Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The Business Partnership That Fell Apart
I probably should have posted something last year around this time about my ongoing involvement with Custom Development. So before I begin relating this saga, I should fill in a few historical blank spots. On a sunny morning in May, I agreed to meet Dino at the Denny's on Sunrise Blvd near CFF. Yes, the same gym where I encountered the young woman wearing grandma perfume. Anyways, the meeting was an opportunity to hear Dino and his old friend, Joe Sandino offer up a proposal to become partners in a relaunch of Custom Development. You see, up until that point, Dino and I had been operating CDC in survival mode, with both of us working out of our homes. I handled the accounting while Dino pounded the pavement looking for morsels of work to do. It was enough to get by but by last year, the economy had improved, housing prices were going up and things in general were looking pretty good for the home improvement industry. Just getting by wasn't good enough and I was up to moving on to something better. Over a breakfast of eggs and countless cups of coffee, the idea for a fully operational version of CDC began to take shape. Both Dino and Joe had gone through their own respective personal bankruptcies and stellar credit was not their forte. I, on the other hand, while sometimes scraping close to the bottom in my personal finances, always made sure that my bills were paid, giving me something valuable that they didn't have - a good FICO score.
The plan was for Dino and Joe to provide the experience and some initial start up costs and I would help get the company setup with vendors on my good credit. I was a little hesitant at first but I had known Dino long enough to know that the likelihood of me being left high and dry was pretty slim. Joe, on the other hand was an unknown. Dino introduced me to Joe and explained their connection. Joe owned a company called Weatherite which focused on residential window replacement. The crash of 2008 wasn't very kind to the home improvement industry and Weatherite came crashing to the ground. But 5 years had past and it was time to jump in the pool again.
Back to our meeting: Joe came prepared with his job profit and expense ratios. Jobs sold around 3X the cost and after deducting all direct expenses including commissions of 10% and lead fees of 16%, there should be about 24% left. Admin costs take away another 10% so by Joe's calculation, each job should net something like 12 - 14%. The idea was to divvy up this remaining amount as profit sharing with Joe and Dino splitting 80 and me taking the remaining 20. Sounds pretty good. According to Joe, anything over a hundred thousand a month would be gravy. After the meeting ended and my stomach couldn't hold one more sip of coffee, I agreed to go home and think about it.
The truth was I wasn't making much doing little piddly accounting work for Dino so I figured that nothing ventured, nothing gained would doom me to a boring existence and I was ready for a change. We rented an office/warehouse space in a seedy section of North Highlands on the cheap. I would have preferred something close, like that little space on Pyrites Way that Dino and I worked in for a little over a year beginning in 2009. But Gold River rental rates are a few notches above North Highlands and we were starting on a shoe-string budget.
At first things went pretty well. Joe seemed knowledgeable at least when it came to bathrooms. He brought over his crew consisting of Vasile and Nikolay. We gradually increased our volume. Joe's main job was to oversee the lead generation aspect of the company and insisted on receiving his fee no matter his department was productive or not. This began to place a strain on our arrangement since there were times that a job was a real loser and everyone else sacrificed in response except for Joe.
As for me, I handled the accounting like always and tried to save some cash for emergencies by transferring some funds into a savings account. Joe interpreted it as me hiding money from him which was really stupid and paranoid of him.
Looking back at this time period, that paranoia no longer seemed too out of character. As a general rule, I avoid politics, especially people with strong conservative views simply because they tend to be very difficult people to reason with. Joe began emailing me stuff about Obama - the typical crude, stuff you might expect from an Obama hater, i.e. communist, born in Kenya, socialist, etc. At one point, I was talking with him and he showed me an email on his computer and asserted that Obama was actually the devil. WTF? This is coming from someone who I assumed was intelligent, graduating from college with a degree in chemistry.
From that point on, I began to suspect Joe had a few screws loose and when he accused me and Dino of hiding money, the pieces began to fit together.
Finally, one day in April, 2014. I received an email from Joe saying that he wasn't coming in for the Monday meeting we usually had. In his long diatribe, he once again accused me and Dino of deceit and hiding money, both complete lies. In any case, the next day I walked into the office and it was nearly completely empty. Over the weekend, he had cleaned us out. To top it off, in his email, he demanded $10,000 as a settlement for outstanding amounts owed. After analyzing his ledger, Dino and I decided to pay him what he wanted since it turned out to be quite a bit less than what what was actually owed after all the jobs went through.
