How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

[Dinner]

Congradulations on getting yourself into the leadership position. Now, how do you propose to cut costs, increase sales, and broaden the number of clients?

[Nubclear]

Glory!

[DRoseDARs]

[Skanky Burns]

Congratulations John!
Keep us informed with how things go.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Congradulations on getting yourself into the leadership position. Now, how do you propose to cut costs, increase sales, and broaden the number of clients?

1. Cost cutting. There are a number of things that can be done immediately to cut costs by at least 10%, including:

a. Making sure your field managers are not paying people $.23/book to deliver in the Dallas suburbs (the usual rate is appx. $.17/book). Savings: $.06/book (and that is HUGE).
b. Cell Phone use is currently charged directly to the Corporation, with the Corporation supposedly charging back to the individual the personal calls made. Problem: this wasn't done under management. Solution: Reverse the bills so that the cell phones are billed to the user in question and make them line item expense those calls made for corporate use. Savings a minimum of $500/month.
c. As I mentioned earlier, a two man office is paying $500+ for eight DSL lines. Savings: $400/month.
d. Getting rid of the country club memberships so that the users pay for them out of their own pockets. Savings: $350/month.

And tons of stuff like this. TONS. Yeah, this stuff is kinda small, but it's a small company: $2,000, $3,000 a month added to the bottom line adds up.

2. Increased sales. I've actually already started this with my participation in the XXX bid, which will increase CRG's distribution levels by 1.5 million books, resulting in an additional ~$600,000 in revenue. I have a meeting next week in Louisville KY with a potential client who themselves publish 22,000,000+ directories - my history with these people is VERY good, and even though they aren't the best paying people in the world, my big issue right now is increasing volume as to keep the company going on a short term basis.

3. Broaden the client base. Well, I won't stand still when the XXX bid comes in. As I said, I have leads on every single publisher of telephone directories, and personal contacts with a good number of them. I also put the bug in somebody's ear to conduct a survey of phone book publishers in re: to distribution issues (something nobody has done before in this industry). He has done so, (set up a website, sent out emails, and can track the "anonymous" entries through IP settings and whatnots), and we are currently in talks in regards to selling the data to CRG and not my parents company. This data will be nice to have when I go give a presentation: walking in the door I will know that Company Y has big concerns over issue A and is not too concerned with issue B, thereby allowing me to angle my presentation to what they want to hear.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by korn469
can i have a job next year when i graduate college? lol

Do you like to travel?

[Dinner]

Aslong as you make sure your data is correct then this plan sounds good. Question: If you sell your data then what is to prevent competetors from using your own data to do the exact same thing you are doing right now? Is the short term cash inflow worth risking a long term unique sales position? Then again the data becomes less valuable the longer it has been sitting around so maybe sell the old data but keep the latest stuff for your personal use?

Also how do you get perspective clients to fill out the online survey form? Are you going to direct mail them a flier asking them to fill out your form?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by JohnT
Do you like to travel?

Hehe, he's got a job for you which pays $0.17 per book.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Aslong as you make sure your data is correct then this plan sounds good. Question: If you sell your data then what is to prevent competetors from using your own data to do the exact same thing you are doing right now? Is the short term cash inflow worth risking a long term unique sales position? Then again the data becomes less valuable the longer it has been sitting around so maybe sell the old data but keep the latest stuff for your personal use?

Also how do you get perspective clients to fill out the online survey form? Are you going to direct mail them a flier asking them to fill out your form?

No, I'm not selling the data now, of course. I proposed it to CRG back in February, before I had plans to do what I did.

D, who did the survey and website design, sent out emails to the distribution managers (or their bosses) to all 200+ publishers of telephone books. So far, appx. 30 separate companies have replied. In two weeks he is planning on sending follow-up emails with some sort of incentive if they fill out the form (I don't know what the incentive is going to be).

[monolith94]

"Before I left, CRG was Public Enemy #1 at my parents company. Now I've taken them over. I'd love to see the look on my stepmothers face when she hears the news."

Revenge is a dish that people of taste prefer served cold.

You MUST rent Kind Hearts and Coronets TONIGHT JohnT - it's absolutely PERFECT for your situation! It's a great movie and I know you'll love it given your situation...

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Hehe, he's got a job for you which pays $0.17 per book.

Believe it or not, there are people who make over 6 figures delivering telephone directories. Generally they have 2 helpers and push out appx. 2,000 books a day (dependant upon the size of the directory). We usually pay these people more than $.17/book, but $.20 is usually the max that you pay anybody unless they have to drive up a mountain or something.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Hehe, he's got a job for you which pays $0.17 per book.

Actually the job would be to manage the people who deliver the books, or a "field manager." You travel from place to place, opening up a delivery station, operating it, and then shutting it down before you leave to the next job. A typical field manager works about 3 weeks in a given city, travels for a day or so, and then stays 3 weeks at the next city, etc. So Korn could go from Arlington, TX to Shreveport, LA to Fort Smith, AR, etc. We try to keep them in the same geographical area so we're not paying people to travel 1,500 miles between jobs. We also try to keep them around their home - we wouldn't hire Korn to manage deliveries out in California, for example.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by JohnT
Believe it or not, there are people who make over 6 figures delivering telephone directories. Generally they have 2 helpers and push out appx. 2,000 books a day (dependant upon the size of the directory). We usually pay these people more than $.17/book, but $.20 is usually the max that you pay anybody unless they have to drive up a mountain or something.

6 figures sounds good but I'm thinking it would be very difficult to keep up a 2000 books per day basis for very long. I mean in an eight hour day that would be something like 4.15 books per minute including travel time.

[JohnT]

Which isn't too hard if you stay within the inner core of cities and have a large number of businesses on your route. If you're driving out in the rural areas, no, you're not going to do 2,000 books a day - 1,000 would be more like it.

[Dinner]

Hmmm, so 2k per day equals about $42 per hour out of which you'll need to pay something like $10 per hour to each of your helpers so $22 per hour gross rate. Remember you'll have to pay taxes on the whole $42 per hour I think and not just the $22. Still he'll gross around $40k per year. Good for a young fresh out of college guy but he'll spend 3/4 of his time traveling.

How how is turn over amoung your field managers? I'm guessing they burn out quickly.