How Super Cool Sites was Started
How I got into the Website Design and Internet Marketing Service.
This business came upon me in a time of crisis. My insurance brokerage company had taken major battering from the top Health Insurance Companies in the state. I had 9 agents selling health insurance for individuals, families and small groups. We advertised via Yellow pages, Radio and TV. We represented over 50 insurance companies, and would do anything in order to get our clients the best possible coverage at the lowest possible price.
I thought this would be a great formula for success. I didn’t take into consideration that the insurance companies were actually holding all the cards. Yes, I had contracts that stated our agency commissions, but these were changed. It didn’t affect everything immediately, but as each case renewed for the year, the commissions were cut by up to 80%.
It didn’t take long for the agents to realize they couldn’t continue on this path. We went from one of the largest health producing agencies in the state to a single person operation in the matter of 3 years.
Starting Fresh
Although I had spent over 30 years in the insurance business, I wanted to find something different. I wanted something that was totally in my control and not some large company.
I always had loved computers. I got the first Atari computer with a 5 ¼ inch floppy disk. I kept stepping up as they came out. Next was the Commodore 64, then the 128. I bought the first personal IBM with a hard drive, a whopping 20 megabyte disk.
The reason I loved computers so much was that they never forget anything. It’s like an extension of your brain with perfect memory. Anything I wanted to remember, just put it in the computer, then I didn’t have to think about it anymore.
Looking for something with more certainty
So when I started searching for something to do that I controlled, computers and the internet were at the top of my list. I contacted a company called WSI. They had the “bestselling” franchise available for website design. This was in 2003. After looking into this extensively, I partnered up with a person in my area that had already paid for the franchise, but had not sold any websites. He knew the technical side of the business, but needed help in selling the product. Since he already paid the $50,000 franchise fee, I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how I like the operation. He agreed to partner with me and split profits 50/50. This worked pretty well for the first year. But once I learned a lot about the business I realized we didn’t need WSI for anything. They were charging much more than was necessary and adding a lot of franchise fees. My partner didn’t want to quit with WSI, so we decided to part ways.
The Birth of Super Cool Sites!
Thus, Super Cool Sites, Inc. was born. We started with flash templates, and WOW did they look GOOD. They were blowing away everything else on the web for looks and animation. Who didn’t want one of these to represent their company on the Internet?
But it didn’t take long to realize, there is a lot more involved in building a successful website than having a cool looking design. You have to get people to your website, through the hundreds of different ways possible, and then you had to get them to interact with the website by contacting the website owner or buying their products or services on-line. That sounds simple enough, but when you are competing against thousands or even millions of people, it can be a daunting task. You need an expert for every step of the process. This is how Super Cool Sites, Inc. was started and is flourishing today.
Randy Kauffman
President, SCS
