Messages

Hey vu,

One thought regarding your good, but slow worker, is to put him on piece meal status.

I do this with preparing furniture for reupholstery. (Taking off all the fabric, staples, glueing any wood that needs glued, cleaning exposed wood, etc.) I figured how much time it takes me, and then I figured how much I will pay per hour, and then I pay for each piece of furniture.

For example, (I'll make up some numbers here), let's say a 3 seat cushion sofa takes me 4 hours to prepare. I want to pay $10.00 per hour. That would be $40.00 to prepare that sofa.

If the guy does it in 3 hours, he is paid $40.00. If he does it in 4 hours, he gets paid $40.00. If he does it in 5 hours, he gets paid $40.00.

The benefit to me is that I know how much it will cost me to have someone prep the furniture. The benefit to my worker is that they can work fast or slow, whatever they want to do, they just have to do it correctly.

Just a thought.

Gene

Gene

Let the owner of a company go away for a month. If the revenue continues just as if he was there, then the company has a salable value. If the revenue stops when the owner is gone, then it's the owner who generates the revenue, not the company.

Bottom line: The value of a company is what someone is willing to pay for it!

Tell me 10 times annual, 30 times annual, whatever. If I offer you $25.00 and that 's the highest offer, then the company is worth $25.00.

I suggest that you read a lot and talk to a lot of folks who work on selling businesses for a living. SCORE is a great resource. I hope this forum is only the beginning of your research.

Best of luck to you.

Gene

Treat answer:

I love my tufting needle.

Gene

Remember the movie "Close Encounters"? The spaceships were flying over traffic on a country road and when they came to a curve in the road the spaceships flew all over the place trying to make that turn.

A redneck in one of the cars said, "They can fly rings around the moon but they can't drive worth sh#T!"

Many young people and kids today can fly rings around the internet but they have no social skills. They sound great over the net or texting or facebook or emails, but in person they do not know how to look you in the eye, they do not know how to have a face to face conversation.

We used to be a country based on manufacturing, Darren. Today we are an information society.

I have always said that Al Gore is laughing all the way to the bank. He knows he did not create the internet. He knows man made global warming is a scam. He flies on his private jet all over the world telling other people that they need to stop flying their private jets.

I read an article last night on the net that "Internet taxes" are coming. It won't just be for buying stuff, but it will include a 'use' tax also!!!

Gene

3 pneumatic dental drills.

Potato chips, a bunch of them, between the old fabric and the new fabric.

1 staple puller that I use almost every day.

Around 50 small rocks, the ones that are smooth.

Around 25 beer bottle caps from a chair that was used at a bible college by the son of a family that is very religious and in conversation the mom mentioned how happy she was that her son went to a college where there was no drinking. I never told her about the bottle caps.

Gene

Women, it is almost always women, (I am not being sexist here), who were taught to sew by their moms and grandmas are the best sewers around. They have been sewing all their lives.

I contacted my bank about using their payroll services if I hire part time workers. I must be too small for them - they won't return my calls or emails. LOL

Hire someone with intelligence, motivation, and integrity. If they have the first two and not the third, they will get you every time. You can always teach skills.

We just had a furniture / interior design company announce that they are closing after 144 years in business. I can't help but believe that it is going to get worse.

Gene

Now that we have 51 percent of Americans paying zero taxes, (and most of them still get money back on their tax returns), we certainly have no need to get rid of Labor Day. But, do you think they will be changing the name to something else?

How about "tax day". We will be getting the largest tax increase in our history in a few months.

Gene

2 to 4 hours to clean up my shop from a major project that I finished Saturday so I can go in Tuesday and be ready to rock and roll.

I saw an interview with a leading scientist in the field of cancer research. They asked him when does he do his best work. I think they were talking about morning or afternoon. He said he does his best work on Sunday's, because no one else is around to bother him and he can concentrate more and get more work done.

Gene

Who would have thought that someone would make a sewing machine for the visually impaired? Awesome!

Gene

Hello,

Mr.Sofadoc, your suggestion is a very good suggestion. It does tend to solve the problem of needing to let the air out and in. And yes, it does cause the cushion to not be reversible. However, I am sure there are folks out there who have had no problem reversing the cushion when the leather rotted out on the front. They are probably thinking, "Hey, why didn't they just use all fabric? The chair would have lasted a lot longer."

