Christopher V. Flett

I’m looking at scaling up a lot of the projects I have been involved with in the last quarter of 2009. The upcoming launch of Campus CEO – Vancouver, Glass Ceiling Solutions, and the continued building of Simple Bookkeeping, and Lullaby League, To ramp up my interests this year, I’m looking at bringing on a couple of part-time assistants in Seattle. They will handle some of my PR, admin, business development support, et al. I put a post up on Craig’s List and was inundated with resumes. I would guess I got 400+ but was surprised at how many didn’t follow the directions (i.e. Cover letter and salary expectations). Those that didn’t do that were immediately allocated to the “G” file.

Having the right people is the foundation of any big business push. We had an amazing year at the Ghost CEO in 2009 and now with the other companies, I see how everything is nicely gelling together and it’s time to build up. It’s my belief that there are two types of people in a business: those that cost a company money (researchers, administrators, accountants) and those that make a company money (sales people, marketing professionals, publicists, etc.) I like keeping salaries modest and ’stars’ get bonused out (i.e. and assistant that refers some business to the company gets some ‘love’ in return).

From the resumes I received in the Seattle market, I saw my first glimpse of the difference on either side of the border. In Canada, I have young interns wanting $36-$45K to start as an assistant. I have ex-VP’s of marketing for known companies asking for $12-$15/hour and willing to start at $12 to show their value. For Canadian companies doing business in the US and with technology at the level it is at (Skype, Blackberry, cloud computing, etc), you can have employees/contractors anywhere and everywhere. I’ll be hosting interviews the week of January 11th when I’m in Seattle and hope to find one or two, or even three stars to try out for three months and see who can make money, rather than being an expense. Have a read through my listing on Craig’s List so you can see what I am asking for.

NOTE: I’m going to shift this blog a bit in 2010. What was once my ‘rant’ spot will now also house my building of these new companies (plus more I’m sure) and talking about how I’m doing it. People who want to grow business don’t know where to go to see how people do it; those that do it hide how they do it (thinking that it offers them protection.) This will be my professional journal outlining what I’m working on, how I’m doing it, what I’m hitting and what I’m shitting. In any business, there is a hockey stick moment. Think of the shape in your head. It is a flat blade that then takes a serious jet upwards and continues up. That’s where I am with these companies. I have foundation all laid out and now it’s time to ‘hockey stick’ up revenues for 2010. My goal is to take an already impressive cashflow and quadruple revenues in the next 12 months. Easy to do for the new companies (nothing from nothing is…nothing), but a little more difficult for the companies like 2020 Communications, Ghost CEO, and others already on a serious revenue path. Hell, I’m even considering getting into the ‘internship”, “fashion”, and “tea” businesses. It will prove to be a bumpy, but entertaining year. Oh, did I mention I’m working on a new book and spending over half the year outside the country?

If you have questions, please post them on this blog rather than by email. If we are going to do this together, we are going to learn together.

To you and yours…a profitable and sustainable 2010.

C/