The End is Near

My special interest is computers. Let's talk geek here.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

Believe me, I understand. It broke my heart to see what they did with my last house.
I spent a fortune to redo the outside of the house in specially treated cedar so it wouldn't decay or need refinishing.
Each slat of cedar was pressure cooked in both a preservative, and plasticizer. You couldn't tell it looking at the wood, but it would bead water for over 20 years for sure. The guy who redid the house covered it all up with cheap vinyl siding.

You may have seen this before, it was my eleventh home. The first picture on the right is how the exterior of the house looked before I added a room where the carport was, and completely redid the exterior. The pictures don't really do it justice, and were taken before we redid the landscaping.

http://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimit ... ml#heleven

The article with it explains enough, hi hi.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

That article reflects your experience with rehabbing and your talent as an engineer. The home conversion is nothing short of perfect ... and I didn't even see the inside. I don't know if I'd pick the same wedding date that you did, but it certainly is a talking point at any social gathering. :mrgreen:

Anybody who puts vinyl on top of that kind of wood should be watched closely. They obviously are insane.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

I had my two kids, plus I had three foster kids, plus my wife to be had two kids, we also had four dogs, and a chimpanzee, not counting the cats and birds that came along with us before and after marriage.
Oh, her family and relatives were Jewish, and my family and relatives were Catholic, and nary the twain shall meet.
We couldn't think of a better date to get married, hi hi.

Next is my house here in Knoxville. It's a crooked little house with a crooked little roof and a crooked little, well you know the rest, hi hi.
Doing that bathroom with the crooked floor, ceiling and walls, was a total nightmare.
My son likes to see how I do things, so I added the info to a newsletter.
You can scan through the newsletter and glance at the pictures and get an idea of what all it took to get things to fit and come out level. I'm sure you'll notice when I say custom built, I truly mean custom built to the hilt, hi hi.

http://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimit ... l2008a.pdf

Have a great day Yogi.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

That's the kind of project I wish I had the skills to tackle. My first instinct would be to try and straighten out the structural elements of the house before remodeling, but doing that after such a long time being crooked might just cause more damage internally. I also like the idea of documenting the progress. I have a Tumblr account with something similar. Tumblr is basically a blog shell and I found it very easy to create something my daughters might find interesting. It wasn't just for their amusement. I also have a streak of nostalgia once in a while and enjoy looking back at what I was doing at a given point of time. Since you shared your memories I'll do the same here: http://yogihacks.tumblr.com/

It's not all about the house I lived in. There are many Bits and Bytes out of my everyday life in there. Some of it only has meaning for the daughter who actually reads it. They only show the most recent entries so that you have to click on the history link in order to go back in time. It's all there but it may take a few clicks to get to the good stuff. It took me a good half hour to get through it all, and I barely read any of it. There is some political tripe that you can just skip over, and there is also a few pages of what we did to our old house way at the beginning of the blog. That means many many clicks to get to that point. I doubt that it's worth the effort to get to the start of the blog, but you now have the link if you want some insights into my thinking and run out of things to do. :mrgreen:
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

Wow, you sure like posting a lot of pictures on your blog.
Many of them quite interesting, several amusing, etc.
Plus a wee bit of nostalgia hiding in there too!

I'm going to preface the following with: I was flat broke, just auctioned off everything I owned to pay off all of my debts, and left for Knoxville with less than 3 thousand dollars. I kept one tabletop business to restart after the move, and to do so would use up all but 500 bucks of the 3 grand I brought with me, to buy the necessary ingredients, and packaging.
My intent was to continue my occupation as a general contractor. Knox County agree to reciprocate on all my trades licenses before I moved south, then reneged after I moved down here. It would take 15 years for me to re-earn all of my necessary licenses, and by then I would be too old to work.

My wife and I lived in a single room of her parents home with access to a shared kitchen and bathroom. After I got a couple of orders under my belt from my new start-up of an old business, I bought a small starter size home to renovate for us to move into. I brought the plumbing and electric up to code first so I could have the utilities turned on. Then I reshingled the roof, added new gutters, windows and doors, and gave the exterior a quick single coat white primer paint job to tide me over until I finished the inside.
My wife's father, the healthy one, suddenly turned ill and died, leaving no one to take care of her mom who had suffered with bone cancer for many years. In fact, the reason we moved to Knoxville instead of elsewhere, was because after Debi and I were married, I learned her sister was blind, and unable to care for her parents. This was one of the factors why I chose to move back to Debi's home town, rather than stay in St. Louis County where I had several relatives who could keep me busy working and help me out when I needed help.

