A Big Waste of Time?

As I'm sure you've all seen, millions of Americans have flooded US numerous city streets in a movement called Occupy Wallstreet. When the movement began a little more than 2 weeks ago, it appeared that the cause focus was to protest against corporate greed committed by the largest companies currently in the marketplace.  As a small business owner who is not even able to pay myself a minimum wage I of course applauded their efforts.  Unfortunately some where along the way it appears that the movement lost it's focus completely and now I'm not really sure what they are trying to accomplish.

A few nights ago we had dinner with Ryan's parents and got onto the subject of Occupy Wallstreet and corporate greed. We all agreed that for the most part this protest is turning into more of a waste of energy than a positive move in the direction of change.  It seems as though people are now congregating to complain about how unfair their lives are rather than voicing concerns that spark discussion and possibly change. 

Ryan's mom shared a disturbing incident that recently happened at her workplace, a national communications corporation which I won't name even though I'd love to (let's just say it starts with an F now and formerly started with a V).  Seems the company made a bad investment when buying out another national communication corporations local internet and television accounts and instead of making cuts from the top down, roughly 50% of the local work force was hit with a pay cut of 45% or more while the CEO received a raise earning her $12 million a year!  To add insult to injury she had the nerve to personally fly in on her private helicopter to delivery the bad news to an unsuspecting workforce. This information was so disturbing to me that I personally will never invest in their services from now on.  Unless this CEO built this company from the ground up (which she didn't) there is no way she is worth that kind of a gross salary!  Even if she had founded the company, I'd hope that a majority would be reinvested into the company or given to a charitable organization.  Heck, we don't even make 100th of 1% of that each year and we give a percentage of sales back to charity!

Still is this one woman's overcompensation and greed the root cause of the unemployment rate in America?  Is it the outsourcing of our jobs to foreign companies? Or is it that our country has so many incentives to have a comfortable live without working for it that people have learned it's easier to collect an unemployment check rather than getting off the couch and doing some good old manual labor for minimum wage. 

What frustrates me is that as a small business owner I don't have the luxury of unemployment, health care or even workman's comp.  We struggle to keep the doors open and the lights on, live off macaroni & cheese and only go to the doctor if a router bit tries to rip off our hand and the wound is too large to patch at home! If I closed our doors tomorrow we'd couldn't go to the State office and get government assistance while we figure out what we want to be when we grow up!

When our money troubles started a couple of years ago, Ryan suggested we look into food stamps to help keep food in the house, I refused and still do.  Sure it's a pride thing, but also why should I take food out of the mouths of hungry children or the homeless when I'm perfectly capable of figuring out new ways to make our business grow and earn money. Neither of us have a handicap that prevents us from earning a living and providing for ourselves. If more people would own up to their responsibilities as citizen's of the human race, quit bitching about what a tough lot in life they have been dealt and in the words of Nike, Just Do It, I think that we would be in a much better place than we are today!

Outsourcing is bad, greed is bad, but laziness is worse because it is something we all can control. Wasting energy marching up and down our city streets without a clear purpose is just that, a waste of energy.  I hope that someone stands up with a clear message and idea for change soon so that we can all start to work on making much needed improvements.

Finding the Perfect Fit

Over the last couple weeks, I've noticed an increasing amount of stories about US companies finding great new employees from our military veteran community.  As one such company I can attest that hiring a veteran was the best decision we have made in business thus far.

Neither Ryan or I had experience hiring an employee.  And with a string of bad hires on construction projects over the years, we were scared that we would make the wrong decision when it can time to bring someone on board.  In turn it took us 3 years to take a leap of faith. 

The tricky part was that the business is not cash positive yet.  It pays for  rent, utilities, raw goods and marketing every month, but that is all it pays for.  Still we felt that bringing on an extra hand made sense to allow Ryan to do what he does best by selling.  So we decided to place an advertisement on Craigslist in the gigs section because that section is free.  Unfortunately you get what you pay for and we had a series of relatively unmotivated unemployed workers who seemed to feel entitled to having their cake and eating it to.  After a few face to face interviews we started to doubt that there was anyone out there who would be able to work for what we could afford and who would have a passion for what we do.

Determined to find someone I convinced Ryan that we should place a formal job posting on Craigslist at a price of $20 for the month.  The investment was well worth it.  Within a matter of minutes applications were pinging my inbox and continued to for 3 straight days! Of the applicants I'd say that 75% stated some form of military background.  Most had been discharged without deployment.  Of those 90% were from the Marine Corps.  Coming from a strong military family background, I was immediately excited by the possibility of hiring one of these candidates. 
However when some of these applicants arrived for the interview it was painfully clear why they were relieved of their duties.  Most had served their terms and now lived their life without a future goal and no idea what they wanted out of their lives.  Some had family issues which would have proven difficult in our fluctuating schedule and others really needed a structured work environment we knew were couldn't provide. 

The economic downturn also left many technologically qualified workers without employment especially with Oregon's high amount of technology fields.  Even though we knew that someone with a degree in engineering and or computer aided drafting would likely tire of making rocks quickly we invited a couple into the shop for a sit down.  One gentlemen in particular seemed as though he might actually be a good fit.  He was determined, focused and sounded like he had his feet on the ground.  But once it came time to have him in for the second interview he never responded to our requests and completely fell off the face of the planet.

