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| The destruction of hurricane Katrina was not limited
to homes as many businesses were heavily damaged or destroyed. I, like many
others that were employed before the storm found ourselves looking for new job, and not
necessarily in our own field as many of the tech jobs for the most part gone away.
It's you might think that it's tech jobs would be one of the first comeback, however,
there is one problem that no one saw. The problem was most of the companies they
came into the region to rebuild were from the Eastern Seaboard, and when they came and
they did not hire engineers, they just imported their own putting many of us out of work. The company I work for, Talon Data Services was virtually destroyed by floodwaters as the office had 5 ft. of water on the ground floor. My old boss Richard lost over $2 million in servers, workstations and laptops that is insurance would not cover because the damage was caused by flood waters rather than when or fire. If the building had burned down in we would most likely have been banking business within 90 days, and all those be back working in making good money rebuilding the the technology infrastructure that was lost. Not knowing what I was amended to make a living and watching the bills pile up I was becoming depressed and not sleeping well. So one night I sat down at the computer try to figure out how I could turn my computer expertise into a paycheck again when I came up the idea of creating a bumper sticker. Even though I've never been very good with PhotoShop, I was a decent artist at one time so the idea or creating an image was nothing more than getting into a mindset where instead of working with pins and paper, I was working with computer. After about four hours of creating into leading I came up with the idea of making a square sticker instead of a regular bumper sticker. But the idea was to wear just didn't look right so I created a circle, then another circle and by six o'clock in the morning the basics of the sticker shown above was finished. They now I have to do is come up with the wording I wanted to put on it, the problem was it had to be telling but at the same time it had to be just slightly comical as there was nothing funny about hurricane Katrina. Creating satire has there been warm a strong suits, so it took several days and many failed attempts before I came up with design you see above. Once I finished them I printed out a hardcopy and start making the rounds of the mom-and-pop stores in my area to see what type of response I might. I was really surprised when people start asking how much they were, what would they sell for and what was the minimum order? well, I couldn't find these people, and tell them that they had been trained yet I just finished creating the design. But I would have been ready within a month, and our call them as soon as I had been back from the printing company. Then all I had to do was go home and get on the Internet to find a partner that would do a four-color sticker at a price I could afford and still make profit. the research took all of an hour and once I ordered them I had them within 10 days and I was back at stores collecting the money. by times sales had fallen off as memories of the hurricane faded and no one wanted to be reminded of it any longer than I had over 3000 printed, and I may have 200 left. Needless to say, the idea allowed me to pay the mortgage and other bills, and I think that was a very good thing. Because there's a very good chance if you were not for this idea I may have lost my home to the mortgage company. if you are interested in purchasing one wore the stickers, they are $3.00 plus $.75 shipping and handling, and can be ordered at the address below. Karen Johansen - WB5GEO Sorry, no credit cards or COD |
