("Lost That Loving Feeling" by Righteous Brothers plays)
- [Woman] So the gentlemen you did that new scooter
checklist this morning with, the white RX50?
His daughter's here and he wants to know
if you can kind of go over a little bit with her, as well.
- Yeah, after this song. I got a customer
I'm dealing with, but you can give it to someone.
Now this is a good one here.
♫ We had a love, a love, a love you don't find everyday
(man and woman chattering)
♫ So don't, don't, don't let them win
Okay, here we go, baby back and forth, really quick.
♫ Baby, baby, baby, baby, don't let them win.
- Thank you for calling New Scooters 4 Less,
where two wheels are better than four. How can I help you?
(man and woman chattering) (music fades)
The only way to frame this for the blog
is to be honest about it,
and the fact that scooter accidents happen.
- What happened?
- A young lady who purchased-- she didn't purchase,
she rented a scooter from us, was involved
in a very, very bad accident. She was riding the vehicle
very late at night, and I don't know
the details of the accident itself.
Yeah, it says she struck the median,
causing her to lose control of her scooter and crash
in the eastbound lane on Northwest 8th Avenue.
Police said it did not look like she was wearing a helmet
during the accident, and she sustained
serious facial injuries and several cuts
to her head and body. And this is all from
an Alligator article. They ended it,
"In an effort to prevent injuries from driving scooters,
New Scooters 4 Less donated helmets to university police
in an unrelated event at their Southwest 13th St location.
Hours after the accident, UF Public Safety tweeted
about the donation and encouraged students
to pick up a free helmet from UPD headquarters.
We want people wearing helmets. There's a reason, okay?
I get it. When I was in college, I felt invincible, too.
But this can happen to anybody.
A lot of the time, it's from just a car simply
not seeing the scooter. You're much smaller on the road.
You're much smaller on the road. A car's not gonna see you.
Now, this doesn't sound like it was involved with a car.
Maybe it was, I don't know.
- [Woman] It was not.
- It was not involved with another car?
- [Woman] No, it was just her.
- Just hitting a median, but...
You know, anything can happen,
and if she was wearing a helmet,
I'm sure a lot of these injuries
could have been a lot less damaging.
I don't know what else we can do as a company.
We gave 360 helmets away,
gave a bunch more helmets away yesterday,
and we just continue to do what we can
to try to put helmets on heads,
but unless the student will take the helmet
and physically put it on their head
before riding their scooter, there's nothing else we can do.
I feel like we do a good job with our check sheets, even.
We tell customers, stay right behind the driver side mirror
or the passenger side mirror,
don't stay right in the middle of the lane
where a lot of cars will drip oils or drip water
from their air conditioning. That kind of thing.
Stay out of those areas. Don't hug corners too tight.
Make sure you wear eye protection.
Sunglasses are good during the day, clear at night.
We preach this stuff over and over and over and over again,
but it does no good if people don't listen.
It's heart wrenching to wake up, come to work,
and read an article in the newspaper like that,
or see a news report that's bad news.
(man offscreen sings "Darth Vader" theme song)
- [Cameraman] I feel like
we should have a ceremonial march every morning.
- Here, get a close up of this, you're gonna love this.
- [Cameraman] What? What, is it broken?
- [Man With Cellphone] Oh no!
- [Man Behind Camera] Aw, did you break it?
- No, I just came over here and looked at it, but it's
cracked all the way around there.
- [Man Behind Camera] Golly, my gator, my poor gator.
- The only way that could get cracked
- [Cameraman] Poor guy.
is for somebody to run it into the wall.
- Yeah, I like the new poll feature
on Instagram stories. Like, do you love our gator?
- [Man Behind Camera] Yeah, yeah.
- And then like when people hit yes or no.
I took a shot yesterday of the new gator uniform,
said, "do you guys really like these? Yes or no."
We're at like a 55, 45 right now.
- [Cameraman] Yes?
- Yeah.
- I think the biggest thing that I want to do
is hire a service manager. But I really need Mike to
find an hour to look through the roles and responsibilities
that I've created for that position.
I'd really like to find that person
who's very skilled in it, but has the leadership ability.
So that way, can prioritize everything,
yet still be like no, man, let me show you how this is done.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
- So that we can make sure that it's done this way
from here on out. Make sure that we're...
It's just quality man. I want the very...
And efficiency. I know there can be
three or four different ways a particular job can get done.
