Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

It took a while for us to find just the right location, but after a lot of searching and negotiating Schrock Innovations will be locating its new Omaha Service Center at 168th and Burke in the Village Pointe South Development.

Village Point South is just across the street form the large Village Point Mall at 168th and Dodge. Some of our technology neighbors include Best Buy and the Apple Store.

Schrock will be occupying 2 bays in the development for a total of 2,400 square feet.

No More Moving!

Our Omaha customers might remember that we launched our first Omaha Service Center in 2003. Following the same model that has brought success in the Lincoln, NE market, we chose to advertise with a weekly radio show on Magic 590 AM.

Our first year was a success and we started hiring more employees and expanding the array of services we offered in Omaha. In the midst of our expansion, we received notice that Magic 590 was going to flip formats to become a sports talk station, and our show was canceled as a result.

We worked on a few other advertising mediums, but nothing produced like our radio show did. Eventually we were forced to lay off most of our Omaha staff and eventually, we closed our physical Omaha location and serviced our customers on-site exclusively in Omaha.

This new location is a 5-year lease and was selected specifically for its location and proximity to other technology companies who we already know we can outperform with our award-winning customer service.

New Radio Show

I make lots of mistakes, but I always learn from them. I knew there was only one AM station in Omaha that was going to bring the success that we needed to support a new Omaha Service Center, and that station was 1110 KFAB.

But getting on KFAB is not as easy as calling a sales rep and asking how much. When we lost our Magic 590 show we sent demo CDs into KFAB only to be turned down.

You have to understand that stations like KFAB are approached every day by people who want radio shows. Some are serious, and some are not, but most do not have any radio experience whatsoever. KFAB is a market leader and they need to have quality talent on their airwaves at all times.

After we were rejected in 2003 by KFAB I went to work honing my radio abilities on our Lincoln affiliate, KFOR 1240 AM. Things started going so well that in late 2009 KFOR and I developed a new 3-hour weekend show called the Living Digital Show.

With a LOT more experience under my belt and a home-based studio to boot, we approached KFAB again and they agreed to grant us a 1-year contract for Compute This on KFAB.

The new show starts August 1, 2010 and airs every Sunday morning between 7-8 AM.

Construction Begins

Our new bay is a bare shell. It has never had any other business in it before, so that means we get to design the space to meet our unique needs. I may be good with computers, but I am definately not a measure twice cut once kind of guy. We needed a General contractor to keep our build out on track.

We plan on signing a letter of intent with a contractor tomorrow and we should be open for business by September.

Since our radio show starts in August and the shop won’t be ready until September, we have hired employees to do free pickups, drop-offs and on-site appointments in the meantime.

Nothing Like Schrock in Omaha

The thing that makes me excited the most is that there are no other companies like Schrock Innovations in Omaha. There are lots of places to get your computer fixed, but there are no service-leaders.

I am confident that our blend of ultra-talented technicians, radio fun (and a little marketing), and the Schrock dedication to customer service that we will do well in Omaha. Stay tuned for the grand opening party coming in September 🙂

As I have mentioned here before, my wife and I are seeking to grow our family through Open Adoption.

The Open Adoption process scares some people because there are a lot of misconceptions about it and how it works. The basic idea is that it is better for your adopted child if he or she knows who their birth mother is and has a healthy relationship with her.

My wife and I were contacted by a birthmother about a month ago who was pregnant with a little girl. I was a little nervous because she would only communicate through text messages. I was worried that she was trying to keep distance while at the same time move forward with an open adoption plan. Our attorney reassured us that the younger kids out there text more than they talk these days and it was not necessarily a sign of trouble.

We got to know the birth mom over the next few weeks. She seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. She already had a one year old, her boyfriend was in jail in Iowa, and she wanted to go back to school. She was a good mid-western conservative in her opinions and beliefs. She did not want to go on welfare. She wanted a good, healthy relationship with her little girl. It was a perfect match for what we wanted in a birthmom.

Signs of Trouble

Sunday morning my wife received a text message from the birthmom. She was going into labor and was headed for the hospital. We got our stuff together, grabbed the brand new car seat we bought (couldn’t have her riding around in a boy’s car seat now could we?) and dropped Jacob off at grandma’s house.

As we headed to the hospital we received word that she had already given birth. It all happened in about 45 minutes! I was there to cut my son’s cord, and I was hoping for the same with my daughter, so I was a little bummed. We pushed the accelerator down a little bit more as we rushed to meet our daughter.

We received another text from our birthmom. She wanted to get cleaned up and rest a bit before we came up. It was like torture to hang out in a lobby when we knew just three flights up our newborn daughter was waiting to meet us. But we respected her wished and waited.

