Friday afternoon Break

Sometimes we just need to close the store and do something fun! On Friday afternoon at the end of the weekly grind we went out for some fun on the karts. Just locking the store door in the middle of the afternoon and flipping the sign over to ,Be Back @ 5pm, was powerful. Hey we had more important things to do at the moment. When we got to the track another family was just finishing up with thier races. A couple of young girls were not enjoying the ride and I think they would have preferred
to be next door in Liverpool shopping. We joked about the father saying that he must be thinking,"I wish I had a couple of sons"! Soon enough they finished and we were on. Matteo got a special size cart so he could reach the petals. As Luis, Mario and I scouted out the 8 big carts trying to determine which one would be the fastest. I let Mario and Luis choose first then I took my que from the owner,"Oye Azul"! With our brain buckets on our heads we rolled out onto the track. Wow! I thought this ones got some speed! Immediatley I was making laps around Mario,Luis and Matteo. Trying to avoid Matteo was difficult. He's stratagy for winning was to run everyone else off the track! " Matteo this isn't bumper cars", I yelled thru my Helment. The next time I came around the track I saw Matteo spun out in a cloud of dust with tires all over the track. He looked okay so I kept my foot down on the gas. Next I see Mario just sitting as if he ran out of gas or was giving up. Later he tells me his chain broke off. He got into another cart and things got going again. Luis had a problem with his kart as well. Check out the photo. Later Matteo wipes out again and at this point I'm thinking this is his M.O.. He looked a little upset so I stopped to give the fatherly encourgement. Again back out on the track we we're all humming along. When it came time to stop Matteo had a hard time coming into the pit. He must have taken 4 extra laps before flying into the pits. " Break! Break! Break!" We all yelled as Matteo nearly cut several other kids off at the knees who we're waiting to get into the karts. Yea that was fun and it was hard to drive the Fiat straight and slow after that. We ended up for lunch at Fernando's Urugrayan Grill. We felt like formula 1 drivers coming in for grilled meat and beers after a gruling 6 hour race. We felt like a team. I felt great about the future as I talked about the expansion plans for Counter Cultures. Looking at Mario and Luis both with smiles and joking with each other made it all worth it. I'm sure next time we will fight over the Faster blue kart. If your going out to the track the 2 black ones and the blue one are the fastest. Stay off the green. It's 50 pesos for 10 minutes. Vale la pena!

Working the floor at The Restaurant

Now I have my double life. In the day I oversee my two Counter Cultures businesses in San Miguel and Los Cabos as well as the export biz to the USA. By Night I have become this other person. I transform into a cross between Martha Stewart and Donald Trump. Here in the Restaurant I feel like I've made a visit back home. At first I was nervous, will I remember how to serve a guest? Will I remember anything about wines? I'd ask myself quick what are the 5 mother sauces? What are the Nobel grapes??? What's the rules about reservations that all fine dining restaurants should follow? Relax, relax, relax, it's like riding a bike. I remembered everything and was sent back in time to all the guest I've waited on from the cheap drunk who stiffed me to guest like Gene Hackman who always tiped 25% even on the $325.00 bottle of wine. I recall all the wine I sold, all the Nazi New York style chefs I've had the displeasure of meeting. There I was in my element being Jose Manuel's right hand man. Proving myself thru Technique, style and grace. When you're on the floor in a restaurant it's like Counter Cultures only 1 month reduced into one night! Fine tuning the skills of selling, service and mastering the art of table turning is much like Counter Cultures. Asking the right questions at the table is the same as asking the right questions in my showrooms. You have to read your clients. This is true in both businesses. You want to sell the Goat and beet salad and the hand held shower. Make sure for every table you get a wine pairing with the food and a Satin Nickle trip lever with every toilet! Watch how long it's taking for your entrees to get to the table and when the truck should arrive with the faucets. A month condensed into 5 hours of service. 4 to 6 weeks now becomes 12 to 15 minutes. Watching your covers and check averages and make sure you have the client base with the correct sales average." We need to sell more trout" the chef says and I say get rid of those old sinks that are in the showroom. Push the trout and push the faucets you have in stock. Make sure your clients sign the check and merchandise received form. At the end of the shift review the how many bottles of wine and bathtubs were sold. That's so and so,sit them by the fountain and give them a special discount on hardware.
The employees in a restaurant are like the people at Counter Cultures. Brenda is the back waiter getting clients quotes ready and making sure the checks are picked up and paid. Alfonso, Mario and Luis are the expediter/food runners controling the flow of incoming orders for guest while making sure the client gets the salmon cooked medium and the door handle has a 2 3/4" backset. Gabriela and Chris are the waiters greeting the guest explaining the special lamb tonight and the benefits of a Thermostaic Valve. The Chefs create the Roasted Chicked to order and the factory makes the custom copper sink.
So this week I'll spend 3 days at the restaurant equal to 3 months at Counter Cultures. I guess this is why people in the restaurant business tend to drink as much in one night as a retail sales person drinks in 1 month.
Here's a link to a blog about The Restaurant http://www.blakesmexico.blogspot.com/

The architects and designers of San Miguel

For such a small town we really have a nice mix of architects and designers to fill most any style.

The list is too long to write here and I fear I might miss someone.

I'll focus on 3 at a time over the next month.

