Auction Day

It is done.  The auction is done.  Everything is gone, with the exception of one drafting table and my beloved desk.  

Since last week the auctioneer has been gathering and coordinating everything to get ready for yesterday.

There were pallets of everything you can imagine, all very organized.  Yesterday it was very methodically auctioned off to high bidders, everything we have amassed over the past 44 years, less the property, in just a few short hours, gone.

Fork lifts, skyjack lifts, vehicles, trailers, etc.  It was quite amazing.

The sale was to begin at 1:30 but the preview, if you wanted began at 10 am.  We got there at 7 am and did not leave until 8 pm last night, trying to find SOMEPLACE to get a bite for a very late dinner. 

We also were overjoyed to see lots of old friends, family and old employees of the past, some well over 30 years ago since last seen.  There were probably over 100 people there and the auctioneer told Robert that it was because of our reputation as one of the best electrical contracting companies in town that the attendance was so high.  Plus, some were quite jealous of us getting out, retiring.

We even had some extra little munchkins come and see all the whoopla going on.  We raised our girls in this company and now their babies get to say goodbye to it.  I couldn't stay inside while it was all going on, the curiosity was just too great.  In fact, because it was such a beautiful day I got a sunburn on my chest because I was out so long.  

It was a bit surreal to see all we have worked for gone in just a few hours.  He was a part of every bid, every handshake, every person that walked through.  Always.  

A penny for your thoughts my love.

Did I Hear The Word....RETIRE

It is that time...CHRISTMAS!  My favorite holiday of the year and I think it is because of the decorations, and the fruitcake.  I did get a batch made and maybe after the holidays I will whip up another batch.  

Last week I spent a lot of time at home and decided to play with my watercolors.  I've got more to share but for some reason my phone will NOT let me email a picture to myself so the only way to get these right now is to post on FB and then copy.  ARGHHHHH!  

Having a lot of fun with this medium and will play more as the winds are whipping today.  Winter is here.

I am going to share this now too.  

We....Have...Announced...to our employees and most everyone within earshot that we are FINALLY retiring.  We did have a buyer and have been working with them for over a year but a couple of weeks ago they just backed out, cold feet we think.  It's all good, although it would have been nice to have the company go on but we are totally okay with it.  As you know I've always been okay with just shutting the doors.  The Hubby promised me that if this sale did not make it we would do just what we are doing NOW!  It's not an easy process, let me tell you to stop a business, especially if you have employees.  But we had to at least let them know what was happening so they have the opportunity to move on too.  They will either have to find other jobs or, as some will do since they are the same age as us, will retire too.  We only have 5 employees and four of them have an inactive contractors license or close to that.  The other is a journeyman and can find other work, no problem  This process will spill over into the year 2024 because we will, accounting wise, be a business for the tax season because we will have payroll into this next year.  We will slowly stop the work and stop buying material and just trickle it closed.  The accounting will just be at a standstill till then, quarterly reports of nothing actually.  I am SO excited!  It's also just in time for us to step up with the joy of the birth of Max.

This week I've had these two in the house for 3 days off an on.  It makes the house alive and shows what our lives will be like after Max comes.  

We had a small family meeting to help with Nick's fears on how he is going to manage with Min while Af is in OKC at the hospital with Max.  We have it covered.  Bri and I were able to let him take a deep breath with relief to know we will be there to help him anyway we can.  It's going to be a journey and we are all in it, together!

 

My Week In Review

Finally got to sit at my easel on Thursday and I'm quite pleased with what I was able to do.

I was going to work on the self-portrait thing but being gone so long I needed to go back to my first love, flowers.  I was also able to finally see my studio partner.  I haven't seen her since probably the first of November.  She and I have been very socially distanced so no worries there and she has her own space and I have mine but it was so nice to sit a ways from each other and catch up on our lives.  I miss my friends and conversation, in person conversation.  

While in this damn pandemic thing I've written before about no workout and the food thing and the diet thing...yadda, yadda, yadda, but here we go again.

