Small Business Ownership - Government

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERSHIP…what do you think that means? Shouldn’t GOVERNMENT run like a small business? Tonight, I want to rant about some of the things that it means from my heart…my aching heart…but my heart won’t be like the heart of the nation’s majority possibly, sadly; but from the heart of a Conservative business owner. Keep in mind here that we are talking about SMALL business owners, NOT corporate mega-giants, or even the SBA’s (Small Business Administration) definition of small business! I’m talking about the owners of your average privately owned business where you might go to spend your money. I would think for most people the dream of owning their own business is real. I know I dreamed of it before I did it. I know that as an employee, I always had a thought that if given the chance, I “just might” be able to do as good a job, or even a better job than those that owned the places I had worked for, big or small…corporate giants, or average folks...and yet, we DID…we DO have successful businesses, at least businesses in the black :) Sometimes, be careful what you ask for :) Business ownership is grand. It brings prestige and a sense of pride that you never thought you’d have. It brings some minute tax breaks, and it allows one to make more money than they ever did as an employee to an extent. STOP HERE. More income does not make one RICH by most people’s standards. Comfortable and free to make your own decisions about ALL the money going out is the length that the freedom of ownership gives. What one might do with that grand freedom and extra cash; and HOW one makes those decisions is the kicker…and the cause of heartache sometimes. A true small business owner one day has an idea. They “get froggy” and “jump”. They open a new business on a skeleton budget and with a few people they convince to “jump” with them. Those “jumpers” are correctly titled as employees. At first, it’s just a couple of folks believing in your idea and your ability to make it happen. Then guess what? IT HAPPENS! You find out that you DO have the ability to successfully own a business, and you did pick a decent couple of folks to jump (in our case it was three), and the domino theory proves itself. Five short years later, you own two businesses and have 20 or so employees. With the need for each new employee comes the realization that you are growing. More customers, more vendors, more paperwork, more responsibility. It’s like the earthquake theory…a magnitude 1 earthquake compared to a magnitude 2 earthquake is ten times. Within that parameter, lies the 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. earthquakes that finally reach a 2.0. In earthquake language, there is literally 30 TIMES THE ENERGY RELEASED just between a couple of tenths. It’s like multiple 30 times energy forces lie within a ten times equation. Crazy sounding huh? but true nonetheless. So goes it with a growing business, and so grows the unbelievable responsibilities of a business owner to make sure all survive and get PAID. REMEMBER THIS: No matter what you are selling, working for, what you have that you think is OF GREAT WORTH, or dreaming of owning…IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE ACTUAL MONEY IN THE BANK YOU HAVEN’T made a sale, gotten paid for your hard work, owned something that you think is of worth, or finally purchased your dream item. $$$$ is all imaginary until you actually have it or GIVE IT TO THOSE YOU OWE…and in business, it’s a TWO WAY STREET! You owe it, you pay it. They owe you; they have to pay it to you in order to complete the circle. AND, with each new employee or vendor comes families that are making money/selling a product to support. Spouses, children, grandchildren sometimes; and sometimes even elder parents. So, with each new employee or vendor, as an owner, you become responsible in fact for the livelihood of MANY other people. At 3 it’s pretty benign, but after 20, the exponentiality of it all can become overwhelming, LIKE SUPERFRAGILISTICEXPELADICIOUS! Your employees just think they number 20, when in fact the customer list and the vendor list is at around 200 EACH! Try to swallow THAT EXPONENTIALITY! That’s just the FACTUAL side of an owner’s fiduciary equation...then there is the EMOTIONAL SIDE. Believe it or not, owners do have feelings too…feelings you never see from 8-5. As things multiply exponentially, and when the shit rolls UPHILL to the owners, (myself & my husband), the demand to perform correctly without fail is sometimes overbearing. An owner is always looking ahead. An owner is always busy like a queen or king bee making sure that all have enough tools, money, work coming in, accounts satisfied, and receivables collected enough to keep the little gears turning and the big picture always complete…complete enough to go on another day, and another, and again year after year. Those employees that get that and keep that going are INVALUABLE, and as allowed, an owner takes care of those bright minded personnel. Worker bees don’t always see it that way. They THINK they do. Worker bees a lot of times get caught up in their own