Sunday, July 3, 2016

What is the real reason you're not reaching your potential?

Could it be ego, or a fear of losing what you have holding you back? I guess they are closely related, for me maybe there is even a sprinkling of lack of confidence In the recipe too.

They say success breeds success, but I fear for many, the reverse is also true. 

When you come from nothing and reach some goal, the last thing you want to do is lose it. The problem is the very motivation that got you there is what it will take to get to the next step. 

A book by Dan Kennedy “Wealth attraction in the new economy” lists 28 wealth “magnets”. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it. Of those 28 none include timidity, fear of loss, use of your ego, or anything even closely related. 

I myself recently determined I have been letting the fear of losing what I have get in the way of further growth. It all tied to having reached a goal I had created many years ago. Once I reached it I kept asking “what next”, or asking others what motivates them to keep pushing on after having reached a goal. More precisely asking them, “what is your why?”. 

Now I know it was an excuse, an excuse to just sit back.

Quit pushing.

Not reach my full potential.

So I ask you, what is holding you back from accomplishing more? Ego? Fear of loss or failure? If these kinds of things are holding you back, think about you past successes. What are you doing different now than when you were accomplishing your goals? When you had nothing to lose it was easy to risk it all. Nothing has changed, if you really want to accomplish more you’ve got to accept the same mindset, be willing to lose it all, and fight like your life depends on it. 

We don’t get to skip these steps, and each step builds on the last. If you're only willing to risk a little you’re only going to gain a little. Leverage more of what you’ve accomplished and the pay-off is bigger.

-Tim- 





 


Tuesday, June 7, 2016

A medical education facility in Roseburg Oregon could help alleviate the health care worker crisis in rural Oregon.

Sitting on the City of Roseburg Economic Development Commission, being a founding member of the Umpqua Basin Economic Alliance, an executive member of the Douglas County Partnership for Economic Development and its sub committee Med. Ed. ( medical education ) it is fair to say I have a keen interest in promoting economic development for the greater Roseburg area.

The Med. Ed concept is one of the most significant opportunities to come from all of these efforts. A Medical Education facility here in Roseburg could be both a game changer for our economy, and a huge benefit to the medical community here in rural Southern Oregon.

From veterans care facilities to your local options for a general practitioner, we're coming into a crisis as it relates to health care workers. 

The medical education facility concept in Roseburg Oregon aims to help ease the burden of too few trained healthcare workers. 

Rural Oregon needs and deserves current, timely health care for our veterans and the general population. We need and deserve this care in our own communities. The burden of travel expenses, travel time, and a non local atmosphere aren't in our best interest. The rural Oregon Medical Education facility aims to change that.

To learn more follow the link or comment below,  please share! 

Tim Allen

Friday, April 15, 2016

Why is blogging so hard?

Man, it seems like the whole blogging thing is just a breeze for so many people. I'm not one of them.

I have studied free material, paid hefty money for classes, tried just pushing through. Yet here I am finally working on an update weeks later. 

As I write this I'm sitting in the area of "Gate C11 at the PDX airport in Portland Oregon waiting for my last leg home. 

The last day and a half was spent working in a committee helping to plan "The Rental Show 2017" which will be held in Orlando Florida. An event put on by the American Rental Association, it is consistantly touted as one of the top 100 shows in the nation for size. I can tell you my first trip there back in 2010 was an eye opener to say the least.

ARA headquarters is in Moline Ill.. Like I'm sure many places across the USA this community sitting alongside the Mississippi River was a great place to visit. It is also home to John Deere and has some pretty cool museums displaying equipment clean back to the birth of the company. 

This takes me to another mechanic tip. Advancements in technology can leave a person who is new to the field feeling overwhelmed. Where ever possible take the time to study where it all originated from. Looking at the high tech components in a lot of today's equipment can be mesmerizing. When fuel injection was becoming mainstream I remember thinking, "What is going on inside that magic black box"? Turns out it is just doing some math and deciding how long the injector stays open. 



Literally, that's it. 

It is going to open the same number of times every time the motor makes two revolutions, so the only thing to control was how long it stays open when it does open. It figures this out by knowing air temperature, engine temp., RPM's, throttle position, manifold pressure, and some various specific to manufacture parameters, but it is just doing math and controlling how long..