This past week I started back with working out with a trainer and Af.  Just us two so that was fun.  I do struggle because of my hip and knees and the weight.  Honestly I haven't gained since this lockdown thing has happened, thank goodness, but it's definitely not gone down.  So a little exercise and I'm also tracking my food on some food apps and sticking to 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day.  I must say it's not been too hard either.  It keeps me focused a bit.  I did the NOOM app, the paid version I think March, just as the world shut down.  I was not in the right frame of mind, scared, stuck at home with food and the television.  The paid version of the app you are put with a support person and frankly, they drove me crazy with texts/emails, nagging me constantly and I don't need that.  I KNOW what I should and shouldn't eat, I don't need someone over my shoulder smacking my virtual hand.  This time I chose to only do the free version and I like it.  Hey, The Hubby had to have KFC last night and I was honest and put it in my app and guess what, I was only about 100 calories over.  I can deal with that.  So far the scale has NOT nudged one ounce down but I know it will eventually because I feel a bit different in the "fat content" in my body every morning.  I just have to keep plugging away with it and trust it will work if I'm careful.  

Before the end of the year at the office I was able to put the PPP loan forgiveness papers to bed with the bank and hopefully that will be all taken care of!  First thing off my plate.  Then I tackled the rest of Daddy's estate and was able to disburse most of it to my siblings and myself.  Now we are just waiting for the ONG refund to totally close out his checking about and disburse the rest of it.  It only a few hundred dollars.  This month is also gathering the year end 4th quarter stuff for the company and I wrapped that up and took to the accountant yesterday!  

Lastly, and the one thing I have fought with The Hubby about time and time again is possibly selling our business.  We are having a battle over that.  This next summer we hope to be done, finished, close the doors and totally retired, hopefully.  After nearly 42 years in business we are both done.  I want to just close the doors, sell off the equipment, tools, vehicles, etc.  Call it done.  Oh no, he wants to find a buyer for the thing.  That too would sell off all of the stuff mentioned above plus the customer list.  But, a big BUT, this means I have to gather all kinds of financial info, he does too (inventory) and then deal with one of those companies who finds buyers.  We had a meeting in November with one, against all of my hesitation about it all.  He pushed and pushed and pushed until I just said okay I will meet with them but they knew up front I was not on board with this process.  Yesterday I finally finished gathering up my part of the info to put with The Hubby's stuff and Monday we will turn it in and see what happens.  My thoughts, and I bluntly shared them with the gentlemen, is that our business would not be a business, a successful business without this man sitting here (pointing at The Hubby).  I told them if you could find another The Hubby to take over and make sure the reputation of our business is at the highest level that we've maintained in nearly 42 years then maybe I can be on board but I don't think that can happen.  Our customers trust The Hubby, they depend on him being there, being trustworthy and doing the best job for them.  You can't clone The Hubby and I don't think selling our business is going to work.  They kind of agreed with me but again, The Hubby plugged on.  He is like a dog with a bone and will not let it go.  MAKES ME CRAZY that I feel like he is shoving this down my throat.  So we will let it play out and see what happens.  We either find a buyer or we close our doors.  And with some of the jobs we have going it still may be next year before we close the doors if we don't sell and continue.  Who knows, it's all so fluid at this point.  

Boy is this a ramble but you don't think about stuff like this when you start a business, do you.

 

Let's Talk Self-Employed and Retirement

I'm tired of working.  Yes I know I've had it kind of easy in the working department.  I've had flexible time ever since we started our business in 1979 but I'm tired of it and lord knows The Hubby is hitting the wall in that department.  Sometimes I think it would be easier at a 9-5 kind of job with no worries after you go home but then you are stuck under someone else's thumb.  I like being self-employed with the freedom we have to get away when we want, we are the boss.  But, sometimes we aren't the boss.  Really our customers, clients are our boss and they can dictate our hours.  Especially in the early years when we were getting the company off the ground.  The Hubby worked 7 days a week 10-12 hours a day.  Then we got employees and that was another kind of headache for him to manage.  There were times that I really considered myself a single parent because of all the time he spent working.  I did resent it at times but I understood it.  You see, I come from a long line of self-employed family, my parents, both sets of grand parents, etc.  It is just kind of part of my DNA to be a self-employed person.  While The Hubby was working in the field, so to speak, I was managing the household, raising children, and the book work stuff.  At night when the girls were asleep and he was finally down I would be up working on spreadsheets, paying bills, invoicing, all by hand at the time.  I did/do my share of work, just at different kinds of time frames.  Where his is from the time he gets up in the morning to the time he sits down for dinner and after, mine is in spurts.  It was a struggle for sure to make ends meet.  Going to the grocery store with a calculator watching every single penny we spent.  I managed the money, still do and I think I've done quite well.  We started with absolutely NOTHING and look what we have now. We are comfortable in our lifestyle and so are employees, I think.  

