• End of an Era

    A while ago I mentioned becoming the national trainer for the photo job I do.  Well, today I talked with the co-owner and the job is finally becoming a reality.  As of this week I am the manager of training, or quality, or something like that.  My new job will involve keeping a single store for photos, but in addition involve filling in for others’ vacations, do quality control on their work, and of course train.  In fact, I will be training someone really soon now to take over two of my stores.  My compensation has also become consistent, no longer dependent on the number of cars I do.  As for traveling, that will come sometime as well- they already have stores in another state, though mostly for those stores they will bring the people here for me to train.

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    So what do I mean by the end of an era?  Well, this job has now become full time so that means no more subbing.  Maybe once in awhile (with the co-owner’s blessing I should add) if I want to as long as I get the work done, but for the most part I’m done.  I will drop down to one district I think, probably hometown district and sub maybe once every other week just for the extra cash until the end of the school year.  Or mornings once a week if I can.  I don’t know.  In any event, that means a rebranding for this blog as certainly I won’t be signing up again for next year unless something goes very wrong with this job and so the name no longer works.  I will have to think about a new name though I suspect the URL will remain the same.

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    I know I haven’t said this yet, so I will say it now.  In big bold letters:

    PRAISE GOD FOR HIS PROVISIONS

    AND HIS BLESSINGS!!!

     
  • What a week

    The Thursday before last, I shot all of one car at two dealers- highly unusual, so on Monday that was more than made up for by having 18 cars to do between the same two dealers.  Normally this would make me quite happy, but not so much on a Monday following a snowfall.  For starters, I knew I couldn’t leave as early as normal because the dealers needed time to clean up their lots.  The first one was still doing it when I arrived.  Monday nights I have small group at my church, so it is the only night I need to finish on time so starting late and then finding I had so many cars to do, some of which would have to be brushed off, was less than thrilling.  I finished the second dealer a little before 7PM, then headed back.  It was dark and I was traveling 50MPH, so I can probably be excused for not seeing the massive pothole in the right lane.  I kept moving, but I feared it would cause my tire to go flat on the way home.  It didn’t and I was able to drive the car for the rest of the week, but when I brought the car into the shop Saturday because I needed a brake job, surprise!  A $500 repair bill.  Actually, it was higher but he gave me a break (on top of the four brakes :P ) because my mother and I were good customers.  $210 was for the brakes, $30 was for the oil change- that meant the rest was for the new axle and bearings on the potholed wheel.  Incidentally, I was an hour late for small group, partly because I stopped to eat on the way.

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    Tuesday I found myself in supersized district to sub- a rare occurrence these days as I can find few jobs available there even the mornings of.  And sub I dd- in bilingual kindergarten.  Fortunately there was an assistant with me for both classes- a different one for each class.  The morning had Spanish-speakers who knew very little English.  The assistant ended up running most of the morning.  It was a struggle.  Oddly enough there was a boy who I’m told actually knows English and very little Spanish, yet he was required to do everything in Spanish like the rest of the class!  The afternoon was supposedly Polish-speakers (hence the different assistant) but all of them knew English so I was actually able to take charge of this group.  I felt I accomplished much more with this group.

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    Wednesday I had only a half-day in, what do I call it again- next-door district?  It was for middle-school math.  The website said 7th grade, but when I got there I found out it was 8th grade.  Oh well, the system has been wrong before.  It was actually quite easy- most of the classes had tests, though I also went over homework answers.  This teacher actually teaches five different classes out of her six teaching periods- unusual for middle school.  Usually there are no more than three different classes, repeating the same lesson for more than one.  Her one repeated class was in the morning so I only had two different lessons, though I did start the 5th-period class which would have been my third different plan.  She arrived less than ten minutes in and took over.

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    Totally forgetting Wednesday when I had that entire afternoon free that there was a dealer in Barrington with two cars, I could kick myself when I realized I had forgotten and would have to fit them in Thursday instead.  This is a small dealer that only has a couple of cars every few weeks.  At least I did remember.  Eventually.  So I started off the morning by going there.  Of course, there had been some more snow Wednesday night so I didn’t get there too early.  I did the cars and was on my way to the next dealer when- 25-min in I realized I still had a set of keys from the first place.  Oops.  I turned around, angry with myself once all over again.  The better part of an hour wasted.  So I finally arrived at the next place, their lot cleared of snow, and found I had another bunch of cars like Monday.  Two of them were too loaded with salt to do (hey, I just used three forms of a homophone/nym!), so I breathed a sigh of relief and headed to the final dealer with a good three hours of light to go, though it would be less by the time I got there.  I finished with some light to spare.  You are probably wondering about Monday right now.  Yes, I did run out of light Monday, but when there is pressure to get things done at the end of the day like that I get all the photos out of the way first before I do the options and print the stickers, which tends to be the bulk of my time spent.

