Survival
Before we closed on the business on April 1, I set my goal for the first month: to survive. Why? We faced so much change in a short period that I believed that surviving the change would be sufficient. So far...
I'm three weeks into the one month survival period. How's it going? Except for exhaustion, it's really going pretty well. Kathy picked up Rachael from school yesterday (2:30) and brought her back to the factory. We stayed until about 8:00 taking care of dozens of tasks that needed attention. Rachael had a great time using one of the rolling office chairs to roll around the factory without touching her feet to the ground. She solved the dirty hands problem by getting latex gloves from our assembly area. I didn't like being at work so late on a Friday night but having Kathy and Rachael there made all the difference. And getting the work done lifted a weight from my shoulders.
A final note from a financial perspective. Cash is very tight but things are going swimmingly! We've already shipped 40% more than the target for April and there's still a week to go! Over the next 30-60 days the cash from those sales will begin to flow in from our customers and we should see some relief on the cash issue.
- Kathy and I, the new owners, moved in on April 1...
- into new offices (previously full of the personal belongings of the seller's family)...
- with one new computer (not enough)...
- and just two weeks to learn the job of the office manager before she left the company.
- The production manager, a key player, left for a long-ago-planned vacation to see his parents in Europe. A two-week absence just two weeks after we took over.
- The woman who handled shipping also left after a two-week transition.
- We brought in a new bookkeeper who was familiar to us and trustworthy, but not familiar with the new software.
- We've also got a new corporate name, new bank accounts, new emails, etc. We are still working to familiarize our customers and vendors with the changes.
- And so on and so on and so on......
I'm three weeks into the one month survival period. How's it going? Except for exhaustion, it's really going pretty well. Kathy picked up Rachael from school yesterday (2:30) and brought her back to the factory. We stayed until about 8:00 taking care of dozens of tasks that needed attention. Rachael had a great time using one of the rolling office chairs to roll around the factory without touching her feet to the ground. She solved the dirty hands problem by getting latex gloves from our assembly area. I didn't like being at work so late on a Friday night but having Kathy and Rachael there made all the difference. And getting the work done lifted a weight from my shoulders.
A final note from a financial perspective. Cash is very tight but things are going swimmingly! We've already shipped 40% more than the target for April and there's still a week to go! Over the next 30-60 days the cash from those sales will begin to flow in from our customers and we should see some relief on the cash issue.
posted by Keith @ 8:29 AM
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