Beware of Toner Pirates

Or more specifically beware of toner cartridge pirates!!

This has nothing to do with wood art or entrepraneurship, but I thought it important enough to share...and I haven't written in a while.

First. Under NO circumstances should you give out your copier model number or machine id over the phone. Your copier vendor (if you have one) should have all of this information - it's their business to.

I've received two calls in two weeks at work that went something like this, "Hi this is Jane from customer service, we're just updating our records, could you please give me your copy machine model number?" Just so you know, our machine is not under any maintenance agreement.

Had I not had a short stint as a copier salesman I would never have known what this call was. It's a fishing call. Here is what can happen.

They may start with fishing for your machine id on one call and maybe your model number on another. They obviously have your phone number so they probably have your address. Perfect. A few weeks after this data is gathered a toner cartridge (or three) will arrive. An unsuspecting admin person or shipper/receiver will sign for the packages, put them on a shelf and think nothing of it. A month or two down the road when almost for sure you've run out of toner and used one of your new arrivals, you'll receive a bill - a HUGE bill for toner cartridges. At this point you're stuck. You've signed for them and used them...you own them. Tough shit on you! These jerks have just stolen your money.

Don't think it happen - your wrong! I actually lost a copier sale due to these pirates. My prospect was in need of a new machine and was ready to pull the trigger, but wanted to know if we could buy back this really expensive toner we sold her. Our records indicated that she hadn't ordered toner from us in well over a year. She said, "on no, we've nine toners on the shelf." I asked her to retrieve her invoices and low and behold they were from some company in California (I was in Massachusetts). You see, daughter doctor took over billing from mom doctor in a very busy practice. Mom doctor never really reviewed the invoices and just paid them...to the tune of $2700 dollars. The cartridges came in lots of three and she was invoiced $900 per lot. Needless to say, she couldn't justify the cost of a new machine when she had all that money tied up in toner. She opted to get her machine repaired just so she could burn through it all.

Know who your copier vendor is. If you get a call from them, they may be checking in to see how your toner supply is - that's ok. If you're not familiar with the voice on the other end, just ask who he or she is and from what company. Also ask them what machine they're calling about - even if you only have one machine. Make them tell you make, model and id. Then order up if you need to.

These dirt bags even have the balls to call copier vendors - they used to call us, as well as copier manufacturers! My next door neighbor works for a major player in the copier world and they used to get calls.

That's my public service announcement for today.

Stay tuned for the background on my Covertly Naughty Wood Art.

If I Can't Have Her Then Nobody Can!

That's the subconscious attitude I've had for better than a year now. I didn't want to experience how she made me feel any longer and I didn't want share her beauty with anyone. I worked very hard to ignore her. I wanted to close the door on an entire chapter in my life - I wanted a new beginning.

So after I left her, I did the right thing and got a new job that actually paid the bills. Life at home became less tense and a bit more regular (no pun intended). I was actually able to be a bit more present - it kind of felt good and at very least I felt relief. I sold off most of her belongings, but kept a few things that reminded me of the truly enjoyable times I had with her. I packed them away and didn't touch them and only thought about her/them when I had to move them out of the way to get something else.

During the time I was making the decision to leave, I met a friend who had met her some time before. He asked if he could spend time with her - with me - at the same time. I agreed and as we scheduled this time out I thought, "If I do decide to leave, maybe seeing her once in a while will make the transition less painful."

Though a bit awkward at first, I grew to really enjoy our meetings. I have to admit that it was nice to be able to unlock my feelings and it felt good to touch her; so much so that even the anticipation got me excited. I actually started to feel a bit guilty about the meetings because at home, I consciously ignored my feelings towards her. These meetings went on for a while and then continued when I finally left her. During our times together - the three of us - time would stand still as we became lost in her beauty. My friend would often say to me, "Joe, you have so much passion, how could you leave this?" I never really had a good answer.

Time went on and things where going quite well, but for some reason or another those wonderful encounters just seemed to fade away. I know my friend was bummed, but continued on without me and to tell you the truth I was a bit jealous. Though as soon as those feelings surfaced, I worked harder to squash them away...embarrassingly a behaviour that I'm quite good at.

