ROI – Worth Looking at the Details

ROI or Return On Investment is a way to gauge the productivity or profit/loss from money spent on an investment. In business, companies will use this information to determine if a project or investment is worth the risk, ultimately leading to a net profit gain as the end result.

Don’t waste your money

In my own personal experience, my wife and I were considering buying into a timeshare vacation property a few years ago. To enter into the agreement, the company required a $ 22,000 “buy-in” (financed of course) and a recurring cost of approximately $60/month for the next 22 years. This would have afforded us 124 “points” for nightly stays on our planned vacation. Their timeshare rentals are tiered into different room types – Studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom or a 3 bedroom villas – with each room type costing a certain amount of points. For us to maximize the length of our stay, we would have to select the studio room which would have given 6 nights at a total of the 124 points.

We have visited this popular vacation destination several times so we know what the average cost is to spend a week on property and purchase theme park tickets for our stay. When we booked on our own, we spent on average a little less than $ 3,000 for 7 days which included our room each night and 6 day park passes per person.

The timeshare rental cost was just for the nightly stay, it didn’t include any park tickets, food or other recreations. On average, the cost for 6 days worth of park passes per adult is close to $ 450.00 and per child it was around $ 400.00. Considering there are 2 adults and 1 child (at the time) we had to pay an additional cost of $ 1,300.00.

So if we joined the timeshare and stayed for 1 week once a year, it was going to cost us approximately $ 3,020.00 ($ 1,720.00 (timeshare cost) + $ 1,300.00 in tickets). In this case, it was actually going to cost us MORE in the long run than if we booked a yearly vacation on our own (< $3,000), leading to a negative ROI. (not to mention, I really didn’t want to commit to the same vacation for the next 22 years!).

When discussing replacement compressed air blowoff solutions with a customer, many times they look at the purchase price of the device and question if it’s worth it for them to make a change. If you follow along with our blog, you will notice that over the last few months we have submitted several different entries relating to this topic, like replacing drilled pipe with our 12″ Super Air Knife resulting in a 47 day ROI or where a customer replaced 4 open copper tubes with our 1110SS Nano Super Air Nozzle and recurring their expenses in just 38 days. In these instances, we show the calculations in regards to the true cost of ownership and how quickly you can recover capital funds when considering the whole scope of the project.

At EXAIR, we are committed to providing Intelligent Compressed Air® Products that reduce compressed air consumption leading to a more efficient process, as well as increasing operator safety. If you are considering an EXAIR solution for your current process but have questions about price or performance, contact one of our application engineers for assistance.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

 

Little things add up image courtesy of Nic McPhee via creative commons license

Setting Goals, Achieving Results

The other day I was talking with my co-worker Russ Bowman about my oldest son’s recent string of success at school (okay I was bragging). I was telling him that the other night we were going over some of his schoolwork to get him ready for a science quiz he had the next day and how I was a little concerned because he was having some trouble retaining the information.

I spent an hour or so going over things with my son when I decided he was about as prepared as he was going to be for the test. When I picked him up the next day after work, the conversation went something like this:

Me: “So tell me dude, how’d you do on your science test today?”
Son: “I think I did OK dad, wasn’t too bad.”
Me: cringing a little… “Too bad huh? Well when do you find out your score?”
Son: “Next week sometime, BUT I did find out that I scored a 100 on my spelling test, for the TWENTIETH time in a row!”
Me: “Spelling test, you didn’t tell me about the spelling test??? You really got a 100 for the 20th consecutive time?”
Son: “Yup, so what do I get?”
Me: “What do you get? Sounds like you get an A+!!!”

Good job buddy!

 

When I was telling Russ this part of the story and sort of reliving the moment, it dawned on me (with a little help from Russ)….. you know what, getting a perfect score on a test, TWENTY times in a row is an awesome accomplishment for a 9 year old, maybe he does deserve something special for that. So I guess I’ll be heading to the sporting goods store in the very near future.

See, I don’t really have to worry about my son’s schoolwork because he takes it on himself to do well. In fact, he’s usually more upset with himself if he brings home anything less than an A. In 1st grade, he made what his school calls the “Administrator’s List” for elementary school students who maintain an A/B average and have great attendance. Last year in 2nd grade, he set a goal for himself to make the “Pastor’s List” which is the highest honor the school awards for students with a straight A average for the entire year and he made it happen! This year, he hopes to do it again and the way things are going, I think he’ll be just fine.

Here at EXAIR, our goal is to not only provide award-winning Intelligent Compressed Air Products® but also the best customer service in the industry. Whether it be by phone, email or our online chat, we make it easy for you to get in contact with a qualified representative to help provide the best solution for your needs. In addition, our cataloged products are in stock, ready to ship, and for the 22nd year in a row, we have maintained an on-time shipment record of 99.9%!

Whether you’re looking to upgrade an existing blowoff in order to lower noise or air consumption or you’d like to talk to an application engineer about solving a specific process problem, contact our team and let us get to work for you.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

 

Big Thumbs Up image courtesy of Charles LeBlanc via creative commons 

A Good Example of Dedication and Commitment from the First Grade

This year, my oldest daughter started First Grade.  My second daughter will be starting preschool two days a week, and the youngest, well she just has no fear and doesn’t see the consequences of her actions at this point in life.   To say the least, the past few weeks have been extremely busy, as I am sure it has been for most of us.

A Great Message For School. (Not On Our Schools)
A Great Message For School.

I went to the parent – teacher introduction night with my beautiful wife and we got to meet the first grade teacher who definitely has her work cut out for her.   The amount of effort and care this teacher has poured into this class is already apparent in the first week of school.   She sent us all her personal cell phone number, sends out updates through a smartphone app, and has even told all parents that if a child in her classroom is involved in an activity outside of school that she will attend one of these events because she wants to see the children in their element and see what makes them happy.  All of these “extra” things the teacher does, she doesn’t get paid for, and is strictly doing out of her love for teaching and the children she teaches.  She legitimately loves her job and wants to see each of these students succeed in life.

There are people who teach that go to their job and give the bare minimum to not get let go and to merely collect a paycheck.   There are also a great number of educators that go above and beyond every day of the school year.  When it comes to teachers, so far my oldest daughter has been extremely blessed.  She had an amazing teacher for both Preschool, Kindergarten, and now even First Grade.   Each of these has also been at 3 different schools where she has thrived and I could not be happier with our school district.  I even mentioned to my wife, who is a former primary teacher, that I do not look forward to the year that one of our three daughters has a teacher that she does not agree with.  (That is going to be an extremely long year.)

Just as I noticed the level of dedication from the teachers I have had the joy of meeting, I have also realized that in order to succeed and thrive, there has to be dedication and going beyond the minimum.  This is what I see everyday when I walk through the doors here at EXAIR.  Whether I am walking through the front offices or the production areas, we by no means have a single team member that gives the minimum.  Every person here cares about whether or not the other succeeds, and we all work together with the same goal, blow our customer’s expectations out of the water.  This is just one reason we continue to release new products, offer the best means to contact us, as well as ship stock products same day, and provide order confirmations and install support for every single order.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Photo Credit: Jdog90 – Flickr – Creative Commons https://flic.kr/p/awAXzv