CEO

CEO Daily Update – 5.29.2020

May 29, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Goggles in Stock, Case Qty Discounts on Sanitizer, Vanity of Vanities

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily update. If you are new to CablesAndKits, welcome! This update is sent daily to roughly 25,000 customers and fans of CablesAndKits directly from our CEO, Craig Haynie, and posted to our blog and social channels. We hope you enjoy the fresh content about our products and services, the musings of our CEO, occasional special CEO Daily email subscriber deals, as well as current COVID-19 updates.

My writing is long below, so I am going to get the product updates out of the way first ….

Goggles
We now have Goggles! https://www.cablesandkits.com/mc/goggles/fam-287/fp-18828/

3.3oz Sanitizer
It should be arriving today! Order individually or by the case!

Case Quantity Discounts
We have added case quantities with discounted pricing for most of our hand sanitizer!

Gallon / Half Gallon / 1 Liter Bottle Pumps
We should have these on Tuesday! We are getting 5000 of them in this delivery and another 25,000 in a week or so. Pre-order!

Happy Friday!

This was a very busy week for me and I sure am looking forward to the weekend! I hope you take time this weekend to relax, recharge, have fun, enjoy family and friends, and enjoy the smallest and simplest things in life! Consider this quote below and how it gives some instruction to life …

“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God” – Ecclesiastes 2:34. King Solomon was considered to be one of the richest and wisest rulers to ever live. No matter your stance on God I highly advise you to read the wonderful book of Ecclesiastes. Read just the first chapter and you’ll be hooked! Vanity of vanities .. all is vanity. The sun comes up and the sun goes down. The wind blows and never stops. The rivers flow and the ocean is never full. Nothing new under the sun!

“I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. [13] And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. [14] I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind”

[Read more…]

CEO Daily Updates – 5.28.2020

May 28, 2020 by Craig Haynie

FDA Shoe Cover Price Drop, Uncle Sam shops CK, Retail Store, Today’s Recipe & More!

Happy Thursday!

Well, as if the reach of my nonsense talk wasn’t far and wide enough I have gone and commandeered the CK Facebook page. I posted my first message on there tonight! I actually have the power to post things from my cell phone. I am worried for all of us. … I don’t know what all I will put out there. But, whatever it is I would assume you won’t want to miss it. Perhaps you should mosey on over there and like the page so you don’t miss whatever late night sleepless post I might make before I come to my senses and edit or delete it. https://www.facebook.com/CablesAndKits/

When the Shoe (Cover) Drops
I dropped the price on our shoe covers today. Take a look. Keep in mind that these are FDA certified (I prob didn’t mention that before – whoops). I can get “standard” shoe covers MUCH cheaper. Let me know if you need them!

A big thanks to Uncle Sam!
I was glancing through orders today and what did I see? The US Department of State ordered EIGHTEEN HUNDRED bottles of hand sanitizer! Wowza! Not the first order from the Govt, and it won’t be the last I am sure. So cool though!

Our office turned retail center
I talk about this in the Facebook post I did but since we have been selling Health and Safety supplies, and running ads on the radio, tons of people have been showing up at the office to pick up web orders, or even to place orders. Our sales director was there today (normally we work from home full time) to assess the situation since normally the warehouse folks handle customer pickups. He counted double digit customer visits and so we decided to staff the office daily to serve customers the best way possible. I was there too in the afternoon and as we talked we got excited and threw together a little retail display of sorts to show all the products we have. Go to the Facebook page (link above) and check it out. It won’t surprise me if we have a full blown store by the time it’s over with – ha!

[Read more…]

CEO Daily Update – 5.27.2020

May 27, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Sleepless in…Atlanta – Blame it on the Rain | Nitrile Glove update | Today’s COVID Update

Happily Dapily Wednesday! Woah, we’re half way there … Woah, livin’ on a prayer

Would you believe me if I told you I never went to bed last night? Of course you would. There should be a good reason, and I gotta blame it on something … so I’ll blame it on the rain. When I saw that this was titled “(Official Video)” I had to chuckle. For those that don’t know, this was a lip-sync scandal the likes of which music had never (to my knowledge) ever seen. The funny thing is I still like to listen to this song.

I indeed did not go to bed last night. I was working on sourcing Nitrile gloves like a maniac. I know how to source in China like the back of my hand (I often “beat” Chinese sourcing agents, finding things cheaper or faster than they can – muahahahaha.) But, for Nitrile gloves that is not the motherland. The motherland is Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and a couple other places – before you get to China. It’s not that you can’t find them in China, it’s just that it’s not where the best prices are, or availability for that matter. Sourcing in new countries is a whole new skill. Fortunately I am a fairly quick learner, but sometimes at the expense of sleep.

On a positive note, I have some PO’s placed and will have some gloves on the way before you know it! Also, of major note, since I have found the big daddy factories, I have the ability to source any quantity needed. These factories don’t even want to talk to you if you’re not ordering 1, 2, or 5 MILLION gloves. So, for those of you that need 1, 2, or 5 million gloves I am here for ya!

[Read more…]

CEO Daily Update – 5.26.2020

May 26, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Brussel Sprout Recipe | Crohn’s Disease | KN95 Masks Price Drop | Personal Sized Sanitizer

Well well well … Monday Again! Wait, no … Tuesday.

You know we will all be a day off a day the whole week! I hope everyone had a great long weekend though! We got a last minute invite along with a few other couples to a friend’s house to have dinner and hang out around the pool. It was very much needed to have a little social interaction!

