Christopher Cartwright:
CLASS OF 1990
Sonderling High SchoolClass of 1990
Brentwood, NY
Christopher's Story
Workplace
Delivered Furniture for Dad from 8th grade through High School. Went to School at Syracuse University for 1 1/2 years. Came home for a year and delivered furniture to save up enough money to go back. Went to Suffolk Community College during that year back at home.
Went back to Syracuse for a semester, and couldn't afford to go any longer. Started my own little trucking company doing deliveries with a little 14' box truck and my younger cousin to help. Attended Dowling College for a semester and then moved to Boston to finish school at Harvard University. Lost all credits save 9 due to a major change.
Started working for Kirby vacuum cleaners and eventually opened an distributorship to put myself through school. Too much time working led to a change... waiting tables at The Cheesecake Factory. I finally graduated with a Bachelors in Liberal Arts from Harvard in 2000.
Got a job in sales at The Gym Source, selling residential and commercial gym equipment in Boston. I made rookie of the year and achieved my first six figure income.
Made a career move to New Jersey when offered a job as a Sales Representative for Ashley Furniture Industries in 2003. Ashley is the largest furniture company in the world with annual sales of over 2.5 Billion/ year. I was one of 500 sales representatives. I took the job because of Ashley's reputation for a solid education. Ashley was like graduate shoool for business. I honed my sales skills, while learning how to market, merchandise and advertise.
I left Ashley after three years... in April of 2005. I was an associate who was hired by the senior sales representatives for the New York / New Jersey metro area. They had the contract with Ashley. I was technically working for them. My bosses kept the major accounts and didn't divide the income evenly. They were making the 1/2 Million dollar incomes that I wanted for myself. I made alot of contacts at Ashley and managed over 200 accou...Expand for more
nts. My sales volume grew from .6M annually to 5.2M in those three years.
Some background here.... I headed for a divorce in January of 2005 and was separated that month. I left Ashley 3 months later in April of 2005. While breaking up the marriage, I cleaned house and decided to make the career move at the same time. I picked up a job at the Blackstone Steakhouse in Huntington to clear my head and make room for time to pursue other options in the furniture business. I began representing other companies in October of 2006, 6 months after leaving Ashley Furniture Industries. At that time I was forced to leave the waiting job at Blackstone.
In January of 2006 I got a phone call from my old Vice President of Ashley Furniture. He had left Ashley a few month before I did and was now representing a company called Franklin Corporation. Franklin Corporation is the third largest "motion" company in the furniture business. This means that they sell anything which has a recliner in it. ie. sectionals, reclining sofa's, love seats, recliners. They do approximately 200 Million annually, and only have about 20 sales representatives accross the country.
Between January and April of 2006, I opened over 20 new accounts with Franklin Corporation. The company parted ways with my old V.P. The owners nephew flew into Laguardia just last week 5/12 and offered me the territory. I now represent all of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
I feel truly blessed and have the job of my dreams. 401K, Medical, Dental etc...
Business trips playing golf and stuff! I service accounts like Levitz, Federated (Macy's), Fortunoff, QVC, J.C. Penny's etc....
I have to say that I owe in part to my success.... the exposure to the many wonderful people I have met during a fraternal membership with the Masonic Lodge. I am a member of both the Harvard Lodge in Massachusettes, and the Saint John's Lodge of New York City. They taught me how to think Bigger.
Register for Free to view all details!
Reunions