To fill the void, I became increasingly interested in new business ideas - or just revisiting old ones - and they began to occupy my thoughts. "Cool, a new outlet" I thought, "I'll be able to choose one of my ideas and carry it out."

So I started planning out my ideas and discussing them with others. I began sharing on Facebook and Twitter. I even created this blog with the thought it will keep me motivated and accountable - a thought I still believe true. But what I was finding as I got settled with one idea, another would appear. And then another and then another...

What do I do with all of these ideas? They just don't seem to stop. Yes, I can do a whole bunch of work without spending any money, but if I can't see anything come to fruition - the end result I picture in my mind - then it's no real outlet at all!

I recently had a discussion with a dear friend from a very long time ago and she said something to me that I really had to think about. She said:

"...sometimes when we live in our thoughts without an awareness of what we are actually thinking in the background, it can actually hold us back or keep us stagnant...Sometimes our wants are Don't Wants in Disguise..."

So I pondered this and all of a sudden my emotions came flying out of me and at that moment I knew that I needed her back. I had to start working wood again!

The second I made that decision, the wood project ideas started to flow non-stop! I quickly got what tools I had left in my dormant and dusty basements shop ready to go. I inventoried and organized my supplies and started in. As soon I my hands began working with her again, everything seemed to align and make sense. I could now see an idea, an end result and confident in my abilities, take that idea and create it. I now felt settled...I felt at home.

Now I know some of you have been reading and following along my journey thus far and may be saying, "what's he doing now?" Good question. I never said when I started "An Adventure: Entrepreneur Stuck In a Regular Guy's Life" that I had a specific plan in mind or that this was a how to on building a business, but I just asked that you come along for the ride.

Now I will continue to pursue some of my business objectives and ultimately see one through, but now they will include wood and it will all be documented here.

I want to share with the world just how truly beautiful wood is!

...
Some of my past work: www.unniwoodworks.com

What The Hell am I Doing?

I've been really struggling with that questions a lot lately. Am I researching my new idea? Am I trying to plan some type of money making project to get by and build up a few bucks to put towards the new idea? Did I uncover a new and different (and really cool) idea while thinking through the money making idea? Am I trying to work through a home improvement project that has to get done? Am I trying to write this crazy blog? These are all things I need to be doing, but how?

Thus far I've been just slicing my time up a little at a time, but it just feels like I'm spinning my wheels. Feeling pretty frustrated, I recently read this post on Twitter by one of my followers, KirkTaylorCom, (follow Ed at twitter\KirkTaylorCom) that was like a huge reality kick in the butt!

Here is what KirkTaylorCom had to say:

What do you do to stay focused?

Distractions come from all directions, sometimes they appear as opportunities (they are for someone, but maybe not you) and other times it is something that gives pleasure for the short term. What do you do to combat these distractions?


Staying on focus is tough, even tougher the more successful that you get. You think that you can stray from the plan and have no worries doing so until you realize that your distraction just held you back. Distractions have just as much power when you are relaxed as when you were under the gun.

Focus allows you to say no to things that might make you money, but don’t contribute to the end game. How can you develop a sustainable plan if you are taking a turn every time you start moving forward? You might find a new channel you can do but if you don”t have the resources to do it all, then don’t! Pick your target and move towards that one. This is a major reason why entrepreneurs will continue to struggle with success. It is a major struggle for me as I reach towards being successful.

Sometimes we lose focus because of negative influences. That is when you have to make the decision to ignore those negative influences and focus on what you can impact. As you become more successful, the negative influences lose power. If they cause you to hesitate you loose the power. Keep moving forward.

...

KirkTaylorCom, your words are a huge reminder for me to grab the task as hand, focus, plan accordingly and execute and to keep the negative energy from sucking the life out of me. But no matter what, just keep moving forward!

In a previous post I mentioned that the David Allen's Getting Things Done system that I'm following is a work in progress. Well, I've determined that I need to get more disciplined with my weekly review and a bit more granular in my task creation by way of brainstorming my next action. This way I'll be able to weed out what will move the plan forward and what will not. As well, I need to stop being my own energy hog. I've found myself wallowing in "how am I going to do all this" for a while now. I'm usually a very positive person and pretty decisive, but as I've reflected on this I believe a bit of fear has crept in allowing the negativity to take hold. Reading through Ed's post and then actually writing about it has been very therapeutic. Focusing my thoughts while writing this post has actually helped to squelch some fear and provides some clarity. Now I need to capitalize on this momentum and plod ahead.

