I hope that I’ve not boring you with too many details about my past experience. This blog is after all about my trying to find a job! So what type of clients did you think I would go after when I started my business? Yes, correct investment companies. What can I say, I like the industry and they felt comfortable dealing with someone who understood their business. I was now educating people about the internet.
Here are some of the personal milestones that I accomplished while running this business:
Created the first site in Canada that allowed investors to access their accounts and place orders through the internet. This was done before E-Trade Canada opened up its doors here. Now almost every investment company and mutual fund dealer does this. I did it first!
Designed a new back office system based on internet technologies for a brokerage company.
Conducted the first internet broadcast of an Annual General Meeting in Canada. This is now common place for public companies.
Over the course of my business I designed and managed the development of dozens of companies, mutual funds; publically traded entities; mutual fund dealers; brokerage firms. I got some decent press too, understanding that it would lead to more business.
Being a one person operation was challenging, but I quickly learned to delegate and hire contract workers to complete specific aspects of my projects. However business was to come to a screeching halt.
The majority of my business came from interfacing Mutual Fund Dealers back office to allow for client access/trading. There were three companies in Canada that sold held the mutual fund back office market. I developed interfaces for all three by reverse engineering the databases. After a while the software companies took notice and decided to make their own interface. Needless to say this put a serious dent in my income!
D
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Web Developing to My First Business
Building my website and making the pages for the mutual fund companies was fun! More and more people were starting to use my website. I also found out that I was one of a very few stock brokers who actually had a website. At the same time there were some changes happening at the brokerage firm.
I was hired to develop a pension area and I went at it full-force getting anything and everything ready for its launch. I interview companies for outsourcing the management; created marketing material; got designers and printers to create and print samples; everything. Then all of a sudden I was starting to hit and see "road blocks". Management wasn’t as receptive to my contact; it was getting more difficult to get approval. After a few months of this I tendered my letter of resignation and I was done with being a stock broker.
Sitting at home I figured that I needed a job and I really didn’t want to go back to being a stock broker, too much bull-shit, many promises but few deliveries. Updating my website, I figured that this internet thing had potential, after all others were commenting about the site and Netscape’s IPO did well.
I registered my first domain name and opened my doors!
D
I was hired to develop a pension area and I went at it full-force getting anything and everything ready for its launch. I interview companies for outsourcing the management; created marketing material; got designers and printers to create and print samples; everything. Then all of a sudden I was starting to hit and see "road blocks". Management wasn’t as receptive to my contact; it was getting more difficult to get approval. After a few months of this I tendered my letter of resignation and I was done with being a stock broker.
Sitting at home I figured that I needed a job and I really didn’t want to go back to being a stock broker, too much bull-shit, many promises but few deliveries. Updating my website, I figured that this internet thing had potential, after all others were commenting about the site and Netscape’s IPO did well.
I registered my first domain name and opened my doors!
D
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Stockbroker to Web Developing
Being a Stockbroker you are responsible for almost everything. A significant part of my day was dedicated to activities that were related to marketing. I’d create newsletters, informational brochures, flyers and the like.
While at a previous brokerage firm I already had an email address. At the time almost no one heard of email let alone the "internet"! After reading an article about HTML programming I decided that I would sit down and create a website for myself. A few days later I had myself a basic website and I let it loose upon the world!
It was great for me to see others getting use from the site which primarily focused on information about investment and links to other investment websites. After a short while there were others linking back to the site and writing about it. I even started to get new clients through the site.
At the next firm I was working for, the website continued to expand. This investment house had institutional investors and created a daily fax for clients. Why fax it out? I decided to post it on my website for everyone. It was soon after that the higher-ups were contacted by institutional investors who loved the new website and quick access to current and past daily reports.
