I let you run on awhile to give you the rope you needed to hang yourself, which you did. And after all that it only took one decent fellow calling you on the carpet and you rolled over and apologized to avoid getting reprimanded by the list master. But even then you couldn't help yourself and had to add a poke in the eye post script. Pretty weak, Joe, but apology accepted anyway. See, my pop was one tough Marine. Verbal abuse like yours is old home week for me, kiddo. Hey, maybe you're a gruff old jar head, too. Somehow I doubt it though. Why? Cause you appear to have missed the part in OCS about command presense. Nothing you said had any command presense at all, Joe.
So listen up, tough nut. Apology or no apology, you insist on your line of bull, I insist on mine.
Many people, but especially you, still don't get how much the wealthy class has expanded and how much wealthier it has become over the last 15 years, as the middle and lower classes have gotten the hind teat, as my pop used to say. I won't go into numbers, because I doubt they would mean much to you (and you're not paying me to either), but $10K to $20K for a bike, if custom bikes were marketed correctly and effectively, wouldn't even make today's wealthy blink. The conspicuousness of their consumption is staggering and should be obvious even to you, brazing pipe in that bastion of pork barrel subsidy called Madison, WI, surrounded by all those government subsidized dairy farms. Heck, Joe, go up to Oshkosh to EAA, if you want to know what they'll spend for joy ride toys these days.
Now, I've already given you a fitting example for comparison with custom frame building; i.e., custom shotguns and I think they make my case comfortably. Order an H&H and say you want to spend about $3,500 USD and see how far you're laughed out the door.
So let me master the obvious for you with another less fitting, but still informative example. Not long ago Mercedes market research showed that even their $100K S Class sedans, unreliable as they were, were priced too far down market by about, oh, say, $250K; that's why they had to roll out the absurdly expensive Maybach for circa $350K. They were missing out on a glut of cash at the top of the pyramid. Ditto for BMW and Volkswagen/Audi gobbling up moribund Rolls and Bentley. Their top of the line luxury cars were branded and priced too cheaply to soak up the ocean of cash at the high end. And Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagon/Audi are not just trying to market these things to shieks, Joe. Maybe Madison isn't cutting a fat enough hog to manifest the phenomenon, but I guarran-dang-ty you that in LA, SF, Silicon Valley, Redmon, La Jolla, New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago and Houston there's a surprisingly significant market of people with stunning amounts of NEW wealth (what I like to call Post 9/11 Plunge Protection Team cash), to say nothing of all the old wealth which have gotten fabulously richer too, as that Plunge Protection cash has gotten dumped on the derivatives market. My gosh, Joe, there are engineers running around Redmon with fleets of Ferraris for heaven's sake.
Next issue: you did at one point in your flame-rule violating posts seem to raise the issue of who did and did not have qualifications to offer advice to individuals and firms about their businesses.
At the risk of arguing with an idiot (which I hope you're not), and in the interest of maybe getting through to you, since, you have apparently dedicated a good portion of your life to bicycles, I'm going to try to politely and humbly mention my background. And I'm only willing to do this, because I don't work anymore, i.e., I'm not trying to convince anyone on the list to hire me.
Now, I don't know (nor do I much want to know after your antic posts) what your bonafides are regarding advising businesses (I know you build frames, but that on its face, given the meager financial success of many frame builders, well, that on its face hardly assures that you are qualified to give advice on how to be financially successful at it), but in the interests of bridge building, I'll assume your advisory skills are at least adequate.
As for me, I was a real estate consultant for 17 years. I consulted with individuals, small firms, large firms, multinational corporations both foreign and domestic, and state and Federal agencies. I made people money. I got paid. I advised regarding negotiating acquisitions, dispositions and trades. I worked on individual assets and on portfolios of properties. I started at the bottom as an appraiser sans nepotism. I hustled my way up the ladder into consulting, which is just another name for enterprise problem solving on an hourly fee. I worked on feasiblity studies, market research, marketing strategies, financial modelling, and reuse studies to name a few. I've estimated market values to set price points for marketing. I've worked out bargaining strategies, consumer profiles, competitive standards profiles, and absorption studies. I've analysed everything from small pieces of property to be marketed for individuals all the way up to mixed use developments impacting the regional economies of large metropolitan areas. I've worked all over the USA at one time or another. I have a graduate degree in this field from a reputable university and taught a little while in grad school. I've been invited to give lectures on some aspects of this sort of thing. I've published in professional journals about value theory, appraisal, market research and bargaining tendancies with even a touch of game theory thrown in along the way. I've analysed underperforming assets to try to come up with solutions to make them perform adequately. I've done housing market studies and office market studies to determine what kind of product ought to be built where, in how much quantity and for what price. I've been an employee of consulting firms small and large and I've owned and run my own consulting firm. Along the way, I've also helped my wife manage her small firm. I've been around the block a few times, Joe. I've never struck it rich, but I've done okay. I've dealt with all kinds of persons, from ordinary folks to people who would eat a guy like you for breakfast and laugh about it over lunch.
I feel I have at least a rudimentary grasp of marketing and how goods are marketed and to whom. And I've spent a good deal of time thinking about why they buy them. And I've got some experience with running a business and with advising others on how to run theirs. I can also read a wealth distribution table, Joe.
So: despite your skepticism and protestations about me, I don't feel I'm too far out of my depth on this one. Afterall, its nothing more than recreational brain storming on how to keep the likes of you in business a little longer and more profitably. Its just offering a little free advice and opinion on a hobbyist list about bicycles--a list that is supposed to be a place for recreational discussion anyway. Now, if you still think the things you do about me, and if you still feel compelled to flame me, well, Joe, like I care, kiddo.
Best regards, Don Wilson Los Olivos, CA
D.C. Wilson dcwilson3@yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------------------- Note: This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the addressee or authorized to receive this for the addressee, you must not use, copy, disclose or take any action based on this message or any information herein. If you have received this message in error, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete this message. Thank you for your cooperation. -------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com