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    Friday I had only one dealer in the afternoon so I took a morning job in next-door district (still not sure if that’s the name I gave it).  It was for 3rd/4th grade.  When I arrived, I said who I was there for and was handed a folder for a classroom that turned out to be 1st and 2nd grade.  I looked at the name and it sounded right when I said it to myself, but while I didn’t quite remember the spelling of the name I knew it didn’t look right.  I asked another teacher if this teacher taught 3rd/4th grade last year as sometimes that info doesn’t get updated on the sub system (remember Wednesday).  She thought for a few seconds and then informed me there was another teacher upstairs with almost the same name!  I went back to the office to verify I was in the right class and found out that I was indeed given the wrong folder.  Both teachers were out this morning, probably both for the same meeting I knew at least the one was at.  I went upstairs to let the other sub know we had been duped.  She had almost the same story as me, knowing something wasn’t quite right with the room she was in.  We traded folders and I finally got a chance to look at the right plans.  The morning actually went quite well.  For the afternoon, instead of the usual two or three cars I had nine because for some reason the other photographer either didn’t go there the day before like he usually does, or they didn’t have any ready when he did which would have been strange considering nine were ready this time.  Well, more commission for me I guess- something I will need because of the car repair bill.  Sigh.

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    Saturday I was supposed to go cross-country skiing with a few guys from church, but when I called around Friday I couldn’t find anyone who rented skis close by, and the one store that was recommended to me closed at 6PM Friday night, too early for me to go there.  Well, I hope the others had a good time.  Instead, I stayed home to receive that repair-bill shock…

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    Well, that was my week.  How was yours?

     
  • A day in the life of a car photographer

    I had to write this up for work, and I figured it would make a pretty good blog post as well.  Some may be edited from the original:

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    I wake up and first thing charge my devices if I haven’t the day before- the handheld every time, the camera battery maybe every other time.  After eating and getting ready for the day I will turn on the computer, plug the handheld into the USB port on the computer, and while waiting for the Windows mobile software I will load the web browser and go to the web site.  By now the mobile software has loaded (seems to take forever, and often doesn’t load so I will have to either turn the handheld off and back on or unplug and replug it into the computer), so I will click to connect without setting up the device.  On the handheld, which is still on the sync screen from the last upload, I will select the right dealers and download.  Back to the computer and web, I log in and one at a time go to the dealers for the day and the missing photo report page for each one.  For most I have to do nothing but select print (I used to sort the list first, but have since learned that the printout is sorted by stock number even if the list on the screen is not).  For my Oak Park store, I have to select all cars first.  I used to only select new, but whenever Doug (used car manager) is working he stresses the priority of the used cars.  I think this is unfair to Tim since he’s the used car guy over there, but I can’t really argue with the customer.  Fortunately Doug seems to be off most Fridays.

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    So after syncing the handheld and printing the missing photo reports, I am ready to head out.  I put the battery back in the camera if I charged it, check to make sure I reinserted the memory card the night before, then put everything in the camera bag (handheld included).  I put the missing photo reports on my clipboard, then take the clipboard, bag, and printer bin (in cold weather I bring it in each night) and head out to the car.  The bin goes in the trunk while the clipboard and bag go with me in the car.  On to the first job.  What time I leave depends on the day.  Oak Park means I leave earlier because that dealer takes longer.  I may only have my Elmhurst dealer on Friday so I will leave for that one after lunch to make sure more cars are ready, back from detail.

