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Sales Success Magazine | Sales Training | Success StoriesHow I Went From a Shoe Shine Boy to a Millionaire and Found Passion for Life
A Series Written to Inspire Those Who Want Passion for LifeChapter:10 The Ultimate Business Disaster Click here for "Millionaire" directory. Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. SALES SUCCESS MAGAZINE ©2001,2002,2003 Published 7/20/2003 
Finally after 3/12 years of hard work, saving and scrimping, living almost a pauper's life, it seemed success had come to me.
We had 18 employees, we had janitorial contracts it seemed on almost half of the town. We were cleaning carpets, walls, upholstery, windows, disaster restoration, almost anything to do with cleaning. The bank was at my beck and call, if I bid on a contract and it required $5000.00 worth of new equipment, they would back me up. They would say "Tim, if you get the contract, you got the money for the equipment". I remember mentioning to my wife, "Finally, easy street is here for us. We can spend a little money, kick back, and enjoy life a little". Three days after I made that comment, the coal mines announced that they would not return to work. We had been expecting for two years that they would start working anytime, so we kept status quo on our business. When this announcement happened, I listened to my phone ring the next morning as people called, and told me "Tim, we have to cut back, and the janitorial is the first thing we have to cut back on". Now I had legal contracts with all of them, and I could have taken them to court. But I was in the same boat they were, and I understood. They did not expect this to happen, as did not I. So I sat there that morning in my office, and listened to 3/12 years work go down the drain, in just one morning. Many of my business friends, contractors, plumbers, etc, and I, all got together at the coffee shop and decided we were going to find a different town to start over in. The banks pleaded with us to stay, but we did not want to be in such a volatile economy that depended on one industry. So my wife, myself, and my eight month old baby moved to Denver Colorado, 360 miles north of Sheridan. Denver was the first time I had been in a large city, and you probably would have recognized my wife and myself downtown, sticking our heads out the window and gawking at the sky scrapers. My gosh those were big things. But it was very exciting. Here we were in the large city, with all that opportunity. My first job was in sales with a cleaning company. I was to build a janitorial division for his company. When I had explained to him what I had done with my own business, he hired me on the spot for $350.00 week. This seemed like a good sum to me, as that was about all I had been making running my own business. I went out and starting contacting people, selling janitorial services. I found out the market in Denver was quite different, but I pursued accounts and seemed to be making a lot of progress. I was very exciting to be working with this man, as he already had a business that was 5 times as big as the one I had dreamed of building. Unfortunately, I started receiving many unwanted advances from his wife. She would not stop, and I decided to leave the company before getting trouble from her husband, my boss, and my own wife. In the future I always remembered this, and tried to make sure it did not happen with any of my own businesses among my employees or management. Click here to go to chapter 11. This article is copyrighted by Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. and no one has permission to copy or reproduce any part without written notarized permission from Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. ©2001,2002,2003 |
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