Rob Keeble
Member
- Messages
- 12,633
- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
Well Dave you suggested something which i have picked up on with regards to the guys that are out of work right now.
Way i see it we have a few categories of members here in no order.
What does strike me and has done so for a substantial amount of time, is our general inability to assist to resolve this issue of unemployment that hits our community.
The treasure trove of knowledge and experience among the members is something a corporate leader could never hope to assemble under one roof. Yet in my view it goes untapped.
I dont have the greatest family background, war brides and soldiers seldom worked out and add to that a change of culture and my folks were pretty much doomed before they got going. But my view of a family culture has come from a belief in helping out your fellow man for "there but for the grace of the almight go i" is what i was taught in my various schoolings.
Dave has mentioned and idea which hit a nerve with this serial entrepreneur....oh and we have a bunch of these types too in our family here (some with pretty high intellectual capabilities that have or do operate way above my measely pay grade )
I dont think by now we can question whether or not Dave has the skills of a restorer or an artist......maybe we can question the old coots bike riding ability (only funning you Dave i aint turkey so dont want toget shot) but he is mentioning an idea which could be huge especially if he is willing to train and travel.
The costs to get started in restoration i cannot see being very great in relation to the fact that most would already have the woodworking tools. What would be needed is the added knowledge and skill and experience being passed down.
Dave here is opportunity for you to kind of Franchise out and establish branches of your business run by others that would like to get into doing this kind of work. The name and brand has been established where you are and you could use this and the guys could use this as an opportunity to piggy back off this in other parts.
Sure if we wish we can conjure up 1000 long list of risks etc associated with this whole idea. But business is fundamentally about taking risk and getting a return. Its about managing risk and mitigating risk and taking well thought out calculated risks.
You guys all live in a country that has proven this time and time again.
So many small elements that exist that i feel get totally taken for granted in our part of the world. Take the service of FedEX, UPS etc. To this very day i admire them like no other business. They offer a logistical service thats simply incredible but i guess it takes an outsider to see this. Being able to send something from California to Maine overnight means you do not have tohave everything on hand. Add the internet and skype and video and heck guys whats stopping people collaborating.
Here we have Chuck mentioning how he is battling to get someone to come and do cabinets and he even mentions the price. I dont see anyone stepping up saying heck i will do that for you Chuck, you got place for me to park my trailer while i do the install. You haul (yeah i know not the best company but you all know what i mean) offer rental trailers that could be used for delivery from X to y and hey it would make for a nice roadtrip to maine to deliver cabinets. (mmmmm i am thinking Maine Lobster can be bought for the return trip home).
Pics/video could be used to show the progress to Chuck to give him assurance and peace of mind of quality and progress.
(Just on a side note to highlight this point i want to share how real this benefit can be. I introduced the whole point of using Webex and a video link like is possible with skype to a client i have that manufactures machines and has clients all around the world. Before this they would need the client to send very senior execs at significant cost to the plant for about a week at least for pre delivery inspection and sign off. This affected several things. One the net cost of acquisition of the machine to the customer due to them having to spend the coin to come and check on the machine, delay in payment since if the sign off did not take place and they had to wait for the execs to be able to schedule the event they had a completed machine ready for shipment waiting for payment of the pre delivery portion of the contract, space in the shop because they could not move another machine into the shop until they moved this one out of a special test bay and on and on. The customer was absolutely delighted to have the service. They enhanced their relationships as a result improved cash flow and all the other efficiencies that followed but even more they offered a value to the customer that allowed for them to reduce their cost to the customer and further embedd themselves in a long term relationship. All for a simple improvement in communication.)
But i see Glenn making the point about whether people want to work if its not easy. Real good point Glenn... i experienced the same here. I asked a guy to come out fix the roof just before winter. Price was huge but i said ok because i aint getting up there. Well he comes and i add more to the job, stuff that is actually his primary job, well he said he would be back and that was 6 months ago. I paid him for the completed part on the day andthat was the most difficult part the rest was something i can do and now will do. I dont get it either Glenn.
Here is my view....At age 40 plus way too many have been burnt by prior experiences such that we have closed certain doors. Trouble is the more doors we have closed the more opportunity we have shut out. The net is the picture of opportunity ahead begins to appear very narrow with very few doors left open that we are prepared to step through.
We need to think back to the days when we were oblivious to being burnt. When we were 18 months old we got up off our knees and tried to walk. Fell down and hit our heads on all sorts. But the fundamental thing is we got back up again and gave it another shot. If we did not do that then we would have stayed on the ground.
Just because an opportunity once upon a time, involving someone else, went sour, dont mean its always going to go sour. Each time we bashed our heads we got wiser as and developed that extra muscle power to prevent it next time.
Same thing in my view with opportunity.
Heck i have made many wrong steps. But my ratio has to be better than 51 to 49 because i am still going. The idea that we have to hit paydirt or not try is a myth. Just the same to me as the whole concept of a "JOB" .
We may live in a modern time with loads of technology etc but some things have not changed.
Opportunity abounds if you prepared to take its hand.
Never in my life did i think i would be lucky enough to end up living in Canada. I could never in a million years have predicted that an opportunity that started out at the end of the Rugby World Cup in 1995 would have a path that put me in Canada today.
Ok i will get off my soapbox now, but if we gonna live up to the name of this forum well it has to be more to me than just making the content family friendly cause i really wonder about how many family members actually view the content we so carefully guard.
Way i see it we have a few categories of members here in no order.
- guys who are retired and do woodworking as a hobby but make all sorts of things to suite their own desires.
- guys who are retired and do a specific part of woodworking and make something they get a real kick out of and do it darn well and have mastered making it and sell the items in some cases to supplement income and in other cases to recoup sunk cost so they can do it all again.
