CEO

CEO Daily Update – 8.12.2020

August 12, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Kids Masks | UV Sterilizers | Light Bulb Moments

Happy Wednesday!

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.

I mentioned yesterday that the wife and I decided that we wanted to buy a camper. We’d gone and looked at some on Saturday after having talked about it off and on for months. To my complete surprise last night after we’d looked online for a little while, my wife said “why don’t we rent one and go on a trip … tomorrow”. That is so not like her! I had mentioned wanting to go see her family in South GA (a 5-6 hour trip) and she suggested that we combine the trip to see them with an RV trip. So, we looked for rentals till 3am!

The idea was to rent something that was similar to what we think we WANT so we can get a feel for it. After lots of looking and talking we decided that we thought a class C might be best for us. I locked down a rental, went and picked it up, and by the time you read this email we will be packing up and hitting the road!

When I got home we surprised the girls and they lost their mind. They are so excited about the camper and the adventure. More to come!

From Joe, our friendly Safety Supplies Product Marketer:

I hope everybody is having a great week so far! Today is an AMAZING day as we’ve added new products to the site! School has officially started for many kids and I know it can be worrisome but I’m here to give you guys a little extra comfort! CablesAndKits is finally HAPPY to announce the arrival of kids masks! With 5 different patterns these boxes of 50 masks contain girl, boy, and neutral patterns, perfect for stocking up the whole family or sending with your kids to school for the teachers to keep in the classroom. It can be insanely hard to get the little ones to cooperate and wear a mask all day, so a nice design may it make it much easier!

Two new products in one day?!?! YES! On top of the children’s mask we’ve also added UV Sterilizers to the site which are awesome! With rechargeable batteries and a compact design these are perfect for bringing with you on the go. Whether it be your keyboard, car keys, steering wheel, or even a carpet, enjoy a clean surface without having any sticky residue or scents left behind from disinfectant agents! These UV wands are small enough to fit in your pocket, purse, car, etc and are great for killing germs and viruses on surfaces where sprays are not appropriate or practical.

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CEO Daily Update – 8.11.2020

August 11, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Craig’s Birthday | Wipes are back! | Its time to go camping!

Happy Tuesday!

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.

Happy Birthday to me … happy birthday to me … happy BIIIIIIRRRRRTHHHHHHDAAAAAYYY dear MEEEEEEEE, Happy Birthday to MEEEEEE.

I get the idea that today might be my birthday. To be honest, almost every year I forget about it until the day of or maybe the day before. This year I actually remembered a few times last week. Odd! More below …

From Joe, our friendly Safety Supplies Product Marketer:

WIPES!!! We have a very limited supply of Progressive WipesPlus Disinfecting Wipes! With school starting and requesting parents to bring in wipes for the classroom this is a perfect product for you. More serious environments such as a classroom full of young children require a trustworthy disinfecting wipe. These are bleach-free and EPA registered ensuring maximum disinfecting power safely. Whether they’re used for a classroom, kitchen, or office they’re the perfect disinfecting wipe and comparable to big name brands like Clorox.

More 3M N95’s are live on the site as well! Like in the past, these are also in a very limited supply. It’s crazy how much has changed in these past few months. You used to be able to find masks like this in most everyday stores you walked into and now it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. These seem to be the next Clorox and Lysol wipes… Impossible to find! Act fast before they’re gone!

Some thoughts from Craig:

So, I turn 42 today, and let me tell you – time really does fly. On one hand it seems like just yesterday when I started this business. On the other, it seems like an eternity ago. I was 23. The other day my wife and I were going to look at Campers (See below) and we went to a place in Tucker, which is part of the Atlanta burbs. When I first moved here, I lived in the Tucker/Norcross area and worked nearby at a computer component distributor as a sales guy, but that’s another story. Anyway, we drove by the apartment complex I lived in back then and it was like “wow, that was like a lifetime ago!”. It’s funny how some things seem like yesterday and some things seem like eons ago.

Getting older sucks. In the last few years I have had more health issues than ever before. I had a hernia and surgery for it, major back issues (which are now mostly under control, for now, thank the Lord), tendon issues that resulted in weeks on a scooter to stay off my right foot, and of course bowel issues that resulted in a Crohn’s diagnosis that I still deal with daily. The point is that I can personally attest to the fact that getting older causes all sorts of issues! I don’t recommend it. …. Well wait, compared to the alternative I guess I do recommend it.

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CEO Daily Update – 8.10.2020

August 10, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Appendix A N95 Medical & KN95 Civil Masks in Stock | Like New Cisco Phones | Joe is Back

Happy Monday!

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.

Did you hear about the muffler that was really tired? It was exhausted.

So Joe was back on Friday. I asked about the abduction. He SAID he had been to some place called “Colorado”. I called this “Colorado” and they said they’d never heard of him. I don’t know … I think he’s walking kinda funny if you ask me. (Welcome back Joe!!)