I am always disappointed when I see fabric on the bottom half of leather cushions. Vinyl cushions I don't care. But leather? Ugh! You see this nice leather wing back or comfy club chair, turn over the cushion, and there it is: cheap crap! It's like someone on American Idol singing a Janis Joplin song. Or seeing an old  Porsche 911 and then hearing the VW engine inside it when it takes off down the street. Why not use florescent pink or purple with florescent green dots for the fabric? If you are going to us fabric, why not REALLY USE FABRIC!

Mr. Minuph: I would bet a dollar, if I had one, that the zipper will blow out before the seams if there is no additional way to release the air, especially if some big ol' butt plops down on the cushion while simultainiously trying to balance the bowl of chips and the diet soda pop while changing the channel because NCIS just started.

Mr. Chuck D: I think I would add brass ventilators in the back, nicely spaced with a few above the zipper and a few below the zipper, depending on the size of the cushion and the thickness of the foam.

Gene

Hello everyone,

I was joking with the "NO IT IS NOT OK!!! SPAM IS SPAM!!!" thing. Hello!!!!!!!!

If you read the next line in that post of mine, you will see that it is an attempt at self deprecating humor.

"Deprecating". Not "defecating", for those of you who haven't had your morning coffee yet.

We get a lot of posts asking for help. We also get a lot of posts offering help, like Kathy's post. Those latter posts are the ones that make this such a great forum.

I would think that any post that touches on some aspect of our businesses would be welcome and appreciated by someone.

Gene

You had me believing what you were saying until the part about Bill and Hillary sharing a room. That's when I knew it was  all a joke.



> A man is driving down a deserted stretch of highway when he notices a sign
> out of the corner of his eye....It reads:
>
> SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
> HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
> 10 MILES
>
> He thinks this is a figment of his imagination and drives on without
> second thought....
>
> Soon he sees another sign which reads:
>
> SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
> HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
> 5 MILES
>
> Suddenly he begins to realize that these signs are for real and drives
> past a third sign saying:
>
> SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
> HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
> NEXT RIGHT
>
> His curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls into the drive On the far
> side of the parking lot is a stone building with a small sign next to the
> door reading:
>
> SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
>
> He climbs the steps and rings the bell. The door is answered by a nun in a
> long black habit who asks, 'What may we do for you my son?'
>
> He answers, 'I saw your signs along the highway and was interested in
> possibly doing business....'
>
> 'Very well my son. Please follow me.' He is led through many winding
> passages and is soon quite disoriented. The nun stops at a closed door and tells
> the man, 'Please knock on this door.'
>
> He does so and another nun in a long habit, holding a tin cup answers the
> door.. This nun instructs, 'Please place $100 in the cup then go through
> the large wooden door at the end of the hallway.'
>
> He puts $100 in the cup, eagerly trots down the hall and slips through the
> door pulling it shut behind him.
>
> The door locks, and he finds himself back in the parking lot facing
> another sign:
>
> GO IN PEACE.
> YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS.
> SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU SINNER.

No, to your question. I have seen commercials where folks spray paint their furniture. I've did a google to check it out and I have trouble believing it is a good product, but, you never know.

Going from a light color to a dark color would make it's chances of looking decent more possible.

Gene

Hey Kyle,

Quality from China? Not a bad idea.

I count it a wonderful compliment in that I have had a number of Interior Designers call me from other parts of the USA to have me do work for their clients who live, or just moved to, my city.

Anyway, I am waiting for an Interior Designer to call me from Canada. Then I will be able to tell people that my work is "internationally known!!!".

Gene

A few years ago I had a similar idea. I posted it on this forum somewhere. I can't find it.

I had some time in the shop and was playing around with making a jig that would compress the springs so I could then easily and quickly do an 8 way tie. I never got very far with the idea.

It still seems like it would work. The springs are in a specific compression state after tied. Why can't you put these springs in that compression state first, with the jig, then tie them. Releasing the jig would cause the ties to hold the springs in the exact same position. ???

Even if I did create a jig that did what I have explained above, I can still see times when I would want to hand tie the springs without the jig, just because it 'feels' right. It's like the times I hand sew the back out panel instead of using ply grip just because the furniture I am working on 'feels' like that would be the best way to do it.

Gene

PS. No, I'm not going nuts. I'm already there.