In the words of Larry the Cable Guy, I guess I just need to "Git 'er done!"

Creative Funding and Family

"Ok Joe, it's been a couple of weeks now and we still don't know what your idea is."

Well, I can't let the cat out of the bag just yet. Though my plan is to spend little to no money in the early stages of development, I still need to spend it. In addition to company structuring, idea protection in the form of a provisional patent are some costs that I must incur. Right now, I just don't have the money for this, but I want to continue to move forward. So what's next?

As I began to think through the overall idea as well as ways to make a few short term bucks, one of the biggest obstacles that came to mind was "how can I get support at home - i.e. get the wife to buy in?" Many guys are probably saying, "just do it and ask for forgiveness later." You see, the last time around and in my own way, I tried that. I thought I had her full support after sharing my plan. I even talked her into letting me use money we had earmarked for home improvements. Great, I had money and support - this will most definitely work. Right?

I can tell you, it didn't take very long for things to change. As time went on and as the funds dwindled, the support I thought I had turned ugly. Every decision I made and dollar I spent was questioned. "What the hell does she know? I know what's best." As well, basic family logistical support (i.e. cooking, kid pickup, errands, etc.) became a struggle every step of the way. "She needs to understand that I need to be available to see clients in the afternoon/evening." I became very resentful and bitter. Soon I took on the f*** it attitude and just started to do my own thing. That was a big help! What started out being a wonderful new experience full of exploration turned into a real emotional grind which actually took away from the real focus that was needed to succeed.

What did I learn? "Stop being an asshole!" I'm thinking that my passion, excitement, and determination was quite overbearing and that our discussions along the way were not discussions at all, but actually one way diatribes hell bent for getting the answer that I wanted to hear...a quiet "ok." As I look back, what I thought was tacit support was actually a huge amount of fear and frustration. Patty, if you're reading this - I'm truly sorry for putting you through that!

"Get back to the funding part, Joe!"

As our finances have been stressed, keeping the safety net of my day job is paramount. I need something on the side that I can do at home, I need to start small and I need to involve Patty. My first thought, "sell some kind of wood projects that I can make, online." Nope, I just don't have the time or the space to make stuff and sell it. I could sell crap around the house online, but even that with the searching, taking pictures, meeting someone that doesn't want to pay shipping...oh, I can't be bothered!

A reseller - some type of online store that can process orders while I sleep. Perfect! So after a bit of research I determined that wholesalers can be used to drop ship product to customers. Some even offer their own online store services. Well, which wholesaler do I choose? I've read there are a lot of for pay companies out there supposedly providing access to many wholesalers. I've also read there are a lot of scammers out there. Then I ran across Sunrise Wholesale Merchandise that are currently offering free membership. They also have a very reasonably priced loaded website program. To top it all off they have an A+ rating with the BBB.

Now I've just signed up with them and have yet to sell anything so I can't really tell you how they work, but here's my plan. I've already begun to talk to my wife about what type of products make sense to start with. We're going to pick just a select few items. My hope is to sell them on Craigslist and/or Ebay to first learn how the process works and to prove to both of us that it can be done. Then when the proceeds of those sales are high enough to cover the cost of the online store I'll pull the trigger. I'll then work towards driving traffic to the site. I actually have some ideas about this as well - stay tuned.

As time goes on the orders will continue and the coffers will begin to fill. When the proceeds from these sales are high enough to cover the costs of the original idea's company structure, provisional patent and business plan research etc., I'll move forward with them. Hopefully by keeping Patty in the loop and aware of my plan to only spend what we can cover, we can experience the exploration together.

So for now, this blog will be documenting an idea within an idea - let's see what happens!

The Catalyst: My Decision to Move Forward

As previously mentioned, my past attempt at owning my own company was largely a failure from a business perspective, but a complete success from life lesson and business experience perspective. I know it sounds funny, but one of my fears when went back into the corporate world was that I would forget how to think. Believe it or not I was pleasantly surprized to discover just the opposite.


