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Yep, that's where I worked, folks! |
I began this website
as part of a website portfolio for my first business I started up
back in 1996... "Starbright Communications". I designed
a portfolio of websites to show potential clients my web building
skills and thought that since I already had lots of pictures
of my Jeep and the modifications that I had done to it, those
pictures would work nicely for content. I posted the
first permutation of this website and
the rest of the portfolio to a server connected to the
Internet so that I could access them wherever I was and whenever I
needed to. Well, several months later, I got an e-mail from
a Jeeper in New York State asking me why there wasn't any
prices on my website for my Rock Sliderz and wanted to know how much I was
selling them for. Taking me by complete surprise, I had
no idea how to answer. Finding a use for extra pocket
money has never been a problem for me, so I did a search for
different companies who built similar stuff and told him the
price would be around 75% of the cheapest ones, sending him
links to all the sites I had found, thinking that surely he'd
find a set of rocker panel protection that he liked better
than my homemade version in the list. Well, he didn't.
He sent me a money order, and I built my second set of Rock
Sliderz for him. I figured if they fit on my rig when I
was done, they should fit on his rig, right? Through some miracle, the
install went surprisingly well (only one small hang-up with
the old-style secondary mounting system that I have since
ditched).
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Good thing ugly skips a generation! |
After resolving that issue,
I went ahead and posted up the price on the website (only one
product back in those days). A couple of other Jeepers
stumbled across my site and ordered, and then the Jeeps
Unlimited guys caught wind also. It's been exciting,
starting up a successful business...especially in a market as
competitive as this one (profit margins are quite small
after overhead expenses are paid and equipment is purchased!).
Today, I offer over 400 products, more than 75 of which are hand-built
by me in my metal fabrication shop. I've been trained the
"right way" to treat customers with my Ritz-Carlton
background,
so I'm a step or two ahead of the competition in that realm,
even if they have bigger shops and make more
money.
So, I
offer to you, my fellow Jeepers, great bang-for-your-buck
prices on over-engineered products that I have built for MY
Jeep and have personally used, abused, and tested, changing
the design if something doesn't work right. Ain't no
junk that leaves my shop, so you can rest assured that you
will be taken great care of when dealing with me and your
purchases will outlast your Jeep's life. Thank you for
coming to visit...I look forward to assisting you with your
questions and your modifications.
Very Sincerely,
Kevin
P.S. 2003 was an
extremely hard year for me. I lost my Grandmother and
have had to work up to 90 hours per week sometimes to keep
up with demand. I started somewhat of a journal to let people know what was going on with me, and
also to vent, frankly. If you have interest in how that
tough
year treated me, feel free to read about it
HERE. I guess I'm still not
quite ready to delete the page yet.