little worlds of responsibility or simple personal drama and don’t see the big picture of the whole hive. In order for an entire hive to thrive, every bee from the king/queen to the bottom baby bee has to view the hive as a team. A lot of really great and funny bees just get complacent. They don’t realize that each bee HAS TO HAVE A SENSE OF URGENCY and a sense of tomorrow. They also don’t understand that a small business doesn’t run like the government or sometimes even like their own households. Worker bees above all don’t understand the wish and hope of a king/queen bee that WE could just relax and have drama. Everybody has drama, but business owners are forced by live/die standards. Owners HAVE to keep their drama contained to a boring minimum in order for the entire hive to have a chance. Therefore, business owners just have little bursts of drama that explode from time to time usually in the kitchen at home, or in the privacy of an occasional private cell phone call, fax, or e-mail. Otherwise, they appear straight faced and a positive spirit is the call of duty...or we drink on a fair regular occasion… WORK isn’t a party. However, if you have a good beehive with common minded bees, then work becomes a labor of love, and sweeter honey is produced, even with much laughter and good times. Worker bees sometimes also forget that while their owners seem to be having a good time, they are always present with a finger on the pulse of the ENTIRE HIVE even if they seem to be away, or not looking…and silently have a finger on the trigger. It’s not easy when a bee has to go away. In five years of business, we’ve been forced to shoo away a few really likable bees, and some hated flat out loser bees; but no matter the case, it was always a bee that just couldn’t see the big picture or fly their way into a smoothly operating beehive. Shooing bees is never pleasant. It’s NEVER personal, but after watching exponential results…it’s necessary. I don’t know how our government, my lacking vendors, employees, or customers don’t see the same. One plus one will always equal two. Effort, understanding, and mental grasp are all vital to a small business, or even a mega-corporation. Adding two ones to get two is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE! Lord knows if we can do it with not a college degree between the two of us, ANYONE CAN! True losers are never surprised when they get fired. However, bees just lacking the quiet understanding of the big picture can NEVER UNDERSTAND why an owner let them go. And IT SUCKS to be the owner when that happens. It SUCKS to shoo away a bee that on a personal level you really like, but on a business level is just not “that bee”. Today’s political correctness disease that is mandatory sometimes keeps an owner from just hauling off on someone to really point out all the bee shortcomings in a person, but DAMN…after you “suggest”, or TELL someone enough times things in normal conversation, they should just get it. If they don’t, then little bee…fly away. If you are as great a bee as you think you are, then you’ll have no problem taking over a new hive in short fashion. I cannot grasp the abhorrent fact that our current government is like a bunch of badly guided worker bees in control of the nation’s checkbook. I look LONG and HARD before I shoo a bee. I even carry cool bees sometimes far too long before I kick them out of the beehive. HOW IS IT that our country and many of YOU operate your lives at NEGATIVE? If me, the small business owner ever gets my bank account down to ZERO, and I have no vision in place to correct ZERO TO POSITIVE within 30 FREAKING DAYS, then I’m done…and so are the 20+ families I’m responsible for, not to mention the 400 combined customers and vendors that rely on my services/payments. Therefore I DON’T! I would shut my doors before I would default any of the above! I sure wish my government could think of ME and MINE the same way they think of the government and their policies. I wish my government got stomach cramps and actually shed TEARS every time the bank account got low enough NOT to have a month or so’s money in advance. I wish THEY could realize that if they don’t pay their bills, then it’s OVER! IALSO WISHED THAT THEY CHASED AFTER THOSE THAT OWE THEM the same way I have to chase after customers or employees that OWE ME! I also wish my worker bees understood the same. It’s only my worry for THEM THE PEOPLE that causes me to make decisions I make. I wish all my bees understood that they should think about their business owner the same way their business owner worries about them. Although with much angst, I can FIRE, or SHOO AWAY my lacking bees…why can’t we SHOO AWAY WASHINGTON’S BAD BEES??? Most of them were rich by normal standards before they went into office, who are we to think that they would have our best interest at heart in the first place? To all my past and present bees…fly straight and with intent for business; personal, private, at work, or at home…or we will shoo you away! The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, it will always remain so in my businesses…so should it remain true with our government, or for you in your personal lives.

