Crash test

I saw this video a couple of years ago and it still amazes me. 

Obviously the passengers would be hurt but the way that cage holds up floors me.

What do you think?  Smart cars yay or nay?

Shop Visit

I ventured to the shop yesterday, this does not happen often since baby #2 came so I always feel proud when we have a successful visit meaning both kids stay happy!  

We had a meeting which could mean exciting changes in the coming months.  

I'll update more as that happens.  

While I was there I got to see this '79 Dodge Little Red Express.  

The pictures don't do it justice, it's a great truck and we get to repaint it!  

I'll get some more shots for you when it's done.

Fiona LOVES going to the shop by the way!  

Definitely her Father's daughter!

Spring cleaning

I think we're a little behind, it's May and I'm just now thinking about spring cleaning.

My butt got into gear because we went to the lake this weekend and there's always a long list of projects out there.  

Not that there aren't at home it's just that they seem more manageable out there, on a bit of a smaller scale. 

For the most part the projects are the usual, paint the deck, fix the boathouse roof, rig up another rain barrel, figure out the current wildlife situation and lots of gardening, mowing and pruning.  

This year however we have decided to take on a couple of bigger things, literally.  We need to do something with the boat and Jeff's old 1 ton truck.

 That's the boat sitting in a couple of inches of water.  

The good news is that this was dry land last year which means the lake is up!  

The bad news we blew up the motor last year.  That is the level of understanding I have, Jeff would be able to give more details as to what's actually wrong with it.  To be fair, the thing is from the 70's and has not been winterized or stored properly for quite some time.  Sorry if that makes some of you cringe to see a boat abused so badly.

We have to decide whether to fix it or sell it, do you think anyone would actually buy this?

I wish I had a picture of Jeff's truck.  It's a beauty, again that's my level of understanding.  I'll take some pics next time we go up and post them then you can join in the fight on whether it's blue or purple (I say purple, this annoys hubby to no end).

It has also been abused as of late since it hasn't moved from it's home in the grass behind the cabin for about 5 years!  The plan is to get it going this year though.  It really deserves to be driven and haul a bunch of stuff, I think that would make it happy.

I did however feel a bit better when we walked down our lake road and saw at least 10 vehicles that have seen a worse fate, what is it with storing old decrepit vehicles at the lake?

Have you all started your spring cleaning?  Any big projects?

Drumming Up Business

So to recap, we had opened a PDR shop, added autobody and painting (doubled our square footage in the process) and upgraded our equipment to include a paint booth.  

We were raring to go and had some very loyal customers who kept us working but we needed our sales to take a jump to pay for all we had now invested in.  

If you know my husband Jeff, you know he's a born salesman.  

Convincing, no?

The best thing is though, he doesn't know it.  

He doesn't try to sell, he's not sneaky, he's real.  This is why I think he's so good.  

People love dealing with him and he takes real pride in making our customers happy.

Many nights he comes home happy because someone was impressed with a job our shop did.

The bottom line is that we had a bunch of dealership work because of this but there were so many areas that we weren't drawing work from.  

Just for the title of this post (that's Jeff btw)

Jeff couldn't make a positive impression on individuals until they came in so we had to get them in.

We tried the swarmjam and dealfind thing and did gain a few customers but it wasn't enough.

We did a couple paper ads, doorknob ads and mailouts, again a few customers but just not enough. 

The real success for us was going to the car show.

         The set up.                                     Caught ya Brian!

Obviously right?  We needed people to see the heart of our shop, the people.

Real people!

Truly, that was a main part of the reason our sales have doubled annually for the last two years.

As I said here though, we're now at a plateau.  

We are now looking at increasing our loan, doubling our equipment and adding a staff member.  

It's scary but we think this is how to get to the next level.

Fingers crossed!

Patience

If everything comes your way, you are in the wrong lane.  

~Author Unknown

Do you ever feel like things come so easy to some while the rest of us have to work our butts off?  

It has felt this way at times when we see other businesses take off and seem to make it overnight as we struggle.

Today's quote says to me that if something comes too easy then it could be gone just as easily.  Of course success is important to us but what's even more important is being honest and loyal.  

Sometimes it's hard to come by all of this at the same time but we think that in the long run doing things our way will pay off.

Slow and steady they say right?  

We're hoping that's true.

(Our story to continue tomorrow)

Let's break for a little cuteness.

I needed a break from story telling so I thought you might enjoy this little gem.  

This video was taken the night before our baby boy was born.

As you can see, Jeff has thoroughly brainwashed our daughter.  

The truth is though, she is her father's daughter especially in the automotive department.  She is actually really impressed with vehicles and the bigger and louder the better!

Timing

In our youth we always prided ourselves on having great timing.  

We ended up together at the right time.  

We bought and sold property at the right times.  

We went on vacation to warm places when it dropped to -40C in Edmonton.  

We (when I say we I mean I) were able to plan our dream wedding in 3 months.  

All because we just had the right timing

Us in a simpler time at property #1.

Our perfect day.

Pregnant in Vegas(-40C at home), our new financial situation had not yet sunk in!

Then, all of a sudden we became the people with the worst timing.  

We had put it all on the line to open a business that was obviously not going to make us any money for a while.  Luckily I had a great pharmacy manager position and we were able to live on my income.  "Not for long!" said the universe (yes it talks to me) "you're going to need to figure something else out here".  You see, for those of you who don't live in Canada, we have this fantastic year-long maternity leave that you get paid for.  Sounds great right? It is but there's a catch, the pay stinks!  So that income that we were living off of, GONE!

At about the time that this little beauty was born

we decided that spot repairs weren't cutting it any more.  We had been doing these small jobs in an open air shop with a small filtration system and each job would take us 4 times as long as it would have with a booth.  "So get a booth" you say?  That's what we said.  There was the small matter of paying for it though and as you know, we were all in.  

Loan #1 and we were the proud owners of a very expensive pile of parts.  

We quickly realized that we were a long ways away from having an operational paint booth.  

A couple more loans later it was up and running.  

Now we were running so efficiently that the next challenge was to get our name out there and GET MORE BUSINESS!

To be continued...