The reason is, I believe that like other great speakers and writers all say, if I can do it, so can you. There's really no secret to it all the success, or just getting there, it has the right attitude, and after the program (step by step). As I say, "there", what exactly does that mean, it could mean no more credit debt and you can save or invest money for your future, you work for yourself or your own business, not more punch clock, you are successful investor or real estate investor, or are you just happy doing what you love to do and not worry what others think.
to young families, we need a place to live. Within a few hours in the local newspaper, I found the owner carry with $ 5000 down. We were the first call, and we took off to the address immediately.
When we got home it was perfect, and we wanted it. David the owner told us that he needed the money that night and sign the contract agreement, and then go on to headline the next day. And of course, talked his ear off, and even chatted up business ideas that has come and gone from my head over the past years. David was fascinated by the telling of my story and told me I should read this book, Robert Kiyosaki "Rich Dad, Poor Dad ".
I started listening to radio talk shows during my work more after David was telling me that I had a sense of business sense. I started to buy some books on the talk show host who focuses on business and money, but found them to be a bit confusing. I guess the confusion is the lack of any financial education they've had many of my parents and / or public education.
My wife bought me a book for 3 months later for Christmas, because she says she could not understand what we give. I read the book and I began to think hard, as a truck driver, what is the idea that many thought would spark the mission to move from being an employee, and only keep about half my paycheck until the end of the year, owning a business and not have to work all the time.
My wife bought me a book for 3 months later for Christmas, because she says she could not understand what we give. I read the book and I began to think hard, as a truck driver, what is the idea that many thought would spark the mission to move from being an employee, and only keep about half my paycheck until the end of the year, owning a business and not have to work all the time.
Then one night I was listening to the radio driving back and forth from LA or Orange County, they talked Danielle Van Dam missing child case that occurred in San Diego in 2002, and they really did not have that big of identification in time. Bam, it hit me, I could not wait to come back and talk about Frank if I could write this identification program for children. He said he could do it and immediately went to work to build a program just for that.
Over the next few weeks, it's interesting how things and people just meet to make things happen. My wife had a few demo CDs sitting on my desk in place of her curves, because it shows a lady detective in what we created and gave her a sample. The detective took it back to work, and when he called the next day, we were invited to the fair security for the city and we could charge for our product when everything else was free.
lady entered the same day and was asking for money or anything for a fundraiser she went up. She saw a CD ID, and went nuts and asked how to get involved. She was the first computer program system we put together and sold. Then, the person who takes delivery came the next day and saw this product and went nuts, thinking as a salesman and could sell this product all day long.
Remember, at that time, we had the best program and the gumption to make it all happen. We could not afford the fancy of the questionnaire, so we had three documents for the page that is linked. We just could not afford a fancy laptop system, and the center are the remedy in this big house computer system with monitor and all monster. shopping center was not too bad, we broke even with compensation to be there and the safety of the fair have made about $ 400 a day.
Then it hit, Bob was back in Pennsylvania with a bunch of people who wanted this system, but again they were asking questions like, do you have a contract and a territory. So, when it was slow a few times, Bob was asked about some other options that he had met in Oregon, so they started to mention the Federal Trade Commission and the biz OPS and franchise contracts. So Bob went to the owner to show and asked about it and got the phone number for contact as written contracts and the like. In the meantime, we had four groups of people who wanted the system is very bad, and we just had to let them know that we are now just there to see the answer and that our contracts are completed. Also a couple from Oregon called and wanted the system, but they have been getting together the contract because it will prove to be too much.
Return to the home front, I'm frantically trying to explore all these new terms, calling on Attorney biz Ups and franchising agreements, which are now desperately need to sell to these groups. We obviously fell into the franchise group, because we had a trade name and offered to help. The problem is that they all wanted to do $ 50,000 for making this and to register in California, which is where we were operating out of.
