Windshield Time, Record stores and other Dinosaurs I have seen!

I had a lot of time to think and ponder, analyze and put things in perspective in the last two weeks. I think there is the kernel of some great ideas in here that I want to share, so let me offer a little background and a little tease, I promise you there is a Gem or two in here somewhere. I hope you will read on to understand the full content.

How much time could your business save if you could do all your estimates without ever leaving the office and based on data thats probably more accurate than your people gather. What if We can tell you every dimension from Floor to Wall, to Ceiling, windows and doors and a multitude of details about every room. Whether its the data on every major appliance, all the mechanical systems and every measurement in the building as a Data grid and as 2D drawings and 3D too, even your HVAC units and the size of that furnace filter you can never remember. Our new TheMeasurePro.com (TMP) Data Gathering system, actually does all that. A TMP Gather grabs more data, in greater detail than most home inspections or estimating measures combined, but we don't give opinions, we just document the facts in great detail.

TMP provides a Whole house or commercial building Data Plan via email in a 3D-DXF or a 2D- PDF file instantly on any home or building. No later processing or delays, TMP DATA PLAN is available when we leave the building. Our projects so far have ranged from a small condo to a very complex 300,000 sq. ft. furniture showroom, complete with all the vignettes, offices and warehouse space.

“TMP” is Designed so any Contractor can save hours of wasted “DRIVE TIME” every day by using the TMP Data report and time saved to figure estimates instead of being Road warriors fighting traffic all day. We also make the data available for a fee to any contractor that needs it to complete an estimate. TMP Saves you Time, Money, puts your staff where they are productive instead of behind the wheel, TMP cuts your Cuts costs.

But first a Little perspective:

I grew up in a small town right out of “Happy days”. We had tree lined streets, a “drive in” restaurant with big burgers, awesome onion rings and a marshmallow/vanilla coke, neon and “car hops”. We all spent hours cruising from Central avenue to Kunkle’s Drive-In to the city park and back! It was glorious in it’s small town innocence and was the epitome of small town America.

There were no cell phones back in the 60’s. Everyone carried dimes in their Penny loafers so you could make a “PAY PHONE CALL” Top 40 rock and roll on an AM radio was the best we had, and most of us used the family’s Magnavox cabinet stereo to play either 45” or 12” albums that we all bought from the same record store over on Grand Avenue. If the dancing got too vigorous, the record skipped! Some would buy records at the dime store, Woolworth's, Sears or W.T. Grant, but those places lacked the “cool factor” of hanging out at the record store.

Bob Lines owned the record store and it was row after row and bin after bin all in alphabetical order. 45’s in one section and the 12” albums of the Beatles, The Stones, Elvis and dozens of others groups with cool artwork dominated the rest of the store. Bob knew everything about the music, the groups and what would be popular next, the latest stereo gear, speakers and he even sold replacement needles for our record players. Within 15 minutes of school ending each day the place would be packed! It was the social media of the 60’s. Thirty minutes at the record store and you knew what was trending, who was cool, who was out, where the party was this weekend and all the current gossip and maybe a phone number for a date if you were lucky!

Not exactly a line from Don Maclain’s American Pie, but by the 80’s the record store became obsolete, closed and it was “The Day the Music Died.”. Even if you never met Bob or visited his record store I would bet 100% of you know what happened to his business. The term hadn’t been invented yet, but it was the rise of “business disruptor”!!!!

The business changed; 45’s went away, albums became 8 tracks, cassettes, portable stereos, FM radio, MP3 players, Kmart, Walmart, Virgin Records, Sam Goody, MTV, Napster, iTunes... all in rapid succession, changed the business and edged out the little guy. The trend was away from the specialty store and toward the business that once supported a single category store was now just supporting a category in a bigger store.

In business school it’s a business cycle called rationalization and consolidation. The big eat the small and the fast eat the slow and what used to be many becomes one or two. In 1920 there were over 100 recognized car brands in America. By 1950 it was 10 and then there were 3. By the way, 3 is a very common rationalization. Think Hertz, Avis and National...ABC, CBS, NBC... Home Depot. Lowes and Menard’s... Walmart, Target and Kmart/Sears and the list goes on.

