Sandwire Corporation
Owner Name : Adam Schwam

Sandwire is an IT infrastructure and back-up solutions provider for hundreds of businesses in the NY Metropolitan area. Owner Adam Schwam is extremely bright and motivated -- despite the fact the he never completed high school. While he does have his GED, Schwam has not allowed the absence of a high school diploma to keep him from building a formidable company.

I first met Adam nearly ten years ago when we were both involved in starting a non-profit business group called The Long Island Elite. Along the way, Adam and I developed a strong friendship based on mutual respect, often sharing our respective business challenges with each other.

Though Adam provides a quality product, he struggles to market his services in a bigger way, mostly as a result of being mired down in the day-to-day struggles of operating of a business. He was constantly planning projects and initiatives to bring in more revenue, but never implementing them. For example, he rented space in a beautiful office where he had an entire office designated for the sales team he planned to hire. However, when the Basso On Business crew arrived to shoot Adam’s episode, that room was serving as a storage facility -- devoid of any salespeople or even sales equipment.
When we asked Adam why this was the case, he told us that he needed to both establish his sales and marketing plan and make sure his CRM tools were in place before hiring anyone. Adam struggled with an issue that many entrepreneurs face: using planning as an excuse to simply procrastinate to the point where they never complete or realize projects or objectives.

In Adam’s defense, why wouldn’t he spend his time planning? After all, his analytical mind is very good at putting the pieces together and making sure they fit perfectly so that nothing goes wrong. However he lost opportunities along the way while he was planning and not selling. Adam is not oblivious to this fact; he has stated that he previously only concentrated on sales in his free time. But you cannot wait to work on sales in your “free time” if you want your business to achieve exponential growth.

Adam possesses a unique quality that many in his field do not: he is very conversational, and is a borderline genius when it comes to implementing systems and network but he needed to get out of his own way to stop planning and start selling. The timing will never be absolutely right, and the launch will never be perfect, but you have to move forward -- even incrementally, if possible. Small business owners have to learn along the way. Otherwise, none of our planning or initiatives will ever come to fruition.

Since we visited Adam he has decided to move out of office space; he realized that he does did not need to be in a high profile, high rent district. He also has spent a significantly greater amount of time actually selling his services. While he did not go out and hire a sales team as he intended, he did begin to pass off administrative work to his staff so he could focus on bringing in new accounts himself. His business is growing and he’s picking up more clients on a more consistent basis -- because he got back to the basics of employing simple time management tools and goal-setting techniques, even systemizing the proposal procedure so that it takes only a fraction of the time. Now, he can spend more in front of potential clients and better lead his company.

The time we shared with Adam was well spent, and he has made significant progress since there. In fact, there was an unintended but nonetheless important result from the time we shared with him that we could have never imagined. After seeing himself on camera, Adam he was appalled how unhealthy and overweight he looked. Adam has since lost over 40 pounds and has taken a more healthy approach towards his overall lifestyle. We could not have imagined that we would have been able to help him with his business and physical health all in the same show.

Adam and Sandwire share the same challenges that most small businesses face. Learning from his own mistakes will ensure his continued growth and success.

Summary:
• Beware of the tendency to over-plan; this can kill your business’s growth
• Keep your overhead low and select appropriate facilities
• The timing will never be ”perfect”; you just have to start somewhere
• You’re completely allowed to change or break plans if it helps you meet your end results
• It is important to have goals -- but only if you actually plan on trying to achieve them
• Use your strengths to help your business thrive
• Your physical health is just as important to the success of your business as your balance sheet