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    Arrival- time to walk the lot.  When walking the lot I will mark off each car by the row or section it is in so I can find it again later.  I generally look for stickers in the window, and at one dealer I can also check that I marked off a car on the windshield with my marker (I only got into that habit at one dealer for some reason).  Of course, with this so far wet winter, checking for our mark on the windshield is difficult since snow usually covers it.  After walking the lot, I will plug in at some of the dealers (in Naperville I wait until the end since the outlet is out of the way, and a couple others don’t require stickers so no point plugging in until the end at these places).  I will usually talk to my contact at this point to go over the list, though a couple don’t really want to be bothered unless there’s a question about whether or not to do a car (clean but not detailed, in a place that may indicate it is sold, damaged, etc.).  After verifying the list, I will get the keys.  Usually I get them all, but if there is another vendor around I may have to coordinate and share with them.  Sometimes keys are out- as mentioned another vendor may have them, or a sales person, or repair.  Really, they can be with just about anyone.  At sites with computerized key boxes the system may tell me who has the key, but for manual systems such as keys on hooks I am on my own.  Usually I will just take what keys are there and come back for the rest when I’m done- I don’t like bothering the people there unless I have to.  So, with the keys on my key ring (so I don’t lose any) I will fetch the first car and bring it around.  Unless I am losing the light of the day and have to scramble to get the pictures done immediately, I will start with the handheld.  Before starting, I need to make sure the wireless has connected to my router by clicking on the wireless icon at the top of the home screen (only screen that shows it in the handheld software) and making sure it shows my router in the wifi box.  If it doesn’t, I turn off the wifi by clicking in the wifi area, then turn it back on.  Rarely, if it still doesn’t connect (and the router is verified to be on) I will have to go to settings on the handheld, connections, and then wifi, and play around with the settings until it shows I am connected to my router.  At my Naperville store I will skip this entire connection step (I may even turn wifi off and leave it that way so I am not bugged by the constant “connect to…” popups) until I am ready to print all the stickers and the invoice.  So anyway, most cars are in the handheld so I can just select the right stock number (after selecting the correct dealer first on the home screen of course, then selecting the “no photos” option).  For those that aren’t I will check to see if the car is already there and has photos by refiltering to show all used cars, and if not I will manually add the car with the add vehicle menu item.  I suppose it would be faster to just skip looking and just go right to the add item- if a VIN already exists it will find it that way and the stock number box will be filled.  In this case I will jump immediately to the photos screen to see if it has photos already, marking it for restickering later if it does.

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    At this point I will go through the screens and adjust the mileage, make sure the correct style is selected, add the appropriate colors (choosing generic colors when I can’t figure out what color the manufacturer meant- some have really odd names and sometimes there is more than one version of the color.  Color codes can help, but not all manufacturers put them on the door and some of the color names are so long the color code doesn’t show on the handheld), add “Cloth” or “Leather” (occasionally “Leatherette” or “Vinyl”), etc.  By the way, when checking for the transmission type sometimes the field is blank.  In this case, if the car is an automatic this will be a big clue that I will have to deselect “manual transmission” under the mechanical options tab and find the automatic transmission in the installed options.  Once I view it and discover what “speed” the transmission is, I will quickly go back to the screen where the transmission type is and change it as oftentimes the automatic has one less than the manual.  Once this is done, I will head to the options and go over what the car has, starting with exterior.  A couple special notes here- often it shows that the mirrors are heated, but most of the time there is no evidence of this so I will have to deselect it and select our “power outside mirrors” option in its place.  Also, if the vehicle has a power sun/moonroof, this is very often not shown on this page and will have to be added under installed options.  There are others, but sun/moonroof is by far the most prevalent.  Next I will look at mechanical for a couple of the options- most on this page I just have to trust the car has.  Wheels (sometimes under exterior) and transmission are the biggest things here.  Next up is the safety tab where I check primarily for the airbags (sometimes unchecked, probably by the dealer so in this case I leave it unchecked even if it has the airbags) and also look for “OnStar” here (usually in the interior options but sometimes shows up here).  Last tab I go to is the interior options.  There is so much to check here that it takes the longest.  While going through the installed options, I make a mental note what doesn’t show up and look for them in the installed options.  Now that the installed options show the details, I have to read them to make sure I can select them.  For example, I have found that that the rear DVD system option  might show that headphones and remote are included, but since these are used cars these are often *not* included as they tend to get lost so unless I see them I cannot select this installed option but instead have to settle for our own “rear entertainment” or “DVD system” option.  Any options I still can’t find listed I will have to go back to the appropriate tab and add our generic option.  Note: some older cars have no VIN explosion so I have to painstakingly find each generic option that is listed, and even add some on the installed option screen if important enough.  Fortunately most cars are new enough that they are in the handheld.

