tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60158282011-07-08T05:55:35.652-05:00My thoughts and nothing elseRayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.comBlogger751100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-67829810817193052592010-02-22T10:39:00.003-05:002010-02-22T10:51:12.696-05:00

I've recently launched a new e-commerce site catering to commercial and industrial facility managers looking for energy efficient lighting products. RelightDepot.com is your lighting retrofit super store. The site was created to provide the widest selection of energy efficient warehouse lighting, commercial retrofit kits and energy efficient industrial lighting. We have the products and

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-85996369990913097822008-12-18T09:09:00.005-05:002008-12-18T10:16:34.126-05:00

I've been banging my head against the monitor for a while trying to get Fabricio Zuardi's XSPF Web Music Player to work under DNN with no luck. That was until I read this thread on the DNN forums and found out that IIS has to be configured to serve .xspf files in order for this to work.The XSPF Web Music Player is a flash-based web application that uses xspf playlist format to play mp3 songs.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-6610659316359595832007-01-12T15:55:00.000-05:002007-01-17T09:35:52.831-05:00

I recently volunteered to redesign my daughter's school's site. This will include migrating over approximately 120 email addresses to a new server and reworking the landing page and the site for the parish, too. I decided on using DotNetNuke v4.4.0 as the content management system and have alredy had the folks at St. Joan create an account with EasyCGI for hosting.Even though EasyCGI offers all

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1144433699568989942006-04-07T13:14:00.000-05:002006-04-07T13:14:59.630-05:00

I know it's been a while since I post, but I came accross this and couldn't think of another place to put it so that I would be able to find it in the future.We've been looking at getting another boat and I've started going out on a few sea trials. It's difficult to think of what to do when you're on someone else's boat that will give you some confidence of how good it is. I found this comment

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1133369325507256252005-11-30T11:44:00.000-05:002007-01-12T15:48:15.962-05:00

Calling all UF Gators out there! Be sure to check out and sign up with the new Florida Gator Nation Network. It's UF's social networking site. They've done a fairly nice job implementing Affinity Engine's social networking engine and have even tied in your UF record with the profile. If you do join, feel free to look me up and send me a link request.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1132204229727676202005-11-17T00:10:00.000-05:002006-04-07T13:19:23.040-05:00

I hate comment spam!

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1117135668842035942005-05-26T14:22:00.000-05:002005-05-26T14:27:48.846-05:00

The wife had a need to calculate the present value of a number of payments all that were due to one of her clients for the last several years as part of a legal preceeding. These payments are all subject to pre-judgement interest with varying interest rates. I took the chance and created a spreadsheet that she could use to enter the payments that were due into the appropriate months they were

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1099075366850855122004-10-29T12:56:00.000-05:002004-10-29T13:45:36.873-05:00

I'm proud to announce that we have launched the first release of the Chippery Florida site. The site allows customers to read more about our operations, the Chippery product line and it also lets them join the Chippery Club. Members receive exclusive deals and special promotions for everything from chips to shirts. Head on over there for a peak and make sure to vote for your favorite type of

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1096601974435597332004-09-30T22:22:00.000-05:002004-09-30T22:39:34.436-05:00

Strange feeling... I've been thinking about what I'll have to do so much that I didn't give any consideration to what this would be like. I spent most of the day packing and had a great lunch with a group of friends. I wrote a short message to the folks that are still left and included a link to this blog. Interesting to see that so many people were curious enough to click. Tomorrow I'll go

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1095483527246649502004-09-18T00:46:00.000-05:002004-09-17T23:58:47.246-05:00

Over the last couple of days I've driven out to the mall to meet with Don, our contractor, to review the renovations we're going to be doing in the space. I'm confident that Don has a good grasp of all of the changes we want to do. The more I go out there, the easier it is for me to envision the space as it will eventually be. I drove out there today and found that our "Coming Soon" sign had

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1094708989474472542004-09-09T00:06:00.000-05:002004-09-09T00:49:49.473-05:00

I brought the familly back home today after being at my folks house for five nights waiting out hurricane Frances and its aftermath. It's nice to be home again! I actually drove up to Boynton to check up on our house with my dad on Monday. Our place did fairly well. We lost some roof shingles, had some damage to our wooden fence, and have slightly thinner trees now, but that's about it. We

