bad week

[FigureLLC]

you guys ever get in a funk? this week everything seems to be taking 3 times the time and effort, my work is coming out sub-par, my rework is coming out worse, and customers are haggling big time.

i'm in my first few months of doing job-shop type work and dealing with customers for coating on a regular basis. did you or do you ever question whether you could make your business work in the long term and if you could grow it? i'm trying to shake these negative thoughts in my head, and i was wondering who else has had these and how you pulled yourself back out of the red.

i know this is a bad time with the economy to be wetting your feet in pretty much any business...

sorry to whine, needed to get that off my chest.

[ty1854]

I hear you man the last two weeks have been crazy here. First I am remodeling the shop and building a addition so I have to balance work and construction which had me behind already. On top of that my son got sick and I had to stay home with him for a few days. When I got back in the shop I had about 30 missed calls and a ton of emails so that took half the day to get back with everyone. Now I am a week behind and half way through a construction project. I'm not questioning weather or not I should continue doing business as I love my job but dang it is stressful sometimes.

[baz]

been in polishing business for close to 20 years and into pc for about 2and a half years and yes i did get some weeks like you are having and yes everytime i would question myself as to wether i stay in that line or find something else .
well the good news is i m still in business . the bad news is i still get weeks like that and i still question myself.
the last couple of weeks have been terrible , from a frame that i had to nredo 3 times to a set of cyl heads pc d with polished fins that i had to strip and redo
+ plus a bunch of parts that i did for a customer just to find out that i got the wrong powder color in the box and the list goes on and on , plus all the shops are after me for their parts , any jobs that comes in now i have to tell customers that i won t be able to work on it before a month and a half

[o1racing03]

You guys make me feel so good to know I am not the only one going through these growing pains. I am not yet allowing the thought that this isnt going to work, I am committed to making it work. I just hope I dont lose any accounts in the meantime.

[FigureLLC]

well the good news is i m still in business . the bad news is i still get weeks like that and i still question myself.

that actually made me laugh audibly. thanks for the pep talk guys!

i went through a pretty long period of not knowing what to do for a business, since there are a lot of things my combination of tools will let me do. i was all over the place and it wasn't working. so i decided to focus on one thing, and since i'm fascinated, perhaps obsessed, with really nice powder coating, i decided to go with that. i know there's a *lot* to learn, and to learn fast, and i try to keep in mind that i'm still pretty green and shouldn't be hard on myself about it or get discouraged. i hope i don't run into these weeks too often. i also tell myself - pretty much daily - "experience is the name we give our failures." i'm racking up the experience this week!

thanks again guys!

[o1racing03]

Miley Cyrus was quoted last week as saying"The day I quit making mistakes is the day I quit learning" , so true.

[rsmarco]

Hey man, must be the turning of the seasons...
I had a really bad beginning to this week..all stemming from a set of car wheels that my customer wanted done in two colors, masking off the insets. Me personally, I told him I couldn't do it because it would not be up to my standards and I offered to get them chromed and painted for him...turns out he loves them and is getting them pinstriped as well...
Point is, never show your hand to your customer...not only do they not know what goes on behind closed doors, but they probably shouldn't.
Keep a smile, keep your chin up and look at ever screw up as a learning tool.
....for what its worth...this week has theoretically made me a genius...hahaa


Me, I was a banker and commercial lender for 11 years, raced sportbikes and built a bunch of bikes and track cars. Out shop does motorcycle performance and custom powder, sometimes it sucks but I wouldn't change it if I could!

[FigureLLC]

sometimes it sucks but I wouldn't change it if I could!

i hear ya on that. even this week i didn't dread getting out of bed like i have with other jobs. the fear in the back of my head is that if i don't make this work, having to go back to that. i'm a ways from folding, though, so i'm gonna keep pluggin!

[welterracer]

Dont feel too bad, i think i always end up redoing up to 50% off the parts i do..

Even with all the time i put into them i get some sort of defect or miss a spot or a spot that is too thin..

Hell i put 4 coats of powder on a mini-bike frame when i was for sure the 3rd coat was heavy as hell..

The economy SUCKS right now.. my phone calls have dropped to nothing and the emails were 10 a day are now only 1 a day and i am running a sale and i still cant get work..

People are definitly tightening there belts on spending money..

Brian

[SCOTTRODS]

Dont feel too bad, i think i always end up redoing up to 50% off the parts i do..

Even with all the time i put into them i get some sort of defect or miss a spot or a spot that is too thin..

Hell i put 4 coats of powder on a mini-bike frame when i was for sure the 3rd coat was heavy as hell..

The economy SUCKS right now.. my phone calls have dropped to nothing and the emails were 10 a day are now only 1 a day and i am running a sale and i still cant get work..

People are definitly tightening there belts on spending money..

Brian

On the bright side: The media (yeah, the doofs that started this panic of economic tightening) are starting to go back on their word. They have started talking about how the economy has been up for the last 4 weeks or maybe months or something. In our media hype world, they have the best likelihood of "fixing" this mess, since they are the ones with the reigns. So,... Maybe the media and wallstreet are onto something... Keep your heads up fellas.