2:00am and I'm at the shop...

During my six months of working two full time jobs, a great deal of admin fell behind here at the shop. Tracy and I have decided that I will come to the shop every Monday night to pay our vendors, do equipment maintenance, work on payroll, etc. Tonight is my first night, and I am finding all kinds of things that need to be finished.
First priority is catching up on quarterly reporting. We are behind, and I absolutely need to get finished. I can tell you, it is not much fun trying to figure out tax stuff using Quickbooks reports of our company financials on one computer, and being on the internet researching the forms and instructions on another computer.

It is 2:00am and I have been here doing this since 7:30pm. I also found a workers comp audit that needs to be completed for our insurance company. The Secretary of State for Colorado seems to want us to send him an annual report. The two delinquent notices he sent is my proof. In all, I found 15 things that need to be filled out and sent somewhere. The El Paso County Health Department caters lunch from us occasionally. They want us to fill out an 'approved vendor' W-9 form so we can get paid. This is all stuff that I have to research how to fill out, so it all takes awhile. I found a notification from our bank of a bounced check (from one of our customers). I need to send out a notice to them to pay up before we unleash the goons.

Moral of the story...
Don't let your admin get behind. Even if you are working two full time jobs, even if you are falsely accused and imprisoned in Argentina, even if you did fall down the stairs and you are in a coma... figure out someway to get your paperwork done anyway. I am now playing catch up and it is not much fun. This week, and probably the next couple of weeks will be long nights. Once I get caught up, it should only take a couple of hours. For now, though, I'm getting tired and don't feel like doing paperwork.

It is now 2:07am, and I am still here. I need to wrap up the City of Colorado Springs sales tax returns, and then I'll go home and get three hours of sleep before my new day starts. I'll catch up on the county, state, and federal stuff later...

Gotta run.
JD

Jeff Sato Photo Shoot

I completed my first photo shoot in awhile tonight. It was with Jeff Sato, a judo athlete who has trained at the Olympic Training Center. I can't even begin to tell you how hard Jeff has worked. He has an amazing work ethic, and his Olympic dreams fueled is life. Unfortunately, he did not make the team for China in 2008. He is currently helping some who did with their training, and will decide later if he is going to continue to compete and train at this level until 2012. In the meantime, I did a photo shoot for him. I haven't even looked at all of the shots yet, but here is one... I'll post more later. Click on the image to see a larger version.

OK, here is another...


OK, and just one more for now. I'm going to go home and get some sleep...

Starbucks in the news...

I just noticed a new headline at www.drudgreport.com stating that Starbucks will be closing 600 stores...

Starbucks closing 600 stores in the US
Tuesday July 1, 4:26 pm ET
Starbucks closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States


SEATTLE (AP) -- Starbucks Corp. has announced it's closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States.
The Seattle-based premium coffee company also announced Tuesday it expects to open fewer than 200 new company-operated stores in the United States in fiscal 2009.

The company says it will try to place workers from closed stores in remaining Starbucks.

I believe this is a result of $4.00+ per gallon gas, and the impact of Nemo's Coffee, and other independent retailers offering higher quality product than Starbucks.

As for us, we have not really seen an impact on sales, other than NOT seeing growth that we planned for. June 2008 sales were at $13,900 which is right around our break even point. Considering that we have no signage and yellow caution tape and orange cones blocking our entrance and all of the parking in front of our store, that is great! I'm anxious to see what will happen after the building facade construction is completed...

Gotta run,
JD

End of an era…

I put my notice in at Intel, and June 30 will be my last day there. It has been a long, rough 6 ½ months of working full time as a Project Engineer for RK Mechanical and full time at Intel completing all of their site water chemistry control scope. The opportunity to do both was an absolute blessing, and an answer to prayer. When I took the Intel job, I had been involved with Nemo’s construction and initial operations, without an income, for nine months. Our personal finances were hit hard by Ethan breaking his leg (without health insurance) and by having an empty rental house while the housing market was in a slump. The Intel job allowed us to cover the payments and utilities on the empty rental house for ten months, and to pay off over $15,000 in debt that we accumulated while we had no income. It was very beneficial, but very hard for our whole family. I have four days left and then I will have my nights back again. It will be a good thing for us.

