Thursday, March 28, 2024

Telecoms service goes retail

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GEORGE NEWTON is a small businessman who took a big leap of faith when he quit his steady job and decided he wanted to be his own boss.

The managing director of 360 Delivery Inc. told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that working at the telecoms company “was just not enough”.

“I would always be looking to do stuff, do something extra, do more. One day I just got up and it was not enough. I went in and asked for my package because they had started to do packages then.

“I went out on a limb. I jumped. But to be honest, every cent I was paid out with went trying to make connections in this country, it is not easy,” he shared.

Undaunted by the several doors which closed in his face by people he expected to help, he learnt to adapt quickly and used that experience to propel his ideas and get his business off the ground.

“We started in 2009. We were doing some behind the scenes work with companies but it is only last year that we really started to come forward with the name 360 Delivery and coming out to the public because that’s when we really started to go into retail.

“Before that, we were doing a little work with Ericsson. We were one of the contractors working with teams in the exchange with FLOW doing cable work and fibre to the home projects.

“We had a couple engineers who were responsible for doing all of the quotations between Ericsson and LIME at the time.

“As times changed [Ericsson was no longer in the picture] a lot of our contracts went over to FLOW directly. We managed the LIME TV office for two years,” Newton said.

Since then, the “evolving” business, located in St George, has grown and Newton is always on the lookout for new avenues to explore. He intends to offer customers good service and convenience selling electronics, gadgets and other devices which his sales team takes directly to customers instead of them coming to the “brick and mortar”.

“We have a lot of competition out there.

“There are a lot of people offering similar types of products. They’re offering electronic gadgets, devices . . . so instead of waiting for them to come to us, our strategy is to go to them. Meet them at their home, their place of work and make it extremely convenient for them so they don’t need to go anywhere.

“Once they order something, we deliver it right to their door,” the managing director said. Newton said when they were involved with Ericsson last year, there were as many as 105 people working with them.

“It is exciting stuff. It can get very challenging because of the dynamic nature of the industry. The changes are rapid. I have a fantastic team. I have committed people who go all out for the company and as much effort as I put in, they see the vision too and they put in the effort as well,” he added.

In the next five years, his hope is that the company “be at least 300 to 400-strong”.

“Not necessarily in the traditional sense because I want to go down to the islands. It doesn’t matter what the business idea is. A business to me is just a vehicle. I like to explore.

“I like to be involved in the set-up; I’m heavily involved in this (360) because it’s in the set-up phase right now. In a couple months it won’t be here and I’ll be out of it totally. Somebody else will be doing this.

“ . . . I tell all of my managers the same thing. You have your role and I have mine. You do your role and I don’t have to look in your direction too much. Let me do mine and we’ll keep on advancing. I look for opportunities, I love to seek out opportunities, to experiment and now we’re in a position where we can finance ourselves.

“ . . . It was extremely difficult when we had to depend on financing institutions…and since 2009 I have not received a penny from any institution I had ever approached. The same drive that got me here is the same one that will continue to move me forward.” (GBM) 

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