Waseem Saddique's Story...
If you don’t know me very well or are new to what I do and how I do it, here’s some more information about me and what I’m all about.
I always enjoyed business, building successful teams and business improvement so that’s what I was going to do.
I started off in 1995...
1995-1996: Help my father set up food outlet in Birmingham, after the first year we sold up after receiving a decent offer.
1996-1997: After a slight hiatus, I decided to set up a retail store which specialised in clothing for both men and women. Once again after the first year of setting up this business was also sold after receiving another decent offer.
1997-1998: Using capital from the sale of the clothing store, I decided to purchase a convenience store, not far from the city. There was a lot of work to do as the previous owners had lost interest in the business, therefore a lot of manual administration work had to be done in the initial stages. However, once we were on our way, sales were increased by 100% and once again, after the first year this business was also sold for a profit.
1998-2007: After careful consideration as to what the next move would be, it was decided I would set-up a mobile phone shop. There was a gap in the market so this is what I aimed to fill! Starting off myself, selling sim-cards, I grew the company over the years - from selling single pay-as-you-go handsets to connecting over 10,000 to 12,000 new contract clients every month. We employed 100+ staff by 2005 however, this is what eventually would hang me before I could set my own network up.
2007:Due to such a large influence on the independent market that the company had, the networks were unable to sustain their monopoly which didn't go down well on their end. Mid 2007 arrived and it was announced at a board meeting that our agreement with the networks would not be renewed due to certain terms not being met. Essentially, the company I ran was unable to trade any more because the networks wanted me out. This was all a few weeks after I had won the Enrepreneur of The Year Award 2007 by Lloyds TSB Bank.
1996-1997: After a slight hiatus, I decided to set up a retail store which specialised in clothing for both men and women. Once again after the first year of setting up this business was also sold after receiving another decent offer.
1997-1998: Using capital from the sale of the clothing store, I decided to purchase a convenience store, not far from the city. There was a lot of work to do as the previous owners had lost interest in the business, therefore a lot of manual administration work had to be done in the initial stages. However, once we were on our way, sales were increased by 100% and once again, after the first year this business was also sold for a profit.
1998-2007: After careful consideration as to what the next move would be, it was decided I would set-up a mobile phone shop. There was a gap in the market so this is what I aimed to fill! Starting off myself, selling sim-cards, I grew the company over the years - from selling single pay-as-you-go handsets to connecting over 10,000 to 12,000 new contract clients every month. We employed 100+ staff by 2005 however, this is what eventually would hang me before I could set my own network up.
2007:Due to such a large influence on the independent market that the company had, the networks were unable to sustain their monopoly which didn't go down well on their end. Mid 2007 arrived and it was announced at a board meeting that our agreement with the networks would not be renewed due to certain terms not being met. Essentially, the company I ran was unable to trade any more because the networks wanted me out. This was all a few weeks after I had won the Enrepreneur of The Year Award 2007 by Lloyds TSB Bank.
2008 - current: Whilst travelling back and forth from Brazil, I began assisting businesses with marketing and management consultancy. After consulting many different businesses I realised one of the biggest problems all of them had was none of them had any system in place to manage their business efficiently; whether it be lead management, call logs, stock inventories. They were all lacking somewhere along the line. This is when I worked with developers and worked alongside them to bring my concept of Case Management Systems to life. Helping businesses track leads and sales that they generate in a much more efficient manner.