Drill Here Drill Now

You know what I’m damn sick and tired of? I’m SICK AND FUCKING TIRED OF the same situation NOW that was the reason I left my home state of Texas in the 80’s and FUCKING OPPOSITE REASONS for the SAME SITUATION! I left Texas and made a new life for myself, but I miss Texas. I miss my family every day for over 22 years I’ve been gone. I’m sorry for the curse words, but “you people”…you media, you experts, you politicians FORGET THOSE OF US THAT LIVE THE DREAM!@ You guys forget the “we the people” that ARE the people. One thing about growing older is that you can REMEMBER what happened THEN. I am at that perfect age, and lived in the middle of OIL COUNTRY in “the day”. I just this minute saw a clip oYou kf Nancy Pelosi on the air on my TV, and because murder isn’t either legal or moral…I had to get up to write this. Behind her dumb ass was Harry Reid, and he too makes me want to vomit, and he is “the guy” that happens to come from my new state, Nevada, where I’ve lived pretty much since 1986. So rather than vomit, I thought I’d get up out of my wonderful bed at 2:00 freaking o’clock in the morning to tell you all a little story. One that I lived from cradle to grave. Big OIL is SO NOT your problem! This country we live in is the GREATEST NATION on earth! Free speech, free enterprise is what made even the most losers of you all what little you are today! Back “in the day” when the oil crisis hit Texas…I REMEMBER. I REMEMBER THE EXACT DAY like it was yesterday. We ALL normally listen to the news as we ready ourselves for work. SOME don’t…some are more worried about REALITY TV which has NOTHING to do with reality! One day as I was brushing my teeth before work, the news guy said (as every day he said it)…this morning, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil is trading at $9.00 per barrel. My husband at the time and I laughed. It also happened to be a new employee at the news channel, so we thought he might have made a mistake. As the day went on, we realized it was true. You see, on that day oil the day before was trading at $33 dollars per barrel. Those in the know knew we had been in a boom and they were OK with $18 per barrel to break even (1980-1982). TODAY, you F*&^%$er’s are bitching about $145-$130 per barrel oil. In our day the bitch was that we could IMPORT refined oil from OTHER COUNTRIES much CHEAPER than we could do it ourselves. Therefore, we should SHUT DOWN our drilling facilities and buy it from THEM…whoever the hell “they were”. Wanna’ know what really sucks…??? WE BOUGHT THE LINE OF BULLSHIT! We really thought then that if it truly made more sense to buy it from them cheaper, then OK it’s a good deal. When oil immediately dropped from $33 per barrel to $9 per barrel, no one could survive. We got that. But…to only strive at that point to get back to $18-$20 dollars a barrel to break even and then get ahead??? HELLO!!! Today, oil is $100 plus! Back then the big scare was that we would RUN THE FREAK OUT OF OIL IN USA! The scare tactic was that. Again today, it’s been proven that WE HAVE MORE OIL THAN ANYONE RIGHT HERE IN USA…the same way as it was THEN. But TODAY, they aren’t afraid we’re going to run OUT OF OIL, they’re AFRAID that HAVING OUR OWN OIL might kill some butterfly or some HUGE organism like a FREAKING ELK OR POLAR BEAR! Have you seen the wildlife surround the pipelines? THEY LOVE THEM. Caribou and other such animals don’t have a problem with a pipe in their path…WHY SHOULD YOU? However, today; they try to make it like it’s some new damn discovery! WE ALWAYS KNEW IT. If my government wouldn’t have made the same mistakes then as they are still today…I’d still be a happy camper living in Texas. But I’m not, and I live in Nevada and there is still OIL all over USA. DRILL IT…build refineries, and tell the stupid third world assholes to piss up a rope! How hard is that to understand.? Oil (the lack of it working like it should) stole a huge portion of my life. I’m not particularly fond of that fact! I DON’T WANT TO SEE IT HAPPEN TO ANOTHER GENERATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE! Oil is the least of your problems! YOUR PROBLEMS LIE WITH FOLKS THAT DON’T TELL YOU THE TRUTH…LIKE THE MEDIA!

