Dot Com Crash Survival Story

Imagine living in a war zone with bombs blowing up all around you and your ears ringing from the deafening bursts of explosions that seemed would take you out for good! When I think of my industry (the internet) and my business a few short years ago it makes me think of a Vietnam war movie with body parts and unmentionable objects flying all around and me standing in the middle of it all. The market was crashing and still is in my sector today... many of my friends and colleagues were dropping like flies... it was horrible... they all have children and wives to care for.

Our company was losing significant amounts of money. My personal relationship was failing... I have a young son (Mathew) and our relationship was also a challenge... on one side of me there were what seemed to be millions of web site designers virtually giving there services away just to survive and on the other side I had creditors knocking on my door... including Dominion Directories (Telus Yellow Pages) threatening us with a lawsuit if we mentioned we were involved with building their web site.. now known as mybc.com (we had a 2 year contract with them to build, market and produce their site.)

The bank was bearing down on us to collect on operating lines that were stalling and I had a sales team that was paralyzed with fear from the perception in the marketplace about dot coms... no one could sell anything except me... we even had to change our buy-line from “we build dot com companies” because any time you said we were a dot com the negativity was so abundant in the marketplace some days it felt as though we were lower than life.

I remember feeling like I was standing under Niagara Falls with the water pressure pounding on my head pushing me down in to the ground and I was beginning to run out of breath... Boy what a reality check.

I will never forget sitting in the trustees office with a gentlemen and my ex fiancé telling me I was crazy to carry on... this business is worthless no one will pay you anything for it... I should fold it now and get out while a had anything left. My fiancé told me to go and get a real job! The company was in debt more than 300K and we calculated that it would take me 5 to 6 years to pay it off if I got a salary of 150K to 200K per year. (I had left 140K yr to start this business) She wanted me to move to the USA were the market was abundant and the dollar was real. Some very valid points I had thought at the time...

I remember thinking that I was a proud Canadian and a unique one at that. I was a third generation Vancouverite and there were not many like me around. My Dad was the deputy Chief of Police in Vancouver before he retired... a descendent from strong Irish blood... I guess I got my stubbornness from him.

I kept thinking I love this city and my country and while I enjoy the USA and have fantastic clients there... (until this year our largest clients were American.) I did not want to be run out of my country and my industry. I just couldn’t do it... I didn’t have it in me to quit! I thought... I have a dream... to be global... I have a company that had a fantastic product and we had proven that time and again with some huge returns in the millions of dollars for several of our clients. I knew that I could do anything I put my mind to and if I were going to fail I would not fail like this... not now... and not with these circumstances around me.

I decided that night to go in to the office the next day and tell everyone the news, including my ex fiancé... It was a terrible day for me personally as I looked at my staff and told them one by one that I had to let them go. I told them that it wasn’t about them; rather that this was a decision for the company’s survival. In the end I let go 80% of my work force and unfortunately lost my personal relationship as well.

It came down to the last 2 people in production and one was my partner (Bill) and the other was a promising young gun (Nathan). I discussed it with my partner and he agreed with me that it best that I offer the opportunity to the young gun. So I bought my partner out of the technically bankrupt company with money that I clearly did not have. Now there were just 2 of us left!

I dug deep to find my courage and called Nathan in to my office. I am sure he was expecting that he was collecting his papers as he had seen the rest leave with there’s. I explained the situation clearly to him and told him he was my choice to stay on. I said that we had a long road to hoe with rebuilding the company. Seeing how his face was going pale I dug deeper inside and explained what a fantastic opportunity was actually in front of him... imagine how many 20 something year olds get a chance to save a company from bankruptcy? I explained to him that this would be an awesome experience and one that he would have to draw on for the rest of his life. “We will have fun” I assured him and that if he followed my lead then we could do it together!

Nathan gained a little color in his cheeks... i then laid out a detailed plan I had been writing for the last few weeks and he began to see the vision... we would get back to basics... deal with the clients we had now... not worry about bringing new ones on... just service the ones we had better and I believed that we would increase our business... return to profitability and with our premium programs, deliver the results that our clients were looking for.

Well I thank god for that day because Nathan saw the vision... from that day on we set out and had record sales months every month as we worked for 7 months together just the 2 of us... clients were eating up our programs and referrals starting coming in with the results we were showing. With the business increasing we finally got to bring on some help and her name is Heather... wow a 50% increase in our staff and someone to help with the operations... I was elated... soon after that we brought on a second developer Lynda. Lynda helped detail our production system and complimented our team skills brilliantly. I had employed a personality analysis program to determine the skills and behavior patterns that would best help and compliment our team and it was working fantastic. We are now back up to 5 full time staff, plus several consultants, very profitable with a +1325% increase over last year to date and scheduling to hire 2 more people by end of January 2003.

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