Last week Melissa and I got a letter from the IRS outlining what we had paid in taxes and when we had paid it for 2012. Of course all the payments were made on time which was reflected in the IRS summary. Today we got another letter from them penalizing us for late payment regarding this same series of tax payments. Of course this is a simple, straight forward mistake on their part. It's something that ought to be easy to sort out and it's frankly so dumb that I laughed out loud when Melissa showed me the two competing letters. We've all dealt with this sort of "buck stops nowhere" mistake and we can choose to find them frustrating, let them make us angry, or find them humorous depending on the situation and our mood at the time. It is certainly no way to run a business or a tax collection service, yet it is ridiculously common to run across this sort of mistake when dealing with big business or big government. If I ran my business that way I promise I'd expect to be OUT of business pretty darn quickly. Apparently a lot of people must have a lot more tolerance for this sort of nonsense than I do.
I think our clients would agree that this is the antithesis of how we run our business here at Paradigm Farms. It is our belief that our business and our reputation are built on trust. The first tenet of building trust is doing exactly what we say we are going to do and then communicating that in clear, concise terms. When someone has concerns about what is going on the buck stops in front of Melissa or in front of me. We do the lion's share of horse care around here and I never want to get so big that I don't have my finger on exactly what's going on with every horse all the time.
Melissa deserves a lot of credit for giving "good service" to our clients and this is one area where I genuinely feel we beat the pants off our competition. Or maybe since she does most of the communicating I should say she beats the pants off our competition. Unlike the lion's share of our competitors, caring for our retirees is not a sideline or a hobby. This is our business and our living. We take what we do very, very seriously. On top of that we like each other AND we like what we do most of the time. In addition to communicating with you we also communicate frequently with one another. I feel confidant saying our competence level is high enough that the likelihood of getting two letters from us in the same week telling you two entirely different things is nil. And that has to be a good thing !
Hope everyone has a great weekend !
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Apollo leading the Big Boys on a charge across the field
Apollo, Hemi, Grand, Homer and Moe leading the way in
Apollo had thundered past me when I took this picture; Levendi, Hemi, Baby, Grand and Homer are leading the way, with Thomas, Trigger, Elfin and Moe bringing up the rear behind the trees
getting closer
Baby and Elfin did an extra lap around part of the pasture just for fun
Leo
Walden, Fabrizzio, Lightening, Merlin, Snappy, Noble and O'Reilly
Calimba
MyLight on a leisurely stroll through the pasture; Lily is peeking around the run-in shed
Kennedy and Oskar
Lightening and Thor
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2 comments:
It's your hands-on daily attention to each individual horse that makes the difference to me - most boarding barns, let alone most retirement farms, don't do this. I'm a big believer in "hands and eyes on the horse".
All I can say is if I was a horse that needed retiring, I know where I'd want to be, hands-down. And if I ever (finally) get a horse, and it eventually needs to be retired, I know where I want it to go! I think you guys do a fantastic job. Yes, your vigilance and your superior communications make it apparent that you not only care about the horses, but about making sure your business is able to support them. That's important and unfortunately, a side of things too often overlooked by those who want to care for animals.
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