That's just when it is in open loop! Once it goes closed loop the "black box" adjusts how long the injector stays open based on feedback from the O2 sensor. As long as no weird feedback is coming back from the other sensors, it bases its decisionn purely based on O2 feedback. 

Seperate the fuel injection out from the other functions like ignition timing, transmission shift points and torque converter lockup, or the host of other computer controlled functions. Look at each individually and it gets a lot simpler. 

The coolest thing about all of this as it applies to the equipment rental profession? 

We're seeing now what the heavy equipment industry and automotive industry got to work the kinks out of over the past several years.

Small engine fuel injection, tier 4 diesel emission equipment and more are proven technologies. We get the benefit of more power, better fuel efficiency and long lasting engines thanks to them pioneering the way for us. 

When I started this blog I had every intention on doing it daily, are there any volunteers out there that want to be my accountability partner? 

Tim Allen


Friday, March 25, 2016

Mechanic secrets part II?


Looking back on my most recent post, well, I f I did my job well you'll never have a chance to suffer through reading that first draft. 

Back to my story though. 

Recently I talked about how pretty much every mechanized piece of equipment has just two sources of power, 3 ways to transfer that power and only two actions on the far end, turning or going up and down. 

I didn't always realize this, most of it came to me during my high school years though.

Have you ever seen a '69 Ford Thunderbird? 429 Ford big block, C6 transsmission, and what I later learned was a Ford 9 3/8" rear end, but that's a tale for another day. Have I mentioned I'm an adrenaline junky? Well that's kind of hard on cars.

My junior year, the motor in that car made some rather ugly noises and lost power. I didn't come from a wealthy family, so that meant I had to fix it myself. 

I remember the evening before thinking about what must be thousands of moving parts, after all there's a lot of space in there. I'd studied the theory of a four stroke, worked on some lawn mower engines, This was different. It made a lot more power and was a lot bigger.

The following day I learned my fears were way over blown! As I disassembled this thing I had my first MAJOR dose of just how screwed up fear can be. That motor was a simple, very predictable working piece of art. 

All of the sudden I started paying attention in physics class, it all started coming to me. These "rules of physics" didn't mean some complicated voodoo, just some simple facts I needed to know to be successful as a mechanic. 

Keep this in mind as you take on mechanical repairs.

There is a method to the madness in everything mechanical. Rules like what is in motion wants to stay in motion, what is at rest wants to stay at rest. Fulcrums and leverage. An object moving in a straight line tends to want to keep moving in a straight line. 

I later learned that how the electrical systems work is really similar in the fact that if you understand the rules electricity has to follow, it isn't too complicated to figure most problems out. 

Got any thoughts to share? Lemme know, leave a comment below.

Tim Allen

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Secret repair guy concept revealed.

Looking back, I've had my hands on a lot of different pieces of equipment over the years. More often than not I had to figure out how to repair it on my own.

*Auto mechanic - check

*Mower mechanic - check

*Wiring repair - check

The list could go on for pages....

I still remember the first time I was asked, "Tim, how do you know how to work on so many different kind of things?" In truth, I'd never really thought about it.

So I answered truthfully. I don't. 

You see what appears to be so many different things to most folks are a hand full to me.



Let me explain.

Pretty much any powered equipment is driven by one of two things; an internal combustion engine whose foundational principals haven't changed for over 100 years, or an electrical motor that really has about 3 different varieties. Yup that's it, two power sources. 

At the other end of what ever it is you're trying to fix there is something that is either going up and down, or turning in circles. 

Tires on the car? Turning. 

Floor sander? Turning or going back and forth depending on the sander. 

Power washer or paint pump? Pistons going back and forth pushing the water or paint. 

OK, you get the point.

So what is in the middle connecting these two?

If it isn't connected directly you have either a belt, gears, or some sort of hydraulic pump and motor to transfer liquid movement/pressure. That's it.

I work on two power sources, three ways of transmitting the power, and one of two things should be happening if everything is working OK. 

Not really all that much too it when you look at it that way. 

Tim Allen

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

What's next?

It is interesting.

When I was younger, say 20 years old or so, I had a very clear sense of purpose. Married, first of two kids on the way, and a very independent nature. My sense of responsibility has always been really strong.

I knew my best opportunity for income was turning wrenches, specifically fixing things like cars, equipment, mowers, well anything that was self propelled I guess.