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    Once I finish the options, I head to the sticker screen (some dealers require pricing to be entered, but I don’t serve anyone who does) and select the appropriate sticker and buyer’s guide then print (unless I am at my Naperville store where I save printing until the end.  If this is the first sticker at the dealer for the day I will verify the printer options and margins.  Next, the billing screen where I check off the correct option before clicking done.  Finished with the handheld, I turn it off, retrieve the stickers from the printer, move the car to the photo-taking spot if not already there (often I park the car by my car so I can retrieve the stickers quickly), take out the camera, and shoot the round of pictures.  When it’s getting dark or I am shooting indoors, especially for the interior shots I will often take more than one shot.  If I can, I will lean the camera against something to keep it steady when shooting the interior.  Sometimes I have to use the flash but I try not to if possible.  I switch between four camera settings: P and closeup if the flash is needed, no flash and mountain if not.  Each setting is useful in different situations.  When shooting, I will skip any shots that will show damage such as dents or heavy scratches.  Once I finish the shots, verifying each on the camera screen and reshooting when necessary, I turn the camera off, roll up the windows, put on the stickers (taking down any if necessary- usually buyer’s guides), and repark the car.  I will also make note on the missing photo report of the order of the photo set- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc and write our mark on the bottom corner of the windshield, at least at the one store I do this at.  Then it’s on to the next car.

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    Once all the cars are finished, I return the keys I have and check for any keys I didn’t get the first time.  I may have to ask around at this point.  Then I repeat the above process for these cars.  One note, at any time I may have to towel down, squeegee, brush off, or wipe off some smudges on the cars.  This is all part of the service provided to the customer.  Don’t want any of the cheap companies to steal our customers, right? ;)   .It takes longer, but is necessary.  A dry summer is so much better than a wet winter…

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    Once finished with all cars, I will reprint any stickers for cars that have photos but are missing the stickers, put them up, and mark “reprint stickers” in the billing tab on the handheld for that car.  Then I will print out two copies of the invoice- one for me and one for the customer, and see my contact to sign them.  I may have to take the dealer copy to their accounting office, get a PO, or both.  Once done, I exchange goodbyes, unplug, and head to the next store, or home if this was the last.  At home, I will take everything in- the camera bag, my clipboard, and the printer during the winter.  I may rest at this point, but before I go to bed sometime I will connect the handheld to the computer, wait for the mobile software to load again, click the button to connect without setting up on the mobile software dialog, go to the sync screen on the handheld, and choose to upload.  Once it begins I will remove the memory card from the camera and insert it into my computer.  Once the explorer window pops up, I will go to the picture folder and then copy all the pictures to the folder I have set up on my hard drive by doing a ctrl-a and dragging all of them to my hard drive folder.  Then I will go to that folder and start going through the pictures, saving the best of each shot and deleting the rest.  Sometimes the best shot will be too dim (common for flash shots) or too bright.  For these pictures I will load them into Paint Shop Pro and adjust the brightness.  Rarely, I will have to adjust color- for some reason I sometimes get shots that are way too blue.  I may have to crop off part of the photo if the car isn’t centered properly or something undesireable shows up in the photo (like a light wire at the new Glenview store used for the indoor shots).  These are the only things I will do to the photos- nothing else.  Anything else can be considered unethical, like “fixing” damage.  Most of the time damage will be fixed anyway by the dealer, but that is up to them.  Better to just delete such photos.  Anyway, getting off my soapbox, once I have gone through the photos, I will rename them according to the stock number of the car from the order I wrote down while shooting, then load up the photo uploading program.  In this program I will import the pictures, then match them up for each dealer I was at during the day.  Before uploading, I will verify the cars match the descriptions and that the order looks right.  Then I will upload.  As soon as the upload is complete I will close the program, go to the web site, close out the invoice, delete the pictures from the memory card (which I had saved up to this point in case something went wrong), safely eject the card and put it back in the camera, unplug and turn off the handheld, and if early enough charge up the camera battery (every other time unless I had a very busy day) and handheld.  If there isn’t enough time before I go to sleep, I will save charging for the morning.

