News & Press
What it Takes to Start Your Own Company
John Stewart, Founder & President of NexRep
April 25, 2017- For those of you reading this, maybe you’ve got the entrepreneurial bug and wonder what pieces of the puzzle you need to be successful in starting your own business. I can give you words of wisdom from my experience but also bear in mind that being successful in anything has a basis in grit and determination. There are long hours ahead of you and not a few pitfalls. From where I sit, I can tell you it’s worth it, but just know that it isn’t always an easy ride.
We founded NexRep as a company dedicated to our people, and we believe this made us different from our competition. I think that having that kind of heart in your business formula can ultimately help you ride through challenge and adversity more than any business acumen will. I believe that bit of heart, partnered with a strong mission from the outset were hugely impactful to our success.
We had a clear mission when we launched the company: to provide a place for people who can’t or don’t want a “traditional job” to earn money and live the lifestyle they choose. We knew those people were out there and that we could build a workforce around them. What’s unique about our agents is that they work out of their homes. We provide an opportunity for them to mold their schedules to what works best for them, in their own homes while they provide our clients with the best customer service in the industry. There have been studies performed on the best formula for good customer service and based on these studies, the number one criteria for an agent to provide good customer service is that agent’s level of satisfaction in their work situation. We have the corner on that market.
Our clients are looking for us to provide customer care that is unparalleled in the industry. They expect the quality of their product and the quality of their service to be synonymous. We have the formula to satisfy their needs. And that is born out of our mission.
I founded NexRep in 2009 based on the premise that a home-based workforce will be able to deliver a higher level of quality and performance than the current model of call center and this has proven to be true. I was already in that world and had my finger on the pulse of what was occurring in the industry. So another part of the formula for being a successful entrepreneur is to have a business idea that brings something unique to a changing market. Keep your eyes and ears open and be alert to the changes happening around you, be embedded in your industry of choice, and that idea will come.
Other words of wisdom for people considering being an entrepreneur: It’s very hard to do it yourself! It has been said a million times, but bears repeating: success, in the long run, is dependent on surrounding yourself with good people. In our case, it was the employees and agents around which we built our company who were the fire behind our success. We couldn’t have done it without them. NexRep ended up being successful because of the great people we brought in, little by little. We just kept chipping away at it and what we found was that there are people out there who want to earn money but don’t want to or can’t have a regular job. We filled that need. The demographics of our agents come to us through a variety of channels: people who live out in the country away from work opportunities, people with disabilities, people caring for family – they are out there and we provide a service to them by giving them an opportunity to be compensated for their services out of their own homes.
I think back to where we started and marvel at how far we’ve come. The first calls I ever made were literally hand dialed from a desk phone using a printed list. Based on the success of those calls I decided to move forward with Five9 and start NexRep. Technology has evolved at such a fast rate since then and the things we can do now because of advances in technology were unimaginable when we first launched the company. It’s exciting to think about what the next advances in technology will bring. Remember that when you are planning your business, you need to surround yourself with people who will keep your business up-to-date with technological advances. If it’s not you, find the best person to do it for you. We often use consultants and find this can be a great way to source projects when we don’t have the staff to handle them. This can sometimes be a great tool to use when you are in that intermediate step and not sure what level of staffing you need for a particular tech project. Start with baby steps and grow slowly.
When you own your own business you, of course, have to ride the waves of success and challenge. Times that were particularly trying for us came when we needed to match client needs with our resources. We had a few large periods of growth and each time meeting the client needs was very challenging. We got through those challenging times by relying on the great people we continued to find and with whom to surround ourselves. The day we started contracting with JawBone was the day Chris Carlisle (now director of our sales group) started with our company. His first day started at 5 a.m. at the airport in Portland, Maine flying to San Francisco to meet with our new client. He’s been an integral and essential part of the business ever since. Chris is an example of why I love to own my own business: I’ve always wanted to work for myself and surround myself with people I want to see every day. To have control over the people with whom I am building a business has been the greatest benefit of founding NexRep.
People often ask me who has inspired me in my career and I have to say that it’s the agents who inspire me. All of them have a story of why they service with our clients instead of going to a traditional “job” and oftentimes the stories are ones of challenge and adversity. The agents who most inspire me are the warriors who are powering through difficulty and it gives me a great sense of accomplishment to know that in some small way we are making a difference for them.
John Stewart is the President and Founder of NexRep, a virtual call center offering more than 50 years of combined experience in call center management. By utilizing an innovative work model and leveraging the fastest growing workforce in America, NexRep is changing the face of the telesales industry.
NexRep’s Virtual Agent Workforce Contributes to Massive Cancer Telethon; Raised $109 MM in Donations for Research in a Night.
On Friday, September 5, 2014, a large telethon was broadcast into millions of homes, simultaneously aired on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Ameican Forces Network, Bravo, Cooking Channel, Discovery, E!, Encore, ESPN News, Fox Sports 2, FXM, HBO, ION, Oxygen, Showtime, Starz, TNT, VH1 and several other stations.
While millions of viewers were in their homes fixated on the hour long tribute to cancer victims, NexRep was able to provide hundreds of their US-based “virtual” call center agents, to answer the tens of thousands of phone calls, collect donations, and do their part in making the show a success. NexRep is a leading provider of call center services, with a unique twist. Rather than a traditional model of agents working brick and mortar facilities, 100% of their agents work from home.
NexRep CEO Teddy Liaw stated, “This mass telethon was a perfect example of how our at-home model works. Asking agents to work for 3-4 hours at 8pm on a Friday night can be challenging for a facility call center. But for our agents, they were able to eat dinner with their family, log into our systems, turn on the tv show in the background, and handle donation calls in their PJs. No commuting. They enjoyed the night, put in solid hours, and were with their families as their adrenalin returned to normal before calling it a night.”
Co-produced by Gwyneth Paltrow, the 1-hour show highlighted the A-list of Hollywood celebrities, including Halle Berry, Jon Hamm, Ben Stiller, Pierce Brosnan and several others. Jennifer Hudson, Dave Matthews, and Ariana Grande were among the performers, pleading to America to donate what they could to help raise money for cancer research.
NexRep’s cloud agents were one of the many groups of call centers that were assembled to help do their part. However, NexRep was able to assemble agents quickly, on short notice, and produce a high turnout. “Nearly 90% of our entire agent population volunteered to participate in the telethon. It was a pleasure to work on a cause that touches so many of our personal lives, and it was amazing to see agents donate their night’s earnings directly back to the telethon,” said Benjamin St. Clair, Project Manager at NexRep, and key organizer of NexRep’s efforts. Mr. St. Clair was responsible for logistics and client coordination, and recently won his own bout with cancer.
In total, over $109 million was raised by the telethon. The show helps fund SU2C’s groundbreaking approach to translational research, accelerating the delivery of new therapies to patients by getting them from the “bench to the bedside” as quickly as possible.The organization brings together scientists from different disciplines across various institutions to work collaboratively. Every day, cancer kills 1,600 Americans — one person every minute. In 2014, more than 585,000 Americans and almost 8 million people worldwide will die of some form of cancer.
With the power of mass telethons, generous donors, and celebrities, we are getting closer to solving this disease. Even a stay at home mom can do her part by handling phone calls.
NexRep Receives 2014 Best of Portland Award
April 25, 2014 — NexRep has been selected for the 2014 Best of Portland Award in the Telemarketing Direct Sales category by the Portland Award Program.
Each year, the Portland Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Portland area a great place to live, work and play.
Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2014 Portland Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Portland Award Program and data provided by third parties.
About Portland Award Program
The Portland Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Portland area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.
The Portland Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.