Just a suggestion, for an employee of a firm I know...
If your employer/company has to have current drug tests on file in order to get into a high security chemical plant to do a big job and you know this and it's a condition of your employment that you can pass random tests, it's probably not such a hot idea to tell your boss that you probably can't pass it. Especially when you've been driving a company truck that day.
But let me add that to then suggest you can get a copy of the drug tests taken during your recent probation from when you were arrested and convicted on (unknown-to-him) drug, alcohol and theft charges? Probably not a terrific solution. (Especiallyy since the lesson didn't seem to take.)
I had to go to my insurance agent's yesterday evening to sign the renewal for our workman's comp insurance, which always makes me want to rip my hair out. We've had 22 years of no losses, yet we have to pay thousands of dollars in every year just in case we have a loss; we do get to have a nifty low "EMR" rating, which tells all of our clients that we are really really safe. Really really missing a lot of money, too, damn them.
So I'm sitting there in their board room, signing papers, when my agent, John, digs around in some boxes and puts two coffee mugs in front of me. At first I thought he was offering me coffee, but he was proudly giving me two mugs with their new logo. After giving me said mugs, I had to write out a check for $1626.92. The next time I go, God help me if he pulls out a whole place setting; I'd have to hock the house.
Laura over at 11D has invited us to participate in a week long discussion about various mothers / workforce / childcare issues because she has the ear of a set of academics and writers who are very interested in this topic.
Today, she's talking about Mothers vs. Mothers. Go read her question and then here's my response (which I posted as a comment on her site.)
I feel like the animosity has decreased over the last three or four years, particularly with the boom of the internet and the various blogs from so many women and their varying choices on motherhood vs. work. There's so much more ability for us all to interact and get to know the cultures / lifestyles / choices behind the labels.
Like Lizbeth, I too freelance from home and sort of fit in easily with each group. A lot of SAHMs would seem defensive about their choices (they felt looked down on for not trying to "have it all" the way they were supposed to, in order to uphold the hard-won place in the workforce gained by feminism), and a lot of the work-force moms were defensive because they felt looked down upon as if they didn't value their child enough (if they had the choice to stay at home. Those who had to work for economic reasons figured it didn't much matter what people thought, they didn't have a choice anyway.)
The disparity increased as SAHMs were presumed not to be "doing" anything, and there was also the assumption that the SAHMs weren't going to be very interesting to talk to because they didn't "do" anything all day except play with their kids. It was as if as soon as a child had shown up, the SAHM had sacrificed her brain to the OB-GYN for the next fifteen years, and moms in the workplace wouldn't know what to talk about with a SAHM. I know a lot of SAHMs who felt invisible... there were no grown ups to talk to or interact with during the day and keeping up on news / events or topics of interest were much more difficult because there just wasn't the access to the info or people to talk to, and so the assumed divide widened. (Maybe it was a self-fulfiling prophecy. Maybe it was an inherent problem both sides felt defensive about.)
As a mom of two older boys (17 and 21), I started off raising my children while I freelanced from home and helped run our small construction company. The perception that because I was "at home" meant I was lazy and doing nothing was extremely common when my kids were small. People in the work force tended to assume I was uneducated (I have two masters) or lazy (or both) because I could have chosen to work outside the home. In the 80s, people tended to equate what you did with your value, your social identity and my not choosing to have a high-powered corporate career was often viewed as betrayal to those who were struggling against the glass ceilings. I could understand how they felt because they worried that my choosing to stay at home in spite of my degrees reinforced the stereotype of "don't hire moms, they have other priorities except for work and can't be relied upon for a career."
It has felt much different with the advent of journaling and then blogging online. The perceptions are still prevalent between the two groups, but the cross-overs or acceptance is a little more common now.
The attorneys are supposed to be hashing out the details of the business buy-out, but I am hearing that there are some glitches. The whole thing may go south, at which point I will feel stupid for having posted about this, but hey, stupid isn't intentional and I'll survive. I probably won't know anything about this in any sort of final way until next week. (I loathe suspense.)
