I had the same core of 80 percent of my business through the 17 years I owned it. I dropped the pot smoking, the violent, the ones that called me at 3 a.m. because their hard drive was acting up and they sent the 2 people home from night shift and screamed at my voice mail, the ones who bought terminals from a friend and about 6 months later wanted me to make it work for free because they couldn't ever get it to work, the lawn care guy who got me to do him a data base for every residential property and then bought a hearse and painted it weird and called himself the weedman, then threw a launch party with one of the most famous female porn-stars as his 'main attraction'. You have NO idea.

Lots of good folks, and 90 percent of my work was for 4 core businesses, Bell Canada, a Fitness Club that now has 290 clubs, a major media company (Mcleans magazine publishers), and a major importer of tools from the far east. Off and on a 2 billion buck bank with a Unix transaction back end for customers that is sending random error messages about the UPS?

I bet you dollars to maple syrup that PG music has a big supply of hard drives, because my last 4 or 5 are identical. So once those, which are bought and paid for, are gone, you might just see more in the way of downloads available. That said, there is more moaning about downloads not working, twice a year, than any other regular issue.

Retailers can't refuse customers nor can they cut them off. If I was a retailer I'd cut my 85 year old father off, he can take the entire morning to return a can of beans explaining why, if they will listen. Ten minutes in he's talking about the war years and how they shared a can of beans with water amongst the 4 of them. Lovely.

*Saves the environment - not if the drives are there.
*Cheaper than shipping - not if the cost of burst data transmission is more.
*Better for customers - not if the servers are swamped, it gets slow, and people are calling support screaming.
*Makes sense - not if the point above is happening and the person who downloaded is messing with files that got corrupted through no fault of anyone's, and they phone support and don't get through.

NO business decision is totally easy. Do I drive 2 hours to customer 1 and check their screwy terminal (turns out they installed a fluorescent light and put the comm cable on top of the ballast.) or do I visit my tool supply guy who's going to want to question prices for 2 hours for which I make nothing?

The first business issue every year was, an employee meeting, and a review of customers, potential customers, and revenue. Then the letters. It reduced the stress level.

Best customer was: a fast food joint that used NCR 4 port Unix box to run 3 terminals and a manager's Vt100 compatible one. The first 3 were cash registers. One visit at the outset to tell the electrician what was needed for cables. Second visit, plug in the box, the manager's terminal, crimp 8 cable ends (10 minutes) power up, check the operation with the corporate trainer, back out the door. Total time, one hour twice. Total bill, five grand. Paid in 15 days. Three times a year. One ups failed, once. Computer had been up for 3 years. Changed the UPS, agreed cost for labour, 2k.

My buddy bought a new guitar this week. Went to 3 retailers. Spent 5 days playing every guitar, asking questions, bought a 400 buck one. Think that's a good customer? On the other hand I bought a new yamaha, got advice here, walked in the store, pulled out my visa card, pointed at the guitar I got advised to buy, and walked out the door 10 minutes later. Which would you prefer at Christmas with the phone ringing, the cash swamped?

Too bad the profits from the sale of the business went into investments that got hammered in the recession. At least I can watch it grow back a bit, hoping my 250k in lost 'nut' I squirreled away comes back.

Now that the gov't is kicking in more pension on top of what I get, I'm dropping all the consulting I was doing, I just don't enjoy the stress. If I did it all again, I'd pare more of the customer base, I was doing too many hours, plus working full time as a firefighter. Good thing my wife could run things when I worked.

John Conley
Musica est vita