Fortis creation story continued…
The first few weeks of the school move-in season of 2001 were going pretty well for our Fortis pre-paid taxicab cards. We were making sales on campus talking to parents as well as through direct mailings. My colleague, Joe, and I went to campuses all over the country—New York, Philadelphia, Boston, to name a few.
On the morning of September 11, I was in our office in Atlanta and Joe was in St. Louis at Washington University. I saw on the news a huge-font headline on the Drudge Report, and I turned to internet radio to listen. My heart sank as I heard the news that the towers had fallen. I was shocked and deeply saddened. Joe drove back from St. Louis and we watched the news together. We didn’t discuss business for a while—it seemed too small.
In the wake of 9/11, business didn’t come back. We were now moving to sell our cards to parents at Parents Weekends on campus. The only problem was—parents weren’t attending. They were scared to fly. I drove to one Parents Weekend in Dallas from Atlanta, and there were five parents I saw on campus. None were interested in buying anything.
There was also an anthrax scare after 9/11. People were receiving anthrax, a deadly substance, mailed to them in unknown envelopes. As such, our direct mail response rate went to zero.
We were out of investor money and had no ways to grow. My one option to keep going was to take a bridge loan for $20,000 from one of our investors. I would be personally liable for that loan. As a newer (two-year-old) Christian, I decided I should pray about the decision. During a long prayer time, I felt the Lord convict me that I had started this business for all the wrong reasons. I started it to not have to work for anyone, to make a lot of money, and to gain a reputation as a good businessman. I discovered that none of those were things God wanted for me.
I felt God wanted me to steward Fortis for His glory and His name. I said, “Ok, LORD, I will do that. But I need you to make a way for me because no one is buying our product.” I came out of that prayer time assured that I should take the loan and keep going—still having no idea how we’d make any sales.
I then did what I knew how to do—I went selling. I stopped by Atlanta Checker Cab and met with their COO. I asked her if I could call their client list to sell them on our national taxicab network. In return, I’d make Checker Cab the preferred taxicab company for Atlanta. She gave me their client list to call! No one does that. But I was in business.
I called 300 clients and signed up two out of 300. One client told me they wanted black cars, not taxicabs. Could I do that? Sure! I had no idea how to do that. This client was a Travel Assistance Company in Miami, Florida. They needed chauffeurs in New York to take a family to and from a hospital daily. When I saw the transfer was $130, I waited for them to say no. They accepted the price and booked it. Weeks later, when I received the check for $130, I screamed with delight in my car—this might actually work! Taxicab fares were only $10–15 per trip. It was very low margin and huge volumes were needed to make any profits. Making more than 10x on the trips showed us a path forward.
I got a referral from the Miami company, then another from the client they referred. The next company I visited was an Air Ambulance Company outside of Atlanta. This one I could afford to visit in person since it was drivable. I pitched them on our service and they signed up. I asked who else should use our service, and the gentleman showed me a book called the Air Charter Guide. He said I should call everyone in that book. Now that TSA had started post-9/11, a lot of people were chartering aircraft to avoid the extra security. Yet they didn’t know who should pick them up. He suggested I do that. And I did.
It was now spring of 2002. We were making sales on voicemails to charter companies. We had found our niche—travel arrangements for private jets when they land—and we had a promising path forward. God had made a way when I didn’t see one. Praise God for that provision!
And Fortis was in business with a niche that would grow and grow.