Barn Door Hardware

Website Confusion

2011-12-13T22:40:03Z

We continue to get calls from upset customers who are confused about who they are buying from. A company called Rustica Hardware copied our “barndoorhardware.com” website by adding an “s” to door. This is a cheap and unimaginative attempt to capture a market we helped to create. We are finding the vast majority of people believe this is unfair and misleading to the consumer and refuse to deal with Rustica.

The BAU Architectural Fair In Munich

2011-02-18T19:34:49Z

This is the largest trade show in the world and I did not want to miss out.

It comes every two years to Munich, Germany and this year attendance was 250 thousand people including my wife and I. There were 2000 exhibitors from 43 countries and I was convinced that I would find a new and amazing product that we could sell on our website. After 5 days at the show with tired legs and sore feet I gave up. I found nothing new or amazing.

What I did come to realize is that there is nothing that compares to “German Quality”. We viewed many knock-offs from China and it is crap by comparison. I’m not sure why German stuff is so much better; but it is.

However, Munich is a very cool city with excellent transportation and very friendly people. So, on day 6 my wife and I went to the BMW museum. WOW! This should be part of any trip to Germany. BMW spent $600 million on the building alone. It truly has to be seen to be believed. And we don’t even own a BMW.

They actually have cars hand-painted by big time artists and a kinetic sculpture made of steel balls that turns into a BMW, set to music. A trip and a half. My wife is such a trooper to put up with me at these shows. I owe her… big.

How To Increase The Size Of Any Room

2011-01-12T16:50:25Z

With square footage at a premium most everybody is looking for ways to make a room larger. Most hotels have these curved shower curtain rods designed to add a few inches to your space in the shower. The hotel bathroom door swings into the bathroom just missing the toilet and shower curtain by an inch.

So how can you grow a room without increasing its size? Use a sliding door instead of a swing door. Some folks still call them barn doors.

When you think about it one standard 36” wide door takes up about 16 square feet just for clearance to swing it. So if you use the hotel example instead of saving inches, you’ve just saved several feet.

If you do that to enough swing doors you’ve just added a new room for the modest price of some barn door hardware. Sliding door hardware is cooler than ever and some folks even call it, “Jewelry for my doors.” I liked the idea so much I started barndoorhardware.com.

So go ahead… grow a little!

Everything Old Is New Again

2011-01-12T19:52:15Z

Back in the 50’s and 60’s Pella Corp. of Pella Iowa was manufacturing accordion doors of the highest quality. They used real wood faces, concealed hinges and heavy-duty hardware.

They also accomplished one very important feature: They saved the room or square footage used by a swinging door. A 3’ wide swing door takes up to 16 sq.ft.

Pella stopped producing this product many years ago because it was too expensive to make and the margins didn’t match the market place.

Today, retro is in and bigger than ever. Two great companies are now manufacturing accordion doors; Woodfold in the northwest and Panelfold in the southeast. These companies make custom sized folding doors that are extremely functional. Not only do they save floor space, but they also reduce heating and energy cost by a huge amount. In today’s economy we have seen folks taking on roommates by using accordion doors as room dividers.

The very latest is called the “Nuvo Designer Series®” by Panelfold. This modern accordion series includes translucent, full lites or transparent lites with white “frosted” squares. One of the coolest features of the Nuvo Series® is that it can allow light in while still providing visual privacy. Great for bathrooms!

So it’s true, old ideas resurface in time and become new again.

accordion-doors.com

A Company of Losers That Are Winning

2011-01-12T16:51:31Z

I lost my job

On June 6, 1996 my boss showed up at my job location. He told me I had one month until my division was shut down and I’d be let go.

I was in my 50’s.

Not cool.

Optimism?

When I called my girlfriend (now wife) she said, “That’s great – now you can start your own company.”

I had dozens of reasons why starting up a new company without capitol was a bad idea.

On the other hand, I had this cute, optimistic girlfriend that thought I could do anything. If she believed in me, I figured I’d better plow ahead and fake it if I had to.

New Start

With no money and a couple of friends, I started Specialty Doors & Automation in November of 1996 (it took 3 months to get a California contractor’s license).

It was a company that would repair or replace commercial doors. We rented an old, funky garage that leaked like a sieve when it rained and had no A/C or heat.

Our first job was to replace a bearing on a roll-up door. We were so excited when we got our first $250.00 job.

Then we realized that we didn’t even own a ladder.

The ladder was $300.00

It Worked!

Well, things got better over the years and after 12 years in business, I turned the company over to some key employees that helped us grow the business to $3 million in annual sales.

In 2004 we started an online division which is where I happily spend my time.

A friend of mine called it, “Selling shit you don’t have.”

We Won

Today, our company has 10 employees, 7 of which are sales and technical.

All of us share one common ingredient – we were all laid off, fired or replaced by companies outsourcing work to China.

We’re a bunch of losers that have all increased their previous income from 50 to 100%.

We have 4 websites and continue to “sell shit we don’t have” to the tune of $4-5 million a year.

Go losers!