Who I am

For those of you who are coming here with no prior knowledge of who I am, let me introduce myself. I am a 26 year old micro business owner in upstate South Carolina who has devoted his life to making honest sales. Here is some background so you don't confuse my youth with inexperience.

I started work at age 11 as a paper boy, and worked 3 jobs at once by age 17 (clerk at a movie rental store, ticket taker at concert ground and short order cook). When I was in college I set sales records while working at Babbage's Electronics in a few different categories. I also worked at Wal Mart's optical center and in my second week I was able to exceed the departments WEEKLY sales goals in less than a day. I then finished college and shortly after started Old Wwworld Cafe.

There are a few lessons that can be taken from every job I worked, and they are:


Having A Positive Attitude
Customer service/Communication
Quality
Consistency
Knowledge of Product/Service you offer


These lessons helped me in starting OWC and making it a success from early on. Although salesmanship alone is not enough to run a successful company, it baffles me how often I see people focus on EVERYTHING ELSE when operating a small business. I am not trying to undermine the importance of knowing your numbers or product cost or marketing etc... etc... but to quote Red Motley "nothing happens until a sale is made!"

With that out of the way I would like to start going over the above mentioned lessons on a bi-weekly basis with you all. Who is "you" exactly? My target audience for this will be Baristas, Cafe owners, or anyone working in the coffee industry. Anyone who is interested in making sales, however, can benefit from these lessons.

Next week will mark the first sales blog, so in the meantime I will leave you with one of my favorite inspiring quotes:

"Power gravitates to the man who knows how and why" -Orison Marden

-Luke Hudek
President of Old Wwworld Cafe