Toby Keith Biggest & Baddest Tour

How often is “work” the coolest thing that happened in your day? Sometimes, it IS a very cool day! Today, even as a business owner I am giddy, back in high school, and a “groupie”! Today; although ALL of our customers are super special…today…a very special trailer crossed its path across our yard and we were honored to have had the opportunity to serve :) YES, TOBY KEITH’S TRAILER WAS IN MY SHOP FOR REPAIR! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW? I think every woman has a “list”. No matter how much you might love your husband or your kids, each woman has “that little special list” of “those men” that are movie stars or superstar singing artists that spark their imaginations or fantasies. Now, for me at least…my list is varied and robust. My “list” usually involves looks, attitude, and performance…not always in that order, but all important. After all…it is THE LIST...that LIST of folks that touch you on so many levels that are yet so untouchable in the real world. Toby Keith has been on my list since the first day I laid ears on his music, then saw him in a photo, dissected his lyrics, researched his life a bit, and finally saw him in person on my wedding anniversary when my gracious husband bought me tickets (by surprise…and surprises are not my husband’s strong suit :). Let’s just say I’M A HUGE FAN!!!...even a PAID member of his fan club, and I NEVER joined a fan club in my life…not even Willie’s :) As a person who had a strong career for 20 years in the casino industry prior to going into business with my husband, I’ve met thousands of VIP’s. Throughout those years, my “list criteria” has become more rigid as most celebrities are not what they seem in person. I have not met Toby Keith in person, which is probably a good thing as the disappointments in those meetings after some years make you wish NOT to ever meet another one sometimes :) However, I believe in his music, I just love his style, and Lord only knows he does have that “eye candy” appeal, even to an older redneck like me. List people can get you in trouble if you think on them too long…just look, wink, and enjoy what they do. I was so happy when Toby came upon the music scene and a musician was finally again allowed on my list. For many years, I had been relying on the same old list :)…when it came to musicians. Musicians have such a harder pair of shoes to fill in order to make a woman’s “list” because they much touch you on many levels whereas a movie star can make a list with looks alone or a talking voice alone sometimes…they “play” characters, so a character can make a list…Anthony Hopkins is a perfect example of that…who can’t admire the spooky unbelievable talent of Hannibal Lechter? Willie, as in Nelson is one of the few musicians that is on my list that has remained…year after year…tried and true and for life. Remember, I said looks wasn’t most important :) My singer (band) list always included the outlaws…be it country or rock and roll, or the guys that could make my eye leak, or make me laugh, and touch me with LYRICS...usually BOTH in order to make my favorite list. Waylon, Willie, David Allen Coe, Jerry Jeff Walker, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Tom T Hall, Pink Floyd, Hoyt Axton, Styx, Bad Company, Ozzie (only because of Mama I’m Coming Home), Aerosmith, The Who, Stevie Nix & Fleetwood Mac, The Gatlin Brothers, The Oakridge Boys, The Statler Brothers, Heart, Melissa Ethridge, Carley Simon, Joni Mitchell (had to include some worthy women), etc. However, few remain at the top. Newer singers are on my list of great…Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks sometimes, George Straight sometimes…but he’s so damn straight (pun intended), Kenny Chesney, but they are all just so-so and while the concerts are fun and all, they just can’t hang on the list ALWAYS AND EVERY DAY. Toby Keith is a “keeper”. He’ll remain on my list until he’s like talking about Willie, Waylon, or Hoyt. The reason I picked that analogy is that when I first began to hear him he was like a strange mixture of all three. I would think to myself that what I was hearing was one of them, and it was a song of theirs I’d never heard…but NO…IT WAS A NEW GUY! Toby had me at hello :) I must tell my “Toby Stories” to explain my rabid fan status while going to the shop today to take the photos that are in this story. I’m a busy woman. Dealing to celebrities for years, and having met so many…I wouldn’t normally stop my duties as a business owner to be silly and take photos in front of a trailer that will in no way ever lead me to meet the “man”. If I did ever meet the man, I would love nothing more than to just invite him to our home for a steak & cocktails with his wife or band, and hopefully for some fun “jam time” so he could teach my husband to actually play some of the guitars he owns :) Toby is just another guy like us all and my beautiful home is just a little smaller than his beautiful home, and it would just be so cool to sit and treat a celebrity like anybody else and I think they wish for that too. However, I am a big fan…and my first Toby story is this: Dealing in a casino one day, I was dealing to some average cool guys that were funny enough, tipped once in a while, and were just average pleasant guys on my table. Music is piped in, and as you sit at a gaming table, there is always either a live band available, or piped in music to enhance the experience. As we mulled along playing cards, I’m dealing…listening to these guys talk amongst themselves. A dealer knows that at the moment your players are talking to each other, you’ve lost the money making ability… I heard one of them say something about somebody having somebody else’s ass. He said it loudly, common enough as it was like a conversation about boss/employee, or husband/wife type comment, but his volume in voice caused them to look up at me dealing. One