What an ordeal! I am so glad he is gone. He really was quite an asshole and since he left the company has been doing quite well without him.
The plan was for Dino and Joe to provide the experience and some initial start up costs and I would help get the company setup with vendors on my good credit. I was a little hesitant at first but I had known Dino long enough to know that the likelihood of me being left high and dry was pretty slim. Joe, on the other hand was an unknown. Dino introduced me to Joe and explained their connection. Joe owned a company called Weatherite which focused on residential window replacement. The crash of 2008 wasn't very kind to the home improvement industry and Weatherite came crashing to the ground. But 5 years had past and it was time to jump in the pool again.
Back to our meeting: Joe came prepared with his job profit and expense ratios. Jobs sold around 3X the cost and after deducting all direct expenses including commissions of 10% and lead fees of 16%, there should be about 24% left. Admin costs take away another 10% so by Joe's calculation, each job should net something like 12 - 14%. The idea was to divvy up this remaining amount as profit sharing with Joe and Dino splitting 80 and me taking the remaining 20. Sounds pretty good. According to Joe, anything over a hundred thousand a month would be gravy. After the meeting ended and my stomach couldn't hold one more sip of coffee, I agreed to go home and think about it.
The truth was I wasn't making much doing little piddly accounting work for Dino so I figured that nothing ventured, nothing gained would doom me to a boring existence and I was ready for a change. We rented an office/warehouse space in a seedy section of North Highlands on the cheap. I would have preferred something close, like that little space on Pyrites Way that Dino and I worked in for a little over a year beginning in 2009. But Gold River rental rates are a few notches above North Highlands and we were starting on a shoe-string budget.
At first things went pretty well. Joe seemed knowledgeable at least when it came to bathrooms. He brought over his crew consisting of Vasile and Nikolay. We gradually increased our volume. Joe's main job was to oversee the lead generation aspect of the company and insisted on receiving his fee no matter his department was productive or not. This began to place a strain on our arrangement since there were times that a job was a real loser and everyone else sacrificed in response except for Joe.
As for me, I handled the accounting like always and tried to save some cash for emergencies by transferring some funds into a savings account. Joe interpreted it as me hiding money from him which was really stupid and paranoid of him.
Looking back at this time period, that paranoia no longer seemed too out of character. As a general rule, I avoid politics, especially people with strong conservative views simply because they tend to be very difficult people to reason with. Joe began emailing me stuff about Obama - the typical crude, stuff you might expect from an Obama hater, i.e. communist, born in Kenya, socialist, etc. At one point, I was talking with him and he showed me an email on his computer and asserted that Obama was actually the devil. WTF? This is coming from someone who I assumed was intelligent, graduating from college with a degree in chemistry.
From that point on, I began to suspect Joe had a few screws loose and when he accused me and Dino of hiding money, the pieces began to fit together.
Finally, one day in April, 2014. I received an email from Joe saying that he wasn't coming in for the Monday meeting we usually had. In his long diatribe, he once again accused me and Dino of deceit and hiding money, both complete lies. In any case, the next day I walked into the office and it was nearly completely empty. Over the weekend, he had cleaned us out. To top it off, in his email, he demanded $10,000 as a settlement for outstanding amounts owed. After analyzing his ledger, Dino and I decided to pay him what he wanted since it turned out to be quite a bit less than what what was actually owed after all the jobs went through.
What an ordeal! I am so glad he is gone. He really was quite an asshole and since he left the company has been doing quite well without him.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Proposition 8: Justices illustrated how the Constitution works
Proposition 8: Justices illustrated how the Constitution works
Published: Thursday, Jun. 27, 2013 - 9:06 am
Last Modified: Thursday, Jun. 27, 2013 - 12:25 pm
Re "Gay Marriage is on a roll" (Page A1, June 27): Voter-approved initiatives do not carry absolute weight or protection from scrutiny and testing for constitutionality, as some letter writers may think. If it were the case, then slavery could be made legal again through voter-approved measures.