This one represents 3 clients for countercultures.

http://www.juancarlosvaldes.com/espanol.htm

- Juan Carlos Valdez

Architect Juan Carlos Valdes has constructed and redesigned more than 200 houses in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.
You are invited to know his work and to take a tour by several of the spaces that he has conceived, constructed or redesigned.His work has contributed to that peculiar San Miguel de Allende architecture atmosphere, in addition to the conservation of beautiful large houses full of history.

http://www.fincahome.com/- Rachel Horn

Rachel Horn is a respected interior designer whose projects have been published in various national shelter magazines, including Southern Accents, Architectural Digest, and Phoenix Home & Garden, to name a few. It was Rachel Horn who coined the term San Miguel Style to describe the new fusion of design influences in this historic region of Mexico. Thomas Horn has over a decade of experience in the production aspects of the business. For much of that time, he has worked specifically with leather, which is one of the cornerstones of the Finca home furniture line. Both Thomas & Rachel actively contribute to new product design. Together, Thomas & Rachel founded Horn & Horn Design in the 1990's. H&H was a full service custom furniture provider to the design industry until they decided to begin selling a complete line of furniture to the trade. The company Finca home was born in 2003 with the opening of their first storefront in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Currently the company is rapidly expanding, with retail and wholesale showrooms in several major cities in the US. More showrooms are currently in planning, in both Mexico and the USA.

http://www.dolandevelopment.com/ - Jim Dolan

Founded in 1996 by Jim Dolan, Dolan Development employs over 200 employees and subcontractors. This team of dedicated professionals is the key to the success and rapid growth of the company.

Los Cabos Surcusal

Wow! where to begin.
For nearly the past year I have spent more time in Los Cabos than in San Miguel de Allende. Getting a new store opened is more work than one can imagine especially when you choose a location that is Minimum 5 hour travel time by air and 2 days by car. I know it seems how can it be 2 days by car and 5 hours by plane. The problem is the large body of water between mainland Mexico and the Baja. A ferry is an overnight trip. The ferry from Mazatlan is more like a refugee boat than a cruise ship.
Opening a new location is a challenge in itself. Add on top of that several other barriers and it's impossible for the average person. Not knowing anyone in town to call for store remodel, fixing a leaky faucet is trial and error. I spent the better part of the day driving around looking for someone to weld a repiso. Finally I ended up at a auto shop and what I got back was less than level. You know those old Mexican pickup trucks that when your driving behind seem to be sitting crooked on the frame. I think this is where those guys go for repairs. Then try hiring a staff. I ran an ad in the Cabo Mil radio station. That was expensive and wasteful. In Cabo there is a shortage of workers. 8 businesses are fighting over the same 3 people. Therefore two things happened in Cabo. Anyone with experience is worth about 3 times as in the mainland and everyone else works a job until they get too drunk one night of want to go surfing all day knowing the next morning they can be either back at the old job or have a new one by noon.
This is great for employees but not for the employer. I've had potential employees in hard negotiations over salaries. This is like swallowing a spoonful of sand when my wife and I cleaned out our savings accounts and charged up a few cards. I haven't seen a dime from Cabo. I'm eating canned tuna and worried about the light bill and some young punk comes in and tells me he won't work for less than 2K a month! Being without my family is also a strain. After being gone so long I realize my daughter who just turned 2 years in December doesn't speak any English.Her Spanish and Italian are great! Believe me it's a strange feeling when I need to communicate to my own child in Spanish. That's when I knew I just haven't been around enough. Ahh Los Cabos Paradise right. I tell you it felt more like purgatory in the summer. All in all the obras for the house construction working under extreme conditions. It was 38c and guys are tossing bricks all day or digging ditches by hand. I have a lot of respect for them. Like my dad always said,"get a desk job use your mind not your back". My father worked hard labor all his life. He will tell you it wasn't all that hard but climbing ladders and hanging pipe for sprinklers is hard work. I guess all that reminding paid off. There is somethings he couldn't prepare me for. When your working with your hands or doing something that doesn't have that much responsibility you are more relaxed. Physical stress is big but you rest easy at night. The thing he didn't know is the mental stress and battles a person in my position deals with daily. How could be know, for my father when Friday afternoon came it was over and not much thought was put on Monday morning.
Fast forward to Los Cabos. After 3 months in Cabo we made our first real sale. On the 4th month I hired a real sales person. A real sales person is someone who says "YES". Most people think if there selling toilets they have to know every detail about the toilet industry. They may feel a need to read a biography about Henry Crapper the inventor of the closed coupled toilet. Yea I read it but a real sales person knows the magic in selling is being with the clients. Making calls, sending emails and building relationships. Once we started closing a few deals it seemed we became a beacon in the night. For the next few months we did nothing but order parts and pieces for the mistakes of sales persons from other stores. We knew this would pay off and all the builders are becoming loyal to us.
Now it's March and things have really broken loose this year. We have secured relationships with 4 major developers and many other small firms. We have added more people in the office and it's helped a lot. No more 7am to 10pm days. I look back on the last year from when I signed the lease in Los Cabos and see that it's all going well. We're farther ahead than I imagined and still have room for growth. I'll still be away from my family often but I don't have to eat canned tuna or worry so much about the light bill and when I'm ready to come home for a couple of weeks I can do it knowing things in Cabo will go on without me. If you ask me would I do it all over again? The answer is YES!