Najla's Notes

Catching up on my Reading

We had a very good weekend as far as work goes. When you are busy during the week, sometimes it is hard to catch up with all the things that need to be done to maintain multiple websites. I had the chance to read three Inc. magazines over the weekend. The latest, the May issue was full of useful information and a terrific article on Tony Hsieh, the Zappos.com CEO. His philosophy is to be happy and from that you can get your employees and your customers to buy in to that happiness. Sounds good in theory, but he has actually made it work for his company. Everyone who works there does so, not because of the huge wages he pays (because he doesn’t), or the free cafeteria food (lunch meat) but because they truly buy in to his whole happiness theory. It really was a very inspiring article.

There were a few other items in this month’s Inc. magazine that I could relate to as well. “Balancing Acts” by Meg Cadoux Hirshberg is an article that hits home. But, instead of my husband being the Entrepreneur, I am and brought him in to help with the business. Her story is the story of thousands of small business owners that struggle to keep their dreams alive while paying the bills and enjoying the finer things in life. I will continue to look forward to reading her monthly updates about the impact of entrepreneurial businesses on families.

If you get a minute to visit our facebook page, we would love it if you signed up as a fan. Or you can follow me on Twitter, and while you are there you can also follow Tony Hsieh. I do.

How NOT To Treat Your Customers

It is amazing how such a small act can create distaste in the eyes of some of your most loyal customers. There is a little wine shop in the town where I live. The economy has not been good to the folks who own the shop and they are struggling to keep open. Many people have tried to give them ideas, and I for one have hired them to cater an event and even planned my monthly women’s networking group meeting there on the first Wednesday of every month.

 

Well, last month many of us got to see a side of why the place is struggling so hard. The owners are not as worried about their customers as they are about having it all, before it goes down. My meeting was planned well in advance. It has been on the same date for the last 6 months. On this particular night, a wine maker from California came in to town. So, the proprietors emailed everyone they know to come in for a free wine tasting. All well and good. You can’t begrudge them for trying to make some money. However, the wine maker gets to speak, and my meeting cannot start on time. Then about 45 minutes in to the meeting we ask if we can get some cheese and bread to go with our wine. - We were told that they were closing up so that they could go out to dinner with the wine maker! Now mind you, there are at least 30 people who showed up to the event. The wine maker was late, so each of these people had to at least buy one glass of wine before he arrived. Some purchased a bottle. My meeting was not supposed to end for another hour and we were being herded out as quickly as possible so they could go to some upscale restaurant at the winemaker’s expense.

 

Those of us that were at the meeting were in disbelief, since we knew how hard they were trying to keep business coming in the door. Inviting customers in, and then shooing them out for your own enjoyment are not the makings of good business. Many people were talking about this for days. Employees of the people that were in that room were talking about it for days. The saying is true, if you do something great, no one knows about it. Do something bad and everyone will know about it and tell their friends.  I am not sure if this hurt their business or not. However, it was agreed that our meetings will no longer be held at this establishment, and I am not sure I will recommend them for any more catering jobs. Just think what might happen if they decide to go to dinner again on a night they were committed to a job?

 

Our business depends on good customer service and loyal customers. Sometimes this means staying late and working on a client project. It can mean putting in orders well after the time we have closed. Emails need to be responded to, and we do that even on the weekends. Treating your customers with respect is at the top of the list of good customer service. Without loyal customers, and respect and sometimes putting your business ahead of things we would rather be doing, we wouldn’t have a chance at the type of life we want to live. We’ve built our business because of the customer service we provide. We love our customers and it shows every day.

Celebrate Life's Moments

Sometimes we forget in these “tighten the purse strings” times that life is still going on around us. There are birthdays and anniversaries to celebrate, safe work practices to reward and employees retiring.  Just as in death, life around us still continues and it is more important than ever before to recognize the individuals in our lives, employees, clients, family and friends who help us become who we are, increase our business and keep our heads above water.

