Monday / Tuesday Update for week of 3/29/10

Outboard Inventory

We landed a heck of a deal this past week. One of the local marinas was looking to liquidate some of their outboard inventory and gave us a call. We scoped it out, settled on a price, then realized it was a LOT of stuff! We took one trip with a pick up and enclosed trailer and didn't even make a dent. The next day we arrived with a 26 foot box truck with a lift gate. We did NOT mess around.

It took about an hour and a half to load the truck. Luckily, the marina owner had a tractor so we didn't have to carry the motors too far.

The loaded 26 footer was a sight to see. It ended up being a lot of out board motors. They were spread out at the marina, so you really could not grasp how many there were. Once we got them in the truck, it really started to become a reality.

It worked out to be 50 outboards of all makes...Suzuki, Johnson, Evinrude, and Mercury. There was a mess of miscellaneous parts too. We picked up sets of controls, lower units, 6 outdrives, 3 I/O motors, shrouds, and so much more.

Now it is time to SELL this inventory. If you or anyone you know needs outboard parts, we certainly may have what you are looking for.

Special Visitor @ The Shop

We had this gem of a boat come in last week. There really wasn't anything out of the ordinary about it for us. It was an abandoned boat at a local marina. The paperwork had been cleared and the boat was towed to our shop to be stripped. We took the cover off of it and the inside was trashed... The seats were tore up, the side panels were chewed out and there was animal feces in the boat. The boat was pretty bad, but it was still nothing unusual for us.

We kept the boat in the main shop for the night and started fresh on it in the morning. We had two guys on dismantling the boat and 2 guys running the eBay side of the day. We had joked about something living in the boat and pointed out fresh feces... still not thinking anything was odd about it. We took a break from the boat and one of our guys headed upstairs to put some parts away. As he was putting a trailing arm into the top shelf, he was HISSED at. It didn't sink in until this image came into focus.....

That was it for him! He came hustling down the stairs speaking pretty calmly for what had happened. He said, "Uh guys, we have a little issue upstairs you may want to come see." Mike and I could not possibly imagine what kind of issue there could be UPSTAIRS. Of all places in the shop, upstairs would be the LAST place we could have an issue. "We have a raccoon" was the next thing he said. I still did not believe him.

He was serious all right, and it was a HUGE raccoon at that. We had never had this issue at the shop so we had NO experience in this situation. We called the Lakemoor Police and got a number for a wildlife catcher, but did not have to make that call. With the help of Northwest Performance's Ian and North Shore Designs' Eric, we were able to convince the raccoon to leave out the bay door of the main shop... that's not the end of the story.

The raccoon leaves the shop and hangs a sharp left turn and runs down the side of the building... and right into the open bay door of shop #2. After about 20 minutes of chasing him around the sleds and bikes in that shop, we were able to get him back outside. This time he ran through the parking lot and chose a tree on the grassy berm.

This was the FIRST time we had a visitor like this at the shop. We shared the whole experience as it unraveled with our Facebook friends and got a lot of suggestions. We also have been told that we have a new mascot. Our customers know us so well. When something like this happens, we embrace it. So, we have changed the name of Bk Boat n Sleds to....

And I would also like to introduce to you "Boss Hoss" the BK Raccoon.

Boss Hoss says,
"Thanks for Reading and Don't Forget to Share on Twitter and Facebook"

PADS Sleep Out April 17th

I was at the Young Professionals of Mchenry meeting last week and we were discussing volunteering options. PADS of Mchenry (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) came up. They are having a "sleep out" event in April to raise donations and awareness to help homeless individuals. As soon as I heard of the event, I knew it was something that I had to be a part of.

I would like to experience the feeling of being homeless as much as I can for the night. I know that it will be more of a physical experience than anything, because I know that I am fortunate enough to be returning to my home the next morning. I will be trying my best to forget that for the night. I am going to try to really get into the situation of being homeless and forget everything I have, for the night.

The only "luxuries" I plan on having for the night is the www.DougsCouch.com couch, my BlackBerry, and a camcorder. I have chosen to bring the BlackBerry and camcorder to document the experience and to connect with my Twitter and Facebook through the night. I would like to allow people to see what I see through the night. I am not planning on sleeping in a tent or inside. I will be on the couch in the elements. I plan to bring a sleeping bag and a tarp. That's it.

I have set a reasonable donation goal of $250. I think that is attainable and I also have a feeling we can gain raise MORE than that! I do not have much to donate and I am not asking you to donate much either. If you have a few bucks to donate, that would be great. If you have more to donate, that's awesome! I will be keeping everyone posted on where I will be spending the night April 17th.... until then, lets raise some CASH!

Donate Here!

Pleas share this with your friends also...

FourSquare.com

Bk Boat n sleds has come across the site Foursquare.com. Foursqaure is cool site that has been around for a year now. It allows users to "check in" via their mobile phone when out on the town. When a user reaches a destination, or venue, (i.e. bar, shop, park, home, attraction, ect....) they open the app on their phone and select the venue that they are at. When they check in on the app, their location is updated on the site. Users get points and badges for their travels. For instance, when a user checks in at Bk Boat n Sleds in Lakemoor, Il, they will be awarded a "I'm on a Boat" badge for their online profile. Users can also leave "tips" or "to do's" for other users to see when they check in.

The owners at BK have been using Foursquare for about a month now. There are some bugs and frustrations, but all in all it is a very interesting site. We have added a physical sign in at BK for users that come check the place out.

Sign up, come in, sign the wall.... we would love to have ya!

Foursquare users, here is our venue profile.. Bk Boat n Sleds