However the higher-ups were very concerned about my website. They were worried that we could be sued because people from outside our jurisdiction could view our information and it would be considered solicitation (in an investment sense!) What?!?! The sheer ignorance of some people. Nowadays, the internet is old hat, people aren’t paranoid about having a web presence. Back "in the day" because the higher-ups didn’t understand the internet they were literally afraid of it! Having people viewing the website was no different from people reading a newspaper. It just so happened that my newspaper was free and available to anyone! Anyways I digress....
This internet thing was cool! During a marketing campaign I solicited many mutual funds and created one page website on my own site. For many of these companies it was the first time they had a web presence.
D
While at a previous brokerage firm I already had an email address. At the time almost no one heard of email let alone the "internet"! After reading an article about HTML programming I decided that I would sit down and create a website for myself. A few days later I had myself a basic website and I let it loose upon the world!
It was great for me to see others getting use from the site which primarily focused on information about investment and links to other investment websites. After a short while there were others linking back to the site and writing about it. I even started to get new clients through the site.
At the next firm I was working for, the website continued to expand. This investment house had institutional investors and created a daily fax for clients. Why fax it out? I decided to post it on my website for everyone. It was soon after that the higher-ups were contacted by institutional investors who loved the new website and quick access to current and past daily reports.
However the higher-ups were very concerned about my website. They were worried that we could be sued because people from outside our jurisdiction could view our information and it would be considered solicitation (in an investment sense!) What?!?! The sheer ignorance of some people. Nowadays, the internet is old hat, people aren’t paranoid about having a web presence. Back "in the day" because the higher-ups didn’t understand the internet they were literally afraid of it! Having people viewing the website was no different from people reading a newspaper. It just so happened that my newspaper was free and available to anyone! Anyways I digress....
This internet thing was cool! During a marketing campaign I solicited many mutual funds and created one page website on my own site. For many of these companies it was the first time they had a web presence.
D
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Banking to Stockbroker
So now you know some history and can guess why I need a job. I still like my business, however I need a job to support my family.
Now you may ask yourself, "Why should I hire this guy, if his business is successful, he’s just going to jump ship!" You should ask this question. However, I would be fully committed to any work that I decide to take on and would be so for at least five years (barring any other circumstances)*.
Yes there is an "*" there. The only thing that I would consider going back to my business full-time is if I had an opportunity to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show! Aside from that, I’d be working for you, 100%.
I started trading stocks at a young age (13) and it started my love affair with the investment industry. During my last year of high school I got a job at a Trust Company in the mortgage area. It was fun learning about a specific area of the financial services sector. While attending University and shortly after I worked my way up the Teller (aka Customer Service Representative) ladder.
I finally left banking and got a job at an investment company doing low-level work. This gave me the opportunity to study for my securities course and other exams that would allow me to get licensed in the industry.
Almost immediately after passing my securities exams, I left the low-level stuff and got myself a job as a real "stock broker"!
I knew nothing about selling stocks. What I knew is that I liked investing. The investment industry is huge and newcomers need to establish themselves as there are 1000’s of others out there that are doing the exact same thing!
Having zero creditability made it a bit difficult for you to get respect with prospective customers. My main job at the other investment company was cold calling. Eight hours a day, five days a week, cold calling. I was good at generating leads. I took the same approach in the new job. Soon I had a decent base of prospects.
Having prospects is one thing, but I needed clients. You’ve got to convert the prospects. I decided to become a writer at this point. I was still a stock broker, but one who also now had a news letter.
The newsletter added to my creditability. I also managed to secure a small spot in one of the daily newspapers. It wasn’t an article per se, but two to three sentences every few weeks. It was enough that I now could send them out to prospects. It wasn’t too long before my clients list was growing. My writing (and self-promotion) became better and I managed to get a couple of articles in a national newspaper and other publications.
My personal investment interests were evolving which was reflected in the type of clients I was getting. Eventually I got very interested in Pension Plans (401K, Money Purchase Pension Plan, Defined Contribution Pension Plan, Group RRSP). The company that I was working for was somewhat supportive of efforts, but really wanted me to focus on investing with individuals. I eventually was hired at a new company with the authority of creating a Pension department.
