Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Get on the Money Train

I had coffee yesterday with a friend and mentor, Tom Barnes. As I entered the meeting, I beleived that Tom was just what he appeared on the surface: a franchisee with a business coaching organization called the Growth Coach. And he is that, but I soon learned that Tom takes his own advice. He owns 4 businesses, in fact. His brief coaching moment for me was this: "follow the money train."

Tom said, "succeeding in business is simpler than people think. You don't necessarily have to have an original idea." He continued, "Find a money train and get on it."

"What's your money train?" I asked.

"Cell phones."

"So, you own a cell phone company?" I was a bit surprised.

"No," he said, "but I'm in the cell phone business." Tom went on to let me know some very interesting statistics. There's over 30,000 towers in the U.S. today. Estimates are that within 3 years, that figure will more than double. However, there are only 6,500 people licensed and certified to service those towers--the majority of which are employed in-house with the big telecom companies.

However, the interesting "money train" that Tom found in this scenario is this: even though the service providers employ the service technicians, they don't want the liability of sending them up a 1500 ft tower. So, instead, they sit at a desk in project management roles.

This left a great need that Tom decided to fill. He found an insurance company that would underwrite his business. He used the best in safety equipment, training, and practices. And then, he went to work getting contracts to service the towers that nobody else wanted to climb.

But, Tom is a business owner, not a technician. He's never climbed a tower in his life. He created systems and processes to fill a need in the market. He created systems and processes that sustain jobs. He created systems and processes that generate profit.

The telecom industry is a money train. More private capital, government grants, and lending equity are being invested in the broadband infrastructure in the U.S. in the next 5 years than in the past 15 combined. So, which car are you going to ride? How are you going to hitch onto the money train?

Labels: Broadband, Business, Cell Towers, Profit, Telecommunication