Today The Alliance Group is proud to unveil our Brazillian Machinery Division. Our first effort in portuguese is easy bridge cranes, or www.pontesrolantesfacil.com . Please visit soon. Tenho orgulho de anunciar o Brazillian divisão da AWC. Ao longo das últimas semanas ele tem-se revelado difícil encontrar pontes rolantes no Brasil. Para remediar essa situação, estamos começando a exportar pontes rolantes para o Brasil, usando como muitos Brazillian feita componentes possível.

I'd like to highlight Seth Godin's blog post about layering today, and add to it - you can spend all day tying bait, but if you don't go fishing you don't eat. Just be comfortable with the fact you won't be on the "bassmasters" tv show for your first time out...

2008 - Dreams and Reality

We aren't perfect yet, and that's one of the things I'd like to address first. When a business opens, and we celebrated our one-year recently, you have a really neat idea that eventually gets replaced by reality. Things have started to come together, and The Alliance Group isn't quite how I had envisioned it - and I'm really excited about that. We've picked up clients in industries I hadn't planned on entering, and I think there's another round of hiring to be done in a few months. So what does The Alliance Group have on tap for the first few months of 2008? You can count on an increased South American presence. You can count on vendor development, and implementing systems to ensure every vendor meets every deadline. Bottom line, you can count on counting on The Alliance Group to buy heavy machinery or transport heavy machinery anywhere in the world by 2009. Did I mention we are speaking some Portuguese now? I learned some phrases, and we're about to hire a part-time Portuguese speaker.

ZZ Top's got nothing.

Remember the ZZ Top song "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide"? I don't either, but I remember the title. And he's got nothing on The Alliance Group. We're good, and we're global. Check it out: We now have clients and approved vendors in South Africa, Australia, Netherlands, USA, and Canada.

Where have the webmasters been?

It may seem as if the web-masters at The Alliance Group have been somewhat stagnant lately. If it does seem so, you've got the same feeling I do - that our website needs a serious update. First, let's reflect on what has been going on at The Alliance Group. If you look at our sample projects page you will see that The Alliance Group has been chosen by three respected groups to source machinery small and large. Have we been perfect every time? Absolutely not. In reading Marcum and Smith's "Egonomics" I've been reminded to maintain a sense a humility, curiousity, and veracity. So there are some big programs The Alliance Group is trying to implement to not only attract big name clients, but retain them and enable them to spread the good word.

1. Create better systems - allow our approved vendors to know exactly what is expected and when.
2. Make our resources efficient and effective - allow clients to access all of our expert articles, links to agencies and organizations, and sample documents for free in the fastest way possible.
3. Spread the Gospel - right now The Alliance Group's founders are all in positions where we do not have to rely on our income here; this means any revenues are returned to the company and reinvested in useful ways.

So thanks for your repeated visits, and BIG THANKS to our newfound clients. We appreciate your faith in our system. Also, BIG THANKS to those that encourage and help our founders - we couldn't do it without your help.

New Categories of Product and Service

Alliance Western has added quite a few types of product and service to our program. Specifically, heavy haul and superloads are a fascinating specialty I'm excited to be working with. Ever see a Schnabel car? it's a 36-axle railcar that can carry 800 tons at 200' lengths. Not your conventional box car, eh? Also, deluxe rail travel has nothing to do with industry, but it's a neat category that just isn't being covered. Because of my passion for complex machines, I've gotten to know the railroad industry fairly well and this is my way of doing business with them. I started the Alliance Group out of my passion for big machines and well-made tools, and I'm going to encourage employees here to take advantage of the seven-year-old in their boss every day...

New Website

Now that I've had some time to advance the business plan behind Alliance Western, a new website is being assembled. It's another opportunity to further our mission - complex buying and selling made easy. We take the work of marketers, engineers, purchasing agents, and lawyers out of your hands. Buying a compactor or overhead crane is now almost as easy as falling off a log. Some of you may know I'm a huge Guy Kawasaki fan, and he is a proponent of the "mantra" theory instead of a mission statement. Our mantra: Tough choices made easy.