It seems like it wasn’t that many years ago that I started my own distributorship with $200 and high hopes. Within seven years we were recognized by Inc. magazine for three years in a row as an Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Company in America. We were doing well. But we weren’t making the kind of money I wanted to make. I wanted to get very wealthy.
As a small-business owner back then I was wearing too many hats. I had to come up with sales tools and marketing programs, build relationships with suppliers, manage the accounting details, credit, collections and banking relationships, maintain computer systems to run the business, and much more. If you’re a business owner in this industry maybe you can relate. You have to wear so many hats and do so many different things that don’t make you money. These tasks only make you crazy and exhausted.
By 1985 I knew that in order to reach the level of success I wanted to achieve for my sales and my business I had to make a change. I had to find a way to eliminate the back office tasks that were dominating my time, so I could focus on business development activities. I knew if I was struggling to get the administrative work off my plate, others in the industry must be struggling in the same way. I thought, “What if I could find other distributors that wanted to share in great resources so that we didn’t have to wear all those other hats that couldn’t make us money, and spend more time and have more tools and resources to go out and do the business development stuff that could make us wealthy?” In 1986, we rolled out the Proforma membership program.
Now Proforma Owners share in a full suite of support, including access to award-winning marketing campaigns, a technology platform, financial backing, industry buying clout and so much more. But most importantly, they can focus on the types of business development activities that make money. Instead of sitting behind piles of paperwork and invoices, they are out selling, getting new customers and selling more to the ones they have.
Are you looking to get wealthy? Whether you are already a business owner in the printing or promotional products world, a sales rep ready to start creating wealth for yourself and your family, or if you are new to this industry just looking for an opportunity to create wealth for yourself, here is my advice to you: Quit wearing so many hats.
Perhaps the answer is sharing one back office with another distributor so that you can spend more time on business development. Maybe it’s hiring a sales rep or CSR. Maybe it’s re-evaluating your daily priorities. To take your sales and your business to the next level you have to be able to let go of the $20-an-hour menial tasks and focus on true wealth-building activities. Then you will realize the true potential this industry holds for you.
