Kojak

To my fellow commuters and cyclists;

The only constant in my life these days is change. Our nanny is off to start her own family leaving my wife and I without daytime childcare. My wife is a University Professor, and I'm a tire huckster. She gets to continue to work, and I get to stay home with the kids. Point being, as of Friday afternoon, I'll no longer be signing on as the unofficial "official" spokesperson for Schwalbe tires. My commute will now consist of a trip down the stairs to start the coffee pot (for me), make toast (for our son), and make rice cereal (for our daughter).

6 years ago I was a single working stiff, employed by one of the large cell phone companies in the states performing analysis on billing systems; commuting to work by bike (most days) and racing my bicycle on weekends. In October of '04, I met a girl at a wedding, we dated, she became my wife, we had a son. She accepted a job at the local University here in Victoria and we moved. I accepted a job at a construction mgmt company, they asked me to publish "fiction" for the bank that funded the projects. I informed them that I only publish "non-fiction" and I quit. I ended up here at Schwalbe. We had a daughter, we lost a nanny, and after 2 short years, I have to quit yet another job.

I hope that the information that I've provided has been helpful to at least a few of you. I have tried to the best of my ability to provide straight-forward answers and information.
I will continue to check in on the board as I find there is good information and great entertainment value within these threads.

Cheers for now, and perhaps I'll be back one day when the kids are in school full-time.

gb

puppypilgrim

Best wishes Guy! My daughter turned 7 and I only just feel as if I had my life back this year.

jtelford

Guy,
I've read many of your posts with interest. You have good perspective and I've learned more than a few things.
But mainly enjoy your kids- they grow up fast!
Jason

wunderkind

Too early for April Fool joke.... hmm.

iforgotmename

I have to personally thank you for the help you offered me. You went above and beyond all expectations to help me out. Thanks again and enjoy raising the kids.

no motor?

Thanks and best wishes. I always thought you were the ultimate in web based soft selling (and I say this with a 15 history in sales that still gives me a good BS detector) relationship building - how are they going to replace you?

HardyWeinberg

Best wishes

jr59

Good luck and don't be a stranger here.

We will all miss your insight.

Kojak

They'll likely stack a pile of wet cycling clothes on my chair, and it will still smell like me.

As for the workload, they've already hired someone to take over the accounting and administrative functions that I do. They'll likely hire another sales person in the coming months as it takes a while to get up to speed with the product line. I'm not sure anyone is going to jump onto the board in my place as I did this out my own initiative and I'm not entirely sure if the powers that be saw the value in it.

Doohickie

Any chance of maybe a part-time gig as "internet sales"? I think you have a few thousand leads here....


If your choice is putting your kids in daycare or taking care of them yourself, you're making the right choice. The nanny is the next best thing, but honestly, I think kids are better off with their own parents. I have to give you credit.

xtrajack

Best of luck. Take the bike out once in a while so that it doesn't get lonely and/or rusty.

Kojak

At some point, I'm probably going to need to augment our household income somehow; if I could do it from home, even better. If anyone has an idea, I'm open to suggestions.

As for the nanny, it was time to make a change anyway. She was disengaging and it was starting to show in our son's behavior. He's a great kid but was starting to get a bit wild. We started to get the impression that there was no structure/limitations being set... recipe for disaster. Once we took over, he started being the awesome, well behaved kid that we had always known. He'll be in school full time next fall at which point we'll have to decide whether we want/need to put our daughter into daycare. I'm sure it isn't something that we'll want to do, but Victoria is not a cheap place to live and we may need the $$.

tjspiel

It's really too bad if they don't see the value in it. It gives Schwalbe a direct link to many, many potential customers and indirect links to many more. Frankly, I'd never even heard of Schwalbe until I came here. Now I strongly associate them with quality tires even though the model I bought didn't quite work out for me.

Good luck !

wunderkind

^ yeah. Social media is one of if not the strongest marketing tool nowadays. What you ought to do is somehow correlate your postings for each "What tire should I buy" thread to the buy count for Schwalbe brand.

Oh well, now you have more time to post even more.

Feel free to post naughty tidbits or trade secrets of Schwalbe now that you're not an employee.

waynesworld

Best of luck in whatever!

BigDaddyPete

Good Luck Guy! Thanks for all your help on this board. I spent a couple years as the stay at home parent. It's awesome, and time with your kids is irreplaceable. Enjoy!

JPprivate

Sorry to see you go.... :-(

Lurker1999

I would support the development of an internet liaison/media relations position for Schwalbe. Assuming you have a good relationship with your boss/management it may be worth your while to pitch this concept upwards and see what sticks. It appears Schwalbe already has a facebook page so someone at the company is clearly doing something in this arena. It may be worthwhile seeing if this person could be contacted and whether you could stay on, at least on a part-time basis with the company. It would certainly be easier for them than hiring someone new and needing to train them on the products.

Other thoughts: while voluntary unemployment is likely somewhat acceptable under the guise of family/childcare issues it would certainly help to stay employed in some capacity. This assumes you're still planning on looking for work in the same line. Otherwise, this could be the perfect time to start some online education and make a career change. Either way I would not use this as vacation time given the current employment picture in this country.

coldfeet

Thanks for all the posts Guy, enjoy the kids growing up. If the powers that be didn't see the benefit of your work here, I feel they are being a little short-sighted. With your posts, plus the responses I have had by phone and e-mail with Schwalbe, I have gained a strong impression that Schwalbe was actually a company of real people, not faceless drones. They would do well to continue with the course that has gained them this impression, I feel it is one shared by others on here. It definitely puts you at the head of the pack when considering which tires to buy or reccomend.

Hmmm... Wife's a Professor hey? Smart women are the best!

Doohickie

If there is someone at Schwalbe that we could write to, I'm sure we could come up with a few dozen/hundred/thousand recommendations to them that there is value in having an internet presence. This place is a good start, but also facebook, twitter, maybe start/maintain a Schwalbe blog. One of the LBSs in town is very plugged into the internet and it helps their sales I'm sure. They even have paperless receipts: I bought some Busch & Müller lights from them and they sent my receipt to me via email in a pdf file. How cool is that?

mtnwalker

OP all I can say is listen to Darius Rucker's song It won't be Like This For Long.

My daughters are now 10 and 13 yrs old. I really miss the days when they were little. Time will flash by, you'll see.

jr59

I would 100% agree with the internet presence. I run Schwalbe tire now, mainly because of your insight and helpfulness.
I have also had alot of my friends change tire brands, in Schwalbe favor. As a matter of fact I was just thinking of sending
you an email with a tire question.

I would also like to think that any company would want this type of access to their customer base.

josephjhaney

I bought a pair of Durano pros based on what I read here, and I couldn't be happier. If I get a link I'll be glad to send an email suggesting they try to work something out as a "work from home social networking consultant" type deal.

Joe

RT

Bummer, Guy. I have enjoyed your posts, but life sounds good!

Wanderer

I hope you keep hanging around here, Guy; and, that everything works out for the best.

I believe it would be in Schwalbe's best interest to keep you on the payroll in some work at home option.

We'll miss your insight and wisdom.

p.s. I love the Supremes.......