More later
D
Now you may ask yourself, "Why should I hire this guy, if his business is successful, he’s just going to jump ship!" You should ask this question. However, I would be fully committed to any work that I decide to take on and would be so for at least five years (barring any other circumstances)*.
Yes there is an "*" there. The only thing that I would consider going back to my business full-time is if I had an opportunity to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show! Aside from that, I’d be working for you, 100%.
I started trading stocks at a young age (13) and it started my love affair with the investment industry. During my last year of high school I got a job at a Trust Company in the mortgage area. It was fun learning about a specific area of the financial services sector. While attending University and shortly after I worked my way up the Teller (aka Customer Service Representative) ladder.
I finally left banking and got a job at an investment company doing low-level work. This gave me the opportunity to study for my securities course and other exams that would allow me to get licensed in the industry.
Almost immediately after passing my securities exams, I left the low-level stuff and got myself a job as a real "stock broker"!
I knew nothing about selling stocks. What I knew is that I liked investing. The investment industry is huge and newcomers need to establish themselves as there are 1000’s of others out there that are doing the exact same thing!
Having zero creditability made it a bit difficult for you to get respect with prospective customers. My main job at the other investment company was cold calling. Eight hours a day, five days a week, cold calling. I was good at generating leads. I took the same approach in the new job. Soon I had a decent base of prospects.
Having prospects is one thing, but I needed clients. You’ve got to convert the prospects. I decided to become a writer at this point. I was still a stock broker, but one who also now had a news letter.
The newsletter added to my creditability. I also managed to secure a small spot in one of the daily newspapers. It wasn’t an article per se, but two to three sentences every few weeks. It was enough that I now could send them out to prospects. It wasn’t too long before my clients list was growing. My writing (and self-promotion) became better and I managed to get a couple of articles in a national newspaper and other publications.
My personal investment interests were evolving which was reflected in the type of clients I was getting. Eventually I got very interested in Pension Plans (401K, Money Purchase Pension Plan, Defined Contribution Pension Plan, Group RRSP). The company that I was working for was somewhat supportive of efforts, but really wanted me to focus on investing with individuals. I eventually was hired at a new company with the authority of creating a Pension department.
More later
D
Monday, August 4, 2008
Getting to this point - Part Three
With my supplier competing against me some things are starting to make sense. When the business first started out there were (as with most new businesses) some issues with quality and consistency with the custom drinks. If a customer were to order a 50/50 combination of green/white tea there would be some tea bags that were significantly stronger with the green tea (more than 50%).
Working through the various issues (some of the individual tea bags would arrive open and not sealed) I designed a new tea bag, limited the number of teas that could be combined and the incremental percentages of the teas (for example you couldn’t have a less than 5% of any ingredient) these issues were slowly resolved. Quality went way up and returns went way down.
With any business you’ll always have some percentage of people who return product, same with mine. However starting in November (before I know about my manufacturer competing against me) my return rate started to creep up. Nothing significant, but higher. I just thought it was part of doing business. December and January were busy months. The business was featured on a national TV program and I was mentioned in a large circulation magazine in the US.
As you can guess by now, my manufacturer was responsible for the increase in “problems.” There is no reason for him to keep up my quality when he’s competing against me. My business is a leader in this small area of the market, so the best way to get my business is to take it!
All during this time my supplier kept on insisting that there was nothing wrong with quality and that it must be an increase in the number of people who didn’t like the product. (Well of course there was an increase in the number of people who didn’t like the product, he was making it crappier!)
It was sometime in March that my supplier’s deception was found and all of a sudden everything started to make sense with the returns and unhappy customers. By the time April came around returns were in the neighbourhood of 50%. I dropped my supplier as soon as all this happened.
