Trailblazing

July  01/14 –  A child trips and falls as he learns how to walk.  A young boy learning how to ride a bicycle experiences falling.  A runner suffer the first pangs of pains as he learns how to run the track faster.   A hiker faces the difficulty of creating paths as he goes up the mountain.

Like these learners, every entrepreneur faces some problems as a starter.  I am no different. I have ventured into several different businesses where I had my ups and downs, rainy days and sunny days.  And before becoming a successful entrepreneur, I too had my own share of difficulties and learned the tricks of the trade on the go.

However, for this particular blog, I’d like to focus on two of these ventures because they have a lot of similarities as far as my experience is concerned.

The dollar store franchise was a collaborative idea in 1998. Though at that time, I already had enough experience in banking, property management and restaurant business, retail was completely new for me. Of course, this novelty and the chance to explore new avenues motivated me to venture into it, the pioneer in the large-scale dollar store franchise – one of its kind – in Vancouver, at least.

Hurdle #1 – Looking for the right location.  This task was taxing enough.  But convincing landlords to give us space was a real challenge.  They  didn’t want to lease us space only because they didn’t believe in our business concept.  They had the idea that we would not succeed only because they didn’t think we would succeed!  Well, we proved them wrong.  We were able to open 8 stores within 2 years.  And the franchisees are still making money, up to this writing, even though I am no longer part of the company.

It was the same for the Millionaire Chess.  Finding the most viable location was difficult because people wanted locations accessible to them and we could not possibly be pleasing everyone.  Since MC is not just another chess tournament, we wanted chess players to “experience” something new, therefore we had to decide on a location that was a popular “destination” so that chess players can bring their family and could even call it a “chess vacation.” This is how we narrowed it down to Vegas even though we realized that more chess players live in the east coast than in the west coast but we were convinced that the attraction of Vegas will be a high value and easy choice for international chess players.  This choice will also realize our long-term vision of  going global.  Besides, Vegas has always been a choice among people who want to be entertained and to enjoy their vacation. There’s always something for everyone in Vegas.

Hurdle #2 – Establishing the brand and establishing me with the brand. Making a name for the dollar store was hard.  It required a lot of promotion, public relations activities, a lot of things to learn and hard work.  I spent most of my days in the store learning and  mastering every aspect of the business – cashiering, inventory stocking, quality control, data entry, and bookkeeping, then merchandising and finally, managing.

For the MC, I have been putting in the same amount of attention and energy; I have the same passion that continues to fire me up as the days pass.  As a result, I needed to learn the ropes of chess, I needed to be “present” in the chess world, I needed to learn a whole new “language,” culture, mentality, sport and industry, in various ways – reading, asking, blogging and even researching.

In both these endeavors, at the initial stage, I was an ignoramus. Totally.  But my determination, passion, conviction in the viability of these ventures made me stay.  As mentioned above, the dollar store franchise that I started still lives today.  And I look forward to the MC outliving the dollar store franchise.

Hurdle #3 – Facing the competition heads on, and gaining trust and confidence.  At the time that our dollar store opened, there were already similar stores that made it earlier in the market; but they were smaller in scale.  Even though they were small, they were still competitors and we needed to face them heads on.  We came up with promotions in order to get the attention of the public, to solicit their support and later on, their trust and confidence. To  create the difference, we imported our own merchandise direct from China and so, we were able to sell items at lower prices.  It didn’t take long before we were able to find our niche in the market, to develop our own loyal patrons and to establish our credibility.

Nothing much is different for the MC:  there are many small scale tournaments out there already. But we are coming in big.  There are organizers who have been there much earlier than when we started. We did not let and we do not let them detract us from our vision. There has been money at stake.  But we are coming in giving much bigger.  We are new but we are aiming to make the most remarkable difference in the history of chess and hope to give it another direction.

Sixteen years have passed.  Nothing much has changed.  I still like facing challenges heads on and without fear.  I still have that attitude of seeing through to success.  I have made the dollar store a buzz word in the community  then.  Now, I am determined to plot another direction for chess.  And I am convinced that history will repeat itself – another successful venture!

The only thing that has changed over the years with Amy is, she became 16 years wiser and 16 years more experienced!