Two hours later, after no communication from the birthmom, we headed up to the third floor to make sure everything was ok. The nurses on the maternity ward were great. We were headed toward our birth mother’s room, but we didn;t want to interrupt anything or have an awkward moment so we stopped a nurse and asked to to let our birthmom know we were outside and would like to join her if she was ok with that. After all, she had told my wife she had wanted us there for the actual delivery.

The nurse knew she was placing her baby for adoption, and that was a relief to us. Another good sign. But then the nurse came back out and told us that she wanted to rest a bit more and to please have us wait in the maternity lobby.

A Special Kind of Purgatory

My wife and I spent over 4 hours in the lobby. My wife was really concerned. This was NOT a good sign. She had to know we were dying out here. We watched her family come and go throughout that time. They glanced at us and we at them, but no words were exchanged.

We were becoming convinced that she had changed her mind. We felt tricked in the most cruel way possibly imaginable. As we sat there holding a plush pink pig for her 1 year old daughter and a small vase of carnations for our birthmom it was becoming difficult to stay another minute.

Just as we were packing up our things to leave, the birthmom’s parents came out and introduced themselves. They invited us into her room. We went from lower than low to sailing on a cloud.

Meeting Our Beautiful Daughter

It was then that we first saw her. So perfect, so health and so amazing. Kathryn Grace-Lyla Schrock was her name. Lyla was a family name that our birthmother asked us to use, and again we honored her wishes. Kathryn is my wife’s mother’s name and Grace is my Grandmother’s name.

We spent the next two days at the hospital pretty much all day. It was so nice to see our birthmother’s parents and sister there to support her. We did our best to give them time with the baby because we knew we would have forever to hold her and touch her. I couldn’t wait to press her against my chest and close my eyes in a quiet room and thank God for such an amazing gift.

My wife’s parents came up to meet our birthmom and their granddaughter as well. My wife’s mother cried when she found out she was named after her. I called my 93 year old grandmother to tell her the baby had her name as well. She said, oh my! When will I get to meet my great granddaughter? Soon I told her.

My four year old son came up with grandma and grandpa to meet his sister. Our birthmom saw him peeking at the baby and she looked him in the eye and asked him, “do you want to meet your baby sister?” My son nodded eagerly and he ever so gently touched her hair. He asked if he could hold her, and with some guided assistance he did. It was one of the most heart-warming sights I had ever seen in my life.

Our birthmother was about to get a massage and a pedicure form the hospital staff, and my wife made sure she had some nice nail polish to use as well. We left to get some dinner and give our birthmom some privacy. Little did we know that was the last time I would ever see my daughter again.

Time to Leave the Hospital

On Tuesday afternoon our birthmother was going to be discharged. My son had pre-school that morning so the plan was to drop him at pre-school, head to the hospital and make sure we were available to run interference with lawyers if need be. Our birthmother did not seem to like the attorney we had hired to represent her in the adoption, but she was the absolute best. She managed to find and serve our bithmother’s boyfriend with the adoption papers while he was in jail in Iowa. She was tough and efficient, so we wanted to be there in case things got out of hand.

We were all piling into my wife’s car to drop Jake off at pre-school. Jake was super excited to get to wear his Big Brother shirt to school and tell all of his new friends that his baby sister Katie was coming home today.

My wife’s phone rang.

The caller ID said it was our attorney. Our hearts stopped beating for what seemed forever.

My wife answered it and all I could hear from where I was were the words “I have some bad news.”

Devastation in Motion

I immediately started talking to Jake about what he was going to do at School today.

My wife’s eyes started welling up.

I reached into the Emergency bag and pulled out a new shirt. It said Dad is my #1. It had a “10” on it. That is Jake’s favorite number.

My wife started to sob.

I don’t want to change my shirt. I like my brother shirt he said.

Jake saw my wife crying and was concerned. Mom, you need to calm down he said.

My wife got out of the car and shut the door. It didn’t do much to cut the sound of her crying.

I looked at Jake and said, baby Katie isn’t going to get to come home today. As his face tilted slightly in preparation for that favorite 4-year old question my mind was racing. How do you explain to a 4 year old that a birthmom is changing her mind?

How could I have been so stupid. I exposed my son to this. I allowed him to meet her and the baby. We were so sure…

He asked, Why daddy?

Everything is ok, I lied. Baby Katie is going home with her mommy. She’s not going to be your baby sister. I’m sorry buddy.

The look of disappointment was crushing to me. I redirected. Smiling, I asked him who his best friend was in pre-school? It worked. He moved on – for now anyway.

Explaining the Unexplainable – Why???

My wife and I held it together and asked Jake if he wanted to go to School. He was pumped to see Thomas now, so he wanted to go. I walked him in and explained to his teachers what had just happened. My wife stayed in the car.

We pulled away as my wife texted our former birthmother asking her what happened.