A Brussel Sprout Recipe…
They were grilling hamburgers and hotdogs and due to my dietary restrictions (see below), I made my own meal and took it with me. While doing so I accidentally created something I am going to tell you about below. Didn’t you know this was also a cooking show? So, one of the things I can eat right now is brussel sprouts. I like them fine boiled, but I have a funky way of making cabbage that is delicious and make brussel sprouts the same way. Basically, I cut the ends off, and then slice them into about 4-5 pieces. When you do, and stir them, they break apart making ribbons of sorts. So what I do is use some olive oil, put them in the pan, add salt and pepper, and cook them (stirring often) for a little while to sort of get the oil in there. Then, I add some water and stir and cook, tasting until they are as tender as I want them. OH … I forgot it today but I also add just a touch of apple cider vinegar. It’s good, you should try it.

… Accidentally Turned into Cole Slaw
But today, I didn’t feel like slicing till my fingers fell off, so I wondered if I could use the Vitamix to do it faster. I am fairly new to cooking and don’t know what I am doing. I put a handful of the them in there but apparently it was on the DESTROY setting. It made what looked like cole slaw. Hmmm …… I added salt and pepper, a little avocado oil (I would just as quickly use olive oil), and then a little vegan mayo. (I am not vegan, but I have an egg allergy). It was GOOD. I took it to our friend’s house and let several people try it. They all loved it. I shall now work on tweaking this recipe! I feel so fancy!

[Read more…]

CEO Daily Update – 5.22.2020

May 22, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Origins of Memorial Day, New Product: Amazon Echo Silver, Covid-19 Update

Happy Friday! (and Happy Memorial Day Weekend!)

Remember how I talked yesterday about lunacy? Well, our revenue was up 65% over the previous day which was already up over 100% over normal levels. The advertising/marketing is working! It was another crazy day for the shipping crew, but they got it done.

I don’t think I have ever been so glad to see a weekend, especially a long one, in my life. I am flat out running on fumes to the point (and I am not joking) that when I walk I sometimes think I am going to trip over my own feet and fall down. My wife told me that my job this weekend is to sleep. Not only is she right, but how sweet! She must love me …. Or she doesn’t want to have to clean me up if I die in a fall on her floor. Either way, I get to sleep like I’m in a coma and I can’t wait. A few weekends ago I slept 16 straight hours. I wonder if I can beat that record!

I know my staff is wore out too, especially the folks in our warehouse / fulfillment center. I’ve been up there helping them some and I can see the tiredness in some of their faces. More the warehouse manager than anyone – he’s running in 20 directions keeping the show on the road. I am so grateful to the entire team for every part of their contribution to what we have been doing. Our sales and customer service people, web developers and product folks, and even my wife, who have jumped at my every request, many times at 12, 1, 2, 3AM to get things ready to go live for these emails. e-comm/marketing, purchasing, accounting, and Gary who is our Administrative Officer making sure that as fast as I break all the rules we clean up my messes. I’d like to thank the Academy ….. (and my parakeet).

As we head into this holiday weekend you might be wondering, what exactly is Memorial Day? We all probably or hopefully know generally what it is about, but I thought I would do a little research and share the highlights since we are headed into the holiday weekend.

[Read more…]

CEO Daily Update – 5.21.2020

May 21, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Today’s COVID Updates, Marketing Excitement, and Charlie the Unicorn

It’s Thursday … I think.

Let me tell you a little something about marketing …. it’s awesome! Why did it take me 19 years and a pandemic to figure this out? Not that we didn’t do some form of marketing before (mostly SEO and Google Adwords) but what we have jumped into the past several weeks is a whole different world.

First of all, I acknowledge that the health and safety products are in high demand, and unlike some retailers we actually have stock, and … this is a product that applies to a wide audience of both consumer and business customers, so the things we are doing have an amplified effect. But, holy cow. We’ve really stumbled onto something.

We’ve been doing radio ads here in Atlanta for a couple weeks now and that has worked pretty well; so much so that we are about to expand to other stations in other cities. But we also partnered with a company that helps you get your message out to the e-mail lists of other companies that have lots of e-mail subscribers. One of those companies is an “AARP like” company that has a gigantic e-mail list. It’s all opt in and such – their subscribers look for and want these “offers” that come to their inbox. Their list is roughly 800,000 subscribers. We started yesterday with a subsection of the list – about 65,000 of them.

I was at the warehouse QA’ing orders (quality assurance – verifying count and accuracy) for EIGHT hours from 3pm till 11pm. We called people back in to work at 8pm. It was lunacy. We all left good and exhausted.

Even more lunacy? Another email blast is going out tomorrow morning to 170,000 people! We’d better GIRD OUR LOINS (long version) cause tomorrow is going to be rough (I hope!)

I’ll admit that we really don’t know what we are doing when it comes to consumer marketing. (Why would we?). The truth of the matter is that this whole health and safety supplies journey is teaching us a lot … about a lot. I am serious when I say this … if you have any suggestions or referrals to anything or anyone that you think might be helpful to us for marketing, let me know. Since we have a nearly unlimited supply of most of the health and safety items we are selling, we are really trying to strike while the iron is hot. Why wouldn’t we, right?

On the product development front I got more webcam samples in today and tested them. I was hoping to have a “good, better, best” offering fairly quickly but I have got to be honest – most of the samples I have been receiving have been crap! The one I got today literally made me look 10 years older. I am not even joking. Is that a selling feature?? Maybe for underage kids trying to look older online or something …. Hmm maybe it has a market after all! Kidding! I am going to keep at it and get some products launched soon! I am working with a dozen factories to find what I like best. I will not give up!

[Read more…]