Press Release

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Press

Leadership skills needed for long-term success

St. Louis, MO., October 30, 2005 (St. Louis Post Dispatch) — FORMER BUSINESS: UnclaimedFunds.net of Hampton, Va. Ahmed, a computer programmer, started Unclaimed Funds with his cousin in 1998 during the tech boom. With practically no startup costs, the business was easy to launch.

For $8.95, Unclaimed Funds would search for unclaimed, or escheat, funds held by state agencies nationwide. The company trudged along until the TV show Extra featured its Web site one evening in 1999.

In February of that year, the home-based company had its best month ever, pulling in 250 new customers.

"We made pretty good money. Overhead was so low and the business was so simple, you'd have to be an idiot not to be able to run it," Ahmed said.

The partners hired a couple of employees to help while Ahmed worked full time for MCI. Despite the extra personnel, fund searches and bill payments were slow and disorganized. One of the employees left to have a child, further slowing production.

Although fewer than 5 percent of customers actually had funds they could claim, a 10 percent finders' fee was due from customers who received checks from the state. Few customers ever turned over the fee, Ahmed said.

Then Ahmed's wife got pregnant, and the couple wanted to move to St. Louis to be closer to her family. Between his absence and his cousin's flagging interest in the operation, Ahmed decided to bow out. He closed the company in 2000 with about $2,000 in debt.

LESSONS LEARNED: Ahmed said the most important lesson he learned was personnel management.

"We were very disorganized and dysfunctional," he said. "I didn't realize how to do leadership."

Since then, Ahmed hasn't shied away from partnerships, either.

In his new venture, the Incredible Web Co., he recently merged the firm with Daedelin Consulting, owned by Linnell Gorden. Gorden is now president of the Incredible Web Co.

"Just realizing that you are in partnership with someone doesn't mean they will do everything that is expected. They will have emotional things they are contending with," Ahmed said.

"My dependence and reliance on God and Christ has been what has pulled us through."