Headed for the Highway

Tomorrow we're hitting the road again bound for Indio, California.  Instead of preparing for a meriad of trade shows, this trip is for a family event but of course we managed to squeeze some business into the mix or at least are trying to. 

Ryan's grandmother Wilma passed away in June and Saturday her friends are celebrating her life down in California.  We had the service up here in Portland at the tail end of June and this will be the first time we've seen Ryan's grandfather since then.  Even though his entire working career was at the phone company, Ben doesn't really do telephones.  We've tried to outfit his home with amplified models to improve the sound quality so he can hear us but still he seems to be having a difficult time with it. Plus, since he is from a generation that didn't really use computers, he isn't into email either. Needless to say it's been difficult to keep in touch on a regular basis.  So this trip will be nice to check in on him and take care of some odds and ends he might need done around the house.

The original plan for the trip was for Ryan's Uncle to drive with us early tomorrow morning.  He has his own house painting business so time and funds are really tight for him.  Couple that with Oregon's unpredicatable weather and the poor guy never really knows what he is or isn't going to be able to do on any given day.  With the fall weather rapidly changing he was concerned that he wouldn't have time to complete some of the outdoor gigs he had already started and really only felt as though he had enough time to drive up Friday, visit Saturday for the event and drive back home on Sunday.  But after talking with him last night he came to the conclusion that still wasn't a safe bet and he decided that this wasn't a trip he would be able to make.  It was really too bad because I know Ben was eager to have some quality time with him, but in that short amount of time any visit they would have been able to have would be very brief.  I hope he is able to find a better gap in his schedule to make a longer trip down south and spend some bonding time soon.

Not having another passenger makes our schedule a little more flexible, allowing us to complete the new RocLok for Shorty Rossi and bring it down with us.  We are trying to get together with him on Monday sometime.  The tricky part is that Monday is his first day of filming Season 3 of Pit Boss and he doesn't really know when he'll be available.  We really only need to get a couple quick pictures with him and the Dolomite for the website, but even then, who knows what time he will be able to dedicate. The cool part is we may get a chance to see some filming done which would be very fun.  I definately don't want to impose on his time though, good thing he's near the beach we can go enjoy some sun when he's unavailable :)

Normally preparing for a trip can be flustering especially when you run your own business. Not only do you have to pack all the usual clothes, tolietries and alike but as a business owner you have to prepare the office for your absence too.  Thankfully we are living in the digital age.  It really makes life so much more fluid.  We used to bring RocLok inventory with us so that we could ship out online orders when they came in but now that Bert is helping us we can email him the shipping label and he'll drop them off at FedEx for us! Still it is harder to sneek in working hours when your on the road.  I for one get car sick if I'm not driving so I do that while Ryan Tweets and/or Facebooks on the Android.  The bummer is that I'll have a great thought about something to Tweet just as he falls asleep and since I'm driving I can't do anything about it! Oh, well such is life.

We'll both try to update this blog over the next few days away from home, but as we learned at the beach, it's hard to blog without internet! Wish us luck.

Surviving the Learning Curve

Welcome to my first entry on my new laptop! When my Sony Viao's monitor hinges broke off I was so upset that we had to invest in a new machine.  It's kind of like having to buy a washing machine because it broke rather than because you have the money to get a better model.  Luckily we found this new machine for $399 this afternoon which made both of us very happy. 

Today was a really good day all the way around.  Having boxed up all the RocLok's for Ireland's order yesterday, we were able to spend today getting the pallet together and driving it out to the shipping terminal.  Being our first time shipping a large quantity overseas both Ryan and I were concerned that we would mistakenly miss a step in the process. 

Yesterday I worked on getting the paperwork together for customs.  A total novice, I felt like a fish out of water and started to panic that I was missing something.  Ryan had arraigned all the shipping quotes and since I was tasked with getting the packing slip, commercial invoice and bill of lading together, had to get back up to speed.  I'm sure that was frustrating for the shipping as I kept asking questions that I'm sure they thought were redundant.  Thankfully if they thought that I was annoying they didn't show it at all and were very accommodating and patient.  That made me feel better today even though I'm still a little fearful that I missed something!

