Mentor Inc. | A conversation with Patrick Veroneau, owner of Achieving Your Apex in Portland
Founded: June 2008
Employees: Veroneau
Startup costs: $12,000
Projected revenue, year one: $125,000
Projected revenue, year two: $150,000
Contact: 874-2739
426 Forest Ave., Ste. 10, Portland 04106
www.achievingyourapex.com
Tell me what Achieving Your Apex does.
It’s really about sort of empowering people to take wherever they are to the next step, whether it’s a sales organization or individuals. It offers coaching as well as sales workshops.
What I did, in terms of my background, is sales and biotech sales, really for the last 10 years. And prior to that, I was in real estate and business-to-business sales for about five years. So [I have] a total of about 15 years of prior sales experience. The company that I was with was a small biotech company out of Colorado, which was purchased by a larger biotech company, and there was an opportunity for buyouts and it just felt like it was the right time [to launch a business.] It was something that I’d always wanted to do. It seems in each one of my roles when I was in sales, I was sort of a district trainer or I was a mentor. So I always had people who were coming to me with questions or challenges in the job, and it just became a natural thing for me and I always enjoyed that end of it.
What are some of the challenges you faced this first year, running your own business?
Oh, my God, it’s been endless, especially from a marketing standpoint. It’s just fast-paced in terms of trying to figure out where to spend money to get the most return for my investment. I was fortunate in regards to the pharmaceutical end — there’s a trade magazine, a pharmaceutical representative magazine, that goes out to about 70,000 reps and trainers in that industry and I was able to get in touch with the editor of that magazine and write contributing articles for that. I had one that was published in November, I have another [that was published] the first of January, and I have three that are scheduled for 2009 on top of that. So that has been a great sort of reference point for me as I’m approaching that industry, to leverage that magazine.
Are you advertising or are you just doing the column?
I’ve just been doing columns. Actually, it’s been interesting — I’ve been writing a lot of articles. I’m on a website called selfgrowth.com that is a personal development website that’s probably the largest out there. You can register to be a contributing editor, or contributing author to write articles for them. I just had an article on using emotional intelligence in leadership and management, and when that article was published I then Googled “manager” and “emotional intelligence” and I came up on the first page of Google. So, again, that’s the stuff that I’m in the process of understanding now. Where do I get the biggest bang for my buck in regards to getting my name out there?
What were your startup costs like, and how did you pay for them?
The certification alone, for me to get certified as a coach, was a $7,400 program, and then I did an assessment licensing that was another $1,000, and then between my web page, getting a designer to do that was $1,400, an attorney was $500 to set up my LLC, and then between getting my logo and just sort of letterhead [and] business cards, that was another close to $700.
And then in terms of my ongoing expenses, my rent here with my Internet and my hosting and all that stuff, it runs me another $700 a month. [The money] came from the buyout. It’s all personal. Because that’s been the other challenge right now. I mean, quite frankly, for people starting out right now to get financing from somebody is not going to be easy.
What’s been the most important thing you’ve learned about running your own business?
The biggest thing that I have learned is continue to turn over stones. You’ve got to look for opportunities everywhere and you need to be fluid. I would say my focus, where it was originally going to be more coaching-based, there’s certainly more of a push [now] to doing workshops [and] bigger groups. Also, in regards to coaching, [I’m] looking at doing not just individual coaching but doing group coaching, again because of the economy — to say, well, if people can’t afford a coach on their own, what if it’s done as a group?
Interview by Sara Donnelly
New Ventures profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
Mainebiz web partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments