1976 till The year 2010 – 33 Years of Ups & Downs

Over this time period I was put through some turbulent times with what appears to be more on the way and it always brought to mind the Glenn W. Turner quote, “No statue has ever been erected to a critic, but the people they have criticized, many statues have gone up.”

Wow, what a ride it has been, the destination is really suppose to make the trip worthwhile, in my case the journey is what I have to hang on too.

In 1974, I started to work with a friend of mine in King of Prussia, PA. The commute from Lake Grove, NY (exit 59 on the Long Island Expressway) was a real experience, but thankfully the trip really was not very often, 2 or 3 times per month. The majority of what I was doing was for his clients.

This was a wonderful opportunity to use both my creative talents and my sales talent and do a fair amount of traveling. I would not only develop programs for companies seeking to market their products or services via the business opportunity method, I would then get the opportunity to take them to the market place and present them to potential customers at business opportunity shows.

After a couple of years of traveling the country and making regular trips to S.E Pennsylvania, I realized that Pennsylvania would be a great place for my entire family. So home I went and broke the news to my family. Remember what I said in an earlier post, “I was I doing this for my family”, was I? Well, this time I figured I better take it a little slower, I had my family come to Pennsylvania and spend some time with me, the results; mixed. However, after a family meeting it was agreed that we give it a six month trial. So home to New York we went, packed and moved to Audubon, PA. It was the end of summer, so all five of my children had to be enrolled in school. Well, it never did turn out to be unanimous, but my wife after 30 days had no interest in ever going back to NY and my children, well the majority wanted to stay.

One of the main reasons for moving was the fact that I developed a magazine called “the American Franchise” and my friend who I was doing work for wanted to take the magazine over and be the publisher. It was a deal that I could agree with since another of my dreams would become a reality and I still would have the freedom to work on other creative packages.

The move was a big deal for me since I consider myself a real New Yorker, but I must tell you it did not take long for me to fall in love with this area of S. E. Pennsylvania, It had it all wrapped up in one convenient package, it offered the mountains, the shore, a country setting, an airport, sports and even a major train station, what more could I want for my kids to grow up with?

My work was great and challenging, sometimes though as the old saying goes “you never really know someone until you live with them” and my relationship with my new associate never really developed any mutual warmth. Yes, we produced over 40 business opportunity shows a year and we were making some things happen. With all this by the end of the summer of 1977 I realized it was not a good relationship and it was time for me to move on. I left the American Franchise with him and immediately started on another one of my dreams, a magazine for kids, by kids and about kids; Jr. Sports Review. It really is funny, similar the Capt. Crunch Cereal, the commercial was developed before the actual cereal. With Jr. Sports Review, I actually developed the character before the magazine.

The magazine and the concept was actually developed as a result of my middle son; the character because I never saw him without some type of sports apparatus; the magazine because he came home with a honor roll certificate and I did not believe that he was deserving of it and I felt there was something missing in the school system. Kids play sports because there are fields and equipment to take advantage of. It was my feeling that if I could produce a field (a method) where kids could use their talent we would have a great package, they just need the opportunity to play (write, take pictures, whatever.) Jr. Sports Review could be that field, we got started. Sports was in the name only to have a focus, yes we had a School of the Month, Athlete of the Month and Coach of the Month; they were selected not so much on their talents but on the talent of the writer. The magazines would be published on a county or group of counties basis, we wanted to print 25,000 per area. All I can say was the response was fabulous, the mail with kids wanting to write or take pictures was more than rewarding, if fact one newspaper said we developed the new 3R’s; Readin’ Ritin’ and Recognition!
We went on to publish the magazines in the counties of; Baltimore, MD, Carbon, Monroe, Lehigh, Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Lebanon and Montgomery PA.
The concept was great and still is however, we did not have sufficient funding to keep it moving so we were forced to close it down.

At the same time we had three other projects in works which we were also forced to shelve.

Project 1: was Philadelphia Sport Scene; after living in the Philadelphia area for almost two years at this point, I realized there was a great need for a sports publication on the level of Philadelphia Magazine, one of the area’s finest publications. I felt with the passion of all the fans in the area the market base has a tremendous potential. I witnessed passion for sports from Cricket on the Main Line, youth sports throughout the region, golf, school sports, of course your major sports teams, surfing on the Jersey shore to skiing in the Poconos. The market along with the need was definitely here, we started our due diligence, which abruptly came to an end with the closing of Jr. Sports Review.

Project 2: was Creative Counterfeiter; People always cringed when I said the name; however when you understand what we were offering and you look at the results it really described what we were offering. Think about it, when you go to a copy center for a copy, what do you walk out with? Yes, “A copy of an original, in other words – technically speaking, A Counterfeit! Remember, this was 1977-78 and the concept that was laid out is still ahead of where Kinko’s is today; this is what is called Vision. Again, we are faced with not moving forward with the closing of Jr. Sports Review.

I’ve learned many things about business, but one of the main things I learned was there are three major phases that can take place;
1. You develop a thought, an idea and a plan.
2. You put it in to action, sometimes it works and sometimes they don’t, you make corrections and you move on toward your goals.
3. You enjoy the rewards of your efforts or you learn from your mistakes, either way you are a winner!

Now the one’s I feel sorry for are the ones that never get past step one. My wife would say, “I never want you to look back and say I wish I would have.” I always remember that when I recite to a group a story about that beautiful exotic island of “Someday I’LL.”

Someday I’ll

There is an island fantasy
A “Someday I’ll” we’ll never see
When recession stops, inflation ceases
Our mortgage is paid, our pay increases
That Someday I’ll where problems end
Where every piece of mail is from a friend
Where the children are sweet and already grown

Where all the other nations can go it alone
Where we all retire at forty-one
Playing backgammon in the island sun.

