Typical day in the life of a not so typical supplier.

Guys ask why no store? Don’t need it.  We get it done with the phone & email.

5:20AM Tim Dodaro calls to leave message for order of case of Sticky Tabs.
I roll out of bed, get coffee at Circle K, Start work from my van, finishing orders from yesterday:

Warren Wallace order: he had called in order. Hadn’t heard from him since 2011.  Big Les Jones fan. He wants Skinny/impressed.  He Bot 300ft in 2011, held up all this time.
Doesn’t know about lounge so I email him a link.
Email Paul his order. (Paul is a lifesaver, fulfilling about 80% of my orders, freeing me to fill urgent orders, order supplies, blend chemicals, make wands, RC99s, etc. Paul will email a list of orders he filled towards end of week, shipping costs he incurred, I add these cost to invoices and mail out invoices with self-addressed stamped envelope that you guys are so accustomed to getting).



6AM, still working on invoices from yesterday. Looked at markets. Most companies still buying their own stocks to fool the public. Graph.

We'll be drifting til Obama is gone, then we’ll really have to pay the Piper.
6:30 market opens, another day of no trades … decide to write a Journal of the day instead.

Get to shop, start working on orders for today…

Get glide ready for Jeff, Five Star, Indiana.


Joel Leal calls: Need a spraybar VT14… talked him out of it.

Tim Dodaro calls to make sure I got his order, adds Hugger, Joe valve, Stairclimber.
He gets RC pricing for teaching me about a mesh bag he needs me to make ‘for things you use on every single job’: inexpensive $20; Must hold 2 drop cloths, corner guards, door boot for over the door, Hugger or two. ‘Try to make it easy on these guys so they do it.’
Not same as carrying bag for lead vac & soln hoses they get from CD for $40 with CD Logo.


Old Dominion pulls up to drop off drums of raw ingredients for S/O.

Fred Hamer (pronounced Hay-mer) calls to ask about MEK sample is sent in his order.


Carlos emails me, Urgent Order:
Hi Joe,
i have a few things that i would like to order over night i don't mind paying the shipping fees. a Cool Cuff
2 inch Starter Kit, 2 AH45 2 in. Male Starter, 25 White Elastic Liner for Silver Bullet, 1 low flow high shear jet kit for a evolution 13 wand, 3 AH121 2 in. to 1.5 in. Reducer Set. i also being have a few problems with the hydramaster rx-20 jets, so i like to order 10 V-jets and if you think that is possible to have the extensions i will also like those.
If you have any question feel free to call me or my son Cristopher at 617 590 1773
Late in day, I convert it to order form and email him back, reminding him we have tough time doing things overnight:
Got your order Carlos.
Look it over and I will get started.
Very difficult for me to overnight orders as it is just me & Paul and we work on first serve basis. –Joe
Carlos emails back: everything is find except is 3 AH1212" to 1.5" Reducer Set. i understand that you cant send it over night but if you could please send it as soon as possible. i have a job this weekend and would like to use the equipment. thank you very much for your help.
Plan: It’ll take me a day to get EVO13 HSK ready, still time to overnight on Thursday so he has it Friday.


Brian Edlund emails in his order:
65 foot par flex w shut off and ads
5 foot courtesy hosex2
extra foster valve
extra set qds
couple orange qd covers
2 hf velcro straps to fasten solution line to wand
green wedge it
red release
gallon tropical
2 bullet baskets
40 elastic bags
one of those hugger things
HF hose
3 rebuild kits
15 minutes later sends another email: “HF hose”
(I copy & paste this and plan to work on converting  it to an order after dinner).

Ricky from Hernandez in NC calls in, 5 more RC99s (already has 5) with new ss basket  2” welded x 2” Male CC. 2 new ss baskets, new 100 liners, sample ink remover in roll-on spot bottle.
Asks for help with 3 Problem stains: Ink, Hair dye, Curry (Turmeric).  I said oxidize it. If no go then spot dye it or patch it. He says he’s got 2 good spot dyers on staff and all his guys know to do inserts. So why you asking me? Oh yeah any free samples  may have. So I sent him my favorite ink remover. That’s it.


Sent proforma to a guy just getting started. Never cleaned a carpet before, being mentored by another cleaner. Gonna be cleaning mostly vacant, furnished apartments, Later Day Saints, near BYU.  


VAN WILCOX, Masterclean OH, calls to buy CCs. Wants new jets for his 15 pmf wands. I ask for picture of wand cuz he doesn’t know model. Showed him how I can save him money on a better solution hose – he’s still using Goodyear. maybe PCX. Teaches me about his HX and Lotus System.  Wants Hugger, has 48 corner guards present.  

Ordered PC Ti stock wand for LJ Huffman. Wants a Soft Touch conversion and some rebuild kits.  
Drove to bank, made deposit. Checked mail; couple of checks. Ca-ching.

Mark Shannon of the HERTFORDSHIRE  UK emails his order. He did a screen capture from the realcleaners store.

I converted it to my order form:


Realize I gotta get Robert’s (Milspec) & Bruce of high Esteam’s drum & pallets out tomorrow.

Pc Ti glide AZ… I’ll call her back in the AM.

3-4PM, get in long old-man’s nap, good til 10PM tonight. Plenty of time to convert several of these call-in orders converted to printed orders. I’ll add shipping once I know, in a few days, then mail or email the invoices.  

Contributed to Spot Dying thread at the Lounge.

6:30PM, sitting outside McD’s drinking coffee… ac/dc inverter beeps at me telling me I just ran my battery down to nothing writing this stupid journal. Dam. Walk to shop, get backup, cart it to van, drive van back to shop. Blend fresh S/O an hour more. Closed shop. Go make dinner.  

By 6PM today, 31 calls and 22 emails (~15 of which are bus related).

8PM Edlund emails one more time: ‘please add 3 soft touch rebuild kits to my order.’
Make it 23 emails.

Realize late, I gotta get Robert’s order ready early along with Bruce’s, sending both guys drums tomorrow. Print out their orders.





10:30PM Posted this journal to Lounge.
Crash.

Realize none of this was storefront orders. All my orders come in by phone or email.
No, I don’t have the largest selection or same day shipping in many cases, but I do have good info, good products and I solve a lot of RCs problems each day.  
Nothing to hide, Nothing to Fear. Open Book Here. Together, we prosper.

Man you need another assistant. Either that or a really nice tour bus to work out of with driver and secretary...could probably sell you one cheap, but it might have some hail damage.

I think baseball-sized hail can really be called "Hell Damage" instead.

That was cool Joe! Don't forget to make my invoice. I want to order some more stuff for hector.

To walk a mile in another mans shoes.

A typical day for one can be an extraordinary day for others.

Thanks for sharing and Thanks for all the help.

That Is one crazy day.

As a customer, it is interesting to see how things look in the kitchen. Makes you appreciate all the egg breaking.

milspec6 wrote:As a customer, it is interesting to see how things look in the kitchen.  Makes you appreciate all the egg breaking.

Never thought of it like that but this is true.
Way to go Joe.

Not crazy. Just typical, like a full day of cleaning. I know I couldn't keep up with you guys. I tried awhile back and the guy said, Joe, you can stay in truck, we got it. Ouch.

On breaking eggs, I used to tip the cooks at the restaurants. the cooks loved it. The waitresses hated me.
Truth is, the cooks work way harder and deserve the tip way more than the waitress, imo.
I say used to cuz I had to stop - never got a dirtier look than from waitresses whom I asked to 'give this to the cook for me.' Still, it's true.