Najla's Notes

Cool Tool to Help with Shipping

Catching up on my reading and I came across a neat idea from our postal service. The US Postal Service has created a new augmented reality web tool, called the Virtual Box Simulator, to promote the fact that priority Mail Flat Rate boxes can make shipping easier. With the tool, consumers can hold an object in front of a webcam to create a 3D hologram and determine the appropriate Flat Rate box for shipping items. Then the user can select various boxes to see how they compare to the size of the item they want to ship. - This is all part of the “A Simpler Way to Ship” campaign site at PriorityMail.com - This sounds like a great way to get the right box for shipping your holiday gift items to your loved ones everywhere.

We found someone to help with the data!

Over the past couple of weeks we have been working with Odesk and looking for someone to help convert data from our vendors so we can get it in to our web shoppes more easily. We placed the ad and then waited. We had quite a few applicants for the job. Some from the U.S., some not. We looked over everyones past performance scores, evaluated their reference comments, took into consideration their knowledge of the task and narrowed down our selection.

Last week we sent our candidates a snipet of the spreadsheets that we receive from our vendors and a copy of the structure they need to fit it in when they make the conversions. We asked each candidate to evaluate and give us their best estimate of how long they thought each conversion would take, we have over 50, and how they would go about making that conversion. Since DJ is the techie in our office, he speaks that language.  - We have finally selected our candidate and will be providing them with their first set of records. If this goes well we will turn over more records to be converted. Lets cross our fingers!

More about hiring programmers

In the meantime, DJ interviewed a programmer last week here at home. They talked a lot about building an engine to help us convert the data we get from our suppliers more easily.  This sounds like a fabulous idea and I hope the quote comes out within reason. We have so many new websites we want to create to help our customers find promotional products and corporate gifts easier.

Hiring Someone Sight Unseen

Today I am working on adding new products to the web shoppes. It is very easy to find new vendors and I have about 10 whose products would compliment what we have already in our shoppes. I decided to go to odesk.com to see if I can find an experienced person that I will not have to spend time interviewing and can just jump right in and get the job done. I heard about them in one of the hundreds of business magazines I subscribe to and we have been talking about getting help to increase products and to convert the databases we received from our vendors. So here goes!

 

It is a very daunting task. There are literally hundreds of people from all over the world that have many technical talents. Now my job is to sift through these and find someone to add the first vendor and see how we go from there. I will keep you posted.

Technology and Vacation Time

Isn’t it wonderful to have all of this technology at hand? Here I am sitting in Daytona Beach in a timeshare directly on the ocean, with my family, and I am still able to keep track of what is happening in my office via email, my Blackberry and the phone. I even dialed in to a webinar on Tuesday for our company's WBENC certification.

Here in our room we can only get dial-up service, but with that wonderful technology, I was able to connect my Blackberry to my laptop and get a faster form of dial-up than the room can provide, which allowed me to keep tabs on my office, update a mailing list for our next two mailings, and upload this blog.

And since I am speaking about vacations and summer, a few great things are happening in our office this summer. Starting June 1, our Corporate Gift Give Away Contest begins – Sign up to win either an Xbox 360 or a $400 Gas Card. I believe that now that gas prices have hit $4.00 a gallon and still rising, the gas card will be in high demand. See official rules for details of how you could win! Even if you don’t win, just for signing up, every qualified entrant will receive a Free Music Download!

Not only did we create a contest to add to this summer’s excitement, we also became certified this past month as a women’s business enterprise (WBE) through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation’s largest third party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the U.S.   We recognize the commitment to supplier diversity that is embraced by corporations and government agencies today, and we can add diversity to your supply chain.

WBENC’s national standard of certification implemented by the Women’s Business Development Center, a Florida Regional Partner of WBENC, is a meticulous process including an in-depth review of the business and a site inspection. The certification process is designed to confirm the business is at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a woman or women. – They could have just asked anyone on staff and they would have immediately known who runs the day to day operations in our office.

 

We are looking forward to working with many new corporate partners this summer and in the future. This is a huge opportunity and we don’t take this honor lightly.

 

Monday will come too soon, an end to the vacation and the beginning of another work week, but meanwhile, I better get back to my boys and the beach while they are still building that sand castle!