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Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:09 am
by skip
Well maybe it is time to create a virtual legacy like Muir. So far anything in print or the internet lives on, that said you and your apostle
Robbie should create Bug Me style self help repair/maintenance videos. It seems your customers are too busy working with you that photos/documenting is an after thought, so one could film/photo the other. The photos may be better as they could be incorporated into your book or DVD. To make some cash maybe a one time payment for a subscription service and put your info in the cloud.

Being a boomer ex-muscle car/motorcycle guy now an air cooled devotee, these cars will fade away as very few younger folks have the $ and time or desire to deal with pretty much a hobby car. I offered a sweet GS400 drop top to my grandson, he balked rather lease a BMW, I ain't getting dirty. Not only that I understand a replacement battery for a Prius is under $1500. So what I'm saying nowadays people are hooked on technology in the car instead of the car itself. Drunks and housewifes who can't drive will get self driving/parking cars.

I'm keeping my 76 Westy and 74 Thing, they'll have to pry from my cold dead hands or something.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:28 pm
by Bleyseng
Hmmm, all my kids drool over who might get one of my aircooled cars........
Both boys like to fix stuff and help maintain the damn things

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:15 am
by MonoCone
When I bought the Bus it was something I could just afford. Now 13 years later I honestly can afford most any air cooled I want...but I do not want to.
Age, weariness, other things interest me more. My kids are not interested. (Now if I had a Vanagon or <shock> Syncro a couple of them would be waiting in line!)

Hope that younger folks would get more into it but financially it is very hard. In SoCal most of the "younger" crowd into ACVWs is Hispanic. I am glad that at least some of the millennials are interested.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:59 am
by Amskeptic
asiab3 wrote:
Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:03 pm
Listening intently. Willing to quit my day job to assist.

Robbie
Amskeptic wrote:Things have changed. I will wait for your ideas.
So we are all listening and nobody's talking.

I am seized up at two obstacles:

a) I hate the impersonal non-interactive aspects of video procedures (and I am withering in my scorn of most production values of most auto-self-help videos)

b) I hate even worse the thought of cramming my artistic technical communications down to a phone screen

Is it time for me die, then?
ColinSharkJumpedOld

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:02 am
by Amskeptic
MonoCone wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:15 am

I do not want to. Age, weariness, other things interest me more. My kids are not interested.

Hope that younger folks would get more into it but financially it is very hard. In SoCal most of the "younger" crowd into ACVWs is Hispanic. I am glad that at least some of the millennials are interested.

If I won the lottery, I would instantly offer a steep discount to newbies and a program to get them on the road.

Alas, I don't play the numbers.

Do the Hispanic youngsters like to modify their VWs or do some of them honor the original engineering?
Colin

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:42 pm
by asiab3
I had a reply typed up, I guess I forgot to hit send. As far as not talking, I think the remaining hive of vintage Volkswagens could use traveling assistance.

How about a long drawn-out training program for three or four of us from around the country, and we continue the mission so you can be more picky about who and what projects you take on? By participating a little more “hands off,” you could still monetize and enjoy what you’ve built.

...or is this just recalling flashbacks of an HVAC repair business “management” position? :)

Robbie

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 8:02 pm
by blue72beetle
What's the problem here? You still like meeting people and helping them with their VW's, but you're tired of driving all over the country?
Genuine question, I'm not trying to be a smart ass.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 2:29 pm
by Amskeptic
blue72beetle wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 8:02 pm
What's the problem here?

a) Generalized Panic - that our numbers are dropping below critical value for maintaining a community

b) I Love To Drive In Circles - but the numbers of fellow drivers who are distracted by their phone toys and nav screens and whatnot has begun to increase the risk of getting terminally pasted

c) Gentrification - I have always preferred to work with people who drive! their! Volkswagens! but I see restoration is getting more and more creampuff and I find over-restoration not only looks like crap to me, but makes people less willing to drive!

d) Crap Parts - and I am less willing to drive too, seeing as I have some nice VWs that I no longer can bear to wear out or get windshield's cracked or bashed into at a parking lot, etc.

e) Congealed Resistance - I am battling phones that can kill me due to distracted driving, but the same phone culture is killing human interaction and my next step. I really don't like the video method. I do love the one-on-one actual appointment method the best. I like the intimacy of a book second best, even an e-book if necessary, but I will recommend a 1600x900 screen minimum, but nooooooo everybody prefers to crush their lives and their their dreams into a 6x3" box that they have to swipe at all damn day just to see a high resolution diagram.

f) waaaaaaaaaaaaaa, there.
Colin

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 3:25 pm
by MonoCone
Amskeptic wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:02 am
Do the Hispanic youngsters like to modify their VWs or do some of them honor the original engineering?
Colin
From my observations, they are generally nice cars but lots of chrome, most are lowered and customization is encouraged.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 11:21 am
by skip
While you try to figure it out life will pass you by, just start writing your book with the nice drawings and either offer as an e-subscription or self publish. You can pick/enforce the format. Robbie already offered to assist, idk maybe split the country up as to who covers what area. I thought selling a video record of your visit and/or book to your customers at the end of the visit would be a good idea.
I agree driving a really nice old car nowadays is a gamble with you life and money. I sold my last 2 restos as they became to nice to drive/enjoy. The supermarket parking lot already customized my daily/winter driver. My current VWs I did the body work on and can do it again and take them anywhere (wish there was more off road opportunity around here) in paved over NJ.
Your not going to get rich doing what your doing, but you provide a valuable service and you must love it or you wouldn't do it, right?
A lot of folks enjoy your travels, writings and pictures even if you don't touch their cars. Your trips have served me well for the last several years that I have been unable to travel myself, for that I thank you. God speed in what ever you decide.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 7:33 pm
by tommu
You got to get with the Zeitgeist Colin. What would 17 year old Colin, living 2016, say to you about your views on contemporary culture? Creating content for an 8" screen is the way it is now. People forgive the production quality to get the information they need. Maybe those phones are changing rather than killing social interaction... and maybe it's time to get one of those phones!

