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Who are we?
GCIM Web Solutions is
owned and operated by Gary W Calvert and his talented staff. Gary has
been marketing online since the old bulletin board days... Okay... For
those of you who don't remember...
Before there was a World Wide Web, there
were websites
out there in cyber-space. Each of these websites had their own
telephone number that you dialed into from your computers modem. They
were very slow, basic and mainly text sites. Most of them were set up
to where you could interact with other people by posting a message to a
bulletin board; hence the name Bulletin Board Sites. They were similar
in many ways to the forums of today... just a bit more on the basic
side.
Our
History
One of these Bulletin Board sites was a forum for
Sports Memorabilia Collectors and dealers. I owned a memorabilia store
in Joshua, TX and had friends that were in the same business in nearby
Cleburne and it was they who got me hooked-up with marketing my cards
through this site... An online marketing career was born.
A few years later the World Wide Web was
born and
along with it came eBay. I was still selling physical products through
various Usenet groups that were very prominent in the early days of the
internet. I also enjoyed going to auctions, so eBay was a natural
market for me to evolve into. I quickly became a Powerseller and got to
know the workers at my local Post Office very well.
Around this
time, I entered into my first online Joint Venture and built my first
website to sell our product through.
I had built some
computer systems with a special card in them that tied a stores
security cameras into it and allowed a store owner to dial the computer
from any other computer and spy on their employees from multiple
angles. I built the original systems for my partner's convenience store
chain.
The business did not do as well as what we thought it would and slowly
died. I think we did make one sale, but that wasn't a result
from our online efforts, but from my partner's brother who wanted one
for his Taco Restaurant franchise.
I did learn a lot about building websites, that continues to benefit me
to this day.
Shortly
after I entered into this venture, I helped another friend open a
computer store.
My main business on eBay was selling computer equipment, so again, this
was kind of a natural direction for me to be heading. Chris
took care of all of the PC sales. I brought in the Macintosh equipment
and handled all of the custom build projects and repairs.
I kept doing my eBay business, which
really took very
little time, on the side and introduced Chris to this marketing
medium, as well. I built a website for the store and we did a little
marketing on there, as well... Then came my big break...
CFS, which was a huge corporation that bought up credit card debt for
pennies on the dollar and then collected on them, went bankrupt. There
was a huge auction for their assets and among those assets was tons of
computer equipment. Chris and I brought in another partner, Tim and
went to the sale.
We bought one lot for $12,000 as a group and I paid $600 for another
lot on my own. Within 48 hours of the end of the auction, we had nearly
doubled our money. Two weeks after the sale we had more than quadrupled
or investment! We ended up making around 10 times our initial costs in
less than two months!
My little $600 dollar lot, which had been purchased especially for
eBay, did quite well, too. There were 64 items (Brand new Sun Keyboard
and Mouse Kits) in the lot and I sold them (minus four that I kept for
personal use) for an average of $75 each on eBay. Just about a $4000
profit!
This little
joint venture led to my next business with Tim as my new business
partner.
We developed a computer business model based on our experience in the
CFS auction. Basically we bought high-end computer networking equipment
for pennies on the dollar and re-sold them for around half of retail.
It was the perfect business model at the perfect time.
The computer and internet markets were exploding, so there were plenty
of customers. Y2K had everyone scared and corporations had just dumped
massive amounts of high-end equipment on the market, so we could buy it
in bulk...cheaply. To say that it was a massive success would be an
understatement.
Our business was divided into three parts: Retail, Computer Shows and
the Internet. Through each of these three areas, we did around a third
of our sales so they were split pretty evenly. We did $600K in sales
during our first year. Our second year we did nearly $2 million!
I designed our website where our customers that we had met across the
country could shop online and even had a crude little weekly auction
for wholesale lots. It was, by far, the most complicated site that I
ever (or will ever attempt to do again) coded completely 100% by
myself. These days there are too many easily available scripts to add
on to your site to make it do the same things that I coded in by hand
ten years ago.
So, How did I
get here from there?...
Business was good... I was making more
money than I
ever had in my life... But, I was not happy. Between bouncing around
the country to bankruptcy auctions (the dot com bust was in full
swing), doing at least one computer show every weekend, and trying to
maintain the retail and internet protions of our business I became
burned out.
I never saw my family... I was usually on the road before they woke up
and didn't return, most nights, until well after they were asleep. Too
many hours and not enough time with the ones you care for can be a
heavy burden to carry even if you are making tons of cash... So, I quit!
After an extended vacation, I decided to create a totally online-based
business. In the time since: I have created a number of websites,
authored several ebook titles and developed training programs for
marketers... among other things.
My office is in my house. I see my wife and kids every day. I take time
off whenever I want to. Life is good.
GCIM Web Solutions
and What We Can Do For You
We have taken the
things that we do best, added a few other services and combined them
all in one site. We truly want this site to become a one-stop portal
for all of your web needs. Whether that be domain names, hosting
service, graphic and ecover creation or whatever you may need.
Need products to promote? Click the affiliate link and see what
products are open to affiliates. Our products generally offer commissin
rates between 50% and 100%.
Our domain name registration site has some of the most competitive
rates on the net. If you need a dot com, dot net or just about any
other domain name, we strive to give you the best price possible. New
domain name registrations start at only $1.99.
Blog hosting from GCIM Web Solutions is available for as lof as $3.33
per month when you purchase two years in advance and only $4.95 per
month when paid for monthly.
Check out our selection of eBooks, Videos and Software. Many titles are
free and the selections are constantly being updated.
A new section will be added soon describing our membership sites and
how you can benefit by being members of them.
Be sure and check out some of our websites listed in the right hand
column and jump back to the top of the page to visit our blog and other
sections of GCIM Web Solutions.
If you don't find what you are
looking for just
click the contact link at the bottom of the page and send us an inquiry
through our support desk about what you need.
To your success,
Gary W Calvert
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