Okay. So. Um.
We have apparently bought a business. They countered this morning, wanting to keep their land and buildings. We said sure (we wanted to move it here later on next year anyway.) The partner lowered the price accordingly. They accepted.
I did find out that the valuation of the business did include the changes we wanted. I have ordered all of the information I want. There are a lot of really good people in place who will keep their jobs, but I want to make life as easy on everyone as possible and know their business better than they do when I first arrive. Which I will have to do -- travel there and stay for a week or so to get fully up to speed. Others will run the day-to-day. I will be in charge.
Is it very executive of me to laugh a little hysterically right now? Probably not. I should schedule that panic attack though. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need it.
I have to ramble here. I can't quite wrap my mind around this yet.
After a weekend of another headache, I started feeling a little more human today. And then I found out that the business partner mentioned in that linked entry had indeed gotten his attorneys and business people all involved in weighing and measuring the value of the national business and they were making an offer to just buy out the other people.
A $7 million offer.
They think I am going to be in charge of this new business. Certainly, it is already established, there are a lot of support personnel in place, but the problem is, first, they have already alienated their biggest client (and we will be getting that client back since we'd be the new owners), and secondly, we don't think that part of their business should be done the former way it's being done. What worries me is the sort of cowboy way this partner is throwing out this money. Oh, he has it. And I'm sure the aforementioned attorneys and business managers have crunched all of the little nickels and have determined that yes indeedy, their assets and the national contract is worth that sort of investment... the way they currently are doing business. But the way the other business owners are currently doing business has ticked off their biggest client who is looking for this to be changed, and if we do that like Carl and I believe we should, it will change the income flow. We had discussed this with the partner, just prior to him going in for the major heart surgery. What I don't know is, did that information get accurately translated to the business people assessing the value of the business-to-be-purchased.
On the one hand, I know this is how this guy does business. He buys things, lets other people run them, makes a profit, sells it (if he's sole owner) or sells it to the partner. I know he has always trusted these business people in the past. The thing is, and the only reason I'd be right for this company, is that Carl and I have already been dealing with these same clients for another type of thing they need... for the last ten years. We know them, know their needs, their culture, their priorities and what they won't like. That's the key -- and the company the partner is buying unfortunately has as one of its main money making components a service that the clients don't like having forced on them with the other parts of their contract. We think that should be eliminated. We don't know if the business people / attorneys took that into account when they valued this business.
Does this all sound completely insane? It does to me. If anyone had told me even a year ago that this guy would buy a $7 million business and, on top of that, want me and Carl to run it (mostly me)... I would have suggested a change in medication. So tomorrow, I am asking for all of the paperwork done by the attorneys and the business people and I'm going to see how they valued the company and why they made that kind of offer and if we eliminate the annoying part of the company, will it still make enough revenue to not only service the debt, but actually turn a profit.
The partner said he thought it would take the other company a whole month before they respond. And we sort of figure that with their ego (and that is huge), they'll counter with some sort of outrageous amount even over that. I'm hoping this is true only because it buys me time, and I need to get up to speed on what makes them think this will work.
You know, I look at who I am and what I've accomplished and on the one hand, this is just plain insane. On the other hand, I get this particular business on a cellular level, and so does Carl, and we know how to handle the people and the particular service they want, which few people know how to do. So there's the up side -- we are weirdly perfect for it. But holy turbo charged jesus on a pogo stick, batman, this is still nuts.
On top of thinking about that, in our construction business, we're bidding more and more of the bigger jobs like we had last month, and there are a lot of things coming down the pike for us to do, which is a very good thing, unless we get that other business, and then I have no earthly clue what we'll do then, because we cannot clone ourselves. And there's the potential indie film for the romantic comedy, and I had talked with that producer about me producing other things if this one works out and she was very receptive to that. And there's this book I'm writing with someone waiting for it so she can show it to her NY agent. And... and... :::kaboom::: exploding head.
is when you see someone like Trump hype a board game based on his TV show, "The Apprentice" the same month his businesses announced plans to file Chapter 11 and "form a new corporate structure where Trump surrenders much of his control."