While I floundered on the shipping paperwork, Ryan and Bert had to build a crate on top of the pallet to hold all 100 RocLok's.  In a miscalculation of size this pallet load ended up 3 boxes (2 RocLok's and a box of extra lids) too large so the perfect pallet that the guys built had a slight bowed top to it.  Not a problem according to the shipping crew who promised to wrap some plastic around the open areas to keep everything dry.  I think we decided that we'll just use plastic wrap as the "crating" next time around.  Now we know that a pallet will hold 98 RocLok's snugly. 

Loading all the rocks onto the pallet in the back of our old Dodge pick up took a couple hours then Ryan and I headed to the shipper.  Of course by the time we hit the freeway traffic hour(s) was underway and the travel time that should have only been 20 to 30 minutes turned into more like 45 to an hour.  But we made it in time and rewarded our efforts with a couple of soft serve cones at Ikea.

Earlier this evening the shipping company let us know that delivery to Ireland would be sometime in early November.  A lot longer than any of us had expected or hoped for.  But on the bright side it will give me a little more breathing room to get RocLok.ie up and running so we can promote and hopefully pre-sale before the order arrives.  Thankfully we'll be hitting Europe in time for the holiday season which hopefully will drive some gifting sales! 

It feels great to officially be able to say we sell a product internationally! I never imagined that would ever happen and frankly until now it was kind of a scary thought because it seemed like a huge learning curve.  Knock on wood we did everything we needed to correctly and this is the start of great things to come.

What A Day

Ok, well the day was interesting to say the least.

It started well by catching the delivery guy with the last of the chemicals we needed for out Foam In Place Machine for packaging.  We thought we would have everything last Friday, but it did not arrive.  I called to check on the status of the delivery but did not hear back, happened to be driving through the complex, the driver saw our truck and whistled. 

A few hours later the technicians came over to revise the settings on our machine so it could run the new material that is better for the environment.  Because this is a new product and it turns out we were the first order in the region the techs did not know how to set it up.  An hour of messing with it, then an hour to wait for the guy who knew more to arrive, then a little more time and we were all set to go. 

I ended up having to tear down one of the pumps, clean it up before switching to the new stuff.  That took a few hours because the stuff had crystalized and was very hard.  So now that most of the day was burned we called it a day around 4:30Pm.  Hopefully we will be able to package all 100 units tomorrow.

The other thing that we found this morning was that the 50 RocLoks we stained yesterday looked a little purple or blue.  We had just purchased more stain and apparently it was not mixed perfect...  so we had to fix the mix, then touch up 50 then stain the remaining 50. 

Overall we made some good progress at work today but it seemed like two steps forward and a step back all day.

The real kicker was when we got home, I noticed that someone had stolen the fenders and exhaust from my donor truck (for the 39 build).  Melanie went inside while I was looking around to see what else was stolen.  Our dog had puked on the floor and she cleaned it up (what a way to end the day).  She grabbed her laptop to finish her blog post and the hinges snapped off, the screen fell back on her lap.  It was not a cheap laptop, it was a Sony Viao and was over $2,000 when we got it.  Well my opinion was that Sony had great marketing and ok products...  I guess I was right their products are not as good as many others on the market they just make everyone think they are better.

There were loads of other fun moments throughout the day, including a terrible experience with the Fed/Ex Kinkos near our office...  Melanie will tell you all about that when she has access to a computer again.  I will just say that at least with that office of Kinkos customer care is dead, buried and has maggots running through it.

Well thanks for following another day in the life of us, trying to Make It In America

-Ryan

Ramblings From A Tired Brain

Today was supposed to be our halfway mark on the production for our Ireland order. Fortunately we have had some good sales which dwindled our inventory just enough that we will have to do 7 straight days of production, then another 3-4 days of finishing and boxing. I am already tired, I worked out for several hours after working yesterday, it felt great at the time but I guess that was not a good idea.