Although the study it all and then my new vendors come home after a hectic weekend, he gave me the number to call. I think this lady may charge less than lawyers, which I called the previous week. Incredibly it was super nice and loved my mission and products, but it is still about $ 14,000. I had about half of its fee at hand, and then discovered that we need to review, set up a corporation to register in California, and from which all this could take 3 months or longer. I was shocked and wondered how many of four would like to wait so long. We sent out letters and called them immediately about what will come. I thought that before they would be willing to wait.
we left off, beginning with Wyoming Corporation, taking the accountant to audit due to a deposit account, and getting details of Lady writing a business off our documents. We decided to throw together a license agreement, which failed to protect me all that much, but is it legal to sell them. I should have sold a few end up paying for all this cause my wife and I had maxed the credit and need to start paying off these debts. In the end we gave a huge piece of farm (territory) to a group of ladies in Pennsylvania, and agreed to sign a franchise agreement when we ended up getting registered. second hemmed and hawed about the rules of contract and slowly they all went the other way.
While the road to getting registered is happening, we were busy getting a job, project areas, business plans, and finalize the operating system. My dealer started booking daycares and schools to make our system a little more believable when he asked: "What you have done. " We are still going to daycares pulling our great home computer set-up, because we could not afford another laptop system still love it. My wife's friend has been going to school and socializing with people with a portable system, we get her to pay.
I was able to get a local driving time and again for about 5 extra hours per day Safe Kids on the card, but tired as hell. When I started to get burned out, I had to decide to just quit and go for it, or just slack off a bit. We put one up to two inches ad in USA Today with more than 2 million readers, and we assume at least one percent would contact us. We had a whopping 90 contacts, no sales occurred, and the loss of thousands of dollars.
LA County Fair was coming up, but I did not have any money left when it came time to register. My father in law knew what I was thinking of doing and we went down to the last minute to see if it's too late to book. We missed for 4 hours, but I went ahead and signed up for the Arizona State Fair next week and quit my job for good. I figured with the amount of traffic in the fair brochure, we could sell a ton of identification CDs. Justin decided to go for it too much and left his job as a security guard to never look back.
We planned all week for the event, and off we went to Arizona. We had a great location near the entrance and the foot traffic was worse than a weekend swap meet and were not buying anything from anyone. Oriental massage tables were the only ones taking any action, and they are still not all that busy. I had other vendors tell me that it made more in one day in LA County Fair from 8 days we were 17 days in the Arizona Market. The whole show was kind of a bad taste in the air and top it off, had a police patrol only to control the gangs. It's not fair that I remember from four years earlier, when I went on a weekend.
My boyfriend Justin computer and I started to fight about going home, and I even threatened to put him on the bus. I do not give up and was going to stick it out, even though we only sold a few ID every day to buy our food and pay for the hotel. The next day we went home never go to the fair again, at least one. So now the house, broke and unemployed, we had to get busy. We finally got our contracts done and are registered and we ended up just selling group of ladies in Pennsylvania. They, although I did buy some extra territory that helped to finish account of our franchise documents and the like. Now, six months from conception to launch the process, we worked daycares and small schools to get some cash flow going again from our losses.
working forward on our business revelation, has a business plan, and the type of knowledge that is to be sold now, we had to raise some capital money to go to the International Franchise Show in Washington DC. It was going to be a show and we did it, and a brochure saying that more than 25,000 people looking for work to begin with, we were able to hook at least a handful. I printed the business plan and gave all of my family and friends and we have sold about $ 20,000 in stock certificates in our company. This paid for the show, travel expenses, our booth display that I built with PVC pipe and sewed the background and I table skirts. I think all of those jobs growing up, I was able to solve anything. We also joined the International Franchise Association on a two year contract, so that we could get additional discounts for this event. Another organization we joined the group of Frans Vet to advertise all the participating franchises on this web site to give a discount if you buy a franchise business.
Justin had more time to work and just finished Adults and Pet ID CD-ROM program for this event. We also had in the last few months, gained a few newspaper articles and a letter from California Senator saying she loved our product. We planned it all, have a special room for a mini-presentation, after the show for people who wanted more information to more than 10,000 leaflets out of hand. The first day was packed, and we had Cottonmouth bad, but the response was great. I met so many people to sell their franchises and learn more about business and how it all works.
Thinking that it was right, handing out tons of invitations to our presentation night, we had only one person show up. That poor man, and we are just about to beat him for the purchase of our business. We must have looked so desperate, I scared him off. It's not a good start, the next day of our competition that sells plastic ID was bad mouthing us and show the organization are to warn them with bad business practices. I learned long ago that trying to restore does not work, and can only make it worse for all parties, so we left the show to deal with them. The rest of the show seemed to go smoothly, but we were definitely tired of standing 8 hours a day.
