I realize that no matter how many tasks I delegate, the most important ones have to be clearly tagged by me with fluorescent markers -- THIS IS IMPORTANT! Backups? Well, I just didn't say it loud enough. [Note: That computer "lesson" cost $4,100 that we didn't really have, and we lost three and half weeks of working time on the system.]
DECEMBER 28, 1992 We spend all day downtown at a training facility. It is the Monday after Christmas, and I close the office and let voice mail handle the calls while the entire staff meets with me to set our 1993 goals.
By the end of the day we have more than 25 sheets of flip-chart paper taped to the walls and filled with ideas. We narrow those down to 70 ideas, and each person takes two goals to work on. It takes a lot of effort not to jump in and volunteer to do half the goals, but I decide not to take any myself. Instead, I write down major issues that seem to crop up that will go on my list. Employees want to see regular client-feedback sessions that can be monitored by them; they want more employee recognition; they want more of our policies in writing; they want notice of job openings before we go outside the company; they want to see us send out a newsletter that they help with. They have definite and good ideas about how to market the company.
I feel so proud to be a part of this. It doesn't feel like just me alone anymore.
JANUARY 5, 1993 Tonight is my last meeting with the PowerLink board. Eight people squeeze around the conference table in the room we used to use for meetings. [Note: Last week we installed six more workstations in that room. We also officially rented space across the hall. By the end of February we will be able to handle 84,000 calls a week from our offices. Last January we were at 25,000 a week.]
I finally feel comfortable with these people. I have spent hours and hours in phone calls, meetings, lunches, and more meetings with each of them. We sit tonight with the financials. Our preliminary numbers show that we will hit $484,046 in sales for the year. Up from $367,422 in 1991. Although we have grown by 32%, we have not hit my goal of $750,000 yet, but I am not disappointed. We spent the year doing important work -- improving operations, training new management, establishing procedures and quality controls.
Most of the meeting is devoted to marketing. I want to reach a million in sales by year-end. What do I need to do to get there?
We end up talking mostly about the very topic that started the year -- focus. I watch eight heads nod. Going from $500,000 to $1 million is a no-brainer, according to Mike P. and Steve M. "Just keep working with the customers you have now and find similar companies in similar markets."
"Did you do a market analysis yet?" Larry R. asks. I'm not sure what that is. "You write down how much business you expect to get from each customer for the year, which determines your budget. Then analyze the source markets and look for like business in those markets." It sounds simple, but I have never done it. Steve offers to help me construct one.
Again, I realize that getting where we are has not taken marketing brilliance on my part. We are in a needed industry. We do our work well. People find us. But that does not make for a great marketing strategy.
* * *
For us to keep moving forward, I will have to revive what I did to get from zero sales to the first $100,000: pick the companies I want to work with and go after them. The sheer determination you get when there are no customers and you are creating something from nothing never really goes away, I guess. We are back to sheer determination, but with more zeros on the end.
* * *
The last board member leaves at close to 9 p.m., and I return to my office. I am kind of jarred by their comments, as usual. I had listed eight ideas to hit the million-dollar mark. Eight different services we could offer in addition to what we already do. They nixed almost all of them. Most of the board members work for major companies, and they look at my tiny firm and wonder why I need help with this issue of growth.
For a moment I see these last eight years and nine months very clearly: I love variety. I love challenge. I am good at executing ideas. So there I am with a bunch of sticks and some saucers back in 1984. I toss a saucer up in the air, catch it on the end of a stick, and start rotating. It is tricky at first, but I catch on. Sometimes it slips and I catch it. Sometimes I drop the saucer and it breaks. Doggedly, perhaps, I keep throwing saucers up there until I have the hang of it. Then I put up a second stick and throw up a . . . dinner plate!
No . . . no . . . no . . . the board is telling me. Not a dinner plate -- throw another saucer in the air. In fact, toss up 10 saucers and hire a saucer manager to watch the sticks for you. And find a volume-discount supplier who can sell you more saucers. And set up inventory control of those saucers and get really, really good at spinning hundreds of saucers. THEN YOU CAN SWITCH TO DINNER PLATES.
Boring. Too easy. I can feel myself resisting. But slowly and with great effort I am willing to fight this resistance. Someday I want us to have thousands of employees, each part of a team working on telemarketing and direct-mail projects for customers all over the world. So for this year, if they think it is that important, I will do what does not come so easily. I will work on saucers.
* * *
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Founder: Anita F. Brattina
Company: Direct Response Marketing Inc., Pittsburgh
Formed: April 1, 1984, as a direct-marketing consultant