Today, I got a “twitter” from a long time business coach. He just returned from a NYC tradeshow speaking engagement for our industry. Here is his “Tweet”: - Just got back from New York City & saw no signs of a recession. Restaurants were packed. People spending money and having fun. Where’s CNN?

The point is that too many of us are caught up in the bad press. We need to celebrate the moments that matter most to us. - Over the next couple of posts, I am going to talk about the different ways you can celebrate the moments with those that mean the most to you- whether it be your employees, your clients or your family.

It doesn’t take a lot of money to say “Happy Birthday!” - In our office we celebrate birthdays with lunch brought in from a local restaurant or pizza. I am not talking about a catered lunch, I am talking about passing around a menu and asking what each person would like and having our receptionist go out and pick it up. We take the next 45 minutes to an hour celebrating the birthday. The company usually gives a $25 gift card to a local restaurant, the movies or from our own Select-A-Gift program (Over 80 choices of brand name gifts per dollar category) and my favorite Lindt truffles in a gift bag filled with tissue. Everyone in the office gets to participate in the birthday celebration, and the person whose birthday it is, is made to feel special. 

In my next post, we will talk more about Select-A-Gift and how it can help you increase moral, build a safer team or say thank you.

I Can Hope. . .

Enough is enough. I am so tired of opening my morning paper (and I love to read the paper) only to see day after day more and more discouraging news about our economy, or how the stimulus bill is not going to work. Why is everyone so hung up on being negative? Can’t we all just get along? We voted for change, but it seems that no one wants to change.

 

Is there a reason why we all can’t just give the President and the stimulus package the benefit of the doubt and wait and see?

 

Didn’t these naysayers’ mothers ever tell them that if you think bad things are going to happen they will? It so easy to be negative. It takes no energy at all to be cranky and crabby and to have a bad attitude and sling mud. -

 

It does however take energy to hold your tongue, and think pleasant thoughts. I was always taught that you have to have a positive attitude and believe in what you are doing if you want to get somewhere. Where is the positive energy? If the news media would just spend a bit more time reporting on good things, instead of concentrating on all the bad things, we might come out of this crisis faster. It’s hard to stay upbeat and positive when every headline reads of doom and gloom. It makes you just want to go back to bed - why get up, if life is going to “stink” anyway??

 

Anybody can destroy things - no talent or brains needed; it does take special people to build things. Let’s all be “Special” and concentrate on the rebuilding. Spend each and every day with the aim to do one random act of kindness -even if that means just smiling at a stranger on the street. Or hold your tongue when you want to say something bad about the economy or the President, or put a new spin on things and look at your business and your world from 30,000 feet, instead of at ground level, and maybe, just maybe we will all start to feel good again. Then, tomorrow when we open the paper it won’t be filled with anything other than stories we want to read about, about hope for the future.  

 

I can hope can't I?

The Million Woman Bailout

This is an article that was written by Nell Merlino - with permission I have added it here to my blog page.

How many women does it take to put a war-torn country back together again?

How many women does it take to put a war-torn country back together again?

In its second election since the genocide ended in 2003, women won 44 of the 80 seats in the Rwandan Parliament -- it is by far the largest number of women in a national legislative body anywhere in the world. Out of one of the worst humanitarian crises in our lifetime, women have survived and emerged to lead the political, economic, and civic recovery of their country. A nation where women were shamed for speaking publically has now implemented a Constitutional mandate for 30% of Parliamentary seats to be filled by women, and they have been elected in even greater numbers.

How many men does it take to ruin a national economy and wreak havoc on millions of lives?

About 55 top dogs, if you keep track of all the similar faces who are being fired, filleted by Congress or carving up the bailout money. There isn't a woman among them; not a single major US financial institution is run by a woman. But there are dozens of men supported by armies in accounting firms, rating agencies and the Federal government, who all believed that there was a new way to make unbelievable piles of money -- new ways for them to be big dogs on the Street and in the world, responsible to no one but themselves, all in step with the "boys will be boys" doctrine.

