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. 

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.