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I was 23 years old, freshly after graduation and landed, which in my opinion was my great break. The company looked justified – it had a skilled website, a everlasting stream of wedding clients and an office in Orange, California. I spent years to make wedding myself, grinding myself to earn money, and here is the company that got here up with all this. At least I thought so.
Within three months I would drown in clients’ complaints, making furious connections from brides and watching so -called real -time activities. The moment that broke me got here when the crying bride called me with the panic itself – her wedding cameraman He never appeared. Her father was furious and I was the only person raising the phone.
It was the day I gave up and it was the day when I discovered what sort of business I would never start.
The offer “Too good to be real”
Since highschool, I made weddings, running my own small video company. I left the student film phase in college because I didn’t see the point. Why make movies for evaluation if I could make a payment?
One day John (not his real name) contacted me. He was the owner of a video company and saw my work. “I like what you are doing,” he said. “Do you want to shoot at me?” It was easy. Without sales, without marketing – only USD 400 for a wedding and go home. Then, after a few months, he made one other offer to me: Operational Vice President.
I just left my studies and someone called me vice chairman. I didn’t even know what it meant, but it sounded necessary. Leadership role in a recognized company? I accepted.
The company looked legally
On the first day as a vice chairman I entered the office ready for learning, but John was not. The phone rang and I picked up. “Where is my wedding movie to hell?” I apologized, deleted their information and promised to proceed. A few minutes later one other conversation. The same problem. Then one other. I checked my e -mail. There were a whole lot of messages from the furious couples
John, 18 months have passed. Where is my movie?
John, I take you to court.
John, you ruined our wedding.
It’s just that I wasn’t John, I was just a guy so silly to look. I began kicking, and what I found was a disaster. John’s business model was built on one thing: being the least expensive option. 799 USD for a wedding film. Sounds like a great opportunity, right? Mean wedding Fimeogator collects $ 4,000 or more, so the brides have jumped to the opportunity. But here is a real division:
- Main Sagittarius: $ 300
- Second Sagittarius: USD 200
- Editor: 200 USD
- USD 99 is left for “profit”
This “profit” was to incorporate rent, marketing, pay, phrases and mistakes. That’s not. To maintain operations on the surface, John reserved as many weddings as possible. We filmed eight, ten, sometimes twelve weddings at the weekend. There was no quality control, customer support and no time to offer movies on time. And because we paid so little, cameramen began not to look at weddings.
“It will get it when he gets it“
It is not only clients who fucked up. Cameramen – Of which many have been in the company for years – it began to send me e -mail directly. Hey, when will I receive payment for a wedding last month? Hey, three months have passed. Any update?
I went to John. “Jennifer has been turning weddings for you for years, he just wants to know when he earns,” I begged on behalf of one of the long -term employees.
“It’s okay,” he shrugged. “He’ll get it when he gets it.” It was the moment when I realized that it was not even a real company.
Crisis point
I stopped him for three months, hoping that all the pieces would turn around. Then got here a telephone conversation that broke me. I was at the school graduation when my phone rang. It was a crying, panicked bride. “My cameraman is not here,” she sobbed. I left my family, my stomach in the nodes. I checked our system. The camera was not assigned. John forgot.
The bride’s father took the phone. He was furious. I desired to fix it, so I almost connected 1000 dollars of my own money to get someone there at the last minute. My dad stopped me. “You will never recover it,” he said. “It’s not your battle.” And he was right. I was abandoned the next day.
Drawn conclusions
This experience has shaped all the pieces I do now. I learned that being the least expensive option attracts the worst customers, the worst suppliers and the worst problems. It also showed me the importance of customer loyalty. It’s not only about providing the product, but about care when something goes flawed. Receive the phone. Do the work. Do it good.
An busy does not mean profitable: John boasted 300 weddings a yr. But his company lost money. Growth without profit is simply fast for bankruptcy. And although we are in this note, I learned that the website, office and logo do not do business – it does.
Finally, I learned that some firms are to not be saved. I couldn’t fix this disaster, I could only learn from it.
Departure was the best decision in my life
The company collapsed during the yr. I? I built a company that does exactly the opposite of all the pieces I witnessed. We do not delay and we are not clients of the ghosts. I love running Franchise – And we love to assist franchise brands in telling their history on video. And when the franchise brand employs us, they receive exactly what they paid for. No lies, without chaos and without crying brides. This way it is best to run a company.