Ray's Blog

I know there haven’t been many posts for a while and I wanted to fill you in on “why”.

Besides being super busy with the restaurant in El Dorado and continuing to grow the marketing company in Texas, I have been researching other options for blogs and websites. I really like Tumblr. There are some wonderful things it can do, but for us, we need a bit more functionality.

I have decided to move over to SquareSpace. I need a few graphics to go up and then it will be LIVE!

On the SquareSpace platform, I will spend more time detailing technology applicable to our companies and to the restaurant industry as well as what we are doing to grow. I will also have a separate section of the site devoted to our test kitchen. We are constantly testing new recipes for our existing and future concepts and I want to share those things with you, but keep it separate from our business/restaurant/food/tech posts. I am still working on the exact break down, but I am really please with the functionality that the new website is already providing.

Stay tuned. This is about to get awesome.

Saturday afternoon, I’m sitting in the restaurant, keeping an eye on parties and starting to get ready for the evening’s dine in service when the phone rings. My manager takes the call standing in front of me and says a few words about delivering a large order. Then her mouth drops & looking at me in amazement, she tries to hold back laughter. She tells the caller that she will talk to the owners & will get back with them ASAP.

After hanging up, she turns to me and laughingly quotes the caller, “want to make a lot of money?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She, through laughter said, “Well, Midget Wrestling is coming to town & they want us to be THE vender.”

“What? Are you serious? Midget Wrestling?” I said in disbelief.

The general manager reaches under the counter and pulls out a flyer that someone brought by days earlier. Sure enough, Midget Wrestling was in town.

“Wait, that’s tonight isn’t it?” I said. “In less than 4 hours!? There is no way. Maybe they just want us to deliver some pizzas…”

I jumped on the phone and called the Midget Wrestling manager to clarify some details. Through a garbled, in the middle of nowhere cell phone signal the guy said that he was sure this was going to be a HUGE hit in this small town and there would be 500 to 1000 people there, all hungry & thirsty with nowhere to get food of drink. I quickly did the math & if 500 people wanted 2 slices of pizza, that is 84 extra large pizzas. I immediately tried to sell him on ordering 50 pizzas & selling them himself. He insisted on us being venders. After thinking through the details, we decided to do it & immediately started prepping 50 XL pizzas.

I was glad that in the weeks prior, I decided to order 2 liters to sell in our “to go” room. We loaded up the drinks, made a Wal-Mart run for plates, napkins, etc & went to get set up. Once we finished, we decided to send 25 pizzas at a time & we would wait until 30 minutes before their “halftime” before “firing” the rest - just incase the crowd wasn’t as gigantic as the Midgets’ manager suspected. I am glad we did.

The Midget Wrestling team was sure that people would be clamoring to get in at 7:00 and we needed to be set up. So, they set up by 7:00… and they waited… At 7:30 I called to see how the crowd was to which my dad responded, “Well, you know they don’t officially start until 8:00, so no, the is really no one here yet.” What the Midget Wrestling team didn’t know was how many other events were taking place at the same time in this small town. I’m not saying that Midget Wrestling couldn’t be a main event, but when you are up against the local High School’s State Championship Football Team fundraiser, you are not going to win.

I called again at 8:30 to see if we needed to reload our booth before the 9:00 halftime, and the answer was an emphatic “No”. The “high” estimate was 175 people who actually showed. That is a far cry from 1000! Meanwhile, back in the restaurant, it is Saturday night. The restaurant is filling with diners who, to my “dismay”, did not choose to go to Midget Wrestling. Saturday also happens to be the last day before our next order arrives. This means that we would be running close to empty on a few items… like CHEESE?! When you make an unexpected 50 XL extra pizzas, it is possible to run out completely of an item and we did!

At 8:30, we only had enough cheese to fill the orders that were already hanging on the make line and that was it! Even after buying Wal-Mart out! So, for the rest of the guests who dined with us, they got some AMAZING deals on extra large one topping pizzas (originally intended for Midget Wrestling).

All in all, it turned out ok. But was becoming a last minute vender “worth it?” Did we “make a lot of money” as the caller promised? At the end of the night, we totaled the sales, subtracted expenses & found that we only made about $50. Well, at least we didn’t lose money. We did get a little “PR” and made our guests laugh when I told them why we were out of cheese. So, was it “worth it”?

YES! It was great that our first “venture” into becoming a vender was in a situation where no one expected that we would be there anyway! And we went into it with the mentality to learn all that we can about being a vender. Now, we have a list of supplies that we need & a list of things to remember to pack up. So, even though we only made $50, the experience gained from Midget Wrestling & running out of cheese will pay dividends in the future. So, thank you Midget Wrestling for helping us take giant leaps in catering & vending and a becoming better restaurant overall.

