Craig's List

Craigs List is a wonderful thing, if you need to get word out quickly that you are hiring.
Megan is going back home to Arkansas, so we need to replace her. She has been one of our most solid employees, working a larger number of hours per week, and being a key holder for closes, including counting out the drawer. With her leaving, we need to fill the void.

I placed an ad on Craig's List this afternoon. Within 15 minutes I had seven replies by email. It is now 8:30pm and I have 17 responses by email. Megan said five or six people came into the shop and filled out applications during the afternoon before we closed.

Did I mention that Craig's List is free? Our newspaper ad when we first started cost over $300 and got us about 12 applications over the course of 10 days...
The new generation communicates differently than all us 40-somethings and older. Knowing how to reach them can save time and money.

I have a million things to do, so I'd better run.
Take care,
JD

Monday 10-6-08

We had a pretty good day, above average, thanks to Tracy's catering at lunch and our live Bluegrass Music Jam tonight. It doesn't matter where it comes from, just as long as it comes! Every dollar counts!

I had a meeting with a representative of the lead (most popular) local television channel. They are pitching television commercial advertising to us. My gut feeling is that it is not a great deal. They want to charge approx $3500 to create a 30 second commercial (one that Tracy and I are responsible for the content, script, and speaking parts -- nothing fancy or overly helpful) and two minutes of air time a week for three months (Nov, Dec, Jan). The commercial would play between 5:00am and 6:00am (when no one is watching TV). If we had money coming out of our ears, we might do it. Since we don't, we'll probably take a pass and find some other way to spend our advertising dollars. I'm not opposed to TV advertising, but not for that chunk of cash and that time of day for air time. Let's see... that is $9.72 per second, and $583.33 per minute. Naaahhhh....

It's late...
Gotta run.
JD

Stealth Bomber in Colorado Springs

The US Naval Academy is playing the US Air Force Academy today in Colorado Springs. They have fly-overs for all of the AF games, but have amazing fly-overs for games against the other military academies. This is a shot of a Stealth Bomber in a high banked turn, going South to come around on the Air Force football stadium. That is Pikes Peak in the background.
I was driving home from Nemo's and saw this guy coming. I pulled over and snapped a couple of shots with my Canon G9.

Early October Update

Not too long ago, I mentioned that I did not believe we had seen the worst of financial failures yet. The last couple of weeks have confirmed what I thought… Our whole economic system is on the brink of failure, and many foreign banks have invested heavily in US securities, backed by failing mortgages, resulting in a global economic issue. How will all of this pan out? Who really knows at this point? Our dysfunctional government is acting like they are going to do something about it, but it failed in its basic form as a rescue plan during the vote in the House. It didn’t pass the Senate vote until hundreds of millions of dollars in special interest pet projects were added. If a representative of our government, elected by the people, refuses to do what needs to be done unless they can get millions of dollars in fraudulent spending added for their state or their district, then how can any of us have faith in our government? The founding fathers believed that ‘the people’ need to run the country, and that the federal government was a necessary evil for basic services such as national security. Our government is so bloated and corrupt; many great men in our nation’s history would roll over in their graves if they knew what has become of us.

OK, enough ranting…

How does all of this impact Nemo’s Coffee?
We have not had any sales growth for quite awhile. When the worst of the financial crisis news hit about ten days ago or so, we had some of our worst sales days in a long time. It was quite discouraging. However, sales have rebounded this week and are back to where they have been averaging for the last several months. The dire situational news really scared people for a few days there… I still think things are going to get worse, but for now, people have gotten over the shell shock of last week’s doom and gloom announcements and have gone back to their normal spending habits.
There is a ballot initiative on the November ballot for Colorado Springs to raise the sales tax by another 1%. That doesn't sound like much, but that would raise our sales tax rate to 8.4% overall. The county is talking about having a $40,000,000 budget deficit without this increase in tax revenue. I am going to vote no. If they can't run the county on 7.4%, then they need to fire some people and go back to the drawing board. We don't need our prices to go up in our shop, and have the increase go to the county. Our customers do not want to pay more.

We have approved our new lighted sign, and it will go into production soon. It should be installed sometime in November. All the other businesses in the center already have their sign, but we had a prolonged ‘dialogue’ with the ownership over costs of the sign, and who was to pay for it. We lost, but the ownership is going to pay for half.

The construction at the center is still progressing. Intellitec’s new building is up and boxed in. They have nearly completed the outdoor café by our storefront. The wall is complete, the patio slab is poured, and all it needs is outdoor furniture and landscaping in the planters. They are now working on the parking lot, to reconfigure the parking scheme, add landscaping, and new blacktop.

