Table of Contents

• COMMITTEE REPORTS
  • MEMBERSHIP REPORT
  • SOCIAL REPORT
  • SPEAKER COORDINATOR REPORT
  • TREASURER REPORT
• LEADS
• MIGHTY MINUTE
• NOTABLE MENTIONS
• QUESTION OF THE DAY
• MAIN SPEAKER

Committee Reports

Membership Report
(Click here to go to the Membership page)

Don Ellis completed part 1 of the membership application for Barbara Kollman.  She is an actuary with Kollman + Associates, LTD.  She sets up pension and retirement plans.  If there are no objections to her application, she will be invited to visit our group.

Social Report
(Click here to go to the Social Event page)

The weekend getaway to northern Arizona has been cancelled.

Speaker Coordinator Report
(Click here to go to the Speaker Schedule)

• 02/18/05     Mark Howard
• 02/25/05     Mike Tanner
• 03/04/05     Lisa Wolfe
• 03/11/05     Joe Hesch

Treasurer Report

We only have a couple of outstanding dues to collect.

Leads Report

39-45, 46-21, 20-04, 20-14, 20-40, 20-27, 20-23, 37-38, 17-34, 41-26, 12-18, 12-41, 18-43, 24-38, 24-06, 05-29, 05-32, 05-37, 07-02, 45-14, 45-13, 45-32, 45-17, 15-02, 15-11, 21-34, 13-26, 13-33, 13-17, 13-39, 34-29, 22-32, 31-11, 31-39, 14-45, 40-06, 40-32.

This week's leads focus...

• Keith Miller

• Gary Nelson

• Roman Okonowski

Might Minute

None.

Notable Mentions

Its board election time again!
02/11/05 - Nominations
02/18/05 - Speeches
02/25/05 - Elections

Two positions are opening up.  Lisa Schnaidt and Wayne Unruh will be rotating off of the board. 

Today the group nominated the following members...

• Brian Verbraken
• Lisa Wolfe
• Amy Ahrensdorf
• Jim Bache

Money, Money, Money
Robert Busch invited the new members to join an investment group started a few years ago by several MABE members.  This group meets on the first Monday of every month at Andy Jensen's office from 6pm-7pm.  Please note that this club is NOT affiliated with MABE and anyone can join.

Question of the Day

Carole Weishaar is having a problem.  She keeps getting nasty phone calls from unsatisfied customers of a timeshare company with a similar name.  Short of changing her name, what can she do?

• The first thing you should do is check your business credit report.  It could have been affected by this.  The second thing to do is try to make lemonade out of lemons.  Try to get them as customers.

• Put a message on your answering machine.  If you are concerned about leaving a negative message, give them an option when calling (option 1 for your business, option 2 if they are calling for the other business).

• You have rights under common law if they have a confusingly similar name.  But if they are doing that poorly, they may be out of business before your case finishes litigation.

Lisa Wolfe is hiring 1, possibly 2 new employees.  She doesn't want the hassle of dealing with payroll tax reports, insurance, etc.  Any advice?

• Use a payroll service.  Stick with the top two.  They will take care of everything for you.  It can be expensive with only 1 employee but it comes down to the value you place on your time.

• Call State Fund for workman's compensation.  They will also take care of everything for you.

• Some members use QuickBooks and Intuit's payroll service.  Other's highly recommend you avoid it.

• If you choose the payroll service route, you can use Mark Dreher as a reference.  They give discounts for CPA referrals.  Or you can call Dave Lathrop's wife at ADP and drop his name.

Jim Crosman
Crosman Pest Control

Jim was born and raised in a little town in Illinois.  He was 6 of 7 kids.  They didn't have a lot of money but it was a good life.  Jim got married right out of high school. 

His first job was working for Caterpillar.  Then he became a barber which he did for almost 7 years.  Unfortunately, there was no benefits, health insurance was high and he had two daughters to take care of.   He was offered a job selling construction equipment.  He did well but the owner had a heart attack and Jim was suddenly unemployed.  He was also now divorced. 

Jim had a friend that put him to work at a powerhouse.  He did welding work for 8 years.  During this time he remarried and became the father of two sons.  One of his sons had severe asthma.  He could barely take the cold damp nights.  Their doctor recommended they move to Arizona.

They flew in to Arizona at night and were terrified by all the lights.  It was a big change from their small town roots.  As soon as he arrived, Jim began looking for a business to buy.  He ended up working as a detailer for Smith Mesa.  It was a hard job for little money.  But the hardest part was getting his employees to come in for work.  He eventually sold that business to a neighbor.

He had a friend that had a Chem-Dry carpet cleaning franchise.  He liked the idea of owning a franchise so he looked into it.  He was immediately turned off with the amount of hard work that was involved.  It was time to look elsewhere.

When he was doing detail work, Jim had a customer that was part owner in a pest control business.  He was always happy and whistling.  Jim thought this would be a good route to take.  He was 50 years old when he took a job with a small local pest control company.  When he started the company only had 800 customers and 2 trucks.  Jim started knocking on doors to drum up business.  The company grew to 3000 customers and 6 trucks.  Jim decided that he could do this on his own.  He took along 50 clients that were loyal to him and began his own pest control business.

Jim was blessed with good health but he knew he would have to hire someone to back him up.  He now has two guys and 3 trucks running.  Unfortunately, during weather like this he only needs to run one truck.  But it all works out.  He is now looking into becoming certified in weed control and to do termite inspections. 

Both Gus Dekavallas and Stuart Schindler offered testimonies to the great job that Jim Crosman does.  If you are new to the group and have never used his service, give him a call today. 

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