FINALLY Sold a Chainsaw!
I had a repeat customer come into the shop yesterday - He had purchased one of the Dolmar string-trimmers from me last Fall, and this time he purchased a chain-saw! It was a Dolmar PS-45, the smallest (and least expensive) saw that I carry, but right now I'm happy to see any of these things moving. In his case, he needed a small, light saw as he can't handle the larger heavier ones. I make a decent profit-margin on the PS-45, and I'm thinking of bringing in a few more of them before the main season hits. On that note, I still have to complete my pre-season order and get it sent in. In a perfect world, I would have had that order in before the end of January, giving me the most amount of time to sell stuff before the payment comes due at the end of June. There just hasn't been enough time to work on it though, and there's the issue of having to deal with a limited budget as well. It's often a crap-shoot to know which items are going to be hot-sellers, and which ones will barely move. You want to have items in stock so that you'll have it when (or if) a customer wants it, but you also don't want to be sitting on thousands of dollars worth of inventory that's not moving. :/
I also had a couple of walk-in customers yesterday, and today I had a couple more. People always seem to arrive in groups too - it can be dead all day long, and then I'll get a sudden flurry of activity as several people arrive within minutes of each other. I've had two people today ask me if I sell used engines; One phoned, and the other dropped by the shop in person. Both are looking for a 16HP auger-engine, and I do have one back in the shop at the farm. The problem is, I only have one, and I have two potential customers. While I'm definitely not interested in the idea of Frankensteining another engine together, it seems that there may be a market for good used engines, and this is something that I should definitely look into. It may also help reduce some of my excessive stockpile of old engines, which I'm sure would please trixstir. ;)
Jack finally delivered a workbench that he'd been promising me for over a year now. The thing is huge - it's 4' deep, about 14' long, and made of heavy angle-iron and thick wooden planks for its top. The planks are definitely showing their age, but they're easily replacable, and/or I could just recover the top with a good sheet of plywood and/or a steel top like I did with the bench back on the farm. I bought the bench for $200, and owe Jack dinner for delivering it to the shop. It needs some cleaning, but at least now I'll have a good, really solid workbench in addition to the two movable engine tear-down benches.
While searching for a possible new engine for the customer who was looking at a used 16HP engine, I found a new sub-section on my Kohler Supplier's website that I hadn't seen before: Auger-engines that were special-priced, and already equipped with anti-icing kits (winterizing kits) and in stock! Why hadn't I seen this before, and why hadn't the sales-rep told me about it?! I've got another customer looking for a new engine, and this lets me save him $313.70 while still making a very nice profit! I'll have to let him know about this and see if he's ready to buy!
I also had a couple of walk-in customers yesterday, and today I had a couple more. People always seem to arrive in groups too - it can be dead all day long, and then I'll get a sudden flurry of activity as several people arrive within minutes of each other. I've had two people today ask me if I sell used engines; One phoned, and the other dropped by the shop in person. Both are looking for a 16HP auger-engine, and I do have one back in the shop at the farm. The problem is, I only have one, and I have two potential customers. While I'm definitely not interested in the idea of Frankensteining another engine together, it seems that there may be a market for good used engines, and this is something that I should definitely look into. It may also help reduce some of my excessive stockpile of old engines, which I'm sure would please trixstir. ;)
Jack finally delivered a workbench that he'd been promising me for over a year now. The thing is huge - it's 4' deep, about 14' long, and made of heavy angle-iron and thick wooden planks for its top. The planks are definitely showing their age, but they're easily replacable, and/or I could just recover the top with a good sheet of plywood and/or a steel top like I did with the bench back on the farm. I bought the bench for $200, and owe Jack dinner for delivering it to the shop. It needs some cleaning, but at least now I'll have a good, really solid workbench in addition to the two movable engine tear-down benches.
While searching for a possible new engine for the customer who was looking at a used 16HP engine, I found a new sub-section on my Kohler Supplier's website that I hadn't seen before: Auger-engines that were special-priced, and already equipped with anti-icing kits (winterizing kits) and in stock! Why hadn't I seen this before, and why hadn't the sales-rep told me about it?! I've got another customer looking for a new engine, and this lets me save him $313.70 while still making a very nice profit! I'll have to let him know about this and see if he's ready to buy!