Fortunately we do have a wonderful employee Burt, he agreed to a 10 day work week. The real impressive thing is that this was supposed to be a part time gig for him so he has another job. I gave him the option of taking a day off this weekend, it would not be great for our timing so I was happy he was willing to stick in there. I guess he was a US Marine, so hard work and perseverance are in his blood. It is one thing for Melanie to work day in and day out for our business, but when you have an employee who shows the same level of commitment you know you have a good worker.

The other thing that set us back is that I had made another round of molds for this weeks production, but the material did not set right and we had to throw it all away. 2 days of work and $200 in materials sitting in the garbage, that was Monday. Fortunately most of the material came off our originals but one did not, and of course it was the one we really needed more molds for.

We ordered more shipping materials this week, and hope they arrive before the end of the week so there is no delays in packaging. There are so many elements to an order like this, we not only have to produce the product but have to plan materials, freight, and everything a week in advance. At the end of production I am tired, dusty, covered in concrete and sweat, by the time I get home and get cleaned up the east coast is already closed for the day.

I was hoping to finalize the molds for the star of Pit Boss, Shorty Rossi next week but it looks like it may be delayed a week due to the mold issues we had and the order we are working on. We are finalizing the imprinted logo for Shorty's Charities for his exclusive model. I am glad that we are able to support several different charities, and support local vendors, suppliers and employees. Business may not be booming but we are still committed to give back.

So there is the day in a nut shell from a tired brain.

Thanks for your interest in our blog!

Murphy's Law

On Wednesday this week I had the perfect blog update figured out in my head. How we are trying to do our part for the environment, choosing vendors who supply good products that are environmentally friendly, and riding the motorcycle to work to save gas.

Well Murphy’s law went into effect on Thursday. Riding the motorcycle into the office because we did not have a lot of orders to ship out, we felt good that we were saving fuel and being earth conscience. Later in the day we ordered new chemicals for our packaging machine, and found out that our supplier now offers a foam with a higher percentage of soy and additional environmentally friendly materials. Although we are still struggling we decided that spending an extra 10% to do our part for the environment and to support companies who are investing in reducing our reliance on petroleum was worth it. Talking with our supplier further, we also found that they make the products we use for the USA in the USA. Additionally they have plants that create zero waste manufacturing; any scraps created are re-ground and used again.

After that I was feeling great about what we are doing to help everyone and the environment. We finished packing up the order put it into a back pack and headed off to Fed/Ex. We were only at the entrance to the business park when we were stopped at a stop sign and a red light came on, on the motorcycle. We have had little issues with it before so I figured it was nothing. When there was finally a break in traffic I started to drive off and the rear end spun out, as I looked down I noticed oil was everywhere. The motorcycle then died and I got to walk back to the shop. On our way back I started to realize what had happened, the Oil Filter bolt snapped off and the plate that holds all of the engine and transmission oil fell out. The oil gushed out of the engine over the next 400 feet before I came to a stop. I am just glad I was stopped when the motorcycle shut it’s self off, and that I did not crash from the oil slick I created. In the end no one was hurt, just another case of bad luck I guess.

After all the good things we had tried to do for the environment that day, a bolt breaks and I spill oil all over the road. I hate Murphy’s law. I have another brand new bolt on order and will keep trying to ride to work on production only days so we can reduce our carbon footprint. Our Employee rides the transit system into work. So we are all trying to do our part and provide the best product possible in the world.

Slow Growing Pains

Yesterday was a good day for sales. Definitely made us feel better after a painfully slow sales stint this last long holiday weekend. Our year long relationship with Amazon.com is continuing to grow and they ordered 8 RocLok's of varying styles which we shipped out to 4 of their many hubs throughout the United States.  Our new relationship with a mcuh smaller .com shop is also proving itself producing a new sale every Monday for the last month. To top it all off our partnership with Brookstone.com has finally come to fruition and we are officially available on their site as well.

