Cy Stapleton' HOTLINE Newsletter #9
What Is Helene's Hotline?
What Is The BFP Database?
I did not realize that so many subscribers to this email
newsletter (as well as people who fax inquiries to Hotline) were
not familiar with Helene's Hotline and the Hotline databases. I
had touched on it in the first newsletter, but in response to the
many questions I have received, this newsletter will be a brief
background of the Hotline service and databases. It is not written
as a commercial, but to answer some of the many questions that
have been asked. Some of the questions I can understand - when a
non-reader is referred by PIA or some other person or group -
other's I wonder if it is someone pulling my leg - like the
Florida printer who recently faxed an inquiry to me that said
something like, There used to be someone named Cy Stapleton who
had a service named Helene's Hotline who answered questions from
printers. Do you know how to get in touch with him? Oh, well!!!
Here is the story.
BFP, ADBFP, and SOURCE are the working databases that I, Cy
Stapleton, use when responding to the some 100 inquiries each day
received by Helene's Hotline.
Helene's Hotline is a free locator service provided by me under
exclusive contract with PTN Publishing, Quick Printing Magazine
and Southern Graphics Magazine.
Readers who are looking for hard-to-find products or services can
fax their request to the Hotline number - (409) 637- 1480 - and I
will attempt to find a potential vendor and fax that information
back to the reader. Response time will range from one to 5 days
generally. It may take a little longer if I am out of town for
more than a day.
Inquiries are taken by either fax or email but all responses are
made by fax, so if you email an inquiry be certain to include
your fax number. The reason for this is that rather than having to
keyboard all of the company data for the suggested vendor I simply
print a screen dump of that vendors record in the database and fax
it. This way I can respond to most inquiries in less than one
minute each. I don't normally do any legwork on the particular
inquiry because I don't have all of the information. I attempt to
provide up to three vendors who have indicated that they do the
type of work the reader is looking for. If it turns out that none
of those vendors can provide the specific product the reader is
looking for, they are asked to fax their request again and I will
start doing some of the legwork to identify additional potential
vendors for them.
Yes, there was a Helene. A number of years ago I sold my
publication, Printer's News, to Coast Publishing and it was merged
into Southern Graphics magazine. In a weak moment Rob Schweiger
decided to keep me as a columnist to pen my drivel.
One of the periodic columns I had in Printer's News was Ask Cy.
I would get a dozen or so inquiries each month for hard-to-find
sources and I would respond to them in the publication. Rob liked
the idea and decided to make it a regular column in Quick
Printing and Southern Graphics and put his mother, Helene
Schweiger in charge of it. Helene did an incredible job of
building the readership of this column. She and I worked together
on Hotline - Helene in Florida and me in Texas - until her death
several years ago.
When Helene passed away I was asked to take over Hotline full
time. I agreed to do so providing I could retain the name,
Helene's Hotline. Helene was a dear friend and I think of her
almost every day. I like to think of myself as her reincarnation.
I receive my compensation in three ways. First from my contract
with PTN; from the sale of my Hotline database; and finally from
the Hotline seminars I present. I don't get rich off it, but I do
make a comfortable living, keep shoes on the baby, and have a
great deal of fun doing it. Since 1991 I have sold just under
3,000 copies of the database. Excluding my time, the best I can
figure is that I have somewhere between $22,000 and $25,000 in the
development of the database.
I am asked quite often if I feel that the emergence of Internet
and the Web with all of their incredible resources will put me out
of a job. I don't think so. While the Web is one of the resources
I use, the vast majority of the answers I come up with are from
contacts I have made over the three and a half decades I have been
in this business. Where I can find a potential vendor in a few
minutes, it would take the average printer days or weeks to find
that potential vendor - if ever. The combination of those contacts
and techniques polished over the years by Helene and myself are my
job security.
