|
ClubFixit: Diary of a startup
|
 |
October 13, 2000: 8:05 a.m. ET
Part 5: Sean Mullin launches the search for the company's first client
By Staff Writer Hope Hamashige
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Sean Mullin is pacing the tiny floor of his home office, one hand cradling the phone, the other gesturing vigorously as he hits on the key points of his pitch.
"I'd like to tell you about the technology services we provide for small maintenance and repair companies like yourselves," he said. "We provide Web hosting, custom Web design, e-mail packages among many other technology services."
This is a moment Mullin has been anxiously anticipating for months -- the day he could begin pitching ClubFixit's services to painters, roofers, plumbers and other repair and construction companies. Signing up several clients could be a turning point for ClubFixit, he believes.
Not only will they start collecting a little revenue, they also hope to learn a lot about how small repair and maintenance companies use technology in their business, and how ClubFixit can help them use technology in both marketing and in streamlining their operations. Finally, Mullin hopes that once he signs on some clients, ClubFixit will be much more attractive to investors.
"I want to be able to show investors that, hey, we've got these companies signed up already," Mullin said. "That way they'll know there's a market for this."
Switching gears
Getting to this point took a lot more work than even Mullin anticipated. After ClubFixit was taken on as client with San Francisco-based incubator, Conxion, he thought it would take he and his partners a few weeks at best to get together everything they needed to go out and sign up a few mechanics.
At the time ClubFixit signed on with Conxion, however, Mullin's startup was  still little more than an business plan on paper. Until September, Mullin and crew had been squarely focused on obtaining seed financing to get the company off the ground. So, what they had was all the things they needed to show investors -- a business plan, market research and a strategy to deploy once they money was in.
Potential clients, obviously, wouldn't get much out of reading over market research, so the ClubFixit team has had to regroup and get together everything they need to take on clients.
At the advice of their attorney, the first thing they did was incorporate as a C corporation in Delaware and trademark the name ClubFixit. The attorney also drew up a shareholder agreement, distributing 2 million shares in the fledgling company to Mullin and his three partners.
Mullin went to work hitting up his contacts in the New York high-tech network in search of Web designers to spruce up ClubFixit's Web site. It didn't take long to find a designer, but the process of creating a new, more professional looking Web site, he said, was "incredibly time-consuming."
For many days in early September, Mullin mulled over color schemes and backgrounds for the new ClubFixit Web site. He fiddled with text for the site explaining ClubFixit's mission and the company's services to make them quick to read but also comprehensive. The new site should be up and running Friday morning.
"We could have decided just to slap something up there," said Mullin at the time. "We decided it would be better to do the work now so we can tell people to check out our Web site. They'd see something that looks professional and gives them a lot of information."
To go along with the site's new look, Mullin had brand new business cards printed for all the partners. New corporate stationery is still on its way.
About the same time, the team began searching for lists of potential clients. Initially, they decided to target painters, roofers, chimney sweeps and the like in New York City. Mullin discovered the city has some fairly good resources in that it keeps lists of licensed plumbers, at least, who work in New York.
The most important, and probably the most complicated, project they have completed in the last few weeks has been drafting and re-drafting the documents they will present to potential clients.
As of Wednesday, Mullin and the company's attorney were finalizing the contract they will have clients sign when they decide to use ClubFixit's services. It is part informational, letting the clients know exactly what they can expect from ClubFixit service, and part legal document that binds the clients to a 12-month agreement.
In addition, the team created forms to give to clients who want ClubFixit to build them a Web site. The forms prompt clients to submit information about the company's history and any specialties. It also suggests they submit visual aids such as a corporate logo and photographs of past jobs to demonstrate the quality of their work.
Finally, they created a technology assessment form for that poses many questions to clients such as how many vendors they work with and how many hours a week they spend on accounts receivable.
The benefit of this to ClubFixit is twofold: It will help them determine which technology tools to pitch to whom, and will give them a sense, once they have a large number of clients on board, of the state of technology used in the construction and repair industries.
Perfecting the telepitch
Mullin is starting to get a sense already, after making 42 phone calls on  Wednesday, of how many of his blue-collar targets are actually using technology to market and streamline their business.
"The good news is most of them don't even have Web sites yet," he said.
There was bad news, too, though. Answering services, answering machines, busy signals and annoyed secretaries. Call after call, Mullin was denied access to the actual business owners by one roadblock or another.
After each call, Mullin logged the response in a spreadsheet with a code number indicating whether he got through to an actual person or not and how the person responded.
Mullin learned in quick order that telemarketing is even more difficult than pitching in person. On many occasions, he was cut off before he had a chance to finish. Those instances when he got far enough to tell the person on the other end of the line they provided technology services, many said they didn't want a Web site and hung up before he could say they do more than create and host Web sites.
"You have to say something right off that catches their attention," said Mullin, concluding the phone pitch needs a little work. Although on those occasions when he actually got through to one of the owners, they listened attentively and usually asked if he could supply them with additional information.
The company is also getting postcards made that tell, in short order, the services ClubFixit provides repairmen. Those may be in by the end of the week, at which point the crew will begin sending them out to companies on their contact lists. Mullin said they'll also keep a stack on hand at all times to put on the windshields of the many repair vehicles parked on the streets of New York.
So he didn't land his first client on the first day of trying, but Mullin was upbeat at the end of the day. Sheer numbers, he believes, are on his side. There are numberless repair, maintenance and construction businesses in New York City, and some of them are going to want the services he is offering.
After Mullin made his last phone call and began to prepare for a meeting with his partners, he made note of the sound of jackhammers coming from one of many construction sites that are within earshot of his home office.
"That's a nice sound, isn't it?" he quipped. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
