Welcome

Over the past 25 plus years in business, I have experienced it all. The ups, downs, busts, rebirth that you can experience in business. Which is why one of my favorite lines is from Sylvester Stallone in the final Rocky he tells his son “Its not about how hard you can hit, but get hit and keep moving forward”.

Dates and Stuff

(lets get it out of the way).

• Born 1966.
• Father was a plaster, Builder, property developer, tiling contractor.
• Mother, was a home maker
• Both still living
• 2 sisters (one passed away)
• Schools Finished school in 1983
• No Collage, straight to work
• 1990 married Caroline
• married To the only women in the world who would put up with me. When I proposed I told her “we might starve to death, but we will never be bored. She still lives with me and allows me to live with her.
• 5 kids, 4 boys and 1 girl, no we do not keep trying for a girl, she was born second. We just could not figure out cause. (think about it)

 

SCHOOL

Well lets start at the beginning, I was pretty useless in school. In a time where you were told it on a daily basis. But I have experienced great balance through out my life and to be fair some of my teachers were truly amazing. Like John Clifford who when I was in 3 class noticed I have a big issue with reading and spelling (spelling to this day, but back then there was no knowledge of dyslectic. I have never been tested I understand that my brain moves light years faster than my month or hands. So when spelling I am always 5 words ahead. Its also a funny old world when you think about things, like the word Dyslectic, this is the term for people who cannot spell, could they have come up with a tougher word to spell.) I still meet some my old teachers from primary school and look back at this time with found memories.

Then things took a turn down hill. I will not go into this in too much depth as there is an article on the site (Click here if you want to read it) But it was not the best of times and not the worse. I meet some of the greatest hypocrites  and  “animals” here that I ever encountered in my life. We were subject to mental and physical abuses and heard of sexual abuse on a daily basis. But also some of the most genuine, spiritual and giving men while in the school. The irony is they all wore the same black clothes with white collars.

Here I learnt a few things about myself. The main one was I was absolutely, positively beyond any doubt, useless with my hands. Now consider this we go back over 10 generations of plaster’s, not looking to good to go into the family business.  I did metal work in The North Monastery, here in Cork. I had a unique talent. For the first 3 years one of the christian brother’s who thought me (this term could not be further from the truth) was in my opinion a sadist of the highest order, thankfully  he was replaced by Brother Creedon, who was a saint of a man and who I still remember to this day and smile. Anyway, I would be giving a piece of metal that would be slightly crooked and told to make it straight, just by using a file. After an hour, my piece of metal would be one tenth the size it was and more crooked by 10000% than when I started. Great talent.

But the good side is, that the first christian brother, spent so long each week hitting me on the knuckles with the eraser. That he turned my knuckles into rocks. So I took up Tae Kwon DO and had no problems with the knuckle press ups or breaking boards. This started a love affair with martial arts that still lasts. I have studied Tae Kwon Do, karate and even did kickboxing. Its funny when I was kick boxing I used to have to explain to people what it was. No one had heard of it and 99% of people thought it was nuts. I used to get comments like, you are putting a sponge on your feet and getting kicked in the head, you must be nuts. Now its a televised sport.

Important Skill

When I kick boxed I had an instructor called Noel Casey. He thought me how to dig deep and push beyond any comfort zones that you have. Between this, school and my parents, I learnt a skill which is if you want to win, work hard and there is no failure. Just lessons learned on the road to success. Without the knocks and losing sometimes, you will never know what you are capable of. Can you get knocked down and get back up, even if you know when you get back up, chances are you will be knocked down again. So next time you work harder and learn from your mistakes (Gods way of giving you feedback), so you don’t lose, but you win.

