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Greetings!
Writing this on Memorial day weekend, and have a lot of ground to cover. The Memorial day week-end is designed to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, in defense of our country. Doesn't matter if you agree with the war policy, current military thinking, or how the politics of the whole system works, many have died for the cause of freedom. If you have any connection at all to a military person who has given their life for our country, may God bless you. Our prayers are with you today on this special week-end meant to honor both them and you.
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30 Days...
What a difference a month makes.
Now, we had one of the most interesting months ever this month. First started when we moved. May (my first wife, OK, my only wife!) and Shalaine (our lovely and smart daughter-in-law) worked a miracle, at least that is what I call it when you combine two households into one, and only have to move once, not twice. It takes some great planning, and some luck too. The girls did it, and even better, they did the final move when I was out of town doing a training project. They were a little tense, thinking of me eating a fancy steak, going out on the town, etc, while they lifted about 600 boxes. OK , so there were not exactly fancy steaks, and not quite 600 boxes, but you get my drift. A couple of problems occurred. First, the appliances did not fit into the holes in the cabinets. That is somewhat of a concern to my wife, she had been assured by the cabinet lady that everything would fit perfect. May also had her cell phone, and got ahold of her on Saturday, seems these things never happen on Tuesday, always the week-end. At the same time, they shut down our phones and internet early, did not turn on the new phones till Monday the next week. And when they came out to set up the phones and fax, it got real ugly. The first technician hooked up the phones fine, but the fax never did work. Turns out they had a voice mail system on that line, not a good idea for a fax line. The next week a second tech comes out, he decides to hook up the fax line to our internet grid, rendering it useless. Now we are fairly unhappy, since we use the fax to conduct a lot of our business. This week a third guy arrives, has not a clue what he is supposed to do, takes three hours to sort it all out, had to come back a second time in the afternoon, finally we have fax and phones. |
Trouble w/ PayPal
But that was not the worst. About three weeks ago, someone hacked into our paypal account. Someone in China. He changed the password, we couldn't get in to get it back. My son finally pulled up the account (all in Chinese now), and by matching it up to another account, figured what to change to get it back. The thieves ordered $1800 worth of stuff, never even shipped, the sender called to see how we wanted it shipped. Got it all credited back, but they have a possible connection to our checking account. So we had to change it.
And then....... My wife May (the first, lovely one) called me last week while I was out on a mission calling on clients, told me our credit problems were a lot worse. She had just gotten the credit card bill, turns out a young fellow got ahold of my credit card number, and used it to buy a bunch of stuff. The first thing he bought was a guitar. He is in southern California while I am in Florida, and he spent a lot more than me. He went to Rite-Aide about 6 times a day, must be a cheap place to buy booze or possibly his girlfriend works there. He went to Vegas to see a Sattler Brothers concert, did not even realize they were still around. All in all, he racked up over $7000 in a few days, busy little fellow. We got the charges reversed, but it still was a lot of work on our part. The worst thing is that the fraud dept looks at you and says, well, you do travel a lot, and other than the guitar, he spent like you do, are you sure you did not have some of these charges yourself? Lucky I was 2500 miles away, had the perfect alibi.
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This Months Message...
So this month's message, in addition to thanking our military, is this. When you start a project, no matter how well you plan, things happen. Usually things that are a surprise, and sometimes a nasty surprise. Oh sure, sometimes it works our better than you imagined, goes faster, costs less. But in many cases, it is just the opposite. So figure on the unexpected in your project, in your planning. Realize there are some things you cannot predict, and be ready when they happen. We had a backup plan for the phones, we have always given out our cell numbers. We also have signed up for e-fax, and really got around the fax machine problem quite well. We have other business credit cards, got them out, and did not miss a meal. Just lucky. I think you make your own luck, and the harder you work, the luckier you get.
Plan on your plans getting interrupted. On the direct mail campaign taking longer than you guessed. And postage going up (just did!). And the response from the customers to take longer than you wanted. Your key technician or lead installer getting sick, or breaking an arm. You see where this is going. Have a contingency plan that is ready to kick in when plan A craters on you. If you have a plan B, you probably won't need it, that is just how life works. Thanks for listening, we'll talk later.
Oh, the new numbers:
Phone: 970-635-5675
Fax: 970-635-5676
Cell, still the same: 602-369-8097
Address stayed same as well.
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Sincerely,
James Hinshaw
Sales Improvement Professionals Inc.
1281 E. Magnolia #D-145
Fort Collins, Co. 80524
www.SipTraining.com
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