Business: President of a Machine Shop, 1980's
Business: Military Contracting
As President of a Machine Shop, we were a Prime Department of Defense Contractor with millions of dollars in direct Military Contracts, primarily with the Tank Automotive Command in Michigan, Kelly Air Force Base in Texas, the Navy in New Jersey, McDonald Air Force Base and Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.
We were also a Prime Contractor with NASA.
As President of this Machine Shop, it was my responsibility to solicit, quote and produce on these contracts.
As a result, I not only established the procedures for MIL-Q, but also the procedures for insuring that:
potentially dangerous contracts were avoided,
the contract pricings were correct,
contracts were filled out to spec (dot the i's, cross the t's),
production capabilities were available and designated,
financial resources were available and designated (including any applicable progress payments),
vendors were evaluated,
certifications were gathered, as applicable,
weekly DOD production meetings were prepared,
periodic financial and accounting meetings were prepared,
production paperwork maintained on a per-contract basis,
quality paperwork maintained on a per-contract basis,
cost accounting maintained on a per-contract basis,
first article inspections were prepared,
final evaluation meetings were prepared,
progress payment / final payment applied for correctly,
guarantees from the Small Business Administration,
periodic financial reports to the DOD and the SBA, etc.
In the process of being "forced" to do business "the Military Way", our degree of excellence and efficiency improved tremendously.
We decreased our scrap and improved the handling of it, thus decreasing our errors, with both improving our profit margin.
We improved our accounting methods, both on a per-contract basis and on corporate, providing more information to make good business decisions.
We improved our process model capabilities by being forced to do a full evaluation before the beginning any contract, decreasing our errors and further improving our profit margins.
Finally, we applied these principles to our commercial accounts.
Business: Accounting
As President of a Machine Shop, I established and implemented all accounting measures, both in per-contract accounting and in corporate, to apply to commercial accounts and military accounts, as well as applying to the Department of Defense, the Small Business Administration and to commercial Banking Institutions.
I established the procedures to provide both periodical Financial Statements (acceptable to all sources above) as well as to provide instantaneous information regarding the financial position of contracts and corporate.
I created Pro-Forma's and Business Plans (acceptable to all sources above) and internal studies to insure adequate capabilities.
I established measures for the monitoring of and the reporting to the Department of Human Resources (payroll compensation and tax credits for hiring through their retraining program).
I made the decisions regarding the Tax Liability of contracts, purchases, donations and the like, as well as Investment Tax Credits, Capital Gains, Loss Assessment and Risk Analysis.
Finally, as a computer programmer, I have designed and programmed or assisted on or maintained hundreds of accounting applications for a wide variety of businesses and accounting firms as well as setting up commercially available software.
Business: Computing (1980's)
As President of a Machine Shop, I established all of our computing requirements, as well as (of course) wrote the programs.
We used a DOS Coleco Adam (the game-computer-printer combination of the 1980's) for general work (and play), including direct access into the Commerce Business Daily military procurement Bulletin Board System (BBS).
We used an Apple Mac for misc. desktop publishing, a Texas Instruments VAX system with Business Basic for misc. work. and an Altos Xenix computer with Informix 3.0 for our database.
Business: Finance
As President of a Machine Shop, I successfully garnished over ten million dollars (10,000,000) in loans from various institutions for the continued growth of the corporation.
I successfully created the purchase and finance of other supportive businesses into our corporation.
I successfully applied for and received financial assistance from the Small Business Administration, both in Contract Guarantees and in Bank Loan Guarantees.
And, I successfully obtained a Bank Line of Credit of $425,000 for the corporation to use at its discretion.
Finally, I acted as the primary negotiator for the corporation.
Business: Law
As President of a Machine Shop, I made the decisions regarding the legality of performance of the contracts and of the corporation as a whole, and of the insuring against potential legal liabilities.
I designed contracts and clauses with vendors and customers to inhibit potential future legal conflicts.
I designed employee procedures and manuals, also to inhibit potential future legal conflicts and to provide acceptable margins of safety as defined by OSHA and by my own experience.