I have been averaging about $1350 per month in photography and video projects on the side, which is helping since we are operating at a slight loss. The added income will cover our cost of the new sign as well. I just signed a contract this week with a local company that wants to use my photography for their website and marketing materials. I am charging them an annual flat rate, and it works out well for me and for them…

I had a meeting and signed a contract with an accountant earlier this week. I have learned the basics for payroll, sales tax withholding and payments, unemployment withholding and payments, etc… However, there are accounting responsibilities that need to be done, and will help us more accurately determine our profit/loss status. Our accountant also has a Masters in business, and has some marketing ideas for us. We can use the help, since we are just a couple of amateur hacks!

Tracy has more catering events scheduled for next week. One is at a medical facility on Printers Parkway, which is one of the areas in the block south of us that we want to break into. The other event is at Memorial Hospital, which is just a couple of blocks to the Northwest of us. The more we branch out to these large facilities, the better…


Here are a few recent photos… Click on any image to see a larger version.


We drove up into the mountains, to Cottonwood Lake outside of Buena Vista to take photos of the Aspens last weekend, but the weather conditions were poor. It was very overcast and windy, and not very good for the type of images I wanted to get. When we drove back down in elevation and were headed out of Buena Vista, the sun burst through the cloud cover and lit up this area along the Arkansas River. I stopped and set up my tripod and took a series of photos, bracketed from -4 stops to +3 stops (above and below an average exposure for the scene). I then used Photoshop, and a high dynamic range software called Photomatix to merge the seven exposures into one image, as you see here:


Some Aspen trunks shot in overcast, low contrast conditions...


The three coolest boys on the planet (slightly biased opinion)


Close up details of a dead tree trunk


Ethan hanging out on the railroad tracks...


Josh is really not this serious all the time, but he doesn't cooperate so much anymore for photos...


Cropped section of a sunflower. I played with it a little in Photoshop.


Cool leaf, in Black and White


...and to all a good night. or a good afternoon, or weekend, or whatever works for you.

Is the Economy Melting Down?

Well, that is a really great question. I've never gone a day in my life where I had to worry about a meal, a car payment, or anything else, really. Economy fluctuations were always going on, but it really didn't affect us much. Now that Tracy and I have a small business, we are very concerned about where things are headed. It seems like it just gets worse and worse every six weeks or so. As bad as last weeks new was, and this week's band-aid approach to fixing it, I just wonder what is around the corner. Heading into the Great Depression, the stock market crashed in October 1929. Banks didn't fail until three or four years later. We are in a situation now where banks are failing, resulting in stock market fluctuations. What does that mean? I don't know for sure, but I do know that events in our world today are unprecedented, at least during my lifetime. My gut feelings tell me we have not seen the worst. I also believe that our enemies are slowly conspiring to take action. Russia has been performing military maneuvers in conjunction with Venezuela and speaking of installing missile systems in Cuba again. They also want to claim the Arctic to the north of us. Iran is doing its thing, and China is a sleeping giant. I keep my eyes on world news and pick up small bits of information all over the place. Any one story is just a data point, but when compiled altogether, I see an abstract movement, an alignment going on that is potentially going to align a number of countries against us and against Western Civilization in general. Is anybody out there watching? Is our government too busy trying to prevent an economic meltdown? I traded gas guzzlers for efficient cars over the last couple of years. I have also started eating leftovers and mending clothing instead of buying new. I believe we are at a time in our culture when people are going to have to alter life styles and go back to the way things were... At least make a move in that direction somewhat. It will be interesting to see how things pan out...

As for Nemo's, sales have been a little bit slower. We have not seen much of a decrease in sales, but it is there. Is it an anomaly, or are things about to crash and burn? No way of knowing, I guess... We will keep working hard and doing our best. Keep us in your prayers...

Thanks,
JD

A few Fall photos...

I had a high school senior portrait session yesterday and I took a few shots with my Macro lens after we were finished. I don't get much of a chance to shoot for pleasure anymore, but I like the way these came out. 15 minutes of shooting for fun is really nice every now and then...

Click on the image(s) to see a larger version. Use your BACK button to get back to this page...









I have been in negotiations with a local company who wants to use a number of my images for their website. It is a funeral home, so they are looking for simple, but pretty images like the ones above, as well as landscapes of Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, etc. I am meeting with them tonight to finalize terms and $$.

