"Ok the basics accomplished, "thought Eppy, seated at his comfortable, technologically enhanced desk, in his successful looking chair. Now the important thing. The marketing, his specialty. He figured an all out blitz to grow the business quickly. Let's see. Billboards were good. Direct mailing, maybe 100,000 to start. Yellow pages were beneath him but a full two page spread in the six different books available would be a good start. A few thousand glossy brochures. Full page adds to start in the three major newspapers, with one page supplements each day thereafter and a 4-page pull out for Sunday. Trade journals. He knew them all and committed long term to half-pagers in the eight most prestigious product rags.
And then of course the Internet. He hired Web Page For You and Yours, the most highly recommended company for that sort of thing he could find. Here was where he was going to make a lot of his money. And idiot could make money on the internet. He had heard of the janitors and maintenance workers who had become millionaires overnight and if they could do it, with Eppy's savvy, business acumen, and all around high intelligence, there was no comparison.
His web page was top of the line. Several different videos of the product and it's many uses. A profile on Eppy he especially liked. Full color photos of each different option and design of the product with complete product description. Testimonials (they weren't cheap either for the good ones). Market comparison link. Discount page (was hard to fit the same profit into the discount price, but Eppy was no slouch). Paid search engine placement-the only way to go-with all the majors covered. The internet company came up with, at a price, the best key words in the business, even if some were a little off topic. Whatever got traffic, Eppy thought. God, he was good. So he set it all in motion. He was ready. Now all that was needed was the customers.
Right away, just as Eppy knew, the company took off "like a rocket" (Eppy said). The money was pouring in. The subcontract manufacturer was so overworked that Eppy decided to start his own plant. He leased, 20 years with an option, and refurbished, an existing plant. He installed all new equipment, top of the line computer operated machinery, and twenty employees to keep on top of the orders. This unbelievable success seemed to go on forever. Eppy hired more office staff, production managers, district sales reps, expanded the manufacturing plant, more employees, greater ad coverage and of course $2000 Armani suits for himself and most of his sales rep crew. In less than a year, the company was off the ground.
Eppy began to travel now that he had the money every chance he got. Can't take it with you. And began to make his presence known at each one of the five Country Clubs he joined. He made speeches, some out of town and he enjoyed the lush accommodations of the 5 stars while there. A few young girls now were OK. Good for business to have a little arm candy for the right occasion. He did notice that the sales were a little short in his 6th quarter of operation but no matter. Ups and downs-that's life or at least that's what all the people said.
In the 7th quarter, sales went down even more. But hey he had all the right systems in place. He certainly wasn't gonna show timidity at this stage by cutting costs. No, no. Keep on keeping on, full steam ahead, damn the torpedoes.
It became a problem in the 8th quarter, 2 years after launch. What is happening, Eppy thought. He cut out his travels and began to spend all his time managing the store, sometimes 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Got to turn this around. What could have gone wrong? He had to dig into his reserves, set aside for expansion, until they began to be significantly diminished. He did expand advertising-what else could he do to jack up sales? An increase in manufacturing stock price, cutting into his profit, also occurred due to some shortage in some importing country. You mean I have to get involved in that? he thought. What next?
Eppy was 21/2 years in when the bottom began to fall out. The economy was down and sales had dwindled to a crawl. He had to pay more for materials now since he couldn't buy in the bulk he was purchasing in the good old days. He had trouble now paying the "net 60" invoice payments on these materials and threats to cut off credit began to come. His reserve now vanished, Eppy had to become a month to month survival artist, paying some, letting others go. Had to keep sales and production (advertising) going though.
