My Story or How To Succeed In Business By Working really hard!

Hi there – Keith Dean here from Derby in the UK.

I have been involved in Internet Marketing for the past 8 months and have been learning as much as I can about the differences between selling online and selling face to face offline. I have over 20 years experience of sales both offline and online but as you can see am fairly new to Internet Marketing.

So I will just give you some background so you know who you are dealing with before I tell you what I have learnt and how I am making money now. I currently make around £500 per week using just two products and with help and advice from two mentors.

So here’s my story…..

I started out in business for myself when I was made redundant from a well known American bank in 1984. At a loose end I wasn’t sure what to do next as the job prospects were limited and I was a bit fed up of being told what to do by people who felt that they owned me lock, stock and barrel.

I was a relatively young man of 28 living near Liverpool with my girlfriend at the time in a one bedroom run down flat that we paid £10 a week for! My only real possession then was a gold coloured sports Ford Capri. A lot like the one in this picture:

Driving around the local area looking for opportunities to leap out at me I ended up out in the countryside. I happened across a farm with a sign outside advertising eggs at 40p for 6 or £6 for a case of 10 dozen. I had a feeling that in the local shop eggs sold at 60p for 6 so there could be some money to be made here! After a quick chat with the farmer I dashed home with a case of eggs and 20 egg boxes negotiated for free as a trial run!

My girlfriend was sceptical but I just told her I was determined to prove I could sell them so boxed them up, put them in the boot of the Capri and headed for the local council estate.

To cut a long story short I knocked on several doors, sold all 20 boxes for 60p each within an hour and rushed back to tell my girlfriend the news.

This was my first experience of making a profit from my own ideas and hard work and application:

Cost of eggs £6
Sale of eggs 20 x 60p = £12
Profit £6

OK so this wasn’t going to rival Richard Branson or Alan Sugar but it was momentous for me. I reasoned that if I could make one sale then I could duplicate it and make hundreds – there was no stopping me then.

I never considered that it wouldn’t work or that people would not buy from me, I knew that with the right price and a cheeky smile I would sell the lot!

The next day I went back to the farm and bought 2 cases for £12 and this time had to pay £1 for 40 boxes!

I went to a different area this time and decided that people in sheltered accommodation may be interested so asked the supervisor of one just down the road and got the required permission to speak to the residents.

This took me a bit longer as I found that a lot of these elderly people were lonely and were prepared to buy some eggs from me if I would have a quick chat to them in return!

So 3 hours later and I had sold all the eggs and worked out my profits:

Cost of eggs £12 + Cost of boxes £1 = £13
Sale of eggs 40 x 60p = £24
Profit £11

Ok I know still not a fortune and at less than £4 per hour not the biggest income ever earned but the idea was right. The next day when I visited the farmer he suggested I could also try selling potatoes as well. He had a set of old scales that worked and gave me them free of charge.

Of course!

I could double my sales but still see the same number of people. In reality it didn’t work out exactly like that but this is the breakdown of the next day’s work:

Cost of eggs – 4 cases at £6 per case = £24
Cost of egg boxes = £2
Cost of 2 x 25kg sacks of potatoes = £7
Cost of 100 x plastic 5lb potato bags = £2
Total cost = £35

Sales
80 x 6 eggs @ 60p a box = £48
22 x 5lb bags potatoes @ 60p a bag = £13.20
Total sales = £61.20
Total profit = £26.20

Time taken 4 hours = £6.55 per hour

Anyway to cut a long story short I saw the benefit in this and started to add different things such as carrots, onions, apples, bananas etc as people loved the fact that I would come round on a set day and bring them their fruit and vegetables. It saved them carrying heavy bags and all the produce I sold was excellent quality and a fair price including delivery, plus we had some good chats so was also a nice community aspect.

Quite a few of the people I delivered too were infirm or housebound and looked forward to a friendly face – yes even mine!

After three months of hard work I had a mobile van (a converted ambulance that I bought at an auction) shelved out and I was turning over about £700 per week with a profit of £300 per week.

Here is the van:

I then started going to local markets twice a week and discovered that you could buy produce much cheaper and better quality still at the wholesale market.

After about 9 months I was running two mobile vans with two local lads working them for me whilst I concentrated on the markets far and wide. At each market I would enlist a couple of local youngsters to help me and ended up turning over around £3,000 per week making a profit of £1,000 per week, as you can imagine I was a very happy person if completely worn out by the end of each week!

I continued with this for a couple of years but then the advent of the supermarkets and the end of my relationship brought and end to my fledgling business. I was and still am very proud of my achievements though as besides the income I learnt so much about business, people, selling and even accounting!

So what happened next?

My next experience of selling was back in Blackpool at the seaside. I was brought up there and left when I was 18 to join the Royal Air Force. Going back there was a pleasure for me as I love being by the sea, and even though we don’t live by the sea at the moment will do so in the next few years. We usually take our holidays by the sea and recently have been to Miami Beach, Key West, Lanzarote and Malaga in Spain.

Anyway back to my story if you can stand any more…

I have a great friend in Blackpool who I went into business with selling Blackpool rock – you can see us both in the picture here – I am the one with the dodgy wedge haircut…

We managed to negotiate rent on setting a stall up outside a local shop just off the seafront. This was a very busy area and our season started in Easter and went right through until October for the Blackpool Illuminations. We used to regularly turnover £400 a day and with a 100% markup made about £600 – £700 a week each. After the first season though the shop owners realised how lucrative the pitch was and used it themselves from then on.

