My first crack at entrepreneurship and as it turns out my preparation for the 2nd time around.
Well where should I start, about 2 years ago my oldest brother, with give or take 30 years computer programming experience, under his belt. Tells me I should pick something, I'm familiar with, knowledgeable about and passionate over, then somehow write about it and turn it into an online business. O.K. well 1st I grew up on a mixed farm, in small town Saskatchewan, gaining the value of that experience. Then I started driving big trucks, as an O/O I ran around the prairie provinces buying, selling, then delivering canola oil to farmers. Then when prices went through the roof, customers demanded a less expensive alternative, then we welcomed poultry fat, it flourished for roughly 9 years through the 90's. Then as my late father told me, don't put all your eggs in 1 basket, because one way or another the market, the weather and or a combination of those and unforeseen circumstances will take you out. That's sorta what happened, a molasses dealer in Southern Saskatchewan started hauling the same, but he did it just to cover freight, the customer bought directly from the canola crushing plants, and my competition delivered the product. He did it more or less just to keep his trucks and drivers busy when the molasses business slowed to a crawl in warmer weather. In summary my business grew from nothing, to over 2 million dollars in sales annually, and once the product was in the truck they required payment in full. That meant for a time, I had to beat a 30,000 dollar cheque back to the bank, with as much paid for on delivery as possible. I dealt mostly with Hutterite colonies, and with one in particular, when the boss man saw me coming, he starting swearing, calling me every name under the sun, meanwhile writing a cheque for 8 thousand or so. And here I am sweet talking him, and by the time we parted company at the door, he was saying thank you for stopping by, I kid you not. Alright now that we've determined, the business environment I was working in at the time, was no longer favorable, I sold out. Then, for 3 years I drove log truck, till lumber prices tanked, then for 1 season I drove truck for a custom silage operation, next since the oilpatch happened to be booming, I acquired the appropriate safety certificates, to drive tank truck. I did that for 6 years, then the company I was driving for decided to close the shop in Medicine Hat, now that would mean on top of a 14 hour day, add a 2 hour commute, needless to say I quit. It was about year 5 when my brother and I had that conversation, I referred to at the beginning of this crash course version, of me gaining my work experience, so for about 4 months in my spare time I started documenting said experiences. Then after I had over 8000 words down I started looking for a tech savvy partner that had the time to help me build an interactive info based work experience website, then give or take what seems like forever, here I am. Next up I was was driving for a farmer/feedlot/custom silage operator for 1 year, then the bad ole market reared it's ugly head again and I got laid off. The good part about this scenario is having enough spare time isn't an issue.
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Entrepreneur
Joined February 14, 2011
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Located in Medicine Hat, Alberta
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