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1094706143976267532004-09-07T14:01:00.000-05:002004-09-09T00:06:30.773-05:00

I got a call today from Lynne, the plan reviewer from the division of hotel and restaurants, saying that our plans had been approved. She was very pleasant on the phone. She said that she was so bored waiting for the hurricane to pass that she ended up taking plans home to review and she got through ours. I'll be sending her a case of chips as soon as we're up and running! I also called

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1094047144031122992004-09-01T08:53:00.000-05:002004-09-01T08:59:04.030-05:00

Things aren't looking too good over here. It seems that hurricane Frances will pass by close enough for us to see at least some of the effects of the storm. Other than the regular preparations for the family and home, now I have to worry about the business. Even though the store hasn't been started yet, I still have the Chippery cooker sitting in my garage. This was supposed to be a temporary

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1094008680598457972004-08-31T22:11:00.000-05:002004-08-31T22:18:00.596-05:00

Well, if you're keeping track, you're wondering to yourself when the heck I get the space. Funny you should ask! I was supposed to get the space on August 25th, but due since the tenant paid through the end of the month, they were able to stay there for the full month. Just to make sure, I passed by the mall tonight and saw that they had vacated the space. They didn't leave it in too bad a

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1094008176974345422004-08-27T21:57:00.000-05:002004-08-31T22:09:36.973-05:00

This afternoon was very hectic. I took off early from work thanks to Mot's "Summer Hours" program and had to drive to Ft. Lauderdale to our architect's office to pick up six sets of plans. I had the architect sign and seal five of them and print out an extra set for me to keep. I then drove back up to Margate to drop off the plans at Florida's Division of Business and Professional Regulation.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1093381212664893892004-08-24T15:46:00.000-05:002006-05-08T03:14:46.276-05:00

I've got one Gmail invitation available that I will graciously give to the first person to post a comment on this post. If you include details of why you read, I'll even send you your first message on your new account :)

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1093380381017269302004-08-24T15:42:00.000-05:002004-08-24T15:46:21.016-05:00

My wife and I just got back from a quick cruise vacation with the two kids. This was sort of the last break before things get crazy through construction and then opening the business in November. We took a three-night cruise to the Bahamas and Castaway Key on Disney's Wonder. Overall it was a good trip even with a two-year-old and five-month-old. My only complaint was the quality of the food

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1092074714028067362004-08-09T12:58:00.000-05:002004-08-09T13:06:51.730-05:00

The design phase of the first Florida Chippery unit is done and boy has it been a chore (more to come later). Little changed from the initial concept that I posted about earlier, but I thought I should post the final layout for prosperity's sake. The main difference between this one and the one I posted earlier is that the counter has a raised section at the end and a couple of cubby holes

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1091739669950503002004-08-05T16:01:00.000-05:002004-08-05T16:01:09.950-05:00

As I told you folks earlier, I lost my previous business plan due to a combination of stupidity and laziness. The plan wasn't finished (as if they ever are) so I had never printed a copy or sent it to anybody for review before losing the USB key drive that I stored it on. Well, I'm in the process of re-writing the business plan for the Chippery and I'm much happier with this version than the

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1091547516864422412004-08-03T10:36:00.000-05:002004-08-03T10:38:36.863-05:00

Wow! What a racket! Here's an itch looking for a scratch... I've been looking for a service that will automate the employment pre-screening for my chippery stores. I figure that for high-turnover businesses like this there must be something where I can pay a monthly fee to have any candidate answer a few preliminary questions, then if they satisfy our criteria, have them move on to a short

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1091022365696546202004-07-27T08:45:00.000-05:002004-07-28T08:46:05.696-05:00

I just received my two copies of the fully executed lease documents. There's definitely no turning back now :)

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1091022307617884482004-07-26T15:34:00.000-05:002004-07-28T08:47:08.900-05:00

I heard back from our leasing manager for the mall and found out that the letter that gives the current tenant 30 days to vacate the property has been sent. This means that we will get the space by the end of August. It's sort of tough for the current tenant, but I think they may want to get out of the lease. Their store isn't doing well by my account. I've never seen more than one or two

