I was always good at outside sales and worked for a soda bottling company selling beverage machines. The pay was not great but I enjoyed the prestige of representing such a world famous corporation. The company offered prizes for the salesmen that sold the most machines and I was often the winner of a large screen TV console or an air conditioner. That was before the company decided to sell their machines by advertisements. They then disbanded their sales force and I was out of a job.
After many failures in small business ventures I came to the conclusion that my failures were due to something missing in my ability. I am far from being a stupid man but after months of examining myself I had discovered that I am not talented enough to run a business alone. The answer to my problem would be in teaming up with a talented partner who will make up for what I lack. My problem then was to find a partner that would be interested in teaming up with me.
I put an ad in the business section of my local newspaper asking for a business partner that would be interested in buying or starting up a small business. There were many replies to my ad and after months of many luncheon meetings, I got to know a few guys that would make good partners. One of them I thought would be the perfect partner. He had a masters degree from an Ivy league college and was extremely intelligent. But he suffered from dwarfism and had a speech defect. We shortly became partners in a small business.
The antique toy train business is supported by the buying and selling of toy trains. The trains are bought through an ad in the newspapers offering to buy old trains. It is the salesman’s job to examine the trains at the homes of their owners and buy them. If he is a good at his job he will bring those trains back to the shop at the lowest possible cost. The shop consists of a few workers that restore the trains to mint condition. The manager works in his office on mail order catalogues that display the train collection, and also takes care of the books.
The Ideal partnership consists of an outside and an inside man. Even if they both own the company they live in different worlds. The salesman personally contacts potential customers and opens new accounts, without him there is no business. The inside man manages the office and the new business brought in by the salesman. Together they make things work.
Our Antique Toy train business was sold for over two million dollars after ten years in business. It was bought by two partners, each had limited abilities. One had Agoraphobia and could not be outside an office for any length of time. The other partner had Claustrophobia and could not be inside an office for any length of time. They were a perfect business team and I am sure they will be successful.
melpol
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