It took me many months of searching to find this one supplier. I lucked out as he was environmentally friendly, but I guess he was morally bankrupt! I’ve been searching for a new supplier ever since and have put the entire business on hold.
Next post...past work experiences.
D
Working through the various issues (some of the individual tea bags would arrive open and not sealed) I designed a new tea bag, limited the number of teas that could be combined and the incremental percentages of the teas (for example you couldn’t have a less than 5% of any ingredient) these issues were slowly resolved. Quality went way up and returns went way down.
With any business you’ll always have some percentage of people who return product, same with mine. However starting in November (before I know about my manufacturer competing against me) my return rate started to creep up. Nothing significant, but higher. I just thought it was part of doing business. December and January were busy months. The business was featured on a national TV program and I was mentioned in a large circulation magazine in the US.
As you can guess by now, my manufacturer was responsible for the increase in “problems.” There is no reason for him to keep up my quality when he’s competing against me. My business is a leader in this small area of the market, so the best way to get my business is to take it!
All during this time my supplier kept on insisting that there was nothing wrong with quality and that it must be an increase in the number of people who didn’t like the product. (Well of course there was an increase in the number of people who didn’t like the product, he was making it crappier!)
It was sometime in March that my supplier’s deception was found and all of a sudden everything started to make sense with the returns and unhappy customers. By the time April came around returns were in the neighbourhood of 50%. I dropped my supplier as soon as all this happened.
It took me many months of searching to find this one supplier. I lucked out as he was environmentally friendly, but I guess he was morally bankrupt! I’ve been searching for a new supplier ever since and have put the entire business on hold.
Next post...past work experiences.
D
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Getting to this point - Part Two
Ever had your stomach fall out? I have a few times, or so I thought. Earlier this year (in the Spring) my wife was surfing the internet. Every once and a while she’ll Google my company to see if there’s anything new and interesting out there. When she did this time a Google Ad came up with another company doing something exactly what I was doing.
This is not a complete surprise as I keep up to date on the competition. This was different. I went to the company’s website and started to read more about them. Hummm....they are based in the same country as my supplier...wow even the same city.....hummmm....some of this text on the site seems too familiar. I checked the Whois (www.whois.sc/domainname) and my eyes and stomach confirmed what my heart suspected. My supplier/manufacture completely ripped of my business model right down to some of the text.
That day I must have called my supplier about a dozen times (he’s half way across the world) and sent a couple of emails. When he finally got in back to me the next day his was scrambling for answers. First he told me that he didn’t know what I was talking about.
Then I quoted him his website and domain name.
Next he claimed that the business had not launched and that he was going to tell me about it.
I told him that his story was bullshit. He registered the domain name *many* months ago. Actually it was soon after I can back from a successful trade show and told him how well things were going especially with retailers.
Now he’s telling me that he’s not competing against me because he won’t be selling in Canada. Gee how nice of him to set-up an identical business and leave me with 2% of the world’s market.
More later.
RL
This is not a complete surprise as I keep up to date on the competition. This was different. I went to the company’s website and started to read more about them. Hummm....they are based in the same country as my supplier...wow even the same city.....hummmm....some of this text on the site seems too familiar. I checked the Whois (www.whois.sc/domainname) and my eyes and stomach confirmed what my heart suspected. My supplier/manufacture completely ripped of my business model right down to some of the text.
That day I must have called my supplier about a dozen times (he’s half way across the world) and sent a couple of emails. When he finally got in back to me the next day his was scrambling for answers. First he told me that he didn’t know what I was talking about.
Then I quoted him his website and domain name.
Next he claimed that the business had not launched and that he was going to tell me about it.
I told him that his story was bullshit. He registered the domain name *many* months ago. Actually it was soon after I can back from a successful trade show and told him how well things were going especially with retailers.
Now he’s telling me that he’s not competing against me because he won’t be selling in Canada. Gee how nice of him to set-up an identical business and leave me with 2% of the world’s market.
