Futon Season

Futon season is in full swing. The shop has been pretty busy lately so that is why its been a while since my last post. This is just a quick update to let everyone know what I've got cookin this Summer in terms of our futon venture. 

Last August we took a trailer of futons to The University of Northern Iowa and had a truck sale behind UNI Book and Supply (the campus's main book store) during their move in weekend. It went so well that this year we are planning on doing it again and adding another campus to the agenda. At the urging of my good friend Ryan Mauritz, I have decided to take a second load of futons to Ames, IA and sell them on, or close to, Iowa State University's campus. I've known Ryan since childhood. He is a great friend who shares my enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and is totally pumped about selling futons. He is currently taking business classes at ISU and considering pursing an MBA.

UNI and ISU's move in weekends overlap so Ryan and his roommate (Will) are going to be running the Ames / ISU truck sale while I hold down the fort at Cedar  Falls / UNI again. Since we are attempting to double our truck sale figures from last year, that means I have twice as much stuff to get ready. Long story short, I've got a garage full of lumber, a store full of mattress building supplies and tired muscles. We will be offering pine futon frames accompanied with black futon mattresses, all of which I have to get ready between now and August 16th. Luckily I've had offers from friends and family to help with all of the prep work and it is likely I will be taking them up on their kind offers to help. 

I've included some pictures below of the UNI truck sale last year and a couple pictures of the supplies I've ordered in to get ready for this years sale too. I'll be sure to do a follow-up post to let everyone know how it goes. Hooray for FUTONS!!!!

We didn't have enough room in our back-room to store all of the foam we needed to get ready for the busy season. So... I stacked it all in the showroom. It looks a little funny but it works. Gary, my father-in-law, helped me unload all of this foam and has also been helping me cut wood for pine frames.

More foam.

I moved all of my tools to our garage at home to make room for the cotton and foam at the store. The store will be a mattress factory and the garage will be a frame factory.

I ordered all of our lumber from a local lumber yard here in Dubuque, Spahn & Rose. They have been great to work with and the quality of the lumber has been very pleasing. The best part... they deliver!!! It was cool to watch. This guy pulled up with a "crane truck" and literally picked up these big stacks and just put them on our drive way. Then I loaded it all into the garage. Sweaty job, but it beats hand picking each board from Menards. 

UNI truck sale 2010!!!

My sister Sara and my Dad both went to UNI with me to sell futons while Jenny watched the store in Dubuque.

Here's my Dad and me. It was so HOT that weekend.

 

I guess that's a wrap for this post. I'll be sure to give an update on how it all goes. Thanks again for reading.