well, thanks, Good Day, April 9. After bad day, April 8.

April 10, 2009

Today, April 9, was a day that's everybody here will remember for ten years, no question about that. It was stressful and then great, and it was great on many levels.  I'll just get to it. We have some monstrous bills coming up, for the Sam Hillbornes, and they're due before the Sams arrive. My wife, who pays our bills and deals with that end of the business and is usually unflappable, was quite wound up yesterday, and I mean really wound up. She doesn't get mean or yell, she just frets, and when she frets, we all have a reason to fret. ("And when Einstein's scared, brother....I'm scared."--Sam Hinton, Talking Atomic Blues, as sung at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963.)
We've pre-sold lots of them, but usually we don't collect the money until the bikes arrive (then we charge the balance on the frame) and then ship the bike (we charge the remaining balance). We didn't have the money to pay the bill, so asked the orderers if we could charge their frame balances now...to shift the payment forward and help the cash flow.
The alternative was borrowing money. We can't borrow any more from the bank. We're hanging in here, but we're tapped out, too. We pay our vendors and make payroll, but behind the chit-chat and bike passion and all that, is a constant hi-wire tension that revolves around cash flow. I think that's normal for a business. It certainly was at Bstone, and---ask any business what its number one concern is, especially these days, and if it doesn't say "cash flow," and then you say, "even more than cash flow?", that company spokesperson will probably amend the answer to, "of course cash flow, but I thought you meant besides that."
Anyway, we needed your help and got it. You agreed to pay now, and we got out of a deep jam. The gang here came up with the plan and made the contacts, asked the uncomfortable questions, and you did it.
We're still on a short leash, and we still tread water month-to-month. The fact that we're still here after 15 years just means we're used to it, and haven't done anything really big and stupid. Work is good, but these are hard times for everybody, it seems, and Rivendell Bicycle Works is feeling it too. Yesterday was  horrible, today was great, and it's not just the moolah; it's the coming through part, too.

Grant