Diary of Opening A New Business

[theag]

No, it's a paid subscription, pick it up here, I just did today!. (No, this is not an affilaiate link ) https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/payments.php

I think you didnt get my joke (or I dont get your response..)

 

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[1PercentStreet]

You don't know? On this site, there are INSIDERS and there are outsiders.. You right now are an outsider.. where as I am an INSIDERS..

You can become an INSIDERS, there is a button somewhere.

If anyone read this thread and doesn't join the call... well... I have no nice words to say to them.
Looking forward to it!

 

[JEdwards]

If anyone read this thread and doesn't join the call... well... I have no nice words to say to them.
Looking forward to it!

Me too.. I think it is going to be very informative.

 

[wade1mil]

Me too.. I think it is going to be very informative.

You're supposed to save #9 for the call

 

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[theBiz]

Is there really a phone conference or is it sarcasm?

 

[wade1mil]

Is there really a phone conference or is it sarcasm?

Vigilante started a monthly INSIDERS call. He hosted the call last month and JackEdwards is hosting it this month. We have one scheduled for each of the next two months as well.

 

[JAJT]

I just subscribed.

First time doing ANYTHING like this but my thinking has been changed. If I want to be successful I need to start investing in myself. I've purchased a LOT of nice things in the past and none of those nice things have done anything to help me be successful.

It's amazing how I used to drop my trousers for a fancy poster, a video game, a luxurious meal, great food/beer/wine, and other impulse items without batting an eye but the second I'm faced with the choice to learn something for a price I put up my mental walls, grip my wallet tightly and figure out every reason in the world not to go for it. Such stupid thinking.

Even if I only had a 20% chance of learning something from every course, book and subscription I paid for (which is an insanely low %, it's probably more like 80% even with the trash courses) I would still be putting myself in positions to get lucky and find real gems of wisdom. I may learn nothing by taking these chances, but I'll certainly learn nothing by not trying.

My friends laugh at me quite regularly for the professional books I own. One even held up MJ's book and gave me the stinkeye, like I was reading 50 Shades of Grey or something. They think I'm wasting time and money when all they can talk about is the next Gears of War achievement and how great the new Batman film is.

I can't wait until they start asking me "how did you do it?" and when I start explaining they will get that glossed-over look like when I tell them how I lost weight. "Oh, work was involved? Never-mind."

 

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[andviv]

It's amazing how I used to drop my trousers for ... great food/beer/wine
...
the second I'm faced with the choice to learn something for a price

You are correct, this happens to a lot of people.

In this case, it is very easy... this cost as much as 1 beer at a restaurant.

That's it.

1 beer less at a bar, once a month, and the subscription is paid off.

 

[JAJT]

Now I wait patiently for MJ to wake up and accept my money so I can open the locked door

 

[OnePerCent]

My friends laugh at me quite regularly for the professional books I own. One even held up MJ's book and gave me the stinkeye, like I was reading 50 Shades of Grey or something. They think I'm wasting time and money when all they can talk about is the next Gears of War achievement and how great the new Batman film is.

I can't wait until they start asking me "how did you do it?" and when I start explaining they will get that glossed-over look like when I tell them how I lost weight. "Oh, work was involved? Never-mind."

Success will give you better and new friends.
You are on the good path because you already visualize the outcome.
Maybe one day your old friends will ask you for a job.

 

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[andviv]

how great the new Batman film is

well, it is....

I can't wait until they start asking me "how did you do it?" and when I start explaining they will get that glossed-over look like when I tell them how I lost weight. "Oh, work was involved? Never-mind."

Don't.

I consider this to be a waste of energy and the wrong attitude.

Maybe phrases like "I can't wait to succeed." or "I am looking forward to learn new things" are more productive.

You probably did not lose weight to tell them "look how amazing I am". You probably did it because you told yourself you wanted and were willing to do whatever it took, no?

