We're Off!

Pop, fizz, thud! That was the sound of the champagne cork shooting out of the bottle and bouncing off the ceiling. Yes, the celebration is on - I landed my first client last week and what a great feeling that was.

When I told my wife that evening when she got home from work it brought a big smile to her face and I scored a nice congratulatory hug. She was very relieved that the business will now begin to contribute to our income and start to reduce the dependency on our savings. When I told our younger daughter she said, 'Oh, good,' which from a 15 year old can be considered quite a compliment! Our 19 year old daughter was somewhat more expressive in her congratulations. When I told her that the client had been scored through a network contact she commented that she has already noticed in her studies and part-time work just how important networks are and will be ensuring that she works very hard to build and retain her networks.

So after 11 weeks in business I can now chalk up my first score. I have reached another milestone in my journey as a franchisee and can move on to the next challenge; saving my client money and helping their business to weather the current storm.

Of course, acquiring a client has also brought home to me how the level of work will now rise. There's a high degree of organisation needed and one needs to become very organised and plan one's time when running your own business if you don't want to work into the small hours and all weekend. And as the number of clients increases, so the required level of planning will rise to combine with the ongoing processes of networking and marketing as well as actually doing the role, so the sooner I work out a system, the better.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I seem to be detecting a different attitude in the market at the moment in that businesses seem to be more responsive to my approaches. I'm sure some of this comes down to the fact that I'm getting a lot better at selling the ERA service. Nonetheless, I definitely get the impression that businesses have accepted that things are tough at the moment and will be for a while, so there's no point in burying one's head in the sand - they need to get on with it. As one potential client said to me a few days ago, 'There is no way we can increase our revenue in this market, so the only way to improve our profits is to cut costs - it all goes straight to the bottom line.' As you can imagine, that was music to my ears.

So where am I on the ride of my life? The rollercoaster comes tearing out of a corner then suddenly breaks out into the light and comes to a grinding halt. The lock-down bar lifts and we're free to climb out. The ride is over! I nearly didn't take the ride, but am delighted I did - imagine what I would have missed. I walk out into the sunlight with a smile on my face feeling exhilarated. I look up and there in front of me is the next ride - The Tower of Terror. Oh boy!

< Back

Reader Comments

Comments are disabled for this post