Hee.
I felt like such a credit card fraud virgin today. I looked online at our AmEx bill, which I do with a freakish frequency. We've never before had anyone try to charge anything to a credit card, though I know friends with personal horror stories, but I do like to watch that balance. So, looking online, blad-de-blah, and suddenly spy a charge to Dell Computers. A fairly large charge, just five days ago, and it was on Carl's card (we're on the same account, different card numbers, and yes, he definitely wants me looking at everything, he hasn't paid a single bill or opened a single piece of mail in 22 years by his own choice)... so anyway, I call him to make sure he hadn't just bought something and forgotten to tell me and nope, he had not. So I call AmEx, who gives me a Dell number, and I went through a series of people until someone finally transferred me to the credit card fraud department (which I had asked for in the first place), and I explained to them what I was questioning. The nice guy helping me looked it up and said the computer we ordered was on its way... to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to Monica M----.
Monica M---- honey? If that's your true name, which I doubt. You are so not getting a computer today or tomorrow. You will probably be calling and bitching about it not being delivered, and I really really hope you do, because I think they are going to try to "re-deliver it" courtesy of the Ft. Lauderdale police.
I called AmEx back, let them know there was definitely credit card fraud and which charges (Omaha Steaks from Nebraska!) weren't ours and they've flagged them and they're not going to pay them, so we won't be harmed. In addition, I cancelled the cards and new ones are on their way, so hopefully, that will be the end to that one.
Still, it makes me wonder just how that person got the credit card number. Since it's Carl's number, he never uses it online and he never calls it in to anyone -- he strictly uses it at places of business, which means someone got it when they waited on him somewhere. Then gave it to someone in Florida. Grrr.
Luckily I caught them in progress before too much damage was done (just under $2,000), but now I'm going to go get our credit reports to make sure nothing else funky is going on.
Funky, freaky world. (Is it weird that I'm sort of disappointed that M*nica the fraud didn't at least go for the flat screen for the computer? I mean, geeze. She'd already popped over the $500 felonly limit, why stop? Of course, she may have been trying to see what the spending limit was and if anyone would notice that big of a single charge.)
So. We're rocking along with the construction business going pretty well. The partner-for-the-potential national business thingie that I discussed (back in May, I think) had not recovered as well from his open-heart surgery as he had expected, so in my mind, that pretty much wiped out the potential for this new business. He had been doing better, but then took a turn for the worse, and the last thing I wanted to be was someone whose new business stressed him out and harmed him. Which is what we told him, and as far as we were concerned, that was that.
Well. He's called and it turns out that the company which had been doing all of the work -- the one we were hoping just to have the ability to compete with -- has been terminated by the national company they were doing all of the work for. They have been ticking off the customers, apparently, and being greedy from what we could see, trying to get a whole lot more in the way of "maintenance" contracts from the customers than the customers wanted. Among other problems. So the national company -- who knew about our interest earlier, and with whom our parnter has a lot of ties -- called our partner and told him about terminating the other company and asked him if we were still interested in doing this. He said yes. He's now gone into deep research mode (meaning, attorneys have been hired) and there is much looking and discussion about purchasing the other company outright (since they will no longer have the work, they will go under and lose everything or have to sell it off piecemeal, so this is a win-win situation... well, win-win in as much as it wasn't us who put them under.)
We've already talked about what it is that we would do differently than what they had been doing before in order to remedy the problems. I'm assuming none of this will happen super fast -- they have been given a 90 day termination notice, so it'll probably happen before that -- and then we'll have a business to run. A national business. 48 continugous states and some stuff in Canada and some in Mexico.
I am a little freaked out. I'm not afraid of the actual business -- I know that one. I understand it probably a lot better than the people running it, because I've been dealing with their customers (for other types of stuff) for at least twenty years now. But having that much responsibility? Whoa.