More later.
RL
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Getting to this point - Part One
So this journey has got me to think of my job search in a different light. With hopefully many others soon reading this blog you’ll want to know more about me. I’m not going to post my resume, but I will be providing you with more information about me.
Let’s start off with how I got to this point.
With the start of a part-time business (when I was working full-time about five years ago) I re-kindled my entrepreneurial spirit. I started my Virtual Beverage Store (no, I did not run a beverage shop, I’m using this as a substitute for my actual business, but the experiences and events are factual) about a year after starting a Project Management job at a large Canadian Bank. At the time, I really didn’t like the commute from the city to my town about two hours away.
The business game me an outlet for my more "creative business" side. After leaving the bank, the part-time business became full-time. I took advantage of a government program that allowed me to extend my unemployment benefits while getting my business off the ground.
After getting things ready for the business, beverage mixes (the general idea was that someone could "create" their own drink from common flavours and I would make and send it to them), branding, packaging and everything else that would be needed I opened up shop online.
I also held a few "open houses" at private locations where I would invite the public down to see what I had to offer, to try samples beverages and to show them how easy it would be to create their own drink. One of the "areas" of the business was tea. When I had my open houses there was general interest in everything, but the teas seemed to attract more people than any other area. This happened a few time and before I knew it I decided to focus on just tea!
I took a few months to re-brand the company and focus on tea only. This turned out to be an excellent idea. I also sourced out a new supplier that would meet my specific tea needs. Some of the requirements were that the tea must be organic and that the people employed in the tea process must be pay fairly and treated ethically. This was not part of my marketing mix; it was a reflection of my own beliefs.
The focus turned to be an excellent choice. Over the course of the next two years, I would receive attention from over two dozen publications from all over the world. The UK, South Africa, the US, France, Canada, USA, Japan all wrote articles of various length about the "custom tea" business. I even was featured in a national US business publication and TV show.
I seemed to have a decent nack for marketing. Services like HARO and ProfNet made my job easier, but it was still up to me to convince a journalist that I was a worthy story. The brand that I created was unique, the packaging was polished. Almost no one would believe that all of this was created by one person if I told them.
The business also started to get attention because it was "green." I did not intend to create an environmentally/ethically friendly company, but it certainly helped that it was.
As the business started to take off, I was actually making money. It was nice! Money is great to pay those pesky bills, mortgage, feed the family and stuff like that. I even attended a major trade show in the second half of 2007. There was intense interest with the business because I had a method of selling my tea in stores. The stores didn’t have to carry an inventory so it could be inexpensive for them to start selling my product.
Things were going well, but that was all to change.
Let’s start off with how I got to this point.
With the start of a part-time business (when I was working full-time about five years ago) I re-kindled my entrepreneurial spirit. I started my Virtual Beverage Store (no, I did not run a beverage shop, I’m using this as a substitute for my actual business, but the experiences and events are factual) about a year after starting a Project Management job at a large Canadian Bank. At the time, I really didn’t like the commute from the city to my town about two hours away.
The business game me an outlet for my more "creative business" side. After leaving the bank, the part-time business became full-time. I took advantage of a government program that allowed me to extend my unemployment benefits while getting my business off the ground.
After getting things ready for the business, beverage mixes (the general idea was that someone could "create" their own drink from common flavours and I would make and send it to them), branding, packaging and everything else that would be needed I opened up shop online.
I also held a few "open houses" at private locations where I would invite the public down to see what I had to offer, to try samples beverages and to show them how easy it would be to create their own drink. One of the "areas" of the business was tea. When I had my open houses there was general interest in everything, but the teas seemed to attract more people than any other area. This happened a few time and before I knew it I decided to focus on just tea!
