Where did it all start? How did we come up with the idea of starting a massage chair company? What were our beginnings in the industry like? What obstacles did we overcome? What motivated us? We invite you on a journey through the little-known history of Rest Lords. First stop: Olsztyn, 2009 – this is where and when it all began…
We started from absolute scratch, and at the beginning, our warehouse wasn’t even a garage. The first delivery of 6 massage chairs was received in winter in one of the housing estates in Olsztyn. We carried large boxes up the stairs to the 3rd floor and stuffed them into one of the rooms in Grzegorz’s apartment… We earned the garage after some time. Interestingly, it was located in the Fairytale Estate, and the truck driver thought we were joking by directing the delivery to Pooh Street, turning before Snow White Street. :-)
Yes, that’s us Paweł Majer and Grzegorz Najmowicz. I had a full-time job as an accountant in a budget unit – many tough challenges… but of course coffee first. Meanwhile, Grzegorz worked as a sales representative at the former Statoil. Despite our different roles, we found ourselves drawn together by a shared energy that had been building since our university days. We just understood each other. Grzegorz was a great salesman. I, with my background in accounting, considered myself a fresh-faced enthusiast for e-commerce. We had an idea, we had motivation… ‘So what, let’s start? OK!’
Our idea was typical: with mine and Grzegorz’s full-time jobs, we wanted to do something together – to have a so-called ‘sure hit’. I don’t know what we had in our heads at the time. The coin-operated massage chairs we had spotted in Germany seemed to meet our expectations for business. Miraculously, we came into direct contact with a factory in China (only later to discover that it was one of the 3 largest in the world). An exchange of dollars at an exchange office, payment at a window (still Multibank at that time), and after a month, the ordered chairs arrived! In our eyes, this was already the first success. We went on to acquire places to put these ‘sure hits’ in the aquapark, gym, dance school etc. – this was the second success. Satisfied and full of hope, a month later, we opened the coffers of the ‘sure hits’ and there, attention… bagatelle, an average of PLN 45 per model. It was a failure! A few months later, we withdrew our chairs from these outlets, but fascinated by the contact with the manufacturer and the product itself, we took another risk – we borrowed money to buy models for home use and opened an online shop…
We carried out our first transports ourselves. Who would have thought at the time that such armchairs could be delivered by courier? It was also too early to hire a driver… With the money we had saved, we bought a yellow 2000 Ford Transit, which used to serve the German postal service well, then served us. Our deliveries were always exciting – we were on the road for 2-3 days at a time, more than once taking turns sleeping in the car. Every customer contact was interesting for us, we were almost always pleasantly hosted, and lunches and coffees were standard. The Yellow Bee (that’s what we called the bus) drove with us until the very end. We had already bought a new delivery bus, this time a Mercedes Sprinter. So we were in for one last sentimental journey with the Bee. Oh, the irony! Towards the end of our route, in the Dorotowo village located 6 km from Olsztyn, its engine blew – it just died and didn’t rise. The Bee ended its life.
Perhaps the most pivotal moment for us was our first visit to China, where at a trade fair and private dinner, we saw the size of the market, the enormity of the opportunity and the popularity of the product worldwide. Having sold 60 seats a year, we sat at a table with distributors from all over the world (including representation from LG Korea). I remember Bala – a distributor from India – went on the record asking me ‘And how many do you sell per year?’. I don’t know why, but our sales didn’t impress him… ;-) We came back to Poland motivated to change and eager to deal with the subject professionally. No more full-time jobs; we had to take a risk!
PS Today, whenever we see Bala at the fair, he looks at us differently.
We commissioned a marketing strategy, quit our jobs, invested the money we’d been putting away for years, created a new website, took new photos, discovered copywriting, did a bunch of analysis and launched with great enthusiasm. We were convinced that we would be successful, and here… flop. For the first few months, we didn’t see any growth (apart from cost increases). It came to a summit meeting – we sat down at a table and discussed the final plan! Sizable changes and a test of them for a month, maybe two. Either it would work out or I’d go back to full-time… And it did! It worked, the phones started ringing more and more and we tried even harder.
First difficult client, first professional website, first trade fair in Poznan, first service, first office… All in all, we were breaking new ground on many levels. Maybe because we couldn’t afford specialists, or maybe because there are no specialists in our industry. The very subject of massage chairs unfortunately had to be disenchanted. After a series of business ‘Polish Janusze’ and unethical presentations, the product was associated with pots and targeting sales to elderly people (preferably while they were in a sanatorium). When I mentioned at family gatherings what I do, the topic quickly descended to the weather or something else. In the eyes of the interlocutors, I could see ‘Oh, a canvasser’. Fortunately, we have successfully disenchanted the subject of massage chairs – today thousands of people buy from us, both the very rich and ordinary people looking for relaxation, mostly middle-aged. We are in talks with the world’s biggest brands, we have dealers in many European countries, and sales networks are calling for our products. Above all, however, we have a great team of colleagues and the real fun of doing it all. :-)