I finished school in 1983 and decided with my good friend from school that we were going to go around the world on his motorbike. I was 16. On one planning meeting that my friend and I had, my father happened to wander in. So he listened for a few minutes as we went through the atlas (no Google earth back then, actually no PC’s). We believed we were doing in depth planning, we would pick grapes in France, tomatoes in Spain and so on. My father asked us “what you going to do, when you get there?’ he was pointing to this big area on the map. we asked “what do you mean?”. He said ” You better bring big shovels, that’s the Sahara desert”. We rethought our strategy. My friend went to collage.

Work

I worked the summer in 1983, I was self employed  mixing industrial resin for a contractor who was working for my father. I wonder how I got that job? Its an interesting fact, I never did a job interview in my life. Anyway I digress.

I worked in Money Point Power station for three months and worked hard.  It was not a very skilled job I just had to carry a lot of buckets empty and full up and down ladders all day. So much for the bosses son getting an easy ride. But I completely agree with it, it made me learn how to work hard.

Went off to Germany for a few months, lived and worked there and came back to build my sisters house. Yeah I know I said I am bad with my hands, but at 6 foot I can carry a fair load. When My sister Anne’s house was finished. I was jobless, I have never claimed unemployment benefit, ever. I have no issue with anyone who needs to do what they must to get the next step up.  I was living at home and did not need a lot of money.

One day not quite sure when, my dad says, “right son, off your arse, come with me”. He was now my boss, that was the closest I ever came to an interview. He brought me into his office in the city center and he thought me how to keep the books. Fill in ledgers etc. he was an agent for industrial flooring and tank linings at this point. He had recently spit from being in business with my Uncle Thomas (a man I greatly admire, he was a plaster by trade and became a lawyer at 45 and with his children, has built up a property empire).  My father is and always will be the man I admire most in the world. he has success that few people understand and is one of the most generous and giving  people I have ever known.

Sales For The First Time

Around this time late 87, one day my father walked into my office, threw a brochure on the table and said “go sell these”. It was a brochure for ceramic tiles. At this stage in my career I have never made a sales call and knew nothing about ceramic tiles.  I did my first sales course with my next door neighbors father. John Kelleher was the top sales man for Avery labels, in the world. So I spent three days with John and he trained my, did dry runs with me. thought me all about the sales process and the 20/80 rule (you get 80% of your business from 20% of your clients.) This started a passion in me which which still is in me today, learn from the best and learn from doers. As in learn from people who actually have done it, not just read the book. My love affair with sales and marketing had started.

My first big sale was a project in Dublin with industrial resin is was 640k, huge money back then, I was 18. I also created a country wide network that we sold ceramic tiles to and we did this as commissioned agents, so no sales, no money. We had 7 nationwide clients who I used to call to each quarter. It was on this trips I realized we were at the wrong end of the scale.

The ceramic Tile industry was in its infancy here in Ireland. It occurred to me that I was driving around the whole country to make the same amount of money that my clients were taking while I was waiting for them. Also margins were large and I realized that it was an industry on the verge of expanding. Not only where people just starting to tile more of their homes, but the entry barriers into the business back then were huge. You needed a large pot of cash, as you  had to pay for the product up front and pay all of the tax up front.

First Time In Retail

We opened the business in 1988, My father and myself now as equal partners. We did a deal with some shops in a different Cites around Ireland to supply us for and imported a few containers and we up and running. Neither of us had any real retail experience, my father had been involved in a few pubs. So the deal was I ran the floor, my father looked after the back end and the contracting.  I looked after the buying, displays, shop design etc, etc. This meant a lot of new skills to be learnt FAST.

I still remember my first sale, a lady came in and asked me did we have anything that matched an Ivory bath. Now to this point I found it challenging to match my socks. So I said to the lady “just give me a sec, I know we just got a delivery in. ” So i want out the back and got a plastic sealer for a bath, these were all made in the bath colors, so got the Ivory one and found tiles that matched, by putting the seal next to tiles we had in stock. Showed them to the lady and she bought. It was really amazing.

