There’s an old axiom which says that “There are only two things certain in life: death and taxes!”
When my father passed away on June 15th, he proved that that axiom was only half true!
Commerce in a paint store during my father’s years was mainly done in cash. It would not have been unusual to have painters paying off their house account do that with large stacks of cash. By the time I sold my stores, our busiest days could still only yield a few dollars in cash. My father knew where to hide it! We had a safe in the store and it had a twin in the basement of our house. Billy never met a $100 bill he couldn’t hide! Hiding that cash in one of his safes was my father’s version of a tax shelter.
That’s the sort of news that I needed to wait until Billy was gone to report; for obvious reasons.
When Guy and I got in the car on Saturday morning at 5 AM and set the GPS to a spot 1300 miles north in Stamford, CT, I was more than ready to get going. By the time our seats hit the seats that morning, the first three generations of Tremont Paint had died in the state of Florida. I get the message! There are 49 other states!
By the time we got home on Sunday afternoon and I got the car unloaded and the clothes unpacked, I was in no condition to get you a blog for Monday. I prioritized a cigar on my new patio-I needed to put my feet up. Sorry for the silence if you were expecting to hear from me.
But now I’m back to work and back to work for me these days means e-commerce and inspections.
There are nine business days left until the launch date for an e-commerce site I’ve been working on, and so that means we are going to need to work the non-business days too! Thankfully I’m not the poor guy who will be sitting in his underwear in front of a computer until 2 AM every day to make this happen. But I’ll be sweating it out until the guy in his underwear is done! And until we make our first sale (or 20).
Summertime also means paint inspections. The one inspection job that I’ll take on this summer started today. Before they pick up the last drop cloth, we’ll put a couple of hundred gallons of solid stain on the 20 buildings in a homeowners association. I wonder if it will strike me as odd to see another dealer’s name on the boxes of Arborcoat? To get the job started today, I met a drone pilot on site to get some pictures of the hard to reach areas. I wanted to do that work myself with my own drone but licensing and insurance got in the way.
Billy was right: the government ruins everything!
And of course, getting back to work means speaking to independent retailers. I’ve spent the week catching up with my regulars and seeing how busy their stores are (very it seems, at least many of you). By Monday I’ll be sharing what I know with y’all.
I also needed to get back to work making podcasts. I’ve got two pods scheduled to be recorded tomorrow which I should have in your ears by early next week. The first one will be with Grant Farnsworth of the Farnsworth Group. The Farnsworth Group continue to be at the tip of the spear when it comes to research on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting our channel. Grant will update you on what their data shows but I’ll give you a hint:
He’ll use the words e-commerce a lot!
I’m also excited to have a podcast scheduled with a retailer who is in the final stages of opening a new store! What timing! I’m looking forward to getting him talking while the experience is fresh in his mind.
My daughter, the ever-exuberant Buck Wheat is back in Columbus after spending two weeks with me in Florida. Always a plan at the ready, I believe that Buck is going to change the world.
As soon as she can find her car keys!
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