John Linton Someone, whom I can't remember, once said "I keep getting told that money can't make you happy but I wish they'd at least let me give it a try". I empathise with that view, at least in terms of running Exetel because we have never had more that 'just enough' money to meet our financial commitments and have therefore made it a virtue to the company generally, and ourselves personally, to do without the sorts of things that the overwhelming majority of our competitors take as necessary for them to start their working day.
We have built Exetel from a start up company with no customers, no revenue and no employees to a small company of 70,000 customers, revenue of over $A3 million a month and 33 employees (including directors). Big deal - not even 1% of any market/service type in which we operate - so not really worth stating.
True enough.
So what's it all about Alfie?
We made the first $A20,000 of payments this month to the Fauna projects that will play some small part in ensuring some of Australia's most endangered species have a better chance of survival this month.
We made the first $A2,500 of payments to 'neutralise' the carbon emissions caused by operating Exetel this month.
We employed our first 'work from home' Australian support engineer in the ACT as the start of the program of reducing carbon emissions completely from the operation of Exetel and to be part of the process of providing a better 'quality of life' for people who work for Exetel. We will offer a job to another Australian who will work from home on NSW's Central Coast giving him both a better paid job and the ability to better contribute to bringing up his young child.
On Sunday two more Sri Lankan engineers will arrive in Australia for their initial training and will then return to Columbo where they willl work from their homes and be paid better than any possible oportunity in their home city could make available to them.
We have completed the negotiations with all but two of our major suppliers for cost reductions in the huge amounts (for us) that we pay to be able to provide services which has reduced our operatng costs for the 2009 year by almost $A2 million which in turn alows us the 'luxury' of providing all services to our customers in better ways or for slightly lower costs (we passed on the cost savings on VoIP and Mobile to our customers today).
For the first time in being part of setting up and then operating Exetel I can look at the next 15 months without the likely need to invest more money in the day to day operation of the company but can go back over almost everything we have done to date and improve it by having enough money to make almost everything better.
It has taken slightly over four years to reach 'the next step up" to a purchasing level where, for the first time, our bottom line improves 'magically' just by being bigger than we were a year ago.
("and what's the first thing you do? - spend it on bloody birds and trees like some sort of demented greenie") - anon
I hadn't quite realised until this morning when I, yet again, re-worked the Exetel business plan including the agreed cost reductions for the first time what a difference it makes to be so surprised at what you are seeing that you are force to look for the errors that are delivering such a 'large' (only in terms relative to previously) pluses instead of the just on breakevens I've become accustomed to seeing.
I'm not sure whether the good mood I'm in is coming from not reading the financial press this morning or the realisation that maybe, just maybe Exetel has become 'established'.
Time to go out for a long leisurely Saturday lunch for the first time since.....I can't remember the last time.