My original intent with the small house I did buy to renovate, besides living there while I did another larger house for us to move into, changed when her father passed away. Her mom needed cared for 24/7.
I had a lot of time to think while I cared for her mom. I was best suited for the job considered I was twice a widower and already been through all the learning stages of how to handle nearly every medical situation at home.
With nothing else to do, I made plans on how to do a major fix up in Debi's mom's house, provided we had a place to live while I did so, which was still my intent at the time I made the plans.

After the house was emptied, we would remove the entire roof all the way down to the concrete block stucco exterior walls. Add three more courses of concrete block to raise the roof 24 inches, then install a new hip roof. With this extra space, we could could install all new floor joists over the existing floor, fill with insulation and add new level flooring. This would change the floor to ceiling height from it's present 7 foot sagging ceiling and floors to 9 foot ceilings, a foot higher than standard ceilings. Then proceed with all the rest of the internal work, plumbing, wiring, drywall, etc.

However, we did not own the house at that time, so regardless of what plans I made, too many other things took precedence. We spent several months going through the real estate transfer transactions I mentioned in my last message. Decided to sell the small starter home I was working on, since I could not be there to work on it, and use the funds to start doing some much needed repairs to this house. Things were breaking and/or falling apart around us, and this was the only place we had to live. It also looked like Debi's mom was going to live a whole lot longer than expected, as her cancer, although serious, was not progressing as fast as it was previously. I might say thanks to my good care, hi hi.

In any case, this is how I ended up doing a single room at a time, trying to make it as best as I could while living there.
Having a single bathroom meant I had to pull the toilet in and out several times a day to accommodate the ladies needs.
Nothing could be done the way I would like to have done it, so I did the best I could with the present situation. Reinforced where necessary to prevent any further sagging, but was still stuck with existing sagging areas that had to remain in their current positions. I will say this, it was a real challenge to make things level in a crooked little house with crooked little floors and a crooked little ceiling held up by crooked little walls.
The finished rooms are square by the way, in some cases by making 6 or 8 foot long triangular shaped shims to bring things up to level or true vertical.
Inside the bedroom to kitchen wall, we found the kitchen side to be so far out of plumb it was crazy. They started with full-four inch rough cut lumber at the exterior wall and partially planed lumber near the center, with standard current size studs near the center partition wall. As I said before, this house was built with whatever materials they could get after the war, and being a poor family at the time. With 2x4s on 24 inch centers, no wonder the roof and ceiling sagged over 60 years. The floors are only 2x8s on 24 inch centers, so didn't sag as much, but other structural problems, improperly addressed over the years caused the very center of the house to drop down some too. Shimmed up a little in the past. I dug a hole 9 feet deep in the crawl space to install a real solid footer, to hold a new supporting column under the center of the house. Needed to do this before I could start on the bathroom. And when you jack a house back to level, well you know what happens to the walls, they crack and/or push out patches where cracks formed as it sagged and they simply filled in the cracks. It was a mess, believe me.

But, now it is our home, and we are happy with the amenities we've added and the changes we made. I just wished I could have finished the simpler things before I had two heart attacks. Ever try putting in overhead plumbing and sweating the joints over your head when you cannot lift your hands above your shoulders or it would kill you from the bad ticker. This is what I had to do! I survived, hi hi.

OK, enough of my rambling.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

I never blogged because I didn't like the format nor did I feel my personal thoughts were worth advertising. The blog section on Brainformation is what started me thinking that it could be interesting reading for some future generation of people. I now know that nobody cares much about my blog, nor any other blog for that matter. LOL There are some out there for commercial purposes and they are worth the read. But personal blogs tend to have relevance only for the author.

Nobody who I guessed had an interest in my writing came to Brainformation. They all knew it exists but could not make the effort to come on over. That's one reason I write what I do here. Nobody in my circle of acquaintances or family will ever see it in spite of it being public. As things happen, Facebook attracted the people we used to host. As these folks moved over there, the original denizens of Facebook, young college students, left. The reason they were there was to avoid the scrutiny of their relatives. Thus when their relatives made the move Facebook became irrelevant. So now that crowd is scattered all over the Internet with a high concentration of them on Tumblr. My oldest granddaughter being there is what prompted me to make the move. My youngest daughter settled in there as well so that I had a built in audience of two. Much of what you saw there was for their entertainment. But now the granddaughter is living in the real world and my daughter ... I have no idea why she is still there. Tumblr is not my idea of a blog site but I adapted to what people want to see. They don't want to spend a lot of time reading text. Thus the pictures and memes.