You GOTTA see below in Joe’s update about our new Appendix A Masks!! This is a BIG DEAL for us.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt is a real thing. So real that I had the idea the other day to register FUDbucket.com as a place to list all the things people have fear, uncertainty, or doubt of along with the FACTS related to them. But then again, when do I have time for such a thing? Like I said before, I buy domains like candy. Well, I don’t eat a lot of candy. I buy domains like … what do I buy a lot of? … I don’t really …. Like water? I don’t know. I buy a lot of domains. Anyway, moving on …

That being said, when Appendix A became a thing it introduced FUD around buying masks. Looking back I think it makes sense, although I can’t say I was too happy about it at the time. We knew through independent testing that our masks met the standards, but the manufacturer we use didn’t get tested and listed. But anyway, such is life and here we are. All that matters at this point is that we NOW HAVE Appendix A masks. These are factories that the US FDA has said are good to buy from. That’s us … approved, stamped, endorsed!

The super duper thing is that almost ALL masks sold in the US right now are “non-medical”. That is A-OK for the average Joe or Jane, but we were still not able to fully serve the medical community the way we would have liked (even though the whole point of the EUA Joe mentions below was to allow the use of non-medical grade masks in a medical environment). NOW WE CAN. Not only do we have an Appendix A KN95 mask, we have an Appendix A N95 MEDICAL GRADE mask. WOOO HOOO !!!

Like Joe says below – order what you need – we have more coming and can get ANY qty needed.

Today’s Product Spotlight:

CP-7945G VoIP Phone

The CP-7945G VoIP Phone is one of our best-selling phone models! It’s easy to see why as this phone offers exceptional functionality at an unbeatable price! The CP-7945G is a workhorse! It is a 2-line, Gigabit ready phone, that features 2 Ethernet ports, a 5” 320 x 240 pixel resolution color display, wide band audio, hands-free speakerphone with noise cancellation, and it even features PoE capability!

Furthermore, at CablesAndKits we sell this model fully refurbished at a fraction of what it cost new. Our refurb process is pretty extensive too. Every phone gets fully reset back to factory defaults, registered with a Call Manager server to get an extension, and EVERY feature gets tested. We mash every button (That’s southern for press), dial out, test the speakerphone – the works. Then, we 86 the handset and cord and replace them with brand new ones – cause let’s face it, the cord looks like you strangled someone with it, multiple times, and the handset smells like someone’s stank breath. Gross.

We completely clean the phone, REPLACE any scratched components like the screen bezel, and put this work of love into a brand new box with serial number and MAC address on a barcoded label for easy deployment. And of course we have other models available. Check the site for what’s in stock, or let us know if you don’t see what you need.

Not to get too into the weeds, but we can also assist you in making your deployments easier by providing asset tagging, user / room number labeling, pre-configuration, or whatever else you might need. Additional charges may apply, see store, err, a sales rep, for details.

Speaking of “86”, did you know this was the origin? I had no idea.

From Joe, our friendly Safety Supplies Product Marketer:

I’M BACK!! I’m not totally sure if I was abducted or not to be totally honest. What I do know is I thought I was in Colorado which I absolutely loved and had a blast. So, if I was abducted, I’m all for it happening again! Maybe don’t wait so long to fly me away this time!

Friday Craig mentioned we have “Appendix A” Medical Grade N95 masks coming to the site. I can only imagine how frustrated he was looking at them in the warehouse and not seeing them on the site! Well, good news…. THEY’RE LIVE!!!!

Check out our N95 Page to see our available options.

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CEO Daily Update – 8.7.2020

August 7, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Coming Soon: Medical Grade N95 “Appendix A” Masks | Swimming with the Fishes | A Webcam for Everyone!

Happy Friday!

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.

I was talking to someone the other day and the biblical reference to “loaves and fishes” came up. I stopped to say that I wonder why that didn’t get translated as “fish”. The conversation resulted in a google search.

“The plural of fish is usually fish. When referring to more than one species of fish, especially in a scientific context, you can use fishes as the plural.”

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/fish-fishes/

One of the most memorable quotes from the movie The Godfather is: “It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.”

Who knew!

Today’s Product Spotlight:

1080P Webcam with AutoFocus – Webcams have been pretty hard to come by the last few months. A while back I did the doables and sourced one for you guys. Well, to be clear, I sourced over a DOZEN from several factories, and personally tested them all. Most all of them SUUUUUCKED. They were super short field of view or were washed out, had strange colors, had no auto zoom, and a variety of other issues. I couldn’t believe what garbage was out there! (And I have seen most of the ones I tested all over the web and Amazon).

This camera was my pick. “For the money” are words I would use to describe it. There are cameras that are maybe a tad better quality (quality you won’t notice) but are much more expensive. I am working on some of those as well, but it will be several weeks before I have anything ready. This one is affordable, great quality, and gets the job done!

And, have no fear – if you are not 100% satisfied you can return it no questions asked!

Check out the 4.5 star review on the product page:

https://www.cablesandkits.com/computing/webcams/wc1080p-01/pro-18838/

Side Note:

I did so much camera testing that I thought about doing a site dedicated to Webcam testing and reviews. I registered the domain name “TheWebcamGuy” and maybe one day when I have nothing better to do I will do something with it – haha.

