Hiring People is WORK!

This week has been less stressful in some ways and more stressful in others.  There haven't been as many orders to process, but there's been water to haul, equipment to fix, and more importantly we've got two new employees starting this year; one of whom should be starting sometime next week!  Preparing for new recruits doesn't sound that hard, but it's amazing how much work goes into getting them setup in our systems.  Until you have to do it, you don't realize how many different accounts, usernames, and passwords are used in an office until you have to reset them all to remove one employee and add-in another.  I have spent HOURS working on the setup for just one employee, and I have to completely reformat a computer for the other.  At this point though, I've got the computer setup for the employee that will be starting next week . . . now I just have to setup his company cell phone and that may be an adventure of its own.  This is just the prep-work too:  after they arrive comes the real work:  TRAINING!!

We're also getting more inquiries about basements and other interior winter work.  We have a couple from Humboldt coming right to our office tomorrow to choose colors; it doesn't happen very often but we'll have the coffee on for them :)  Generally speaking we go to the customer's home for the estimate, but this couple will be close by and want to see some larger samples:   hopefully the 1500 sq. ft. of Sierra Stone on our office floor will help them decide. 

Yet another crazy week!

Well, I was right:  last week was quite crazy indeed!  We got the floor prep done a few hours faster than we planned so that was a bonus.  I have to send out a big "Thank You" to the volunteers at the Catholic Church in St. Benedict, SK. for that.  They removed all of the old VCT tile and all of the appliances the day before we got there, and we were under the impression that was the first thing we'd have to do!  PLUS they graciously allowed us to use their wheel-chair lift to get stone & equipment down the stairs which made that job a LOT easier.  Thank you all so much!  A special thanks to Reg as well; he was there the whole time and gave us a hand whenever we needed it!  Oh, and I can't leave out the church ladies who supplied the soup and buns . . . they were delicious and exactly what we needed on such a cold (and I mean REALLY cold day)!

We're scheduled to do the install in St. Benedict on Thursday and Friday of this week, so that definitely cuts into my time for office work.  There's lots to do to prep for convention, plus my goal is to have our new website ready to launch and have a sales app for iPad, Android and Blackberry ready for beta testing at convention as well.  I've had to do a few upgrades to my computer to facilitate the app development, but all has gone well so far!  The biggest issue in both the website design and the app development isn't creation of the back-end systems, it's creating the content:  adding pictures, paragraphs, resizing stuff, etc.  As a general rule the pictures you want are NEVER the right size, and there's always some little issue that makes things take extra time.  However, if I keep at it I'm sure I'll get there.

Check back next week for more updates and news of our R&D on a new gel coat formulation!

Looks Like a Crazy Week!

It's definitely been a crazy Monday around here today.  We've been doing everything from year-end inventory adjustments to organizing construction projects and booking interviews for more staff.  However, I think the most important part of Monday is trying to plan out the rest of the week.  We've also got 3,500 sq. ft. of flooring to install about 2 hrs away, and I believe the prep-work for that starts on Thursday!

Organization is something that I strive for, but with so much going on every single week it's not something I always achieve.  Nevertheless, I'm noting things on my calendar, responding to emails as they come in, and (as a side-effect) making more work notations on my calendar.  But, that's life in business!

New Year's Resolutions

Well, 2013 has now begun and it looks like I'm faced with having to make at least one New Year's Resolution:  to blog on a more continuous basis!  I'll admit that part of the issue is that I have a personal aversion to telling the world what I'm doing because, to some extent, I feel like it's none of their business.  However, the world has changed since I was in school and Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms are some of the fastest-growing marketing systems in the world!  If we want to have an effective online presence that means communicating with the public using their preferred methods; and that means I have to start telling the world how my day is going!

So what am I doing today?  Well, President and CEO Don Emde is headed back to his vacation home in Phoenix, AZ. within the next week or so (I think I heard him mumble something about -30C being too cold).  However, he and I both carry L1 visas so we can perform our duties in the USA as well as in Canada; since his will expire shortly I am tasked with filing his renewal paperwork.  It will probably take a good chunk of my day, if not the whole thing, but it has to be done.  At least US Customs & Border Protection has requested that I cut-down on the amount of paperwork I send:  that should make it easier this year than last year :)

EDIT:  I actually managed to get the whole application done in 1 day!  That's definitely a personal speed record!  As a hint for anyone else who has a work visa, you can definitely speed up the process by using a smartphone travel app.  We use BlackBerry Travel, so I just had to get a print-out of Don's "past trips" and I had all of his entry & exit dates.  Normally those can take hours (if not days) to work out.

A long overdue update!

It has been far too long since I updated these blog posts!  When Christmas came I guess I just got too busy to post and forgot all about it.  However, that does not mean that things have been overly relaxed at Head Office.  Even though it's the off-season there's still lots to do; there have been forklift training, TDG courses, product R & D, and tech-bugs to work out.  PLUS we're launching a new Eavestroughing division which will work in our local area:  Imperial Eavestroughing Ltd.  Starting that has had its own share of challenges, but it will be worth it.

What will probably be the most interesting for people is the testing we're doing to try and replicate whitening problems that we see "in the field."  For those of you that think your concrete is hard and almost impermeable, keep an eye on our Facebook page.  We've got some concrete patio blocks sitting in salt water, and after only four days the results are shocking:  the salt has already made it to the surface of the blocks, and the moisture even appears to have "jumped" over to some of our control blocks that aren't immersed in water!  One of those blocks has been cut so we can see what's going on inside, and the salt looks like it's almost oozing out!  What's most interesting, though, is which of our products is helping keep the salt off of the surface of our Sierra Stone the best.  Watch for updates at www.facebook.com/sierrastone.rubberstone.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE:  I posted pictures of a couple of the blocks on our Facebook page, and the pictures say it all.  


