Another Rally in the Books

[Mojo]

Got back home and am resting from a long week in Albany, GA. They ended up being a little short on the number of coaches but they still had alot. I did close to 50 free inspections and converted many of those. This rally ended up being one of the biggest for us in regards to sales. I am booked solid now till the end of April and that is with a 7 day a week sewing schedule. I had to order in numerous full rolls of fabric to fill the orders. At nearly $ 800 per roll it gets expensive. MiamiMike checked his history and I am number 2 on the list for the year so far in his sales volume. I am working on that free trip to Hawaii. :)

The inspections took its toll on my knees. I believe I am going to have to limit them in the future.
Climbing up and down from the roofs of these buses is a killer. But they can be a money maker as I always find numerous buses with bad toppers.

I didn't sell out of 303 products but the lady I hired to staff my booth sold numerous cases. I have a distributorship with Aerospace 303 and the sales from those products typically pay for my booth, staff person and some of the fuel getting to the show.

I have 7 full rolls of fabric in various colors ready to go and wouldn't you know it I get hit with several orders for a color I do not stock. I had to order another full roll of it to fill those orders.

Overall it was a good show and it put my face in front of many coach owners who didn't know we existed. I have a big show to do in May which is a week long event. I have 6 seminars to conduct at this one. I get a week off which I will be spending with my son, daughter in law and grandkids and then off to another show which I added to my schedule last week. This one will be in Gatlinburg, TN which I plan on doing on my way back to Florida. A much smaller event but again it is a new group of bus owners that have never seen my smiling face before. :)

I just wished my wife could travel with me so we could do the shows together but getting time off as  teacher is like pulling teeth. Its a shame as we always have fun traveling in the bus and it is so much easier since she knows our products inside and out. It gets old training a new person for each show.

I am expanding and will start carrying Carefree of Colorado assembly parts. I got an account with an RV parts wholesaler last year so can buy at dealer prices, mark them up and re-sell them. I am considering starting another LLC and doing double booths and start selling selected parts and accessories for motorcoaches. I haven't sprung that idea on the boss yet but there is a tremendous need for this.

I have included a link to my new booth setup. I bought a backdrop and had some banners made and used it for this last rally for the first time. I am having more banners made to fill out the backdrop and podium. I bought a couple directors chairs and had them embroidered with the company name and it all looks very professional. Got alot of great comments on the booth setup. Here is the link -

http://s181.photobucket.com/user/throgmartin/media/Upholstery%20Projects/BoothMI2014_zps907ddbf9.jpg.html

Chris

[Mike]

Glad it was  sucessfull.
I had a call last week. A guy who wanted a canvas he could install after he depleyed his slideout to cover iti gueesehis roller was broke.
You sure do use alot of rolls a year

[Mojo]

Mike:

Some of the toppers and awnings I am doing are so large that it takes alot of yards of fabric.
I have two orders that are 20 yards each.

I looked at my receipts from last year and the amount of money I spent on fabric is out of this world.
Thank God I get roll pricing. :)

Chris

[Mike]

I couldn't buy full roll as I never know what color I need next, like tomorrow im making a 20 yard cover in mocha tweed, then next 28 yards in cadet grey , my full mooring covers average about 20 yards less for enclosures

[Mojo]

I buy cut yardage on some colors as I don't get a call for them often. On the OEM colors I have to stock
full rolls of each. When I am busy like this I cannot afford to be down for a day waiting on fabric.

Sometimes Miami ships it out of JAX, sometimes Albany and many times the full rolls come right from Sattler or Recacril main warehouses.

I got a shipment the other day via Semi and the rolls were pallatized. Mike went ballistic and called
Sattler and chewed on them. Like I have a frigging fork truck here. To make matters worse I live on a dead end street with no turn around. He had to turn around ion my neighbors driveway. Mike was pissed at Sattler for that one.

It ended up being cheaper to ship by Old Dominion semi then UPS because of the overall weight of the rolls. Hell it was only 3 full rolls. I doubt I will ever see a semi dropping any fabric off again. :)

My old ass is still dragging from that last rally. :)

Chris

[Mike]

that reminded me of a time i ordered a new crate motor for my sutphen i NH  my shop was adjacent to a pay boat launch and was full of traier parking and launching on weekends well a semi arrives on the fourth of july in the crowded lot and nobody could move till we unloaded and he got out of there  lol 

[Mojo]

Mike never gets mad but he sure did over that one. Mike has been to my house before and remembered our street. His comment to me was " Was there even enough room for him to drive down the street ? " :)

This is the second time I have got a freight delivery by semi this year. I ordered a trailer for my lawn tractor and it came by semi. That was on a pallet as well and had to be removed and then loaded off the truck.

Chris