Labor Day is slowly coming to a close with work back on tap starting tomorrow. It was a tough week at work as we enjoyed our best month in years, but I had to let go one of Darla's friends, a lady who had been doing my typing for the last two years. All of our typing has been outsourced and that comes with a cost. I had gone through metrics with my boss a week ago and it was obvious that I needed to take a close look at one of the measurables that I can control and that is salaries. The last thing I want to do is slow down production, so the underwriting and production roles were safe. I had to decide between the service staff that I have and the obvious spot was the typist, who we had been having handle odd jobs since the typing moved to China. I had to let her go on Thursday and Darla was somewhat upset that I didn't tell her ahead of time, but it was my burden to bear and not hers. It did dampen the mood a bit as this is the front desk person and the first face you see when you walk into my office.
I brought the staff together and was very transparent with them about costs and the fact that the average office at Burns does about $1,000,000 per employee and our branch was closer to $890,000. I wanted to impress upon them that this is a one off decision and not a trend that is starting and that I wont be making wholesale changes. The past month is a good indication that we are moving in the right direction and I want our focus to be on retention of existing business and the creation and implementation of new business on the books through marketing, increased service standards and ease of doing business. We now have 27 employees and will write north of $25,000,000 this year. That works out to about $930,000 per employee, but we are moving in the right direction. Momentum and an office's "vibe" are fragile things and I don't want to derail what we have going. I can't afford to lose anyone right now and I have to keep my finger on the pulse in the office. Frankly, it can be exhausting.
The pictures above of the golf and the water are from my marketing trip with Pete Tuesday to Discovery Bay, a planned community off Highway 4 about halfway between Stockton and Concord. There are waterfront homes and a large yacht harbor in the community as well as hundreds of homes. The yacht harbor is the centerpiece of the community, but the golf course is a close second. It had been over ten years since I had played golf at Discovery Bay. Pete had won a silent auction for the green fees, right before he had his injury last year where he tore the tendon in his elbow. The green fees were going to expire on August 31st, so we planned a trip with two of our agents in Roseville to make the trip last Tuesday. The picture of the mini Statue of Liberty was in a back yard off the fifth tee. We had great weather and a tremendous day of golf.
The drive from Roseville to Discovery Bay is about an hour and a half. I had the guys (Mark and Phil) meet me at my office and we drove out to Elk Grove and picked up Pete. Actually, we transferred the three sets of clubs from my car into his four door F-150 truck and he drove. We had lunch at the club and then teed off after noon.
Darla and I have planned our December trip to Hawaii and will meet her brother Steve and his wife, Kirsten, in Maui the week of December 12th. Darla and I fly in on Friday the 9th and will stay at the Papakea condominium resort on Kaanapali Beach just outside of Lahaina. We found the two bedroom condo on VRBO and will enjoy the trip immensely. Steve and Kirsten live on the big island and we considered going back there, but they were game to island hop to Maui and we were on Kona during our last visit to Hawaii. We were ready for the fun and sun of Maui. We still own a timeshare in Kauai and will return there someday, but have offered up the two timeshares in Puerto Vallarta and Hawaii for the use of the kids. We have those every other year, one even years and the other odd.
We also booked our airfare for Florida in March and will fly in on a red eye overnight the night of Thursday March 9th (Dad's 80th birthday) and arrive at about 5 on Thursday. We fly through New York City on Jet Blue, but have a direct flight back on Sunday. We could have flown Jet Blue and arrived on Saturday at 12:30, but thought that was pushing it. We want to talk to Dad and Shirley tonight because we want to book our hotel and will likely stay at the Ramada Inn near the airport and take the shuttle to the Cruiseport the next day. It will be another fun Lyon adventure as we cruise to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in March for Dad's 80th (and my 60th). We look forward to the family time.
Saturday Darla worked an event in downtown Sacramento and I did some major trimming in the backyard, thinning out a couple of the gardens and cutting back the neighbor's giant tree that hangs over my pool like a giant sloth. I'm anticipating the deluge of leaves that will be coming soon. I also cleaned out the pool and mowed the lawn. I have fertilized and set the sprinklers to come on more often as the weather is finally becoming more conducive to growing grass. I may re-sod a few areas of the lawn next month and see if we can get it going again. Some of the area is now just green painted dirt.
