Work and more work--Retirement is gone....

[Oldman]

Well I knew this was going to happen when I linked up with those mills, and I did my best not to let it happen. A year ago to-date and I was working 4 hours on Mondays and that was it. I was really enjoying being "retired" at the age of 54.

I just did my schedule from Jan 06 through to Sept 30 06 and there are only 22 open days. So now I'm jamming with the guys at night. Setting up another rig, and it looks like I will have to put on at least another 2 people.

This defense contractor we are working for also is trying to completely remove any hope of retirement. They have 1 million square feet of facilities. They are working on splitting up the janitorial service. They have approach me as "Their only *cough* Preferred Service Provider" to take on the daily vacuuming and spot cleaning of all of their carpets as well as the scheduled carpet cleaning maintenance. This will require another 3 employees.

This does not take into account that Progress Energy wants us to take over one of their power plants, nor the new building at MacDill AFB, 501-A which comes on line next month. 501-A I believe is the single largest building of its kind at the base and it is huge.

Furthermore, a "secondary" Mill Rep I also work for, this month, wants me to walk and do a break-out on 28 nursing homes.  Lordie, what have I gotten myself into.

I think there should be a law that says once a person is "retired" they cannot be forced back into production. What do you all think?

As I said to Susan, I should not be 55 going on 56 I need to be 35 going on 36...

While we can qualify for Section 8 under the Feds, I have declined to do so. The reason is simple. When I go to sell this business I will not then be limited to selling it to Section 8s. Thus my forced Non-retirement will have a greater return.

At this point I don't know if this is a rag on my business, or a complaint. What I do know is I will miss my retirement.

Olds

[MallardWacker]

I see folks as early as 45 around me giving up the ship, they look like a bunch reirees getting off a bus at Bass Pro Shops.  Pants up to their nips and the biggest ol' white tennies in the world.  Keep it up friend, I'd rather be busy than tripping over my tennies at such a young age.  

My hope is that all of us can grow old with grace and never stop putting out some form of life.  I'm going down screem'n & kick'n.

Oh crap I may of crossed the line.  My head retreats back into the shell.


SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know.  But...

[Phone Guy]

The solution.....

Hire someone who can run the business without you. Make them part owner, say 10% and let them earn your money. Have your accountant check the books monthly or quarterly and pop in once in a while. Hire the right people and relax. I have a friend that started a mortgage business just a few years ago. He has over 100 employees and offices in 4 or 5 states. I asked him if he works a lot of hours and he said "about 20 hours a week". He told me he just hires the right people. He can't control everything.

P.S. There will be no charge for this consulting.

PG

[Oldman]

Well another night I cannot seem to get to sleep, so I will do a long reply :)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Hire the right people and relax.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> That sounds good but no workie at this time. First, we were about the 12th or 15th company called in to try and save those rugs at the defense company.

While I have two working partners, I'm the only one who can "read" the rug due to this type of problem. I will not get too much into what the janitors did to the rug but they turn it dog crap brown by applying several types of wrong cleaning materials. Then for some God unknown reason they applied a heavy coating of a optical brighter, and then locked the damn stuff in with one or two coats of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a polymer of fluorinated ethylene.

For the most part we are talking about a 3 year old rug with a replacement value of over 1 million dollars. I have no choice I have to be there.

I cannot show you a picture of these rugs dues to the nature of their business; however the picture below is of another job where the wrong materials were applied. Due note the browning at the top of the photo, and furthermore this is only one application of a wrong material. Contrast this to what I'm currently fighting, and you can figure out I got a tiger by the tail.


While we clean carpets we are not a carpet cleaning company by any means. We are a carpet maintenance and restoration company. It takes a good two years before I can turn a tech out on his own. First the tech must pass an IICRC course with a 95% or better grade. Then there is the on the job training. Then there are 24 lessons I have created that must be mastered @ 100% grade. No exceptions.

Below are a few more images of rugs we have turned around in this past year.

In this image we removed one of the carpet tiles, restored it and then place it back for a before and after shot.


This is another before and after. However this is a system 6 and it cannot be taken up as shown in the picture above.


In this last picture it is a direct glue down broadloom. We ran tape down the center and restored one side.


I cannot tell you the number of time I wish I could just run out to the unemployment tree and pick up a knowledgeable tech. People that do what we do generally don't work for someone else. They work for themselves. There are a lot of companies that call themselves restoration companies. Frankly I know of no one else that can do what we do. Perhaps this is why we are the only perferred service provider for all of the mills that Tandus owns for the entire state of Florida.

The upswing to this is my two working partners for the most part can handle 98% of all restoration work. However, these wierd jobs do seem to keep finding us.





Olds

[Kummok]

Face it Olds....You're just too dang good at what you do! Hard to find THAT kinda skill these days and folks tend to hang onto the good ones when they find 'em!.

Shoulda picked a guv'ment job like me...then you'd be totally worthless in 35 years and folks would leave you alone to fish excessively after you retired! [;)][:D] ( I WISH.....just got another "pay me too much to turn down" consulting phone call while here in SoCal visiting my daughter. Sure glad when these occur during WINTER (read "slow fishing"!) months!!

BTW...does this mean you won't be coming up to chase halibut this next summer?!?!? [;)][}:)][:D]

35 years of extinguishing smoking stuff and now I'm wondering WHY!
Kummok @ Homer, AK USA

[Oldman]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">BTW...does this mean you won't be coming up to chase halibut this next summer?!?!? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> Sounds like a great idea.. but I don't know if my arms will be able to do it... I will expain if and when I ever do see ya..

Olds