{"id":3912,"date":"2020-10-22T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T13:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cablesandkits.com\/blog\/?p=3912"},"modified":"2020-10-28T09:26:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T13:26:18","slug":"ceo-daily-update-10-22-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cablesandkits.com\/blog\/ceo-daily-update-10-22-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO Daily Update – 10.22.2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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2020 Lessons Learned  | Thermometers Update | Best Rack Mount Kit | Change Your Thoughts | News to Start Your Day<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Happy Thursday!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(October 22nd is National Make a Dog’s Day! So go treat your furry, four-legged canine friend to a special treat or buy them a new toy!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As most businesses probably are this time of year, we are looking forward to 2021 and starting to make plans. What do we want to focus on? Where can we improve? Where do we want to be at the end of 2021? It has been an unusual year for us all, so this year’s planning discussions feel quite a bit different than they have in the past.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the obvious market disruption that COVID was and is for nearly every business, some things that were different for us this year have been our product mix, marketing methods we’ve tried, and how we communicate with our customers (like this email). When we began selling safety supplies in March, we did it to serve a need, to attempt to be profitable through a yet-to-be defined season, and if I’m being honest maybe a little bit because we were bored. We had no idea adding a new and vastly different product line would change our business so much.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Craig and I started selling pre-owned networking equipment out of our garage in the earliest days, it was in an environment where customers were plentiful. The business really thrived in those days because of Craig’s ability to BUY well. The selling part was easy. When the CK webstore took off and we were selling more accessories, customers just came to us. At least a hundred new customers a day placed orders on the site back then. We did not have to hunt them down; they just needed what we had. Then we entered our awkward teenage years as a company, making our way through by pivoting rapidly from opportunity to opportunity. By the time we reached 2018\/19 we had somewhat matured and had leaders over most critical areas, Craig had a vision for where he wanted to go, but the how was still a bit fuzzy. 2020 was supposed to be a year of reaping the rewards of hard work that had been put in during 2019 to really define the roadmap of where we wanted to go. Enter COVID. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

From the very beginning of us venturing into safety supplies, I had an impression that this was a learning ground for us. Because of that I’ve spent a good bit of time pondering what lessons can we capture and take away from this period of time. Adding and selling products people needed during COVID was like operating in a pressure cooker. Everything happened at rapid speed. We ran a radio ad and immediately saw results. We sent an email to a new list of people, it paid off instantly (until it didn’t). Craig had {yet another} “crazy” idea to email customers daily about what products we had coming in, and it paid off. We are still here chatting months later, which has been a huge blessing to us in so many ways. One of the best operational lessons learned: go GET your customers. Talk to them, bring them into what you’re doing and offer value. The e-commerce world has changed, and we do not have the luxury of customers finding us by “accident” each and every day anymore. We must be intentional.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will soon have planning sessions and dive deeper into other operational takeaways from 2020, make goals and plans for 2021, and begin walking that path. I have confidence it will be good stuff. But what I really wanted to share today was a comment one of our leaders made recently about lessons learned. She said she felt like a different person pre-COVID to now, that putting a plan into place and winning at it felt good, that we’d proven we CAN win. I’m going to add my own thoughts and embellish a little to say that coming together as a team to work on this project, making plans, each team playing their part, finding success, and opening ourselves up to new ways of doing things is the wind in our sails that we all needed. We’re motivated in a different way, because we know we can be successful. We’re more focused and aligned, we’ve been intentional about what products to carry, we’ve made mistakes but have been able to quickly work on what to do about it, and we’ve added a whole intentional marketing effort that we didn’t have before.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig often encourages action on a new idea by reminding us “you can’t steer a parked car.” I believe that saying came from a former mentor of his. Let’s get started, put our foot on the gas and begin whatever dream we have, but also remember we must actually steer and keep our eyes on the road. I am looking forward to driving into 2021! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, and magic and power in it. Begin it now.\u201d \u2013 Goethe <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s purpose to be bold, friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christin <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today’s Product Updates from Rebecca:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made it to Thursday! As you likely have heard by now, we are winding down our PPE business so we are running some amazing deals! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We currently have two excellent non-contact thermometers available for purchase! I have seen similar thermometers in stores for over double what we\u2019re charging for these! <\/p>\n\n\n\n