This is a concrete block with Sierra Stone on top that's been sitting in salt water for about 2 weeks:

This is a similar block, but we coated it with our new Efflorescence Blocker before we applied the Sierra Stone.  It's been in the same salt water as the other one for the same length of time, but look at the difference!

It's Time to Think About Maintenance in the Cold!

When our dealers are out selling Sierra Stone and RubberStone, I know they often get asked if our products will survive the freeze-thaw cycle that occurs in many states and provinces across North America.  Many people seem to think that because Sierra Stone is so hard that a build-up of ice will cause it to crack or pop off; but that's not the case at all.  We've owned the Sierra Stone trademark since the late 1980s, and up here in Saskatchewan it gets cold--I mean really cold.  When I was in college I remember a night that the wind-chill brought the temperature down to -51 Celsius!  For our American readers that's about -60 Fahrenheit!  However, despite what you may have heard, it doesn't stay cold here all year round; we also get temperatures around 30 Celsius (or 86 Fahrenheit) during the summer.  That means we get as much of a freeze-thaw cycle as anyone else in North America, and if our product couldn't stand-up to it we probably wouldn't have lasted for almost 30 years.  Furthermore, we couldn't have a network with more than 70 dealers across North America without a great product!


So how does such a tough, durable product survive the freeze-thaw cycle of Saskatchewan winters?  My theory is that the space between the stones is the key to our success.  Although our dealers pack the stones as tightly as possible when they're doing an install, there is still a small amount of space around each stone.  We all know that when water freezes it expands, and according to the laws of physics it will expand in the direction of least resistance.  Those small spaces between the stones provide that path of least resistance so that the freezing water can expand without putting excessive pressure on each rock.  Sierra Stone also has a very high compressive strength, so when you combine that with the space between each stone you get a product that has no trouble surviving harsh winters and hot summers.  RubberStone is similar because there are spaces between each crumb of rubber, and it has so much flexibility and compressibility that it survives the freeze-thaw cycle just as well as Sierra Stone; maybe even better.


All that being said, there is one way to guarantee problems with both Sierra Stone and RubberStone during cold winters, and that is using salt on it.  Now, if you've read the literature on both products you know that they are both very chemical resistant:  especially Sierra Stone.  So, how can we say they are chemical resistant and yet harmed by salt in winter months?  Because salt erodes concrete!  The salt won't harm the Sierra Stone or RubberStone that you've had applied over your old and ugly concrete, but as all of the salt that you've applied to your driveway, patio, or walkway over winter begins to mix with water as the weather warms-up it will run through the Sierra Stone or RubberStone and get sucked-up by the concrete underneath.  Once inside it will erode the concrete, and could eventually cause the top layer of concrete to shayl-off, taking your Sierra Stone or RubberStone with it.  We recommend that you use ice-melter, not salt, in the winter; the kind that doesn't harm vegetation will probably be the best.  This will help keep your Sierra Stone or RubberStone clear of ice while extending the life of your investment.


----------------------------------------


If this post was helpful to you, find out more by vising www.SierraStone.ca, or visit our pages on Facebook and Twitter.  If you still have questions please call your local dealer or our head office at 1-888-799-3960.

Meeting Customer Demand . . . for a cheaper product?

I've been helping out in this office, and in our packaging facility, ever since I was strong enough to hold up a 4L jug; but even after all this time some things still come as a surprise to me.  I'm a very practical person:  I like to buy a decent products and items that I will use.  I've also become a bit smarter over the years when it comes to buying quality products:  you get what you pay for, and often when I've bought cheap junk I've paid extra in frustration.  That's why it surprises me when we have a better quality product than our competition, but we have to bring in a slightly inferior product to meet customer demand.

When we first introduced our Rubber Stone product line (which is a product we use to cover ugly concrete, asphalt, pavers, and even decks with 100% recycled rubber) we took a look at a couple of variations of the product.  The two main contenders were pigmented rubber and EPDM, and it was quickly decided that EPDM was the better quality product that we should carry.  Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (i.e. EPDM) rubber is a synthetic rubber that has its pigments or dyes added to it during the production process; the end result is that the EPDM rubber granuals that we purchase are purely pigmented so that their color will not wear off over time.  We chose to use EPDM over pigmented rubber crumb because the the pigmented crumbs are simply black with a thin coat of color put over top of them, and that means the color will wear off over time.  If we had a product that would refresh the color after a few years the pigmented crumb approach would make more sense, but at this point we haven't found anything that will do the job.

You can see by the pictures on our Facebook page, the Tweets, and (soon to come) the color samples on our website that we are now adding a line of pigmented colors our Rubber Stone product line.  For now, you'll find a sample photo of our colors below.  Our local competition has been selling jobs with the pigmented rubber, but at a lower price because the pigmented crumbs are much cheaper than EPDM.  As it turns out, even though our customers know that they will end up with tire-tracks on their driveways, and worn areas where there is high foot-traffic a surprising number of customers are still choosing to go with the cheaper product.  In all honesty, I can't say that I completely understand their decision, but good business means meeting demand with supply and for the moment that means bringing in a cheaper product for our customers.  I just hope that the cheaper product doesn't create headaches for both ourselves, and our network of 70+ dealers across North America.