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1090874628621509262004-07-26T13:25:00.000-05:002004-07-26T15:43:48.620-05:00

After speaking with Mike Sanchez from MS Architects, Inc. in Ft. Lauderdale, I decided to retain his firm for the construction drawings and final details for our first store. It turns out that even without knowing it ahead of time, I've hired another University of Florida Alum. Mike heads a smaller firm, but I was impressed with his commitment. I asked him to review our plans at about 12:45 PM

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1090554608447671972004-07-22T22:38:00.000-05:002004-07-22T22:50:08.446-05:00

I received the "approved as noted" set of drawings back from the landlord and I've been trying to hire an architect to complete the plans for construction. The letter that accompanied the prints from the landlord stated that I had to revise the plans with the comments that were made and resubmit within 14 days - and there were plenty of comments. Some not so serious, but others seemed fairly

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-109026380508505982004-07-19T13:23:00.000-05:002004-07-19T14:03:25.086-05:00

I met with the second of several prospective general contractors for the build out of our first store on Sunday. This gentleman is currently in the lead to get the job. He has plenty of experience working in the mall (he's built out several food operations in this particular mall including the McDonalds and a salad place), he lives in the same city, and he has contacts in the building department

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1089860618520089682004-07-14T21:56:00.000-05:002004-07-15T10:15:43.813-05:00

The excitement began at around 10:00 in the morning when I heard a delivery truck stop outside our house. By the time I made it out there, the tailgate was already out and the door was pulled up to reveal the crate that housed our first Chippery cooker. It took about 25 minutes between the driver and I to pull the crate towards the back and then ease it onto the tailgate. The next hurdle was

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1089860829132300662004-07-14T21:04:00.000-05:002004-07-14T22:07:09.133-05:00

After staying up until after 3AM and getting up at 8 to continue working on the initial drawing package for the mall, I managed to finally submit the first set of prints to the facilities coordinator today. I shouldn't of had to twiddle with the drawings at all, but unfortunately the drawings that I received from the designer weren't ready to be submitted. It makes me wonder if the designer

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1089664040354382882004-07-12T15:27:00.000-05:002004-07-12T22:01:47.690-05:00

Nothing is quite as bad as losing data! In the past 24 hours I've lost every piece of digital information I had for the Chippery and the covered call site. This includes business plan, financial projections, digital copies of contracts, web site source code and other documents, etc. The first to go was my USB drive. I use this to take the working copies of important documents from computer to

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1089300228845471912004-07-08T10:05:00.000-05:002004-07-08T10:39:28.150-05:00

The process has been a little slower than I expected, but it seems we're on our way to getting the final store design drawings within the next day or so. As you can see, we have made some considerable changes in the layout. For starters, the first column and the bulkhead that it supported are now gone. This clears the way for a much more unobstructed view of the operations end of the store.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1089213881675894202004-07-07T10:11:00.000-05:002004-07-07T10:32:12.573-05:00

Well, I can let go of all that pent up nervousness I had waiting to see if Tim Draper would pick me out of the pack to present the ScribeCenter idea to him. The contest I wrote about several posts ago is now over and I wasn't selected to pitch. The actual finalists seemed fairly wacky. You can read all about the results in this Times (registration required, try BugMeNot) article. In the end,

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1089210270144012742004-07-07T09:12:00.000-05:002004-07-07T09:24:30.143-05:00

After having taken care of the credit card processing system for the Covered Call Pro site, a web site that operates on a card-not-present scenario, I figured the discount fees that I would get as a quick service restaurant would be lower. It turns out that on a percentage of sale basis, it's higher than I thought it would be. I met with a rep from SunTrust Merchant Services last week to

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1088649473448107272004-06-30T21:31:00.000-05:002004-06-30T21:37:53.450-05:00

After chasing everybody down and getting all of the required witnesses and notaries to do their job, we finally signed the lease with the mall. I drove over to our local Kinkos and dropped the large FedEx box into the slot. I don't know if it was that I was staring at the sun for a while or the fact that I knew that I had just entered into a very large commitment, but my head was spinning.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1088445094487387302004-06-28T09:48:00.000-05:002004-06-28T12:51:34.486-05:00