That day I went and bought 4 interior design books and about 10 magazines on Interiors, bathrooms and kitchens. Over the next two months I devoured every single piece of information I could get on interiors, colors etc. I even got paint charts.  Over a period we expanded the business.

In this time, I studied sales, marketing, product supply etc. But sales and marketing became my passion. Again i want and listened to lots of speakers as many as I could get my hands on.

A Dumb Decision

We began transforming the business, we increased the showroom to 3000 sqft and racked out to 4 levels the 7000 sqft store. We expanded into distribution. Which looking back was one of the dumbest things we did. Thing about it, we gave the biggest discounts, the most credit, to the guys that paid us the worst. Its simple a retail client would come in buy and pay full price. Distribution client’s would order, expect us to delivery, pay the price less 33.33% and pay us with 80 days if we were lucky.

We also contracted, doing large commercial contracts. hotels, Government businesses. Our staff grew from the beginning 3 to 15 direct employees and around 15 tilers as sub contractors when we closed.

In 1990 I married my wife Caroline and 2 years later she joined the business, after our first son was born.

It Should Never Happen

In 1991 my sister Ann passed away from cancer, leaving behind her daughter and husband. This impacted me greatly, even though I would not realize this until much later. She was 30 years old when she passed away and her daughter was two.

By the late nineties we had become a family business. My Wife, my Mother, my Brother in law were all employed in the business, while my father and myself were the owners. We added bathroom suites and fitted kitchens into the showroom as well. We had a turnover of around £2.5 million at this point.

One promotion that was a phenomenal failure and success was we did a flyer campaign for a complete re do of your bathroom. tiles, tiling, plumbing and bathroom suite for £9.95 a week. My father had got a deal with a friend of his in one of the finance houses. They thought (which was fair) was that we might get 20k worth of enquire’s. Within one month we had £540’000 signed credit application forms. The fiance house ran out the door so fast, they denied 100% of the applications. With some creative thinking we still got 240k worth of business. Not bad for a campaign that cost 2k.

By 1998-1999 my father and I decided to go our own way’s. We had gone as far together as we could, even though we still involved in our day to day business today. The decision was two fold, one was, that Da and I did not agree on the future and when we opened we were one of 7 showrooms within a 30 mile radius, now we were one of 39. Our location from a showroom point of view, was in the wrong location and you had to pass 8- 10 stores to get to us. The other issue for me was that from a retail perspective, once you finished with a client, you could not get a repeat order from them. Once their house was tiled, it was tiled.

A Good Expert is Priceless

It was on the crest of the property boom, we had a 20 year lease on a large premises in the center of the city so the challenge was to maximize value.  We sold the lease, building and surrounding buildings as well, as a large development site for apartments a with a license for a pub.  We had a great tax account Ciaran Desmond who ensured we were 100% tax compliant and he helped ensure we got the maximum result. It is vital to get expert advice, ever since I always do. By the way note that, big office and them being expensive does not make them the best. Do your home work.

What The Hell Do I Do Now

This was now the question, property was sold. We were waiting on payment and i was king of the world. When we had opened the kitchen company and bathroom company in Telmac. It was to have paying tenants and increase tile sales, however as it worked out we became involved in both of the businesses. The guy running the kitchen business damaged his back, so I had to get stuck in. In the first month I made 30 sales and I loved doing the design and layouts.

So it was a natural choice to go into the kitchen business as I had a great supplier, product was great, priced well. I opened a showroom and went into business. After 6 months in business I was in profit by 30k and out from the watchful eye of my father. I was king of the world. I ran a promotion and in December locked in 120k worth of orders for the new year. New year was coming and so was the Euro.

Ouch

After the holidays I received a letter from my kitchen supplier saying that they had being sold. I thought this was impossible as they were a plc (public limited company). But they were sold and whats worse, they were sold to a bathroom company for the bathroom division. They were closing the kitchen division, simply put, I was out of business. Now I had 120k of orders and no supplier. Looking back I should have said stop, but I had a 10 year lease with a two year get out. I had sunk a lot of my money into it. Buts whats more, all the business books I had read, said never give up, keep fighting and a fighter I am. The business books never tell you to practically access where you are, which you must do. So I eant from one bad supplier to another and eventually closed the business.

