Success in 1987

In 1987 we were contacted by a Scandinavian firm who wanted to represent us in Europe. Up to then all sales were direct. I flew to Sweden to meet with them. Great guys. By then I had given a few demos to American clients and knew what to expect. They had filled a room with potential users, and I gave a demonstration. No questions, very serious faces. At lunch break I said to the dealer "They really are not impressed, are they?"

"You're wrong." he said, "They're very enthusiastic!"

You could have fooled me. Americans would say "Wow!" and ask a lot of questions when I gave a demo. But anyway we sold 7 or 8 systems that day, and more followed. having realized the overseas potential I traveled to Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea as well as the UK, France, Italy and other places. The second year sales reached $250K and I had hired 2 employees, one programmer and one support person.

We began to feel rich, but concentrated on paying off debts and expanding the business. We bought our first house (I was 36 years old but had never owned my own home) in a quiet suburb. It had a good sized above ground basement, which we had finished off as an office. We had twice the normal number of electrical outlets and phone plugs installed, and it still wasn't enough. After less than a year we had to rent a proper office in a commercial area when the neighbors complained about number of FEDEX trucks and the employees cars. The business was humming!