Of course, none of this has happened. It could all fall apart. It could all change tomorrow. So I'm just watching and waiting. And writing, because it might be a bit busy around here later.
I had one of those days at work, one of those awful days where something someone promised to do gets completely reversed on a whim and that person does their level best (which is pretty damned good, unfortunately) to screw up something critical. It was one of those rare moments when I put my head down on my desk and just wanted to disappear. Usually, I am the trouble-shooter for this sort of thing and I couldn't figure out a really good answer, and then Carl came in and we talked about the problem and he thought he'd take a stab at it. I was worried that he'd be angry on my behalf or just plain angry for the person doing what they were doing and then tick them off and the problem would grow even worse, but he talked calmly (he usually does, I was just worrying) to them... and talked... and talked... and an hour later, emerged successful. I honestly do not know how or what he said because I left the room, but it worked. And who says there aren't heroes now?
Have you ever watched someone in business who just brags and brags about how great they are, how much money they make, how they've got their client wrapped around their little fingers and the client is a cash cow and wouldn't know a good job if they saw one? And you wish the client would figure it out, would figure out you could do a much better job, but life rarely works out like that? We've been dealing with a guy who fits the above description, who has a corner on a market that's directly related to what we do. We would have liked to have taken some business away from him, but it looked as if he had that market pretty well sewed up. However, he has a nasty habit of not finishing jobs in a timely way, not doing the jobs right to start with, and dragging around paying people even though it is clear (from the way he lives / purchases he makes) that he has plenty of money.
We just did a job for him for which all of the above applies. And lo and behold, his client called us today to ask Carl a few questions about the quality of something the guy was doing, and it turned out that what the guy was doing was completely wrong. Wrong enough to ruin the entire job and require everything to be ripped out and re-done. We had done concrete work (a sub-contract part of the bigger job) and the client didn't realize that we also did all the work that this other guy's been doing. And the client said, "Wow. I wish I had gotten you to do this job for us." Because he was very happy with the part we had done. And he went on to say, "I want you to bid the next stuff we do -- maybe we can work you year-round, the way we've been working __[other guy]" and Carl gave him a lot of information about us (good EMR record -- that's your insurance rating, long-term safety record, great references, etc.)
I don't know for certain if we'll get all of that guy's work, but we'll get some of it, which is very lucrative. Karma's amazing, isn't it.
I have spent the last couple of days purging junk from our lives. I am not a minimalist in any manner, but I hate for junk to start piling up and cluttering our lives. The last time I did this big of a junk purge was a couple of years ago, and even then, there were things I just didn't finish doing, like my own closet.
I cannot believe how much junk I pulled out of that one spot. Today, I worked (with my friend Pam, the organizing lady) to declutter the office. We've decided to make a second office in the house using the spare bedroom since we never actually use it for a spare bedroom. That room will become a bid / file room, which will allow my office to be mainly used for writing. I will of course still be doing all the phone call stuff, but I don't have to have all of the old job files and old vendor files in here. We moved out a big shelf unit and put it in the other room, carving out a spot for my rocking chair and a reading lamp.
The other thing I did for myself today was order a new computer. I've been talking about getting a new one since forever, and I finally did. This is partly for the business (this old one will go in the extra office now), and partly a birthday present for me.
My birthday is tomorrow. I have a new computer on the way (well, it'll take a week to build and a couple of days to ship), a new reading space in my office, and several much cleaner spaces. Go me! I am thrilled.
I was going to write a long ranty, and I do mean RANTY piece about how a certain cell phone company can stick their little orange logo up their collective asses because they tried to overcharge me $469.10. As if I wouldn't notice. Nor did they think I was going to notice that the hours we were supposed to not have charges (the nights and weekends) were, indeed, being charged to us. And I guess they thought I had developed complete amnesia when it came to the whole mobile-to-mobile part where I paid extra for the service of being able to talk UNLIMITED FOR FREE from mobile-to-mobile because crazy me, I actually expected to be able to talk mobile-to-moble for free. That's just how insane I am. So when I point out to them that half of the time, they didn't give me the mobile-to-mobile part free, they gave me three different explanations of what I had bought. Over the course of four phone calls to them in two days, there were three explanations as to why there were charges:
1)
Me: steamed.