We finished the show looking over our contact page and a few others asking what they thought and collectively, we all felt there were 25,000 people who showed up. We asked around and finally found out that only 6,000 people showed up. show producers thought that was a tremendous turnout, but gave an excuse that the increased threat to airlines and travel in the U.S. is the cause of low turnover. Asking about other franchisors, they said it was a good turn out. I was a little confused, because it was our first big show, which cost more than $ 13,000 to go.
We went home and called leads, again and again. My dealer Bob was getting discouraged, then we have sold two franchises in more than 300 leads. So, we took to get to go to more shows, which sold around 2 concessions per show, sometimes none. There really was no rhyme or reason, just had to find the right person (s) who wanted to be in this industry. show circuit is expensive, and you are competing with very little biz OPS (work that you put your name and get little or no support after purchase), and they have quite a bit less expensive.
So, over the next two years we have developed and worked on the sale of franchises the way professionals are showing us through the weekend mini-presentations and meetings. These events were not exactly cheap either, but one in particular after one year of operation, we went to San Francisco with about 30 other franchisors in the group. I showed up for this event, a half-day meeting with some pretty big concessions that have been around for awhile. I was asked by a co-founder Brian how many concessions I had, because he knew that I was kind of new for the industry as a whole. Then I told him that he was nine and had a few close soon and that I thought I was not growing fast enough. He struck me asking how long I can remember back when I heard the Post Net, and I said, about 5 years ago. He then went on to let me know that he actually has been around for more than 14 years and was shocked that I have that many in my first year. He also told me that nearly 10 of those years, to get a real feel good and make good money. After this conversation, I felt way better than how we as a company grows and more focused on the dynamics of what we can offer and build on, rather than adding more franchises. That next year we have added over 20 more concessions and more next year with the International Master Licence to boot.
We were always finding ways to stay ahead of, or change what is a traditional market and go in a different direction to product development. We were within about 6 months from the fact that our competitors have been following our lead. It is said to be a compliment, but I found it to be irritating. I was feeling that we were spending so much time and energy to the new process, web design, product, or to find our competitors just trying to copy us within this month. I was with them at a very expensive advertising rates, and not really going faster. I promised not to go to another trade show, as they have not done anything for us other than breaking even and do another show.
Our marketing skills improved very little, because we are circling around half of our salary in the range of operations. We tried an ad here and another here in various publications, and we were always told that you put in at least 13 times to get a response. You should have at least twelve thousand dollars a year by the publication in order to get to accomplish and that would be 3 to 4 inches of ads, and black and white to boot. Every time I though I try to date the end result was always the same, one or two calls or leads. It was not very good ROI (return on investment). Once you start to place ads in the publication, they start to call you, even the radio. So, we tried worked, and this is the bomb. You can learn quite a bit when you are spending hard earned money is not money grow on tree, but you can also get more creative.
I found out that there are free to post some big name web sites attached to national magazines. You must do the legwork and a little after that in, you're in. All of a sudden after one of these free loans, taking our online info to put up, they are part of running a journal with a handful of franchises in every industry. We were one of four in our section, and we have received about 100 good leads and closed on three of them. It did not cost us much, only about 1 to 2 hours of preparation and about 4 bucks in postage. I also began to see what my competition is advertising and found that the search engine placement, web site is getting traffic on our competitors' advertising. For example, someone would be reading Small Business Magazine magazine, see their ad, then go to the internet to research on the identification of a child as a whole. We have also begun talking with potential franchisees, where they heard about us and where they learned about the industry in general.
Just as I was getting the hang of multiple responses using the internet keyword and search engine, they sent out invitations for an event in Los Angeles, the first concert there in more than 5 years. I had a ton of areas for development in and around LA and not listening experience, I signed up for this event. It's still a $ 10,000 event, but I felt that I could sell at least 4 or 5 concessions, because I was now in its third year, my yard, beating the odds for a new business concept. Your thoughts, forget I never ever going to another show and learning from my mistakes in it. Well, it was a very busy show and over again rated as how many actually came. show had more visitors seeking information on their web site than on the show. I was still disappointed in the decision to go, but we eventually sold 4 concessions out of it, which was not bad.
