Lux-Ps entered a huge European market in second-hand cars; as a result of the sheer size of the industry, each country offers their own related rules and regulations. I found a niche very quickly though as the Italians were put off big cars due to the tax and I found a market for them in Denmark. My partner and I decided to try a test run by going to Italy, buying two large cars, taking them to Denmark, and selling them for a profit; it worked like a treat.

We decided to then take the next step and get in contact with dealers in Denmark that needed these sorts of vehicles; with my Danish-speaking partner in tow, we targeted big dealers for a number of cars per week. The important part of this process was finding the right cars because wasting money on a poor car will offset the money made on up to 5 successful ones. I have been into a cars from a very young age, have always repaired my own vehicles and have spent a lot of time around older cars but I knew I couldn't take this for granted because second-hand cars are easily tampered with. If I wasn't careful, I could have bought a car that had completed significantly more kilometers than the clock suggested. All in all, it was going well. I was flying to Italy, buying used cars, fixing them up if required and selling them on in Denmark. The dealers wanted more and I was loving it because it was my passion.

The next obvious step was to expand the business but this was where the problems started, I couldn't find someone that was as meticulous as me. I hired two different people, spent some time with them and then left them to their own devices but too many mistakes occurred and the quality of vehicle reaching Denmark started to fall. In a way, I didn't blame these employees because the job required constant trips abroad and it wasn't their money they were wasting after a mistake.

After starting Lux-P in 2003, trading came to a complete stop just four years later in 2007. At the height of business, we would ship 120 cars per year which averages out at just over one lorry load of 8 per month. The premise was good, we completed the right research but with my full-time job, it was incredibly difficult to scale the business and grow into the market.

Starting a business can be a scary process and for many, failure is just a matter of time because their costs are too high. Keeping expenditure to a minimum is vital for the success of any business, whether startup or even a more mature venture, and so it is important to find efficient practices moving forward into the future.

One method of keeping costs down is the improvement of employee communication, a process that has become easier over time due to the introduction of the ‘cloud’ concept. One of the main IT services that has seen tremendous growth in recent years is slack.com and this is the system that was tested recently by MIXvoip.

What Is Slack?

At its core, Slack is a web chat solution with similarities to the old IRC services which will help some people feel at home almost instantly; Slack offers a number of API’s and possibilities for integration too. Communication between employees and with the management has never been easier than with the web version plus the free downloadable mobile app. This system will allow any workforce to become extremely efficient therefore making the whole business profitable as it is pushed in the right direction.

The ‘#general’ channel allows employees to discuss their weekends and what they got up to the previous night but after that, the system really comes into its element by offering a special channel for discussions relating to work problems and solutions. Furthermore, there are a number of stack overflow links to help with any problems that may arise.

Slack is also effective outside the office too; when a member of the sales team is on the road it can be tricky for them to touch base and this wastes valuable time and money, this is where MIXvoip found a great use for the system. It allowed the sales team to ask valuable questions, like ‘how many invoices does this customer have?’ and ‘can you activate a new number for a customer?’, and receive answers quicker than they would have done otherwise. The team member on the road has the simple task of clicking on the app and asking the question rather than ringing the phone and being held waiting in front of the customer. Waiting for answers whilst standing with a customer can become embarrassing and the customer starts to question how efficient the business is but this system may be the answer to this very problem.

Time can also be logged on the app via the special channels which can be extremely important for billing purposes; this allows invoices to be accurate and ultimately means that no income will be lost. This data will be kept safe and can also be used, along with the meta data, in order to produce invoices using Slack’s API. The process is also made simple by the fact that everything is kept all in one place meaning that as long as the program is open, you will be covered.

MIXvoip now sees Slack as an important business tool as it has removed the risk of ‘lost emails’ which can cost businesses time and money. Only high-priority or customer-related emails reach the inboxes at MIXvoip now so that they can focus on offering the best service possible and therefore growing the business as quickly as possible. This experiment all started with the free version, there is no reason why any business, big or small, should pass up the chance to install this effective communication tool today!

With the advancements in technology, nearly everything can be planned in advance including hotels, doctors appointments, restaurants, with a simple click of a button. WiAiPi (pronounced VIP) tried to take advantage of this and go one step further so people could book their place in a nightclub ready for their arrival, why not?

The whole project started with a team of just four; a designer, a programmer, and two others that knew the Luxembourg night scene like the back of their hand having experienced it over time as DJ’s and as party-goers. When we were approached, they were actually surprisingly quite far forward in the process and were eager to push forward and get going. They had already considered what packages will be offered by the clubs and how customers will pay securely online as well as having printed business cards and drawn up contracts for nightclubs should they be interested in the idea.

We were pleasantly surprised by the focus and the drive of the team and they looked ready to go with a bit of investment which led to our first mistake; not questioning the idea far enough. Corpoinvest already had a company to the name that was sitting idly so we decided to use that as it would reduce the costs and we scheduled regular meetings to discuss the next steps. The site had to be perfected and free from bugs and when that was complete, we were already in the marketing stage. Our second mistake was paying too much attention to Facebook and social media ‘hype’; of course, we had to set up these profiles to generate interest but ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ do not equal customers.

We were ready to launch and so we set a date, put flyers around, and worked with clubs; we even made bookings before our first night. We decided to pay for advertisements and thought this would generate more interest and therefore more sales. The fire threatened to take hold but only really sparked and so we had to analyse why it wasn't taking off.

We saw that going out was often spontaneous and so people preferred to phone rather than go online and wait for a service.We were entering a fiercely competitive market. Our service was redundant at weekends because clubs were going to be full anyway.The market is, on the whole, relatively small. People don't visit nightclubs regularly and those that do have a regular company they will use.

We pulled the whole operation without even spending the whole investment as it required more research and attention than what we offered. We thought we could make it a success by trimming costs but in the end, it was the idea that was flawed. We learned some lessons though;

Sometimes a gap in the market is there for a reason and only raw research will allow you to determine that reason. We could have started smaller with a payment system at the club rather than online. We could have added a phone number as well as a WhatsApp and SMS contact option. We could have done without setting up a company before launch and removed a lot of hassle. Finally, we should have chosen a soft launch rather than a full-on launch night/party.