The Vegas Six

This week I took out top five managers to Vegas to blow off some steam and attend an office supplies conference. Nothing bonds a team like a few Vegas stories.
Many a drink, meal and even a limo night was shared and the result was some great bonding. I think we did a bit of learning at the show too, but I'm not sure anyone remembers much.
Cheers
Calvin

The Lykkiplex

If we didn't have enough on our plate at Lykki with the new software systems - we are also building new offices.

Here's is a sneak peek at the new Lykkiplex we plan to occupy by June if all goes to plan. The vision is to create an amazing and inspiring work space that is a collection of ideas and designs from cool offices we have visited over the years. Our vision is to turn the offices into a tropical setting - something like memories of past holidays and future dreams of sunny places yet traveled. I think it will be so inspiring a space that each day we will all want to work hard to realize our goals of traveling and relaxing under Palm trees and the warm Caribbean sun........ Toes in the sand.......laying in a hammock......the breeze..... A cold beer........Whoa, I think I was day dreaming for a second there.

At Lykki we have come to understand that our work environment is so important to overall happiness and well being. It only makes sense since you spend more time in the office than probably any other room in your life except your bedroom. I'm excited to see this project completed as I have spearheaded the concept and design and invested hundreds of hours to date. My home office wall has turned into a patch work of swatches and clippings to give us ideas. I hope everyone loves it.

Construction started this week!

I'll post more as the project progresses. 

Cheers

Calvin

Ready Set GO!

Back to school season is here and at Lykki we are preparing for a busy season.
I was touring a few new partners in the warehouse and we were all impressed by the volume of inventory ready to ship to customers.

Lucas and Hailey happily showcased the products and kept the tour interesting. Lucas you're such a BRUTE!

Cheers
Calvin

Howdy Partner

Today we welcome two more partners to the Lykki family.
Durning our Monday company wide "Luddle" (Lykki Huddle) we have a tradition where new partners are introduced and given a hat to wear all day. The only way to get rid of the hat is to ask another partner "what's my name". If they can't answer correctly then the new partner gives them the hat. It becomes quite a game and I guarantee it helps break the ice for everyone.
Tony was caught off guard and graciously accepted the hat from Lea Anne.

Cheers
Calvin

Happy Webaversary!!

It was a year ago we sunset our old website and launched the new snappy website you see today.

Congratulations to Shawn, our VP of ecommerce, for really spearheading the project. Also his trusty partner in code Erin has been instrumental in many areas of the site. Great job and well done from Team Lykki.

The website is just getting started with all the cool features in the pipeline. We hope to offer an online experience that exceeds our customers expectations and our largest competitors features. I'm so happy we have the people and tools to make it happen. I have a special thanks to our customers who have been patient during the change. The positive feedback has been overwhelming. We are improving things every day so the keep the feedback coming.

Cheers
Calvin

Tales from the road

First let me introduce you to Farhad, our newest delivery driver. We are super excited to have him join the LYKKI team. Farhad was recommended to us from one of our most famous drivers, Moe.

Within the first week delivering orders for LYKKI, Farhad showed his superstar qualities by helping a customer fix their printer. What happened was, while Farhad was making a delivery, the customer asked to have a toner sent back for a credit. Farhad instead asked what the problem was (the customer could not get it to fit in her machine) and helped the customer install the cartridge in her machine.

Why this is so spectacular is that Farhad has never delivered office supplies before yet he rolled up his customer service sleeves and found a way to help the customer on the spot! That is spectacular service from the heart and we are so glad he is part of the Lykki team!

 Cheers and welcome Farhad.
Calvin

Snappy Wheels

Wow, a special day today. First an Easter parade, then the delivery of our new style trucks. Check out the neat side door to keep our drivers safe from traffic and off load orders lickety split. These new trucks have super efficient engines that sip fuel compared to our old trucks we will be retiring. I looked at electric and unfortunately the cost and driving distance limitations just don't work for us yet. But I'm hopeful we can add some electric trucks in a few years.

 The environment is always on our mind and carbon emissions from trucks can be the main contributor to green house gasses. At Lykki we really focus on our trucks driving the least ammount of distance each day and having the highest average order size possible. Our $75 minimum order for free delivery really shows we put the environment before profits because small orders can really be harmful to the environment. Larger orders = less deliveries = less emissions.

Cheers
Calvin

Tony's our man... If he can't do it no one can!

Today we welcome a new addition to the Lykki family - Tony!

Tony will be a special addition to our E-commerce/IT team. Tony brings a full tool bag of skills but most importantly he is a data base black belt ninja kinda guy. He can slice and dice huge files with lightening quick precision.

I'm so excited to see Tony dive into our systems and pull out data that will allow us to focus our offerings and messages to targeted customers that will bring the best value. Gone will be the days of the one message for all customers.

Welcome Partner!!!

Cheers

Calvin

Lykki Trucks!

Over the weekend we branded another of our delivery trucks in the snappy new LYKKI wrap.