     
  • Rain, rain, go away

    Winter I’m told is the hardest part about this car job, but after this last month I’m really starting to wonder.  Was there this much rain last year?  I man, day after day for the last five weeks with only a few days rest from it.  I can only hope that this gets the precipitation over with so I don’t have to brush off cars so much this winter, but I know that’s just a pipe dream.  Some more days like yesterday would be nice, but unfortunately the forecast for the next few days calls for more of you-know-what.  Sigh.  Fortunately by evening the chance currently shows about 30% so just maybe our haunted house hopping event won’t be too soggy.

    Today just really got me down.  First was the slow trip east toward the city to a dealer where I had a whole two cars for my 40-min. trip.  Took me two hours too due to having to drive the cars to the warehouse- something only this dealer requires, along with the garage where some of the lights don’t work so I have to take more pictures just to get good ones.  Additionally I had to wipe down the wet cars before I could take pictures of them.  $7 an hour- isn’t that below minimum wage?  Next stop, two cars again but at least it went much quicker.  As I approached my final destination, the rain decided to fall without a break until after dark so I ended up taking pictures with an umbrella in the other hand (this place doesn’t mind the cars being wet in the photos).  I only got to three of the cars before I had to quit.  Actually, I did the other half of the job with entering the car data and making stickers for all seven I had to do while waiting in vain for a break in the rain, but since I didn’t do the photos yet I couldn’t charge them yet.  I may be able to get to them Monday when I’m there next, but only if they don’t sell them.

    Oh yes, to top it all off, I forgot to return a key to one of the other dealers so I had to stop back there on the way home.  At least it was the closer one, not the further heavy-traffic one.  I don’t think I would generally use this outdated phrase, but it’s starting to look like this job is all wet, pun intended.

     
  • Not much really…

    It has been a few weeks now with nary a post from me.  You’d think in all that time I would actually have something to say, but sad to say I don’t.  Not much at least.  This new job so far is keeping me a little poorer than subbing alone.  Finding half-days for subbing to go along with this job is not easy and I have gone a few days without.  Also, I just learned my commission is based monthly so the couple of weeks I was ahead did not make up for the weeks I was behind.  Base only again.  Sigh.  Soon…  This season has been none too friendly for this job either.  About 70% rain in the last couple of weeks.  In fact, I had to completely take off Friday and go to one of the dealers Saturday instead.  I wanted to go to the other one tomorrow since it’s Columbo day (or something like that… ;) ) and therefore no chance of subbing, but it looks like the rain will likely make a return.  Looks like I’ll have to take half a day off of subbing Tuesday instead.  I already took a half-day sub job, and have jobs for Thursday and Friday as well, so aside from Wednesday I’m pretty set for this week.

    Speaking (writing?) of subbing, no interesting subbing stories I’m afraid.  Mostly upper grades (4th+) and once with a student teacher whose observing professor came in to watch her teach.  I am now two days toward the five I need in order to get paid for the annual sub-training in Hometown district- both middle school days.  The last one was science.  I essentially led a small chemistry project for 8th grade.  I hope their teacher gave them more time the next day as no one finished.

    Then there’s church, something I haven’t written about much lately.  I have been able to give four of my five cabin kids their DVDs I made.  Unfortunately the fifth hasn’t been to church in awhile due to multiple surgeries- yes, the one with the dwarfism condition (is there an official name?  I suppose if I had ever watched Little People, Big World I would know).  They are just trying to fix his body, but even with a lack of an emergency which would normally lead to invasive surgery, I’m sure it is still trying for him and his parents- and undoubtedly painful.  I pray he recovers well.

    Well, sorry there isn’t much here.  Hopefully I’ll have at least one more post before all of you come out this way.  I’ll try to be less lazy about posting interesting news and links as well.  I think there were a couple, but I can’t recall at the moment.

     
  • Time to close this blog?

    Seeing that today is the one month anniversary of my last blog post about my life, that is a valid question.  The filler is interesting, but what about my two jobs, one of which was once the emphasis of this blog?  This week was actually a milestone for my new job.  For the first time my commission exceeds the $50/day they have been paying me since the start of training last June.  It’s still not much, but the job promises to pay more eventually.  And what about the camera training the owners have asked me to take charge of?  One of them has plugged me as the national camera trainer to one of the clients after they noticed my pictures are pretty good.  Great- a standard to live up to! :P .I still wonder how much I will be paid for this training whenever it happens.