All of the excitement from yesterday made for a busy day at the shop today.  We were able to have our part time helper come in early and we knocked out the orders in a record 3.5 hours including making another 8 RocLok's which we'll demold tomorrow.  When we hired our very first employee in May we had high hopes of having him work 3 days each and every week.  Unfortunately things aren't growing quite as quickly as we had hoped and for now he is happy to help out whenever we need an extra hand.

We could not have been more fortunate than to find our team member Bert.  When we placed an ad for minimum wage ($8.50/hr) we feared we would never find a responsible, detail oriented person who would be willing to work for such a low wage.  Obviously we'd love to have hired someone for a lot more but it's difficult to pay anyone anything when you can't even pay yourself!  In today's poor economic climate I was shocked that a couple people actually wrote in on the ad angry that we were only willing to pay $8.50/ hour.  We even interviewed a few people who openly admitted that they would rather milk their unemployment benefits over taking a job for such low pay.  Ultimately we received well over 30 applicants for the job, interviewed 16, chose 6 more to participate in a 2nd interview and fortunately decided on our new friend Bert, a former Marine who is studying towards a degree in Geology with the help of his GI Bill.

One of the things that impressed us with Bert is his willingness to stay busy and build his career goals.  I've often wondered what kind of person works twirling a sign on the street corner for business promotion.  Honestly, I always assumed that the people standing on the corner were either high-school drop outs, homeless or people with some criminal record that impeded them from getting any other job.  I was beyond wrong! You see Bert also works as what he calls the "Advertising Specialist" at a local firearms dealer in the area.  He initially took that job to get a foot into the door with the hopes of becoming a salesman at the shop.  So far he has been disappointed by the lack of upward mobility still he diligently shows up for his duties each and every time he is needed. The poor guy often comes back to our place beat red from standing in the blaring heat of the summer all day long.

If all goes well in the next few months, we pray that we can bring Bert in on a more permanent full time basis. To loose such an amazing asset to our company would be a travesty to say the least.  For now we'll continue to play it day by day and shoot for a brighter tomorrow. Good night everyone.

Hands

Through my years I am amazed at how lucky I am to have my hands.  My hands have been through a lot, when fairly young I almost shot off my left pointer finger.  The bone was shattered, the finger nail gone, but after a short while it was back to mostly normal.  As life progressed and my desire to always work with my hands with wood working projects, hobbies or whatever I had many cuts and scrapes.

As I grew older I focused more on sales type jobs giving my hands a much needed repreve, signing documents and typing out contracts.  Then in 2001 my wife and I bought our second house, a spacious 4,400 Sf house that was very dated.  The day the house closed we demolished the walls around the kitchen, and took out the kitchen.  Over the next many months we re-built the kitchen, living and dining rooms all into one huge great room all the while I was working over 60 hours per week in Real Estate.  Throughout the next 7 years we continued to remodel that house and we were hooked on remodeling.  We bought and flipped a few other houses, meaning more cuts scrapes and scars on my poor hands.

At times I feel like the Terminator, where he is able to regenerate after seemingly impossible odds.  Yes it happens in the matter of a few seconds while it takes me a month.  But while tearing out our driveway I was pushing a large broken piece of concrete into the Backhoe bucket, unfortunatley I did not move fast enough and the 300 pound piece stopped when my hand hit the bucket of the backhoe.  Again it was my left pointer finger that was laid open by a jagged piece of gravel.  Not one to make a big deal out of it we bandaged it up and got the project done.  There is still a scar 5 years later, but as I said I am amazed at how well it healed.

