Sunday, July 26, 2009
by John Horning
Since my last post, I’ve met a telemarketer who may be the key to jump-starting my digital phone service, Rivul.com. I was looking for a job on Craigslist when I came across his ad. He was looking for telemarketers to sell phone service. Although telemarketing is not something I do well with, the fact that he was selling telephone service intruiged me. The owner’s name is Tom Canterbury and we talked by phone and decided to meet. He has been a telemarketer for a long time and has a had excellent success selling local phone service – mostly with First Communication. Unfortunately, they decided to stop selling residential service and he’s been struggling since. He’s still looking for a good replacement so I told him about Rivul and he was immediately interested. He talked me into running a 2 week trial at a fixed hourly rate. At this point, they’ve been trying for 3 days without any sales, but they are getting closer. The initial script didn’t go too well – it was starting out with the fact that this is digital phone service, which no one could relate to. So they went to a script where they are focusing on the cost savings. They’ve gotten more interest, and have come close to making some sales, but they get stuck when they ask for a credit card number. Of course, even if they are successful with this test, I can’t afford to hire them. One of the problems is they don’t think people will pay $75 for the first month, which is what it would be to purchase the convertor box, even though the price has been cut in half from what it was originally. We compromised on renting the box for $5/month, instead of purchase for $40 plus $10 shipping, which means break even at 10 months. We’ve talked about them charging $40 per signup after the test so I would have to come up with that money as well. I think I might be able to borrow it from my brother. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I also come across an ad seeking someone to partner with a business brokerage in PA to work in this area. My job would be to contact business owners, in certain target business types, to try to list their business for sale. The broker claims to have a pool of buyers. I think I’m going to try this – it seems legit. It does involve cold-calling which is a deterrent. Maybe I can get Tom to set the appointments for me. Of course it’s commission only and paydays will likely be very few and far between. I really need something that pays now.
In other news, Sarah & her boyfriend David, Andrew, and Emily came over for yesterday for dinner. Sarah announced that she and David were thinking about getting married, which was a shock to me. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that she claimed they weren’t serious when I asked her. She says they may wait until next May, but I suspect that will get moved up if they decide to through with it. David is a very nice young man. His employment situation is a little uncertain – he kind of reminds me about me since it appears he want’s to have his own business in the real estate industry. I know Sarah is not too anxious to marry an entrepreneur, but maybe she’ll keep him on the right path.
Emily is going to a church-sponsored Girls’ Camp this week. This is her 6th camp, and she’s a leader this year, which is quite a milestone. Then next week, she’s off to EFY (Especially for Youth) – a youth conference in Nauvoo, Illinois. It should be a great experience for her. I’m really happy she could go, but feel bad I couldn’t support her very well – she’s using her own money to pay for it.
Andrew is still working 50+ hours a week for Turf-Scape and doing his own lawns, but it’s slowed down a little. His side interest has turned from looking for a truck to looking for a 4-wheeler with maybe a snow-plow for use in the winter. I’m really happy to see him so busy and productive.
Michael called me in the evening and reported that his job is up in the air again. He thinks he might be transferred again in a week or two. Apparently sales are down and there are personality clashes, resulting in low morale. I hope they can keep him busy for another month at least. Apparently Bishop Hunter has not turned Michael’s paperwork in to Salt Lake yet for his mission because he was a little unsure of how to do it. Michael’s his first one. Hopefully that will happen in the next day or so.
Ruby (my girlfriend in Culpeper, VA) has decided to call off her planned trip to Ohio during the first week in August on counsel from her Bishop. He advised her take a break from her relationships with both me and Joe, her ex-husband, until she’s figured out what she really wants to do – at least that’s my one-sentence interpretation of what she said. It’s a complicated issue and not an easy thing to get through. A lot of prayer and pondering is in order for all of us.