I successfully defended the business against civil lawsuits in court in matters that would be too difficult for attorneys to handle.
I chose and hired several attorneys, both for direct assistance and for support, specializing in the several areas of business law.
Business: Marketing
As President of a Machine Shop, our Marketing Strategy consisted first in our decision in targeting a market niche. We desired a high production, repetitive market with growth potential and limited liabilities.
Because of our guidelines, we chose to specialize in vehicular components for both commercial usage and for the military, and in both new parts development as well as replacement components.
In order to separate ourselves from our competition, we desired to provide the highest possible Quality Assurance Program and Engineering and Design support.
Further, our target market not only provided for new design, but also for the improvement of obsolete manufacturing methods.
Because the Military advertises contract proposals, we initially targeted new business in this area.
Since commercial components are actually quite similar to the military components and with our successful bid and completion of our military contracts, we were very accessible to these businesses, through these same military channels.
Business: Negotiations
The most intense negotiation I was involved in occurred while I was President of a Machine Shop in the 1980's. There were twelve (12) men from the Department of Defense sitting on one side of the table, with me sitting on my side of the table.
The twelve men from the Military consisted of personnel for our weekly Current Production Meeting, our weekly Current Finance and Contract Accounting Meeting, Future Production Capabilities Meeting, our Corporate Finance Reporting Meeting, our Periodical Quality Inspection Meeting, along with one Admiral.
At the end of a one-day session, everyone left convinced that we were proceeding correctly with current events and were very capable of handling the powerful new events being offered.
And, at the end of this session, thanks to proper preparation and to proper negotiation, our corporation was offered these new events, leading towards faster growth and higher profitability.
We were offered and accepted a seventeen million dollar per year, ten year contract to produce trailer axles. This was our largest single contract to date.
We were featured in local magazines. Our stock value soared. New suppliers were lining up for sales calls. Businessmen were proposing mergers, acquisitions and purchases. Area banks were soliciting for our business.
At this point (1986), we were the Hottest new business in Cleveland.
Business: Sales
As President of a Machine Shop, we applied our sales efforts directly to our target market.
We pushed our business positives - our Quality Assurance, our Engineering and Design, our Productive Capabilities, our History of Success and our capabilities of improving current processes.
We geared our sales efforts towards customers and products that would most benefit our current scope of development, while preparing potential new customers for our next phases.
And, we most targeted our sales efforts in servicing our current customer base, an area that is too often neglected by business.
Business: Overview
Our Marketing Strategy and Sales Effort ultimately helped put us out of business.
Not because of shortcomings. But because we did too well.
But, as our advanced computerization for the time also added significantly to our growth rate, it ultimately resulted in my becoming a computer consultant.
As a Computer Consultant, I have been given the opportunity to view and learn Business Programs and Methods for a wide variety of industries, such as Academics, Advertising, Aerospace, Automotive, Brokerage, Communications, Distribution, Engineering, Financial, Government, Insurance, Manufacturing, Marketing, Medical, Military, Petroleum, Property Management, Publishing, Real Estate, Retail, Transportation and Wholesale.
And, I have written these applications for Accounting, Accounts Payables, Accounts Receivables and Billings, Associations Management, Budgets, Cost Accounting, Fixed Asset Management, General Ledger, Human Resources, Inventory, Marketing, Medicine, Order Processing, Personnel, Portfolio, Production Control, Production Scheduling, Purchase Orders, Purchasing, Quality Assurance (including ISO-9000 / Q9000, MIL-Q-9858a and SPC), Quotations, Sales Analysis, Stock Market and Time Tracking and Analysis.
I Minored in Business, taking classes through Junior studies in Business Accounting, Business Law and Macroeconomics, as well as continuing education classes in Small Business Management.
Combining my studies in theory and practice with the knowledge that I have gained from the detailed examination of hundreds of actual systems and methods, along with my direct experience as President and majority stockholder of a public corporation has given me an extensive total outlook in business management and business decisions.
