"In house" for a one man band??? That is what I am. I thought it
would be ok to sub out until I'm ready for the responsibility of
employees. It's easy to sub out a few a week, but to have an employee
work so few and such odd hours? Where do you find someone to do it?
Brian
Rick Smith wrote:
welcome to the real world.
That million will turn into 3 million soon, and your schedule will turn
into 4 weeks behind, and word of mouth will start spreading that you're
not responsive.... get out and install on your own.
This, coming from a guy that
subbed out intalls at $100 each until today. By reading these posts,
I'm now convinced that it's all coming back in-house.
Because I have not left the "office" my living room, in 3 days because
things keep coming my way. Computers, paperwork, a million calls. No
customer support issues, just a million things I can't seem to catch
up. And now I'm a few weeks behind on installs. I don't like being
behind.
Brian
JohnnyO wrote:
Brian - why pay out that $95.00 when YOU can go
do the install in 2 hours time ? Heck 3 installs = 1 new install paid
for .... Sorry - guess Im just cheap and work too much - I suppose we
all grow our business differently. I worked 2 full time jobs for the
1st 8 months we were in the WISP game on top of building the WISP......
JohnnyO
Let me clarify. By sales guy, I meant someone who will knock on doors
and say "here, this is available in the area, call for details" hand
them a door hanger and leave. I pay my subs a free month for
refferals. I'd give the "door hanger guy" the same, $35 per "sale"
unless they were too good at it :) Then they would call, and I'd make
the "sale". The "install guy" is a company who I trust. They will do
installs for $95 a head. I have some more details (4 line paragraph)
on my ROI if anyone wants to comment, hit me off list and I'll forward
my ROI sheet to you for comment.
Thanks,
Brian
Tom DeReggi wrote:
No. You must do the sales.
Trust that to someone else, and you will fail. It means that you may
not be able to do the fun stuff like you thought you'd be doing, but
its the reality of a successful business. UNtil you set the stage of
how the sales process will go, and set the example of success in
selling, it'll be hard to find a sales guy willing to work on
commission or that will be worth a darn. I found that you can't run a
WISP with only three people, although many have proven me wrong. It
takes one to sell. It takes one to install. It takes one tech in the
office to assist the installer with testing and router provisioning. (
a tech can't get to APs and routers, when the link isn't up yet. A lot
of things will come up, like which sector do you connect to when its
near both of them? You don't always know how to configure it until you
are onsite. Then what happens whem the installer needs help, such as
someone to hold the ladder for a steep pitched roof? Then whose gonna
answer the phone when the insude tech goes onsite to help the
installer? You need that 4th person! Then whose gonna do you book
keeping? You learn that why should you be doing it, when you time is
best spent selling? You surely aren't going to have the techs do your
book keeping? When you start to go after the bigger clients, if there
isn't someone to answer the phone for every sales request and tech
support issue, they get scared and go with the higher staffed more
professional competitor. At first you start by using your cell phone.
But then you learn that you can never get a darn thing done when you
are answering your cell phone the whole day. So you stop answering it
while on sales meetings. Then the callers have outages, amnd have
already signed up with the competitor by the time tyou call them back
hours later because they thought you went out of business. So before
you know it you need 6 people minimum. Then you look at your payroll
that just jumped to $20,000 a month. Then it takes you a few months to
get things togeather like marketing material. Then everyone is waiting
on you. Then you have a burn rate. You learn that the $20,000 capitol
that you had wasn't going to last the first month. Then you start
getting subscribers, but theirs no money left to buy radios. By the
time you get the radios three weeks later, the customers got tired of
waiting and went with the competitor, so your staff has nothing to do,
and you just burn through another $20,000 the next month. Etc. Thats
the point most businesses fail.
So my advise is... Start out
with two people. And use your cell phone for all correspondance. Avoid
every technical detail that the tech mentality is enticing you to get
involved with, that will just kill your time, no matter how much its
tempting you. Go sell today. Go like that as long as you can, until
you have no other choice but to hire. Then hire ALL the people you
need and play to win. IF you under hire, you will just spin your
wheel's never getting anything done but managing everyone, and sales
stop, but salaries don't, and you go out of business.
