Success Stories: Your Entrepreneur Story
We invite you to submit your entrepreneurial story of how you got started. We encourage you to share your journey of ups and downs as it may inspire others to keep on going and not give up on their dreams. Your personal tips and secrets will lend a hand to other entrepreneurs who are on their way to success! Selected stories will be posted on "Your Entrepreneur Story".
We can't wait to hear from you!
We can't wait to hear from you!
| 2007-12-07 00:03:29 |
| D. Scott McGregor, Founder of Doppelit |
| SO YOU WANT TO QUIT? We rented two of the largest trucks U-Haul has. The kids all helped and we loaded the two very tightly clear to the back pull down door. Then we loaded up the trailer and pickup to about 8 feet in the air and tied it all down with nylon ropes. One think I could do was tie rope. My dad was a doctor and I learned knots real early in life... We were off, Diane driving the big truck in front with me riding shotgun, holding our little cocapoo and our youngest girl, Jill. Carolyn had just gotten her license and was driving the other big truck behind us with three other of the kids. Greg took the tail driving the GMC and trailer with the twin boys with him. We retraced our steps through the Nevada desert only this time much slower. I had a cellular phone as I was considered an agent and didn’t pay for any air time. So I’d call the realtor every couple of hours to assure him we were solidly on the road. Bless his heart, he met us as we arrived at the house at 2:00AM. I gave him the rest of the money, signed the papers and shook his hand with deep gratitude. We grabbed blankets and pillows and all of rushed in onto hardwood floors and crashed. Eighteen hours on the road, only stopping for gas. Mom’s sandwiches were great. We worked together, played together, and started a new life. The kids got on the neighborhood swim team and we made friends. I worked about 18 hours a day putting together a new business plan as Allen and Co. in New York said they would finance our new Brownstone, Inc. October 16, 1987 we finished the business plan, dashed to the car and made it to Kinko’s to make copies. It was 3:00PM Friday and we wanted to get the completed plan on the way to New York so we could start a new life. Diane and I worked like there was no tomorrow and finished at exactly 5:50PM. We ran the copies to the truck and sped off to Federal Express. “Open 7:00AM to 5:00PM Monday through Friday”. We just stood in front of the darkened glass door, books in our hands and turned and looked at each other. In addition to the abysmal disappointment Diane had a deeper feeling of gloom about it. “Oh, well. Let’s have a good weekend with the kids and I’ll be down here first thing Monday morning.” We didn’t dare spend enough money to pay for television service and didn’t take the daily paper. So on Monday morning, October 19, 1987 I drove off, down the hill to Federal Express to send out our shiny new business plan. “You didn’t hear?” said the incredulous FedEx man. “What?” Now, I could endure anything. “Go ahead hit me.” “The stock market crashed this morning, the biggest crash since ’29!” he said with an expression on his face that was not natural, yet indescribable. He had a job. I called Allen and Co., “No, we’re taking no business at this time. We are trying to cut our losses. Sorry, Scott.” I gave Diane the news. She looked at me with those big brown cow eyes and said, “You’ll do it. I know you will.” I’d die for her. We never quit. We kept working, signed up a very large investor that wanted me and my business plan. It was miraculously the following Wednesday as he was attending the C.T.I.A. Show in San Francisco. He gave me a $10,000 deposit to show his good faith and 20% of his company, which would get me the $6,500,000 I needed. I would be the president and run the cellular division. Being an entrepreneur it wasn’t the best thing, but it was a “thing”. November 3 he sent us to the local Cadillac dealer to tell him which Cadillac we wanted. We were like little school kids. We picked out the Cadillac to be delivered in a few weeks. November 10 I finalized my plan to get out of debt. I fought hard getting all the work done for the establishment of my business plan into this investor’s company. November 16 I received a call from his right hand man, whom I had met several times. “Scott, I’m in London with Weiss. I’ve got some bad news; we aren’t going to use your business plan.” I was sucked into the ominous void, but always trying to look for the positive and rebound, I said, “OK, what should we do, then?” “Scott, we don’t want you either. Weiss has found a company in London that suits his desires much more than yours done, so I’ll have our attorney send you the paperwork to sign and wish you the best.” Just then Weiss grabbed the phone. “James, this is Vandle Weiss. Maybe you don’t understand. I’m sending papers that will sever our ties. You keep the $10,000 I originally gave you and I’m paying for nothing more. If you even raise a finger to try to stop me I’ll sue you, your wife, your father in law that invested and anyone close to you. So I better not hear from you. Do you understand me?” He hung up the phone. But I have a very solid contract, I told Diane. She looked at me, came over and put her arms around my neck and said, “Happy Thanksgiving Honey. You’ll do it and