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CEO Daily Update – 9.16.2020

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Reset | GLC’S | Thermometers | Return to Being

Happy Wednesday!  

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

What a day! I was on set for the filming of this music video today at my property, and as I mentioned, I was given a part in it as well. It was a super cool experience. Having been an extra on a film once before I knew that it was fun, but had forgotten just how much fun it was. If you ever get a chance to be an extra on a movie/film I highly recommend it. The inner workings of how things work is pretty fascinating. Even the lingo and short phrases used on set are pretty cool. A generator is a putt putt. When a take is finished, and a cut is called, a “reset” is called to indicate everyone should reset to their original position to do another take of the same scene. It’s all very neat to see how films are made and to think about what goes into directing and producing your favorite show or movie. Once the video is done and live I’ll share a link!  

I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard …  

Herring fish communicate by using flatulence. 

Today’s Product Spotlight from Rerun (AKA Rebecca):

Happy Wednesday!! I can’t believe how fast this week is flying by! Today’s product spotlight goes to another favorite transceiver module, the GLC-SX-MMD! This transceiver is an improved version of another favorite, the GLC-SX-MM! What makes the GLC-SX-MMD superior? Well, it includes Digital Optical Monitoring (DOM) functionality aaaand this hearty transceiver can tolerate an extended temperature range! The DOM functionality allows users to monitor the signal power, the temperature, and the voltage that the SFP is receiving (fancy, right?!).    

This 1000Base-SX hot-swappable module comes in the standard Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) form factor, operates over multimode fiber (MMF), offers Gigabit speeds and can operate at a cabling distance of up to 1,000 meters (using OM3 fiber)! That’s pretty impressive!!  

Of course we’ve got you covered in regards to options for these SFPs! Check out our supply of: 

If you’d like to learn even more, check out this GLC-SX-MMD Product Info Video! 

From Joe, our friendly Safety Supplies Product Marketer:

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update — 9.16.2020

CEO Daily Update – 8.27.2020

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IKEA | Modeling Business for Others | Price Drops on Thermometers and Gowns 

Happy Thursday!  

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

I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard …  

IKEA is an acronym which stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, which is the founder’s name, farm where he grew up, and hometown. 

Today I met with a former CK team member for lunch. He left over a year ago and went out on his own to focus on sourcing products overseas to save his clients money and reduce overall time and aggravation. We do this too, but he wanted to focus 100% of his effort on it as well as radically change his lifestyle which included selling his house and moving a few hours away to be near family.  

We met because we are still great friends that don’t get to see each other very often. He was in town on business and we were able to connect which is always a great time and today was no exception. One of my favorite people!  

In addition, we are working on a project together and were able to discuss it a little. He has a client that he’s manufacturing several thousand sneeze guards for that will go into retail locations. He’s not setup for logistics, nor does he want to be, so he asked if we could handle that aspect. I gladly accepted because we have a great team and great operation that handles warehousing, logistics, and pick/pack/ship every day. We’ll receive several containers full of product, then stage and process over 100 pallets to over 60 locations nationwide. Fun!  

When I left our lunch appointment today I was thinking about how not only have we remained great friends but how he also trusts me/us to handle such a critical aspect of this deal for him.  And this is a guy that worked for me for 10 years and knows where all the bodies are buried! Haha.  

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update — 8.27.2020

CEO Daily Update – 7.21.2020

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Counterfeit Cisco | Lower Prices on Thermometers and Masks

Happy Tuesday!

I hope the first day of your week went well. It was my first day back at work in a little over a week of course, and while I thought it was going to be hard to get into the swing of things it all started flowing pretty well right away. I have some really great leaders and I love meeting with them weekly to hear what’s going on and to give feedback and guidance. Some things we do saps our energy and some things give us energy. Meeting with leaders and hearing how they are moving things forward is certainly one of the things that GIVES me energy! The coffee didn’t hurt.  

Counterfeit Cisco switches
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/07/15/counterfeit-cisco-switches/

Someone sent this article to me and I thought it was worth sharing with commentary. First of all, you all know that CablesAndKits sells pre-owned Cisco. What you may not know is that the entire pre-owned industry is vulnerable to counterfeit product. Why would I say that?! Because it is true, and you need to know – and you need to know what to do about it. Being as I am your trusty networking products CEO I am going to tell you!

First of all, let me paint a picture for you. Let’s say that you want to buy a nice pre-owned car. Do you go to Carmax, your local brand name auto dealer, or do you buy one sight unseen from some guy you met in a waffle house at 2am? The shady guy in the waffle house may have a “great deal” for you, but aren’t you a bit concerned with where he got this car, if he actually owns it, if it runs right, etc? Perhaps instead you go to the local Chevrolet dealer because surely they have your best interest in mind – but they buy many of their used cars from auto auctions and they don’t ALWAYS get the best ones. Or, maybe you’ll consider Carmax. Not only can you find a good deal on a good ride, you can trust that they have gone through the car with a fine-tooth comb to ensure it hasn’t been wrecked and repaired to the point YOU cannot tell. That is one of their brand promises – a GOOD deal (not always a great one), on a GOOD car. (I own no stock in Carmax, and have never bought a car there – but I am very well aware of their brand position)

The pre-owned Cisco industry (or any pre-owned industry) is the same – in addition to the “traditional” ways of buying, there are people that make it their business to be someone you can trust, and that is how they build a reputation and a long-term business – providing you value and minimizing or eliminating the risk. This is what CablesAndKits exists to do – to “add value to your IT infrastructure”…. to help you save money on your IT spend while reducing or eliminating your risk – and we’ve been doing just that for almost 19 years. (Gosh I am getting old)

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update — 7.21.2020

CEO Daily Update – 6.1.2020

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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.

