Just A Thought... Expansion Already

Grumpy

I was speaking with a guy I worked with, briefly, at home depot. This guy is like the runt of the litter. He's intelligent and has a decent closing ratio. Everyone picked on him and he recently got transerred to the south side of Chicago. I know he's not happy where he is (company) and looking to make a switch.

Since I service the North side of Chicago and Northern Suburbs I was considering expanding my advertising to encompass his current service area and give him some leads from my company. I probably don't have enough to keep him busy full time but if he can run a few leads a week that can be a big boost to my pocket book.

Thoughts?

PipeGuy

It's all about risk and what you're comfortable with. Right now, as a start-up, I'm big on sticking to my business plan's growth goals. It's tough to do some days because there's lots of demand right now for what I'm doing. For me, however, growth involves a lot of financial risk that I'm not yet ready to take.

I like to race sailboats. Your question has a lot of similarities to racing. If it was me I'd be:
1. Looking ahead - What visible indicators are there as to the elements that might impact me (either for the better or worse) betwen now and the next mark I need to make?
2. Looking around - What are my competitors doing? Should I be "covering" my competition (running with the pack) or is there good cause to go out on a different tack? Is a course right now just "another choice" or is it the best choice?
3. Looking behind - How did I get here? What worked? What could I have done better? Does the strategy I planned for at the start of the race still look like the best one?

I've also found that when you get outside any plan, answering the questions at #3 (see above) can get really complicated - sometimes damn near impossible.

I don't expect to be the first around the marks any time soon - I just want to finish a race or two without capsizing or losing a mast. But next year? If the plan is working it'll be time to put another boat in the race. If not it'll be time to make some course adjustments.

Grumpy

This is definetly ahead of schedule. My compitition? What compitition?

I have grown to be a man that takes advantage of his pportunities as much as possible. This looks like an untimely opportunity. It won't cost me much more at all to take this guy on.

On one hand I see a tremendous opportunity to earn some extra money with very little risk to me or the employee. But on the other hand I see that this may be premature since as any startup, I am experienceing some growing pains.

Decisions Decisions.

Mike Finley

Well Grumpy what did you end up doing?

Grumpy

Since I am a true salesman, I decided to throw a few objections at the guy to make him sell me into the job. He overcame them, as I expected.

I then told him "I have another call, give me a call back later." which was a lie. I was testing him. He did call back but never left a message and never called back a second time.

I'm thinking I'll just stick to the plan, this is not the HOT opportunity I thought it might be.