We are getting great feedback on the look and I agree it just feels happy and bright. I'm most excited about the back of the trucks.

The design on the back was inspired from our mission to "Infuse a little happiness in the world." I wonder if someone sitting in traffic will read the back of our truck and possibly make some small positive change in their day. The message is not to "make" people happy but to evoke the question - are you happy?

Cheers
Calvin

Don't eat our paper!

Today we are launching a new copy paper that is 100% Tree Free. That's right; No wood pulp, no trees, no recycled paper - nothing. This paper is made from sugar cane.

We have been testing several brands of Tree Free paper for 9 months and have chosen the Canefields brand Cane Paper as our house brand 100% Tree Free Paper.

I'm excited about where the paper industry is going with new innovation. It parallels the innovation happening in the automotive industry with electric vehicles. Once the performance and price are similar, people will pick the eco-friendly alternative. Please try a box of our Cane paper and if you are not totally satisfied, email me at calvin@lykki.com and I'll personally see you are credited every penny and $5.00 more for your troubles.

Click here to order a box from our snazzy website. 

Cheers
Calvin

Happy Birthday to Lykki!

Today is a special day in the company. We have officially changed our name from Costless Express to Lykki. The word Lykki is derived from the Danish word for Happiness.

After 24 years, it was time to pick a new name that better represented our company mission, vision and core values. We are still the same company with a passion for people, service and fun and now we have a new name to match.

And here is a link to an update of Our Story on our website if you want to read a bit more about the name change.

Here is a letter we sent to customers you might like to read.

Cheers

Calvin

Let's Party!

Last night was our post Christmas party. We wait a bit till all the rush dies down before we hold our party.

This year was the BEST party for me in my 24 years running the company because I did nothing! I just showed up and had fun and all the hard work was done by our fantastic Culture Club.

The Culture Club has put on some great events like Laser Tag, Zip Lining and Pancakes in the Parking Lot and this event was no exception. There was lots of food, drinks, games and prizes to make it a memorable night.

Everyone really enjoys hanging out together so the party really did feel like a gang of friends instead of a stuffy corporate event.

Well done Culture Club!

Cheers

Calvin

Sailing Away

Shawn Nabil and I are flying home today after being on an executive team building retreat for the past 2 weeks in the British Virgin Islands. Although entirely my idea, the guys jumped at the chance to build on our strong management team camaraderie and exercise our core values of living a remarkable life.

I know it will be hard for people to believe we could actually do any work in this environment, but it really is an amazing experience to live in close quarters and manage all the duties and responsibilities of cooking, planning and sailing a large boat together. Tasks like anchoring or pulling the sails takes team work and we couldn't help but come out of the experience as a well oiled management machine, relaxed, in sync, and raring to blast off when we get back.

I would love to take other staff on similar team building adventures in the future. Nabil and I have contacts in Africa who drill water wells and build schools and are looking into December 2013 as a possible trip date for 4-6 staff or possibly customers too. Anyone interested in expanding their remarkable life experiences??

Cheers

Calvin

Let's Get Real

Real Time Inventory that is.

Today we quietly rolled out another feature to our website. The link of our inventory to display online. Now customers can see what we have in stock and make buying decisions based on this and avoid an out of stock on their order. It's pretty cool to see we have 1000 boxes of Oreos or 500 bags of pistachios or 8000 boxes of paper clips in real time. The idea is when a customer sees there is zero stock available, they can choose a suggested replacement built into the logic of the website and displayed below the out of stock item. We spend hundreds of hours designing the feature and we hope customers like it.

Shawn is the chief architect on the site and his team will continue to make improvements to the site and add new features. Most important to him is customer feedback so if you have a suggestion or pet peeve you would like him to know about please contact him at shawn@lykki.com and he would be happy to chat.

Cheers,

Calvin

End of Year All Hands Meeting

Today was a very special quarterly All Hands Meeting.

Not only did we have Mary and Brian, our two newest managers in attendance, we were happy to see Lucas from our warehouse, who's been off with an injured knee. It really felt like a big family party with music, drinks and lots of food. The energy was fantastic, decorations were super fun and the games and prizes were just plain crazy.

Calvin, back when it all started!

Our All Hands Meetings are held each quarter to share where we have been and where we are heading. I took the stage for a fun trip down memory lane of where we started 24 years ago from my 1-bedroom apartment and rusty truck. Shawn and Nabil covered e-commerce and finance. One highlight was some videos the staff surprised us with that had each person explain what our core values meant to them. For me it was very cool to see the passion and commitment of the staff when talking about our core values. We had recently condensed our core values down to only 4 main principles:  LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH, LEARN. I'll talk more about our core values in a later post this year - Secret is we have some big news and projects on the horizon that we will roll out and I'll blog about soon. Stay tuned!

The highlight of our All Hands Meeting was the passing out of our Profit Sharing cheques to each employee. Thanks to everyone for another successful year and sharing a large portion with our staff is very satisfying for Sandy and I. TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More is our saying, and it's true we all worked as a team caring for our customers and delivering a memorable WOW service each and every day. Well done everyone.

