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Sometimes it seems like everything and everyone is against you and the chances of succeeding at what ever you are trying to do is slipping away. I have felt like that for a number of years in so many different projects, but we still get up every morning and put our boots on as we have something special that is driving us.
Call it what you like and not everyone has this as many people have tried to succeed only to fail. If everything we tackle in life was easy then everyone would be successful and that is never the case.
Over the last year and a bit my business has suffered immensely from the lockdowns almost to the point of mothballing everything and riding out the storm. We lost many accounts due to companies going out of business but luckily knowing our business and being cautious we never lost any money to bad accounts.
One day can make up for all the hardships endured and it could be tomorrow or next week or who knows it may never happen ,but you have to just keep going. I have doubted myself many times and have done things differently with some success and more failures. You just never know until you know and fortunately I had one of those special moments today.
A new client kept his appointment and we met today which was refreshing as so many have postponed or rescheduled over the last 6 months. I knew immediately that this guy was someone I could work with as he was a straight shooter. These days the buyers play games making you guess what price they are paying for items in order to screw you.
This guy left the meeting room and after a few minutes came in with a sample of every item along with all the prices he is paying. Savings is what I specialise in and he mentioned I was different to others he had met in the past trying to sell items to him. His numbers were not good as they are being ripped off and then some. He offered me a bigger bone though which made it slightly more complicated than I had first thought. When I arrived in his office this morning I had a rough idea of the volume involved as I had chatted with the owner in February. I had no clue what they did and had never heard of them before as a business, all I knew was the owner had said that we will be doing business together and that was that. I thought he had a small business somewhere and never had any clue what they actually did and if they were "special" or not.
His company is a service provider operating the logistics for a long list of household brands and names based in warehouses all over the country. I have to prove myself in order to open all the other doors on price and service. This for me is a dream scenario which would be like having a wish list and having them all granted in one go. I shouldn't have Googled the company this evening as now I won't sleep as the companies they are involved with is mind blowing. Many of the companies I have been trying to gain access to is actually these guys in an around about way. One arbitrary phone call did all this and could be the best phone call I ever made.
This kind of stuff just doesn't happen anymore yet it shows if you stick to your principals of being honest it can pay off. I believe they are sick and tired of being taken for a ride by companies that are out to make whatever they can. Times are tough right now and every buck counts as companies are suffering under the current economic conditions.
I did promise myself I would change our clientele making sure essential businesses would dominate our portfolio and here is a prime example as this company stays open through lock downs. Rumor has it we are about to enter another lockdown this month as vaccinations haven't even started yet. With new business like this on the horizon this still could be a great year and why you must always have hope as you just never know.