2) Upon the call back, the new explanation was:
"I have a national calling plan. Why isn't it for the whole calling plan?"
[dumb silence]
"Everything was in the state, so I still don't see the problem."
"Well, you were supposed to call from the strict calling zone (which usually follows the major interstates.)"
"Are you looking at the bill? We did call from those zones. I want the credit."
"Really? Oh. Yes... I'm looking at your bill now and I see that they were. Well, we'll have to give you credit for them. But we don't have the ability to go through each page and separate them out, so you'll have to do that and call us back."
Me: fully ticked.
3) Call back again... the last guy was supposed to have made a note on the account AND was supposed to have given me credit for the night-time calls they accidentally charged us for. Which, turns out, he did not do. So I start explaining to the woman who answered why I was calling and I'm about to list the calls when she says:
"How does that matter? We aren't charged for that."
"Yes, but if you're not on OUR tower, then the mobile-to-mobile isn't free."
"So that whole FREE UNLIMITED mobile-to-mobile I bought is only free if we're on your tower."
"Yes. And only in your home town."
"So the explanation yesterday about it being for the whole state was wrong. And the other one about it being in our "calling area" which includes the towns listed on the bill... were wrong."
"Um, yes."
[toni's head explodes in frustration]
then:
"Um, I'm not sure."
"Well, it's like this. You can give me my credit or I can write to the FCC and show them what all is wrong with this one bill. God only knows how many other people they will make you have to refund."
"Um, I think I can get you that credit."
No kidding.
And that is the short, not-as-ranty version. There was oh-so-much more. They do this sort of thing every month. There is always some little something that someone managed to not explain when they offered me something "better" which ends up costing more. Grrr.
Yes, we should leave them and move to another carrier, which we will probably do. Unfortunately, we got the "free phones" when we first signed on with them which meant a two-year contract. And to buy out that contract for all six phones is more than it's worth right now. By fall, though, I'll move. I really shouldn't have to hock a child just to pay a freaking phone bill.
Yep, slayed the damned thing. Won. I am sooooo doing the happy dance over here. And looking around for some margaritas. It is going to be a great weekend.
This morning I am dealing with a client whose own accounting / accounts payable is so horrificly WRONG that I cannot fathom how in the hell they have managed to stay in business. Not just "stay" in business, but do multi-million $ contracts for the government. They owe me money, and I was up until two last night because all of their records are off -- some mistakes are big, some little, and I'm having to do a spreadsheet to match what I invoiced to what I got paid (the actual check, not what they think they paid me), so I can prove how much they owe. It's sort of astonishing that in this day of computer accounting, anyone would have to do this.
I managed to solve one major problem this morning (go me), and I'll get this one solved and get a check from them if I have to go over to Covington and stand there while they write the damned thing. I'm furious. Gross incompentence and each and every individual over there who has had to talk to me has gone to a private place where they are "secretly" blaming all of the other people. I don't care. Jeez.
Back to slaying dragons.
The morning opened with Carl having an epiphany which would help make the new business venture even more competitive and appealing to the customers, which was, truly, a brilliant idea. Which would work. The middle of the day had the partner calling Carl asking him who Carl wanted to list as CEO of the new company, and they settled on me, giving me 1% more so it would be a woman-owned business. (My response? What crack were they smoking?) This afternoon brought Carl to a nervous stop because one person (who's sort of hard to describe here without using technical terms -- suffice it to say, he's one of the big national agencies that used to do this stuff and was supposed to be getting out of it)... well, he informed Carl that he had realized that they could be making the profit that this start-up in Florida is making, and so they are going to do it and make sure that no one else can supply their "clients" with another option. Except, I don't think they can legally tie their clients' hands like that without a contract, and when the clients find out the other thing Carl figured out we could provide (the epiphany I mentioned above), they're going to want that option. So the lawyers are looking at it all to determine if this guy was just trying to scare us off or whether he really could do what he said. (He's not he only big agency / business though -- there are several others, and they seem not to be so proprietary towards this thing. In fact, they seem to be welcoming the outside businesses like the guy in Florida.)
