the automobile accident that totalled his car and sent both him and his wife to the hospital, or the headline on Luke Ford's site proclaiming his company on the verge of collapse. Issues between Bone and his salesman Mike Barbella over the last couple of months prompted Barbella to quit. The timing couldn't have been worse. Bone got Barbella's "I quit" notice several hours after Bone had his accident, noon Monday, about a half-mile from Dodger Stadium where he was headed for the opening game of the season. Ford, however, seemed to take Barbella's resignation as a wholesale sign that Bone's company was spiralling with the toilet flush water. "There was nothing in the writing to substantiate that headline," Bone rues.
Bone has already found Barbella's replacement and will make an announcement in several days.
Bone: "I had a very bad accident. Michael [Barbella] called me and Luke called me. I'm not in very good shape. Porn's [Bone's wife] a lot worse than I am. She was at the E.R for six hours where they were doing CAT scans on her. She's in a pretty bad way. She shattered the windscreen with her head. I'm not very focused. When it happened, I was so concerned for Porn I didn't even know I was hurt. There was this drama going on with Michael. I'm running to her bedside and running out to deal with Michael. I thought I was fine. When I woke up the next day I hurt and started to realize that I took a steering wheel in my chest. I wiped out the Mercedes. I called David [Story] and asked him to meet me where they were towing the car. Porn was refusing to go to the hospital The paramedics were trying to talk her into it. She refused. David drove us home. Two hours later, Porn'getting worse and I figure I've got to take her to the hospital.
Bone said he called the office trying to make temporary automobile arrangements with Barbella, and was informed by his [Bone's] secretary, Shelle, that Barbella was threatening to quit.
"By this time, Porn's screaming and crying. I called for the paramedics. They came over and she had to go to the hospital." Bone said he got a call from Barbella about 4:30, Monday. regarding state-of-the-union matters of the company. [Barbella, on the Luke Ford site said one of the issues outstanding was the number of new Cream titles going out the door, that a company needs four releases a month to get the ball rolling. Bone agrees. "I'm being fucked in the ass by my inability to get enough product out," he concedes. But Bone also says that he's just consummated a deal that would have given Barbella five releases a week for five straight weeks.]
"I was in the waiting area at the hospital and there wasn't much I could do," Bone says. "My cell phone wasn't working right in the hospital, and I had to use the doctor's phone to try and solve the problems. I asked Mike if we could talk about it in the morning, that it was hard to discuss these matters in an emergency room. But he quit. When I inherited this bombshell in the E.R., my biggest concern was to see how I could put my business back together."
"We've not been doing the numbers," Bone admits. "It got to the crisis point. No one was paying their bills." Bone said he got the figures in a while ago on Kandid Kristen. Bone was, to put it mildly, disappointed, despite assurances from Barbella telling him it was the best thing the company had ever done. Bone showed Barbella the sales figures from the computer. Barbella told him two of the company's biggest customers hadn't taken it yet.
"There was a huge problem that I was not dealing with," Bone says. "I very successfully equated away a problem and had taken no responsibility for it. The lack of money is getting out of proportion. One of my big accounts owes me $9,000. I called him last week. His girl said we were getting a check for $4,600. I counted on that money. We get the check Monday - dated a month ago. This is a huge company with a lot of money. They're five months behind on payments. This is a great problem. I'm having a lot of problems collecting money. There have been concerns by my employees. This is something maybe I haven't been addressing or working hard enough or, or so stupid that I haven't realized that everyone around me is concerned. I don't claim to have psychic insight, but there's been certain times in my life that, what appears to be major catastrophes, there's a little voice telling me that this is supposed to happen, this is absolutely necessary, this is leading to something much better, don't worry. I feel that I've solved some problems to take my business to the next level.
"Call me crazy. I fought tooth-and-nail to get my tickets for the ballgames because we're so short of money I can't afford it. Having tickets for the game was an enormous deal. It was the first game of the season. It was a big, big deal in my life to be at the game. I wipe out an almost brand new car about a half-mile from the ballpark. You would think, standing in that situation, that you'd be devasted wouldn't you? At that point I knew this was supposed to be happening. I didn't know what it was leading to, but I'm not scared. There's been some issues I have not been addressing - the shortage of money and the shortage of product.
"There was a quote [in the Luke Ford story] that said Kendra and Zoe were undecided and suggested that they might be quitting. I called Kendra, and Kendra said he [Ford] had e-mailed her. And she e-mailed back saying she didn't want to be quoted and wanted to stay away from it. When I talked to her at length about it, she said they are concerned about the lack of money and lack of product. Zoe said she had talked to Kendra but said nobody's running anywhere. Zoe told me this was a big wake-up call. You got to do what you're supposed to do. But it's difficult when your accounts don't come through with the money. They pay. Their money's always good, but they pay when they feel like it. It's tough for a little guy like me."
[Bone says between two customers, he's owed $20,000 - " I can't afford to be lending these guys $20,000 for five and six months," he says. "I'm under capitalized. It's tough. I've got close to $50,000 overdue from people who are not paying me. But that's what you do. You've got to be around a long time, build your catalog and be able to carry these debt loads. So much of this I'm unfamiliar with. I'm struggling to learn this business to know what's the right thing to do. I'm in a very competitive, tough market with not enough money, up against guys who have been doing it for 20 and 30 years."