I've started working with Eric, the designer, on the store concept drawings for the first Chippery unit in Wellington Green. Friday afternoon I got the first draft of Eric's proposal (pictured below). I have to say that after taking a look at the existing space, I think we're going to have to do more work than I originally envisioned in order to get the right experience for our customers.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1088025755287414712004-06-23T16:13:00.000-05:002004-06-23T16:22:35.286-05:00

I first read about these ingenious little contraptions several months ago on IDFuel and thought that it would make a great impulse item to place right by the cash wrap at our store. Well, today I called them up to see if this was possible. Not only is it possible, but they have sold branded versions of the clips to other customers in the past.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1088019167366556662004-06-23T14:27:00.000-05:002004-06-23T14:32:47.366-05:00

Well, we've negotiated all the terms for the lease and have in essence agreed to pretty much everything, but when we got the lease form back there were a few things we needed changed. We received the "final" lease form on Monday and we replied with our comments on Tuesday. Unfortunately, we haven't received the real final version yet so we're still lease-less. On another note, we're

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1087506668308813282004-06-17T15:56:00.000-05:002004-06-17T16:11:08.306-05:00

The subject of pricing has come up several times in the last month or so and today, Rob the BusinessPundit had a post (pointing to an article on CFO.com) that discusses the pitfalls encountered when pricing new products. Here's my situation... Our (projected) most popular item will be the "quick fix" bag which holds about 2.5 oz of potato chips. These are what I consider a premium product

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1087505715487653622004-06-17T15:39:00.000-05:002004-06-17T15:55:15.486-05:00

Yesterday I sat in a conference room at the mall with Jim, our real estate consultant, and Al, the mall leasing manager, and we had Kim, our attorney, and Tom, their attorney, on the phone. All in all, everything went very smoothly. They gave on many points and we had to come to some compromises on a few terms but things went very well. Very well, that is, until we got to the deal breaker!

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1086642326559919682004-06-07T15:47:00.000-05:002004-06-07T16:05:47.780-05:00

It's taken us (Attorney, wife, consultant and self) approximately two weeks to digest the details of the 67-legal-sized-page lease package from the mall's leasing company. Today we replied with a 10-page document detailing all of the terms we needed changed. To be fair, the lease isn't the entire 67 pages. It's broken up as follows: Cover page (1 page) Table of Contents (2 pages) Data Sheet

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1086115941880799432004-06-01T13:48:00.000-05:002004-06-01T13:52:21.880-05:00

The Taubman Design Package for the WG space got here today. It's basically two CD's filled with the as-built drawings, the design criteria and the drawings for all prior tenants. It seems that the first tenant for our space was a place called CinnZeo. Not much has changed since their original design. Looks like the current tenant just changed the name on the bulkhead. The next step for us is

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1085667337976977652004-05-27T09:15:00.000-05:002004-05-27T09:15:37.976-05:00

Since I'm planning to use sampling as my main marketing tool, I thought this quote from a completely unrelated article in Brand Autopsy was relevant: Brand Autopsy: If you are going to sample a product, make sure the sample tastes good. Samples that taste good will manage to enhance the marketing performance of the product you are selling.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1085518040409392912004-05-25T15:47:00.000-05:002004-05-25T15:47:20.410-05:00

The truth of the matter is that old ideas die hard. When I read that Tim Draper was asking for people to pitch their billion-dollar idea on Always On, I couldn't help but write about ScribeCenter. For those that don't know, ScribeCenter is was a digital dictation and transcription management solution for attorneys. It took up a whole lot of my waking hours for a period of almost two years. I

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1085154285393128682004-05-21T10:44:00.000-05:002004-05-21T13:56:28.170-05:00

Chad Hutchinson, a University of Florida researcher, is working on a project that will bring a low carbohydrate potato to the market by next year's harvest. staugustine.com Local News: "Low-carb Tater" Chad Hutchinson of the University of Florida is in charge of the low-carb potato project. He said for the past four years he's been growing potatoes from the Netherlands in Hastings that have 30

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1085153348882082742004-05-21T10:29:00.000-05:002004-05-21T10:38:43.576-05:00

