Hi all,
My Fastlane started started with me, a computer & a pay-as-you-go cheap £10 phone.
Before I start I'd like to say, this isn't to blow my own horn. I want to show people that even with zero knowledge in an industry you can still make it work & succeed.
My background is sales in both the renewable energies and activities "day out" markets. When I created my business I had not read the books, but I had the bug for entrepreneurship. I had been working as a commission only salesperson for multiple firms. I started the business at 23 years old.
I started buying and selling tarmac for a small business in my area and quickly noticed a gap in the market. Jump forward 3 years, I'm now the UK's largest supplier of recycled tarmac, achieved 2.3m turnover last year and am on target for a bigger 2018.
I've lost tens of thousands due to inexperience and schoolboy errors. This wasn't an easy set up, I have commitments I can't get out of (i.e long term contracts). I'm not location independent, nor did I have first movers advantage.
The industry I'm in is highly volatile, govt spending policies, internal company politics & brown paper bags are a big threat.
Here's what I found worked for me...
My Fastlane started started with me, a computer & a pay-as-you-go cheap £10 phone.
Before I start I'd like to say, this isn't to blow my own horn. I want to show people that even with zero knowledge in an industry you can still make it work & succeed.
My background is sales in both the renewable energies and activities "day out" markets. When I created my business I had not read the books, but I had the bug for entrepreneurship. I had been working as a commission only salesperson for multiple firms. I started the business at 23 years old.
I started buying and selling tarmac for a small business in my area and quickly noticed a gap in the market. Jump forward 3 years, I'm now the UK's largest supplier of recycled tarmac, achieved 2.3m turnover last year and am on target for a bigger 2018.
I've lost tens of thousands due to inexperience and schoolboy errors. This wasn't an easy set up, I have commitments I can't get out of (i.e long term contracts). I'm not location independent, nor did I have first movers advantage.
The industry I'm in is highly volatile, govt spending policies, internal company politics & brown paper bags are a big threat.
Here's what I found worked for me...
- Sales are not free, they cost time. I think this is true whatever the industry but if I didn't put the time in to sell the product, it would have failed from the get go. Pick up the phone, turn off any distractions and call.
- Put aside 40% of your working day towards business progression. Its easy to find yourself working for the business rather than on it & this had traditionally been one of my biggest mistakes. I've addressed it in the last 9 months and have made more growth now than in the previous 2 years. My first few hours of the day are on day-to-day operations, after that I'm off to the coffee shop and working on new/different income streams.
- Networking is everything. From Linkedin to charity events, any and all moves I've made have been off the back of my personal relationships with industry leaders.
- Outsourcing is key. When I need marketing material to be made or an ad campaign to be started, I bite the bullet and pay those with experience in those fields. This is HUGE. Spend your time expanding the business, not messing about with photoshop because it looks easy to learn or, watching some youtube video on how to make a wordpress website in 10 easy steps.
- Build your team. Sales is great, usually because its expandable. If you can do it, you can teach it. I now have 15 full time sales agents all happy and committed to the business. I pay my sales team extremely well and they return that with hard work and, yes... sales.
I never expected to be where I am today, don't give up guys, this whole hard work thing does pay off in the end, honest.
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