- guys who work 9- 5 or there abouts or are self employed doing something other than woodworking as a primary source of income and do woodworking as a weekend warrior again a few different camps there but mostly hobby orientated.
- guys who are pros and work in a business where they do some form of woodworking for a living could be cabinet maker, fine furniture maker, home building, or as Dave who motivated this thought ..restoring. Some guys here are self employed (small business) others work for someone else.
What does strike me and has done so for a substantial amount of time, is our general inability to assist to resolve this issue of unemployment that hits our community.
The treasure trove of knowledge and experience among the members is something a corporate leader could never hope to assemble under one roof. Yet in my view it goes untapped.
I dont have the greatest family background, war brides and soldiers seldom worked out and add to that a change of culture and my folks were pretty much doomed before they got going. But my view of a family culture has come from a belief in helping out your fellow man for "there but for the grace of the almight go i" is what i was taught in my various schoolings.
Dave has mentioned and idea which hit a nerve with this serial entrepreneur....oh and we have a bunch of these types too in our family here (some with pretty high intellectual capabilities that have or do operate way above my measely pay grade )
I dont think by now we can question whether or not Dave has the skills of a restorer or an artist......maybe we can question the old coots bike riding ability (only funning you Dave i aint turkey so dont want toget shot) but he is mentioning an idea which could be huge especially if he is willing to train and travel.
The costs to get started in restoration i cannot see being very great in relation to the fact that most would already have the woodworking tools. What would be needed is the added knowledge and skill and experience being passed down.
Dave here is opportunity for you to kind of Franchise out and establish branches of your business run by others that would like to get into doing this kind of work. The name and brand has been established where you are and you could use this and the guys could use this as an opportunity to piggy back off this in other parts.
Sure if we wish we can conjure up 1000 long list of risks etc associated with this whole idea. But business is fundamentally about taking risk and getting a return. Its about managing risk and mitigating risk and taking well thought out calculated risks.
You guys all live in a country that has proven this time and time again.
So many small elements that exist that i feel get totally taken for granted in our part of the world. Take the service of FedEX, UPS etc. To this very day i admire them like no other business. They offer a logistical service thats simply incredible but i guess it takes an outsider to see this. Being able to send something from California to Maine overnight means you do not have tohave everything on hand. Add the internet and skype and video and heck guys whats stopping people collaborating.
Here we have Chuck mentioning how he is battling to get someone to come and do cabinets and he even mentions the price. I dont see anyone stepping up saying heck i will do that for you Chuck, you got place for me to park my trailer while i do the install. You haul (yeah i know not the best company but you all know what i mean) offer rental trailers that could be used for delivery from X to y and hey it would make for a nice roadtrip to maine to deliver cabinets. (mmmmm i am thinking Maine Lobster can be bought for the return trip home).
Pics/video could be used to show the progress to Chuck to give him assurance and peace of mind of quality and progress.
(Just on a side note to highlight this point i want to share how real this benefit can be. I introduced the whole point of using Webex and a video link like is possible with skype to a client i have that manufactures machines and has clients all around the world. Before this they would need the client to send very senior execs at significant cost to the plant for about a week at least for pre delivery inspection and sign off. This affected several things. One the net cost of acquisition of the machine to the customer due to them having to spend the coin to come and check on the machine, delay in payment since if the sign off did not take place and they had to wait for the execs to be able to schedule the event they had a completed machine ready for shipment waiting for payment of the pre delivery portion of the contract, space in the shop because they could not move another machine into the shop until they moved this one out of a special test bay and on and on. The customer was absolutely delighted to have the service. They enhanced their relationships as a result improved cash flow and all the other efficiencies that followed but even more they offered a value to the customer that allowed for them to reduce their cost to the customer and further embedd themselves in a long term relationship. All for a simple improvement in communication.)
But i see Glenn making the point about whether people want to work if its not easy. Real good point Glenn... i experienced the same here. I asked a guy to come out fix the roof just before winter. Price was huge but i said ok because i aint getting up there. Well he comes and i add more to the job, stuff that is actually his primary job, well he said he would be back and that was 6 months ago. I paid him for the completed part on the day andthat was the most difficult part the rest was something i can do and now will do. I dont get it either Glenn.
Here is my view....At age 40 plus way too many have been burnt by prior experiences such that we have closed certain doors. Trouble is the more doors we have closed the more opportunity we have shut out. The net is the picture of opportunity ahead begins to appear very narrow with very few doors left open that we are prepared to step through.
We need to think back to the days when we were oblivious to being burnt. When we were 18 months old we got up off our knees and tried to walk. Fell down and hit our heads on all sorts. But the fundamental thing is we got back up again and gave it another shot. If we did not do that then we would have stayed on the ground.
Just because an opportunity once upon a time, involving someone else, went sour, dont mean its always going to go sour. Each time we bashed our heads we got wiser as and developed that extra muscle power to prevent it next time.
Same thing in my view with opportunity.
Heck i have made many wrong steps. But my ratio has to be better than 51 to 49 because i am still going. The idea that we have to hit paydirt or not try is a myth. Just the same to me as the whole concept of a "JOB" .
We may live in a modern time with loads of technology etc but some things have not changed.
Opportunity abounds if you prepared to take its hand.
Never in my life did i think i would be lucky enough to end up living in Canada. I could never in a million years have predicted that an opportunity that started out at the end of the Rugby World Cup in 1995 would have a path that put me in Canada today.
Ok i will get off my soapbox now, but if we gonna live up to the name of this forum well it has to be more to me than just making the content family friendly cause i really wonder about how many family members actually view the content we so carefully guard.