I commonly buy domains at the drop of a hat and have nearly 200 of them. One of the most interesting one is one I thought would be good for a company that is in the business of pumping septic tanks …. Think about it …. Turdtaxi.com … The trucks would look like a checkered cab. haha, I crack me up.

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CEO Daily Update – 8.6.2020

August 6, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Super Savings on SFP-10G-SR | We want your Cisco hardware | Leadership

Happy Thursday!

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.

A customer replied to my email yesterday and said …

OK Craig, I truly thought you were writing these emails simply for your health!!!!
YOU: “because let’s face it, I don’t write this every day purely for my health!”
…and here I thought you were the healthiest guy I know….haha

I replied and said “You know … I DID lose 50lbs and I HAVE been writing these emails. Causation or correlation? Hmmmm”.

Today’s Product Spotlight:

SFP-10G-SR – You won’t find a better deal on such a staple networking item. You may be buying these by the box full, and you are probably paying way too much. CDW has these listed for $716 each. You can buy them BRAND NEW from us for $128 each, or pre-owned for $32!!

How? Because we buy unused IT from companies like YOURS and resell it. We get great deals and pass those savings on. We get plenty of pre-owned hardware of course but we occasionally get NEW in the box hardware? Companies buy what ends up being more than they need, and of course you cannot return it to Cisco so it ends up being sold to people like us.

And don’t worry – for pre-owned we fully test everything and include a LIFETIME warranty with advance replacement. You also have a full month to return your purchase for a refund!! (A few exceptions apply)

We have way more available than what you see on the site (both qty and models) so reach out if you need something you don’t see.

Can you name one good reason not to buy from us and save? If you think of one, email me.

From Joe, our friendly Safety Supplies Product Marketer:

Crickets. That’s all I hear. Joe is living it up somewhere and we don’t get so much as a card or a text. I hope he is enjoying himself but I am not ruling out the abduction angle.

Let’s see … what shall I talk about today … Ooh I know …

2 oz Sanitizer Spray Bottles – So you bought a big giant jug of liquid hand sanitizer and now what? Carry it around with you? (How would you do that anyway? I guess you could run your belt through the handle and wear it on your side for easy access?). Anyway, here is another option. We sourced these little spray bottles that you can fill and spritz as needed! Great for the car so you can spray surfaces, or for your purse (or pocketbook as I call it).

Shoe Covers – Just an update – we have 150,000 shoe covers on the way. If you need them, let’s get an order booked so we can tie up some inventory for you. If you have an ongoing need, let’s talk!

Desktop Sanitizer (or soap) dispenser – I almost forgot about this little guy. It was one of the first things I sourced overseas when all this mess started! You can use liquid or gel sanitizer (or even soap) and put it on the counter in the kitchen, on your desk, in the bathroom, or strap it to your arm for quick and easy access. ACTUALLY, you could strap it to your back side (using the belt again) so people BEHIND you have quick access to hand sanitizer. Do your part. And, with the gallon jug hanging from your belt you’ll be ready to refill at a moment’s notice.

SPEAKING of how we buy hardware, we want to buy your unused hardware!

Feel free to send us lists of anything you would like to get rid of, but here is a list of a few items we are consistently buying (which as you might have guessed, are top sellers). There are a LOT more items we purchase from customers like you regularly, but this is a good list to get your thinker thinking. Do you have any of these models laying around in your server room?

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CEO Daily Update – 8.3.2020

August 3, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Amazing prices on 3-ply masks | Out of Practice / Shape | Supply & Demand

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a great weekend. We went back to church for the first time since all this COVID stuff first started (months). We could have went back weeks ago but at first it seemed that masks may be required so it was easy to just stay home another week. One week turns into two, then three. Then I got the ‘Rona so that put me out a couple weeks.

To keep everyone socially distanced they went from one service with a normal chair arrangement to three shorter services with small groups of chairs spaced apart. God bless the pastor and staff/volunteers! It was great to just be back in the building, a highlight was seeing friends we haven’t seen in a while.

In fact, we invited some of those friends who also have small kids over to the house Sunday afternoon / evening to swim and partake of those ribs I spoke of on Friday. He makes his own BBQ sauce and I experiment with different rib rubs and prep methods so it was definitely a “coming together” sort of moment. It was fantastic!

Back to “getting back to church” – scripture has a lot to say about believers gathering, learning, and worshiping together (which doesn’t HAVE to mean “church” as we know it today but that’s another conversation). If you compared it to “practice” or “training” of something you want to get good at you can see why for matters of the faith it’s an important thing to do. When you get “out of practice” you get “out of shape”. What we focus on and spend time on will be who we become.

Are you consistently doing things that take you in the direction you want to go? (Whatever that may be)

Throughout this pandemic we have had people complain about pricing, or even accuse us of price gouging. It caused me to write this as a reply of sorts to an email from a customer. Check it out and let me know what you think ….

How do products in short supply and high demand become so expensive? Here is how:

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