Good morning Auto Recyclers,
Today I am writing from Lake of the Ozarks. Our family has been coming here for 30 years or more. It is my Happy Place and to us the greatest place on earth. In the last couple years, I am learning how to do a few things remotely. If you haven't done this yet, make it a goal for 2025.
What a year we have all been through. Last year on January 24th we lost our brother Steven Swift. It is very hard losing a sibling and has been tough on our entire family. My sisters, and all of our kids still can't believe it will almost be a year. It was the first Christmas without him, and a lot of firsts for his 2 boys. He was not only my brother, but we also worked side by side for the last 30 years. We miss his humor and his being at the business wearing many hats as we all do. Hard to come up with goals and what we need to do to increase sales and work on the business, but we seem to go on every day. Time doesn't stop and now, BOOM, a year later.
So now here comes 2025. We will have a new president, and many things are going to change. Like the industry changing and how to adapt to change. Our business has gone from 15 employees and 12-acre facility to now 5 employees and 1 acre of ground. Our goals are to increase sales and try to reach out to more customers. Sounds easy, but we will all have to do our part, with only 5 of us. As a Team we are going to sit down to see what goals that all of us need to try to accomplish.
One of our employees works remote from the Philippines. Her name is Catherine, and she works for Hazer Staffing. If you are looking for a salesperson, please look into this. The person will come trained on your YMS and for a few months down the road you will have the person used to how you do things at your facility. They will answer the phone, make sales, do callbacks just become part of the team and we recommend it for sure. My sister Susan does eCommerce and all of the title work. Additionally, I know we want to increase sales on eCommerce. Jim is our counter salesperson on site, and he has been with us for over 30 years, and is working on his sales skills and working on getting more familiar with the Checkmate system. Christian is our warehouse, parts puller, and delivery person. His goal for 2025 get to work earlier to help get the day started. And then we have Ken. Ken is part time comes in and does the QuickBooks. We are going to work more together to watch the money and bills etc. My brother Steve did all of this, so I can tell you I have learned more about QuickBooks. Not fun I can assure you, so thank goodness we have Ken.
So, like I said from the beginning: Never enough time. Time doesn't stop and we as Auto Recyclers get a lot of stuff thrown at us every day. So, for 2025, make goals, make them happen and try to enjoy some time in and out of the business.
Hope for the Best in 2025. Make some goals. Hope for a Great 2025!
Living the Dream in Auto Recycling,
Mike Swift