Cornerstone in the Work zone:

Yes, we are still here & doing amazingly well. This year has been very busy & I have spent several weeks in the field with the men. I did this as an experiment to encourage them as well as myself. I wanted to show them as well as myself, I could still do the work. My wife & sons were a little worried at first but little did they know I had been working out everyday training for this very experiment. I had a great time. I also learned a lot about how we are doing things in the field. Such as building Hydro mobile, safety, systems that they have developed in the field, as well as dealing with some of the basic day to day problems on the site. It was a little like the boss under cover, except the undercover part. I met & worked with many of our vender’s yard people & field reps that my foreman work with daily & I never get to interact with. I gained great insight into running a job in the field today opposed to the old school way.

I do want to tell you quickly about one of our venders with a yard forklift operator I will kindly refer to as Queen Latifah. Her attitude reminded me of this actress’s bubbly personality in dealing with the situation at hand. She was extremely helpful & went out of her way to help find what I was looking for. What a pleasure to find someone who cared enough to go out of her way (not knowing I was the owner of my company) to help solve my problem. Knowing there are people that are out there helping my company weather this storm makes me believe I just may not be out here alone trying to make it through. All in all, it was a very rewarding experience & I grew as a business owner & employer for it.

We have done well this year (so the Bankers have said) & that is what counts (need cash flow you know). We had a plan which I laid out in the previous letters & to my amazement it worked & beyond my expectations. We had as many as 40 employees working, learned much & even showed a little profit. Much of this praise goes to the principle of not letting fear motivate us, staying true to what we believe & working hard to please our clients. I hope you are doing the same.

Sincerely,
Larry Bonife
President