Somewhere near 30 years old I started to wonder about those boyhood dreams. I still remember sitting in class in high school reading U.S News and World Report and seeing the stories about successful entrepreneurs and the power they had over their own lives. With the kids old enough to fend somewhat for themselves, My wife who was tired of raising kids and looking for more adult conversation decided to enter the Paid employment world.

We've always lived rather frugally. We literally moved all of our worldly possessions to our first home in one trip in a 1976 Toyota Corolla station wagon. Somewhere along the way we fell prey to the consumer marketing engine and started accumulating "stuff" but that isn't the point of this post, maybe I'll speak more on that later. Suffice it to say, even with what we considered wasted shopping, it has always been at a level far under most folks unneccesary spending. That meant we could live off of her wages, I didn't HAVE to work....

Now that business dream comes back to me in a POWERFUL way.

I suppose my purpose in life or my "why" took a change that I am just now realizing. Initially I was to be someone capable of providing for my wife and kids. Now I wanted to amass enough assets to provide for them should I leave this world.

At this point, unless improperly managed, I'm pretty sure they could make it. It is interesting though, could they or I for that matter make it without a good attorney, accountant, etc.? How about the vendor relationships? What happens if they (or I) chose not to treat the customer right? My point is, that while I no longer have to live my working hours doing formally directed work, I do have to provide value to others.


The single hardest lesson for me to learn or accept up to this point is that contrary to popular opinion, we don't live in a win/lose world. For instance, in the big picture you making more money, doesn't mean I make less. The reverse is also true, but haunts me to this day.

Pragmatically I know it to be true, but with so many years of misguided teachings to the contrary it is hard to let go of. It has been my experience my entire life that it is harder to unlearn something than it is to learn something. Once we have it in our heads that we are right about something, we need consistent compelling almost ridiculous amounts of proof to let it go. Yet coming in as new information we're easily led.

So what's next? Does my "why" change?

It has to.

Life waits for no one. I can sit here and watch all I've worked so hard for gradually wilt away, or I can renew, peel back another layer of life and peek inside at what is next.

Interesting enough, I think it involves getting to know myself better. If you've been paying attention this far through this story, you know that I sacrificed all, and that includes my own health to serve my family. It has been my addiction. Sure parts of the real me have helped to point my efforts in a good way, but what am I avoiding?

It is in here already but the simple answer is that I've got to get past this win lose thing. It is preventing me from helping more people.

More on my journey tomorrow.

Tim Allen

Monday, March 21, 2016

Biz N Brewz with some of the worlds greatest marketers!

They say that one of the best ways to grow is to be in a room full of people smarter than yourself, this weekend I knocked it out of the park!

When you have names like Ben Settle, Ryan Stewman, Vicki IrvinDanielle Lynn, Justin Devonshire,
Kamala Chambers, Shane Hunter, Ray Higdon, Brian Keith Noonan, Dan Meredith (who due to a family emergency attended via live video feed), Luis Congdon and Christopher John Stubbs in the room sharing their stories and tips on how to better your marketing, you do best to just sit back and learn. 

One of my biggest take aways from the event was just how important it is to be authentic, be the real you in everything you put out. 

Interestingly enough one of the speakers pretty clearly explained that we should keep in mind that we are always growing, evolving, changing, and our online presence should reflect that. If we're not seeing that in our work, perhaps we aren't being completely honest. Maybe we are more showing the world what we want them to think we are rather than what we truly are. A pretty deep thought indeed. 

Meeting new people is always interesting. Meeting people who are having a positive impact is especially rewarding. Being in the room with folks who engage at this level, in an intimate setting enjoying a brew together, well, that's Biz N Brewz.

https://biznbrewz.com/invitation is the brainchild of one of our towns own, Jodi Ardito. It was impressive to see her gather people from literally the world over to attend. I am proud to say though, our very own town of Roseburg Oregon had the largest number of attendee's. 

Who could benefit from attending Biz N Brewz 2017? If you use my measure of trying to be in the room with folks smarter than you, well that means most of us. Click the link, and decide for yourself. 

-Tim Allen-




Thursday, March 17, 2016

Help us catch a thief?

Well he's not the sharpest tool in the shed...