we’ll have a great New Year.” November 17 came into my life as an old friend, greeted with no money, and fighting to assist me in the rebuilding of self-esteem, and yet—I kept working, talking, typing and calling. December 16 came and welcomed its debut by our Cayman investor introducing us to a Jim Fraser, a chartered accountant that would make the Boston Strangler an angel, but we didn’t know that then. Fraser appeared to be a good man, therefore I wanted him to be one. Therefore he was a good man. But he was busy at that moment. I don’t think I like roller coasters anymore. I went through two other large organizations that were flakes and nearly drained every cent I had left. Finally after seven months I went out myself to talk to every person I could talk to about investing in our company. I got enough to get started. Then Mr. Fraser had time for me. My investor friend in Cayman said he was a “world class financier and we should be grateful”. We ended up getting financing from Vancouver, BC. We were in business! We ended up in December 1989 with our systems in 52 cities around the US. Then our major financier, Al Capone Fraser, pulled a play that was beyond my comprehension…at the time. I had “earn out shares” that gave me control, but he had regular shares…I didn’t know the difference and he convinced me there was none except that I’d have more once we earned a profit. He took the company and merged it into his diamond company and left me with nothing. Earn Out Shares are only good when you earn profits in the company comparable to their original value. Now I could not earn those profits and the certificates made great wallpaper. ~death has many faces~ It was December 19 when I got that call. I put the phone down and starred at the wall for a good fifteen minutes, then got up and broke the news to the staff. We were no more. He had not even sent down money for salaries. Diane told me many times, “You have too good of a technology to let it go. Keep going.” Of course I felt that way, but to have your wife, the mother of seven with the oldest now just 18, well, that was just the other side of powerful. However, we were broke, but did have credit cards that we built up over the three years. I started writing a business plan and shopping for investors while living off the credit cards until one by one they cut us off. Our landlord was in Tokyo so our communications were limited and the utilities company had somehow switched our billing to the neighbor who was on a year sabbatical in Israel. We had a brand new Jeep Cherokee but they wouldn’t repossess it because we owed far more money on it than it was worth. In February 1990. it finally came down to only our Chevron card. We’d get a loaf of bread and a couple items and one gallon of gas. That would last us a while as I worked to get investors for the new company. We went for several gallons of gas, one at a time. Then that was cut off…we were really broke. In abject humility I went to apply for unemployment for the first time in my life. It was a final Friday afternoon. I thought that I had reached the bottom of humiliation with that two-faced Ron Hatfield and a forced bankruptcy. But now being on unemployment? I’d never taken a handout in my life. I felt lower than the underbelly of a dead garter snake. After listening to me the lady said, “You don’t need unemployment, you need food!” and gave us an address. We drove over to an old quaint church with a high vaulted roof, surrounded by broad redwood trees and pine. The sweetest little old lady brought out more and more food to put in our Jeep. I think she saw the looks in my eyes as I said, “Thank you with all of my heart.” We had enough staples to last a week. All the while I worked every minute of the day and night that I could to improve the business plan and win investors. Then the food stamps came. The abysmal humiliation of using food stamps lasted two weeks. We’d drive clear out into another town and shop. When we pushed our full cart up to the cashier it was always smiles. Then I’d ashamedly hand her food stamps and the smiles always went to disgust. It was Sunday night at 11:00 the two first investors finally said, “OK, we’ll wire $30,000 in the morning.” They were aware of everything. “Just write out the checks and by the time they hit your bank the money will be there, $30,000.” It was nearly impossible to believe, but the next day was our deadline for eviction by our Tokyo landlord, cutoff of AT&T (who held out the entire time), and payment of the utilities (they found the mistake). We were going to be out on the street and in California with no credit and seven kids we would be homeless! I had a cellular phone because I was still an “agent”, and we owed much more on the Jeep than it was worth, so it wasn’t repossessed. The next morning I handed checks to each of the people, including sheriff who came to cut us off or throw us out. Orion Corporation, our company, was started. We had the world by the tail. Within 3 months we had a major cellular company begging for our business and...as a result...our original investors tried the first of several hostile takeovers...ones that would leave us out in the cold...not this time. It was a financially impossible market, but we raised $23 Million and obtained seven (7) leading edge patents in the cellular firmware technology world. Yes, you CAN! |
 |