The BIG Move – Part III

This is a 3 part series that I started over the weekend. You can get Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE

Well, I am finally back home in Atlanta. I got in about midnight last night and we then had work to catch up on so we stayed up till 3:00 am fixing stuff and getting reports prepared for FBG (Fulfillment by George) so those guys had marching orders for the 9:00 am shift to pull, pack and ship from.

I know I left of the last blog post on Easter Sunday with Part II we had tested all the software and counted all the inventory. We were all ready for yesterday…Monday morning. We got up on Monday and got to the warehouse, we spot checked our pull sheet and all the location codes matched, things were looking great! I was very nervous because we had over 400 items to ship since we had not done any shipping since Thursday due to the move.

Buy NOON all the product had been pulled and staged for packing. George, the CEO himself was on the floor and actively participated in learning the process along with his Director of Operations, Pong (who is a ROCK STAR by the way). Those two along with office man, Skeeter…..Yep, that is his name. He reminds me of Rudy Bosch from the first season of Survivor, if you watched that show. Anyway, they all learned from myself and my Ops Manager John, who traveled with me.

I was pleasantly surprised that both Scot Wingo and Mike Jones, the CEO and CFO from ChannelAdvisor came by and took me and George to lunch with them (photo from L to R its Me, Mike Jones, George Trantas, Scot Wingo). That was so cool and really makes you see that getting in business with the RIGHT folks pays off. ChannelAdvisor has always been a great partner for 3rd Power Outlet and really helped us take off in eCommerce.

After scarfing down some Empanadas at lunch we headed back to the “grind” and it was now time to put the other part to the test. The labeling, weighing and packing of all that product. I am please to say it was a total HOME RUN. Even with the little touches and fixes we had to do to smooth it all out for a first run thru, we were completely DONE at 5:05 pm. My partner, who had personally done all of the shipping was more than satisfied with the process. As we left the building, he turned and said I feel like we have left our baby in GREAT hands. I have to agree, George and his staff treated us like family the entire weekend. In just 1 day George found several efficiency procedures that will save us boxing and postage fees and our systems work seamlessly now.

So we had all the reports ready for them today for the Tuesday run, since we stayed up last night to do it. It was about 1:00 pm and I noticed that we did not hear anything from the warehouse today. So I called Pong up just to see how it was going and what he said to me was SHOCKING!!! Pong said, “I was just about to call you, I know you guys were probably sitting in Atlanta worried. I just wanted you to know that we are DONE with today’s pick, pack and ship”  DAYAM!!! How you like that? FBG is in full effect as our new provider WOW, and I am so happy The future of my company looks bright for 2010. It feels like we have taken the next step and that is alright!

Thank you for following this blog and allowing me to chronicled this journey with you. It really has helped me sort out my emotions and I am glad it all worked out well. I got some video and stuff soon to come, OF COURSE……….stay tuned guys, right now I am taking my ass to bed LOL.