From the beginning of the process, I felt that a person younger than us, possibly in school would make a good addition to our team.  The thought was that younger people can be more open to learning and with little financial burdens they can be a bit more flexible on pay and hours.  Going on this theory we talked with 3 candidates who might fit the bill.  All three were in their early 20's, high school graduates or GED holders and had experience in a wide range of labor jobs.  The first candidate had a young family to support as well as a prior arrest yet we thought he might have the drive we were looking for and we invited him to the 2nd interview.  The second candidate had graduated for Ryan and my alma mater and was attending college part time while also raising a small daughter and living with his parents.  Again we thought he might be a good fit and we invited him to the 2nd interview.  Finally there was a young man who had taken a 1:30 hour bus ride from the other side of town to meet with us.  He insisted that the mother of his child with whom he was estranged would allow him to crash at her apartment on the days we needed his help. He was also a recovering alcoholic with only 60 days sobriety under his belt - needless to say a little too much to handle for us.

Two hours before we were going to stop interviewing completely we received an application from a young man with a background in the Marines, who lived very close by, attended part-time classes and held a second job.  At that point we'd narrowed our search down to 5 candidates and where pretty decided on one of them but thought we'd give the guy a chance.  That decision was the best one we could have ever made.

Bert walked in as our last interview.  He had been relieved of duty because of a kidney problem military medics discovered.  Having undergone the riggers of basic training his discharge earned him full military benefits including grants to help him continue his education in his chosen field of Geology.  He had no priors, no history of addiction and no family drama back home.  Really he almost seemed too good to be true.  So we asked him to join the other 5 candidates for a walk through of the shop and briefing of the job requirements.  He was the first to arrive, the last to leave and the only one who took us up on our offering of Krispy Creme donuts and coffee. As soon as everyone took their leave it was obvious to both Ryan and I that he was the person for the job.

Excited to share the news we offered him the job that afternoon and I made the mistake of announcing it on our Facebook fan page soon after.  The reason I say that it was a mistake is because I hadn't thanked all the other 2nd interview candidates yet and one of them was following the page.  When he saw that he had not made the cut, he was angry and blasted us publicly for being unprofessional.  Really it made him look like a sore looser and once Ryan called to explain he deleted his rant but that incident showed us how close we were to making a very bad decision, we were thankful we dodged that bullet!

One thing this process taught us was that you should never settle for less than we need.  Both Ryan and I had decided that our little position was only going to attract someone with little motivation or who had no other means of getting work.  We were open to hiring someone who needed to be given a second chance at the expense of our own ethics.  I'm glad that someone out there was watching over us and didn't let us settle for less than we needed or deserved. 

Back to the Daily Grind

We made it home from Indio around 7pm last night.  Man that drive feels longer and longer every time you make it.  So far this year we've done it at least 4 times that I can count.  I'm so tired after a long day of playing catch up that I can't be certain of anything!

The original plan was to drive up on Friday, stay for the weekend and then meet up with Shorty Rossi on Monday on the way back up to Portland.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans.  Shorty was busy with filming Monday so that was out.  At first it was a little frustrating because we didn't plan on being away from the office the extra time but like most things it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because as you found out Ryan's grandfather learned about the passing of his friend on Monday and he was happy we were there to lend a shoulder to cry on.

Thankfully Shorty's schedule freed up on Tuesday and we left Indio at 8am to meet up with him in Venice Beach at 11.  The drive should only have taken 2 hours and 9 mins but true to LA form we made it in at 11 on the nose.  Also true to LA form we got a parking ticket 30 mins into our stay.  I don't know what it is about that city but every time we visit we get a parking ticket! Definitely not a pleasant surprise at $58!!!! Fortunately I realized we were probably approaching that magic time and Ryan went out and plugged the meter for another hour, his phone read 1 min past the 30 mins we'd originally paid for.  I guess there is nothing we can do about it but $58 is a tank of gas and money is not flowing as well as we would like, heck it's not flowing enough to give us a wage!  But that is a story for another time.


Our visit with Shorty was a lot of fun, we got to sit in the same seats they use on the show and check out all the artwork and gadgets he has in his office. It's so funny how small everything seems in real life compared to on television.  We visited Antique Archaeology, you might know it from that show American Pickers, and it was tiny!  I guess my perception is really off since I also thought that the Eiffel Tour was more impressive in photographs.  Anyway, we had a great conversation with Shorty, took some pictures and bribed his dog Hercules with treats to get some awesome shots.  He literally turned the chamber of the RocLok into a doggy dish, it was pretty cute. 

Since we were down in the general area, distance means nothing on a road trip!, we drove down the 101 to visit our vendor at the Do It Best in Port Hueneme.  Back in March we met the general manager at a home and garden show and they asked to have 10 units to test market.  At the time we didn't have a lot of point of sale marketing to offer but by the time we visited again in April they had successfully sold 3 units.  Unfortunately it seems like their sales force lost interest and after we left the inventory was moved into a corner of the garden section.  Even though the display looked nice enough, it made absolutely no sense.  I mean first of all there was no price at all.  All the RocLok's were laying right side up so it looked like a shelf of fancy rocks without a purpose.  If I was a customer I wouldn't have even bothered looking! Surprisingly despite this they still sold 3 more units. 

