Wax Job

[garyde]

We all can live a vicarious moment with Jeff and wonder 'how did he do that'? There are only a few people who have the ability to write their musing and adventures as well. Jeff definately has that talent. So many of us are conditioned to color within the lines, Jeff is not that sort. I wouldn't limit his writings to FMCA. A book is in him I'm sure.

[Jeff Bayley]

Man you guys are all really putting a smile on my face at a time in life when I really don't have much to smile about. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I wish now I had made the effort to go to Texas. I had this idea that I would be frowned upon. I remember several threads just coming to a complete hault after I put my posting and I thought to myself "Jeez, I'm a real buzz killer I guess"

So I make decisions pretty swiftly at times and am pretty sure I'll be in Central America in Panama by the end of this week. I've got a local connection with a guy that has built an empire exporting cars outside the US and have emailed him and he said he could use a contact down there he could trust. When I bought my bus, one of the reasons for it besides living my dream was to also use it as a status symbol for business. I sell used cosmetic lasers. So you've got this automatic "Am I going to get what I paid for" thoughts whirling around the heads of the prospects. When I called on doctors offices in person, I'd usually figure out a way to invite them to the bus to discuss business on the laser. I'm fairly certain that the bus had the desired effect in helping with many sales. It was hard to keep the doctor focused on the laser sale. The wanted to know all about the bus and were fascinated.

So here I am debating about how hair brained it is to ship the bus to Panama (leaving the other two with that dealer I trust to both store them and help with the sale). I just now got the idea that the same "Status Symbol" thing using the bus might play out in my favor there also. We could use it for status for the existing business calling on doctors for used medical equipment and also I could show up at the used car lots introducing myself as the new kid in town that wants to supply them with their used car inventory from the US. I think the bus just sends the message "this person has already achieved some success". And I think that smart business people prefer to business with other successful people. I don't have to tell them that besides the bus I'm pretty broke. I'll try to keep that under wraps. Course if I ditch the other two buses I'll have some working capital. I may not even need any working capital since my export friend here trusts me. You know why he trusts me ? He saw that I had 3 freaking Prevosts in my front yard. Asset rich and cash poor. But he knows my finances all the way because I don't lie. I just show up to the prospects with the bus and if they want to assume I've got millions that's their business. he,he.

I really want to hang on to one of the buses. I'm told I suffer from ADD but I managed to keep focused on this laser business and nothing else for over a decade so maybe I'm a recovering ADD'er. But what ever trace of ADD is left is not letting me want to let go of the bus. I'm not tired of that and wanting to move on. I feel more at home inside the bus than I ever did inside that stupid big house we bought that we're about ready to decide to give back to the bank. Especially with this transition to Panama no doubt.

So what would be really cool and something I could sink my teeth into would be doing not only the wholesale import of the cars with my contact here but I'm trying to size up the market for RV's there which so far appears to be pretty dang small. I did a search on Craigslist for RV's and Motorhomes and Motor homes in Costa Rica, Panama and portions of Mexico. I found one 20' bumper pull Gulfstream for $5,000 which I think is a deal. Does anyone have a better suggestions how to research the demand or quantify the numbers of RV's Mexico and Central America ? Must be some data somewhere.