40 boxes landed today…but so much is now in stock.  I can’t believe how fast this has come together.  I have spent a month, that’s it, just one month since I sent the smoke signals out and here I am sitting in a fully stocked shop.  I haven’t taken one day off, and 8 hours is a shift, not a day, and I have loved every step of the way.  Many thanks to Shellie, Mike, Andy, and Brian for all the help getting this machine rolling.  It’s been quite a ride already and I can’t wait to make it happen!

I have a pile of cymbals worth sifting through, and  I have a Dunnett Stainless on the way, a couple of George Way snares, 3 Tempus snares, and a curly maple Craviotto that will melt your face!  I also have 2 Danny Carey snares in stock, a gold madrone sq2, and racks of remo and evans.  Aquarian, Agops, and much more on the way!

Everything is in place-I just need some customers!  What can I get for you?

I am doing a bit of work on this dark spring morning, Memorial Day weekend is underway and the clouds are forming like they always do, looming over the general public, threatening to ruin whatever plans they may have made.  I am grateful that I do not ever make plans for weekends like this, because the letdown would be awful.  But I  digress….

I wanted to pull out of my work for a few and sort of write down what has been going on the past couple of weeks.  I want to let people know what I’ve been doing, plus I want a log of all that I have done to reflect on once I reach a time in my life when I feel it is good to do so.  I am at a point that some never get to, some never get through, and some thrive on it.

I am feeling good about this.

If you didn’t know already, I left the Drum Shop last week.  I had given 10 years of service there and established many great contacts, made life long friends, and learned the ins and outs of the drum business.  My job  there was all hands on, I inherited the duty of running the place from a very early stage.  This is the main reason as to why I got so good so quick.  The problem with this is that the entire time, I carried a sense of ownership to everything I did, with customers, with vendors, I wore my pride on my sleeve but yet, it wasn’t my store.

So when I thought about the Drum Center of Portsmouth, I wanted to implement the same principles I had used in Portland, but up the ante a bit: why not make DCP for the people, and by the people?  Why not give the customers a feeling that they are part of building this together?  Why not make this the place you come to hang to instead of a store you patronize?

So how am I going to do this? Well, I want all of you to let me know what you want me to stock: that’s right, don’t ask if I carry something, tell me what you need me to carry in stock at all times and you will come buy the items once you need them.  I will always have it in stock for you.  I am implementing policies that will allow that to happen, always.

What have I been doing?

Well, simply put, I have worked harder these past couple of weeks than I ever have.  Allow me to say how humble and proud I am to be an American and to have this amazing opportunity to start my own business and to have the opportunity to flourish or fail based upon my own desire to do so.  Nobody is bailing me out, nobody is granting me funds.  It’s my will, my desire, my dreams, my actions.  There are a million places on this earth with people that are not as fortunate as we are who complain far less than we do.  We live in a great country, and I thank all of our veterans on this Memorial Day weekend.

…and I am extremely grateful for technology.  Technology has allowed me to put this together as quickly as I have.  A lot of people start a store, you know, a small little hot dog stand with one vendor they buy from.  Me, coming from a Five Star Drum Shop background, cannot do such a thing.  I have set up dealerships and partnerships with all the vendors to be able to populate the shop in early June.  I have uploaded spreadsheet after spreadsheet housing tens of thousands of products to track costs, margins, and sales volume.  I have gotten insurance, Set up credit card terminals, got my own dumpster, (yeah!) and got a logo.  I have got a boat load of fixtures that are being delivered later today and I will be painting them  BLACK to make the bronze and chrome pop. What else?  Oh, a billion other little things I can’t think of right now.

I am eternally grateful for my family and friends who have been so supportive of me.  My girlfriend Shellie has been a runner of sorts for me, taking care of things I haven’t time for, feeding me, and being my biggest cheerleader.  I hope she knows how much I appreciate that.  I also have connected with other folks that will be part of the Drum Center that I am excited about telling you real soon.

I haven’t slept a heck of a lot, the days have been no less than 13-15 hours of work with little breaks.  My pug dog Bella has been on my lap most of the time while I load data.  I have enjoyed this labor, I feel liberated, and feel that there is a end result for me.  By gathering knowledge for EVERY facet of the business, I will have a better handle on it.

What does this store represent?  Well, it’s the start of what I would like to call the new breed of niche marketing, creating the interactive retail experience.  A shop that people contribute their passions to, in store and online.  This is not just about having the best prices or best service, this is about community, no matter what part of the world you are in.  It’s about building a family, a family of drummers, to congregate and share their passion for drums and drumming.  This is about building trust and loyalty, your continued  patronage will build this store to a level where we can carry whatever you want, arrange factory trips, get passes to the best shows, sample prototypes, all the things that are behind the curtain at other stores.  This is interactive.  This is by the people.  This is what the store is all about.  Are you as excited to get started as I am?

The future begins now!