The worst part of getting old is the deterioration of the body which limits mobility. I find myself limited in some ways due to physical problems I never had to worry about even ten years ago. It only gets worse. I can't imagine having cardiac problems that would keep my arms below my shoulders. Well, I can imagine it, but hope that I never experience it. Being active is what being alive is all about. I have to admire your spirit and your determination to forge ahead.

I took care of my mom for 30 months after she was diagnosed terminal. They gave her two weeks when they sent her home. Well, she lived long enough for the hospice care people to want to eject her from the program because she was doing so well. But they didn't, fortunately. Mom exceeded everybody's expectations for reasons unverified. One big reason she believed was all the prayers people were saying on her behalf. I don't believe in that nonsense, but mom did make me think twice about it. Then, too, I was doing almost all the cooking in those days. So, like yourself the good care and good food helped. Or, at least I like to think so. It all goes to show that attitude plays a big role in longevity and in health in general.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

I never did like Blogs, I did participate in one, and started an informational one, but only kept it a few months.

I don't even like Farcebook, but as you pointed out, it seems everyone migrated to there, even if they are other places too.

It was after my first heart attack which took out the back of my heart. Apparently the dead tissue dissolves into the blood stream over time, and would leave the back of my heart super thin for a year or two. In my case, it was two years before the doc said I could now raise my hand above my head, but not to make a habit of it. It could still cause a blowout, hi hi.

I had two stents and a sleeve placed over a leaking main artery. If I had not been at the hospital at the time the heart attack hit, I wouldn't be here today. In fact, the surgeon who was working on me said I was into that 7 minute window where I would either survive or die if they couldn't stop the leak before it ruptured further.

My second heart attack was because the medicine they had me on to prevent the stents from clogging didn't work. They had to go in and clean out the clog and install another stent. I don't know if they removed a stent and replaced it, or just put another inside the first. But they changed my medicine to one which was very expensive, and only partially covered by insurance. Fortunately, my doctor was able to get me samples between each paid for order.
He kept me on this pill for about 6 months longer than the insurance company would pay for.

I do cardiac rehab three days a week, just to keep my heart muscle in tone, and hopefully keep it strong enough to not give up on me, hi hi. Doing these exercises is hard because I have COPD and Emphysema. My kind of COPD is not I'm low on oxygen, my O2 is normally above 94, usually hovering around 96/97. But I retain CO2, which makes it feel like I am suffocating, even though I have plenty of O2 in my system. There is nothing to take or use to help rid the lungs of built of CO2 other than exhaling under pressure which is very tiring to do. Hyperventilating can also get rid of CO2, but the consequences of going that route are worse than dealing with the CO2 and forced exhale breathing.
No matter what, it leaves one super tired all the time. And being a Diabetic and having no sugar in my system makes the muscles weaker, especially during my exercises, they just flat out run out of gas so to speak.

Ya know Yogi, getting OLDE is the PITTS, hi hi.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

My understanding is that people who sleep a lot build up CO2 in their blood stream which in turn makes them even more tired. I guess the body can't absorb the oxygen when it is attached to a carbon atom. I can't help wondering why you drink so much soda when you have an excess of CO2. The soda bubbles are carbon dioxide which has to be absorbed at least to a small degree when the fluid passes through your system. You may not be able to get rid of it, but I'm suspecting that you can reduce your intake of it.

I know of a fellow who had surgery and was in that 7 minute window for 15 minutes ... or so the doctors told him. Apparently he was technically dead but the surgeon didn't give up right away. Coming back to life like that is not without consequences. I'm thinking this fellow suffered some sort of brain damage although he seems perfectly lucid and rational when talked to. He is also ill about 80% of the time suffering from one thing or another. I guess that suggests a poor immune system. I'd say you are doing very well for being so close to the exit ramp. You certainly have my admiration.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

I'm not a medical scientist, and although things we do ingest does get in our blood stream, we normally excrete what is unused by our bodies as waste. CO2 consumed in a drink never makes it as far as our blood stream before it is outgassed.
It probably breaks down way to fast as soon as it hits our stomach acid.