Procter & Gamble announced that it will be printing trivia questions, designs and other fun facts on the face of its Pringles potato chips. I think that's brilliant! I already find myself turning over the caps of all of the Snapple drinks to see what Fun Fact lay underneath. Business Day: "Trivial pursuit - on a chip" The Cincinnati, Ohio consumer products giant said it was using a "

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1085065477145417962004-05-20T09:56:00.000-05:002004-05-20T10:04:37.146-05:00

Apparently the spot that Food Network ran on the Chippery has been responsible for more than just my response to the company. I just stumbled accross this article from the Detroit News that describes the Michigan's licensee's story. Here are a couple of good quotes from the article. Firm's fresh method rolls out the chips (Detroit News): Since March, Chips to Order LLC has supplied fresh chips

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1084980855701438462004-05-19T10:34:00.000-05:002004-05-20T10:05:40.633-05:00

This whole explosion of low-carb foods has seriously worried me with respect to how the Chippery will be received. This may not be good news for Atkins lovers, but finally, some good news (for me at least)! Low-Carb Losing Steam (washingtonpost.com - free registration required): The nation's appetite for low-carbohydrate foods seems bottomless, judging by the many low-carb products showing up

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1084976692901204962004-05-19T09:20:00.000-05:002004-05-19T09:24:52.900-05:00

I just received our first view of the mall's lease document via email from the landlord's attorney. Quite a hefty document. This thing weighs in at a whopping 65 pages with a couple of other pages thrown in an additional file as attachments to the lease. The majority of the business terms are in a "Data Sheet" that's just two pages long. I obviously haven't read through the whole thing yet,

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1084890965203079052004-05-18T09:36:00.000-05:002004-05-18T09:37:10.396-05:00

Is this a sign of things to come. The fast food industry may soon be rolling out trans-fat-free fries from Slimplot Foods. This may be a good thing in that it will raise consumer's awareness of the benefits of staying away from foods cooked in oils containing trans fats. Chippery uses non-hydrogenated oils to cook the chips in. USA: J.R. Simplot launches trans-fat-free French fries :

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1084564589009155832004-05-14T14:50:00.000-05:002004-05-14T15:28:29.793-05:00

So now that the ink is dry on the Chippery license agreement. I have to gear up to open the first unit. The plan is to open up in The Mall at Wellington Green on or before October 1st. Before this can happen, there are a slew of things that have to get done. Here's a short list: Negotiate final terms of mall lease Store design Mall and Health Department Plan Revew Permitting Demolition

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1084464042497023412004-05-13T11:00:00.000-05:002004-05-14T12:46:35.940-05:00

Small Business Trends writes about an interesting article about smaller restaurants using finger print recognition in their operations. Update: After trying to go back and read this article again, I found that the Ohio.com site requires you to register your email, name, home address, social security number, first pets name, etc. in order to access their content more than once. Huge annoyance!

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1084480369534566992004-05-12T13:30:00.000-05:002004-05-14T10:53:56.406-05:00

As I mentioned previously, Geoff (the President) and Ernie (the CFO) from the Chippery paid me a visit this week in order for us to get to know each other better and get our previously rocky negotiations back on track. The guys flew into Miami International and drove up to the hotel in Boca on Monday night. I picked them up at 8 AM on Tuesday because Monday was my wedding anniversary. We had

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1084200177919727542004-05-10T09:42:00.000-05:002004-05-14T10:07:00.550-05:00

Congrats to the Blogger crew. They just relaunched a great new interface jam packed with new features, templates and that great new blogger smell! Stopdesign has a great write-up of the entire project Update: It's only fitting that I choose the Mr. Moto template from the excellent selection of standard-compliant templates that new blogger provides.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083961341980186692004-05-07T15:28:00.000-05:002004-05-14T14:00:12.156-05:00

The few of you that read this probably know that I, along with roughly 120 other engineers, techs, factory support folks, program managers, etc, worked on Motorola's Triplets program. My facility was the primary integration site for both hardware and software for all three Triplets phones and is still working on two spin-off projects based on the same architecture. You also may know that we

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083780442530658582004-05-05T13:07:00.000-05:002004-05-05T13:49:12.326-05:00