Back in the days of hardwood floors before 1955, carpet was woven, wool, sold in furniture stores and both were expensive. Then came DuPont nylon and tufting and the changing fashion of the modern home. Carpet got cheaper and moved to mass market and then out to free standing specialty stores.

Thanks to better technology and home fashion; carpet stores sprang up in mass in the 60’s. By 1970 there were 30,000 mostly mom and pop retail flooring stores in the U.S., then the home centers rose in the 90’s and created consolidation. Today there are probably less than 10,000 freestanding specialty flooring stores and as the Baby Boomers hand those off to the next generation, many of those will not survive. The same is true with category after category.

There was a time in my home town when the streets were lined with dress shops, men’s and kids clothing, shoe stores, paint store, lumber yard, hardware, seafood store, butcher shop, bakery, TV store, appliance retailers and tires. Today that’s just a category list for every Walmart, and tomorrow it will all be a home delivery app from Amazon and eBay. The next Rationalization has already started with the purchase of Whole Foods and Walmart signing up to develop a delivery partnership with Uber.

There is a new Verb that we hear a lot today, “They got Amazoned”.

Every dog has it’s day and the cycle eventually cuts down even the best. Four generations ago it was “They got Searsed and Cataloged ”. Three generations ago it was “They got MALLED”. Two generations ago it was “They got Kmarted” and we know where that one will end this year. Then "KMart got Walmarted" and Vaudeville got “Movied”, Movies got “TVed” and TV got “cabled” and Cable is already getting "Phoned". Change is not a choice, its coming whether you embrace it or not.

Walmart will struggle, even my beloved Home Depot and Lowes may be facing the first real pangs of pain for the first time, from the online retailers, choking off market share growth and pinching profits. They both need TMP's Data gathering & aggregation service to keep ebay & Amazon at bay. Right now the Home Centers will either leap ahead or they will look back very soon and know They got “Amazoned”! Sears, Kmart, Best Buy, Macy’s and half of all the clothing retailers on Main Street got “Malled or Walmarted”, and even many of the malls themselves will be gone this year or next because they Got "Amazoned".

So where is the bright spot??? “Mark Twain” said, “The only proven way to get RICH in a Gold Rush...Is selling picks, shovels and whiskey!”

I'm always looking for the NEXT. My Baptist upbringing precludes me from drinking or selling whiskey and picks and shovels are kinda off the mark today, so we went looking for the next generations equivalent of picks and shovels! What will be the must have in the next 20 years, and it is DATA! Funny how picks and shovels fits this too! We tend to refer to analyzing data as DATA MINING!

Amazon and eBay, Walmart and Waze does what they do with such impunity because they have the data and USE IT to figure out where you are going and what you are going to buy NEXT and what you will need with it! Data is the new currency of the future and it is the feed stock for growth and the basis for TMP.

So where am I going with all this, well an introduction of sorts.

20 years ago my friend David Keller saw a need for installation services to the Big Box Stores when Lowes and Home Depot started doing flooring installs and not just selling cash and carry flooring. David stepped into the breach and his company is now the largest install contractors in the Lowes universe. David and I have long shared a vision to serve the client better by gathering more than just the 2D measurements of a room and making a new trip for every project “What if we measure it all in one trip” became the basis for a new VISION TheMeasurePro.com.

2 years ago we founded a concept more than a company. We set out to get the concept right, define the needs correctly, create our own software, and if our ideas were ahead of the curve and objectives honorable, a great company would grow. We set our sights on the Holy grail of unavailable data. We wanted nothing less than everything inside the doors of any home. You can look in anyone's back yard for free with Google Earth and there are apps that will calculate your landscaping, fence, driveway and roofing repairs. You can even get a picture of the front door of most homes for free on Google Earth, BUT you can’t see beyond the door! We think that makes “In Home, As Built DATA gathering a NEXT, BUSINESS opportunity”!

