The Latest and Greatest!
Things change. The longer I am around, the more I realize that is true. Things have certainly changed in my role as the owner of California Ski Company. Most obvious to customers may be skis. Im guessing that would be what you would suppose as a customer. The skis have changed from straight long sticks to shorter, fatter, more shapely sticks. But that is the part that the customers see. There are lots of other changes too. For me I think that skis are still skis. Running a business has certainly changed more than that!
I used to write a weekly employee newsletter with the things they needed to know about. I wrote it by hand. In pencil. They got stuffed into their paycheck envelopes. I often wrote cartoon characters on the envelopes for the staff. Kim has told me she saved all of hers and misses those days.
There were no TV type screens or monitors anywhere in the shop. Just a little black and white unit with a DOS program at the “Cash Register”. It looked like a Pong game to me. It was an early inventory program. Not really a cash register. It was called a “cash register” because we sold skis in exchange for paper money. The money was put in a drawer that held the actual cash. I had to go to the bank a few times a week to deposit the money and restock the coins and small bills. We had two phones. Both were attached to a wall with a headset on a cord. It was very high tech in that we had two phone lines. One was called a rollover.
I did all the hiring and HR work. I did payroll myself. I did the bookkeeping myself. I did all the ordering, inventory control, and advertising. I walked the store each night and replaced one or two track bulbs that had burned out that day. Advertising was easy: it was 90% word of mouth and 10% a postcard in the fall announcing that we were open for the season. I still had time to be the lead salesman and a boot fitter. Thats what it was like running the business.
In the summer I was mostly alone for a month or so generating purchase orders, cleaning the store and maintaining the machinery. John Oshima came by most days to hang out and help because he had nothing better to do. We would strip our tuning machine down to the frame and rebuild it or maybe just work on our cars. Once we got bored or my kids finished school, I put a big sheet in the window with a sign saying See You Next Fall!
Now we have an actual “POS system”. The system includes 4 “registers” at the front counter. We have another monitor setup for the workshop. We have two more in the rental department. There are three desks upstairs instead of just one for me. Each desk has multiple screens. The photo above is my desk which has three monitors and two keyboards. We have a lot of technology, so we need an “IT expert”. That is not me. That is Bob.
We take very little paper money. I only need to go to the bank a few times a year. The credit cards are run through the POS which is tied into inventory. We have three desks upstairs because we have people in charge of things. Lots of things. We have a person each for inventory control (Bob) and marketing (Winks). The single postcard and word of mouth advertising have given way to a website and a bunch of “Social Media”. I don’t have time to do this stuff.
There is an off-site bookkeeper (Sara). We have a payroll service (Paychex). Winks has a web team as well as a social media person that I get invoiced for. Both work remotely. The web folks are in New York state. Paul and Winks attend the HR classes. I used to hire people. Now Winks onboards new employees. They get a copy of the Employee Manual. It is also on our Teams site for easy reference. I do not maintain this myself either.
Two store phones have turned into six. Everyone also has a personal “smart phone” that lets us do all the things Nasa Computers could only do – and way more. Now there aren’t even paychecks. Now it is direct deposit. Boot fits are done by appointment. You do that on our website using a Plug In called “Bookly”. Cute. I have no idea how it actually works.
So, you can see that the changes never end…
As of yesterday, there is yet another big change. Now you can buy skis and bindings from California Ski Company without leaving the comfort of your living room! That’s right – we have a shopping cart on our web site. Winks has all the skis and bindings up and available to buy. There is supposedly more to come too. Who would have guessed this was even possible in 1989? Not me but it keeps things exciting. I don’t need to deal with it directly. We will talk about it in scheduled meetings. I still prefer to be down on the floor talking about skis.
Oh, and skis now have a thing called rocker… come on in and I will tell you all about it!