My hands had no idea what I had in store for them when we decided to launch the RocLok.  From the chemical burns, to the bumps scrapes and cuts I keep stressing out my poor hands.  As time progressed I was able to find better gloves and save them from a little pain.  They still get stuck between a RocLok and a hard place, still get chemical burns and still are cut.  Just a month or two ago while working on a prototype part for the truck I am building, my left hand (again) got caught up in a router while milling some aluminum.  This was one of the more serious injuries I have had, I had to clean it up, get it ready for transport, and drive home because of course I was alone.  I was very lucky that the large vein was not ruptured, but laying just at the surface.  The doctor was able to close up the .5" X 3" hole, and 10 days later the stitches came out and amazingly it was mostly healed.

Having built a condo for people with disabilities, I never imagined I would be living here nor that I would need everything here.  I am still very lucky I know many people with amblitory issues and I could not imagine life without my hands.  No matter what I have done to them, they keep coming back for more and holding on till the end.  When I have a migrane I can release tension in my neck and reduce the pain, I can give Melanie a massage, I am building a truck, and making RocLoks. 

Everyone should be happy for the small miracles each day, be happy for what you have no matter how small and ignore all the bad stuff.  Yeah I have been hit by a car, lost my dog, grandparents, all my life savings, my house, and so much more, but at the end of the day I still am very lucky.  Look for the positive elements in life not the negative, life is a self fulfilling prophicy don't make yourself miserable, get out and enjoy life.  If you have the fortune to have two functional hands look down at them and realize how lucky you really are to be able to have 10 fingers moving independantly allowing you to things so much easier than many other people. 

Another Day in...

Last night we stayed up late and slept in this morning.  Enjoying coffee and the blueberry pancakes I made, I thought about how nice it was to be able to cook breakfast at home again since we have our house back now.  We both have to lose a fair amount of weight after living in hotels and eating out for every meal for the last 10 months.  Melanie has been much better at getting back into the exercise routine, and has only had a few days off the elliptical machine since we moved back into our house.

Although many of you are out enjoying the holiday weekend, we had to go to the office to take care of some stuff today.  It is nice to be able to work when we want and where we want.  Unfortunately the AC at work is down and it flooded my office last week.  The landlord said it was fixed by week's end, but unfortunately that was not the case and today was another hot day, keeping it around 90 degrees inside the shop.  Due to the heat we cut the day short.

Since I did not have a lot of work stuff to take care of at the office, I was able to complete a little more on the truck I am restoring. For those of you who do not know, I am building a 1939 Dodge 1.5 ton truck.  I started with a mostly complete and fairly good truck, then I took a 1995 Dodge Ram and stripped them both down. I will be using the Cummins Diesel engine from the newer truck, the wiring all to modernize the 1939. I love the look of old cars and trucks, so don’t worry I am keeping the look of the original 1939 truck. I am customizing the original gauges to operate with the new engine and show the speeds that we are more accustomed to today. One good thing is that the 1939 engine and the 1995 both have a similar look, the diesel is mechanical and I will try to maintain a relatively original look under the hood.

Because the axles and springs were about 80 years old I decided to upgrade them to something out of a 1999 GMC Topkick, this also gave me full disc brakes, a ratio in the rear that allows me to go over 35 MPH, and a much greater handling capacity. In the end it should be one amazing truck, and very useful in the business. We will be able to load pallets onto the rear lift gate and roll them onto the truck, and drop them off at the port for our international retailers.

I am sure you can tell the truck is a passion of mine and something I can not wait to finish. But the business comes first, so money and/or time for the project is hard to come by. Luckily we have many of the parts we need for a while, and there is still a lot of welding which is mostly time and very little cost.

Overall today was a good day, we got some work done, we got a little of the truck completed and we took a little break from everything. Fortunately the condo we live in now is very well insulated and unlike the shop it remained a pleasant 72 degrees inside. Until we can get the AC fixed at the shop it looks like we will be doing a lot more work from the house. Part of the reason it gets so hot at the shop is because we have a brewery in the space behind us, their place is always hot and the whole complex is not insulated between units. The good part is that even in the winter we do not need to turn on the heat.

Well thank you for following,

-Ryan