I was hired by my friend Jim Wichert to work at Discount Retail Services, a company that specialized in building TurnKey stores for entrepreneurs for under $100,000. However, when I joined the company, it was still operating like it was stuck in the 1980s. Fax machines were running in mass and people didn't even answer their own emails. The business was heavily micromanaged, which hindered new business from coming in.
​It often took days for a lead to be contacted by a salesperson.

​So, the first thing I had to do was modernize everything. I modernized the way we communicated by ensuring that each salesman had their own email and mass email channel that they could respond to in real-time. I also worked with a programmer to develop certain parts of the website where new customers or leads could go to and fill out a lead sheet and get general questions answered.

Discount Retail Services was a four-division company consisting of dollar stores, mailbox stores, teen stores, and party stores. These stores were built for entrepreneurs who wanted to open their own store but needed guidance in finding the right location and getting their business off the ground. However, due to the company's antiquated practices, there was some very negative content about them on the internet, which didn't bode well for acquiring new business.

So, I worked with Jim to repackage the company into four separate divisions.
This was an opportunity to start fresh and build a new, modernized brand. For these four separate companies, I ran the marketing completely.

I eliminated the marketing personnel they had in place and streamlined the process. With the sales team, I was able to get contacts down from weeks or months to minutes.
​We set up a system where the salesperson could call the lead and get them on the phone within a few minutes of filling out a lead sheet.

I converted their system of paper brochures and handouts into downloadable brochures on the internet. This closed more deals simply because we made it fast and easy. We also used targeted video placement and email marketing to reach new prospective customers. I developed a 10-step email drip that would reach warm leads, entice old leads, and find dead leads if they were still available.

Additionally, I developed a testimonial system where successful store owners could do a short video to let other people know how easy and simple the hand-holding program was. We built a streamlined system from where when you click the link and said yes, you're interested, a salesman would call you, send you a video with testimonials, and if you're interested, you would get a brochure further documenting and showing you exactly what it is to become an owner of a turnkey business.

We also helped new store owners buffer their inventory and place orders. A lot of successful businesses were generated simply because it was easy. It was a very fun place to work as I was able to come in and completely work from the ground up to build their new digitized marketing system. We were able to scale back a bunch of employees as different parts of AI and different parts of automation were able to streamline the business to improve the profit margin for Discount Retail Services.