Cheers

Calvin

There's Something about Mary

Our goal over the summer was to recruit a world class Sales Manager. We used LinkedIn, personal networks and a recruiting firm to find us a candidate who had vast past experience and can take our business over the $20 million mark in sales.

When the recruiting company called a few weeks ago explaining they had a candidate that we must take a look at, I was optimistic, although there was a big BUT. This candidate was, in essence, way overqualified for our company. She had a stellar history, time and again, of building successful teams of up to 600 people in large fortune 100 companies and fast growth companies. Also, she was a trained team building and motivation coach working with successful business executives all over the country.

I agree, the opportunity to add significant growth and sales experience to our management team is exactly what we are looking for, but why would this candidate consider joining our small entrepreneurial (and sometimes kooky) organization?

First, let me jump ahead and say we hired Mary. Now for the explanation of why it was a great fit.

Mary had built a significant and successful career in the large corporate world, and that was where she found her passion for nurturing and building great teams and individuals who had the "will" to be successful but lacked some of the "skill." Mary loved seeing her talents put to use changing the lives of people passionate to learn from her coaching. So she made a very conscious choice to leave the bustling corporate world with all its perks (and bureaucracy) to focus her energy on a smaller organization where she could see the immediate fruits of her labor. She was also very conscious about her personal happiness and life balance (hmm, sound a bit like me and our core values??) And in turn we were looking for someone who has "been to the big show" and could help us become a larger organization with the experience of being there.

In turn, I think we offer Mary a solid company in its 24th year of business, and thousands of customers who love us and a corporate culture that is anything but Fortune 100. A solid foundation with a strong existing management team for her to fit right in with. I know she will be a great fit, and together we are primed for a fun and rewarding ride of building a great new brand!!

Welcome Mary, we are excited to have you write your next chapter of life with us!

Cheers

Calvin

New Crew

Welcome to Bryan, our new Marketing Manager. His experience at Electronic Arts and as a freelancer will rocket our marketing and social media efforts forward at a frenzied pace. I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of his work soon as he settles into the role. We have some exciting and ambitious goals for our growth and brand expansion, and I personally hand picked Bryan to lead that charge.

Bryan worked his way through our intensive 10 step recruiting process, impressing us all along the way. One memorable moment was when we took him for Sushi during the final selection process. As we ordered "the same old sushi," Bryan challenged us to be adventurous and try something new. So I ordered a different dish that was completely different than I would normally order. When the dish arrived at the table, it was a work of art so amazing in its presentation Bryan whips out his phone and snaps a pic that he immediately posts on his Facebook page and Pinterest account, then proceeds to check in on FourSquare and comment on the dish and sushi spot. His chances of getting the job at that moment were pretty good, and of course as the story goes, we hired him and here he is showing the marketing and social media love to all our customers now.

Welcome Bryan - I'm sure it won't take long 'til we find a nickname for you.

Cheers

Calvin

The Bright Side

Ahhh, we can breathe and stretch out our arms again.

The offices at Costless have been pretty tight lately to fit all our staff as we keep growing. With 3 more job postings to fill this month, we have plumb run out of room. I've been looking for more office space for the past few months, but my biggest dilemma has been not wanting to split up the staff, since our family culture is so important. We needed to have extra offices that are within walking distance from out main building.

I was relieved to find an additional 4000 sq ft in the next building beside us. We jumped at the opportunity and immediately moved in. With so many bare walls, we held a brain storming session and plastered the walls with planning sheets and Post It notes. Boy, is it nice to have some free space to plan and work.

As I said, culture is huge at Costless, so when I heard the new space was being nicknamed the "dark side" by our staff, it kind of bothered me. So, officially I announced the new space was to be forever known as... "The Bright Side." A little positive suggestion seems to go a long way and staff get it. Even the smallest grain of negativity can erode our Work Happy positive work environment.

Can't wait to stick more Post-Its on the walls in out next planning session!

Cheers

Calvin

Drum Roll Please!

The biggest news this year is........( drum roll please) ..........Our New Web Site is Here!!

We are all very proud of the teamwork and accomplishments we have made during this project over the past year.

Our goal from the beginning was to leap into the front as a world class e-commerce company with best in class technology and features. I know we have made our mark on this goal but will continue to add features and speed for a long time to come. The site was build fully in house so we have total control over ever aspect and this will be our main advantage. As we receive customer feedback and requests, we can make changes and stay in front of our competition.

Have a peek now and tell us what you think. 

http://www.costlessexpress.com

Cheers

Calvin

Web Launch!

Today I came in the sales office to see this awesome white board. Shawn, our VP of Sales and Marketing, had come in early to create a training board for our LT's (Loyalty Team) that explained some of the cool features of our new website.

During the next 8 weeks, we will be rolling customers over to our new site and today was the kickoff.

It was great to see the excitement building and the entire company working together to learn. Funny - our THEME this quarter is Learning!

Cheers

Calvin