Checks and balances in our system are designed to guard against the tyranny of the majority. The powers of judicial authority and ability to overrule voter initiatives are enshrined in the powers of the U.S. Supreme Court.
People who complain that their votes don't count anymore or that democracy is dead should re-read the Constitution to learn more about how U.S. democracy works.
-- David Brotman, Gold River
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Making a Garden (Creative Writing - Highland Hall 1974)
In order to make a garden you will need a pick-ax, shovel, rake, hoe and fertilizer. First, you must choose where the garden will be located. If you live in a hilly area, the base of the hill is the most desirable place because the water erodes the top soil on the hill down to the bottom, making it very fertile. If the area is flat, anyplace is good if it's not too "clayish" and fairly close to water.
The next step is to clear away any weeds. The hoe is well suited for this task. If the weeds are stubborn in coming out, soak the soil overnight. This will soften the earth and the weeds will come out easily. After this, the soil must be tilled. Chop the dirt up with the pick-ax and turn it over with the flat edge of the shovel and re-till the soil once again. If there are no more dirt clods, add the fertilizer. It is best to mix one part fertilizer with three parts dirt. Smooth the soil out with the rake. Dig out trenches around the garden plot, parallel to each other. Make them approximately two feet apart and throw the dirt onto the garden, raising the elevation to create beds. The beds should be about eight inches above the trenches. Smooth the beds out with the rake.
Now you are all set to plant! If you are planting seeds, make two rows in each bed. Plant the seeds anywhere from ten to eighteen inches apart, depending on the type of seeds. Dig the holes 1/4 of an inch deep and 1/2 inches wide. Gently cover it up with the rake. Do not pack the soil down. Water everyday lightly. If it is desired, you can cover the bed with burlap to retain moisture but it should be removed as soon as the sprouts appear. If you are planting already sprouted plants, it saves all the hassle of waiting for the seeds to sprout.
The next step is to clear away any weeds. The hoe is well suited for this task. If the weeds are stubborn in coming out, soak the soil overnight. This will soften the earth and the weeds will come out easily. After this, the soil must be tilled. Chop the dirt up with the pick-ax and turn it over with the flat edge of the shovel and re-till the soil once again. If there are no more dirt clods, add the fertilizer. It is best to mix one part fertilizer with three parts dirt. Smooth the soil out with the rake. Dig out trenches around the garden plot, parallel to each other. Make them approximately two feet apart and throw the dirt onto the garden, raising the elevation to create beds. The beds should be about eight inches above the trenches. Smooth the beds out with the rake.
Now you are all set to plant! If you are planting seeds, make two rows in each bed. Plant the seeds anywhere from ten to eighteen inches apart, depending on the type of seeds. Dig the holes 1/4 of an inch deep and 1/2 inches wide. Gently cover it up with the rake. Do not pack the soil down. Water everyday lightly. If it is desired, you can cover the bed with burlap to retain moisture but it should be removed as soon as the sprouts appear. If you are planting already sprouted plants, it saves all the hassle of waiting for the seeds to sprout.
The Rushing River (Creative Writing - Highland Hall 1974)
I was standing on the west bank looking for a place to cross. The river was very deep in the middle which meant that I would be forced to swim. The water rushed angrily over the half-sunken rocks which were scattered in different places making the whole scene very treacherous. The water stunned me for a split second as I placed my feet in what seemed to be below freezing water. I started towards the other side, stumbling over the slippery rocks below. Thigh deep, the turbulence began to throw me off balance. I climbed up on one of the outcroppings. From where I was standing, it seemed like there was about fifteen feet of river ahead of me before I would be able to stand up without being dragged away.
I curled my feet over the rocks as best I could, crouched over and sprang off. Straightening myself in mid-air, I was able to plunge through the icy water with a minimum of friction. I came up to the surface screaming in agony as the cold literally penetrated my flesh all the way to the bone. I used every stroke I knew but to no avail. I became a victim of the mighty force of the current. I managed to keep my feet in front of me and my head above the water as I floated down the river, narrowly preventing a fatal collision with a large rock!
