Yes, I am in the tent business. Yes, I finally got a call about Haiti
relief and tent needs. A full month after the quake.
But it is not so easy to find that many tents, or meet the needs of
the client. But I am damn sure gonna try. Even if a person did a mark
up of ten dollars a tent, you would gross 2.5 million. But there is
a catch, of course there is, isn't there always a catch.
I'm not Goldman Sachs, so I can't just go poof and tents appear, nor
can I collect millions of dollars for nothing. We are talking real
life, about as real as it gets.
Details, details, that is the most important subject at first when you
get a call like this. Next are they for real. Do they have the money.
That I have yet to see, but yes it seems for real, my suppliers had to
be convinced.
Not one single company wanted to quote on these kind of numbers. One
supplier told me it would take them 20 years to make 250,000 tents for
this project.
It finally got down to nuts and bolts, or rather fabric, poles and stakes.
Needed housing in the form of tents. Not just crummy little camping tents,
but something the Haitians could live in for a while. The tent they
were asking for is not even made in the west.
It is not even made out of any practical tent fabric, they requested
cotton, some sort of tent they use in India and Pakistan. Can you
imagine, trying to contact a company in Karachi, Pakistan for 250,000
cotton tents? Ain't gonna happen.
But as I did my research, I did find 3 types of tents that would work
for the Haitians and my client. But not a single company would take
on the challenge of 250,000 tents. We settled on 10,000 tents to start
a price mark for the client. It came down to about 200 tents a
week from one supplier to 2000 a week from another.
I was so proud of my suppliers, they are willing to change design so
the Haitians would not need more than a hammer and a pair of pliers
to install these tents, for temporary housing. And one of the suppliers
would even throw in the wrench needed if they got the contract.
They ask me, is this real, do you think it is going to happen. I think
it is indeed real, and hopefully the client will move to purchase
at least the first run of 10,000 tents. We know these people desperately
need some sort of housing, and it is going on 6 weeks now.
Mostly I wonder why they have taken so long to start collecting
tents and other forms of housing. I knew on day one they were going
to need tents, all sorts of tents. Large ones for hospitals, offices,
food storage, etc. Honestly, tents can be used for any function, from
schools to government offices.
Tents are usually not the kind of item that thousands are laying around.
They are a specialty item, and as such they must be made as ordered.
Usually a company might carry a few in stock, but not in the thousands.
I think I may of blew a few minds when I dropped the amount needed.
But my suppliers went to work and returned with a fair price point for
their products. An honest industry, an industry where we take pride in
supplying a good product, at a fair price.
After seeing a company like AIG take and take and give nothing back. Just
makes me glad to work in a business where we serve a purpose and maybe
help a whole lot of Haitians, and just maybe make an honest buck too.
I could send a larger donation to Doctors Without Borders, or Partners
in Health. (I like these 2 organizations)
My Friday contribution. Just thought I would throw a different diary
in the mix.