I had no idea that your numbers were dropping. If you had a facebook page we the initiated would have somewhere to refer the neophytes to - in a language they understand.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 3:52 am
by Jivermo
I agree with some of ideas here. Tommu has some good points. Since you have asked the questions, I think that, tough as it may be for you, you need to strike some kind of deal with modern communication technology, melding it in with the air cooled passion that we all share. Embrace a tiny bit of shameless self promotion, using modern means. A good, frequently updated Itinerant Facebook page is a great idea. I meet a lot of Bay Window and Vanagon people who have not heard of the Itinerant. Why is that? I asked you once about basic business cards, which you don't have. Why not? The more you get your name out, the larger the interest generated, the more VW buses preserved and saved ( yes, I believe that), the larger a population awaiting your book. Last night, I spoke with a woman whose Bay Westy has broken down in Jensen Beach, Fl. She left Asheville for a road trip to Miami and the Keys, last week. She has owned her ‘79’ for 5 years, and could not tell me if the valves had been adjusted, or if the fuel filter had been changed during all that time. I spoke with her for an hour, trying to help her as best I could. I asked her if she had ever heard of the Itinerant. “Nope”. When I told her what you were about, she said, “Wow, I wish that I had known about this guy!” That is what I mean about saving buses. A wider net cast might have caught this woman’s eye, and maybe she would have now been aware of certain work that her bus needs, and that she is the one to take charge, and learn how to do it. A Facebook page would be a good start for this, and it could be immediate and easy. And yeah, a smart phone is a good idea, used properly.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:21 am
by skip
Excellent advice Jivermo. I'm reluctant to accept new technology myself especially after retiring from bleeding/cutting edge tech, keep it simple. Complexity is the enemy of reliability. I was forced to replace my blackberry with a smart phone and learning that it is a great tool if you know how to use it. I find that Youtube is a BIG help with video information, somehow people monetize it (popup ads). I have a Facebook account but don't use it because I don't have anything to share worth the effort yet, but you on the other hand have much to share. Again to Jivermo's idea, you have to get with the times, grow/learn or die/wither. If the physical travelling/driving is wearing you out, then remote technology will help. If you think you ran out of customers you need to use this technology to market yourself. If this sounds too much like corporate/business hassle, then retire, write the book, ride off into the sunset Kimosabe.

Had a thought, maybe a LinkedIn profile. even tho I'm retired people still reach out to me.

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:56 am
by Amskeptic
skip wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:21 am
Excellent advice Jivermo. I'm reluctant to accept new technology myself especially after retiring from bleeding/cutting edge tech, keep it simple. Complexity is the enemy of reliability. I was forced to replace my blackberry with a smart phone and learning that it is a great tool if you know how to use it. I find that Youtube is a BIG help with video information, somehow people monetize it (popup ads). I have a Facebook account but don't use it because I don't have anything to share worth the effort yet, but you on the other hand have much to share. Again to Jivermo's idea, you have to get with the times, grow/learn or die/wither. If the physical travelling/driving is wearing you out, then remote technology will help. If you think you ran out of customers you need to use this technology to market yourself. If this sounds too much like corporate/business hassle, then retire, write the book, ride off into the sunset Kimosabe.

Had a thought, maybe a LinkedIn profile. even tho I'm retired people still reach out to me.

I have eighteen prospective customers here on January 22 with this old website, word-of-mouth, repeat customer model. The schedule may very well fill up as reliably as ever. That would be fine. I am not so much concerned (yet) about the marketing of the Itinerary because it is such a low-volume boutique business that I only need 60-70 people per year.

Books and technical articles however, require an investment of time and effort that leaves me stymied because I cannot peer into the future well enough, and that paralyzes me in the present. Stupidly, I fear so much that there will not be a single VW left by the time this book (whose very mission is uncertain) is completed, that it paralyzes the focus required to plough into it. The lighter, easier book(s) of annual travels well, I need an editor to show me the way to actual publication on whatever platforms make sense.
FDDColin
(focus-deficit-disordered)

Re: OVERVIEW

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:27 pm
by appetite
I always pop in here, usually not logged on, to check out people's projects and problem solving efforts. I learn a lot just by lurking and poking around.

The archives of this site can form the basis for a basic troubleshooting manual. In essence, this site is a book. Perhaps there is a way to monetize access through a subscription model, with an up-sell for a personal visit by an IAC rep (Colin or Robbie or others).

A social media presence would help, along with some direct marketing on the samba, type2.com, etc.

An out of left field suggestion: why not align yourself with a respected vendor (Wolfsburg West comes to mind) and get sponsored by them as an in-house guru, who promotes their products online, through social media channels, during the itinerary, etc. The vendor becomes an official sponsor of IAC and you earn commission through product promotion. Perhaps they would even cough up some seed money for a physical or e-book.

Whatever you do, I'll be a annual customer as long as you keep the itinerary alive.

James