    At the moment I am subbing, or trying to, for two full days a week plus mornings five days every two weeks (every other week I go to two places on Friday so I can’t sub that day).  I am signed up in three districts this year but so far have only worked in two.  What?  Yes I did say two before, but then the third sent me a welcome note without my having signed up again so I stuck with it.  Since they were the source of some of my jobs so far, it looks like I made the right choice there.  I have subbed for one (half) day of middle school so far- the rest have been in elementary schools.  I actually took a bilingual first grade job- something I try to avoid during the main part of the year.  I also just took a job for a kindergarten morning Monday at the very school I went to for K through most of 2.  Oddly enough, while I can remember the names of all my other elementary teachers, I can’t for this school.  I wonder if I will be in the same classroom I was in for my own kindergarten?  I wonder if I will even recognize anything at the school.  I am pretty sure I took no assignments there last year.

    Let’s see what I can say about the jobs I’ve taken so far.  The first-grade bilingual class was a little rough as the plans the teacher left were not very detailed, often requiring me or one of the assistants who were in and out of the room throughout the day to find the required materials.  The kids were also not very good listeners, but whether that was because of limited English skills or other reasons I couldn’t say.  Another couple of days I was in a position where there were no plans.  These were for special-ed teachers who didn’t even have set schedules yet being the beginning of the year so I ended up helping out in different classrooms throughout the day.  I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if I found out that they came in the next day and said, “I had a sub?”  I don’t think I was expected…  The junior high job was a teacher who had both 7th and 8th grade classes, and all I did was supervise as they used computers to work on projects.  I was worried when not just my classes, but others as well used the laptops throughout the morning with little time to charge them, but according to one teacher the batteries actually hold out for some six hours or so, something I have never heard of in laptops.  My own computer lasts for three or less, but with with its specs I am not surprised.

    So why have I not been keeping up on my friend’s blogs even if I couldn’t be bothered to update my own?  I don’t know.  If you want refrain from posting commenting in return I will understand.

     
  • Getting close now…

    Well, school is almost upon us once again.  Depending on where you live, it can be a week or three, or maybe your kids attend an all-year school that started up again in July after a much shorter break.  In the two districts I’m signed up with, it starts in 1½ and 2½ weeks.  What’s that you say?  Two districts?  That’s right.  I am only in hometown and supersized districts this year due to my continued job of shooting pictures of cars.  I have chosen to work three days a week on the cars for now leaving two days to teach.  Of course it will likely be another month before I am needed as a sub, but that’s the plan.  As you probably figured out already, these two districts are where I have gotten most of my work in the past and so I stuck with them, losing the less productive ones, even though near-urban paid me the most.

    So how is the new job going?  Well, I got my first store finally- unfortunately it’s 45-minutes away!  The one who had this store didn’t do a very good job so he was replaced.  Not the best way to start, but I’ll take whatever I can get.  Today, in fact, Kim (one of the owners of the company I work for) and I spent much time fixing the stickers on the cars that were tilted, stuck over unremoved adhesive from previous buyer’s guide (warranty info which by law has to be in the window even if just handwritten) or otherwise placed with a lack of care.  I think we did no less than two dozen.  The rest of my time was spent in doing four cars that were ready for me.  Not a lot, but the idea is to have three dealers (four if they are small like this one) in one day to shoot a reasonable amount.  The most I had in one day training with Rene was 42.  At $7 a car that was nearly $300 for the day for her.  Of course that was three large dealers, and even then that number is rare.  My goal is eventually 20-30 cars per day.  Another trainee may be leaving as his school just gave him a reality check- no, it is not possible to graduate in a reasonable time if you only have classes two days a week.  If he leaves then I am hoping to get one of the stores promised to him, but not the other one.  There is a dealer that is way over toward Chicago (strike one for the bad traffic).  They require the cars to be shot in their warehouse a mile away, meaning the cars have to be driven from their lot to there, adding a tremendous amount of time (strike two).  Also, the warehouse has bad lighting with three of the five lights burnt out the last two times I was there making it difficult to take pictures inside the cars (strike three).  I am scheduled to do new cars every other week, but the one who has been doing the used cars while Pat was training to take it over can keep that part as a punishment for his bad performance at the dealer he lost (yes, same guy)!

    In the meantime, all this work has meant that I haven’t gotten the DVD done yet for my kids from camp- I’d better start on it soon, or just do what I did the first year- give them a CD with all the pictures, but that’s no fun and can’t be viewed without a computer.

     
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