Outsource every technical
detail upfront, EXPECIALLY MAIL. Your only job can be sales and
management. What will determine wether you will succeed is wether you
can keep your time allocated more towards sales than management.
Management duties will tend to monopolize your time, because they have
to be done, and you will continue to loose money until you go out of
business. You will learn there are four things you can't outsource in
your early years, sales, management,managing your finances
(accounting), and lending you money. Take every opportunity t oearn an
extra couple buck on an install like hourly wages to set upo there PCs,
and don't get suckered into giving that away for free, you will need
every one of thosse dollars to carry you on. Ifyou leave management to
someone else, they will turn your employees against you, and they will
make the wrong decissions, and you will have to pick up the peices
later, hopefully before its not to late. If you don't do your finances,
you won't know you are in trouble financially until its to late, you
need to be one with your budget and daily cash intake goals, and there
is no way you can do it unless you are intimate with your accounting on
a daily basis. You must do the sales because it the #1 most important
thing in your business, and at all costs, it is the one thing that MUST
be done for you t osurvice, you just can't take a change that it wont
be done right. You must make it your business to make sure its done.
and lastly finances, no one will lend you money but your self and your
mother. So earn your money to fund your business, its the only way you
are going to get it. And its going to cost you money. The small dollar
business only last for a little while, the time that you have a few
customers and you can do everything your self, without a pay roll, when
you are willing to make sacrifices, and its fun to do so. But employees
don't work for free, nor do they or there wives share that vison of
unconditional loyalty without the montey coming in for long hours
worked, they don't have the same high standard as you, because its not
their business its yours. When you get to the stage of employing all
the rules change. And thats when businesses start to realize the
difficulties in running a business. Staying a one man shop no longer
is an option because support of your client base is already more than
one person can handle. But because ou undersold your services, there
isn;t enough money to pay the salaries to hire the people to support
the clients. and you go out of business.
The most important stage of
your business is the business plan and that starts way before yuor
first hire. And then once you start growing you learn that everything
in your business plan was hog wash. The model of 100 new subs a month
ends up being 2 new subs a month because there were sales barriers you
weren't aware of. You learn the huge flock of customers you got on the
first month, was because they were the few needy customers that were
easy to access. But then you learn that you need to market to get
custeomrs, you learn that the marketing ends up costing more than your
equipment. And once again you go out of business.
Your mission when you start
out, before you make all your hires, is to prove every detail of your
business plan valid. Design a formula that guarantees you can make a
certain number of sales within a time period. You need constants in
your model. If you can only consistently sell 5 subs a month, that s
OK, its a constant, you can make guaranteed business plans with
constants.
Sorry for the rant, but the
biggest mistake I see in this business is when the operator doesn't
realize the importance of sales. If your name is not on the job
description, its a problem.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
-----
Original Message -----
Sent:
Thursday, August 25, 2005 9:14 PM
Subject:
Re: [WISPA] Taking on an investor?
I am looking into getting two people to help. One "install guy" and
one "sales guy", both on commission. Then I can be the guy who grows
the network to keep up, do site surveys, tower work/deals, and paper
work. Ok plan or no??
Charles Wu wrote:
Just a general word of advice...the biggest pitfall/doom of most startups is
not opportunity, but rather TOO MUCH opportunity...
Watch cash flow closely, and don't bite off more than you can chew
-Charles
-------------------------------------------
WISPNOG Park City, UT
http://www.wispnog.com
August 15-17, 2005
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On
Behalf Of Tom DeReggi
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 7:53 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Taking on an investor?
Thats a great way to start. Congradulations.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Rohrbacher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Taking on an investor?
I just have to find someone to do installs. I have as many waiting to
be
hooked up as I have hooked up. It's there for the taking, but I can't take
it! The search for help has started.