of Toby’s songs was playing on the “wire” and I made the comment, something to the effect that I didn’t know who they were talking about but Toby could have my ass anytime :), of course I immediately followed that up with “not really, I’m married…but a fan nonetheless”. The guys laughed incessantly…it was weird. I thought to myself that it wasn’t “that funny” what I said, but then one of the guys spoke up and said…”We’re gonna tell him what you said”. I thought, yea right! They said they were from Oklahoma and lived rightdown the road from Toby’s farm and they were gonna tell him that some crazed blackjack dealer in Reno was all giddy and crazy over him. Don’t know if they ever did…but that was strange to make a simple “typical chick” comment about a star on a woman’s “list” and then have “average Joe’s” actually KNOW HIM. My second story leads to my concert experience. I have been fortunate with my husband that we love music and love attending concerts. We’ve seen many great ones in the Reno/Tahoe area. However, my husband KNEW that a TOBY concert would be huge for me. Driving up the mountain to Tahoe from Reno is arduous if you live here. You can’t go to a concert and not liquor up a little bit, so getting a room is mandatory for a fun time. He told me in advance that we were going, so I began to research Toby online. I found out that if you are a fan club member you can submit a story and have a chance to win a “meet & greet” with him. I tried, didn’t win, but it was super exciting all the same. I had fun trying to be “the fan” that scored enough points to win. I told my dealing story, I even offered him a free B-Service on his truck if he was ever in the area. Blah-Blah…didn’t score :) My third Toby story is the concert itself. I wore an American flag shirt, dressed to the nines in my Rocky jeans and boots. For an old broad, I don’t look so bad still with long blonde hair and a Texas attitude to match :) One of my shop managers is a music freak too and writes music. His dream is to have any star, some star just look at a song and weather he took it or not…just to have a star play one of his songs once. I had a cap from our company, an American Truck & Trailer Repair hat that I wanted so badly to give to Toby Keith. I knew a T-Shirt would be out of the question…too bulky…but a hat I could give him. We taped discreetly inside the hat some music that my manager Westley Guin wrote, and my plan was to find a quiet corner of the stage at the concert and merely toss that hat to Toby. Toby is All American and I thought the least I could do would be to give him a hat. I quietly marched down the most outer isle of the concert even though I had up front seats. I intended to toss my hat and WOAH!! I was stopped by a very large woman in security that happened to be of color, a black woman. I went back to my seat and waited. I then attempted to try every isle in the venue at varioustimes…with no success. On my last attempt, this very dedicated to her job large black woman shook her finger in my face like only the true wonderful women like that can. She wove her finger in my face and said, “Sister…if I have to tell you ONE MORE TIME…” and I knew. It is SO NOT LIKE me to raise a scene; I went back to my seat and sulked. Security woman told me that if she let me toss a hat on stage, then someone else would toss a beer bottle, etc. She wouldn’t even just take my hat and lay it upon the edge of the stage and she had the credentials to do so. I loved her. I love rebels within reason, and I especially love rebels with the right cause…but I had never tried to be one myself, tried to that night, but I appreciated the fact that at least on that night at Harvey’s in Tahoe…Toby was safe. This woman wouldn’t even let a middle aged 43 year old woman flip a soft ball cap onto the stage. I thought of myself as a business owner and knew that I wished all my employees were that dedicated to their duties. NOW TWO YEARS LATER…Toby Keith’s band trailer ends up in my shop. He doesn’t even know about the sundry day to day goings on that keep him on the road, but I had a great time fanaticizing. It was a good day, and if I ever get to meet the man and/or his family it will be a good day :) Sing on Toby! His greatest hits are of course the fun ones…but don’t think that true fans wouldn’t like a private serenade of some others, Blue Bedroom is a cool song because of the musical transitions…other songs just fit me that didn’t necessarily make it to #1. Every song he sings is a top ten to me :) Toby, although you had no part to play in it, it was an honor to have your trailer in our shop and many of us at American Truck & Trailer Repair, or our other pickup shop Dynamic Diesel, Inc. are huge fans. Even my little dog Scooter that comes to work with me came to say hi :) Thanks for some fun today and making a now 45 year old woman feel like a school girl again. And DAMN that bitch that didn’t appreciate you writing her phone number on the 50 yard line :) I hope her radio haunts her to this day :)

Alternative Energy Source

I am SO NOT GLOBAL WARMING...but I do know that $4.35 gas is CRAZY! Other than the freaking OBVIOUS long overdue task of Drill HERE and Drill NOW...Build NEW REFINERIES...our only choice is alternative energy sources. Check this little video out! I didn't find anything online to suggest that Valcent is full of shit, but even if one tenth of what they say they can actually do, they could really do...A BIG PORTION OF THE ENERGY CRISIS IS SOLVED... My only point here is that there ARE people out there with ideas and working solutions to our crisis, but nobody will pull the necessary triggers to let it happen. BUT WAIT!!!...I completely FORGOT!!! If it might be something that COULD HELP, our government will immediately SQUASH IT...because help, happiness, and common sense is no longer what they are about... Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books