Some of you may have noticed that old Post Office box remittance address (PO Box 13804, ATLANTA) has disappeared from the site, and the only address listed is the office address (4450 Ansley Lane, CUMMING). The Post Office box is still active, and will be till the end of 2012, so everyone has a chance to switch over their Accounts Payable systems, but I am planning on closing the box at the end of this year. (So, please, if you’ve not updated your Accounts Payable file, make the PO Box address disappear. Thanks!)

A little “back-of-the-house” stuff: I have dissolved the original corporation (Surco Southern Corporation, doing business as Micro-Metrics Company) and created a new Limited Liability Company (SnowTao LLC, doing business as Micro-Metrics Company). I’m sure, had Ray Tooke (and Mike Laurence) had the option of creating an LLC instead of a “C”-class corporation (way back in 1961!), they’d’ve taken it. I do have that option, and it ends the double taxation that C-corps are heir to! That doesn’t change anything for our Micro-Metrics customers, except that if you pay by bank transfer (wire transfer, OTT, whatever you call it), there is a new bank account number you will need to use.

(Elenor’s aside: Dissolving Surco Southern was an emotional wrench: Some of the changes I am choosing (or having) to make are easy, some feel like I’m … abandoning … Michael still further. But, for the Micro-Metrics Company to carry on and grow, some of the “less-than-optimal” choices made by Michael (or his dad) need to be replaced or modified. I actually have a good deal more business experience than Michael did. (My resume: http://www.snowtao.com/resume.htm) Michael was a historian and a warrior: he used to jokingly (and wryly) say that he had fallen back on the last refuge of the ne’er-do-well — the family business. As you all know, he was a superb and conscientious businessman, but there were and are many things that he did not have the time or the inclination to address.

When we met, I described to him the concept of the company as “golden handcuffs” — too painful to wear, too good to take off — and he instantly recognized that was what Micro-Metrics was to him. To me? It’s an enjoyable (if sometimes stressful) challenge. Unlike Mike, I enjoy business, I like managing all the facets of a company, and I actually really like Micro-Metrics as a company.

I am still working to organize and streamline Micro-Metrics. There are still a number of supply chain problems to work out (as some of you have noticed {wince}). Some of it is lack of familiarity: Mike knew from long experience that this-or-that supplier was slower than one might expect; I am learning that, to my dismay, when the parts I need take several weeks longer than I had planned for. But, of course, that will be fixed by experience. I am trying to make sure I have all the raw materials I need on hand at all times, so I can stay ahead of ordering… And, of course, changing over from the “bad machinist” to the two new ones means, going forward, I can get parts as I need them. Obviously, the Microscope Problem still exists. But I’m working on it.