Why lungs retain CO2 is because they are failing. The volume of air in and out decreases and/or stays only in the upper part of the lungs. Combine that with excessive phlegm and it's like having pneumonia all the time, blocking the little sacs in the bottom of the lungs.
I was at the doc today, and thought of my grandpa with a tracheotomy tube permanently installed.
In his case, it was to get oxygen to the lower part of his lungs, because the upper area of his lungs went bad first, not the bottom like most folks with lung conditions. Using oxygen wasn't helping him much because of his shallow breathing, thus the reason for the Trach Tube.
The doc said I don't want that unless it is a last resort, there are other things they can do now that will help, but he didn't get into what they were.
Whatever they are, they are probably much more than I can afford anyhow, hi hi.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

Likewise I am no biochemist. But, since Google knows everything, I looked there. :mrgreen:
Apparently there are a lot of rumors about the downside of drinking carbonated beverages, but there is no conclusive evidence that the CO2 therein is harmful. Well, so says Google anyway.

I understand the lungs and kidneys clean up the excess CO2 unless there is something deficient with those organs. You certainly have more experience there than I do. I would think modern medicine would have a lot of treatments for something as common as your illness. If it involves surgery I don't expect you would be a good candidate for such a procedure even if you could pay for it out of pocket. We all have our limits, but the more I learn about you the tougher you seem to be. I have a feeling you are going to be around for quite a while.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

I do a few self-treatments the docs frown on heavily. But if they work with no side affects, then great.
So far, all the 250 to 400 dollar inhaler type drugs the docs have had me try, have not done as much for me as a simple 20 cent or less off the shelf item. I use H2O2 diluted to 1.5% as an inhaler. Used to have to use it all the time, now I rarely have to use it anymore. So it must have done some good, where the expensive prescriptions did nothing.

There are a few OTC meds I use also, to take the place of some fairly expensive scripts. It seems when the doc prescribes them and I use them for awhile as a script, it's like you never get off of them. The pharmacies also remind you of the fact you have a script ready to reorder, hi hi. Once I started buying the super cheap OTC versions, I could control when and how much I took, and in a few cases, I've weaned myself off them, or only use them occasionally now.
By not using them, your system doesn't get used to them and make them either not work or have them become addictive.

Can't do that with all meds, because some have to stay in your system all the time to prevent things from going from bad to worse. Now those particular meds I don't mess with and take what the doc orders I take, even if I don't like the side affects of them.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

Your home remedies are called alternative medicine. That approach to treating illness was totally frowned upon and heavily discouraged for a long time. I don't know about the thinking down here in Missouri, but up north the hospital my doctor was associated with offered information about such things. All the doctors I talked to acknowledged some of those cures seemingly worked for a little while, even the one treating my cancer. But they all warned about alternative medicine not having a proven track record. So, they might not have liked you using hydrogen peroxide to clean your sinuses, but they did have a place to send you for more folklore. LOL

I did some reading about H2O2 a long time ago. I'm not sure what I was thinking of doing with it, but I was mixing it with baking soda. I didn't follow through because I no longer have any in stock. While perusing through the many articles I got the impression that it would cure, clean, and remedy everything that's wrong with the universe. Maybe it can, but such claims for anything, not just chemicals, send up red flags for me. Then again, I can't argue success.

My uncle suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for many years. Like you he was involved with many things requiring mechanical engineering. He would try to do various things just to see how they are done. One day while putzing around he discovered that the WD-40 he was using had an effect on the arthritic pain in his fingers. It made the pain stop. So he tried spraying some on his knee, and the same thing happened. He was ecstatic to have uncovered an alternative to the atrociously expensive drugs he was taking. When he saw the doctor at the next visit he told the doc about his experience. The doctor was amazed but advised totally against continuing doing it. WD-40 is a petroleum distillate and should not be taken internally. Obviously some of it would be absorbed into the skin and thus making it toxic to the body.

WD-40. Who would have thought?
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

I agree on all the above. It is also a Myth that WD-40 contains Fish Oil or anything other than simple petroleum distillates.

A lot of things people try and claim works for them, is often simply mind over matter. They believe it works so it does, temporarily, if it doesn't cause other problems.

Anytime you can make water wetter, it will clean better, on things that are water soluble.
But the opposite is true on things that are not water soluble.

I sometimes see folks showing how a certain thing will clean up built up oil and greasy residue, but leave the dirty dirt behind. So they claim it is no good compared to another product designed for dirty dirt that won't remove the grease and oil. I probably didn't word that very well.