So Carl felt elated this morning, bummed beyond belief this evening. I'm in the middle. There's plenty we can do with this company; they have no way whatsoever to tie down all of the independents not associated with those big supplier agencies, which means there is a tremendous amount of business up for grabs. And we can grab it.
There were dozens of phone calls flying around here today. Still a lot of contacts to be made with people who have information for us -- info which will help us determine how viable this thing is. Because we are not going to let the partner spend that kind of money on any sort of false start (and everything's reversible so far.)
I really really really really really want this to work. I cannot tell you how much I want this to work. I'm scared that will jinx it, though. I'm so tired of construction, of being the go-to person for problem-solving, of dealing with dozens of vendors, etc., which I wouldn't have to do with this new business. I want to have that writing time.
Tomorrow morning's the MRI. Felt a shade better today, though not in top form... but that may be due as much to stress as anything else. Just want to feel great again. I so rarely get sick! I hate this not feeling up to par, not being able to cook on all burners, all of the time. I did exercise yesterday and today (and man, sore arms!), so that's an improvement.
It's been a strange weekend, in the sense that I am not better physically, but such positive things are happening with the new business, it's definitely put me in a good mood. (I suspect that the medicine is working, but it's a 16 day thing and I'm only on day 5.)
The partner and Carl talked -- he's buying enough stuff to rig out two complete "units" for a start, because between what Carl already knows he can land as a client and what this guy knows he can land, it's more than enough work to make a nice profit. He's the kind of guy that has so often gone beyond the imagination when it comes to taking care of those friends he loves, that he's always more than fair, so ironically, I -- the uber worrier when it comes to money -- have not even sat down with him to discuss some of this. Instincts -- I know what he's offered to do so many times in the past, and he's the one putting up all of the money, so if he wants to do that, I figured he would want the split, after costs, to be somewhere around 70/30 or so, because hey -- he's putting up all the money. We are in no way obligated to pay him a penny if the whole thing goes belly up. Well, he called Carl today and told Carl he wanted to meet with the both of us because while he wants Carl happy, he definitely never wanted to "tangle" with me. (Which is just so funny, because this guy is shrewd -- and old enough to be my dad, easily.) So that was a nice thing, and then the next thing he said was that he wanted to split the profits and the company 50/50. With us still not owing him a penny if it flops. He's that convinced that this is a true money-making venture.
He's already invested (by ordering some equipment we need today) -- a half-a-million. I very nearly had a heart attack, but that's what the set-up costs and I know that's why there isn't any real competition out there -- there's just not a lot of people who know about this or who would put up that kind of money. And success is possible as much because of who we've built as a client base all of these year and our reputation with them.
He said he figures the business will operate at a loss for an entire year and if we wanted to completely stop the construction company, he'd pay us what our living expenses are out of the start-up capitol because he wanted to make sure we weren't in a bind while the company grew. Of course, we'll still be doing some of the construction work, but it will hit a point where we cannot do both and if that business isn't in the black yet, we would need that sort of cushion. (I keep saying "we" -- but seriously, while I may help with some client sale prep in the very beginning, it's something I wouldn't have to work for.)
Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to the national office person for our biggest client. The local district guy has already said we can certify all of his items (which is about 100), and we already have our little secondary client lined up with his items (he has about 30)... which means we have more than enough to just about break even on the first year before we start. But the national office has somewhere along the lines of 1000 items, and the local manager guy seemed to think they may want to do a national contract -- like a five-year thing.
I'm not going to keep boring y'all with all of the details in future entries until it's something concrete - particularly since I can't name the item because there aren't may google hits to be found with that search string and I don't want to pop up on it yet, but it's a reality that we're going to be giving this a shot.
