Your civic duty

We are all born with certain unalienable rights, promised to us by the United States Constitution.  Among the most important is the right to vote and today is Election Day at Bagolitas.  However, do you remember how birthdays always last longer than a day at Bagolitas (sometimes up to a month); well, elections must be covered by “birthday law”, so we’re actually holding the election all week.  It’s really more like a primary, because Janice has chosen some preliminary options for outside fabrics and Jayne has built the voting system to include those.  Once we narrow down the outside fabrics, using your input as one of the factors, Janice will then choose inside fabric and fringe and probably come back for another vote.  We’ve been wanting to get more input from everyone in the Bagolitas family and thought this would be a good way to do that.

So, we’d like all of our Consultants,Customers, Potential Customers, Seamstresses, Employees and really, just anyone with an opinion to vote on what fabrics they think would do well in our Summer 2009 Standard Collection.  Please tell your friends or email them the link; the more votes we get, the better.  Here is the link to vote:

http://bagolitasblog.typepad.com/bagolitas_ballot/

Please take a few moments to go out and exercise your right to vote.  Afterall, it is your civic duty.

Yes, we have Spirit

Sorry I didn’t have a chance to write anything yesterday; I had a root canal in the morning and couldn’t find the time later.  In any event, today is the culmination to Spirit Week at Bagolitas and of course we’re celebrating it with a costume party and potluck lunch.  It also happens to be Cynthia’s birthday, so we have alot to celebrate today.

I wasn’t really able to finish my recap of how it is I arrived here (I’ll try to wrap that up early next week), but one thing that I’m certain of is that I have never before worked at a company that had Spirit Week.  I must say it has been quite an experience and quite positive, even though some patrons probably didn’t understand why I would go to the coffee shop on a Wednesday in my pajamas.  On Monday, I joined in on Crazy Hair Day (yes, this is the first time in my life I’ve had green hair – or any color other than brown):

After Dec Out Day on Tuesday, it was Pajama Day on Wednesday (I guess my vote does count for something as I was able to override Flower Power Day).  Yes, those are polar bears on my pajamas:

After going back in time with Retro Day on Thursday, today everyone has stepped it up with some outstanding costumes.  Here’s me dressed as a wizard; I don’t know who’s stomach that is.

I’m granting all wishes today, because mine have already come true.  Happy Halloween!!

Better luck, second time

The Beer In A Box thing didn’t work out quite like we planned.  Instead of becoming millionaires, I actually lost my entire life’s savings and an additional $12,000 that I borrowed from my mom.  I try not to give a lot of unsolicited marital advice (because I still feel like I’m learning after 14 years), but here is something that I do tell people:  “Don’t buy a failing liquor store and try to start a distribution business out of the back room six weeks after you get married.  Further, don’t put your new wife behind the counter of the liquor store in the evening and on weekends when she isn’t working her full time job.  That’s not her idea of an extended honeymoon.”  However, I do also tell people that if your marriage can sustain a failed business in the first twelve months, you’ve got a good chance to stay together.  So, I sold my half of the business to Jeff for $1 and moved on; fortunately, Jeff and his wife were able to make a go of the business and after a couple more years of toil, they sold it for a decent profit.

Most people would just assume that after an experience like that (which really wasn’t all bad), that they just weren’t cut out to be a business owner.  But not a true entrepreneur.  I jumped ship and landed at Inforte, a small technology consulting firm in downtown Chicago.  As the eighth employee, and with six years of consulting and software developement experience under my belt, I became one of three partners in the business.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time; over the course of the next five years, we saw the company grow from 8 employees to 450 and revenues go from $800,000 to $63 million.  The highlight was an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on February 17, 2000.  I was one of the folks that went to New York for the IPO and saw our stock open on the NASDAQ exchange.  I would say that is pretty lucky.

