COVID-19

CEO Daily Update – 6.5.2020

June 5, 2020 by Craig Haynie

3M N95 Masks, Disinfectant Wipes, Nitrile Gloves & Webcams

Thank the Good LORD it’s Friday!

Father in heaven, I thank you for this week. One of fruitful work, of meals with family, of television and small indulgences. Thank you for the chocolate that I have eaten too much of. Thank you for putting such small but enjoyable things on this earth (the cocoa bean), and for giving humans the ability to figure out how to make something of it. Lord I thank you for the weekend when many of us get to slow down and rest a little. Bless those that don’t get to rest, and help them find rest in You.

Please bless our country. Comfort those mourning and give courage to us all to fight for what is right, to seek to learn and to seek to understand. Give us a gentle nature toward one another, and to honor you in doing so.

In Jesus’ name I pray and ask these things. Amen.

A little Fellershipping
We have some friends coming up today to stay the night and we are all excited (they also have two small kids). We don’t get to see them as much as we used to so it is a treat when we get to spend time together. One good thing about visitors is it forces me to stop working – at least for a while. I am looking forward to that as well!

Stock Status
Hey take a look at the video of me on the safety supplies page! (What’s in stock blue button) People ask all the time about stock quantities so we did a video to talk about it. You’ll see a WHOLE lot of face masks! https://www.cablesandkits.com/c/safety-supplies

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CEO Daily Update – 6.4.2020

June 4, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Referrals, Price Gouging, Nitrile Gloves, Clorox Wipes, & N95 Masks

Happy Thursday!

WHAT – A – DAY. We have a monthly Sales and Marketing meeting that goes all day. It was a tiring meeting when we used to do it in person, but now that it is all video it’s even more exhausting. Over 8 hours on video with several other leaders discussing our product lines, and our sales and marketing efforts. I love the meeting, but after 3 hours sleep the night before it was tough. But it is so great to take the time to work ON the business and not just IN it. I encourage you to find the areas of your business that need you to step out/away/back and give it some thought and consideration. If you don’t have some sort of plan, any move is the right move.

Price Gouging – We launched Clorox wipes yesterday and today I received 5-6 emails accusing us of price gouging. Ouch! That’s a first. I tried to explain in yesterday’s email but here goes again … These wipes are “normally” $5-8 per canister in stores. Normally. Like when they have them and the world is not buying every one they can find and picking the shelves clean. Things are not “normal” right now. We are not a Clorox “partner”, and even if we were we would not be getting any inventory, or would be getting very little. The only option we have to buy and sell these wipes is when some enterprising entrepreneur calls us up and says “I own 20,000 of these. I want X dollars. Do you want them?”. I either say yes, and have them available for you at a higher price, or I say no, and don’t. Just because the price is high does not mean we are price gouging. It means that our cost is sky high which is driving up the price. Let me be clear, we are going to make money on every item we sell or we are not going to sell it (donations aside). So we bought some at a high cost, marked them up a reasonable percentage (that is LESS than our standard margin on technology items), and offered them. Just because that price is higher than usual doesn’t mean that we are price gouging. Please hear me! I am absolutely here to serve you.

All that being said, due to the volume of sales today I was able to increase our order quantity significantly and get the cost down, and in turn, get the price down. We want to make money doing business (else why would we do it), but we are going to try to save you money at the same time! In general, if our cost goes down, the price follows. If you have ANY questions, please reach out to me!

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CEO Daily Update – 6.3.2020

June 3, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Clorox Wipes, N95 Masks, New Floor Dispensers, and Business/COVID Updates

Happy Wednesday!

It was a big day yesterday! Lots of product updates (above), and lots of interesting and enlightening conversations (below).

First, about the product updates – As you will see above, we are launching Clorox sanitizing wipes, N95 masks, and Floor Stand Sanitizer dispensers all in the same day. Wheew!! I want to explain a little about how “this works” when it comes to things like Clorox wipes and N95 masks. There is no reliable supply chain for these things right now. I describe what it’s like out there as the Wild Wild West. Market price is literally defined by what someone is willing to sell something for, and what someone else is willing to pay. There are no rules, and you act fast or you miss the opportunity. On certain items like hand sanitizer dispensers or bottle pumps, I get those manufactured and we have some control. With things like Clorox wipes or N95 masks, it is a no holds barred sourcing showdown. I have been offered pallets of gloves before, and took 8 minutes to make up my mind, and by the time I did they were SOLD. It was a LOT of gloves. I was sick. So, things like Clorox wipes or N95 masks are like that. Someone offers them to me, and I either grab them or I don’t.

I am going to explain what you will see on the site for those items. For the Clorox wipes in the bag, the “on order” qty is on the way to us. Every time someone enters an order, that qty goes down. So in general, what you see on order should be available for you to buy. For the Clorox wipes in the canister, I have committed to about 2000 canisters, but there are a total of roughly 20,000 available. What you see on the site is the amount remaining from the 20,000 available. As soon as I send this email and orders start coming in I will gauge how many to buy and lock the PO in. So, that is why I am saying ORDER FAST if you want them. For the N95 masks it’s similar. We have a vendor that has them available and I have written a PO for the full qty and will edit it as necessary once we see the demand.

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CEO Daily Update – 6.1.2020

June 1, 2020 by Craig Haynie

Protests & Riots, 3.3oz Sanitizer and Premium Thermometers in stock

Happy Monday!

Welcome to a whole new month. It is hard to believe it is June already. When this year started it seemed like everything crazy that could happen happened, and it’s been moving fast. My oldest daughter is turning SEVEN on the 14th and I just realized the other day that it was coming up soon. Then I thought, jeez we are almost half way to Christmas! I can’t believe she is about to turn 7. She was born just yesterday. Time flies.

So about the protesting and rioting … I don’t claim to be an expert at these things but I am just so sad for our country. It seems like every time we turn around we are fighting about something with someone, or fighting with or against something. 9/11, the Taliban, ISIS, sickness, political division, cyber-attacks, identity theft, the threat of trade wars, or real wars, or armed conflicts. Now, we have “life after COVID-19” to deal with and in the midst of that why don’t we kill some people and then burn down some cities. I am not even making a statement about who did what. I am just sad for the state of things. That’s all. I want to say “Can’t we all just get along”, but of course that is not how life works. BUT, what I WILL say is that we should each go out of our way to be gentle, and nice, and understanding with one another. No one said we had to solve every problem, but we can certainly try to not BE a problem. Today I went to pick-up dinner at Chilis (because I wanted my baby back). On the way out of the restaurant I passed a middle aged black lady. Normally I might just smile or nod, but today I went a little further and just said “Hey there, how are you?” and she responded similarly. I didn’t save the world. I just tried to be friendly to someone different from me who may also be sad about the state of things.

Black vs African American? I don’t think there is a single white person that knows 100% for sure which way to say it. African American feels almost patronizing and black feels almost too informal. Who knows! I say that because I want to tell a funny story. I met a guy a couple years ago from the country of South Africa. He is “Afrikaans” and therefore white. (South Africa was colonized in the early 1800’s and there are a few million white Afrikaans speaking people there today.) I have been there and it is an amazing and beautiful country. Anyway, when I met this guy here in the US and discovered that he was from South Africa I asked how long he’d been here. He said he’d moved here nearly 20 years ago, got his citizenship, so he’s an African-American. I don’t know why that made me laugh so hard but it did. I guess it was the fact that he’s a very white guy with an Afrikaans (British sounding) accent claiming to be African-American haha.

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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”

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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!

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