I was part of a business group here in Ireland called Plato, which we had joined when we had Telmac. It was where 12 of us met and discussed our businesses. Between these great business people and the advice of my father, I learnt a lot about myself through this period. Especially with pressure from the banks etc. I learned to get up and keep going. Never STOP, but also adapt.

It was also through Plato I met john Sheehan my business partner. John and I are now more like brother’s than business partners and we make the odd couple look normal. John has had my back on many occasion’s and I his. Some people do not recommend partnerships,  its like a marriage, a good one can last for life.

Lesson is go to to every event, with a open mind.

This Business Is On Fire

Now here I am in a new house, with a new car and 4 kids. I could not get out of my lease, so I was between a rock and a hard place. Then I got a call from one of the former reps of the company i built with, we had become good friends. So we decided to look at Italy. We got the Distribution for a big Italian kitchen and bedroom company in Ireland, with the agreement that if e hit good numbers we would get the UK in 12 months.

We converted the showroom into a top end Italian deign studio, I gave the business to one of the loyal members of my staff to run, while Joe and myself set up to set up 7 other studios on Ireland.  As Joe had a great list of connections we had it done in 6 months. We had 7 showrooms opened and we got the numbers in. We grew it to 1.5 million sales in 12 months. The factory delayed the contract for another 12 months.

We went over to agree details and flew back to Ireland with all the agreements in place. I got a phone call the following morning. After 3 years of building the business and having 22 showrooms signed to go in the UK, the phone told me the headquarters and main factory was gone, it burned to the ground.

Here We Go Again

We moved fast and had other companies to pick up the slack, but it was not the same. After making sure all orders with the clients were finished, we decided to create our own brand. We opened a large showroom for 4 years, but my heart was not in it. The market in Ireland had changed, the Celtic Tiger was in full swing and dealing with the public was just not fun anymore. I saw an amazing change in how people treated people. when I started you would be brought in for a cup of tea and a chat, so would the installer. In the tiger years I would get a call at 9.02 am complaining the installers were late. I did complete projects in L.A and San Fransisco, which were truly amazing.

The Celtic TIGER

It would be remiss of me nit to mention the Celtic Tiger. This was a time in Ireland where you would put a deposit on a house or apartment on the 1st of the month and sell the contract a month

later and make 20k profit. When you did not need to work, just go to the bank, borrow money, which they where offering you. Buy as many properties as you can and you become a millionaire, without doing any work, it sure beat working for a living. Then BOOM it was gone. Luckily I only dipped into this with my business partner, but dipped enough so that it hurts.

In 2007 I was approached by a good friend and client to see if I would take on a project in Cape Verde. To be honest I had to look up Google Earth to see what it was.

Out Of Africa

In 2007 I completed my biggest sale of my life, 6.2 million euro’s and it was planned that there would be millions more in the pipe line. So my partner john Sheehan and myself decided we would close the showroom.

I built an office in my garden and we planned for Cape Verde. I went down to do a test fit out and everything worked great so it was full speed ahead.

John and I flew to Cape Verde to get a feel for the job and while I was flying down, my father in law Jim passed away. he had being battling cancer for two years. So we landed, slept and turned around, not realizing that the job would not start until summer 2010. While waiting for the job to start a friend asked me to come to an event he was arranging in Dublin.

Pat Slattery and I had met when we were involved in a networking group called BNI. He knew my love of sales,marketing and computers.

It Happens For A Reason

Reluctantly I went in the car up to Dublin. This was destiny. At this event I heard a number of different people speak on how to make money on the internet. To be honest I did not believe it. Pat introduced me to one American a guy called Matt Bacak, who had family history from Cork. We chatted a bit and Matt was a bit stand offish. Matt has become one of my dearest friends and we chat two, three times a week.