Beer In A Box

Where do I start?  How about at the beginning.  I had left Andersen Consulting to work at a large software company, Computer Associates, in the Chicago suburbs.  As I mentioned, Mary Rae and I had begun dating in October 1993 and gotten engaged in March 1994 and began planning our wedding.  Well, a very close friend, Jeff, walks up to my desk one day in about June and gives me this little article he had cut out of Fortune magazine.  It said that two guys had left Andersen Consulting to start a company, Beer Across America, that shipped micro-brewed beers to people’s homes each month.  In only their third year in business, they had $12 million in revenue and $4 million in profits.  We were two guys; we had left Andersen Consulting.  Jeff said “we should do that”.  I said “it doesn’t sound that difficult; ok”. It was all downhill from there.

Before I go any further, let’s think about this.  Here’s the business model:  Mom buys Dad a six month membership to this micro-brew club.  Dad gets a box delivered to his door once a month with “Beer In A Box” written across it.  Does this evoke any questions in your mind?  Maybe, what if Dad has a 17 year old who gets home first?  What if the postman likes beer?  The next door neighbor?  Is this even legal in most states?  Of course, two budding entrepreneurs couldn’t be bothered with little details like that – we were on our way to $4 million in profits.  Let’s just say it was more difficult than it seemed.  Tomorrow I’ll talk about how we found ourselves running a failing liquor store and how my new bride always seemed to be behind the counter when the “crazies” came in.

There’s always a woman involved

If you don’t mind, I’d like to continue my exploration of how I arrived here at Bagolitas (yes, with green hair today – I’ll leave that explanation for another day).  In any event, going back to Andersen Consulting, while I was working on a project at Caterpillar in lovely Morton, IL, I met Mary Rae.  But to simply say we met probably isn’t a fair depiction.  I remember the actual date (January 20, 1991) and what she was wearing (a red jacket and skirt with an off-white blouse).  Call it love at first sight.  (She’s gagging right now as she reads this – or maybe smiling).  She remembers that she had never met someone so irritating in all her life.  I loved Andersen Consulting, the project in Peoria, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and dark chocolate (she didn’t like any of them).  Let’s just say I’ve changed a little since then (or maybe not).

Well, Mary Rae chose to leave Andersen in July of 1991, but we had formed a friendship that would last two more years before we first dated.  In the meantime, my career continued to blossom.  The project at Cat ended for me in the Spring of 1993 and I moved to another client in Colorado.  At that point, at the ripe old age of 27, I decided the nomadic lifestyle of a business consultant was no longer for me.  Foresaking my career goal of becoming a partner at Andersen, I set out to find a job.  Where was the first place I looked – well, in Iowa City of course, since Mary Rae had moved here in the meantime (remember, we were just “friends” at this point).  The Iowa City job didn’t work out, but the relationship did.  I took a job in the Chicago suburbs, Mary Rae and I started dating and the rest, as they say, is history.  Tomorrow, I’ll explore my first business ever, Beer in a Box.

How did I get here?

Do you ever wonder that or I am the only one?  They gave us a list of things to talk about and I was thinking Wednesday afternoon about what I would say to the group of college students I spoke to about how I:

1. Chose a major in college (that was a long time ago; I don’t remember);
2. Utilized my major after I graduated (I must have used it for at least 10 minutes and then started to figure out how the world really worked) and
3. How I came to do what I’m doing right now (that’s a good question).

It all looked so “pre-ordained” when I came out of college.  Degree in Computer Science in hand, I got my little manual from Arthur Andersen (which became Andersen Consulting, which became Accenture) that told me what to wear, what to say and where to be at all times of the day – what could be easier.  But then somewhere along the way, I must have taken a left turn or maybe a triple hairpin turn, because I’m not sure how you get here from there.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy where I’m at; I just don’t know if one could look into the future 15 years (ok 20 years – yes, I’m getting older) into the future and predict the path that brought me to Bagolitas.  Over the course of the next couple weeks, I’ll explore that path.  Maybe if I write it down, it will make more sense.

