Wholesale early years

I found myself at a point in life where I felt I was destined to work at a J.O.B.Just Above Broke. Then my big break occurred. I found a job opening up a satellite office for a wholesale book company. The parent company sold new and reconditioned textbooks and distributed classroom reading.

I was to start up and run a Texas company independent from the parent company. This opportunity again offered me the independence I so enjoyed. It was literally starting a business from the ground up. After the owner handed me the keys, he said to make it happen. All I had was phones and two folding chairs.

The business started in 1986, and technology was minimal. With one employee to answer phones and take orders, I ran every other enterprise aspect in the early stages. I brought in all the shelving, shipping supplies, and books. I set up accounts with the carriers, publishers, and suppliers.

We installed the latest technology, a computer, a terminal, and a dot-matrix printer. We had a 1200 baud modem to transmit data to the parent company. I had to learn computer science to troubleshoot and setup all the software and hardware.

To generate business, I made cold calls to schools by telemarketing. We put together catalogs, newsletters, and flyers. I started attending trade shows and conventions to promote our services. I booked the meetings and conferences, made flight and hotel reservations. I bought a portable display and book racks.

I physically was the shipping and receiving department when not selling.  I unpacked shipments, stocked the books, and pulled orders. I ran reports to maintain inventory control and select the appropriate carriers for the size of the orders.

We started to grow, and I was able to hire employees; this freed me to visit schools and attend more shows. I set up presentations for school districts, individual schools, private schools, and charter schools.

At one convention, I hit upon an opportunity that I believe was the smartest thing I ever did. The director of a state agency asked me if it were possible to provide certain books they required for their academic decathlon competition. The problem was that it was statewide and since the books weren't in the quantities that would qualify for discounts. Most of the schools couldn't get these books at their local retailer. So I decided that we could provide the books and I would offer free shipping. Genius orders came pouring in from all over the state of Texas. When I sent these books out, I included our catalogs, which negated the cost of mailing them separately. This maneuver got me in the approved vendor list in all the schools and got them accustomed to ordering from us. So they became customers for our classroom reading.

A few years into being the decathlon book provider, the academic committee decided to hold a dictionary skills contest for the state middle and high schools. Guess who got to sell a ton of dictionaries? I became the number 1 distributor of M-W dictionaries in the country. These sales earned us bonus money, advertising and promotional incentives.