Gotta run,
JD

DMV is a horrible thing...

Tracy and I recently leased a new vehicle through the business. I went to the DMV today to get permanent license plates. I follow politics pretty closely, and I find it unbelievable that some people want national health care. If you want to know what government run medical services would be like, go spend an hour or two at the DMV. Renew your drivers license, get new plates, etc... After leaving the DMV, decide if that is how you want your next doctor visit to go...

I am very much against government run medical care. You must be insane if you are for it.

I have at least one reader!

From time to time, I get an email or a comment from someone who reads this blog. I do it more for myself, but if it helps someone out there, then that is also a good thing. You sometimes have to wade through my non-coffee related thoughts and pro-military posts to get to the coffee shop knowledge (or lack of), but I'm happy to know that people are gaining useful information here.

I received an anonymous reply from my last post that answered questions posed by a reader, as shown below:

"Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions - if there's any more nuggets of wisdom you can think of that we should know about, we're out here reading you!"

The biggest nugget of wisdom I can offer is to buy a 12 pack of legal pads (or if you are like me, get a bunch of graph paper) and start drawing shop layouts. 1200 sq ft is good for a small shop, 1600 for a medium shop, and 2000+ for a large shop. You can see our layouts as they progressed and changed back at the start of my blog in late 2006. Working on your layout will help you plan everything you need. Someone else could write pages and pages of advice, but nothing will help you to open your own shop than to plan it yourself. In fact, I believe the process of designing your own shop will give you a better understanding of what is involved, and will help you to avoid problems later. A quick answer from a blog is no substitute for investing your own time and thoughts into a shop design. You will learn so very much from the experience, and I believe it is invaluable knowledge gained.

Tracy and I just returned from California last night. I will be posting photos soon of our quick vacation to Disneyland!

JD

Shocked, Appalled, Disgusted, and Saddened...

I know that most people just go about their lives, going to work, watching TV, playing X Box, raising their kids, etc, etc, etc...
Something happened today that should have every single person in the United States of America outraged, and yet, I am afraid that it will go by unnoticed by most.

Today, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that gives military war prisoners in Guantanamo Bay detention the rights of American citizenship. That's right, prisoners of war were awarded rights and privileges in America as if they were citizens. The Supreme Court's decision today is bordering on treason.

We are at war against an enemy that intends to do harm to Western Civilization in general, and the United States specifically. We have captured and detained operatives of the enemy, and they are being held in Guantanamo Bay. This is necessary for the security of our nation, and for the safety of our people. Every war in history has included holding prisoners of war. There is no way around it, other than to kill them all and take no prisoners.

For our appointed officials to hand down a decision to undermine the war effort is unacceptable. For our president to claim that he will accept the decision and abide by it, while in disagreement, is unacceptable. Where has the leadership of our great nation gone? I read about what is going on in our government, in our military, about current events in our country everyday. I no longer recognize the United States of America. I don't know where we are headed, but I see decisions being made that are not consistent with the Constitution, that are not consistent with the intent of the founding fathers, and I believe are doing great harm to our nation.

Most people don't notice, and probably don't care. As long as their TV works and they can make it to their kid's soccer game, then they are happy. If you care about where our country is headed, I would suggest you pay attention to what our courts are deciding, what is going on in our government, and how it will affect your lives.

'We the People' need to start looking out for ourselves, because our elected and appointed officials are failing us. By no means am I a conspiracy nut, even though this post might sound like it is headed in that direction. If you haven't heard about today's decision by the Supreme Court, I would suggest that you do a little research and develop your own thoughts about it. If average Americans remain disconnected from the decisions being made by our government, we will all be in trouble in the not so distant future.

"The lights are on but nobody's home" is a phrase that has always referred to crazy people. Unfortunately, it seems to be applying more and more to our population. I challenge you to learn about current events and make a decision about what you believe. Let your congressmen/senators know what you think. I'm pretty sure they won't care, but at least more people will be informed...