Chris Butcher has worked in the telecommunications and sales field for about 18 years.
In that time he has worked for two different telecommunication companies and almost always was near the top of in sales.
In working for a company Butcher had stability, a regular paycheck, an established list of clients and the ability to travel around the country.
But in April he decided to leave that world to become his own boss, forming his own telecommunication company called Cloud Now, a National Citybased company that focuses on cloud technology, Internet connectivity, wide area networks and network security.
Basically, he said, he helps companies set up their Internet and telephone service at their location.
Butcher said he has always had the desire to branch out on his own, but was always just waiting for the right time since starting a business was always a risky proposition.
“Going from being one of the top performers at a company and then going out on your own and having zero salary, zero medical benefits and zero expenses paid. Those are things that I had to weigh pretty heavily on to make my decision,” Butcher said. “But, in the end, you can only make a move like that when you’re ready and I think all the stars were aligned right for me to mentally be ready for me to make that move.”
Butcher said, however, he did not have to start entirely fresh because the contacts and relationships he developed in the industry through nearly two decades have followed him to his company.
He said currently he has about 40 clients, most from Southern California, some in Las Vegas and a few in New York in just the five months that he started his business.
Butcher, 51, does mostly everything on his own with the help of a part-time person who helps with administrative work while he goes sell.
“Right now, I’m the janitor, I’m the door man, I’m pretty much everything,” he said.
He said being a business owner is rewarding and stressful at the same time because he is the sole provider of the company.
“The challenge is if you don’t sell anything, you don’t eat that much.” He said.
There are advantages to being a business owner. Butcher said he gets to make his own schedule, gets to do things the way he wants and make all the decisions.
Butcher said he expects to get a return on his investment in two to three years.
“The only promises I make to my customers is that I will apply my 18 years of experience in the business, I will leverage my partners and folks that I network with and I would give them an honest effort every single time I work with them.”