It's clear to me that our life is about to radically change over the next few months. I don't know if this opportunity will work (for certain -- I think I'm sure, but you never know the guerilla warfare that can go on behind the scenes of a business until you're in the jungle)... but I think it's the first time in our lives we have a legitmate "big" opportunity. That so rarely comes along. And, we're not going to shut down the construction company until it's clear the other one has already taken off, so no worries there about losing both and then being screwed.
My dad, ever the devil's advocate, wondered what was in it for the partner, but when we sat down and looked through all the expenses, how it would be paid back and the time-frame, it's a no-brainer. He's going to make good money without actually working... he'll just finance it. And the work for Carl will be about a hundred times easier than what he's ever done.
Can it fail? Certainly. We could not land the biggest contract of all and have to scramble to pick up each client independently (which the competition is doing successfully now, and we can under-price / provide better service than they can)... I don't know. But I'm amazed at the opportunity.
Anyway, very odd weekend.
In the construction business, we have to rent equipment. There for a while when the business was so slow, we had gotten out of the habit of having to rent much because we either owned it already, had a friend (in construction) who was out of work and wanted to lease / rent it to us, or we could pick up the equipment cheap because so many other construction companies were going out of business. This last year (from last March until now) however, things have picked up. We have several jobs going on covering about a four state area. It is neither pretty nor fun to make sure everyone has everything they need to build the damn things we build when half of our own equipment is two states away.
We're a very little company. We just happen to do big work, and far away, so now we've been renting more and more equipment.
Used to, when you rented equipment, you paid a damage waiver fee (LDW stands for Loss & Damage Waiver) -- a whopping 14% of the rental fee tacked onto the rental (before taxes) which was an insurance policy. If you didn't rent very often, it was a nusisance but a necessary evil -- if you damaged the equipment, you paid a deductible, and the damage waiver insurance kicked in. You know, hence the name.
But equipment rental companies got wise to this and decided to add a couple of neato little quirks in the mix. Like, if you damage it, sure they'll cover it, but not until you pay a $500 deductible OR two times the monthly rent of the piece of equipment, WHICHEVER IS GREATER. Or the exact cost of the damages. The bastards. This is printed in itty bitty fine print that you don't see on the invoice, but is on the delivery ticket -- the ticket the guys in the field sign. Like they are actually going to read the itty bitty bitty teeny print when they have a backhoe sitting there, ready to go to work? Yeah. Right.
So, for example, the backhoe that one of our overzealous employees damaged last week? (Which I did not mention here yet.) We could pay twice the monthly rent of $1400, so $2,800. Or we could just pay for the estimated damages -- which will be about $1,400. They're not even going to fix it -- it's going right back out on rent. So we paid about $200 for the LDW waiver for the two months we had the backhoe, $400. Now we'll pay for the damage because it's cheaper than the two times the monthly rent... that's $1,800 going whoosh down the drain. I want to smack somebody.
I'm now renting enough to where this is annoying and digging into profits, so now I'm going to have to buy a floating rider policy to cover rental equipment so that I can pay a set amount every month, whether I rent something or not just in case I DO rent something and it gets damaged so I can then have the privilege of only paying the deductible. At least I can quit paying that 14% of LDW on every rental we have -- which, given how much we rent now, is probbably about the same price as the policy.
I am having a party over here, I am having so much fun.
I spent the majority of Thursday doing certified payroll reports for a federal job we're finishing up. I loathe doing them; they're tedious, boring, tedious, and may I say, tedious. The accounting software I have is QuickBooks Pro for Contractors, and there's a nifty little button that's supposed to generate certified payroll reports, only as far as I can tell, it only generates the information that goes on the left side of the report (employees' names, addresses and social security numbers). Big woo. They got me all excited (wait. I just wrote that I got excited by something in accounting. Shoot me now, please. Holy Christ, shoot me now.) Anyway, I'd made a template prior to having this feature which did more than that, and even though it's better, it's still tedious.
I'd gotten behind in turning these reports in, and now I have to finish them up today because I now have other pressing things to do for the business. Oh, yippee skip hurray.