Planning ahead Ryan had loaded the in-store display with a monitor that plays the video on the homepage of our website.  Since we hadn't heard anything from the store since April we weren't really sure if we were going to be setting up the new display or loading up the inventory and taking it back to Portland with us.  After getting to the store and talking with the manager we all decided to give it another go and put up the new display but this time I insisted that it be in the hardware section next to the key cutting and locks.  With limited space we needed a table to place the display on and the manager asked an associate to grab one out of the back.  Obviously displeased by the task the employee wandered around for about 20 mins before acting.  At one point he walked over to me and to measure the base of the display and asked what it was for.  I explained that it was for the RocLok, describing what it was and to my surprise he retorted with "Are we even getting any more of those things, they are a bit spendy!" with a very disapproving tone and walked off.  Needless to say I was unhappy after that so I proceeded to follow him around the store until he finally went into the back room and grabbed a table for us to set up.  C'est la vie.  His demeanour seemed to improve by the time we left and I was proud of myself for standing up for myself.  Anyone who knows me can attest that I can be a push over and that confrontation and me are not friends. 

After the busy afternoon came to a close we headed up north, rested in Sacramento for the night and drove all day Wednesday to get home.  It felt great to wake up in our own bed this morning.
  

Friends for Life

Life is precious and fragile.  It's easy to forget that amongst the daily noise.  Spending time in Indio always reminds me of that. 

This morning we received a phone call that a good friend of Ryan's grandfather had passed away last night.  He was in his 80's, had been fighting disabilities due to Polio most of his adult life and was brought down with a bout of Pneumonia a little while ago.  His wife Carol had graciously opened their home to celebrate Ryan's grandmothers life just the day before, despite Bill still being hospitalized.

When Wilma passed back in June, it was Carol and Bill who welcomed weary family members to crash in their guest house and brought over meals during a very difficult time.  Their warming presence made things a little less bleak for everyone especially Ryan's grandfather Ben. 

With all the busyness of everyday life, friends have not been a large part of my life.  I enjoy their company but have been disappointed so many times in the past I guess I've come to the conclusion that the investment is wasted energy.  That sounds so horrible when I write it out.  I guess my problem with making friends has been much like someone who hasn't found the right life partner.  I'm always "dating" the wrong type of person. 

Over my lifetime I've had a few friends but none that really stuck if that makes sense.  My very first friend Breonna was introduced to my life when we were both toddlers.  The daughter of my parents friends, we were "forced" friends and that friendship lasted through our 20's.  Breonna was even the Maid of Honor in my wedding.  Despite my family moving 1000's of miles away we kept contact through letters and when her dad moved up to Washington we had the opportunity to spend time together on her visits.  In essence she was like the sister I never had. 

Breonnna and I were very similar in many ways and that similarity caused some rivalry from time to time.  I remember one day when we were about 7 years old my parents had purchased me a new Barbie Doll.  Excited I immediately boasted about my new treasure to Breonna as soon as she arrived but to my surprise instead of being happy for me she attacked me for being a bragger!  I'll never forget the hair pulling brawl that ensued. Funny how something so trivial sticks around and that an innocent word can change your entire perception of yourself.  After that day I never bragged about a gift again, in fact I think that is the reason I have a hard time spending money on myself at all.  Funny how that one little word made me feel eternally guilty about every personal purchase I've made since. 

I was always a shy kid and I think that made some invisible mark on my forehead that told the more assertive kids that I was easy prey. Thankfully for me I come from stubborn, feisty stock that allowed me to dish whatever they through my way back at them.  That doesn't mean it did really hurt at the same time.  Since I felt like an outcast I gravitated to making friends with the "broken" kids.  Mind you they all were great people and like me didn't feel as though they belonged so from that aspect it was a perfect match.  Unfortunately being a junior problem solving fanatic, I tended to focus on their problems and less on my own.  Great for them, not so good for me. You see when you are the caregiver sometime you get walked all over.  That whole survivor of the fittest thing I guess.  At some point the person you try desperately to help figures out that you will do anything for them and decides to use that to their advantage. I don't think it's a conscience decision and I don't think it is out of any malice but just that they have adapted to having to fight for themselves and manipulation is an easy way to get what you want.

Unfortunately it took me most of my adult life to realize that issue and a couple of years ago both Ryan and I decided to rid our lives of those kinds of friends and try to make new lasting connections.  With the long hours working on growing the business we haven't had many opportunities to get out and meet anyone.  We tried that networking group in hopes that we would find some new comradery but again it felt as though we would be in the role of helping to "fix" their businesses instead of learning on how to grow ours.

Over the last couple days I've come to realize that friendships are an important part of life.  If you are fortunate to meet those people who will love and support you unconditionally hold onto them. Hopefully someday Ryan and I will find our life friends and we will be as fortunate as his grandparents to have support when we need it the most.  For now the hunt continues.