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View Full Version : Ever Have One of Those Days?



Tim Bateson
09-04-2013, 11:04 PM
Ever have one of those days when business gets better & better - even making a mistake, everything works out great anyway?

Today I got multiple large orders from multiple industries, plus I won a couple more contracts all within a couple hours. Now, what could possibly go wrong?

A local city festival had ordered a 100 engraved beer mugs. After finishing half of them, the city councilman I was working with discovered I had the wrong image. Not good you say... Well they owned up to their mistake and are paying for the bad mugs as well as another 100. For "wasting my time" - their words - they've given me premium advertising for the upcoming festival and are offering additional city business.

Sometimes life is good. :-D A very good day indeed!

Scott Shepherd
09-05-2013, 7:48 AM
No, I've never had one of those days :(

Good for you though. I'd like to have a few days like that :)

Dave Sheldrake
09-05-2013, 8:52 AM
I get good and bad days, I purchased a new inspection grade Mitchy vernier Tuesday to replace the one I lost early in the week, got it home and stuck it in my desk drawer only to find my original one in there too.
Work wise I'm at 120% capacity on orders so need more machines (I'm in the middle of having the shop extended) so that side is great, down side is the Mitsubishi metal cutter needs servicing as I have quite a few jobs lined up for it, servicing isn't cheap and takes up time I don't have. Overall the sales trend is upwards by just over 35% per year at the moment for the last 3 years so all in all nothing to moan about.

cheers

Dave

Mike Null
09-05-2013, 9:02 AM
I've lucked into a couple of days like that--even a couple this year. Actually one of them wasn't so much luck as pretty darn good preparation.

And last week was another good one until my HP sublimation printer quit printing. (fortunately my competitor bailed me out by printing a few sheets for me) I either have to find time to fix it or quickly order another one. Since I just bought a large cartridge at $300 I'll need to pick up the same model if I can't fix this one.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that things continue to cook for you.

Jeff Belany
09-05-2013, 10:30 AM
I'd sure like a day like that. Never had one that good. Glad to hear business is good for somebody. Congrats!!

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

Chuck Jarrett
09-05-2013, 1:01 PM
Great to hear your business is doing well. I suspect part of the reason may be you looking at the good that is going on, rather than dwelling on a few oops' that happen from time to time.

Tim Bateson
02-16-2017, 9:26 AM
I really am trying to cut back on my work-load....really. However, this week every one of my major industrial customers have sent in large volumes of material to be worked. In addition, a local company that produces Name Badges will now send their hundreds of backlogged badges to me. Their old Gravograph machine broke & this isn't their main line of work anyway so they will redirect it all my way. Of-Course everyone needs their stuff done Urgently. Taking a few days off the day-job in an attempt to catch-up. Last year ended this way and I suspect most of my day-job vacation time will be used again to keep my engraving customers happy. Only 14.5 months until I could technically retire from the day-job... but who's counting?

Bert Kemp
02-16-2017, 9:37 AM
Oh Joy retire your day job to work twice as hard at your home job:Din how long 14.5 well what about fishing, and playing with the gran kids , and taking the little women on that second honeymoon. Oh no I can't I got 3000 name tags to engrave this week:eek:This Fish will wait, the kids will wait, the wife will wait oops I'm dead, Heaven won't wait.+

I'm taking the day and going riding

John Lifer
02-16-2017, 9:43 AM
Good For you Tim! Some folks are just honest and I've always tried to do the same. Especially if it was my or my employee's error.

And Mike, this is what happens to my printers if they quit working properly after buying and installing a new cartridge.
354126

14 out of 15. I was pretty mad but feel much better now.

Tim Bateson
02-16-2017, 9:52 AM
Oh Joy retire your day job to work twice as hard at your home job:Din how long 14.5 well what about fishing, and playing with the gran kids , and taking the little women on that second honeymoon. Oh no I can't I got 3000 name tags to engrave this week:eek:This Fish will wait, the kids will wait, the wife will wait oops I'm dead, Heaven won't wait....g

I "plan" to slow down around age 65 and fully retire around age 70. I've always been a workaholic and full retirement scares the... out of me. Longevity runs in my family, so life expectancy for me "should" be well into my '90s. Assuming I stay out of lightning storms and not get hit by a bus.

Mike Null
02-16-2017, 10:42 AM
I've lost my warranty card so I can't remember my expiration date but I'm trying to hold out until I hit the 100 mark. I have another 20 to go.

Last year was my best ever and so far this year I'm running ahead. Some days I only work half a day but I have a couple of helpers I can call on if needed.

Right now I'm gearing up to build another web site to focus on a particular segment of my business. And I'm pondering the purchase of new equipment.

Tim, Glad to hear things are going well with you.

John--I like your fix--a .357 would really get the job done.

Kev Williams
02-16-2017, 2:25 PM
I'm 62 now, working 100 or so hours a week, and I've decided the minute I hit 65 I'm taking the SS bennies. I'm already warning customers that I'll be whacking my workload down to 3-4 days a week within a couple of years. I'm trying to figure out who locally could take over for me, but I have no clue- It's easy enough to steer someone to another engraving shop for basic engraving, but the reason I'm so busy is because nobody does what I do. But que sera sera, I'm not going to do what my dad did, work until I forget how. I want to enjoy some free time eventually! But I can't fully retire either, I'd get bored silly in short order...

The past 11 years we've been stocking up on retirement toys, because we've known full well we'd never be able to buy them when we retire. Every attempt at a retirement plan was thwarted by ne'er-do-well's on Wall Street so we're not the least bit flush. Most of our toys are paid for, the one boat & the motorhome will be paid for in 3 years or less. We'll be out of debt save for the house, but I can reverse mortgage this place, and with our SS and part time biz income we'll be able to do some RVing and boating and not go broke doing it.

But this topic is named 'Ever Have One Of Those Days'- And I may have had one- in spades :D

To wit, short version: A company that sells 4 million units of its product a year is in the process of joining up with one of my same-product customers. This company wants to push corporate and other personalizations of their product. My customer has shown them my work, and now they want 'whoever's doing your engraving' to do all of theirs. This would require an entirely new, dedicated engraving shop with employees and everything. Before this happens the merger must take place, but it's looking good...

I know better than to hold my breath, but I AM hoping this works out. If just 2% of sales results in engraving, our income will increase 10-fold. That'll help with retirement! :)

Joe Shinall
02-16-2017, 11:47 PM
I work in IT. I never knew there were those kinds of days.....