But if there's a more efficient way of doing it,
and you have somebody who can teach you
the more efficient way of doing it,
then that would be better for everybody.
It's coaching, it's building up,
it's accountability, it's saying,
hey, you're not meeting the mark here.
What can I do to help you reach this mark?
Is there a place where time is being wasted?
Let's see how we can eliminate that.
We need a coach back there, is what we need.
- Let's just say for the sake argument,
we get a serviceman. Let's say,
for the sake of argument, he was a service manager
at an auto dealership, Ford Parks...
- Yeah. - Parks Ford.
He comes over. Now he is not affiliated
in any way with New Scooters 4 Less up until this point.
So how is this guy, now let's just think about this.
Let's just play the devil's advocate.
Because to me, thinking is like mental chess.
I'm trying to think about all these moves
before I wanna move. Just how my mind works.
So he comes in, a stranger to everybody,
Colin's gonna say, I want you to do this, this, this,
this, and this, and you gotta tail the gator,
which makes sense, that's what he would do.
So this new guy is gonna go out onto the floor
and he's gonna say, I want you guys to do this, this,
this, this, and this. Now the question is,
how well do you think that's gonna be received?
- It's how it's communicated. It's not,
this person is coming in and this is your boss,
do what he says. It's a, hey, I'm here to help you,
I'm here to coach you, to help you be more efficient,
I'm here to help you make more money.
- Exactly. Exactly.
- That's the guy you need.
- Right, that's it.
(sputtering)
- Say it's any technician, and he goes up and says,
do you want to make more money? Then buy into me.
Let me help you. Because when we're on the same page,
and you understand what I'm trying to accomplish here,
and what I'm trying to help you do,
well let me tell you what. By me helping you,
that's gonna help us grow this service department.
By us growing this service department,
it's gonna put more money in your pocket.
What's better than that?
- I get it, I totally get it.
- That's the point - I'm just trying to...
- Of a service manager. It's not like
this guy just stepped in and is bossing me around
and he ain't never even been here for a while,
and I've been here for five years.
I ain't listening to this guy.
Well, that's what destroys a culture pretty rapidly.
- So, Colin said you could absolutely have lunch,
and that Lee's gonna sell a (honk) ton.
That was what it was. - I'll cover you.
- That's was what it was, - You need lunch or something?
- A (honk) ton - I'll just watch the front.
- Of scooters while you're gone.
- Alright, let me go take the showroom
and show Stephanie how to sell, sell, sell.
- Yeah, let me go show you how to set up in here.
(electronic dance music)
- Do you answer the phone like I do?
I want you to start answering the phone like I do.
"Where two wheels are better than four."
- I like that.
- [Cameraman] Yes, let's hear it, practice it.
- Let's practice. Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring.
- Just call me and then, - Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring
- We'll pretend. I can't do it.
- Do it.
(phone ringing)
- Do it.
- I can't do it.
Do it, go. - I can't.
New Scooters 4 Less, where two wheels are better than four.
That's him.
- [Older Man] Do you have any mobility scooters?
- Oh, it was you calling? I was like,
that was terrible, - That was him calling.
I'm so glad that wasn't a real customer.
Boys, I gotta go speak at UF
and inspire a bunch of young children.
(employee laughs)
- [Cameraman] Do you get a little nerves?
- Me? - Yeah.
- I think now, it really depends on the group
I'm speaking in front of. - [Cameraman] Yeah.
I'd be more nervous speaking in front of business people,
- [Cameraman] Right.
- Right now? The students, I feel pretty comfortable with.
Cause everything they do is free-flowing.
I remember the first time I spoke in front of,
I think it was the Entrepreneurship Club,
but I'm talking like, 2007, 2008.
- [Cameraman] I might have been there.
- I'm talking early, early, early, early.
I walked in, and I'm wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt.
And maybe it was just the Entrepreneurship Club
was a little bit more formal back then,
but these kids were all wearing suits,
and I'm like, "oh, crap, what did I just get myself into?"
This 101? What's up man, how are you?
- Doing good.
- Good to see you.
(electronic dance music)
It's nice and cool in here. - Is this the vlog?
- This is the vlog, yes.
- Wow.
- Say hello to the vlog.
(electronic dance music continues)
- So I'm somebody who's consistently working right now,
and my dream is to work for a new publishing company
or start a new publishing company.
- Okay.
- And I wanted to ask you, what's the hardest part
about starting a new business?
