{"database": "surfing", "table": "posts", "rows": [["135028", "4461", "Stoker V machine - Fowler or Anderson?", 36, "Bruce Fowler", "Aug 2, 2018", "2018-08-02T11:39:40-0400", "I'll stick around on whatever subjects seem of interest.  Just wanna keep it real.  I forgot to mention a few things and I will be brief here on the previous post..... but it falls along the procrastination, shapers ducking customer's calls about that eternal question \"is my board ready yet?\"..... lol. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPart of my growing up process that has contributed to my modest success and an ever growing following is to grow up, own up, (what have you), to the responsibility a shaper has to his customer.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn recent years I have been told soooo many times from stoked customers that they have never been treated so well by a shaper...... that I actually picked up their call, or got back to them, told them the truth if I had shaped the board yet or not, or when I thought it would be done..... and the vast majority have received their boards quickly compared to what they have experienced in the past.  I explained that the surfboard business has slim margins and is a very difficult business to make a living, much less succeed.  After years of being in the business, the only way I have come to believe it is possible to make any decent money is:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMake a quality product at a fair price, treat your customers like gold, and........... D-E-L-I-V-E-R.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis is the same exact thing I tell friends that are in the industry that ask me \"what's your secret\"? or tell me I'm so lucky...... there's no secret and it has nothing to do with luck.  It has to do with being professional, having some skill, and having a work ethic...... I decided I would tell people what I was going to do, then do what I said.  Just do it.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTo sound immodest here for a minute, when I decided to do these things, that's when my business started to flourish while others around me where floundering.  I tried to explain to them that you have to have a \"turn rate\" within each month that will leave some money in your pocket at the end of the month.  You can't do that if you aren't willing to go to work, or talking all day.  The ultimate goal is a 4 time turn rate, meaning an order comes in on Monday and is ready to ship at the end of the week..... that is super hard to do in the surfboard industry!  A 3 time turn rate is viable..... every ten days, you've turned your orders over from start to finish.  You've got to be on the ball and have a hungry glassing crew that is organized to do that.  A 2x turn is more common, but even that isn't the norm because people just aren't hungry or motivated enough. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nInstead you get guys dicking around, blaming everyone but themselves why they haven't done well...... it's China's fault, it's Firewire sticking board's on consignment in every shop possible and flooding the market, it's...... well...... it's everybody else's fault except me. Right?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBullshit.  If you make a good product and you give your customer's a gold standard of service, people still crave that.  You're not gonna be talking about your specific custom needs to Chiang Wah Lu in Beijing, Bangkok, or Hanoi.\n\n\n\nTrump wants to stick tariffs on everything and people are really pissed off about it.  Well, I say that's a two edged sword.  On the one hand, you have everyone pissed because they are thinking as consumers wanting to buy every day goods as cheaply as possible...... but at the same time they're doing that, their neighbor that works in the dwindling manufacturing sector is losing his home.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSomething is wrong with that picture.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThen we hear the argument regarding companies like Harley Davidson moving a portion of their business to China because tariffs on steel will negatively impact them and they can skirt the European tariffs if they deliver from China.  (BTW, I DEAL WITH \"V.A.T.\" (VALUE ADDED TAX) and tariffs every time I ship internationally.... it's not a level playing field, but I have my ways to help those foreign customers as much as possible, and fortunately I continue to get a steady flow from direct international customers.  I also do what I can with shop accounts along the same lines.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe United States is the 3rd largest user of steel in the world.  A lot of it is reused sources, but a lot also is imported from China.  Well, what if Harley Davidson and other companies crying that they will be hurt by tariffs were subsidized by the U.S. government and steel mills were revitalized in the same manner while we use American steel to rebuild our decaying infrastructure?  In a sense we are talking about a new, \"NEW DEAL\" to recall the days of Roosevelt. (Pretty sure it was FDR).\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSubsidizing our domestic industries is preferable to tariffs or starting a trade war in my book. We have control over how and who we lend a helping hand to at home versus dealing with retaliation and unpredictability from foreign sources.  We need a better plan where the middle class isn't being fleeced at historic highs, and a government that practices good governing instead of politics.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnyway, this is starting to ramp up and I've gotta go shape...... I will leave you with this:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn modern history there has never been a nation that has been able to maintain its superpower status without possessing a strong manufacturing base.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n....... USA can't succeed as purely a service economy - it's good for Americans to make things."]], "columns": ["post_id", "thread_id", "thread_title", "post_number", "author_username", "post_date", "post_date_iso", "post_body"], "primary_keys": ["post_id"], "primary_key_values": ["135028"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7499630009988323, "license": "Public Domain"}