John Linton
.......it would be really good if we knew why that was....perhaps we reduced the ADSL plan prices far too much as I originally suspected when I saw the daily order reports increase sharply back in December?
As today is the first working day of the month, Exetel processes its recurrent billing charges for monthly services which was again a new 'record' which following January's record month for non-recurrent charges was very good to see. January, until this year, has never been a particularly good month for new customer sign ons and the other 'incidental' charges that make up a month's total revenue. In January new VoIP, Corporate SHDSL and Ethernet, HSPA, ADSL1, ADSL2 and Naked ADSL2 were all well above December's levels and far more than January 2009 levels....in the case of Corporate more than 600% more, HSPA 300% more and most ADSL services over 50% more; so in terms of Exetel's small business the growth in January is nothing short of outstanding - and, with the exception of Corporate customers, very difficult to explain.
I doubt that Exetel is very different to almost every other enterprise that operates in difficult and constantly changing markets in that various people within the company look at figures constantly trying to analyse what they mean in terms of the actions recently taken (either by us or by our competitors). One clear sign that January was going to be a very good month was that our GURUS management control system displayed a virtually solid '2' on the screens around the office for virtually the whole month ('2' in our nomenclature means every part of the company is, on average, exceeding its various goals and targets). Financial results are key indicators for any commercial enterprise's 'health' and for company's of Exetel's size they are vital. It sometimes can seem to be an obsession to people both within the company and some outsiders that the tiny financial transactions of a tiny organisation are a bit ridiculous in any realistic context and that's also understandable.
In January 2004 when we started Exetel and invested what was, effectively, every last cent we could come up with with the knowledge that 60% of start up companies failed within the first two years of operation with the 'investors' losing everything and, quite often, incurring additional debts for which they were personally liable our financial health dominated everything we did as we, of course, had no income for the first two months while we watched our start up capital rapidly diminishing as we paid for equipment and 'deposits/bonds' to suppliers. Any start up business has to 'gamble' far more than is comfortable for sleeping at night and to continually grow a company while adhering to a policy of being the lowest cost provider is something that is incredibly difficult to do - at least it was for us.
So as we grew slightly bigger over the succeeding months of 2004, 'billing day' was always a major day in our commercial lives which, fortunately, continued to give us very positive indications as to our progress (long before we had GURUS in place). 'Billing Day' was always a good day and, being a start up, it obviously wasn't difficult for every month to record recurrent revenues greater than the previous month which, as today, always got the month off to a bright start. Our first billing day was March 1st 2004 so today's recurrent bill run completes six full years of operation with our 72nd consecutive record revenue month. As the numbers are so, relatively small it isn't anything of any significance to anyone else but to us, who risked everything we owned to set up Exetel.
I understand that for us to have kept Exetel 'alive' and to also have kept it growing so consistently over a meaningfully long period is something that 98% of start up companies do not achieve as they fail or are absorbed in to other larger commercial entities within five years of commencing their businesses. That has always been a source of satisfaction to us....the fact that we have managed to do that while also selling any service we provide at the lowest price available in Australia, at all times, probably gives us more satisfaction as does generating the financial ability to support the various endangered species projects we have been able to do more recently.
So, as always, we briefly get a warm glow of satisfaction over a cup of coffee as we read the results first thing over breakfast and then we get to do it all over again this month and, if we remain competent, careful and lucky, we get to do it again the month after that.