Saturday, September 5, 2009

Rough Patches



It should be simple, shouldn't it. You find the hole in the roof and patch it. Someone pays for it.


Again, simple. The way it was when Sam's dad, Bob, started this business. He went out and worked and Louise took care of the family and the bookwork. It was a hard but satisfying way to make a living.

Not so much the case in the world I'm livin' in these days. Our world consists of:

  • Material suppliers who intimidate and confuse our customers in the quest of complying with our state's lien law.
  • Aging equipment
  • Cutthroat competition with little or no profit margin
  • Dire cash flow problems created by a contractor's inability to pay us
  • Sleepless nights and moments of overwhelming discouragement (speaking for myself here)

On a positive note, I am grateful to have a son working alongside us whose resiliency, hard work, sense of humor and eternal optimism keeps me going. Those of you who know Zac know exactly what I'm talking about.

This past week has been, to put it mildly, especially challenging. I have some really fun stuff in progress to post here, but I have been too wrapped up in trying to "fix" things that I haven't been able to do it.

We're at the lake now. The coffee is hot and strong. A mist appeared on the lake as I watched the sun rise this morning. A new day for which I am grateful.

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