Independence2, LLC - i.2 - Where We Honor The Distributor

It's been eight months since I sent you my initial letter announcing my departure from Amweld/WWH and general plans to remain in the industry. Since that time, as you know, I've been working on the building blocks of putting together a new company. I have to admit that it's been a long time since I 've been so relaxed and happy with a project. It's just a pleasure to work with people who have enthusiasm for a goal and the dedication to bring perfection to a business plan. These members are both from and outside of our industry. All, as of this writing, are working with other companies, but have dedicated precious time and energy for this plan to be part of their future lives, as they will all be percentage owners in this venture. Along with finding great people and quality products, as you know if you have founded a business yourself, it just takes time to do it right. Hence, I have not just thrown together a fly-by-night company; instead, I am taking the time to build a long lasting organization.

This informational letter is to bring you up-to-date on our project and to give you another "peek-under-the-tent" on the progress of our organization created from the ground up with the distributor as the focal point. That's correct, YOU, are the focal point. We're not waving flags, preaching loyalty or offering programs that are more marketing than substance. Nor, are we dictating your margins, your return on your investment and finally, we are not selling through a "retail group" or to the "big box" stores. We'll get back to that subject at a later date or you can check out my blog site CLICK HERE. Which on occasion depending on my mood, will cover a variety of business topics that may be of interest to you and will possibly cover some non-business topics I find interesting. In the future, my blog will be linked to the company's website, which is still under development and construction, so, for now my blog is reachable by going to: www.the2amtalkradioshow.blogspot.com. I created it for the simple joy of expression concerning business, as well as, various prime time topics. Which is something that may or may not be appropriate for a business website, hence, I am only linking it to the website and not hosting it directly as a page on the company's website.

Now, on to the update, and a few more specifics on our progress. Our sourcing selection has yielded some very interesting hardware products ranging from: a superior Grade 1 lock, two different type of Grade 2 cylindrical levers and knobs, various types of closers, deadbolts, exit devices, hinges, tubular locks, and cylindrical levers with a variety of functions, all with a diverse offering of finishes and last, but not least, pricing that will guarantee distributors the ability to make very good margins on quality products. Other sample products include biometric locks, which will be structured in a way that will allow independent distributors to compete with the large manufacturer, who sells this same product line through their own "retail group". These sample products are arriving on a monthly basis, along with their documented testing results and all applicable industry standard certifications.

Our Importation and Transportation Department has been involved in numerous activities and is energetically creating the technological structure along with developing the Co-operative Agreements necessary with the multitude of logistical entities (Customs, Freight Forwarders, Brokers, etc.) in order to provide real-time tracking and door-to-door service, an as yet, non-existent option within this industry.

Our Operations and Marketing Member has spent exhaustive hours working with software experts implementing an internal business structure integrated to ensure real-time deliverable results on our hardware products and to establish a superior "ease-of-doing-business" with us that supports and enhances our first core company value, which is, our customers are the focal point of our business. As a way of introduction to you and since recruitment of some of our expertise took lace outside of our industry, I have asked Ms. Bonnie Buchanan, our Operations and Marketing Member, to include a few words on the topic of our organization and its technology. Ms. Buchanan has recently been published, June 2005, in CRMGuru.com and a copy of her article can be found by clicking on the following link, "Have CRM Vendors Ever Heard of Customer Centricity?"

"First, let me say< "Hello", to you all and I hope to one day meet each and every one of you in person. My experiences within your industry has shown me that it contains many, what us southerners would term "good people", along with a wonderful network of long-term business relationships that make up the nexus of your industry. Because of the character of the individuals, I have met so far, I truly look forward to developing long-term business relationships with each of you and over time, getting to know each other better. In addition, I want to thank you for the warm reception I have received from those of you within the industry that I have thus far had the pleasure of meeting. Ron, asked me to include a few words to you in this volume of our newsletter about our technological structure and our current system implementations, so pardon any "geek speak" and here goes:

On the Operations side:

We are implementing an Enterprise wide solution that ties together all business processes and every aspect of how we "touch" our customers. This is being accomplished through integration of Voice over IP (VoIP) a telecommunications protocol, back-end office applications (financial applications, etc.) tied to our Customer Management Relations (CRM) system, which handles our customer records and integrates them with our Warehouse Management System (WMS) and inventory tracking solution to provide up-to-date, Real-Time, critical information to you our customers. Through this up-to-date technology and our on-going customer satisfaction focus, we are determined to accomplish our goal of providing to you, our customers, the best and most superior customer experience possible. We hope that through the coming months you will be intrigued and hopefully, pleasantly surprised at the scope of just how serious we are about how valuable you are to us, not just form a one time product sale perspective, but as our business partner, with whom, we are determined to share success and enhance each of our organizations.

On the Marketing side:

Our goal is to provide you with an on-going customer focus, so, particularly during this time of development and new implementation, you may be asked to provide feedback in the form of a quick couple of answers on a rather painless survey. We ask that you bare with us and keep in mind that we ask this time of you only because we highly value your opinions and experiences. We want to make sure that you are happy and to accomplish that goal, we want to know in advance, not only what makes you unhappy, but also, how we can enhance our services to you, so that in turn, you can better serve your own customers. Who better to ask vital questions about how to make you happy and how we can help you increase your sales and service, than you? Maybe we can build into our structure and services, items or areas of interest to you or your customers that we have yet to consider, obviously, we would not know if we did not bother to ask. We are here for you, and because of you, we at Independence2, LLC vow never to forget that fact, so, CLICK HERE to take our latest survey.

I invite you to contact me directly via my e-mail address by clicking my name: Bonnie, with any questions or comments you may have. Thank you each for your time, your interest and hopefully, your individual support as we move forward in this endeavor.

Bonnie L. Buchanan

Operations & Marketing Member"

As I mentioned in my first letter to you, we believe that the simple fact is, Customers don't care about trivial difference between brands. What you really want are quality products, reliable service and fair value for your money, and a little respect from manufacturers, who most Suppliers in our industry have consistently failed to meet even those "basic" customer needs. As you can see, we are building this organization's structure from the ground up with you in mind. We will execute and implement processes designed to meet and exceed the most fundamental of customer expectations. As I have stated many times, most of the business problems I have witnessed over the years stem from companies failing to "keep their eye on the ball" on these "basics", which are of prime importance to the customer. The "basics" are not makings of some slick marketing campaign, not the words of some executives only concerned with their companies' top line numbers (without regard to where those sales numbers originated), or worse, those Suppliers and Manufacturers who sell to the "big box" houses and/or have their own "retail unit" to once more attempt to by-pass the most important link in our Supply Chain Channel, YOU, the Distributor.

There is certainly more information to show and discuss with you including our financing package, website, renovations of our initial "brick and mortar" building, biometric hardware, and our possible association with a major door manufacturer, along with many other important subjects worth dialog. Until the next update of our start-up company, check out my Blog site for a "smile" or two and hopefully you and your family and friends are all in good health.

Sincerely,