Our new delivery vehicle and how it came to be...

So what do you do as a company who's goal is to reduce its footprint as much as possible while still being able to deliver our services? You adapt of die, that's what you do. Ok, I know dramatic phrasing, but seriously, you do have to adapt or die. You have to think of something so simple that when people see it they think "damn why didn't I think of that?"

So what's a company to do if "delivery" is part of your company culture? Do you buy/rent/lease the baddest truck on the market? Do you go with a Hybrid vehicle not designed for towing and make it fit? Or do you "keep it simple stupid" (K.I.S.S.).

We choose to "KISS" and use a product not originally designed for the task at hand but made obvious sense to us. We choose the Piaggio MP3-500 as our tow vehicle and boy was that a fight! The dealer thought we were crazy and quite frankly going to "get ourselves killed!" The engineers & Designers from Piaggio just shook their heads at the very thought. They didn't think it would last as a tow vehicle much less do what we envisioned.

But that's the thing about thinking outside the box. Most people don't, engineers never envisions their creations being used for some of their most popular purposes outside of just a weekend ride. But when someone like me gets it into his head that "this makes sense." Well, it takes a bit more than the extreme to change my mind. Now I just have to figure out how to attach a damn hitch so could pull our existing x3-rail trailer, another "engineer head smacking notion!"

Luckily for me some fabricators I had worked with in the past on other "impossible" projects took one look at the vehicle asked me for x3 days alone with it and bam! I had a working hitch connection that just needed some expert wiring by my dealers service manager and I/we would be in business.

One short coming of using a vehicle like this was people's lack of respect on the road for motorcycle and bicycles. I thought I would change that equation by adding x2 130 d air horns to "get peoples attention" last thing I need to do is end up as someone's "hood ornament" in 5' o'clock traffic.

So what does a 500cc motorcycle look like after 20,000 miles of towing?
X3 rear ties
X1 pair of front tires changed
X2 motorcycle accident repairs (x1 to the Tupperware, x2 to the front bearings)
X3 oil changes
X1 clutch part changed cause it was showing signs of wear-&-tear and bound to fail. So we changed that part before it happened in a spectacular fashion.
X1 belt failure in the speed lane @70mph that left the belt shredded! With no internal damage!
X1 idiot driver stopping on a yellow light with x2 50cc vespa's being towed

And endless stares, pictures, and people hanging out their windows to video me at highway speeds. No speeding tickets, a couple parking tickets, no flat tires (knock on wood). No breakdowns during service but I did have to wait almost 13 weeks to get on the MP3 after being hit on a 50cc vespa on Valentines day of all days to get hit. Laying in the ER for x5-hrs before they will let your wife in to see you is NOT. A way to spend valentines day!

So what does a 500cc bike get for gas milage pulling a trailer and upwards of x3 50cc vespa's daily? 25 mpg on a throttle heavy day mixed in with strong ocean winds and 42 mpg on average! I once got 63-mpg but that's without the trailer and I was baby sitting the throttle all day!

Conclusions?
We will continue to use the MP3 as a delivery vehicle because its daily operating cost not including labor is $3.81 per mile (including repairs/maintenance)!! Yep you heard me right $3.81 per mile! He'll my gas cost per day are only $1.84 per day! You can't beat those kinds of cost. And why others aren't following suite is a mystery to me. It how our business is able to survive wave after wave of attacks from others trying to replicate our success. Except they don't understand one simple business premise keep your cost low, your prices competitive and your profit margin healthy!

Grow Verde saves the planet video one mile at a time!

Cruzing on a Verde Vespa

How Steve Jobs ended up sleeping with my wife and I every night for year

My wife and I had been talking about "it" for sometime. "It" was in the news, everybody was talking about "it" and everywhere we went "it" was everywhere! So what praytell are you asking is "it?" "it", is Steve Jobs !

Yes that! Steve Jobs who created all the really cool it's that are slowly taking over the world one person at a time. But that's getting ahead of myself and I need to explain how Steve Jobs ended up in my bedroom with me and my wife and why he is still there nightly, to this day!