Anyway I bought three courses at the weekend, of which Matt’s was outstanding. I spent two days with 60 other people with him and it was like the blinkers being taken off. Many years previously I listened to a guy called Murray Rafael (when I was 20) and he awoken the marketing instinct in me. He spoke about direct mail marketing, advertising how to do it right . Now more than 20 years later I was hearing how this was now being done do on a computer via the internet. Sure I knew the net, I am a technology junkie, but the way that guys like Matt look at it is completely different. I was hooked. I spent every waking minute online consuming all the knowledge I could get, from all sources. Tieing this new way of marketing with my existing in depth knowledge of offline marketing and sales meant within weeks I created an income online. Being online also means that I work my hours, when I want and I can also be creative again.

The internet allowed me to achieve two personal goals. one was take 6 week vacation with my family, before my kids got to the age they would not come. We rented a villa in Spain in 2010 for 6 weeks, it was fantastic. For the first time in 20 years my businesses ran without my minute by minute input and I made money while I was on Vacation.

The second goal of mine was again my family. When I was 16 I argued with my father, I wanted to buy a motorbike and he said NO WAY.  But he said  I will insure you on my car when you are 17. But that’s 6 months away I argued. He said something I have never forgot, “When you are young, time moves slowly, when you get married, time moves Quickly and when you have kid’s time vanishes”. The Irony is I had the same conversation with my oldest two years ago. But my goal was to spend time with the family, I still work 10-12 hours a day, but it is broken up with playing call of duty with the boys. Coffee in the morning with my wife, sitting down and seeing how my daughters day went, because my office is in my back yard. No longer do I get up at 7.30 out the door booted and suited, I am around. I believe kids want quantity time, not quality (which they also get). But if they need me they come to the office in the yard and talk to me. I can sit down at night and half watch TV they want, with the laptop on my lap and still be productive.

I owe a lot of this to my friend Matt Bacak who opened the door and a great

friendship has ensued.

It Just All Made Sense

I became obsessed with marketing and selling online. Between info products and real products, you can sell nearly anything. The best part is the world can be your market. Matt came back to Ireland and we spent a few days together and i went to Atlanta and lived with him for a week. It was like going to meet the wizard of oz and having the curtain pulled from my eyes. In the past few years I have created my own products, being involved in multimillion dollar launches.  I have taught hundreds of people world wide how to use the internet to make money. I have spoken in Ireland and the USA on internet marketing. I now know how to work smart not just hard.

Another great friend of mine who I met Speaking Jairek Robbins who is one the best motivators around says ” do what you have a burning passion about”. Well for me that’s selling and marketing online and helping people get their offline  business online and making them money.

Where To NOW

Well the next 100 years for me, did you know that the person who will live to 150 is already born, might as well be me. Anyway all jokes aside, my  desire is to get offline business, using the internet to make money. Which is why I set up a web design business. But its not just about pretty sites, or just getting traffic to a web site and then nothing happens. No its about getting the business making money from the internet. The crazy thing is they are multiple different ways to do this and most people only see one. If your site does not make you money, or get you leads, it is a waste of money and time.

I also see the need for an online business school. Not run by people who have never ran a business. I have been fortunate in the past years, due to speaking and the different businesses I have been involved with, to meet a very large amount of experts in different fields. The main goal is this for business people who want to get the skills they need to make their business better, while still running their business. Not taking years out to get skills they need now. The world is moving too fast for that when  online skills or offline skills are needed, where you can access the training you need, when you need it. It will also become a community where like minded people will be there to help each other also.

Of course my team, partners and I will remain in the online and offline businesses that we are in.

As I write this late 2011, lots of people are worried about the future. I can’t wait, I truly believe that there is more opportunity today than ever.

Thanks For Reading this

and

I wish you every Success.

Anthony.