I’m going back to college

Hopefully not for too long.  In fact, it shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.  Janice had signed up to speak to a group of college students this evening and again tomorrow but she had to go in for surgery yesterday to remove gallstones.  So, the task has fallen to Amy and I.  This group of students are generally freshmen and sophomores at the University of Iowa who are exploring what major or program of study they want to pursue and where that could lead them from a career perspective.  The reason they wanted Janice to speak is that in semesters past, many students have been asking for “a creative female entrepreneur”.  Well, they would have gotten that with her (you’ve all seen the bags and she did start the company) and also with Amy (she started the company with Janice and has also done websites, cardmaking, etc), but I’m about as far from “a creative female entrepreneur” as you’re going to get.  The only part of that description I can stake a claim to is entrepreneur.  Let’s hope I don’t get tomatoes thrown at me and kicked out of the forum.

What happened to pajama day?

So, next week is Halloween.  Let’s think about this.  Janice acts like a character most days of the year, so one day each year she actually has a license to be silly.  That sounds like the Baldes national holiday to me.  Of course, at Bagolitas you can’t adequately celebrate a holiday in just one day (it’s a bit like a birthday that requires a whole week, or perhaps a month).  So the Culture Crew (Janice and Jayne) came up with Spirit Week (and you thought it ended with your last high school homecoming).

Let’s take a quick look at what they have cooked up.  Monday is Crazy Hair Day; I’m thinking bed head.  Tuesday is Dec out Day; I already dressed up once this year, so I’m probably going to be a bit of a scrooge on this one.  On Wednesday, I’m really not clear on what one does for Flower Power Day; I  think we should replace this with Pajama Day.  Thursday as Retro Day does offer me an opportunity to wear some favorite clothing that I’ve been saving from before I was married and Mary Rae thought she “retired” it.  Finally, Friday is the annual Halloween Costume Contest; maybe I should go as Zach Efron in tribute to one of Janice’s favorite movies, High School Musical.

Tipping the scales

You knew we would get here eventually.  In a workplace dominated by women, there are  some topics you can be sure get covered from time to time.  So, we’ve talked about clothing, hair, children and pets, but one obvious ommission to date is weight loss.  We’ve had a few company-wide attempts at getting in better shape.  Janice once appointed herself the Health and Wellness Coordinator for the company.  Unfortunately, most of those efforts fizzled out over time.

The most recent movement is a straight weight loss competition.  It actually started outside the company, with a friend of Julie’s.  Each participant is required to put in $50 and whomever loses the highest percentage of body weight by the end of the year is the winner of the whole pot.  I’m not sure whom all is participating from Bagolitas, but when I heard the winner was going to get something like $400, I became very interested.  In my traditional pre-weight loss fashion, I quickly gourged myself on a trip to the Pizza Ranch buffet, a couple bags of Hersheys Kisses, some Twizzler’s Cherry Nibs (no fat, but plenty of sugar) and some of Jayne’s delicious apple crisp.  I was all ready to tip the scales at an all time high before fasting for the next 3 months and taking the cash.  Unfortunately, just as I was climbing onto the scale  (I wore my steel toed workboots in hopes of scoring a few extra pounds), I was informed that I wasn’t allowed to participate because “it’s easier for men to lose weight than women”.  Personally, I think that sounds like discrimination.  Now what am I to do with all that NutriSystem I just bought?

I must be an authority

OK, once you’re done laughing, I know the first question that comes to your lips is “an authority on what?”.  No, it isn’t “small dogs and the workplace” nor is it “working with 99% women” or even “Iowa Hawkeye football”.  First, I should tell you that WordPress, the blogging software that I use, has a lot of traffic statistics.  It probably won’t surprise you that I occassionally look over these (or perhaps study them religiously).  You may have also noticed in your various adventures in Google that when you type in a keyword, blogs are now high up in the list in some cases.

Well, if you were to go out to Google and type in “are pleated pants out of style for women” and page down to the 2nd page (I didn’t say I was the authority, just an authority), you can see my blog prominently featured.  Why do I know this.  Well, one of the statistics shows what search terms people use to find your site and that was one of the questions typed in yesterday.  Right now, Janice is quaking in her shoes at the thought of a woman (any woman) coming to my blog for fashion advice, but I have documented proof.  In celebration of my new found authority, I’m wearing my pair of flat front pants today.  Look out Stacy London.