This was, the final straw, I said no more shows, just internet and recommendations was I was going. Well, staying in a hotel near the convention, with most other show people, and I met with the owner of PR company that was trying to get me to use a PR firm to do me some good. She said that the normal fee is $ 3500, and because she loved me and my product that would only charge me $ 3000. I was like ok, let it because I promised not to go to any more shows and all print advertising was off, except for free.
So, the show has ended, we collected bids, a week later I get an invoice via e-mail. Oh my, that's for $ 3000 a month. I wrote her back that I was confused and could not afford such a monthly fee. She immediately called me and assured that it was the best thing that will happen to our company and that if I got a few months behind will be fine. So, I bit the bullet and agreed, and three months later, I had published a small magazine for accountants, answer the question in another small journal, and a radio show that the speaker could not get the correct name for my company and forgot to let the listening audience, even and where to find me or call. I felt it, crashed, and all of the above. I called for a public relations firm and told her I just can not hang anymore with this kind of law and no answers. I was getting good, although the search engines and internet gathering more leads for a fraction of the cost.
Then he struck, a senior writer for The Wall Street Journal called me to talk about the article you have a great idea, now what. I was thinking that this is the most awesome thing that we were chosen from who knows how the story ideas are received daily. The story is full page and a half and it was pretty cool that it happened. They even put my personal phone number in the article by accident, so my ear was hurting after several weeks of phone calls. We did not get all that many leads from people who wanted to open a home-based franchise. Most readers are lawyers, doctors, influential, and we've been marketing for the middle and lower class people. I still had to cancel its contract with PR firm, because I do not really sell a lot of concessions to cover the high costs of the enterprise. I then got to follow the article in the Small Business Opportunity Magazine, and it was my target audience, and again a personal phone number was released and my ears hurt. We went up to a total of 62 franchises that year (2005) with 4 International Master License, and then it just went kind of flat.
I went back to reading more books on successful business practices and came across a novel idea (common sense) to find other companies or organizations that could band together with us and feed off each other. I was on a mission, and the short six months gained relationships with top security video, internet amber alert, and a handful of non-profit group that promotes safety. Some of these companies are struggling and / or just because, so it's good for all of us a year later for it, it really is making sense in the scheme of helping each other to a better place <. P>
We had a great plan on photography studio offers a really cheap to add to their photo service and it hurts not only us, but I'm sure all of the identification of companies across the board. Change was in dire need of that we need to do the job and how we were to succeed in the long run. This is a critical point in time for us and the industry as a whole. We had a lot more companies trying to get into this area of child safety, a free market for getting a little bigger, with this cheap substitute.
the road to stay in existence is to stay ahead, looking ahead, market trends, statistics, competition, marketing and economics. We had to restructure and transform our services into the product, so my programmer Justin went to work on it. We were so close, but could not crack the code to Do-It-Yourself kit when I went to South Africa to train franchisees and have been playing with the program, and something happened and I had to e-mail Justin to find out what happened. He was so excited, because for me, screwing up the program is unlocked process to make it all happen. Three months later, we stopped selling franchises and began to build a network of distributor sales channels. It's been 6 months now, all programs are finished, and we are taking on the role of this product is designed with multi-use, and only one market to.
I have found that many people are willing talent is what makes it all happen. I have signed off with some of the best franchises to gain share in all the hard work they contributed, and not just take their ideas were more successful. I went close to taking the road and smashed most of the challenge with no light at the end. We put new products out of their own with virtually non-existent failure rate, and are now structuring fundraiser package that includes our products with our security partners that have developed over the past year.
I do not know what the future holds for us as a society, but I have faith in God will do as he sees fit. He will give us something we do not deserve and the opportunity we can not cope.
None of this could not happen without the wonderful and loving wife who not only put up with me and my long hours at the time of order, but religion could be achieved. We have a great team and we feel very successful to be able to work for themselves and raise our children.
from 2006 to 2008, we went downhill pretty quickly with the new industry to compete with (FREE)
2009: A New Beginning
Starting a new partnership with Chris Srigley "Certainly Warriors"and my company Safe Kids Card, and together putting together a new generation of programs for the safety and abduction prevention education for children. Talk to you soon. If you need help with an idea to contact me.