Cause I know you said it's hard to find money,
and everything like that.
- I think the hardest part is actually
getting the guts to do it.
- Really?
- There's so much pressure right now, and I felt it too.
Parents are usually a big part of it, or family,
that sort of thing. Mom and dad and stuff are like,
"Man, you're in college. I want you
to go use this college education, get a nice job,
have benefits, have all that sort of stuff."
But then you're also like, I'm young.
I don't have kids right now.
I don't have a mortgage right now.
You're in a situation where now's the time to take a risk.
So why not take it? I would say,
if you want to start a publishing company,
then start it. Start it. Tell mom and dad,
tell family, tell anybody else.
Say, "I'm gonna try this, but I promise you.
If I fail or if it doesn't do what I expect it to do
after two years, then I'll go get
that corporate America job or whatever it is, you know?
But have...
- Have the guts?
- It's having the guts. Just have the guts and just do it.
That's the best advice I can tell you.
And don't wait. You can start now.
You can go get an LLC,
or however you want to have a business.
You can start it now, while you're in school.
Start working on it, start developing it
while you're in school. There's nothing wrong with that.
People think you have to wait until school's over.
Why? Start now.
- So I want to hear your story more in detail,
like when you first started, when you were still in school,
everything you had to do. How did you get the space?
How did you buy the scooters? Everything like that.
- That's a good question.
So we reached out to a real estate agent,
started looking for space. Now, we wanted it
to be cheap as possible, right?
So the spaces that we found were very small showroom space.
They were half warehouse, and half
very small showroom space.
The total square footage was like 2000 square foot.
It was like eight miles away from campus,
north, industrial park, way far away from campus,
which isn't great for students in terms of traveling,
but it was so cheap.
- Cause it's like right here.
- I mean, it was so cheap. Now, we planned for
like a six month runaway. So you want to look at
what the expenses are going to be.
We talked to the neighboring businesses,
like, hey neighbor, what's your utility bill?
What's it's gonna cost per month?
Start knowing what those expenses are,
so we could plan for those expenses
and make sure we had enough money
to pay the rent, to pay the lights,
that type of thing. I would give that advice to anybody.
Like, if I could do anything I wanted...
If I could just play video games all day,
that's what I would do. And then I would say,
go trendy entertainment was one of the biggest...
Sold for like $17 million or something,
and it was a Gainesville business.
There's actually companies here in Gainesville
that are developing video games.
So if anybody said, "Oh, I love playing video games,"
I would say, "Then go play their video game for them."
You know? Or go get involved, find the company's...
You wouldn't believe that there are video game companies
here in Gainesville that are doing so well,
or that are startups, but there are.
And you can get involved with them. You know what I mean?
If you just think you like entrepreneurship,
and you want to find out if entrepreneurship
is right for you, there's entrepreneurs all in this city.
Just go find them, find one that
you think would interest you, and just say,
can I intern with you guys? Or do you have a part time job?
Or whatever, and just be involved. Cool?
- Alright, thank you. - Do it man.
- It was nice talking to you. - Yeah, nice meeting you.
Yeah, nice meeting you, man.
That was pretty good for winging it.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
- I need to start...
Yeah, how I did it worked, but there's a lot of easier ways
to do it now.
- [Cameraman] Yeah. Crowdfunding?
Start a crowdfunding campaign.
There's websites developed to it,
just spend the time to make your crowdfunding campaign
a success. And I've learned
just from being around people who've done it
that it's all about marketing the crowdfunding campaign
before it's actually launched.
Saying, hey, we're gonna launch this campaign on this day.
Market, market, market, market, market, market, market.
And then once it's released, start selling.
That's a really cool shot, actually.
So we're done for the day. It's like eight something, right?
Do you have the time on there? Does that have time on there?
- [Cameraman] I don't on here, no.
- It's 8:03. Talk to us. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
Pinterest, Snapchat. Do it,
cause I'm usually at the other end of all those.
Have a good night. I don't know if you can even see my face,
it's probably so dark.
- [Cameraman] It is pretty dark.
- Yeah, now you can see my face.
Alright, well, have a good night.
That was fun, that was a good talk. Good day.
- [Cameraman] Say thanks for--
- Busy day.
I thought I crushed sales today.
- [Cameraman] You did.
- Kinda going back to my roots.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
- So, this is Colin and Austin, signing off.
(electronic music)
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