The databases were not originally created for resale. In 1988 I
started putting mine and Helene's vendor files into a simple
commercial database software package - PFS First Choice. That
enabled Helene and myself to quickly access vendor information
rather than have to go through business cards, Roll-o-dex files,
printed directories, etc. It was wonderful and sped up Hotline's
responses considerably.
In time printers started asking if they could purchase the
database. That was not practical because the datafiles were in a
commercial program and I did not want to get into any copyright
infringement. In order to use the data the printer would have to
purchase his own copy of PFS First Choice.
As more and more printers started asking I decided to create my
own stand-alone database. I retained a local amateur programmer,
Rodney Butler, to write a simple database program in Quick Basic
and Brokering for Profit (BFP) Version 1 was introduced in
September of 1991 with about 8-900 records at $199. It was well
accepted and over 500 copies were sold in a very short period of
time. Version 1 was a flat database and ran fairly slow. The
disadvantage of a flat database is that if a vendor had 15
products you had to enter all of the vendor information for each
of those products. If a vendor changed his phone number you would
have to change it in all 15 product record files. It soon became
obvious that we needed a relational database - two databases that
are linked together; the product files in one database and the
vendor information in a second.
While Rodney was an excellent programmer he did not have the
expertise in working with relational databases and I had to start
searching for a programmer with that expertise. Through
CompuServe I found Dave Moyer, a professional programmer who lives
in Tennessee.
Dave started working on Version 2 and it was released about a year
later with some 1,800 records. Version 2 was far more
sophisticated than Version 1 but still had some problems. We could
not get the report section to work.
After spending months on trying to add whistles and bells to
Version 2 and to get the reports section to work properly, we
decided to stop working on Version 2 and work on the next major
revision, Version 3.
Version 3 of BFP and SOURCE was introduced in September 1995 and
ADBFP in January 1996.
I guess I should explain the difference between the three
programs. BFP is the original Helene's Hotline database. That is
the one that contains all of the information you read in the
monthly Hotline column in Quick Printing and Southern Graphics
magazines. It contains some 8,000 records of printing trade
services and products - everything from business cards printed on
leather or wood to wholesale business forms, labels, etc. There
are many obscure products in the database that would be
difficult, if not impossible, for the printer to find.
SOURCE is identical to BFP with a couple of exceptions. Some
franchises and associations wanted the database to offer to their
members at a discounted price. Since BFP and ADBFP are not
discounted, a customized version was created. The only differences
between BFP and SOURCE is that the opening screen has the
franchise or association's logo rather than my Fat Cat logo, the
executable file BFP.EXE has been changed to SOURCE.EXE, and some
of the franchises and associations have asked that we flag some of
their proprietary vendors if they are already in the database and
enter them and flag them if they are not. These vendors appear in
a different color when scrolling through the database.
ADBFP is a database that contains nothing but direct manufacturers
of advertising specialty products. It contains over 30,000
records. While there are some ad specialty dealers listed in BFP
and SOURCE, ADBFP contains only direct manufacturers. ADBFP came
about as the number of inquiries for sources for ad specialty
items increased.
All three databases look and operate similarly. The major
difference other than the content of the datafiles is that there
are several extra fields in ADBFP to include such ad specialty
specific information as line name and line ID number.
Both BFP and ADBFP are updated daily as I work my Hotline
inquiries. If I find a new vendor that vendor and whatever
information I may have on him is entered. I immediately fax that
new vendor a Vendor Data Form and when that form is completed and
returned to me I update the information I have in the database.
Once each year every vendor in the database is mailed a Vendor
Update Form and his record is updated when that update form is
returned.
Enhancements in the database come from two different areas. First,
when I find something that will make the database more efficient
for me I have Dave make those changes. Secondly, when users let me
know things they would like to see in the database, I pass those
ideas on to Dave. If they are feasible, they are included. Some of
these enhancements have included the ability to flag certain
vendors, select by Area Code, a user defined reports section, the
ability to import updates without overwriting any changes the user
might have made, etc. The prime purpose of the databases is to
make it easier for me to respond to my Hotline inquiries. I want
it as easy as possible for me to use. That also makes it easy for
anyone else to use - so easy that no manual is required.