On Saturday evening 3-12-16 we lost a tilt bed trailer to theft. We've got quite a bit of video since he walked around under a security camera for about 3 minutes staging the trailer for theft. About an hour later he comes back, hooks the trailer to his truck and takes off with it.

When we first posted some of the footage on Facebook we had no idea it was going to gain so many views. The most viewed video had over 16,000 views itself in just 24 hours! Since then we've had our local television station interview me and run a portion of the video too. 


If you know the guy get in touch with us, we'd love to prevent him from getting to someone else. 

-Tim-

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Home & Garden show this weekend at the fairgrounds!

Are you planning some outdoor projects this year? 

Yard renovation?

Tree trimming?

New deck or patio?

Sprinkler system?

See idea's for all of this and more! Friday 10am-8pm, Sat. 10am-6pm, Sun. 10am-4pm

Here is a picture of us setting up, stop on by and say "hi" :)

Monday, February 29, 2016

Millennials stuck living with parents?

I read an interesting article this morning about the number of Millennials that are still living with their parents and the impact it is having on the housing market. 

This leaves me wondering if this is a new permenant or if this is pent up demand that will push the housing market to higher ground at some point. Either option could have an impact on your business, how can you plan for both?

Probably the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is at best mid level but more likely entry level home buyers at some point. When they enter the market, are they going to try to find their way into the urban property owner group or will they once again make a move for more independence and shift toward rural settings? If history repeats itself I believe you will see this then more matured demographic move at least toward the suburbs if not full on rural. 

If your interested in the entire article you can find it here > http://nahbnow.com/2016/02/2-million-missing-millennial-households/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mmb0229

There are some implications coming, contemplating them beforehand will place you in a better position to take advantage of the opportunity when it arrives.

-Tim Allen-

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Save money and spread your rental costs out over a year?

Do you dread the rental bill when it is time to take care of things like yard prep every year?

If you want a great looking yard, it requires maintenance. Things like aerating, dethaching and over seeding. That's easily more than a hundred bucks.

Now imagine paying $10/mo. and not having to cough up the dough all at once, that $120 all goes toward any rentals that year. Better yet, for making the commitment to keep your yard nice you get to save an additional 10% off of every rental for the rest of the year? 

What are your thoughts, is this a program you'd like to see us start? 

Comment here or send me an email at mail@roseburgrental.net and let us know :) I'll give you $10 bucks off your next rental just for sharing your opinion!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Rental equipment professionals.

As I sit here in the hotel room on my last day in Atlanta Ga., I'm reflecting on the opportunities I've experienced attending The Rental Show 2016.

This show brings the best of the best in the equipment rental industry to one location for about 3 days a year. I attend because I want to learn from the best. Whether attending a training session, talking at a show booth or networking in the after hours networking events, this show offers more value than any other event I participate in all year long. 

For the 2016 show I was selected as a panelist for the General Tool Town Hall session. Being front and center of a crowd of around 400 talking about my business practices and experience isn't something I'd anticipated in my career. I've got to say it was a fantastic experience. The people who put together @therentalshow2016 and those attending the session are simply a cut above, as has been my experience with the entire American Rental Association. 

That takes me to today. 

I'm going home with a clearer picture of where I plan to take my business over the course of the next year and frankly further into the future. After talking to other rental store owners and operators, I've developed a focus that has been missing for the past three years as I struggled with "now what" after reaching my 10 year goals for the company.

Now is my chance to say thanks. I really appreciate all of the ARA staff, volunteers, fellow store owners and certainly vendors for taking their time out to help move the profession forward. The association and industry operate at a level others aspire to, no doubt because of your efforts. I look forward to working along side you long into the future!

-Tim Allen-


Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Fuel injection for your lawn mower baby!

Check out these cutaway pictures of the new Briggs & Stratton fuel injected motor!

Very cool to see technology proven in the automotive market brought over to small engines. 

Having a strong background in automotive fuel infection I can tell you this is a great move that's going to help solve a lot of long standing problems brought on with the introduction of methanol dilution in our fuel.

Sunday, January 31, 2016

How attractive are you?

Are you attracting the the things you want in life?

I find it odd that we accept so easily how important it is to add curb appeal to our home when we want to sell. Going out on a date? Same thing, you'll get all fixed up and put what you believe to be your best foot forward.

Somehow though, when it comes to getting what we want in other area's of our life we go at it like it is a part time job at best. 