Most unhappy people look to tomorrow
To erase this day’s hardship and sorrow
They put happiness on “lay away”
And struggle through a blue today
But happiness cannot be sought
It can’t be earned; it can’t be brought
Life’s most important revelation
Is that the journey means more than the destination.

Happiness is where you are right now
Pushing a pencil or pushing a plow
Going to school or standing in line
Watching or waiting, or tasting the wine
If you live in the past you become senile
If you live in the future you’re on someday I’ll
The fear of results is procrastination
The joy of today is celebration.

You can save, you can slave, trudging mile after mile
But you’ll never set foot on your Someday I’ll
When you’ve paid all your dues and put in your time
Out of nowhere comes another Mt. Everest to climb
From this day forward make it your vow
Take Someday I’ll and make it your Now!’


Remember, You cannot possess what you will not pursue

Project 3: was Dining Out Times; this was a publication designed solely for the purpose of getting more use out of the equipment we needed to produce

Jr. Sports Review. It was a giveaway type of publication which had menus of restaurants in the area of distribution, we managed to print quite a few and help fund our entire operation, but as with the rest of these projects it was closed with Jr. Sports Review.

One of my clients at the Bus Op Company was in the business of manufacturing sauna baths; he had spent enough years in the industry and was looking to get out. He made a proposal to me to take over the company with the prime intent of finding a buyer for the company and naturally it would be a lot more attractive if I could increase sales in the meantime. I had just closed Jr. Sports Review so the opportunity was very intriguing, so I moved forward on the project. I always wondered what is what it would be like to own a business in a small town, I found out quick when I stopped to get gas the next day at the local station and the attendant knew all about me and what was happening with the company.

We developed new products and were being featured in national magazines, we even developed (new at the time) Personal Saunas, ideal for apartments, we were even written about in Apartment Life Magazine. While we were doing Jr. Sports Review we had a Trophy store, with the closing of that it was an ideal location and opportunity to open an exercise equipment type store.

We did under the name “Bee-Fit”; we were using a bee as part of our logo and had every type of equipment (Functional) on display, from steam rooms, saunas, hot tubs, whirlpools, exercise bikes and weight equipment. The store was so functional we actually had corporations renting it at night for work out programs for staff. By 1979 we had a list of buyers for the company and to date the company was sold at least twice.

Ed Ellis presents award at Freedom Oil Kick-Off Meeting

While working on numerous free lance sales and marketing assignments in 1980 I receive a call from an individual I met in the Bus Op field. He said he was involved with a Company in Northern Jersey that could use my help. We talked for several days and set up a time for me to meet with him and the lady who owned the company. What a journey this became. When I got to meet with her, she was a white haired aggressive grandmother, nothing wrong with that but, she wanted you to know that she was. It seems she was a distributor for another company and had a falling out with them talker but not much of a sales person, after a lot of conversation and several long days and nights spent at her operation I accepted the challenge. As in the introduction of most products, they take getting your name out there. With her personality and willingness and love of being in front of a camera it was easy, before you know it we have her on GMA (Good Morning America). From the experience I had over the years in MLM, I thought this would be easy, well, I was right and wrong. We were getting requests from all over for interviews with the grandmother that produces synthetic oil under the name Freedom Oil. Just think a grandmother saving America, what more in promotion could I ask for. Car and Driver magazine was pushing for an interview and I am revving up the MLM. Later in the year we were just about ready to go and I’ve got dealers lined up from main to Chicago ready to go and by February of 1981 we have a kick-off and we are already pushing upwards of $50,000 a month with just a few of the first dealers. But now all of us are realizing why this good lady left the company she was selling for, no one could control what or when she would say to people even her own family. I made it very clear that I could not work under these conditions and decided to move on. Funny thing, she got the interview with Car and Driver and told them about this guy who came in and drove sales through the roof, but then left, of course in this case she did not mention my name. So you see, you can have most of the things in place and one block out of place can destroy a project… It takes everybody playing on the same field and with the same plan and goal.

I do believe that things happen for a reason; the same individual that introduced me to these projects calls and says “you won’t believe I just got a call from a company that does the same thing, except they actual manufacture the product and they would like to meet with you”. This time it was in Rahway, NJ.

We set up a meeting in late June, I meet with the owners, the chemist and I tour their operation and I’m impressed with their dedication and commitment to the project. They had started with a million dollars and they were running short of money and they were actually no further along since the day they started 10 months ago. They offered to put me up in a hotel and pay me daily for a week or so to evaluate the situation, I agreed to a week.

After a week of evaluation, we met and I told them if we started a new company called Syn-Trek we could develop a MLM company and have it up and running before the end of the year. Excited is not a strong enough word to explain how they reacted, they made me a deal on the spot and one of the owners actually gave me his company car and said “you are going to be doing a lot of traveling you will need it more than me.” So off we went. We had to start from scratch, develop a product line, literature, a marketing strategy, a budget and a Team and the clock was running.

I developed a marketing plan that involved Charter members and they would start in a prime position with the company, they would be required to buy a small amount of product, of course the product would not be available until the kickoff meeting which was unsure at this time. I would do three to four meetings a week; one in each area that I selected to start, Lancaster, PA, Binghamton, NY, Northboro, Ma and the Poconos in PA. It was a tough schedule but we kicked off in October and I had recruited 247 Charter Members and we had over 300 members at our kick-off at the Fernwood resort in the Poconos in PA, what a day and we had a truck there to deliver the first product. It was off and running.