Ending the week on a good note
Today was as busy a day as I've ever had. At one point I was working on the accounting system with my bookkeeper while a potential sales and marketing leader sat nearby waiting for a chance to talk with me. The office phone was ringing at the same time as my cell phone and the seller of the business dropped in to see how things were going. Yikes!
Most importantly, the seller checked with his bank and confirmed that they had received the money and it would be credited to his account by midnight tonight. Since one clause of our deal said he could cancel the whole thing if I didn't pay by today, hearing about the deposit came as an enormouse relief to me. I first met him in early November last year. That means it took almost exactly five months from the first introduction to the closing of the deal.
I also answered a wonderful phone call. A boy on the other end asked to speak to our "customer service department." "That's me!", I answered. "We followed the directions on the ice cream maker exactly but all we got was soup," he explained. I could hear his mother coaching him in the background. I gave him some guidance and suggested he upgrade from half-and-half to whipping cream. Specifically I sent him to our webpage for more detailed instructions, recipes, and pictures. The best part was at the end. He explained that he is a Boy Scout. There's a cooking competition tomorrow and his entry is going to be ice cream made in the ice cream ball. I asked him to call me back and report on the results.
There's amazing variation in shipping from day to day. Yesterday we shipped about $50,000 of product, today about $250. More rooms got painted, more furniture moved, more computers installed and software upgraded. All the blinds disappeared from the windows to go out for cleaning. The wonderful displays of the entire product line (including historical items) were re-established in our entry area.
I think I'll be going boating with the seller and one of our biggest customers on Sunday. This involves riding the air chair, an event I find more intimidating than buying a business!
Most importantly, the seller checked with his bank and confirmed that they had received the money and it would be credited to his account by midnight tonight. Since one clause of our deal said he could cancel the whole thing if I didn't pay by today, hearing about the deposit came as an enormouse relief to me. I first met him in early November last year. That means it took almost exactly five months from the first introduction to the closing of the deal.
I also answered a wonderful phone call. A boy on the other end asked to speak to our "customer service department." "That's me!", I answered. "We followed the directions on the ice cream maker exactly but all we got was soup," he explained. I could hear his mother coaching him in the background. I gave him some guidance and suggested he upgrade from half-and-half to whipping cream. Specifically I sent him to our webpage for more detailed instructions, recipes, and pictures. The best part was at the end. He explained that he is a Boy Scout. There's a cooking competition tomorrow and his entry is going to be ice cream made in the ice cream ball. I asked him to call me back and report on the results.
There's amazing variation in shipping from day to day. Yesterday we shipped about $50,000 of product, today about $250. More rooms got painted, more furniture moved, more computers installed and software upgraded. All the blinds disappeared from the windows to go out for cleaning. The wonderful displays of the entire product line (including historical items) were re-established in our entry area.
I think I'll be going boating with the seller and one of our biggest customers on Sunday. This involves riding the air chair, an event I find more intimidating than buying a business!
posted by Keith @ 7:12 PM
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