It just hit me like a ton of bricks reading accounts of the Paulson meeting with the nine big bank boys, who were reluctant to sign on to the bailout if their huge compensation packages had to be brought down to size. Does anybody else feel like the foxes are guarding the hen house? Like the hurricanes of recent years, Americans are facing another disaster, a man-made one this time, that will dramatically change millions of people's lives. This is a crossroads, where we can wait to be affected by the big decisions of a small group, or begin the work of recovery ourselves.

From my recent experience helping US women grow their businesses, I am convinced women will lead America out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Kept out, put out or having walked out of the "boys will be boys" boardrooms, C-suites or the dead end jobs we had propping up the fellas, women have started small businesses in record numbers -- 10.5 million to be exact. Rather than depending on or hoping that the handful who caused this economic crisis will rescue them or bail them out, women are poised to grow their businesses and rescue the country themselves.

Exactly how many women does it take to generate the $700 billion in new revenue to replace the money used in the bailout, and create 4 million new jobs to replace the ones lost in the economic crisis?

It will take 1 million women. There are already 248,000 women entrepreneurs at $1 million or more in annual business revenue. In December, the not-for-profit Count Me In For Women's Economic Independence launch a historic initiative, the Make Mine a Million $ Business race, which will challenge the nation's women entrepreneurs to rebuild the national economy by setting and achieving their goals for business growth in one year. One thousand women have already pre-registered, and are the first to stand on the starting line of a movement which creates jobs and puts our country back on track with creativity, innovation, local green jobs, products and services that create real value. Women have walked for a cure to breast cancer, we have run for nations' highest offices, and in 2009, we will race to rebuild America's economy. Join us at MakeMineAMillion.org

Money Seminar and What I Learned . .

Last week I attended a seminar called “Smart Women Finish Rich”. It was a very interesting seminar put on by a local bank, however not much here that I have not heard before. Although, sometimes just hearing it again is a good way to remind you to start doing something about your savings before it is too late.

Here are some interesting tidbits I learned:

Women own 9.2 million businesses

42% of households with assets greater than $600K are headed by women.

Women live 7 years longer than men.

The average age of a widow is 56 years old. And 25% of all widows go through their husband’s death benefit in 2 months or less.

This is both exhilarating and horrifying, especially the later part. - The good news is it is never too late to start saving for retirement. They used the Latte Factor^®  to help you determine where you can find the extra money to save.  The concept is to write down what you spend all day long every day for a week. Do you stop at the coffee shop on the way to work and get a pastry and coffee? Do you eat lunch out every day? Do you stop by the snack machine in the middle of the afternoon? Just imagine how much you could save if you ate breakfast at home, brought a sack lunch and packed an extra snack? This extra $10 per day could add up to a million dollars by the time you are 65 and ready to retire!! Of course you would need to start saving this $10 per day before you turned 30 and do it diligently for the next 40 years. They suggest that at age 20 you should try to save $4.00 per day, at 30 you should save $11.00 per day, at age 40 -$30 per day and by the time you are 50, if you waited until then to start your nest egg, you will need to save $95 per day.

Don’t let the numbers scare you, especially in these hard economic times. Even a little bit each day can add up. It can be as simple as tossing your loose change in a jar at the end of the day, like Brendan Fraser did in “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. 

We have a rule in our house about money when it comes to our three boys. Half of every dollar that comes in to their hands, whether it is from birthdays or doing extra chores around the house, must go in to their savings accounts. It teaches them to be savers and to be thoughtful of how they spend the money that they do have. Hopefully by doing this we are helping them have a better future.

Rising Product Costs

Recently, I read a report from the National Association of Realtors that said we have finally hit the bottom of the housing slump and home sales may rise in the second half of 2008. As Americans are feeling more pinched at the gas pumps and their grocer this sounds like it could be good news. Hopefully, the economy will begin to move out of its holding pattern too.

