. Now I am almost back to zero.
Got a team of 4 people, and recruiting once more. Just like Jack Edwards I think with his callcenter operation in one of the progress threads.
---------------------------------------
So why do I write all of this. I want to show people that there can be setbacks, no, there will be setbacks in any business. But what you do with them are what makes or breaks you and your business. I am now able to see this things coming, eliminating them. But one point I forgot or didnt realise in 2011 was to recruit even more when I had "enough" people.
My advice from my experience to others starting out:
-Keep going when you get setbacks
-Dont listen to a shit, after one employee lies about something significant, get them out.
-Be able to keep a few key employees, on the inside stuff, be your spokespersons to others
-Treat people that perform well good, have something in mind for them with promotions, extra bonuses it will make others stribe for it and them on your good side
-Read a lot of books when you get setbacks, other people have experienced it before. Learn from them on how to deal with it.
-Be the CEO. Be in control. Are you not a good manager, hire someone, but be their leader. They should follow your directions. Get rid of any team or members working against you. But if someone has better ideas than you, let them grow. But not if they only stop yours and got nothing themselves.
Afterword:
I want to get some feedback on my story. I want to keep pursuing this business. The only thing keeping me from it is time. I will now recruit until I got twice the people I had in 2011, which enables me to get a manager to free me up to pursue more business. As I get requested of such at least twice a month, based on what people know of me.
I now have a few thousands of customers, got their email, adress, phone. And I am researching how to help them more, by creating a few more products to sell them to get to the next level. I want a product which they will pay a montly fee on, not a 1 year service like now.
I need a mentor that has accomplished millions in revenue. And whats better than this forum? Thats also one of the reasons I have written this.
Hope you like it!
The background for starting this, was a great moment to start market vice and a 2 year startup in the same field was just aquired for $6mill USD.
-------------------------
2005
I just moved to a big city, not in US terms, but at a 500k people in the city its considered big. Full of ambitions and with an entrepreneur like mindset and over 10 years of programming experience I was ready to take on my salescareer as my direction in school should have been two years in practice out in the field by now. But only 1-2 people got their practice places out of 45 people, time to get something else to do.
Teamed up with one partner and started talking about the possibilities. He knew two other people doing the same as us by now. Teamed up with them and was four people starting out, with practically zero money in our bank accounts.
Some equipment like VOIP phones connected to laptops and a 10% finished product. We did our salesjob, making up to $5k in sales a day, 5 days a week. Great, we are in business!
Short story, two members didnt get along, one skipped the country and ran away with our hard earned money. Back to zero and we where 3 people. Still high spirit after the setback.
2006
The year started good. We was setup withing my one room apartment. A sleeping couch, 3 desks and a table. The first months for me in that place was like. Up at 7:30, 8:00 to 16:30 telemarketing the business, 17:00 to 24:00 programming and making the product. For a couple of months, until we invested in a lease of a bigger apartment with 1 bedroom and a livingroom, the bedroom became the office. Also had 2 salespeople in there with us, how they accepted that as an working environment is quite strange, but they did
Got us enough cash to buy out a neighboors city callcenter with 4 salespeople and started getting bigger. After the summer, we did get a big office for about 15 people downtown, moving all the salespeople there and shut down the operation in the neighbour city. Life is getting better, easier.2007
Big happenings this year was hiring and firing a lot of people, getting a stable salesforce. Also expanded to a bigger nearby city to get even more salespeople and a new partner after we realised money handling wasnt the CEOs best strength, so we got help.
2008
Upgrading and moving the office in the neighbour city, aquiring a new salesteam, actually had 3 different offices. Sales goes up, all looks good. High spirit!
Big splash party before the summer celebrating before going on vacation.
BOOM: A phonecall from one of the partners. I gotta talk to you. The other partner had left. He was the CEO. Piles of bills, unpaid hidden in his drawers. Bank account empty. We are bankrupt.
It was a hard hit on the EGO, self esteem and the spirit. But a very good situation to learn from. What went wrong, what could have fixed it?
