Course Corner

I have been asked repeatedly lately why I left New Horizons and made the move to NET.  If you know anything about me, you know I’m a very candid person.  I say what I mean, and I don’t try to coat it with unnecessary fluff.  So this entry will be no different.  When I first started with New Horizons, I had General Manager, a Facilities Technician, and two Instructors.  After being there less than a month my GM quit, my tech was fired, and my Technical Instructor was fired.   Also, we were in the middle of moving the center downtown.  Keep in mind, employed there for less than a month.   I was hired as an Account Executive, I suddenly found myself coordinating  all aspects of the business from sales, down to making sure the coffee service was paid.  I also had to coordinate the move, hire the movers, tear down the IT Infrastructure, and set it back up.  Not to mention notify all of our various vendors, and clients of the move.

Now, at that point in time, I thought, “Well, once we get in to the new center, I’ll get more support, and be able to get back to selling”, which is how I make money… unfortunately.   This turned out to be quite far from the truth.  Now let me clear something up, the guys who own these companies are good people.  I like all of them.  What drove me out in the end was their lack of commitment to Tulsa, and to Oklahoma.  I was told on more than one occasion that Tulsa was a “gnat”, that they were going to write a 30K check and just shut the center down.  I was actually told at one point when I needed office supplies, that I could only buy one cheap pack of pens and one packet of paper, not a ream mind you.   I saved the e-mail because I thought it was so ridiculous.

The final straw came when I had rented out THE classroom throughout the month of September.  There were three different clients, with four different software configurations, PC setups, and various other requirements.  Not to mention, just making sure the students are taken care of, bills to process, an extremely poorly kept client database, IT issues, course material ordering…  the list goes on.  Of course after doing all of this, I couldn’t find the time to take care of my clients.  I went an entire month without meeting with one client.   I was on a full commission compensation plan, so as you can imagine, I was hurting. 

I sent a letter of resignation to my direct report, the COO, and the CEO on a Wednesday, and let them know I would be leaving Friday.  As I was the only AE there, and taking care of all of the day to day operations of the business, this caused quite a stir.  We had a discussion that Friday, about what direction we would take.  I made it clear the only way that I would stay was if a proper center was built, with a staff that could properly run a business, and deliver a quality product.  I felt that was only way to treat my home city with the respect it deserved.  They had a different idea.  They felt it more feasible to run all of the operations out of Dallas.  I wanted to be part of something that had a vision, and a commitment to where it came from.  In five months my owner never even came up to see his business. 

Don’t get me wrong, all of these things would have been okay, if I was in any way being compensated for the extra work.  This part may be a little too personal, but try to imagine how hard it is to look at monies that have been collected for a month, and see that you put every dollar of 30 some thousand in a bank account in Texas, and you can’t pay your rent.  You would look to make a move too.

So, what is the NET difference?  For starters, at any point in the day, I can walk six steps and speak to my owner.  Everyone at NET has a technical background, we know the challenges that companies face when they attempt to keep up on the latest technologies.  More than anything else, we are not a sales organization.  We are a training company.  If I sold a client something they didn’t need here, Richard and Steve would hang me by my toes.  We are in the business of helping companies achieve their efficiency, and knowledge level goals, by giving them exactly what they need, no more, no less.  That’s why I took myself, my MCSE, my A+, and my Network+ over to NET.  I enjoy seeing the gratitude, in my clients face when I tell them that they don’t need to spend 50,000$ when they really only need to spend 20.  For no other reason than it is the right thing to do.

James