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update — 6.1.2020

CEO Daily Update – 5.20.2020

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2020 IT budgets being slashed |Thermometers and Alcohol Wipes In stock!

Happy Wednesday!

Gartner Predicts IT Spending Will Plummet By $300 Billion In 2020 As CIOs Slash Budgets. To a large degree this makes a lot of sense to me. The country has been shut down for weeks and weeks, lets just say 3-4 months by the time people are back in the swing of things – maybe. So, If you lose 1/3 of your year it stands to reason that you’d spend less on IT this year. But while logical, that doesn’t mean it’s music to the ears of everyone in the IT supply chain. If product A isn’t getting bought, the components that make up product A aren’t getting bought, and the labor to make them isn’t needed, and so on and so on. I’ve basically just described how an economy works. The wheels on the bus go round and round. Anyway, only time will really tell. I know there are plenty of people ready to GET SOMETHING DONE so if they can advance their projects they will. But, both companies and individuals alike pull back on discretionary spending when things are uncertain or revenue is down. That’s why consumer spending is one of the biggest predictors of economic growth – as they spend, the businesses have to invest to keep up with the demand, and the wheels on the bus go round and round. What do you think?

Today was a big day. After a heck of a lot of waiting, and money spent, we finally got a shipment of 800 thermometers in today. I used UPS CRITICAL to ship this one in, and even though it is about the most expensive shipping you can buy, it still took 6 or 7 days to get here. Customs leaving China plus the capacity on planes is just overrun. But, they showed up and this morning we will start getting orders out. Finally. I still have others on order that should be here shortly.

Here is a video of it! 

[Read more…] about CEO Daily Update — 5.20.2020

CEO Daily Updates 5.14.2020

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Safety Supplies Landing Page: https://www.cablesandkits.com/c/safety-supplies

Happy Thursday!

Roses are red, violets are blue, you’re asleep and I wish I was too. It’s 4:10am and I just finished working on this email. I’ve got to go to bed! So, I tried to keep this one short (and I think I failed).

I had a big day. I touched a lot of projects today. This doesn’t even begin to be half of it, just what I quickly remember

  • Nitrile gloves will be here in about a week (we have a FEW on the site now but at the end of next week or the beginning of the following we should have some. We have Vinyl in stock and more coming if those will work for you in the meantime.
  • I talked to a vendor about copper infused fabric washable face masks. Interesting. More to come.
  • We got our 1L bottles of gel hand sanitizer in today. This was a one time buy and when they are gone they are gone so get them fast!
  • I approved and ordered our desktop sanitizer dispenser yesterday! We should have that on the site soon for pre-order. I did a video about it too! Looking forward to getting that out.
  • I got dispenser pumps on order for our gallon and half gallon liquid sanitizer. I hope they will be here early week after next. I will make an announcement. Someone ordered 500,000 from me before I could even get them launched. That’s nice.
  • OH! I ALMOST FORGOT!! We got the Face Shields in today!! Plenty in stock and ready to ship!
  • I stayed up till 6am Tuesday night (Wed morning) working on getting thermometers on a plane from the factory. 800 thermometers … picked up by UPS CRITICAL, taken to the airport for next flight out, and it only cost a cool $10,000. What a bargain! 😲. I had a customer that needed 400 that I found out cancelled today. Sometimes you fall off the horse …. And sometimes it kicks you in the head. The good news is that when they land we will finally have stock (the rest of what we have ordered is still taking 50 forevers) and can ship plenty of orders! You can pre-order if you’d like to get in line for some of these.
  • I went to the warehouse today and while there someone jokingly said “remember when we used to sell networking products?” lol. We very much still do, but WOW have we been buried in safety products for several weeks now! It’s fun though.
  • I have gotten SO many emails from people thanking me for what we are doing and complimenting me on this email. What an honor! Before I started doing this email I was terrified to do such a thing. Now it’s natural and I am loving it. THANK you for reading the email and buying the products!
  • I talked to someone on the phone today that ordered a LARGE amount of Hand Sanitizer. I asked if he was on my daily email and he said that someone that worked there had forwarded him the email and that’s what led him to buy from us. Wow!! Thank you for forwarding my email to people you think might be interested! If they would like to be on the daily email they can sign up at the bottom of the safety supplies page.
  • Someone that serves at a food bank emailed to ask if I could use my manufacturing capabilities to help them get some reusable grocery bags made. Sounds awesome and I’m on it! I loooooove sourcing and manufacturing!
  • I am working on isolation gowns. Do you need them?
  • Don’t forget to go follow us on Facebook here: CK Facebook Page. We will be posting some videos and such there soon!
[Read more…] about CEO Daily Updates 5.14.2020