Free Republic Business Networking Ideas

7/13/2002 | PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

[hope]

Three business men were traveling rural America when their car broke down. Approaching a nearby farm they inquired how far to the next town.

"'Bout 30 miles," replied the farmer.

"Can you rent us a room for the night?' asked the three, to which the farmer agreed, but saying he only had room for two in the house. One of them would have to sleep in the barn.

"I will," said one of the men, a jewelry maker from Israel.

After a few minutes, he returned.

"I'm very sorry, but there is a pig in the barn and I am not allowed to sleep in the room with a pig."

"It's alright," spoke the banker from Calcutta, "I'll sleep in the barn."

A few moments later he, too, returned.

"I too am sorry, but I can not sleep in the same room with a cow."

"For crying out loud," chimed the lawyer. "I'll sleep in the barn."

A few moments later there was a knock at the door. It was the pig and the cow.

Isn't Hillary a lawyer?

[jumpstartme]

You should start a thread with that joke and the picture. too funny!

[hope]

hehe...and no doubt, that's a killer picture.

[Tribune7]

bump

[malakhi]

Mack, this is a GREAT idea!

In addressing your present issue -- obviously you can't do all the jobs at once. I assume you schedule them on the basis of when the order is received? Do you give the customer a specific date (or date range) on which work on their project will begin? If you do this, I assume you give yourself a little cushion for bad weather etc?

The most important thing is communication. If you tell me you're going to do my parking lot beginning on August 5th, then call me on July 29th and tell me you are going to begi on 7/31, I will be happy. If you have to push the start date back due to weather, I will be less happy, but at least I am informed. I suggest giving a date, then let them know you will follow up a few days ahead of time to confirm the start date for the project. The most important thing is that the customer be kept informed of the status of their project.

You could also consider charging a premium to get a project "bumped up" the list for early completion...

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

The most important thing is that the customer be kept informed of the status of their project.

I do this with whats on the books, its the new business that comes in after I have a 30 day work load, and trying to get them to accept a 30 day wait is kinda hard, thats why I'm adding a new crew, to cut the wait time down to 15 days, two weeks sounds better than it will be a month before I can do your lot, but I know when we get the 2 crews up and running our work load will increase back up to 30 days even with 2 crews, so I guess I'll just have to wait until that happens and then maybe look adding a 3rd crew, adjust, adapt, and overcome. :) But then I'm looking at growing too fast, greed ain't it wonderful. :)

You have any ideas on how to set this thread up and run it, alot of people are interested in doing this, looking for a simple but effective way to do it and address all the needs of everyone, your good at this, whats in your brain today?

BigMack

[PeterPrinciple]

I hope you are on target with a great idea. I have posted a few articles raising the question of similarity between conservatives and entrepreneurs.

I spent many years working with farmers on accounting, taxes and business analysis. I always said that 10-15% of them were entrepreneurs.

I find my self in the position of starting over with that 10-15% (I cleared out the dead wood)

Ten years ago I couldn't spell entrepreneur, now I find I are one.

Count me in.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Ten years ago I couldn't spell entrepreneur, now I find I are one.

Count me in.

Great, your on the ping list, if you have any ideas on how we can set this up in a simple way that will work and address everyones needs, please post them, this is just a baby and needs milk to grow. Thanx. :)

BigMack

[PeterPrinciple]

This was the original post on entrepreurship and philanthropy. It has food for thought.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/714457/posts

Where you go with this great rough idea is a good question. Historically, the good old boys club was where a lot of business deals were made......men came together to excersise, swim, eat and talk business (remember seeing this in the old movies?) In fact I remember some city on the east coast recently was building this same thing as a part of the economic development incentive. (of course not limited to one gender, but I do miss the all male Toastmasters Club I use to belong to)

Since business is a little confidential and involves some trust on certain issues, would use of private communication ping lists in additon to public forums be part of the process?

We need to look to history and then figure out how this new fangled internet thing fits in.

[Kermit]

What about the scheduling idea?

Is there anyway to use your crews and equipment in the bad weather season?

[malakhi]

but I know when we get the 2 crews up and running our work load will increase back up to 30 days even with 2 crews

Exactly! If 30 days is the longest you want to push work out, then you can use that as the gauge as when to add another crew. It is always better to be a little understaffed than overstaffed. Of course, going from one to two crews cuts the lead time by half. Going from two to three cuts it only by a third for each crew.

You have any ideas on how to set this thread up and run it, alot of people are interested in doing this, looking for a simple but effective way to do it and address all the needs of everyone, your good at this, whats in your brain today?

What's in my brain today unfortunately is tax stuff (our fiscal year ended 6/30).

How many people do you have on the ping list now? If there is enough interest we may be able to petition for a separate Business Forum. Or we could just use an ongoing thread for continuing discussion of business issues.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

How many people do you have on the ping list now? If there is enough interest we may be able to petition for a separate Business Forum. Or we could just use an ongoing thread for continuing discussion of business issues.

40, and I posted this thread late in the day on Sat at about 5 pm and I couldn't leave until 9 pm that night, it was smoking, was late for a steer roping we were going to, I'm afraid to post it today and keep it bumped, I'm busy too! Need to get it layed out first what its going to be about first and how it will work, if we build it they will come, I think. :)

BigMack

[NRA2BFree]

Count me in. I've owned several businesses. I sold two Credit Bureaus and a Collection Agency in 8/97 and I've basically been goofing off since then. 8-)

I'm about ready to go back to work and I will own my own business again because it's so much fun to deal with the IRS. LOL All you business owners know what I mean.

Have you considered working your crews on a 12 hour shift? It gives them 3 days on and 3 days off. Most of my employees loved it, and they were able to accomplish more in a 12 hour day, which made the customers happy. Just a thought. I didn't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if anyone brought the 3 on and 3 off shift up. If not and you're interested, let me know and I'll give you more details on how it works.

Kristy

[Marie Antoinette]

Ooooh! Ooooh! Count me in! LOL

I'm starting a small business, a WAHM type business that will focus on motherhood and babies. Working on a website with my brother, who has his own fitness business in AZ and just plays on the internet for fun :-)

My brother's site: http://synergetichealth.com/

My URL is registered but not active yet, just testing "shopping cart" software. Looking forward to seeing how the big dogs take care!

[Gabz]

"If we build it they will come"

You've got that right.

I've actually spent a bunch of time thinking about how something like this could be pulled off wihtout offending anyone OR, and this is the big one, violating any of the TOS of FR.

The potential is there......that was obvious on Saturday.

I've got a bunch of ideas. some may work, others may not - but ego is not a problem with me!!!