You see the other "it" that JOBS created was the iPhone . Now before you start passing judgement on my wife and i about that "it" know first that we avoided "it" in the beggining.

When the iPhone came out we where not in line for a week hoping to be one of the first citizens to hold the mighty iPhone. In fact we were not even at the 2, 3rd, or 4th launch (wait if we are on the 3GS... well you get what I am saying) we patiently waited till the iPhone was the top or more commonly known as the "it."

Once JOBS' was the "it" device to have we still waited for it to fit into our tech heavy lives and provide to us the functionality that our previous devices delivered to us. And with the launch of the 3GS JOBS and his people convinced my wife and I to bring him into our lives, hell, even into ourbedroom every night.

My wife, who by the way is the president of a publishing company, owner of an Indie label, and majority stock holder in a Eco-Friendly transportation company in Miami. She uses her 3GS to read emails from each of her businesses. Write comments on Twitter under @roadtoashes her account where she shares details of her life and struggles as a woman writting an autobiography about her life growing up. She has 9,700+ people following her every word. She does her , multi-media webcast through UCast and she holds her conference calls via her

I on the other hand have married my to a Mophie (battery extenders) that gives me 100% battery life till 5 pm. Then I use the standard battery till 2 am everyday unless I have been tweeting like a demon or using my location based apps to check in as I go about my business day. I use mapmyride, loopt, tweetdeck, even GOOGLES' own "buzz" throughout the day.I update via facebook and linken and always use my calendar to remind me of my next meeting. Next month I replace my Mophie battery extenders with a new Mophie product that allows me to swipe credit cards on site and have an extra battery on hand to carry the burden of my daily workload.

So even though my wife and I talked about it for years before it ever happened! We willingly invited Steve Jobs in our lives and even into our beds every night as we charge up our for the next days busy schedule. The one thing we did wish was that Mophie would build a battery extender that used the standard plug to charge the battery now that would make going to bed in the dark with JOBS a lil less stressful.


Q Fortune is President & CEO of Grow Verde an Eco-Friendly Vespa-Sharing members only service being tested in Miami. The service is in stage 2 testing & under the application process for supplying the world with Carbon credits via it's members. Q is also part owner of an Indie Label that specializes in mobile applications & digital distribution. He is Executive Producing an audio series of an autobiography and is spearheading an Audio+ series due out late 2010.

You can reach him at Growverde@gmail.com for interview request.


- Posted using BlogPress from my & yes I have the Mophie battery extender on it as I write.

How apple became my personal Tech guru

What does Steve Jobs and his little company have in common with an upstart business in Miami?

Depends on who you ask that question to! Ask Steve Jobs about Grow Verde and he will tell you he has never heard of us. Yet deep in the heart of that Cuppertino CA company his many minions slave away for the benefit of Grow Verde.

His marketing people hyped up on caffine (add name brand caffine drink here) throw ideas around about what the next commercial should look like featuring the next iPhone 4GS and Grow Verde's iPhone app that uses the latest and greatest developer features that use the LEAST amount of battery power.

And better yet our app made easier because the app actually works. Job's programers have clocked overtime and delivered on time and under budget, upgrades to code used only by Grow Verde's reservation application available to members of their Vespa-share program.

Business has changed over the past 10 months to how we do business now, and how we did business in 2006 when our phone lines went live is also different. The iPhone 3GS is a stronger business based smart phone that I as a CEO can build my business around for years to come. The rumors of a 4G phone are sweat music to my ears, and does not create a furrowed brow as many other CEOs battle to keep up with technology trends.

I can build a business model and infrastructure around the guys at Apple and have confidence that they won't let me down. Without getting into details right now Apple itself bids on our iPhone app and who better to build your iPhone app than the people who actually built the

Times are changing and that state-sized city in California is getting into bed with smaller and smaller companies every day looking to make their product and services a part of everyday business.

I for one have opened my sheets and will snuggle tightly with the and the next that comes out .


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.