On one note though. Water and Oil do not mix. Or so they say!
However, there is a catalyst, any product that mixes with both oil and water.
Alcohol is such a product.
This is why using a little Alcohol in your gas keeps water from freezing in your fuel lines.
It causes the water to blend with the gasoline, at least until the alcohol evaporates and the two separate again.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

I used to put Gumout into my gas tank and never had a freezing problem. Then, too, my car was kept in the garage overnight. It did sit out in the cold parking lot at Motorola however.

A long time ago I read about an experiment concerning mind over matter that simply was amazing. The experiment involved the effects of morphine. Half the patients were given the regular stuff while the other half was given a placebo. A high percentage of the placebo group (don't recall exactly what it was) reported the same pain relief that those people taking the real thing reported. I guess it all makes sense because pain is not an illness. It's a device invented by the brain to tell you something is wrong. So, if you can simulate that trigger consciously, or unconsciously in this case, it makes perfect sense that your mind can stop the pain in the matter.

There are anecdotal reports of people relieving themselves of the actual disease, even cancer, by mind over matter. I find that hard to believe, but those people who have actually done it are better off for it. Unfortunately such things cannot be replicated predictably.

I know the wonders of WD-40, but I can't say that I ever heard it contained fish oil. Rust proofing paint does because it mixes with the oxidation and slows down the process considerably. All I know is the guys we hire to wash our windows each spring use something to make the water wetter and clean the windows better. It's probably just soap but I've never seen any foam in their bucket. The best grease remover I've seen is vinegar. I managed to get some oxalyc acid and apply it to the burnt grease on our stove top. It appears to not remove the grease as does vinegar, but it does dissolve it much quicker. Once the oxalyc acid does it's work then the vinegar can be applied to make things grease free.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

Yeppers, there are a lot of things you can buy cheap that work better than expensive name brand items.

I started a small company back in 1972 selling things to the local grocery stores around town. I did pretty good and expanded to 8 different counties and finally into 3 states.
Most of what I sold were common everyday ingredients packaged in a bottle with a named purpose on the bottle. Such as Ball Point Pen Remover for Laundry, Steam Iron Cleaner, Coffee Pot Cleaner, etc.
Someone else came along doing the same thing, only on a little larger scale. Rather than run me out of business by underselling me, he made an offer for my accounts I couldn't refuse.
Good thing I sold too, because he managed to get his foot in the door of the Chain Distributors shortly thereafter.

I had a few other products I sold to automotive stores which other companies much larger than I was stomped on my sales real fast. Back when we had Lead Acid car batteries, I came up with a Battery Rejuvinator, it sold fairly well, until the company who made VX-6 put me out of business with their product.
I also had a product to keep windshields clean in the rain. Sold it for a few years before RAIN-X garnered all of my accounts.

At least my AZ-NO3 product is still on the market, has been now for almost 25 years. The few times I did have any competition, aquarists quickly figured out my competitor was selling snake oil. Unfortunately this also hurt my business for short stretches. Trouble is now, modern technology and a lower number of reef aquarists means my product is often not needed anymore. Sales are low enough it is costing me much more to make small orders since I can't buy some of the ingredients in bulk anymore to save some of the cost. Some preliminary use ingredients are also perishable unless used right away, so I can't buy as much of the ingredient used to make it either. I should stop making it, but I still have enough customers who use it all the time to keep it in the distributors catalogs.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

Most of the time named brand items are overpriced. A case can be made to find alternatives, but I'm not convinced it's always a good idea. The branded things typically have a huge corporation behind them with lots of high priced research groups, in addition to the high priced marketing people. This bigness and infinite supply of money behind the brands tends to add stability and reliability to the branded product. That's not always the case, but it happens often enough to make one wonder if it's worth saving a few pennies/dollars for something cheaper. I think with food the truism "you get what you pay for" is valid and worth keeping in mind at the local grocery store. I love those local farmers and organic foods, but they are the remains of what nobody else wants.

I think you had the right idea with the products you developed. The big money to be made is right after a market has been established and the competition jumps into the game. That's when you can be bought out by an aggressive competitor and laugh all the way to the bank. Specialty items are great too if you can afford to produce them. The big companies don't want to deal with niche markets. But then you run into the economy of scale problem, as you noted.

I never did anything as adventurous as you have. You certainly have a lot of experience and a colorful background. Considering our diversity, how is it that we both ended up in a place like this? :lmao2:
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

I was way to far ahead of my time in several businesses I started, so couldn't make a goal of them. Too many roadblocks in the way, which did eventually fall and others did well in the businesses.