 

[Lucas Reis]

Note about me: I have been a serial entrepreneur for over 20 years, started a small business when I was 20, with no money (no parents money either, they asked me for money), it worked, thank god, (I have not had a boss for 20 years) I have owned a lot of businesses, from a bunch of retail stores, to a huge wholesale operation with 60 employees, then another wholesale operation in a total different industry just to see if I could. ( Also the bad, I have spent at least 1 million over the years trying businesses I should have never gone into, I did it because I thought I was smart, I lost a lot of money, but learned a lot)

Hi JE,

I'm sorry if I missed something in this topic, but can you share us any insight or experience in you mistakes, bad/good decisions?

thank you very much for sharing this topic with us.

 

[Lucas Adams]

Hi Jack


How is things going with your new business? Just curious. It's been 9 months.

Thanks.

Lucas

 

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[djchoongjae]

I'm a newcomer to the forum, and Jack's post is the first one I happened across. It's like reading a suspense novel, except everything is really happening. Can't wait for the next update Jack!

 

[jon.a]

Thank you Jack

 

[PriceAction]

Wow Jack.. Awesome thread.. Just noticed it.. Looking forward to hearing more..

 

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[ITA]

Jack, could we get more specifics in terms of numbers? How much is the payroll? How much revenues/profits are you making at this point (and at other milestones in the past)? It would be nice to see that, ok, after xx months you are making xyz amount. I just read the entire thread and there is no indication of the scale of growth in hard numbers.

Not trying to be a dick, of course I'm grateful for the thread and I'm not even asking for what the niche is, I don' think that is important. But more numbers would be nice.

Also, digging an old post of yours from early last year:

90% of the time though, I come in at 10, leave at 1 or so. But it is getting to the point were I feel I got a pretty good shot here so I might start working all day. For a while.

I'm curious why that was? Was it that
(1) you were busy on other things
(2) you couldn't be bothered to work harder at the time after taking it easy for a while
(3) you purposefully didn't want to be too present to let the managers grow into their job and "let the system build itself" so to speak

From what I understand, it's a mix of 2 and 3, am I right?

 

[Synergy]

Geese,

I remember reading this post when it first came out. Now it has been a while and I haven't been on the site as much as I like and this shows up. Brings back memories of reading it before. Great Thread.

 

[Jab]

This thread is amazing Jack, thank you so much. Hope to hear some updates soon!

 

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[Rick_MD]

Guess I am a couple of Fridays too late in reading this thread. Will it also be available as a recording later?

Originally Posted by 1PercentStreet
If anyone read this thread and doesn't join the call... well... I have no nice words to say to them.
Looking forward to it!
Me too.. I think it is going to be very informative.

 

[Rick_MD]

Hi Jack,

I have just read this thread in the last two evenings. Wow!

And now I sit here waiting for the cliff hanger to continue.

The suspense is killin me... :cuss: issed: jk Keep up the great posts! :eusa_clap:

 

[s168]

This is one of the few long threads I've read from start to finish. Really great read.

I know of a guy (let's call him Samuel) who has done what JackEdwards is doing, but in a B2C perspective. Samuel is a UK based guy, same as me, and I have watched in the space of just a few short years create a sales team from scratch to making sales of around £20m (US $32m+) in 2011, of which he pocketed some £3m of that. The rest were paid out as salaries and commissions to his team of telesales staff plus other expenses. Oh, and Samuel turned 32 this year.

I know of the businesses Samuel does, and I don't support it from a sales and business ethics standpoint. That aside, I see many parallels with what Samuel does and what JackEdwards has done in this thread. Samuel worked for someone else in telesales, and was making a LOT of money. He has no formal qualifications, and has even been in jail for a short time when he was in his early twenties. At some point, he figured the business model was so simple and profitable that he can do it himself... and so he did. And the rest was history.

