Ben, you sound like a lucky guy.  Yeah, you work your butt off, and you put
a lot of time into things that you're not sure anyone appreciates, and the
business hasn't climbed into positive yet.

BUT - you are doing something you love, you are making it work, and you have
a great philosophy of life to go with it. 

And that's what's important, I think.

Joy

****************************************************************
Joy Hecht
now living in a real house in northern Virginia
and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon
now living in the driveway and resting after two and a half years
lugging Joy and her stuff around...

For musings about life traveling in the van or living in one place:
http://www.joyhecht.net

****************************************************************
� 
:::-----Original Message-----
:::From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
:::Of Benny boy
:::Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2007 10:08 PM
:::To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
:::Subject: Re: Going towards a new era...
:::
:::You don't mind if i get into this one :-), anyway, i'm outside, in my Red
:::Westy, with my laptop (WiFi), with a beer, the outside temp is 72F, yea,
:::way
:::above average for Montreal... so it's a nice night.. i'm relaxing!
:::
:::I had a dream... have a shop one day (i had a pretty good job at that
:::time
:::$$$), at the time, i didn't know exactly what kind of shop, i thought a
:::motorcycle shop... so a few years ago, exaclty 2.5 years, i starded my
:::oficial Westy shop! (was working beside the house before), i had a 30K
:::margin (can i say that in English?) and maybe 10k of cash.... since 2
:::years,
:::i have been working HARD 6.5 days a week, between 8-10 a day. today, I'm
:::still in the deep minus of my margin (but climbing hard now), i have a
:::nice
:::Red van (fully paid) that i could sell and have no company debt but i
:::have
:::decided to keep it! he he. My shop is (finaly) fully equiped. I began
:::with
:::not much, you should see some pictures, but someone (who made a lot of
:::money) told me, buy the minimum, and if you need something, think twice!
:::ask
::: yourself if you really need it! So i went slowly, very slowly, never
:::taking
:::risk money wise, even for parts, i took  a lot of calculated risk, i
:::bought
:::use vans, thay could have been scrap vans but i was lucky, with the help
:::of
:::some friends (including Paul Gusyk and Hans from Vanaru) i was able to
:::buy
:::some decent vans for a cheap price, even then, each van took me over 200-
:::250
:::hours of restoration, and at that time, i was so much in need of money
:::that
:::i sold thos for a few k of profit... just to get going.
:::
:::If all goes good, by october, i should be a free men with 0 deficit. So
:::what
:::they say is true, it take about 3 years of hard work to get a small
:::company
:::going, and that, and only if you have a GREAT product or services.
:::
:::That said, a company is always moving, changing, adapting, what will i do
:::in
:::my shop in a few years! i have no idea, maybe westy, maybe boat? I don't
:::know. Now, i have failed before in many attempt, but this time, i think
:::i'm
:::ok, so, why did i fail before? Energy? wrong product? bad timing? who
:::knows!
:::The only thing i can tell you is hard work, and.... hard work! a good
:::idea
:::and some potentiel customers even before you open. And one last VERY
:::important thing, you have to love what you do! PERIOD! if your preety
:::good,
:::have some money, great idea, hard working... you have a chance, only a
:::chance... if you don't have those, no chance at all.
:::
:::So, for your project! why not, your in the US, 300 millions peoples, get
:::a
:::good crew, a small place.. advertise on the web. Why not. Now, is the
:::Vanagon platform a good idea, i'm not sure...
:::
:::Yea, i'm sitting in my van and looking at it, 300+ hours of hard work, it
:::was a piece of scrap when i got it... about 19k cost invested + the
:::Vanaru
:::engine comming this week + an AA Transaxle + a few other small things
:::left,
:::total... pfffffffff. let say that the retail price of the van is 23k, +
:::300
:::hours (2 months) 8-9k + a vanaru engine 7.5K + a trany 1.5K, what! about
:::40K
:::for a 22 year old shell that look like a new one, would you pay that? I
:::know
:::i would.
:::
:::Now, ask yourself if insurance or banking company would do a loan of 40k
:::for
:::a 20+ year old vans??? not a collection van but a hard woirking one...
:::where
:::are we with this???? most 20+ yo vehicle are collection vehicle, no, this
:::one is different, it's a small old rebuilt RV. And if you have 40k cash
:::to
:::spend, would you buy a restored Vanagon camper????? Answer that question
:::and
:::you will make my day, because i can't.
:::
:::Me, i'm not dreaming no more. By the way, thanks Larry Chase (yea, the
:::Roahaus guy), you got me going with your intelligent advices that year,
:::yea,
:::near that St-Laurent river, yea, the year i helped you going with your
:::engine... and trany. The year that some here "blasted" you for willing to
:::finish your trip without much money, wile "they" were sitting at home
:::dreaming of your trip. they were just jealous bro, nothing else!
:::
:::Keep on driving and see you out there. North America is not perfect, far
:::from it, but it's a nice spot on earth, we just need to take care of it a
:::bit more.
:::
:::For the sake of a nice discussion.
:::
:::Ben
:::http://www.benplace.com
:::