Tom DeReggi wrote:
Most ISPs shared that plan. But it rarely works that way, when you
want
to grow your business.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Rohrbacher"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 10:33 AM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Taking on an investor?
I plan to be debt free in a year, so I hope to be ok. Everyone all
paid
off and ready to roll.
Matt Liotta wrote:
I wouldn't worry about it since the way you did it put the
investors at
risk more so than you. There is a better way to do it and before your
company gets too successful you may want to visit a lawyer and get
things cleaned up.
-Matt
Brian Rohrbacher wrote:
Just typed up something on the laptop that said, "I owe you "this"
much", and we both signed it. Not fancy, but a little better than an
oral agreement. I won't miss a payment and will pay them back if it
takes closing the WISP and working 3 jobs. Missing payments is not an
option. Only if I'm laid up in the hospital. Personal guaranteed?
Well, I told them I will pay it back... I know the agreement leaves a
lot open, but I trust these 4 people. Anyway, so they are not
investors. Lastly, lets just leave me be about this :) I'd rather
not try to defend a million questions about what if this and what if
that. It is what I did and it is done.
Charles Wu wrote:
that would be a loan
what type of collateral do they have? or what happens if you miss
a
payment?
have you personally guaranteed the money?
-Charles
-------------------------------------------
WISPNOG Park City, UT
http://www.wispnog.com <http://www.wispnog.com/>
August 15-17, 2005
-----Original Message-----
*From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] *On Behalf Of *Brian
Rohrbacher
*Sent:* Monday, August 22, 2005 10:20 PM
*To:* WISPA General List
*Subject:* Re: [WISPA] Taking on an investor?
Well, I guess we would call them loans as I have all control.
Correct me if I am wrong. They gave me money at a fixed rate. Loans
or investments?
Charles Wu wrote:
well...in determing their "dumbness" (assuming you're willing to
divulge this information) - what sort of investment / equity
share / control do your investors have?
I mean...assuming it's you and the other 4, does
everyone
have
an equal share? (which is a different story all together) or
does 1 single person have a majority share and the other 4 are
minority partners
-Charles
-------------------------------------------
WISPNOG Park City, UT
http://www.wispnog.com <http://www.wispnog.com/>
August 15-17, 2005
-----Original Message-----
*From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] *On Behalf Of *Brian
Rohrbacher
*Sent:* Monday, August 22, 2005 8:05 PM
*To:* WISPA General List
*Subject:* Re: [WISPA] Taking on an investor?
Well, I guess I found four "dumb" people that got me
started. All my start up funds came from 4 people. All
four were subs from a previous WISP I owned, (before my
partner took everything over and left me out in the
cold)
they all said, "I want you providing service, not the "other
guy". So here I am. 7 months in and going strong. Oh,
almost forgot, like my lawyer has me say......all that is
just my opinion. ;-) I think "dumb" investors
are great!
Charles Wu wrote:
sure
a passive minority equity position stake in a
privately
held company is worthless, as legally, the person with the
majority stake can make 100% of the decisions (in terms of
purchasing, spending, cash distribution, etc)
think about it, if it was your money, would you be
willing
to just "invest it" into a company when the majority
partner can do whatever he/she wants to and you have no
recourse?
-Charles
-------------------------------------------
WISPNOG Park City, UT
http://www.wispnog.com <http://www.wispnog.com/>
August 15-17, 2005
-----Original Message-----
*From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] *On Behalf Of
*Dylan Oliver
*Sent:* Monday, August 22, 2005 4:10 PM
*To:* WISPA General List
*Subject:* Re: [WISPA] Taking on an investor?
Charles,
would you expand on that?
On 8/22/05, *Charles Wu* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
FWIW...no invester (other than friends and family)
worth their salt will be
willing to invest capital into the company for a
minority position, as that
is basically a sure way to guarantee the loss of
their money
That said, there is a fool born every day
-Charles
-- Dylan Oliver
Primaverity, LLC
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