My Grandfather owned a restaurant in Saint John, New Brunswick called Graham’s Restaurant.  When we used to visit Saint John my cousin and I would work in the restaurant washing dishes for the princely sum of $2 per day which at the time was a lot of money when you consider that; this would buy several comic books or plenty of candy or a water gun with change left over.

I remember one day “Bumpy” my grandfather took me with him to visit with his suppliers. We stopped in at one produce supplier that had provided some sub-standard carrots (IIRC) to the restaurant. My grandfather had a rather heated discussion with this particular vendor and after sometime wrung a concession out of the produce supplier. After the discussion Bumpy and I got back in the car and he said to me “you need to keep your suppliers honest”. For whatever reason these words of wisdom have been etched in my memory.

As I go about setting up TheCodeFactory infrastructure I am finding that, yes in fact you do want to keep your suppliers honest. The question is how you do this in a constructive way. First of all I think letting your suppliers know that there is competition is a good thing. Make sure that your requirements are well documented and clearly understood by all of the suppliers bidding on a particular project. If you are not clear about what you want you will receive different bids that are not an apple to apple comparison, more of apples to orange. Be specific. Be prepared to negotiate. As Canadians we are conditioned to pay the price that is on the tag, however, there is always room for negotiations.

Cheers,
Ian Graham