Figured I'd post here about it. About a year ago I was sitting in a roach motel which my home remodeling company put me up in, while I was learning to sell windows. That full commission job didn't pan out for me. I ended up selling advertising for a different company - it paid base plus commission. Turned out I was good at it and was able to save up some cash.

I quit that job a month ago. Very shady company, abusive management in another state, glass ceiling, etc. I had enough and besides was spending most of my time daydreaming about having my own business and was working on the side towards it. Fastforward to now, I've dropped a couple thousand, and am launching my business. Figure this is as good a place as any to post about it, post thoughts, things I learn, etc.

The Plan

My business model is loosely based on the last company I worked for. Both sell print ads. My last company, we made cold calls all day. It was about making calls, making people buy stuff. Very aggressive culture. A lot like boiler room without the fancy suits.

My business aims to be similar, with some key differences. I have to pay my people full commission to start. I don't have enough capital. Because of that, my people will be more independent. Which is fine. Ideally I'll hire self motivated people who like money and don't need to be micromanaged.

The business is a direct mail pack. Much like valpak, but much higher quality. Also, we don't hit every door. We only hit the high end homes.


The Dilemmas


I am working from home now. It's going to be hard to attract good people without an office. Even if I hire people (I'm talking to a couple) they won't have an office and it'll be hard to manage them.

Secondly I hate working from home. It's hard to stay motivated, and I tend to feed off other salespeople when I'm dialing.

Money - I need to raise capital. Will be hard since I live outside of DC and most investors like things like software or goverment contractors. Print is not exactly in style in the bus world.

Also - the DC area has a bunch of well fed, well educated types. Not the best breeding ground for hungry young hustlers. Who by the way are great for this type of biz. Ideally a place without such a great economy would be better.

This entire business model is a fail. Everything about it. Print ads in today's digitized world? Fail. Cold calling? I mean, Who picks up the phone anymore? Fail. Attracting talented people that would work for someone with no office, no base salary, no existing customers? Fail.

Find something else better man.

If you have the stomach for sales, you are probably better off working in a Home Depot, canvassing for a glass or roofing company, or just working as a debt collector. All of these jobs seem beyond miserable, but you seem to have the stomach for it, and it won't involve you blowing your roll on a business with no upside.

Put your money to better use, and try to avoid the roach motels.

Lol I figured that's the kind of reply I would get.

Actually the last company I worked at was a 40 million dollar company. Print isn't dead at all and the reality is it is far more effective than digital (many studies show)

And all salespeople cold call if they want to make money

The market caps of FB and GOOG would seem to indicate otherwise

The value in the previous company is the sales process (or hiring process/cycle of sales people) most likely.

Value in print is part of marketing automation campaigns imo. So taking an action on social media, a website, or email will trigger a print piece.

Perhaps start off with the print ad sales since that is what you know and work on how you can upsell into handling the advertising for the entire operation to make it all congruent. Use that word, people like that.

Sell a front end offer as one piece and package up the entire thing to sell right there or after a few weeks. Charge as much as your sales people can keep a straight face/voice asking for.

If you're pitching an RE agent/broker it might be:

- Social media advertising for [ new listings, open house, agent branding, just sold ]
- Social media advertising for [ buyer leads, seller leads ]
- Print/direct mail campaigns for new listings
- Monthly newsletter campaigns to network
- video walk through creation services.


You're calling businesses and selling them advertising. Might as well sell a ton of it. All that above stuff is easily outsourced and not region specific. Pick a niche figure out all the marketing channels they use and sell them your marked up services.

Model what they were doing previously. Figure out how you can scale/grow it by selling more ****.

Exactly to your first statement - the company was a recruting firm that hired and churned through people, most people not lasting more than 2 weeks. Basically squeezing leads out of people - and most sales turn into more sales from senior reps who upcharge.

What I found was you can pretty much sell anything if you make enough calls/ use the right script.

I don't need to be a billionaire, just a humble millionaire would be fine

If you don't mind cold calling, and are adept at closing the deal, try selling insurance instead of printing.

subbed. Looks doomed to fail imo.

Meh. I used to think that but the thing with insurance: you work for a broker (unless you start your own insurance company, which god knows how hard that is). The broker controls you and can bend you over whenever they want. For anybody who is entrepreneurial, you want to have full control of your destiny and not submit to anyone's rules. But yeah those guys can make bank, but it's not the same as owning a business.

Where are you located?

northern virginia, outside DC

Rich area. There has to be a better way to make money in sales than print media. I'm sorry there just has to be. I'd recommend my industry but it does better in lower upkeep areas than Northern VA.

No offense, but this comes off as naïve. Your attitude is the exact opposite of what it takes to run a successful business. You appear to be in it in order to be a "boss" and have power over people. You are ignorant to the fact that running a successful business means you will have hundreds, if not, THOUSANDS of bosses. These bosses are your customers. And your customers can cause much more stress and rule your life than most bosses ever could.

If your motive is to be independent, you are better off living as a bum and eating out of the trash.

Nobody f*cks with the homeless guy.

Nah. Totally wrong

Print can outperform digital in certain areas (particularly B2B sales) but it's certainly not a business I would be starting now unless I had some pre-existing client base set up.

A lot of companies who have been exclusively/traditionally print are starting to catch on to the impact of hyper-targeted local advertising via FB and other digital channels, and the transition is only going to accelerate. It doesn't have to be as effective on a per impression basis when impressions are so much cheaper online.

Print is definitely not dead. Let me guess, TV is dead too?

Anyway, best of luck OP, it sounds like you definitely need an office. It wouldn't only be good for you and your employees, but also good for meetings with prospective (and current) clients.

You shouldn't need too much capital for this, I'd suggest friends and family.

The numbers are clear that businesses are investing heavily in digital. The problem is digital advertising is rife with fraud, and the CPM economy is a sham--FB's director of Marketing Science said as much.

If clients actually knew what they were buying (i.e. what exactly counts as an impression, bots, etc). they wouldn't be pouring as much money into digital.

P&G's CMO had some strong words re: digital this year, and I think the Wild West has a new sheriff in town.

Thanks man! I agree and actually looked at some space yesterday. It was reasonable, about 2k a month, and they would work with me to do the first couple months free till I'm up and running. Seems pretty generous, and obv I can negotiate. It will hold about 12 reps. If reps sell 5 ads a week each, I'm banking 30k/wk right there. Obviously that's a big if, but it's a nice thought.

updates?

print ads are dead? lol if I went to my mailbox right now it would be stuffed with print ads with the ROI tracked down to the last dollar (if they are smart direct mailers).

I've also managed telesale campaigns that have produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. People bring their cell phone everywhere, and according to my own statistics they pick up 20-30% of the time. People also carry their credit card everywhere.

I guess I'm a chump for taking 60 minutes to call 40 existing customers, up-sell them a $300 product, and collect a payment method, and net a profit of $2600. In 60 minutes. But nah, the phone's dead...thank god people actually think like this, more muney for me!

OK, finally. Here's a valid point. Really good salespeople are not going to take you up on this offer.


The ultimate irony of this post is that google advertises one of their biggest cash machines (adwords) through....direct mail to business owners.

You're putting the cart before the horse. You need clients before you need an office.

I like direct mail. I have no real experience with it, but I know many people who are in business for themselves that have built mini empires with direct mail. You already have a decent sales background, direct mail is just salesmanship in print-form. My advice would be to study copy-writing, become good at it. From there, you can freelance, create your own products and services, build a real business. idk just seems a lot easier than what you're trying to do right now.

If you want an even cheaper option, create a product or offer, build an email list with paid traffic, sell the list your product, and then sell them more stuff for eternity.