Unfortunately, as the state of affairs for the housing market is looking up, I received no less than three different reports this past week, from our industry suppliers, that prices of promotional items, mainly sourcing from Asia (which is where nearly all promotional products originate) are going to increase significantly over the next year. We are already seeing our suppliers reprinting catalogs with pricing inserts, so they can easily be changed out for new ones without the cost of creating a new catalog every time there is an increase. We also have a great many suppliers that are coming out with “Mid-Year” catalogs to combat having to absorb the price increases.

The increase in costs is stemming from the decreasing value of the U.S. dollar against the RMB – (China’s currency). Our dollar has fallen by about 15% over the past three years. Then there is the cost of metals, oil, petroleum (from which plastic is made) and other raw materials where the price is consistently rising due to higher demand and waning availability in China. Now add in social compliance (remember my article last month), where as of January 1, 2008 China has implemented a new labor law requiring employers to offer employee benefits such as an annual leave, medical coverage, insurance, and overtime pay. Chinese employees now realize that they can go elsewhere and get paid better. When this happens, just like here in America, it costs more to find and train new employees which can affect production.

As American’s expect, as they well should, that the items (whether promotional items, costume jewelry, clothing or toys) purchased from overseas are compliant, meaning the materials these products are made from are not dangerous, the factories where the products are made have sanitary conditions, and employees are well treated, the prices of these goods will continue rise.

The good news is that you have choices too. When working with an experienced promotional products distributor your budget and the quality of the products selected should be foremost in their minds. By planning your events and promotions as far as 120 days or more in advance you can effectively beat price increases. Look over your marketing plans for the next 6 months to a year and determine the products you will need to fit those promotions.

Call Creative Expressions for help in determining which products will best fit your plan. By ordering at least four months out or longer you can take advantage of having your product imprinted, debossed or embroidered overseas at the factory, saving you money and help offset the rising costs of products coming in from overseas. Shipping these products to you will not cost more, as they will be FOB: USA Factory.  If you purchase the amount of items you think will last you for the next six months to a year, you will save money by protecting yourself from price increases that may be incurred by ordering smaller amounts, having them decorated in our normal 10 business day or less production time and then having to reorder at a higher price in the coming months.

If you can plan ahead, ask your Creative Expressions Representative to quote you pricing and times for overseas production or help you to find similar products to replace products that may not fit your budget because of increased costs. We are here to partner with you.

Increase your Marketing Efforts in a Down Economy

I recently read an article from Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense. The article was about Bloomingdale’s catalog being discontinued after being in circulation for over 120 years. It seems that the state of the economy and the internet is the cause of this tragedy. I have heard so many times over the years that when there is an economic down turn the marketing department is the first thing to go at a company. Instead of spending more money to attract more business, many companies get rid of their marketing departments or at least scale them down.

Since I come from a marketing background, this never made sense to me. So this year, as the economy wanes Creative Expressions has decided to heat things up! Instead of “throwing in the towel”, as Denny put it, we have decided to ramp up our marketing efforts.

We hired a graphic artist to create our mail outs. We hired a PR firm to write our press releases, and we are having a Corporate Gift Give Away Contest to get more Marketing directors, Human Resource directors and Sales directors interested in our company and the corporate and promotional gifts we can provide. We decided that possibly the promise of a music download to all qualified entrants would be a nice give away. We could mail out T-shirts, a mug or a related promotional product, but our company is not your typical promotional products company and since we are a bit different, so has to be the giveaway.

We are able to provide proven, successful, result driven promotions by using music downloads and cell phone entertainment cards to help with employee recruiting, tradeshow marketing, customer motivation and a myriad of different ideas. Because this is not your normal promotional product, we thought we could illustrate this by being our own case study using a product that we sell. And of course there is the Grand Prize, the winner’s choice of an X-box 360 or a $400 gas card!

From Denny’s Takeaway Points to Consider he said “Marketing is war—a fight for your share of market and wallet. It is nothing less” – to this I say we are joining the fight by increasing our marketing efforts. There will be no quitters here!