From The Gutter To Glory: A Broke Man's Guide To Starting A Business (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781434839688)

Terrence Warren was born and raised in the small town of Goldsboro, NC. After graduating high school in 1995, he enlisted in the United States Army, feeling it was the only way to get out and find opportunities since the only thing happening in his small hometown was violence. After spending four years in Hawaii, Terrence had a five-month break in service to pursue employment in 2001, but after being laid off twice in 3 months he found himself back in the Army for another four years. During the 8th year of his service, Terrence found himself deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. It was during this time that Terrence became aggravated and made preparations to exit the military again, this time for good; this time, he would have a better plan. Terrence began pursuing financial grants that would help him start a business (which proved to be more difficult than he first believed) and took a job as a cable installer for a local cable company. After working for over a year with the company, Terrence used his tax returns to start a skin care website and began selling health and beauty products. Though it generated a profit at first, the sales soon dwindled, and it was not enough to quit his full time job; Terrence was still living paycheck to paycheck. One afternoon on his cable route, he found himself installing cable for a customer who was the president of a large international trading company. After a long conversation with the him, Terrence was introduced to international commerce and private label manufacturing and began to develop and produce his own line of skin care products to market and sell overseas. This generated a large profit, and Terrence was able to leave his full time job to pursue international trading. With the success of the International Trading Company he had started, called Warren SkinCare Exports, Terrence invested the money he made from his contracting venture overseas into starting a drink vending company. Terrence was becoming well known and sought after by his peers for advice pertaining to business, marketing strategies, and business start-up procedures. Soon he was being asked to speak at small groups and organizational meetings, and even invited to do workshops and seminars.