Choosing to place a child for adoption is one of the most difficult decisions a mother can make in her life. The day you leave the hospital it get real. It’s not just an ambiguous idea or a fictional plan where everyone lives happily ever after. When it comes down to actually placing that child its a gut check.

Our birthmother changed her mind. That’s her right. It is her baby. Yes we are hurt, and yes we are angry, and yes we feel like we just lost a child.

After a long delay the reason our former birthmother texted back was that she didn’t feel we loved the baby enough.

I understand that you changed your mind, I thought to myself. But don’t you do this to my wife. Don’t you tell her she did something or didn’t do something that changed your mind. Don’t leave her with the what-ifs. Make your decision, own it and move on. You owe us that. My anger was melting into sadness as I watched what these texts were doing to my wife.

Kathryn Grace-Lyla Schrock was renamed and left the hospital around 1:00 with her mother. I don’t know what her name is today, or if she will ever know about us or what happened on the days surrounding her birth.

Despite everything is the birthmom called us back and said she changed her mind again we would welcome that child into our home without question and make sure that she and her birthmother had a strong and healthy relationship. But that’s the stuff of late-night tear soaked fantasy now.

We are working to move on and find another birthmother to begin the process anew. If you know a woman who is considering open adoption and wants to place her child with parents that will encourage a strong and healthy relationship with the childs birth family, please direct her to our website at http://www.nebraskaopenadoption.com

Omaha, NE is a very different beast from Lincoln, NE. Everything is more expensive, less available, and more regulated.

Despite the challenges, Schrock Innovations is planning a massive expansion into Omaha in 2010. Replicating what we have done in Lincoln for $850,000 we are planning to spend nearly $1.9 million to establish a presence in Omaha.

Didn’t Schrock Already Have an Omaha Location?

Schrock Innovations entered Omaha in 2004 with a small 1,500 sq foot expansion office on 84th and Maple Street. We had a radio show on the lightly listened to KOMJ Magic 590 AM, and we managed to generate a profitable first year of operation with a light staff and a lot of small-ticket repair work.

In 2006, Magic 590 was flipped to an all-sports format and re-branded as Big Sports 590. We lost our radio show, and with it the only means of marketing that we had cultivated in Omaha.

We tried to move to KKAR 1290, but after 6 months of radio we only had 2 new customers to show for it. KFAB did not have any available air slots, so we cut our losses and killed the Omaha radio show.

From a financial perspective we should have rolled up the Omaha physical location right then and there. From a moral perspective the right thing to do was to keep the store open to service the hundreds of warranties we had sold on new Modular PCs.

We tried to hedge our losses by locating our web development staff in Omaha and moving the location to a lower rent area on 93rd and Maple.

Our lease on that location expired in October of 2009, and our landlord had the opportunity to lease to a longer term tenant. I was not willing to sign a long-term lease in that space, so we rolled up the location in November 2009 and went to 100% mobile service in Omaha.

What is Going to Be Different This Time?

In a word, everything. The most basic barometer is money and the #1 reason our first entry into Omaha didn’t become a permanent fixture was capitalization.

On our original expedition into Omaha we spent just under $200,000 and managed to cross break even on all start-up costs by mid 2007. When we lost the radio show we did not have the time to develop and cultivate a new advertising medium while maintaining basic services.

This time we are entering the market with a few more factors on our side. First, we are capitalized. We are not borrowing one single penny to make this happen in Omaha.

Second, we have a primary and a secondary advertising medium developed and ready to launch. One model should be enough to gain penetration rapidly, but if it fails or falls short, we have a backup plan that we have been testing successfully in Lincoln for months.

Third, we have a staffing plan that will allow us to add new people to our Lincoln Service Center and train them there and then move some of our existing employees into the new Omaha Service Center to assist and train our new Omaha staff. This “culture graft” will help us maintain our normal service-focused edge as we bring in new people who may have been trained as technicians instead of service providers in the past.

When and Where Will it Be Opening?

We have narrowed our possible locations down to two possibilities – Village Point Mall at 168th and West Dodge Road, and The Shoppes at Legacy at 184th and West Center.

We are targeting September, 2010 as the opening date for the Service Center.

I will have more updates as we lock things in, but all in all this has been a VERY busy month and should be an interesting 4th quarter as well 🙂

Schrock Innovations opened its Omaha Service Center in 2003. Due in large part to its local Omaha radio show, the service center was an overnight success.

Unfortunately, the station we were on flipped formats and we were not able to find another Omaha AM station that could match the success we initially had.

As many of our Omaha customers know, we regouped by concentrating all of our technical operations in Lincoln while focusing all of our web development services in Omaha. This allowed us to maintain a token presence in Omaha and honor the warranties we had issued and service the customers who placed their trust in us.