The BusinessPundit touched on an idea that I've discussed with a few friends. His thoughts are slightly different than mine but along the same lines. Should business owners be more open about the underlying details and issues of their business? I'm not sure how open I would be about an existing business with complete strangers, but I think it's my duty to share what I've learned with anyone

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083703486990251572004-05-04T15:44:00.000-05:002004-05-04T15:50:19.263-05:00

After a few interviews, I've decided to go with Louis Cohen from Caler, Donten & Levine here in West Palm Beach. Lou is a two-time University of Florida grad (like my wife and I) and comes highly recommended from our attorney. They've already set me up with their base quickbooks file that's tailored for the restaurant industry.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083686137193143222004-05-04T10:55:00.000-05:002004-05-04T14:21:09.530-05:00

I called up my two-clicker in Libertyville to find out if I was going to be extended through him or if I had to move to a new group to stay until September. Turns out he's willing to extend me until then and I'll be reporting to someboday up in Chicago. Sounds like I'll have plenty of flexibility to get things done for The Chippery.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083594736478999242004-05-03T09:32:00.000-05:002004-08-04T22:22:13.923-05:00

I can't believe that I let this little fact through without mentioning it. It's been 150 years since the first potato chips were fried by George Crum, a chef at Moon's Lake House resort in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1853. This article also says that Frederick J. Meyer, the guy that owned the first large-scale potato chip production line, killed himself after selling it to H. W. Lay & Company

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083593713269505442004-05-03T09:15:00.000-05:002004-05-03T09:19:26.936-05:00

Florida Today ran an interesting article on franchising. It describes the level of detail needed from a franchisor's side and, for me, points out how far away from this the guys at The Chippery are. I think that in the end, I'll probably be the one that goes through the trouble of doing all of these types of details - POS system, accounting system, inventory control, job descriptions, policy

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083349192454373492004-04-30T13:19:00.000-05:002004-05-14T14:09:05.073-05:00

Slightly disappointed... TimesDispatch.com | 'Online shopper' has new meaning: "Internet lovers take note: You can now surf the Web wire-free in the outdoor commons areas at Stony Point Fashion Park." I have been planning on providing either free or free-ish wi-fi from The Chippery in Wellington Green but this looks like it won't happen. My idea was to "light up" the surrounding area with a

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083163623313972452004-04-28T09:47:00.000-05:002004-04-28T09:51:18.593-05:00

We finally have a meeting date with the guys from The Chippery. They're set to fly down to Miami on Monday, 5/10, and leave Wednesday, 5/12. I'll meet with them first thing in the morning on Tuesday and take them around to some of the target malls. If we don't come to an agreement by the end of their trip, I'm going to have to walk away and pursue other options.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1083011188799233482004-04-26T15:26:00.000-05:002004-04-26T15:30:41.936-05:00

I got an email from our HR lady today that my WARN letter was ready to be picked up. Apparently MOT has to give me 60 days written notice prior to the day that they "Exit" me. I thought it would be funny to go over there and pretend I didn't know what was going on. I show up at her cube and ask what the letter is all about and she says it's my 60 day notice. I ask "Notice for what?" She

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082748229856927522004-04-23T14:23:00.000-05:002004-04-23T15:01:01.466-05:00

Slate published an article that pinned a few gourmet chips against each other in a taste-off. Not very thorough but it was interesting to read. NPR also ran a piece on the article.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082659999944236972004-04-22T13:53:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:11:54.013-05:00

I was pretty excited when I got out of my first negotiation call with the guys from The Chippery. It seemed things had gone well; I got them to agree to giving me pretty much all of Florida in exchange for a healthy development schedule and zero cash. We agreed that I would rework their original supplier agreement and that we would get back together to finish up the deal. This was on March

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082662776265547372004-04-19T14:39:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:12:39.496-05:00

I got an invitation to join Dan's network on LinkedIn. This looks pretty interesting - there's potential if the people you invite take it somewhat seriously.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082661745976908902004-03-11T15:22:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:12:58.903-05:00

We started the process of nailing down some of the terms of our arrangement with The Chippery. Since they're not fully ready to enter into business as a franchisor, they proposed we enter into a supplier agreement with an option to convert to a Master Licensee when they do file all of their registration documents. I don't see a problem with this and Jim thinks it may even be better for us to go