I took a few months to re-brand the company and focus on tea only. This turned out to be an excellent idea. I also sourced out a new supplier that would meet my specific tea needs. Some of the requirements were that the tea must be organic and that the people employed in the tea process must be pay fairly and treated ethically. This was not part of my marketing mix; it was a reflection of my own beliefs.
The focus turned to be an excellent choice. Over the course of the next two years, I would receive attention from over two dozen publications from all over the world. The UK, South Africa, the US, France, Canada, USA, Japan all wrote articles of various length about the "custom tea" business. I even was featured in a national US business publication and TV show.
I seemed to have a decent nack for marketing. Services like HARO and ProfNet made my job easier, but it was still up to me to convince a journalist that I was a worthy story. The brand that I created was unique, the packaging was polished. Almost no one would believe that all of this was created by one person if I told them.
The business also started to get attention because it was "green." I did not intend to create an environmentally/ethically friendly company, but it certainly helped that it was.
As the business started to take off, I was actually making money. It was nice! Money is great to pay those pesky bills, mortgage, feed the family and stuff like that. I even attended a major trade show in the second half of 2007. There was intense interest with the business because I had a method of selling my tea in stores. The stores didn’t have to carry an inventory so it could be inexpensive for them to start selling my product.
Things were going well, but that was all to change.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Coinsidence or not?
I popped on to the CNN website this morning and what do I see as a main story? Unemployment. The picture accompanying the article had a gentleman in a suite with a sign stating "Harvard educated", it had his cell phone number and email address. I’ve been thinking of doing some self promotion along similar lines. I guess I’m not along alone in taking alternate measures to get job attention.
My "campaign" starts in less than two weeks so it’ll be interesting to see how it progresses.
D
My "campaign" starts in less than two weeks so it’ll be interesting to see how it progresses.
D
Thursday, July 31, 2008
We're at the post!
Okay, so this is the first post, so don't expect too much for now. I'll likely be diving in to the past with my job hunting efforts and experience. You won't find my resume posted here as I do value my privacy, but I will let you in on the type of work I've done and the recognition that I've received. Of course for those employers who are really interested, I will send my resume.
While this blog is new, my efforts for finding a "real job" are not. There are some "out of the box" ideas that I have for getting some job attention, but more on that later.
Allow myself to introduce....myself.
Experience, I've got. It's been almost 20 years since I attended University (BComm). I've worked in the investment industry, tech (web/software development), but my role has changed over that time. During the past ten years or so, my role has changed from someone doing 100% of the work (running my own business) to that of Project Management. I've accumulated more than enough hours required for the PMI, I just have a few more required credits before I write the PMP exam.
Though I'm located in a small town in Ontario, I've taken jobs that require me to travel about two hours each way to Toronto. So I'm up for *any* jobs that require travel within my immediate area or even those that would require relocation (according to the US Government I qualify for a TN-1, NAFTA Professional worker) in Canada or the US or elsewhere for that matter.
I have a family and they fully understand my efforts and the possibility of relocation for work. They have been incredibility supportive of what I've been doing.
That's it for now.
D
While this blog is new, my efforts for finding a "real job" are not. There are some "out of the box" ideas that I have for getting some job attention, but more on that later.
Allow myself to introduce....myself.
Experience, I've got. It's been almost 20 years since I attended University (BComm). I've worked in the investment industry, tech (web/software development), but my role has changed over that time. During the past ten years or so, my role has changed from someone doing 100% of the work (running my own business) to that of Project Management. I've accumulated more than enough hours required for the PMI, I just have a few more required credits before I write the PMP exam.
Though I'm located in a small town in Ontario, I've taken jobs that require me to travel about two hours each way to Toronto. So I'm up for *any* jobs that require travel within my immediate area or even those that would require relocation (according to the US Government I qualify for a TN-1, NAFTA Professional worker) in Canada or the US or elsewhere for that matter.
I have a family and they fully understand my efforts and the possibility of relocation for work. They have been incredibility supportive of what I've been doing.
That's it for now.
D
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