Splashing new fresh beginning. We got some of the people working for us to continue, setup new offices and got going again. A new team of partners, 4 of us. This is going to be great! Expect one of the partners left as other priorities got to the partner.
2009
I was the only one left from the beginning. With all the expertice in the differnt fields, knowing what works and doesnt. Which led me to move the employees to one location. Some had to travel a long way, and quit after doing that for a period of months. But a great new teammember got the spirit really high as he had great salesexperience. But drugs and work dont comply, which led him to actually rob the office of all equipment worth something.
How I discovered this was in the autumn, I opened the office. Walked in to setup coffe and turn on the computers, staring with mine. Oh damn, I forgot the laptop at home. Going into the salesteams office. WHAT? ALL COMPUTERS GONE? After 2 hours, the salesteam had gathered their personal computers, new backup cellphones ready to make sales. Nothing should stop us! I also found out about a great company leasing out computers short time for only some days upto a month or two, delivery time: 1 hour!
Big setback but got going again.2010
It was a quite normal start of the year. Going steady, got some great salespeople, happy customers. Bought out two of the partners because they did everything to destroy my plans, better this way. Also got recruiting, some new people.
The new people rotted themself together, making life a living hell. Phoneterror, not showing up, pressuring us. Its like having someone standing beside you poking your head a 100 times an hour. Not good. They only did this to move out and start a competing company. Finally christmas, some time off as all businesses shut down this part of year.
2011
My team of 3 people still holding in. One brand new and upcoming, one mostly away, but delivering good results when in office and one on an extended vacation after the horrors from last year.
This is also the first year for me as a CEO, total control, I am in the control seat. What direction will I lead this company?
I need more people. I need salesfigures to go up!
I laid a plan. Go to about 10 salespeople, and stumbled into a great system to keep activity on the salespeople up. Everything went fine, I should have done this when I started out. Or should I, everything up until this point have teached me a lot, maybe thats why I get this to such a great level?!
Almost all of 2011 went just fine. Learning more about accounting, excerciesed regularly to keep my energy, motivation and brain working at peak. Nothing of the past should be a stopper.
2012
It starts out well, some members of the team quits after a year of this telemarketing business. Most people do it for 1 to 2 years, the rest quits before, and stayers do it for life! Because they make good money and knows whats getting their numbers high, its a no stress for them.
I tried recruiting some more poeple to fill the empty spaces, only to be disappointed when they didnt make it. Now I am almost back to zero.
Got a team of 4 people, and recruiting once more. Just like Jack Edwards I think with his callcenter operation in one of the progress threads.
---------------------------------------
So why do I write all of this. I want to show people that there can be setbacks, no, there will be setbacks in any business. But what you do with them are what makes or breaks you and your business. I am now able to see this things coming, eliminating them. But one point I forgot or didnt realise in 2011 was to recruit even more when I had "enough" people.
My advice from my experience to others starting out:
-Keep going when you get setbacks
-Dont listen to a shit, after one employee lies about something significant, get them out.
-Be able to keep a few key employees, on the inside stuff, be your spokespersons to others
-Treat people that perform well good, have something in mind for them with promotions, extra bonuses it will make others stribe for it and them on your good side
-Read a lot of books when you get setbacks, other people have experienced it before. Learn from them on how to deal with it.
-Be the CEO. Be in control. Are you not a good manager, hire someone, but be their leader. They should follow your directions. Get rid of any team or members working against you. But if someone has better ideas than you, let them grow. But not if they only stop yours and got nothing themselves.
Afterword:
I want to get some feedback on my story. I want to keep pursuing this business. The only thing keeping me from it is time. I will now recruit until I got twice the people I had in 2011, which enables me to get a manager to free me up to pursue more business. As I get requested of such at least twice a month, based on what people know of me.
I now have a few thousands of customers, got their email, adress, phone. And I am researching how to help them more, by creating a few more products to sell them to get to the next level. I want a product which they will pay a montly fee on, not a 1 year service like now.
I need a mentor that has accomplished millions in revenue. And whats better than this forum? Thats also one of the reasons I have written this.
Hope you like it!
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