Testing

This is a test of blogging on the iPhone.

Moving is a fresh start

This has been one hell of a summer. Here's a very special 'Thank you' going out to all my customers: Thank you!

Most of the business details are pretty boring, but suffice it to say I've learned a ton about how to run a little operation, management, organizational skills, and most importantly, how to provide excellent customer service. MTB has a great Yelp.com rating (currently five stars), and I'm working on plans to expand the business nationwide. It'll be a pretty simple thing, this expansion, but ideally there will be Truck Buddies in every major city by next summer.

I've fallen flat on my face a few times, too -- literally and figuratively. I've dropped a couple of appointments due to scheduling snafus (all my fault), and I've woefully underestimated a couple of jobs, resulting in insufficient manpower and many, many hours over what we planned on. (One customer even refused to pay for half the move, and honestly, I had a hard time arguing with her about that one. Again, my fault, but it still hurts to realize I basically worked for six hours for free. Ouch.)

Now, we've got about a month and a half of peak moving time, but it definitely feels like change is a-comin'. Probably because we're moving this Friday.

I don't recall ever being so excited about a move before. In many ways it's going to suck -- I have a LOT more stuff than most of my customers have. (Lol. Of course, a lot of my stuff is giveaway stuff from my customers.) I can only afford to pay a few of my guys for a few hours, and I don't expect them to work for free. So, I'll be doing most of the heavy lifting.

Still and all, it's an awesome little place. We're escaping our "filing cabinet for people," a seven-storey apartment building, and heading to a nice little Cape Cod single family home south of Old Town. Here are some pics:






This apartment building was a compromise. We didn't know what we were going to do, and it was near an area we liked, and it was clean. But apartment living was never our thing. It became less so over the last year -- long hallways, sporadically working elevators, parking stickers and tow trucks. Don't get me started on the partiers above, across, and below us. One of them called my wife a vile term when she asked them to be quiet. (He got a visit from Arlington's finest after that).

But now we're moving to this nice, quiet street. We'll have MUCH more room -- including a gigantic upstairs office area. No more doing my work in the bedroom!

It's amazing what a difference a new place makes. Whatever's coming up next, I think I'm ready.

It's not the recession, it's you...

Found an awesome motivational post on a new blog today (new to me, like almost everything).

http://outspokenmedia.com/online-marketing/you-just-suck/

An excerpt:

Entrepreneurs are ruling this recession.

Why? Because they’re hungry and they’re motivated. That means they can’t spend their whole day getting caught in the fame game or in office politics. It means when they go to a conference or a networking event, they’re not there for the booze. They’re grabbing handfuls of business cards, talking to people, and then following up. And they don’t just say they’ll email you after the show. They really do. Actually, they email you as soon as they get home. They’re nurturing leads and finding clients and creating opportunities. They’re marketing themselves. They’re not tuning in to Oprah this afternoon to get Twitter tips from Ashton Kutcher.

In fact, there’s not even time to whine about how unfair the world is and how this recession is taking away their business. Because they’re out there finding business from places you wouldn’t have even thought to look. Or maybe you would have, if you worked as hard as they do. That’s the thing, people don’t want to work. They want a job and a paycheck. And those cushy jobs with those cushy paychecks are the first to go. Because really all those people are doing is taking up space. So it’s not so much that the recession came around and took your job, it’s that you allowed yourself to become expendable.

Have I said thank you lately?

No? Well, thank you, DC area people. You're keeping me busy and helping me to keep the family fed and clothed.

In all sincerity, thank you.

It's cute baby time...

I shirked my work duties and took little Joe to the zoo yesterday. He went nuts, of course, especially when he realized that the animals in his books are freakin' REAL.

I have to admit--until I saw the hippo, I wasn't sure it was real either...

Not many animals in these pics, but it was tough to get any good animal shots with his face in them. Nonetheless, I think you'll be able to see that his cuteness has grown by at least 53 percent.

Why I won't be marketing with Twitter

This video explains my feelings about Twitter perfectly:

Big moves...

Moving with the big truck today. Everyone stay off the roads!