If I were to summarise his process and methods, it is essentially very simple to describe but much harder to implement. He knew of a niche market selling products (there was no need for a large warehouse and the products didn't need to be stored and shipped out), he had worked in it so he knows the sales pitch including opening and closing approaches, and the he knew how to get hold of targeted prospects to call that matched what he was offering... and the big thing here is the profit margin was absolutely huge! So, after that, it was a simple case of developing the sales pitch to a repeatable script, train the sales team and have some managers hired in that he can rely on to manage the staff, and get them to make calls all day long. It was a numbers game, pure and simple. In terms of improvements made since the early days, he has tried different things to make the business more effective and profitable. Some ideas worked, some didn't. He abandoned the ones that didn't work when he had enough evidence that it wasn't working and stuck with the changes that helped his bottom line. An example of something that didn't work was him hiring a sales team of 60+ people based in the Philippines as they were cheaper but it seems that the UK potential customers just didn't take to the clearly non-native accent not to mention that fact that there are other subtle nuances that made it more difficult to 'click' with someone who isn't from the same home soil. He trialled that for a few months and it wasn't working so he called it a day. An example of something that did work was using automated diallers. You can apparently obtain software that would auto-dial a database of phone numbers for you. This meant that his sales staff were not having to physically dial numbers, so it sped that aspect of the business up. Auto-dialling meant no mistakes by human operators, and no delays from slow dialling either. Even an average saving of 10-15 seconds adds up to a lot of time when you consider that he has 50+ sales staff working 5-6 days a week for 8-10 hours a day.

I remember hearing that Samuel borrowed money from his family, around £70k (US $112k) to start off, but he wanted to start off big. I'm sure he could've done it with much less money and he would still get to where he is today albeit a bit slower, but he wanted to ramp up right from the start. I wouldn't personally recommend this strategy for any newbie entrepreneurs, but for Samuel it was much less of a risk due to his background in the same niche.

Ultimately, I've come to realise that it really doesn't matter what you sell so long as there is a market for what you sell. Whereas it would be interesting to learn what JackEdwards actually sells, I don't think it is important at all. If you have genuine demand for your product or services, it is simply a case of finding the most commercially-effective ways of getting yourself in front of those people... ideally at a time when they are ready to buy. Whether that be telesales, JV's with other businesses, online campaigns, or other methods I don't think it matters.

JackEdwards is supplying a niche market with a high profit margin product that has multiple income possibilities. One-off sales, repeat sales, sales with service and support, or service and support only. There is already demand for what he is offering, so it is a proven market. But what he has is something better than what is out there, probably not massively better, but better in enough ways for enough of the people his sales team calls to do business with his company to generate a tidy profit.

Well, that's my take on it anyway! Great thread you started Jack! And thanks to MJ for his newsletter emails because without them I would not have know about this thread.

 

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[Xyros]

Very nice thread! This must be one of the greatest threads I have ever read... Because this basicly sums up everything that you need to know starting a business.
Thanks JackEdwards, I had to throw away 5 business books because this thread had more than enough info in it.

It's funny how everyone wants to know what you sell and what you offer, but you already stated that it doesn't really matter what you sell, because I bet you can do this with any good/decent product or service out there.
You just have to be better, smarter and faster then the competiton.. You don't necessarily have to have the cheapest price or the best product out there to create a successful business.

People should focus more on creating a successful business instead of trying to have success.

I was wondering how much your budget was when you first started your first company which generated the first million...
And did you start with the same strategy as with this new company? To expand fast with hiring employees.

 

[JEdwards]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Things are going very well. Our main office is now over 6k sq feet, and I control about 75k feet in warehouse space. Soon to be 200k. Still hope to be bought out in a year or so, have added a zero to what I expect.

Lot of work still to do, I have taken the biz into new directions I didn't even consider when we opened.

I was wondering how much your budget was when you first started your first company which generated the first million...
And did you start with the same strategy as with this new company? To expand fast with hiring employees.

We started the first business in 1991 with $3,500 bucks. Not my money either. Not the same method, I was just lucky to be at the right place at the right time on that one.