I relaxed in the pool afterward and Darla got home about six. I offered to take her to dinner, but I wanted to go to Mimi's. She thinks it is a place for old people and I submit that the older crowd does like the menu because there is so much comfort food on the menu. I just wanted to go get a bowl of their Tillamook Cheese and chicken mac and cheese. It is delicious and one of my go to foods that Pete and I enjoy when we go out to eat. There were the geriatric crowd in attendance, but we sat next to several couples and a large group of family members celebrating their son's birthday. Darla seemed to enjoy her salad, but I know she enjoyed the Samuel Adams French Onion soup, as we were supposed to share it and I got a couple of spoonfuls and then she took it away and said I was eating too much of the cheese. The picture of us together was taken by a very harried server.
Sunday was our Labor Day golf tournament and Bob Pando was coming into town. I set up with Neil to have Bob play in the first tee time with him so Bob could be in the restaurant afterward to see and greet all of his old friends. Neil said he understood why Bob should be in the first group, but why did I have to? Smartass. We had a good time, but it has been awhile since I've played golf with Neil and I see that he is having some issues with being aware of everything around him. There were a few times that he pulled his cart in front of Bob or I when we were hitting and one time that he drove off into the fairway before Bob had a chance to tee off. We were walking and Bob wanted to know if this was normal for Neil. I told him that I hadn't played with him for awhile, so I didn't know. We played with Neil, who is 74 and Andy who is 81 and they both got really tired by the end of the round.
I shot a pedestrian 87, Neil shot 88 and Andy struggled to 102. Bob said not to expect much from him as he hadn't been playing. He shot 40 on the front and seemed to be okay, but had used up all of his 4 strokes that he is allotted. He came alive on the back nine and had three birdies and shot 34 for a 74. It was amazing to watch. I birdied number 17 and won $28 in skins from that hole alone. Bob, being Bob, also won the 50-50 drawing that we do at every tournament as a fundraiser for the Christmas Party and took home $90. It was a fun day. I stayed the whole day as Darla was working the event downtown again and helped pay out skins, post scores on the big scoreboard and read scores all day to Neil so he could get them in the computer. I then got home and Neil sent me the scores to record in our GHIN scoring application. I took care of that today, updated our tournament handicaps for the website and sent out to the hole by hole scores on Excel to our webmaster for updating our yearlong Eclectic scores that track the best scores on each hole at Diamond Oaks for each individual.
My back continues to be sore and I will try to stay off the golf course all this week. I do play on Saturday however. The problem has been that I hadn't golfed for three weeks with the golf event I worked and our vacation and I haven't stopped playing since I got back. I've been averaging about three rounds a week and I need to rest my back. I will see Jane again later in September and get yelled at.
I am into the dentist this week for another crown. I usually make it about three years and then another old filling starts falling apart and the dentist can make another yacht payment because I need a new crown. That will be Wednesday.
Darla and I just relaxed today. I watched the Fed Ex Cup golf playoffs this morning while working on the club scores and then we relaxed on the pool and I read while Darla talked to various friends on the cell. We were supposed to be at the last game of the River Cats season (the Giants AAA team). We had set up to introduce one of Darla's girlfriends to one of my agents. Both are divorced and coincidentally both were born in Mexico and emigrated to the United States (legally I might add). Unfortunately, Darla's girlfriend had a bout of nose bleeds this weekend that caused her to see the doctor and is on medication She didn't want to commit to going and have the nosebleeds still be an issue, so a rain check was arranged. Without Phil and Carmen joining us, we tried in vain to give the tickets away, but had no takers. Too bad as they are great seats. I may let them go next year as they weren't used enough this year for agent appreciation by the staff and sort of turned into "four tickets for family and friends". That is not why I pay for season tickets, so need to rethink this for 2017.
Well, that is it for now. I hope you are all doing well, enjoyed the Labor Day and are ready for Autumn. It is coming. Ciao.
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