In early 2009, we moved into our new $825,000 Service Center in Lincoln and found that the simple change in visibility DOUBLED our sales and profitability overnight. That Service Center is now bringing in over 62 new customers each and every month.

Omaha’s Time Has Come

With all of our efforts going toward staffing, equipping, and launching our new Lincoln location, Omaha went without significant attention for over 12 months.

That is all about to change now.

Yesterday was the last day that our present Omaha location was open for business. We have closed the Omaha location at 3032 N. 93rd and transferred all web development services to competent staff in Lincoln.

We are still honoring our warranties and serving our Omaha customers – we are just bringing our service to them rather than making them come in to us.

New Service Center in the Works

I can’t say too much about it at the moment, but I can tell all of our Omaha customers that a new Service Center is in the works. This location will operate similarly to our famed Lincoln location with one notable exception.

This location will be geared toward mobile repair services rather than in-shop repair.

Our new location is tentatively set to open for business in the late first quarter of 2010.

Award Winning Service COntinues in Omaha

If you are a Schrock Omaha customer, you can still call our local Omaha phone number, 934-9423, and we will schedule an appointment that works with your schedule to come to your home or business to repair your PC or to take it back to our Lincoln Service Center for repair.

Last year Kim and I put our house on the market, and although we had a lot of interested people look at it no one could get financed in the middle of the credit crunch.

We plan on attempting to sell the house again next Spring, so the name of the game right now is to make the improvements that will help us sell the house quickly at a fair market price.

Our Realtor told us that one of the biggest concerns about the house was that the roof was at the end of its lifespan. We had a cedar shake roof that was designed to last 30 years. It was put on in 1982, so it really was about time to have some work done.

Kim and I interviewed 6 roofing companies before we finally settled on Hustad Roofing. Kim liked the owner because she had that woman gut feeling that she could trust the owner. I like them because they came in with the best reputation AND the lowest bid.

They showed up at 9:00 in the morning and 7 men amazed my 3-year old son by climbing on the roof and peeling off wood shingles like they were a fruit roll-up wrapper.

The whole removal process took less than a couple hours, and the new roof was on by the end of the day.

Hustad had laid tarps on the ground to catch the nails, shingles and paper that was being torn off for a quick, easy and complete clean up.

Overall I was very impressed with the job they did, and the pictures speak for themselves.

Brad Donner has been an entry level web design employee at Schrock Innovations for a few months now, but many of our customers don’t know that he is an amateur photographer as well.

Last year Brad asked all of his friends and family to vote for his company, Donner Digital Photography, in the KETV viewer survey. And he won!

I work every day with Brad and I know he works hard every day to improve his photography skills.

Take a moment to look at Brad’s best picture and vote for him in this year’s KETV survey.

I happen to have some inside information about KFOR’s Best of Lincoln survey (due out in October) and its only fair that I do my best to help an employee win a consumer award when my employees give their all so Schrock can win one as well.

Only 2 days remain to get Schrock Innovations’ Preventative Maintenance Checkup on sale for only $19.99! This is the FINAL maintenance checkup sale of 2009, so it you miss this one its a long wait until 2010!

We are “officially” launched the sale on last weekend’s Compute This radio show, and our staff has done an amazing job keeping up with the workload. Unlike the previous sale, our turn around times are very reasonable (3 days or less).

A PC Maintenance Checkup is a complete head-to-toe examination of a computer that takes between 8 and 12 hours of bench time to complete. Our Maintenance Checkup is normally a great deal at its usual price of $60, but for next week only we will be discounting that price to an amazing $19.99.

If you have ever eaten at Taco Bell, you have this man to thank. Without Lynn Hinderaker it is very possible that Taco Bell would not exist and that the concept of the fast food “value menu” may never have seen the light of day.

In the 1980’s Taco Bell was a struggling subdivision of PepsiCo and was about to be closed down completely. One struggling franchise owner contacted Lynn and said he wanted to make his restaurant’s last stand on an idea that surrounded a value menu. His idea was that if customers could buy their food through inexpensive small transactions, they would buy more of it and profits would follow.

Lynn helped design the concept, the marketing pieces, and then shepherded the franchise owner through the process. Success soon followed and as the word spread, other franchise owners asked Lynn for his help.

In the Money section of today’s Omaha World Herald Schrock Innovations was featured as a “business makeover”. After our recent changes in Lincoln, our Omaha location is paling in comparison and I know we need to do something about it.

We have a set of plans in place for it, but when Stephanie Monge offered me the opportunity to sit down with not just one, but a team of consultants about our plans I could not pass it up. Here is the article as it appeared in the paper today:

Schrock Innovations is on the verge of launching a new website that will feature several style and functionality updates intended to usher in a new business model.