Frantically, I looked around for anything to grab onto. One hundred yards ahead of me, an enormous log floated by very slowly. "This is my only chance", I said to myself. The log turned out to be bigger than I thought. Exhausted, I managed to crawl up on it. My only wish was to somehow make it to shore. After what seemed like hours, my spirits lifted as the river wound its way around a bend and terminated into a large, expansive lake. I jumped off of the log and swam joyously to shore. I got off and lay down on the warm, sandy beach, breathing a thankful sigh of relief that I had made it out alive.
I curled my feet over the rocks as best I could, crouched over and sprang off. Straightening myself in mid-air, I was able to plunge through the icy water with a minimum of friction. I came up to the surface screaming in agony as the cold literally penetrated my flesh all the way to the bone. I used every stroke I knew but to no avail. I became a victim of the mighty force of the current. I managed to keep my feet in front of me and my head above the water as I floated down the river, narrowly preventing a fatal collision with a large rock!
Frantically, I looked around for anything to grab onto. One hundred yards ahead of me, an enormous log floated by very slowly. "This is my only chance", I said to myself. The log turned out to be bigger than I thought. Exhausted, I managed to crawl up on it. My only wish was to somehow make it to shore. After what seemed like hours, my spirits lifted as the river wound its way around a bend and terminated into a large, expansive lake. I jumped off of the log and swam joyously to shore. I got off and lay down on the warm, sandy beach, breathing a thankful sigh of relief that I had made it out alive.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Letter posted in SacBee regarding Supreme Court Decision on Proposition 8
Proposition 8: Justices illustrated how the Constitution works
Published: Thursday, Jun. 27, 2013 - 9:06 am
Last Modified: Thursday, Jun. 27, 2013 - 12:25 pm
Re "Gay Marriage is on a roll" (Page A1, June 27): Voter-approved initiatives do not carry absolute weight or protection from scrutiny and testing for constitutionality, as some letter writers may think. If it were the case, then slavery could be made legal again through voter-approved measures.
Checks and balances in our system are designed to guard against the tyranny of the majority. The powers of judicial authority and ability to overrule voter initiatives are enshrined in the powers of the U.S. Supreme Court.
People who complain that their votes don't count anymore or that democracy is dead should re-read the Constitution to learn more about how U.S. democracy works.
-- David Brotman, Gold River
Friday, June 7, 2013
Time (Creative Writing - Highland Hall 1974)
Time is a concept which must be dealt with by everybody. Not everybody enjoys dealing with it, though. Some people consider time to be something very precious which mustn't be wasted while others can't think of anything to do with it. The passage of time becomes more apparent when a big event occurs or an event which directly affects you. Time is what changes our world, makes people older and is the universal healer. Time does wonders in causing people to forget bitter feelings or resentment.
If something very profound happens which alters your life, time has little or no effect in making you forget.
When you become involved in an activity you enjoy, time seems to rush by in an instant. This is because you are too preoccupied with the task at hand to be interested in time. On the other hand, if you have nothing to do, time slows down and minutes become hours and hours drag into days.
An experience concerning time that I have a lot happens before I travel someplace. The night before I left to go to Berkeley, I became very much aware of time, anxiously waiting for it to pass quickly. Yet it seemed like years before the next day arrived and then time literally flew by. It appears that time does exactly the opposite of what you want it to do.
If something very profound happens which alters your life, time has little or no effect in making you forget.
When you become involved in an activity you enjoy, time seems to rush by in an instant. This is because you are too preoccupied with the task at hand to be interested in time. On the other hand, if you have nothing to do, time slows down and minutes become hours and hours drag into days.
An experience concerning time that I have a lot happens before I travel someplace. The night before I left to go to Berkeley, I became very much aware of time, anxiously waiting for it to pass quickly. Yet it seemed like years before the next day arrived and then time literally flew by. It appears that time does exactly the opposite of what you want it to do.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Going on a Trip
We went on a trip to Costa Rica recently and after getting back from the trip, I had this lucid dream of being at an airport waiting to go t...
-
We went on a trip to Costa Rica recently and after getting back from the trip, I had this lucid dream of being at an airport waiting to go t... -
Amnesty is forgiveness for a crime. This is how our government interprets it. There are many people who don't agree with this interpreta...
-
Since I am no longer riding my bike, I spend a lot of time at the gym and the closest one to home is CFF (California Family Fitness) at Su...