My friend Arthur (phenomenal guitarist, designer, clothing printer, & designer clothing retailer) posted a link of a CNN reporter/commentator commenting on Obama holding a “private meeting” to merge the two health care bills vs the promised televised public meetings [seen here]. After reading a few of the comments that suggested that no one has had any better ideas or that he was still better than Bush, I couldn’t resist commenting. Then, after I spoke my peace, I realized that I wanted to share this comment with more people so I decided to post it on my blog.

There are few things that frustrate me in life and one of them is Government Intervention into our lives. Here was my comment — thanks for reading: 

If you have a product that cost $1000 & the government thought this product is so good they are going to give everyone $1000 to buy it, how much would your price increase? If you guessed at least $1000 then you would be absolutely correct!

Why? You have to keep up with all of the additional demand from buyers who didn’t originally have the means to afford it when you set your price point. It isn’t so you can make more money, it is so you can continue to provide the same quality product and service to the massive amount of demand. eg: Colleges raise their tuition every year, Health Care costs are already going up, etc.

The real crisis of cost is that gov health care now (which about 100 million people are on today) only reimburse health care facilities & doctors for about 20 to 25% of their actual cost. That doesn’t include any profit that the doc or hospital wanted. So they are in the RED 75 to 80% for every “gov insurance” patient. How do they break even? YOUR medical costs go up, YOUR INS company has to charge YOU more.

There are only about 12 million people who are “actually” uninsured (those who aren’t self insured or who use other means to pay). Lets do simple math. If every bill was just $1, then the cost of not insuring those 12 million - 0 reimbursement = 12 million dollars. If every bill was $1, then the cost of those who are on current government insurance plans is 100 million - 25 million reimbursed (25% average) = $75 million!! The effect of not fixing our current government health care system is FAR greater (over 6 times greater) than trying to provide INS to those who “can’t afford it”.

This is no longer a matter of “greed” on the part of the physicians, but survival. Why should they go to school for 8 more years than your average college grad if they are only supposed to break even or even be in the RED? That is completely stupid.

How ‘bout we start paying the docs what they ask and then we can talk about TRUE health care reform because ALL of our medical costs will go down!

This is basic basic econ people. It isn’t about R’s & D’s. If you are still seeing that, then you need to be a little more introspective.

Some background: My parents both used to smoke a few packs a day (before anyone knew the stuff was bad for you). About the time my brother was conceived (~39 years go), info was coming out about how it was bad for you and both my mom and dad quit smoking, cold turkey. Since then, they haven’t gone back and have a completely clean bill of health - that is important to remember for later in the story. This experience was fortified when my grandfather died of cancer from smoking when I was 3 years old. So, they have a sincere disdain for the tobacco leaf.

My parents returned from a trip to Texas where they were working on a project with our company. They stayed in an “extended stay” type of suite and every morning, they would take an elevator to go to the gym. And every morning the elevator smelled like cigarette smoke. After a past of smoking, they can’t stand this smell - especially right before a work out!

One morning, the elevator opened and there he was. The smoker. A small man, skinny, with a gray beard and mustache and an old floppy brown hat. In a gruff voice said, “I know I’m not really supposed to be doing this in here…” My parents didn’t want to join him and before the doors began to close, my dad said in a friendly but stern voice, “Oh no, you go right ahead. I already have lung cancer.”

The guy stared at my dad in a weird awe, eyes wide open as the doors of the elevator came together leaving him inside to wonder as he bathed in his own smoke.

After the doors closed, my mom turned to my dad & said, “Where in the world did that come from?” My dad just laughed and said that he had no idea. They decided to take the stairs.

I can’t imagine the thoughts that swam through that guys head.

There are several countdowns I’ve been keeping my eye on. So, here is a quick update in “countdown” form:

• 25 days: 1st Razorback Game of the season!! (Woo Pig Sooie!)
• 30 days: Larry’s El Dorado Opens (give or take a week)
• 51 days: Archery Season (deer season!)
• 81 days: 1st p90x is complete (this hurts)
• 91 days: Our baby is due!
• 91 days: Opening day of Modern Gun (deer season) — Oh no! I’ve double booked!! hm…
• 106 days: Thanksgiving
• 136 days: Christmas
• 143 days: The New Year! 2011

Time is flying! My days are full of project tasks and attempting to complete what I can so I get to bed by 2 or 3 am. For a short time, until the restaurant is up and running, I will be burning the midnight oil… I guess I’ll be ready to stay up late when our little one gets here in 91 days!

Exciting times!