Gotta run,
JD

Wow, it’s been a long time since I have posted…

Well, gas prices have pretty much stabilized (but still way too high), but everything else seems to be going down in flames. The economy has been sputtering somewhat for a year or so, but not to the point of qualifying as a recession. The things I have noticed most are gas prices and food prices. The recent bank failures concern me, though. It is unbelievable that major financial houses have put themselves and us (you and me, Joe Taxpayers) in jeopardy with high risk loans in the housing market. Tracy and I have been talking about this for years. We bought the house where she grew up in 2005. It is about 1800 sq ft, it is 40 years old, and it cost $172,000. Our payment is $1135 a month, which is high to me. I decided years and years ago that if a car payment is over $300, then I can’t afford that car. I also believed that a house payment should not exceed $1000 per month. I have gone over those numbers slightly, but only in recent years, and not by a lot. Those limits have actually served us well. All of the tens of thousands of new homes built in Colorado Springs over the last decade have been in the $200,000 to $600,000 on average, with some developments being upwards of $1,000,000. People I have worked with, people we know from church, other families from our children’s schools were buying these new houses. Tracy and I actually had conversations wondering what we were doing wrong. How is it that people in our ‘financial range’ are buying houses for $350,000??? Well, it is apparent now how they were doing it. Interest only, adjustable rate mortgages without income verification. There are so many people here, and throughout Colorado losing their homes. The problem is, they could never afford the homes to begin with. The first year or two at 2% interest only worked out great. After that, they are in trouble. Meanwhile, the mortgage reps made a fortune over the last 5-8 years on processing fees. Instead of buying more expensive houses, we would just buy a moderate house and rent out our existing home. We did that twice, and it resulted in us having two rental houses (one of which we sold in April this year). I couldn’t even begin to count the number of pre-approved home loan and home improvement loan offers I received in the mail. They offered $300,000 loans for $900 a month, or they offered to loan up to 125% of the value of our house. It took about 2 seconds to realize those programs are a bad idea. All of them went into the shredder. Do you realize that if you do a 125% loan on your house, and it burns down, you are going to owe the 25% (or more)? The insurance company isn’t going to give you an extra 25% just to be nice. Mortgage brokers sold people on this by telling them their property values will grow so rapidly that in a few years their 125% loan will wind up being a 100% or 90% loan. All they had to do was wait. Well, they waited, and now they are bankrupt and homeless. You and I are going to pay for their poor decisions via out taxes, after Uncle Sam bails out all of these failing companies.

Do you know that when the government bailed out and took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week, the CEO’s of both companies were sent on their way with multi million dollar severance packages? Could somebody out there explain this to me? It has been uncovered that the organizations cooked the books to make the companies look healthier than they really are in order for CEO’s and other company management to receive the highest possible incentives and bonuses. They ran the companies into the ground, for self benefits, and then are given millions in severance pay when they get fired? Why are they not in jail???? I want answers!! You should to.

OK, enough ranting…

How about Nemo’s? Sales have been off a little since the Labor Day holiday, but they bounced back this week. Believe it or not, the property owners still have not resolved the issue with our new overhead lighted sign. We finally came to an agreement (which consisted of the owner’s refusing any of our requests/demands) this past week. The property manager is now working with a sign company on specifications and design criteria. We should have a lighted sign back up again by November.

In the meantime, I ordered two signs that are 4’ x 8’ (same size as a sheet of plywood). I am going to mount them to plywood in the back of my truck and park it in the lot out by Pikes Peak. It will be impossible for people to miss it! I would expect to pick up some morning commuters. After a month or two, I am going to change the signs to say Lunch at Nemo’s and see if we can grow our lunch crowd.

I hired an accountant the other day. Tracy and I are both too busy to stay on top of things the way it should be. I will still do payroll and actually pay our vendors and bills, but the accountant will take all of our documentation for each month, reconcile everything, categorize everything, and provide us with reports including a P&L statement. He will also be completing all of our tax filings, including quarterly filings for employer withholding from payroll, sales tax payments to city, county, and state, unemployment insurance taxes, etc…. Trust me… It will be money well spent!

Construction has begun on the outside café. It looks like it is going to be a good size, and will be right outside our shop. The good thing about it is the property manager is considering it community space for the entire complex, not Nemo’s space exclusively. As a result, we will not have to purchase tables and chairs or maintain it. However, most of the usage will be by our customers…

I have been pretty busy lately with video and photo projects. I recorded 15 training sessions for my company, and created DVD’s with navigation menus for each of the sessions. I designed a custom DVD case insert, and made DVD labels to match. The end product was very nice! My pricing came in at $3000, but I discounted it to only $750. A few people who work in video have told me I’m crazy, but there are a couple of reasons for it. First of all, I taped the sessions during my normal work day, so I was paid my normal wages for being at work. Secondly, RKMI has done this type of thing before by sending an intern out with a camcorder, copying the movie file to a CD or DVD, and turning it over to the customer. The quality was poor, but it met the contract requirements and required very little effort or cost on RK’s part. Even though my DVD’s with navigation menus and custom labels are much nicer, RK is not going to pay thousands of dollars for it. If I charge them a rate that is 25% of industry standard, they will have me do it over and over again. I get to put a little extra cash in the bank, and they get a good deal. Sounds OK to me…

We have been without internet service at home for quite some time. Our Comcast cable internet kept going dead. I finally cancelled it, as well as their cable TV, and our Vonage internet phone service. I got a bundled deal from Qwest including DSL at 7.5MBPS service, phone service, and Direct TV with DVR for $50 a month less than my other CRUMMY services combined (Vonage was pretty good, though). I am setting up our wireless network tonight. With internet service at home again, I will be able to make posts more often…

Gotta run…
Everybody have a good weekend.
JD