I'll clean my car next week. I'll shave tomorrow. No big deal if the rent is a day or two late. I can make it home on the gas I have in the car, I'll stop at the station tomorrow. I'm not feeling 100% today, I'll work harder tomorrow. I don't see the need to set a budget, I know where my money goes. It's a $5 coffee, no big deal. 

Life responds in a very predictable way most of the time. The more time you give it, the more predictable it becomes. 

I didn't say that it is all good news, bad things happen to all of us. If you know it is coming though, it's easier to accept.

The guy/gal you see that just seems to have all the luck? They are probably consciously not making the decisions in the paragraph before the last. In fact, in addition to that, they are probably also looking for ways to help other people get what they want from life. 

If your not getting the results you want out of life, I'd suggest you go back and do an inventory of your time. What are you doing each minute of each day for 3 days minimum. Was your time spent making the kind of choices that the people, life, and career that you seek would be attracted to? 

Unsure?

That's where reading comes in. Get to know what kind of daily routines these people really have, not the drummed up for TV ratings life. In the beginning, you can even simply mimic them. 

As you get better you'll start applying your own personality to the kinds of task you need to perform to attract the life you want. 

Chances are really good you'll notice small changes rather quickly. A higher level of confidence seems to come first for many. That itself is attractive to many. Next you'll start to see opportunities you didn't see before. 

Once the mind set is fully in place, it is almost like you get to pick and choose what you want in life. That my friends is the good life. 
-Tim Allen-


Saturday, January 30, 2016

How did your day pan out?

It is an interesting thing isn't it? 

We have control over so little, yet we are in total control of our own life. If we can't answer that it was a good day what does that mean?

I suppose for every personality type it means something different. Time periods too. 100 years ago if your car made it to the next town over it was a good day. Today we're mad if the car has any mechanical issue before 100K miles. 

I'm coming to terms with the fact that I've very likely got more years behind me than in front of me. Literally, time isn't on my side. Truth be told though, I've accepted it more pragmatically than emotionally. I suppose that is a fight for another day.

Alas, back to how your day went though. Mine was a good day. I slept in a touch, didn't roll out of bed until 6am or so. I've set things up so I can do a lot of business work from home, and today was no different. One thing I can't do though is clean the muck from the pits at the Carwash. That requires a shovel and somewhere to put the muck. What's cool though is that I still can.

I got lucky with a selector switch too. It was getting really hard to turn, I tried to take it apart to get some lube in it a few days ago, but the screw in the control knob was so stuck my screwdriver broke in it. When I arrived today to replace it I grabbed the knob and viola' the lube had worked its way in and the switch was operating freely!

I can think of at least a dozen ways to tell myself the day sucked. I was behind in a work project, slept in later than I planned so I started late on my business work. I'd already put in at least 60 hours this week, so working more hours doesn't seem fair. Had to dig the pits out because my kid didn't do it and we pay him to. I didn't get time to clean the inside of my truck out which was on my list and drives me nuts, but, it just didn't work out. I washed the outside of the truck, but when it dried I noticed I missed some spots.... And some new scratches!

There's more too it, but I choose to look at it as a good day. The cool part? That makes it so. It really is that easy. So again I ask, how was your day?


Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Local introvert to speak to large crowd in Atlanta Georgia?

Man, if there is one thing that has been tough as a business owner it is coming out of my introvert shell to participate in opportunities like this or in local volunteer efforts. Speaking to a crowd is way low on my list of preferred things to do, but....
I'm excited about this opportunity. Along with three other business owners/ inexperienced speakers from around the nation, we're going to be discussing the unique needs and systems we use to maintain our equipment, train customers how to use equipment and answer audience questions.
Is it big? look at a couple of these statistics;


* Attendees at the 2015 Show came from all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, all Canadian provinces and from more than 40 countries including Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Honduras, India, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.

The Rental Show 2014 (the most recent year for which rankings are available) was rated as one of Trade Show Executive's Fastest 50 Growing Trade Shows in the U.S. and on its Gold 100 list of largest U.S. trade shows. The Show also was ranked in the top 75 on the Trade Show News Network (TSNN) list of the top 250 trade shows in the U.S.

For more information on the show check out the link below smile emoticon
Attending this annually is just one of the ways we stay up on current equipment improvements and learn better way to communicate with our customers. The value to us and our customers is huge.