It was great fun while it lasted though!

I decided then to try my sales experience in the “real world” to see if I would be able to survive and took the huge step for me at the time to work for someone else.

I started work for CICA and American Insurance company, passed the 2 week training course and set about selling personal accident insurance on a commission only basis. It was such hard work. I had to go and talk to shop owners, business people and builders and workmen to try and sell them accident insurance.

At first I didn’t make much money – around £250 – £300 per week. Then I had a good think about who would actually need this Insurance – Sports people, Pub landlords, Builders and Bricklayers.

I decided to set out my week by working all the pubs on a Monday daytime, Sports Clubs on training evenings and builders and bricklayers the rest of the time.

My income rocketed to around £700 per week and then I hit the big time when I stumbled across a factory on an Industrial Estate. It was in Nottingham and if you don’t know, besides Robin Hood Nottingham is also famous for its lace. In fact there is a nice trendy area in Nottingham called the Lace Market.

Anyway, I wandered into the factory and had a chat with the shift supervisor. He was happy for me to chat to some of the workers on their tea break. I went to the canteen and there were about 50 people there having a break. I was as nervous as anything but just spoke with a loud voice and started to explain what I was selling.

The first voice started up with “what makes you think we might be interested in this” to which I replied – Good point, I don’t expect you to be interested until I have shown you exactly how it works and how it can benefit you…phew that was tough!

Anyway, I managed to sell a couple there and then in the tea break. The supervisor then took me to one side and said the boss wants to see you…arghh! The end of my chance here so I thought.

I walked up the stairway and into the office and was greeted by the finance director. She asked me what I was doing so I started to show her the accident insurance information.

She soon stopped me and told me she wasn’t interested herself but would be happy for me to speak to all the workers. Being quick thinking I told her that the price was £24 for each worker for six months. I cheekily asked her if the company would pay for anyone who wanted it and then deduct say £1 a week each from their wages!!

She laughed and said OK that sounds a fair deal as long as you don’t stop them working and I get a receipt.

I worked throughout the morning shift and ran out of policies…so rang my manager and asked him to bring some more down for me.

I worked through the afternoon shift and again ran out of policies so had to get more from my manager Lee yet again.

By the end of the day I had sold 92 policies! Lee came and picked me up…it was 9.30pm by now and we worked out my commission. I was paid £10.80 per sale so had made 92 x £10.80 = £993.60. Of course Lee being the slave driver he was told me that no-one had made £1000 commission in a day in the UK and I was so close to it. There were no more people left at the factory and I was dead beat by then.

Lee said to me “Look Keith you have had a great day in sales, but to make it a memorable day and one that will be recognised by the whole UK sales teams you need to make £1000. Have you anyone else you can see tonight?”

I remembered that I had called at a local pub the day before and the landlord had told me to pop back when his wife was in. So we drove to the pub…it was packed out as football was on the TV.

The landlord was at the bar talking to the locals and remembered me when I said hello. He told me to hang on whilst he got his wife to come to see me. At first I was a bit nervous but then when I started telling her I remembered how many I had sold already and just breezed through her objections. I sold one to her and her husband and had done it! Over £1,000 in a day and I felt elated and knackered!!

The next day I had to go back and collect the cheque for £2,208. I was a little scared and worrying in case the Finance Director had changed her mind…but no need what a fantastic day that was!

Anyway I won a National Sales Award for that and then six months later went back and sold them some of them the upsell full cover policy and a further 36 new policies and made over £1400 in a day. This won me a European sales award (a statue of a horses head!) and I still have it on a shelf in the hallway.

In the intervening years I have started and sold two more businesses, one in the service industry sector and the other my ebay and amazon DVD company. The sale of these companies allowed me to buy two properties in this area that I have refurbished and now rent out. These will be my pension!

The last one was a kitchen and bathroom installation business. This was successful and I ran it for nearly two years but I closed this in December 2008 as the recession has hit prices and trade so decided to work exclusively online from now on.

I won’t bore you with those in any more detail so to bring you bang up to date am now working from home building an Internet Marketing business from scratch.

I am working on two products that bring in around £500 a week between them and am just launching my course on how to buy and sell collectable CD’s and DVD’s.

Hope that was interesting to you reading it – it was for me writing it as I hadn’t realised quite how much I had done in my life!

Also in closing I believe that life is for living and not just working. When I am being creative I work on my own music – I play keyboards, guitar and produce my own work. I don’t do anything with it though as it is just great fun creating it!

I also have a wonderful wife Melissa and also three children from a previous marriage who live with their mum in Nottingham. They are a huge part of my life and keep me busy one way or another. Seb is now 21 and off to Leeds University in September, Tasha is eighteen and studying hairdressing and music, Ollie is 16 and off to Army College in September as he wants to join the parachute regiment.

Me and Melissa a few years ago:

My kiddies when they were little ones:

That’s the end of this chapter of my story for now but the next one is just starting and I want you to follow my progress in Internet Marketing and let me help you to make a success of it too.

Just follow me kids and we won’t go far wrong!

Speak later
Keith