ok everyone Im finally back with internet.
Im now in Jackson, Wyoming.
Im not going anywhere, BT DieselWorks isnt going anywhere, im not packing up and giving everyone the middle finger...!
Honestly, I just needed to get out of CT. Ive lived there my whole life, and while its a nice area to live as an adult and great place to raise a family, it is boring as hell for me who's idea of "fun on the weekend" isnt "relax around a campfire, sing kum-by-ya and be asleep by 9:30" or.....I dunno. I miss the hell out of college. I just was frustrated not having a lot of fun at home and combined with my business growing faster than I was ready for, it made me completely frazzled...and when I would get so frazzled with business/dealing with customers/getting orders out during the week, there wasnt enough to do on the weekends to unfrazzle me to the point where I could stay calm and organized! Maybe I wasnt growing up fast enough, or all my friends were growing up too fast? Im not an unhappy person by any means, anyone who has met me in person haha. :angel:
In the past year I started to ramp-down actual "work" I would do in the shop. Thanks to all of my customers, I have just gotten way too busy with the electronics end of my business, and I find the electronics/software/designing more challenging and fun. Not that I dont like "wrenching" on trucks, but there is only one of me; I cant do it all. Wrenching on trucks and doing the electronics stuff was just too much. Ive lost track at how many dozens of jobs Ive had to turn away simply because I dont have the time.
Maybe Ill work on cloning myself as a next project. I think it would be sweet to have three of myself. One to do the electronics stuff, one to do the mechanical/wrenching on the trucks, and one to answer the phone.
Im just telling it like it is, although unfortunately im worried that this might come out as some cheesy spilling my life story sob story buffalo chips. :rofl:
Tacojedbob and I got a sweet house right in town with 36' deep (only 1.5 cars wide though) insulated/heated garage so I can setup my electronics shop/development/production center, and we can work on our trucks if need be. A ton of my friends from college live out here, so far it seems like an awesome town (weekends feel like im back at school), and I cant wait to start skiing again. Since I mostly stopped working on trucks, the less physical activity and stuff (not to mention being inside all day sitting at my electronics workbench) at home has made me feel...bleh. Out here I can do all sorts of outdoors stuff to make up for the cabin fever I inevitably get when Im sitting at my electronics bench all day every day.
Like I said though, for the time being I cant really work on any trucks, Ive simply just gotten too busy with the electronics.
As Brian (hondarider) posted, yes...it does take a little getting used to here. Everything in new england/east coast moves a million miles-per-hour compared to here. UPS back in CT would usually drop off supplies or parts I needed at 11:00am or so. Here, UPS doesnt come until 5:00 pm or later. Its frustrating getting used to, but like I said, without being torn/frazzled between two "halves" of BT DieselWorks (shop work and electronics development), I dont forsee it being any problem.
Im still working on getting caught up on everything here because like I said, it took forever to get internet hooked up. And wow is it slow compared to home. I used to get 45megabits/sec at home with cable internet. Here, we get maybe 7-10megabits/sec.
Im also hiring Jed full time to help me out with things; mostly marketing, organization, and production streamlining. So basically I can focus more on designs/new developments/etc.
As for everyones existing orders that took place when I was "out" for the past couple weeks, Ive been working non-stop getting those out the past day. I've racked up almost $700 on my UPS account in the past 24 hours just because I felt so badly about the delays with all the dozens of orders that Ive upgraded everyone to no-cost Next Day Air. Ive also tried to upgrade orders (send people upgraded modules with extra features for no additional cost, include extra ECM pins, etc) wherever possible just because I want to make it clear how hard Im trying to get settled in here and started over from scratch!
Im also expanding my dealer network greatly (big shout-out to ATP/Idaho Rob for helping me get started with that), so in the future, you guys will have multiple options/places to order/buy all of my modules from.
Like I said, Im still getting setup here, and Ill get Jed added under my name so he can start getting on the forums more to answer questions that I might miss.
thanks
ben