Now all The Hubby talks about is retirement, ALL THE TIME!  Since we are hitting the 60's now it is just part of our everyday thoughts and talks with each other.  We've put a lot of time and energy in making our business very successful but it does take a toll and now we want to play more.  I'm ready to sleep in, paint, read, relax, garden, play with Rio, travel, etc.  Yes we've certainly been able to do a lot of this stuff but I think now it's the grind that is getting both of us down.  Being self-employed and especially with employees relying on you, keeping the business running and profitable is a challenge.  This past spring and summer was challenging with the oil and gas prices down a lot of our customer base is in the business and they just didn't spend any money on what we do.  The phone was silent A LOT to the point of a lot of worry.  We weathered this kind of downtime in the early 80's during all the oil crash and came out of it successfully when other companies in our field that had been around for a long time went belly up.  This time I was getting a bit worried, but all of a sudden, YEAH, we are busy.  Whew...that was a bit hairy, especially since we have this building loan hanging over our heads for the new building.  The Hubby was absolutely in a panic but now, finally, a deep breath and we can see light at the end of the tunnel.  Now if we can just hang on a few more years to get the most out of our retirement.  

I watched my parents business in the 80's faulter and die as ours built strong.  It was hard to see all the years Daddy put in in making money to have it just dry up and cease.  He had a machine shop and they majority of what he did was for the oil industry.  They had money built up but to stay afloat they used it up, closed down, sold everything off.  The money they saved they spent.  It was probably not enough to retire on but they did spend it.  Then Daddy just RETIRED.  He did it very early with not much to live off of.  Momma decided she had to get an actual job.  She went to work for MetLife in the mail room and loved it.  It got her out of the house and kind of away from Daddy.  It also provided them health  insurance which they didn't have.  Back then saving for "retirement" was just not part of their vocabulary.  Back then I guess they thought that social security would be their retirement as that is what he lives on now.  Daddy struggles to live off of social security and we DON'T want to struggle to live comfortably.  

Computers

Think I'm going to try and post something EVERYDAY for a bit.  I see that my posts are read but not many comment, but I'm okay with that.  

Yesterday I went into the office early to get payroll done and tons of bills paid.  Funny thing though, when you keep getting those emails telling you that you need to put in your new credit card info because it is set to expire and you ignore it....DON'T IGNORE IT!!!!  Good grief.  I arrived at the office about 7:35 p.m. and opened my Quickbooks program and was getting ready to start processing our employees paychecks but the familiar button that says to process payroll was NOT THERE!  I knew immediately that I had F....d UP!  I don't say that lightly but I did.  I just ignored the emails because when I looked, my credit card was okay, but I was looking at the wrong place.  Anyway, I was stuck trying to update the info but the darn thing would not let me finish.  Kept asking for the country but wouldn't let me enter it.  Then I was on the hunt for a phone number but I could not find it.  So I got the Intuit checks out and called the number and was quickly put through to the proper people. Thank goodness.  A guy named Mark with Intuit/Quickbooks was SO helpful and got it fixed right away.  WHEW!  I was up and running and the familiar button was there within 15 minutes.  I HATE when my day starts like that.  I have to tell you that they may be hard to get hold of but the support I have had with various problems with QB has been awesome.  Sometimes I know I have talked to India but not lately and all of them have been awesome to help and get all of my problems solved quickly and without much effort.  Last fall my QB crashed horribly just before a big payroll but it was up and running within an hour.  Of course I had to upgrade my program but I was okay with that. 

Minding My Own "Business"

Minding my own business, when we get a phone call from an old customer who insists that we find an invoice for him from 1991.  WHAT!  First I wasn't at the office when the call came in so this is what I have to deal with when I go back into the office.  Second, we have records, online records from 1999, before that it was strictly all handwritten by my itty-bitty hands.  Those records probably don't exist anymore, I think they have been shredded.  If they are still in storage they are upstairs in mouse and silverfish laden boxes that I DON'T want to go through.  I mean really, 21 years later he wants us to track down an invoice.  The Hubby may have to shut this guy down.  Can you tell I'm a bit agitated!  Common sense tells you that a company will not have a hard copy invoice from 21 years ago, am I right!