All I do is think! When I finally made the decision to close Unni Woodworks, I had every intention of settling down with a new job and then resurrecting a small scale shop at home for pleasure and the occasional "for pay" project. That didn't happen. Except for projects around the house, my woodworking tools never come out - no real desire. Instead, all I think and read about is business, success, corporate structure, sales, time management, marketing, Twitter...

Something's happened. I've discovered that my real passion is business and not woodworking.

Ok Joe, now what are you going to do with all this redirected passion? "I know, I'll take all these ideas rattling around in my head and plow forward, right? As well as get the yard ready for summer, install a patio and shed, go to a recital, cook dinner a million times, be an Aspie advocate for my youngest, plant a garden with my oldest, hang with the wife, help plan two birthdays, and - and - and..."

But how am I going to do all this? I really wasn't sure until I continued to see references to the same system over and over while searching around for time management help. Then I dug into David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system and got his book. His premise of processing and filing everything from an inbox into a trusted system and then only acting on a project's "next action" enabling you to clear your head, really made a hell of a lot of sense to me.

I was very eager to get through the book and start being productive, but I had to make a choice "paper or plastic" no really, paper or electronic. David Allen doesn't advocate one over the other, but to just use whatever works. I was pretty sure I didn't want to use paper because I have enough crap around the house and I didn't want to add any more. So I decided electronic with one requirement. It had to be cheap or free. I had a regular cell phone and I wasn't going to spend money on a new one, so a mobile solution was out. The choice was made on what device, my computer, but now what type of task manager/to-do list/filing system. Again, cheap or free. So after a bit more reseach, I stumbled upon Remember The Milk - and it was free!! I even found a GTD blog entry that gave a step-by-step way to set up Remember The Milk with Getting Things Done in mind. Perfect!

I can't even tell you how I started to feel as I began processing all of my projects, ideas and tasks into the system. Corny and cliche I know, but a light growing brighter or a weight being lifted comes to mind. I don't know, I could actually take a deep breath and feel confident that I'd be able to manage things. In fact, the more I processed the more confident I felt. As time went on, I found it easier and easier to use the system and now everytime I get a new idea it gets processed and I feel confident that I can go back to it with a clear head when time allows and begin to work the idea.

This system is a work in progress for me - I'm certainly not perfect at it, but now I can't do without it. Now that I've been using it for a while I can look back and honestly say this was a major deciding factor in my decision to move forward...it was the catalyst.

Just a Regular Guy

I'm an entrepreneur stuck in a regular guy's life - really!

I've had and continue to have so many different ideas, but I just can't seem to take the next step to turn them into anything. I gave it a go after an IT layoff in the fall of 2003 and turned a woodworking hobby into a business. I loved everything about it and I did fairly well, but I just didn't have the cash reserves to sustain through the economic downturn.

So now what? I've taken on a job with a salary - which is nice after being paycheck-free for four years. OK cool - money is coming in, my wife is happy, I can support my kids, I can pay the bills....big friggin deal! Don't get me wrong - I do value a good home life, but I want something more. I miss the control - the sole decision making - the constant "in-my-head" thinking about where to take my business next - the feeling of winning over the next client - something that's completely mine!

Well, I'm jumping in again and I want to take you with me!

I've a really cool idea and I want to turn it into a company and my hope is to document the entire process here. The thought being that if I commit myself to writing about each step, I'll stay motivated to keep moving forward.

So, join me on this regular guy adventure and watch while the entire idea unfolds - through my triumphs and my struggles.


New ideas
Family support
Business planning
Product/company naming
Protecting an idea
The market
Manufacturers
Time management
Self motivation
Networking
Prototyping
Branding
Pricing
Many more...

My hope is that these topics will not only include the practical, but also be intermingled with the nitty gritty drama of being regular.

Very recently, a good friend of mine, Steve Sarsfield said something to me that really struck a cord after I floated the idea of blogging an entire business. It was nothing terribly prophetic in the great scheme of quotable quotes, but it was much simpler yet more powerful. He said..."do it!"


OK...here I go!