Missed Opportunity - Almost

My wife and I were in a certain industrial area last week. We were in my daughter's car as mine was in the shop for service. My wife asked me to check with our windshield repair place that was there to see if a crack, that was caused by hail, could be fixed. I knew it could not but asked anyway. A new windshield would be needed.

At home we looked up where we could get a replacement windshield. My windshield repair place was listed. I had not known that they also replaced windshields. I called and talked to the owner. "Why didn't you sell me a windshield?" He told me that he didn't think about it. 

Why are people today order takers? Why can't they sell? 

I did take the vehicle back to him to get a replacement. 

Missed opportunities are injuries to businesses. They can be fatal.

Today I had an issue with one supplier about $200. Nothing adverse. It was just a matter of information about who pays for it.  The company in question saw a view that  I should pay it. No problem. The relationship is not harmed. I did give him certain information that, had he been thinking, would have showed him that he was missing a great opportunity that would be worth many times the $200. Maybe I need to be more of a salesman. 

David Sneed

A Reason not to Paint a House

A Change and a Parting is a book published by the Iowa State University Press. It is a first person account of the Amana colonies that started in the mid 1800s.

The homes were unpainted for economic reasons and not religious.

According to the account of the author. "The elders (our governors) considered rebuilding to be more economical than painting since we had an abundance of free labor and free lumber but very little capital."

Extended a bit further they had no need for retail bakeries, or groceries or meat markets. And "we had no individual problems of housing, food, clothing,sickness or funeral expense, nor did we pay for education, recreation, church, nor for any part of our maintenance."

Our modern society has added costs for cell phones, internet, cable tv, car payments.

Did we go wrong somewhere?

There is much to be said for having all variable costs and no fixed costs. The idea of not painting a house is most unique. How long does a house last that is not painted? How much time and paint cost would there be during the life time of the house? Did it get repaired along the way?

With everything we do we should look at all the alternatives. A new pickup can easily cost more than $50,000. Add to that sales tax, annual ad valorem taxes and fees, and insurance. Would a succession of older vehicles, maybe even very old, be advantageous?

How much of our life is consumed earning the cost of our fixed cost items?

Cowboy Safety is a way of developing work-life balance. Traditional safety is limited to preserving our whole life at all ages. Why not consider things that "kill" part of our life somewhere in the middle?

David Sneed

Duke's Chowder House Has An Idea

Duke's Chowder House in Seattle has an idea. They have made a list of what they view as six dangers to avoid when dining out. It is clever for a number of reasons. Quite simply it is a Cowboy Safety strategy that solves a customer need in a sustainable way. These six do not apply to them. Hopefully they will continue with this idea.

1) Don’t go anywhere that has farmed salmon.
Farming salmon requires dumping antibiotics and unnatural foods into our waterways; this pollutes the water used by native species and exposes wild salmon populations to infections and extra competition. The farmed salmon excrete a lot of wastes from their pens, further polluting the water. 

2) Don’t eat Chowder unless it is all natural.
Almost every Chowder has sodium nitrite which is highly carcinogenic or tripolyphosphate. The name alone will scare you.

3) Don’t eat beef unless it is natural.
Most beef is filled with antibiotics and growth hormones, dangerous chemicals that should not wind up in your body.

4) Don’t go anywhere where they have transfats.
They are unnatural. Pure chemistry and usually found in oils for French fries, coatings and sauces. 

5) Don’t go anywhere where the people are unfriendly.

It’s dangerous for your mental and emotional health.

6) Don’t go anywhere where the food has no flavor.
It’s astounding how many restaurants forget to put all natural herbs and spices along with fresh and nutritious food. This could ruin your whole night.
 

When you are in Seattle I highly recommend you give them a try. The best bargais are at either of their happy hours.

David Sneed

Pancake Days

As a part of the Cheyenne Frontier Days, there are three mornings when a free pancake breakfast is served by the Kiwanis Club and other volunteers. Completely free. Donations are not requested.

In 2011, 27,267 people were served. That's an average of 4,545 people per hour and more than 75 per minute. Pancakes (how many do you want?) put on the plate by a server, syrup poured by another server, ham put on the plate by another server, napkins passed out by another server, coffee, milk or water poured by other servers. Refills if you want. The line is long yet moves rapidly. There are bands, speakers, performers, church people giving out Bibles and bottles of water to those in line and other folks with some ad handouts. Great camaraderie and order. No one butts in line.

All of this tells us something.

Not many businesses are serving 75 people per minute. Usually not even 1 a minute. Why are there slow-moving lines everywhere to get served food or whatever? Why is there a wait even when there are no other customers?  I see so many events where there is only a certain amount of customer face time. Sales are lost because the event is over before the people can be served. At how many restaurants can a diner have the opportunity to buy a second drink. Not just an unhappy patron but the loss of an 85% margin? More than $5 on a cocktail and a $1 or more tip.

There is tremendous demand for most goods and services. Being able to solve the time problem is key to success. There are a variety of time issues in every business. Buy a membership and look how long it takes to get a membership card. It takes less than  30 seconds to key in a name and address, print a card and mail it. Why does it take two months? There are lead times. Turnaround times. All kinds of times.

The Cowboy Safety approach allows you to deal with times and solves the related problems.

David Sneed