 

[Mike39]

JackEdwards \/

:roi:

Me^

 

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[theBiz]

I'm so impressed that its discouraging. 200,000 sq ft? Does anyone realize how big that is? Jack I didn't realize your sales people were leasing out jets hahah. I remember two years ago hearing that was a new hot industry. I was actually given the "opportunity" to work for this new company and I should have jumped on it..... They had a "black book" of celebs and super wealthy after all.

Here is just 150k square ft

Here is a 6,000 sq ft.

More impressively this is all done without marketing on the internet.... im sure much less stress that way. Great.


S168...I recently spoke to someone doing some biz opp scam that said automated tele sales was doing well for them. When they told me the numbers I couldn't believe it... Especially because it was crap but they defined the market... And did a ton of automated calls. They were netting thousands per week from it from the figures I did. Most of the initial biters got upsold for a couple grand for information products ( 90%+ net profit margin usually).

 

[s168]

I'm so impressed that its discouraging. 200,000 sq ft? Does anyone realize how big that is?

According to my calculations, that makes it 71 and 1/4 full sized doubles tennis courts. Or almost 15 Olympic swimming pools. That is HUGE. JackEdwards is clearly NOT selling paperclips. Unless they are the size of buses.

S168...I recently spoke to someone doing some biz opp scam that said automated tele sales was doing well for them. When they told me the numbers I couldn't believe it... Especially because it was crap but they defined the market... And did a ton of automated calls. They were netting thousands per week from it from the figures I did. Most of the initial biters got upsold for a couple grand for information products ( 90%+ net profit margin usually).

Thousands per week? Doesn't sound like a very big business but probably a very good income for that biz opp person nevertheless. This "Samuel" guy I refer to... he was generating average sales of just under £390k (~US $620k+) a week. High ticket items, with a minimum order of £3k although some buyers buy a lot more than that, like £100k+ in a single transaction. And yes, all that in the middle of a recession.

One thing I can tell from what Samuel did, is that once he got a small sale from someone, it often resulted in more backend sales which were often of much larger sums. Samuel was driving a Mercedes SLK when I first met him. I last saw him drive a black Bentley continental supersports convertible a few months ago, which is £180k I think. Serious money.

Just goes to show doesn't it? Put your effort into something and you can reap the rewards. The keys are market demand and decent profit margins. The rest is just time and leverage.

 

[Rawr]

Thousands per week? Doesn't sound like a very big business but probably a very good income for that biz opp person nevertheless. This "Samuel" guy I refer to... he was generating average sales of just under £390k (~US $620k+) a week. High ticket items, with a minimum order of £3k although some buyers buy a lot more than that, like £100k+ in a single transaction. And yes, all that in the middle of a recession.

Wait, minimum order of $5k USD to customers? Where the hell did he get THAT list?


You want a business that is huge profit? Calling to "raise money" for the politics. After you buy your list, and I am sure a percentage to the actual RNC or whoever, you pocket $$$$$.

 

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[s168]

Wait, minimum order of $5k USD to customers? Where the hell did he get THAT list?

He doesn't buy lists from list brokers as far as I know. In my experience most of these lists are overly abused anyway which dilutes its value. What Samuel does is build his own lists from different sources. There are a variety of ways to build your own lists from scratch, at no or low cost, which are better quality than what you can buy from these list brokers. At least the lists you build this way are unique to you and no-one else will have these identical ones. The trick is to match that list to what you are offering to the marketplace. Most of his customers are at least half-millionaires in net worth.

 

[Bond]

He doesn't buy lists from list brokers as far as I know. In my experience most of these lists are overly abused anyway which dilutes its value. What Samuel does is build his own lists from different sources. There are a variety of ways to build your own lists from scratch, at no or low cost, which are better quality than what you can buy from these list brokers. At least the lists you build this way are unique to you and no-one else will have these identical ones. The trick is to match that list to what you are offering to the marketplace. Most of his customers are at least half-millionaires in net worth.

My guess "Samuel" sells high end clothing (suits, etc) and accessories(shoes, bags, watches, etc)...

Edit: Reading below my guess he's selling something in the financial market...