My First Successful Start Up

I didn’t necessarily go from working at the Auction in Cleveland to having a successful company.  I had one more stop to make.  A stop that would introduce me to the partners I’m still working with today.

In Sept of 2005 I left Cleveland and moved to Washington, DC to go to work at Capital Auto Auction.  After two years of heavy recruitment I finally gave in and joined a partnership of four auction owners who ran the largest Public Auto Auction in the country.  I settled in as their National Sales Director responsible to bringing in new business.  It was a slow start but I did end up having a great deal of success bringing in multiple national clients.  The only draw back was that in the 18 months I worked for them I lived in Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; Philadelphia, PA; and Chicago, IL.  At first I loved it but when it was all said and done I was just exhausted.

During the fall of 2006 after trying to start an auto auction in Chicago and failing I came back to DC with the idea that I wanted to be in business for myself.  I spent a few months throwing around ideas until it dawned on me that I had already proven I could start a vehicle brokerage company while working in Cleveland.  I had also been dealing with the fact that the auction I worked for now had some of the same logistical problems as the one in Cleveland.  From that moment National Charity Services, INC was born.  The company started out servicing the auctions administrative needs in relation to its vehicle donation clients.  As the company started picking up its own clients the business grew from a one person, to a two person, and on to a three person business all being run out of my living room.  A few months later in April of 2007 I had quit my full time job to concentrate on my new company.

This is where a little bit of risk coupled with finding the right backers can go a long ways.

With a $6500 loan from my new partners I moved into new offices and started hiring more staff.  The loan was paid off in less then 90 days and the company took off on an amazing growth spurt that I could have never imagined.  The best day was on April 11th, 2008 when just 428 days after making our first dollar we reached $1,000,000 in sales.  Even more gratifying was the second company we started managed to reach $1,000,000 in sales 48 days faster then the first.

That’s a brief introduction into my first start-up.  I know most of you reading this are more interested in my work at home success so if you’re ready you can move on to Growing My Business – The Internet Marketing Boom.