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082661162565974172004-03-01T15:12:00.000-05:002004-05-04T14:22:02.890-05:00

Having decided to move forward with The Chippery, I got serious and retained an attorney that specializes in franchises. I would be working with Andy Friedman and Ron Rosenwasser from Friedman, Rosenwasser and Goldbaum, P.A. Ron recommended that I speak with Jim Trindade regarding mall spaces and he arranged the introduction. Jim is a retail real-estate specialist. His credentials are very

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082660625708961372004-02-28T15:03:00.000-05:002004-05-04T14:22:25.076-05:00

I worked out the numbers for both the Chip business and the Wine business. I even ended up interviewing a few people that managed wine stores in other cities to get an understanding of the inner workings of that business. My conclusion is that Chips win. I really like the thought of owning a wine store, but wine has very tight margins. Typically, gross margin on wine is in the neighborhood of

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082656912407756112004-02-12T16:55:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:14:48.686-05:00

Our ads started showing up on Big Charts on Wednesday the 11th. The campaign is composed of a ribbon on the front page of Big Charts along with synchronized banner and sky scraper ads on the news or quote pages. Somehow, someone really screwed the pooch at Big Charts because the first ads that showed up weren't linked to our site at all and they were not the final version of the creatives we

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082658852344025912004-02-05T14:34:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:15:11.716-05:00

The wine business is beautiful. My wife and I had talked about opening a small wine boutique in a hip outdoor shopping mall in West Palm Beach and we also heard about this company called Best Cellars. They came up with a very attractive and unique way of selling wine. I called their store in New York and bounced myself around until I found the VP of Franchising, Rebecca Parish. She sent me

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082658162363930342004-01-25T02:22:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:15:29.983-05:00

Today we were all gathered up into the ball room at a local hotel and were told that our facility will be shut down by the end of the year. People would be "exited" in stages. 90 leaving at the end of March, and then roughly 40 at the end of every quarter. Approximately 60 others from the semiconductor business would end up moving to another facility and several others got offers for

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082658608286755862004-01-09T14:30:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:15:46.450-05:00

About a year and a half ago, I saw a two minute spot on a company called The Chippery on Food Network that I thought was fantastic. These guys came up with a machine that you could throw a potato in one end and get potato chips at the other. Brilliant! I wanted one! I thought it was a great concept for malls. Since I first saw this blurb, I told everybody I knew that was interested in

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082657826520057792004-01-07T14:17:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:16:05.890-05:00

I should mention that I work for Motorola's Personal Communications Sector. I've been there since December 6, 1999. Lately, we've been hearing stronger rumors that the facility I'm in will be closing soon. I've lived under that threat since late 2000. The only Motorola that I know is the one that has been laying off people every quarter since the bubble burst. The rumors were stronger and

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082656340033682312004-01-02T13:52:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:16:27.280-05:00

As expected, Dr. X and Mr. Y were unfortunately not grasping the importance of marketing for our (or any) site. Mr. Y was put in charge of coming up with a marketing plan and he decided to read up on improving google placement. I insisted that something else be done because it would surely take some time to get traction in google. The response was to run a campaign on what they considered a

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1082648201943270562003-12-05T13:14:00.000-05:002004-04-23T10:16:47.170-05:00

I took the initiative to draft a requirements document for the site which wasn't too difficult. I based the entire thing off of a great open source asp portal that I used for the My Baby Updates(MBU) site called ASP-Nuke. I also worked on incorporating the company and drafted a "Corporate Governance" document that was to serve as an operating agreement for the LLC we formed. This didn't take

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1070579710165684522003-12-04T18:15:00.000-05:002004-04-22T12:57:58.140-05:00

I've always wondered how every successfully business person is able to recall the details of the journey that brought them to success when they publish their biography. I can hardly remember what I did yesterday let alone recall what I was doing when I first thought about starting a company (not that I'm a successfully business person or anything like it (yet))! I'm also a little peeved that I

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6015828.post-1067612306299337772003-10-31T09:58:00.000-05:002004-04-23T09:55:17.560-05:00

So here we go...

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204447718810424903noreply@blogger.com0