Our company is TheMeasurePro.com (visit our website) and it is not a measuring service, not a drawing and not design software; TMP is a data sponge that starts with a very exacting laser based, “As-Built drawing” created inside a software designed to be fast but accurate. We then tie a very proprietary gather procedure and database that not only identifies all the building materials and construction methods, it also creates a 2D and 3D drawing and aggregates all the IN HOME DATA into a searchable Mineable data base of over 1,500 data points and a Photo Gallery, all searchable and customizable. TMP also adds a section that documents SAFETY ISSUES such as lead, mold, broken glass, the lack of smoke detectors and a few dozen other SAFETY related issues, designed to add consumer “buy in” to the process.

We can tell you every dimension floor to ceiling, what the floor is made of, windows and walls, doors, ceiling, whether there is a ceiling fan, Fuses or breakers and how many amps in the breaker box, every flooring transition, and a multitude of details about every room whether its floor, wall or ceiling data. We even gather the data information on every major appliance, even the serial number on your HVAC units. WE actually do more than most home inspections, but we don't give opinions, we just document the details in the home very well.

We can also provide a DXF or a PDF file instantly via email on any home or building that we have surveyed. Our projects so far have ranged from a small condo to a very complex 300,000 sq. ft. furniture showroom, complete with all the vignettes, offices and warehouse space. Imagine the time saved in a Kitchen Design firm if you can upload a DXF file into your 20/20; of a kitchen rather than draw it from scraps of paper.

We provide the home owner with a copy of the report so they can use it for whatever they want; planning, insurance, repairs or remodel, research, etc. Contractors can save hours of “DRIVE TIME” every day by using the TMP Data report to figure estimates instead of being Road warriors fighting traffic all day. We also make the data available for a fee to any contractor that needs it to complete an estimate. TMP Saves you Time, Money, puts your staff where they are productive instead of behind the wheel, Cuts costs.

We believe there are several businesses, each with a unique client list, price and application.

• The commercial space is a huge market that TMP is developing and looking for local partners. There are many older buildings up for remodel that don't have an “as built” blueprint.
• Imagine getting to the Home Center and having a complete drawing, dimensions AND details on every room you are remodeling, in the palm of your hand. Or offering them a DXF file. WOW MIND BLOWER!
• Imagine the value to a home center of having the whole home data for every frequent customer. No waiting for measurements to close the sale. Just PING the TMP data base and open the PDF for wall area or texture, floor type & sub floor, size and type of doors for replacements or open the DXF for designing a new kitchen NOW not 3 weeks from now. all from ONE TMP FILE! SELL MORE NOW, reduce returns & dont lose the BE BACK to the guy that will follow them home & measure now.
• The software leasing business is probably the model for the Home Centers and we already have one major home center signed up for a launch early in 2018.
• Insurance companies could save millions by knowing what they are covering inside the home and sell more by making sure the coverage is thorough.
• Realtors live and die on appraisals and home inspections. TMP makes inspections and appraisals far more accurate. We find square footage that adds to appraisals and we also protect the seller and buyer by providing a full list of features, materials and safety issues.
• Investors and flippers love the ability to see in 3D and search for details and measurements as they assess the value of commercial or residential property.
• If we have an address already in the file, you can buy it! If we don’t we will go get it for you.

We designed TMP to be a Business not a measuring gadget. We believe the Data Gathering Business is the future and we built TMP to be software, service business and data resource. TMP is a great way for property and building owners, Big Box Retailers, Service companies, Inspectors, Insurance companies, Realtors, Contractors, Restoration companies, and many others to turn a cost center into a profit center and we are looking for partners that have the vision to develop a new business that will diversify your streams of income. Let us show you how to make money or save money with TMP!

TMP even translates into Metric or Standard, Spanish or English and it is robust and stable. You dont need special software or training to get or read the data and we welcome off shore users.

We are looking to partner with you, please contact us for a quote!

Don Barrett [email protected].

The attached link is a copy of our brochure: https://themeasurepro.com/wp-content/uploads/Tri-Fold.pdf

If you would like to know more please send me an email [email protected] with a name and contact number and I will answer any question you may have about TheMeasurePro.com