I finally replaced a 14 year old GoldStar AC I bought for my office for under 100 bucks.
The new one I bought is a Haier, and I really doubt it will last more than a few years.

I think you know I'm sitting here on a 500 dollar HP Printer that has never worked right.
I replaced it with another HP printer, similar but a little cheaper, which so far is working OK.
After being burned by HP in the past a few times, especially when I was flat broke and bought more of their products to help make their other new product work and it didn't. I haven't bought HP anything in over a decade.
And luck of the Irish, when I did, I got burned again.
When your gross income is only 700 bucks a month, shelling out 500 bucks on garbage from HP really hurts.
Then to turn around and spend another 300 is almost like insanity, but I did it anyhow.

The sad thing is, it is not a good of a machine as the old Konica/Minolta Color Laser it replaced. But does have features the K/M didn't have. Hard to use, but at least they are there. The new model I bought does not have the double sided printing the first model I bought had. Shame they don't stand behind their products. They always have some excuse not to!

For the small guy in business, Niche markets are truly the only way to go, at least to get started.
The market is too small for the big guys to mess with, but sales are usually large enough for a single person company to make a profit from. Line up three, four, or more of these little tabletop companies and you can build up a nice income and steady work. Getting your product known and used by consumers is the hard part.

I started my product price out high until sales volume was high enough to buy in larger bulk quantities. Then once I had a good niche market going, my price was already at or near retail levels, so this let me sell to Distributors who in turn sold to Retailers for a fair profit. I was able to cut my price down a little more in order to sell to a mfg. rep. who in turn sold to the Distributors for me. This was actually a boon for me, because he would handle all warehousing and shipping to Distributors. After 20 years, and new technology advancing and coming down in price, my product found less and less demand. I was able to up my price a tad since inflation was driving everyone's prices up, but I still had to make sure the price put on my product by the retailers was in line with other products they had on their shelves.
At least it is still selling. Not as much as before, but the point is, 25 years for a product like mine to be available is nothing to sniff at. Even if it is such a small market share. I know super big companies who have discontinued sales of certain items because their sales dropped under a million a year, hi hi. And here I'm glad to sell 4k per year, hi hi.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

One mans's success is another man's failure. It all boils down to what you call success. I think the small businessmen in America define our spirit. It's what those promised opportunities are all about. Small businesses can grow into big businesses and take success to another level, but is the CEO over at Apple Computer any happier than you are running your business? Hard to say because happiness is relative too. LOL

HP is one of those big businesses which happen to be very successful. I can say with metaphysical certitude that some of the products they make are complete crap. Then, too, even their highest quality and most successful printers will yield a lemon in their lot once in a while (3x out of a million is the limit). What amazes me more than anything is how you attract all the lemons HP can produce. I've dealt with them professionally at Motorola and privately since I've been retired and have experienced mostly the same level of quality all along. Their printers are pretty good but their software (drivers included) stinks to High Hell. You would think after years of being a successful printer vendor HP would have figured it out by now. Haven't bought a printer from them in a few years, but they still haven't mastered the software at that point.

I got to say this about you. I don't know what you personally consider success or happiness, but you certainly are consistent and reliable. That means something.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: The End is Near

Post by Kellemora »

Success is an accomplishment of which I am well pleased. It has nothing to do with money, although it is nice to operate a business at a profit. Even if you are bucking against some rich dude who is running a business solely as a tax deduction and does not want it to make a profit.

To make something new that has never been done before.
Or to learn to do something you've never been able to do before. Even if done so slow it is like a pain to do, the point is, you learned to do it. Just because everyone else who can do it can do so 100 times faster than you. Success is in the fact that you finally were able to do something previously impossible for you to do.

You would never believe in a million years some of the things I've had my hands in.
In fact, some of them sound almost impossible. Even so, I'm proud to have done them.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: The End is Near

Post by yogi »

I wasn't expecting you to go into the details of explaining success, but you did so very eloquently. The theme that I see as consistent in your stories is the willingness to try something new (to you) and persist until you accomplish it or know the reason why not. That is what small business is all about. One reason I never followed that path myself is because the odds against success appeared to be too great. It was much easier to just go with the flow and the "the man" worry about how things are done. There also was the small matter of being able to feed my family while trying to build a successful business. Thus, the secret to success is persistence. Learning from one's mistakes is a plus. LOL

It's not easy to put a value on success in many cases because it's largely a feeling. If you feel good about what you did, then it's a success.
Post Reply