Month 13 – August 2013

The first two days of August were my last two days at Hajoca Lansdale. Friday was bittersweet; I was excited to be moving on to the second phase of my training, but I knew I would miss the people at Lansdale. We spent a year together and I learned so much from them, but the year went by so fast that it felt like it was only a couple of months ago that I started with Hajoca. Jeff ordered some pizza and got me a cake for my farewell. I exchanged goodbyes with everyone and prepared to make my transition to Philly.

On August 5th, I reported in for my first day at Weinstein Supply in Philadelphia. Paul (the regional manager) joined the Philly managers and I to discuss my initial activities here. We agreed that it would be in everyone’s best interest for me to spend a few weeks doing some warehouse and counter work in order to familiarize myself with Philly’s customers as well as the inventory here (which has significant differences from Lansdale’s).

Last month, I mentioned doing work with the internal audit department to prepare for an operations review which was scheduled this month. After finishing my first week at Weinstein Philly, I flew down to North Carolina for a week to do two operations reviews. While I cannot get into too much detail because of the confidential nature of internal audits, I can say that I gained a lot of insight on what to do and what not to do when managing a Hajoca owned profit center. It was also quite intriguing to see how a PC from a different region ran their business. There were many similarities, of course, but also some noticeable contrast in terms of the types of customers they served and products that they stocked. For instance, they had many agricultural customers in NC. There are very few (if any) customers of this category in Southeastern PA.

Anyhow, after spending a week in North Carolina, I finished out the month working in the warehouse and the counter. It was a bit of a struggle trying to relearn where everything was located. I became so accustomed to the warehouse in Lansdale to the point where I just knew where everything was. I felt like a beginner again at Philly. However, this time around I am learning everything much faster thanks to the fact that I am familiar with most of the product descriptions already.

I don’t have any trips scheduled in September, so I should have plenty of time to get a lot of work done at the branch and make my full transition into inside sales, which I will be doing for approximately 6 months before moving into outside sales. I have also finally finished moving into my new apartment in Philly, so it will be nice having a short commute and being able to enjoy the city life!