Version 3 is the last DOS version we will have. We are now working
on a Windows version that will be both 3.1 and Win95 compatible.
The Windows version will include many enhancements that simply
weren't possible in the DOS version.
A Mac version was attempted, but even after working with a friend
who is a district manager for Apple, it was decided that it would
be impractical to develop a Mac version. First off the development
cost would result in my having to sell the program for a much
higher price than the DOS version and secondly with the
introduction of Signature Technology's SoftPC and SoftWindows, the
program could be run on a Mac as is - and at a far less cost than
would a Mac stand-alone version have to sell for.
When a reader purchases either BFP, SOURCE, or ADBFP, they are not
getting something like the Hotline database, they are getting
exactly what is on the Hotline computer the day their order is
shipped. There is no software on the shelf ready to ship.
I purchase blank formatted diskettes in quantities of 1,500. My
daughter will separate the disks into three groups of 500 disks
and put either BFP, SOURCE, or ADBFP labels on them. As orders
come in I will copy the install file onto disk 1 of each set then
compress the other files and copy them onto the set, generate a
serial number, scan each disk for bad sectors and virii, and test
install each set. That way we know the set installed properly
when it left our shop.
The sets of disks are then packaged with a printed instruction
sheet, and shipped either UPS or USPS.
Since the database was created for Helene's and my use, there are
some inconsistencies that have not been caught. When Helene passed
away I merged her files into mine. She might have entered Business
Cards while I might have entered Bus. Cards. Also some of the
information may not be complete. As an example I may have found a
vendor for XYZ and entered his name and phone number (or whatever
other information I had) into the database. There is enough
information to get in touch with the vendor but unless the vendor
returns my Vendor Dataform, that information may not be complete
and may only have the one product that I was looking for linked to
his vendor record. As I run across the inconsistencies I correct
them.
The user can edit any record, add, or delete at will. If the user
doesn't like the way I list a product, he or she can easily change
it.
It is important for new users to take the time to scroll through
all of the products to see how they are listed. As an example, if
you are looking for Dome Labels, in scanning through the
records you will see that they are listed Labels, Dome. Where I
call the little 2x3.5 cards Business Cards, in your part of the
country they may be called Calling Cards. The user can easily
change this.
Users who purchased Version 1 and wanted to upgrade to Version 2
had to send us their datafiles to convert if they had made any
changes they wanted to save. The reason for this is that we
converted from the flat database to the relational database. There
is a utility in Version 3 that will allow the user to convert his
Version 3 files to Version 3.
Starting with Version 3, updates include only the latest version
of the executable file and the datafiles that have changed since a
specific date. For BFP, updates contain all records updated since
the previous September 20 and for ADBFP records updated since the
previous January 1. These updated records are merged into the
existing records and the executable file replaces the old
executable file. A text file is included to describe any upgrade
made in the executable file.
Hotline seminars are presented periodically across the country.
These seminars run from three to four hours and are divided into
two parts. The first half of the seminar covers areas that will
help the user increase his or her profits through outsourcing and
the second half is a tutorial that covers all of the features -
both documented and undocumented - of the database and how to use
the database to substantially add to bottom line profits. There is
also a question and answer period. The seminars are open only to
registered users and employees. The seminars are $25 per person
for registered users and their employees and $125 for the first
person and $25 for each additional person for non registered
users. Registration fee for a non-registered user includes a
registered copy of the database. Seminars are limited to 35
attenders.
I've probably forgotten something, but this should give you a
pretty good idea of what it is and how it works.
Til next time, God bless you and yours... cy
To receive a brochure describing how you can have the Helene's Hotline database on your own computer, Email me at hotlinecy@aol.com and give leave your fax number. The Hotline databases, BFP and Ad Specialty BFP give you the ability to easily shop numerous vendors for your outsourcing requirements.
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Date inserted: Monday, March 04, 1996 1:34:40