Ok I'll buy thzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Beer thirty!

Been beer thirty here. Had a Chimay premiere, then a bomber of hoppyum then two blue moons and a apple cider with naked turtle rum.....

Anyone want to buy a targa? Seriously not sure what's going to happen with me. My IT biz has all but disappeared and I'm really hurting. Not proud to admit it, but there it is.

:( sorry to hear that Dave. You'll make it buddy!


Where have all your customers gone? Cheaper service, insourced, or? Have you stopped in to see them?

What about some fliers? Do a little cold calling to small offices, have something to leave with them. Call a week later to follow up?


Just throwing out ideas. It's one way we generate business at times. Similar concept, we sell service about as much as product.

I hope I make it. Not looking good right now, but my head is in the haze.

Here's the deal with the IT industry. If you are a smaller company or independent, it's largely word of mouth. The only one's that seem to get away with advertising (which I have seen very little of lately), are guys like Geek Squad. They are so big, that you can pretty much trust them just via advertising.

I have done the route of flyers and business cards. I've done it a few times with zero results. Okay, I got one call out of a thousand or so. Not a good return. A bunch of those flyers were mailed when I belonged to a couple of Chambers of Commerce. Two years ago, I sank nearly a grand into a single advertisement at a car wash. The ad co. was a fellow CC member. He gave me a discount and a prime spot on the board. In one year, I got one phone call from that ad and the lady was calling to find out how the advertising was working or me. Go figure. :D

I am not a good cold caller. I tend to obey the "No Solicitor" signs. I know they bug the crap out of me.

Lastly, I am fed up with the industry. I have been taken advantage of and things just have not gone the way I had hoped. I have been sticking with it, since it is what I know best and am really good at. But I am tired. You can't keep going for 15 and not see any rewards.

I appreciate the advice. I do.

Sidney, I really did not have that many clients - the ones I had never did the word of mouth thing. :D I had three good ones that kept me going for the last years and kept the bills paid. I have no idea why I lost the lawyer at the end of last year. The only thing I can think of, is that they were paranoid in the last 6 months and were firing just about everyone for distrust. I was the one they trusted the most. They may have thought I was part of their problems, which I was not. I take clients privacy very seriously. That started the hurt this year. After my fender bender last Dec. my car ins. went up. That's what put the hurt on AX for the year. I survived until October. Then I noticed that my best client had been very quiet. Mental calculation told me that I had not effectively heard from them since end of August, but that was one of the owner's house calls, not business. It's now Dec. and nothing. There should have been some issue or update to the software that runs the biz by now. It's a pretty good indicator that I'm out. This one really hurt and did me in. I have two biz clients left and a bunch of random home clients that rarely call, but when it gets unbearable. Home was never supposed to pay the bills. I really didn't even want to do homes, but took what I could.

Bummer Dave.

I've got a cold beer waiting for you out here ;)

No worries Sid. It looks like it's healing up okay. Felt much better as the day wore on. I think the Black Widow and Red Back spiders are related.

Pork ribs and beer on tonights menu will fix me up nicely.

Just sitting back now, waiting for my Grand Daughter to show :)

Dave, I am so sorry to hear! Seems like a lot of us are running into bad times. If I could help I would. What are you looking for from here? Are you gonna do the woodwork stuff? Let me know if I can do anything except for the cash flow thing, since I don't have much of that lately. I have lots of hotel and airfare points if you ever want to go anywhere. :)

Hang in there. Big gigantic hugs!

More cute pictures please. :)

No worries Tweeze, but until the two legged puppy arrives, you'll have to put up with a few of this baby. Hugo turned two yesterday.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1354607230.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1354607248.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1354607265.jpg

Jeff, I am 80% convinced I had a mild black widow bite in my teens. What started as some bumps, morphed into swollen limbs and joints and I was very uncomfortable for a week or so. Never did visit a hospital to verify. My family is not that way. :D Unless you are near comatose, you just deal with it. :D Ended up putting anti itch cream all over and sucked it up. :( You'll be fine. Heck, I mildly poisoned myself last weekend turning a black locust wood bowl.

Thanks both for the kind words. I really don't like bringing this type of stuff up, but I'm at my wits end this time.

Tweeze, it's the $ I do need. :D At least I don't have kids to worry about. That must really suck for you this time of year. I'm glad the others were able to help out. I was almost ready to talk to Joe as well, despite my situation, but in the end I had to be selfish. I apologize for that. :( Had our situations been further apart, I would not have hesitated. :)

So... I really am at the breaking point after all these years and want to ditch the IT industry for good. I've had a very long, agonizing time thinking about it, but it's time to stop thinking and make a change. I'm sure my parents would disagree, as they do when I mention a lot of things I would like to do. (I'm not always vocal about my interests or a lot of other things for that matter and they are surprised.) I have been around woodworking and construction all my life, I just never expressed a real outward enjoyment for it, but I do. Not so much the construction side, that was my intended major in college, but making furniture and such. That I enjoy.

I'm not sure how to say this, but even without IT, I have a monthly income. It's classified. :cool:. It's just not enough to pay all the bills. I was hoping to keep the IT thing going for a while longer to pay the bills while I build a small supply of small woodworking projects to build a FB page and try and sell here and there. Not expecting to be an overnight success, but $50-75 here and there for turned objects could help. I would love to create projects from reclaimed wood - even posted a thread on it here.

I can go on rambling right now for a long time. I'll stop now.

No, keep going. Ideas don't take fruition if they stay in your head. I don't have the money but I have lots of friends with money. :)

What do you want to sell as far as the wood stuff? Take some pics. I will post on FB wall. You never know who will buy. We are all here to help. :)

When I turn a bowl/vessel, I don' have an idea going into the project. I tried to sketch something once and follow that design, but it didn't work. I let the wood dictate what it turns into. Pretty makes everything I turn one of a kind. Only once did I copy a bowl. I have one, my mom has the copy (shift knobs aside). I would love to build natural edged coffee and side tables. They seem to be making a comeback these days. Problem, the nice big logs for this cost a ton of money! :D It's commission based and for that you need a portfolio, which I don't have - 'cause I can't afford the log to make one! See how this goes full circle. :D

I'd love to end up making guitars. Would be the best of both worlds for me. That's probably one of the hardest doors to get into, though. Unique furniture and guitars.

As for pix, I've documented a ton of stuff on FB. ;) I just need to go back and do some better photography to create a proper FB page.

Your phone is off, Rick.
Morning. Give a call. :)

Morning Y'all.
Dave I can't help much but I do have a spare room here if you just want to get away for a bit and clear your head.

My phone was on but just like me it doesn't talk until it has a cup of coffee. :D

Yea, Pelican is back!

I was going into third stage withdrawl.

why do all those aussie shepherd dogs look like they are on the happiest formulation of meth-amphetamine EVAR?

there is a second and third stage of withdrawal?

Morning/Evening All

Did a search for you on our US web site for IT jobs Dave. Out of 386 jobs currently on offer, there are 3 in California. I would have though we'd have more presence than that on the west coast?

If you wanted to move to Maryland with Azzy, there are 5hitloads available.