I’ve always thought “if you want something done right, do it yourself”. I guess this is a kind of negative attitude to have and if everyone believed in this, there would be little room for economics as we know it. Specialisation wouldn’t happen – we’d just do everything ourselves, believing we can do better than anyone else can. This isn’t the case.

I believe in specialisation. I think you only have to be good at one little thing to be successful. Donald Trump might be the world’s worst artist but it won’t ever matter, because when it comes to negotiation, he’s right up there. That boy Red something-or-other who specialised in putting out fires on oil rigs – he makes £5 million a pop at that, do you think he’d care if he couldn’t spell to save himself?

This being said, I think it’s good to be a bit of a Jack of all trades. Be competent at many things. But, be excellent at something.

When it comes to sales, I am very good. Not the best, probably because my hearts very rarely in it. But I’m above average, at worst. When it comes to telesales, I’m very, very good. But I hate it. I hate the thought of it, I had the process of it and I just find it a horrible experience. Whether it be my voice or how I have “mastered” how to persuade my way into getting the information or the appointment, I don’t know. But I’m good at it and it’s made me money in the past.

But as I mentioned – I hate it. I don’t like people phoning me uninvited and I don’t like doing it to others. Unless of course, it’s for something very, very interesting – but it rarely is.
As you’ll remember from earlier posts – my head has been on expansion. I want to be in as many clubs as possible. Economies of scale and all that.

So, instead of forcing myself to call the list of names/numbers I’d acquired, converting them into appointments and making a deal I thought “hey, I’m forever seeing call centres looking for work, I have a lot of spare cash in the business – 2+2=4, right?” Wrong, it equals a whole lot of hassle, effort and headaches... All over £50.

On retrospect (and if Chris Kayday is reading this – you were right) I should never have trusted someone else with a) my data or b) doing my work. I’ve basically cut myself out of a job recently, purposely, to free up time for my exams this June. Had I been less lazy – I’d have had a few appointments in the time it’s taken me to write this blog.

I hired Call Handling Services UK (http://www.callhandlingservices.co.uk/), for the sole reason that they did pay-per-appointment, as opposed to an hourly rate – or anything like this. I don’t trust telemarketers. In my experience, telesales staff are unmotivated by anything other than money – if the potential to earn a decent wage wasn’t there for the majority of telesales staff, they wouldn’t be there. It’s not a career and it’s not a profession. Anyone can do it to a high standard, even me.

Anyway, I thought “pay per appointment, how can I lose?”. You can lose by dealing with morons. That’s a fact. I take a lot of time over hiring my staff. They’re all I have. Without them I’d just be a 20 year old student with a pile of lollipops, some designer aftershave and access to some toilets. With my staff, I have a vehicle that makes me money week in, week out.
I won’t get into the nitty gritty today, it gets me angry just thinking about how much time and energy I wasted on these idiots – but the short story is... They got me an appointment, it didn’t go on but I spoke to someone else, I told them it didn’t go on but said I spoke to someone else and told them I’d pay them if the deal went through as a sign of good faith. The deal hasn’t went through as of yet, they say I tried to con them (I still don’t understand that) and publically made idiots of themselves by posting this on the UK Business Forums.

Perhaps after my exams I will post something that gives everyone a full insight into this issue, but I thought it would be worth addressing for some fundamental lessons I learned from the ordeal. I’d call it an experience, but ordeal sums it up a little more accurately.

1. I’m all for outsourcing. It’s what my business thrives upon. Don’t outsource activities that are key to your business’ function. Do them yourself, or by someone you can trust if that isn’t feasible.

2. Never be ‘fair’. If an appointment doesn’t go on, don’t pay the appointment maker even if you get a lucky break by speaking to someone else. They didn’t get the appointment, so they don’t get paid.

3. Don’t ever outsource your calling needs. The people calling on your behalf are representing your company. Probably very badly. If you don’t need something ridiculous like 10,000 calls done – then do them yourself. Don’t be lazy and don’t lose time and effort because you’ve been lazy.

Anyway, that’s enough about that.

We have got another club on the go – not the one I got the appointment with, funnily enough – and it’s in Aberdeen. We did a trial run last night and it went well, I’m advertising for more staff right now to get the operation up and running.

I’ll be expanding further over the next three months – through calling clubs, but I’ll be doing it myself!!

Other than that incident, things have been moving as smoothly as I could’ve hoped for. My supervisor is doing his job right and doing it well. My staff are happy and earning good, steady money for both themselves and me.

As I said before, my updates will be infrquent and short for the next little while – but expect them large and often after June 5th. That's a promise. And unlike Call Handling Services UK - I'll keep my promises and deliver on them too.

Take care and Don’t Trust Anyone!