They all thought I was foolish to open my own business

From 120,000 In Debt To Achieving Success In What My Friends & Family Thought Was A Fools Errand

It wasn’t until I was in my 40’s that I decided to go for it and open my own business. After two layoffs (ok, actually I was fired… I make a horrible employee) I said right then and there, “I will control my destiny”.

So, I did what every young lad in the world dreams of doing, I opened a carpet cleaning business.

That was back in 2007, sheesh, what a year to start a business. Wars, recessions… Those were the good times (intentional snark added here).

I learned all I could about carpet cleaning. I practiced on friends and neighbors. I thought that just hanging out my open sign I would be swamped with jobs.

Nope!

I struggled to get jobs. I was only doing 2-3 jobs per week and falling further and further into debt. Equally depressing was that my wife almost died from a cerebral aneurism. Not only was I afraid of losing her, but we were supposed to live off her salary while I ramped up the business.

Instead, she was disabled for the next 3 years with no income. And we had the pennies I was bringing in.

My marketing sucked, as I just copied what all the other carpet cleaners were doing.

I couldn’t provide the level of service I wanted because there was not enough money to do so.

So I opened a credit card (yes, another one) and dedicated it to buying all I could about marketing and business building.

I started working with Joe Polish who lead me to Dan Kennedy who lead me to Brian Kurtz and Dave Dee. Almost overnight, my sales started to increase.

With the increase in sales, I was able to invest in my clients experience. I took all of the knowledge I learned as a Leader at Walt Disney World and applied it to my carpet business. My first ideas that were extremely profitable included:

• The $4 investment in my clients experience that generated $65,000.
• The ‘free’ publicity I got for our ‘enter the house’ experience.
• The bundling of services that increased sales by 26%.

The next two years I had over 100% growth. Since 2009, every year has surpassed the year before.

A lot of people took notice and began asking me for my help in Disnifying their businesses. This created my next business, The Deliver Service Now institute where we are dedicated to eradicating the insidious decline in the customer experience.

So what can you do? Where do you start?

You start right here. As a DSNi Cast Member Inner Circle passholder, you will discover many of the secrets of how Disney creates such magical experiences every day, year after year, decade after decade.

This is not theory being spewed by some corporate trainer or human resources person that has never worked a day in operations. (No offense to trainers and HR professionals intended)

I still own three main street / bricks-n-mortar businesses (Carpet Cleaning, Oriental Rug Care and Mold Remediation) where I employ all of my Disney and Marketing strategies on a daily basis.

I practice what I preach. Check it out here:

https://www.deliverservicenow.com/invitation-to-become-a-dsni-inner-circle-cast-member/

Remember, you won’t profit unless you implement,

Vance “Not poor anymore” Morris