Work and Cars

Hi Dad,

I've been busy from 8 every morning until 1am or later working the club at an even higher level of intensity. The TV commercial, sign spinners and sandwich board campaigns have been exhilarating, I'm really enjoying the marketing aspect. Was able to put together a decent week for this summer, 13.5k, and a solid weekend with some relatively early business. I am also offering some food during happy hour, bags of chips, apples, and crock pot wings, lil smokey's, etc. It doesn't cost much and no one seems to care, or eat it. It's a little hassle, but mostly there because my signage says "FREE Food" which I think is a powerful psychological tag line for a sign to have. I have tweaked the signage some, taken out some of the clutter and reduced it to 1 primary line of text with 2 supporting lines of text. The sandwich boards are for guys to wear downtown from 11pm to 1:30 am. They also hand out $5 discount cards. Saturday was the best day we've had in a while and we were definitely due for it. It's hard to say for sure how much the gorilla marketing tactics helped, but I know they had some positive effect ... some of the patrons early and late could be directly connected to the new campaigns.

I have some interesting employees. One of them, Bob, reminds me an awful lot of my cousin Troy in appearance, mannerisms, etc. he even plays the bass guitar. He's a bit of a generation x slacker but his enthusiasm for the sign spinning is something I would have never expected, he tells me it's the coolest job he's ever had! He was also fired from his last job, partly because he like to twirl things all the time! He had no prior experience 3 days ago and is now flipping signs behind his back and doing some pretty impressive chops. A T-mobile (cellular company) promoter approached him in a hummer vehicle that had all sorts of graphic advertising on it, obviously a high budget outfit. He was trying to steal my spinner to come work for him. Bob wouldn't even accept his business card and told him that he wouldn't consider leaving my employ for any amount! Granted this campaign is only a few days old but so far its going well. I've got a couple of others who are good workers too, 2 of them with prior experience.

The guys at Vogue (except the DJ Josh Keller) have worked under Rob for quite some time and to them my ideas represent change, and they aren't always enthusiastically behind my ideas. They do their jobs and follow my instructions well enough but at times I don't feel like they are 110% behind me. This new crew I'm building, albeit quite a bit different from the Vogue crew, I really feel like I have their total support and respect- something I've never felt before when managing people. That in turn builds my confidence and allows me to be an even better leader and manager. Some of that started to carry through last night also when managing the club staff as well and that feels pretty good. Now if I can just keep some traffic coming through the doors, I feel an incredible amount of pressure to get heads in the club and when things are slow a couple of days in a row it's pretty tough on me. Though the staffs morale seems pretty good overall. I have a good crew of girls, the normal drama when you have over 25 girls in one building together, the club is cleaner, the lights show is leagues better than it was 6 weeks ago, and the overall atmosphere of the club is the best it's ever been. Customers are truly having a great time, and their smiles and compliments show it. I have tinkered with and updated the nightly specials a little bit, and also adjusted the pricing to a lower level that doesn't feel like such a rip off as measures to increase the volume of customers through the doors. Last night felt like it had all came together really well, now I hope we can build from it! My weight keeps dropping as this is the 4th day in a row that I have forgotten to eat more than one meal.

Included are a couple of pics: My original sign sketch, the first generation sign that is too cluttered, the 2nd generation sign that has the starbursts on it, the sandwich boards signs that the guys wear downtown, a picture of me in my work uniform, and Sarah at the bar next to the club, The Thirsty Turtle. (I was testing out the sandwich board to see how well it fit and walked over to the Thirsty Turtle. Sarah, the manager/bartender, wanted to try it on. We took this picture of her standing on the bar cleaning the mirrors and texted it to her Boss, the owner! It was pretty hilarious!)
I am hearing some positive feedback on the commercial as well since it started running Thursday evening. Here is a link to our new website's media page where you can view the commercial:
http://clubvogue.biz/blog/?page_id=48
(click on the link and then hit play.)

Here is the message I send out to people who respond to my craigs list ad:

Hi and thank you for your interest in this position! Club Vogue, The Gentlemen's Club, is the business you would be promoting. The shifts are primarily 6:45p - 9:15 p and 11p - 1:30a. The early shift utilizes the human directional arrow signs (sign spinning) and you would be placed at the corner of a busy intersection for example Business Lp. 70 and Providence Rd. The later shifts are downtown and employ a "wearable sandwich board" technique supported by discount cards that are handed directly to individuals. The response the last couple of days has been overwhelmingly positive! If this is something that interests you please reply and I will set up an interview. The rate of pay is $8.25/hr and payroll is processed every other Friday.

My ebay auction for my car ends tomorrow evening. I have 2 serious bidders and the high bid is now 19.5k. I have spoken with both bidders at some length and they both seem serious. I have told them of the rock chip, the hinge problem with the console, and the vaistech iPod integration system. The high bidder has a zero bid history, seems strange, but says he is approved at his credit union and would be over nighting a cashiers check, that sounds ok. He would also be shipping the car up rather than picking it up in person. I will need to have the car somewhat detailed.

I am also pretty excited about the new car Dad is getting and I'll be temporary custodian of. It has all the features of the car I have now plus some pretty outlandish features including power, reclining rear seats with seat massagers, an air ride suspension, rear and side rear window shades, a refrigerator, full sound system and climate controls for rear seat passengers. Here is a link to the new car:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140418684070&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT#ht_756wt_938

I will feel much more at ease with a car that has 1/2 the miles of the one I have now and I wonder if my car is at a point where it may soon start having some pretty pricey repairs.

Thats what I've been up to. Maybe I'll write Greg Woods a letter today and perhaps play some poker, something I have had time to do much of lately.

Jay