Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line: FunnyBusiness

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Just as clothes dryers eradicated clothes lines in most backyards ,and CDs overtook the production of Albums, email has put a crimp in old-fashioned letter writing.

Recently, my daughter spent eight weeks in Israel. I didn't send one letter. We talked two or three times a day --thanks to Skype and great international calling rates. I sent emails. But I didn't send a bone fide letter.

She commented on it when she returned. She had expected at least one letter.

Now, there's a Web 2.0 application called  Shiny Letter that lets you create your letters on your desktop and then they'll mail it for you.

That's right. There's now a company that is in business that will take the letter you create on your desktop  and they'll do all the stuff you may have forgotten how to do... Print it, fold it, put it in the envelope, lick the envelope shut, adhere the stamp and either leave it for your postal officer or actually take it to a mailbox or post office. And they'll do it for a mere $2.00 for a four-page letter.

   

"ShinyLetter is a very simple service, we have taken a low tech task & put it online, hopefully making your life easier & Grandmothers around the World happier :) Our service allows you to write a postal letter to anyone in the World, we then print out your letter, slip it in an envelope, address it, stamp it & mail it using the postal system. We mail from several locations around the World."

Why would you use it? Well according to Shiny Letter:

          
                                 

"CONVENIENTOur system has been designed to be very easy to use, we are open 24-7, write a letter whenever & where-ever you want, then let us get to work.                 AFFORDABLE   Just $2.00 for up to a 4 page letter.                  COOL FACTOR Lets face it, it's a cool way to send a letter!                 More features are underway & coming soon."

Now, there is one aspect of this service that is potentially  cool. Shiny Letter  has mail drops all over the world. So, it claims that instead of your letter taking weeks to arrive at an international destination, it will just take a couple of days.Of course, I didn't see any real tests of this theory

So Let's Create The Shiny Letter Challenge

I need someone from Europe, Someone from Asia, Someone from Australia, and someone from South America to participate. Here's what you have to do. Email me your address. I will send you  three  letters. One from Shiny Letter and two from USPS...one via airmail, and one just regular mail. All you have to do is send me an email when you receive each letter.

To participate, just send me an email with your mailing address.

Tags: Web 2.0, communication, business

Hat Tip

To Blogher Emily Chang for including Shiny Letter on her blog eHub.

Image Credit: Flickr image by MoonRhythm

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Suit Yourself

In about three weeks my son Noah will earn his bachelor of science degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin.  About five days later he will fly to NYC for his first 'job' interview. He's excited. I'm excited.

And of all the things he needs to think about, there is one issue that is taking up a lot of oxygen. Noah's got suits on his mind.

Time was that fretting over your wardrobe choices for a job interview was strictly the domain of women. Men didn't have to think about their wardrobe  because it was a uniform - dark suit, light shirt, conservative tie.

But that business uniform is no longer a given. And, as my daughter Berit pointed out, " If you wear a suit and the office dress is casual, they may think you're trying too hard." Then she said, "But if you don't wear a suit they may think you're not mature enough to do the job."

The Career experts are divided on the issue. Yahoo! Recommends Checking with the job recruiter ( Noah didn't get his interview via a recruiter)

"A business suit is appropriate attire for most job interviews.

If you're not certain whether you should wear a suit, ask the recruiter about the company's dress code.

But, remember, an interview isn't just another day on the job. You need to dress to impress more than ever.

If the company attire is business casual, or even simply casual, you still should consider wearing a suit to the interview. You should also think about what other candidates might wear. You don't want to be remembered for being the only candidate who didn't dress up for the interview.

A good rule of thumb: If in doubt, wear a suit. It's generally better to be dressed too formally than too casually."

The folks at Careerbuilders.com remind readers that first impressions are made within the first 27 seconds of the interview. Their advice was eerily similar to the opinions of my 17 year old daughter.

"If you are too formal in your appearance, you might give the impression of being rigid and stuffy. If you are too casual, you may send the signal that you do not take the interview or the job very seriously.

Begin by talking to employees of your potential new employer and find out what the dress code is and how seriously management takes it. If you can't find out this information, you should choose clothing that is professional in the impression it gives.

• "Wear a suit or sport jacket with color coordinated trousers    
• The color should be neutral or dark - blue, black or gray is best    
• Wear a tie - even if you will never wear one after you get the job    
• Shoes should be leather - clean and polished - black is best    
• Make sure your nails are trimmed and that they are clean."

     

This being 2006, the Careerbuilders.com article had this other piece of advice. Actually this advice preceded the advice on wardrobe selection-- so if you are going to look for a job this summer, just remember....

"The following ideas can never be neglected:

• Look clean and neat. Make sure that your hair is done appropriately. Women - do not wear wild hairdo's Men - get a trim of head and facial hair.    
• Do not wear a perfume or cologne as many people are allergic. Bathing with a good quality bath soap will leave a light scent. You will be nervous and a gentle scent can mask the perspiring you may be doing. An unscented antiperspirant can be used.    
• Cover any tattoos and avoid gaudy jewelry. Definitely limit pierced jewelry to ears only. Do not wear nose or tongue jewelry

Just a couple of thoughts. They recommend that women shouldn't wear an wild hairdoos.  First, I have no idea what is and isn't a "wild" hairdoo. But, why just that advice to women? Shouldn't guys be concerned about their hair as well?

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What does it say about our society that the career advisor feels compelled to remind people to bathe before the interview? Oh, and given that Americans spend  about $2 billion a year on deoderant, was that really necessary to add that in addition to using soap, they could use an anti-perspirant?

As to covering up the tatoos, given the number of people who now have hand, wrist and neck tattoos, perhaps,white gloves and ascots may become part of the job interview fashion  wardrobe.

Image Credit: Image from Flickr member Fabian17

Daring To Blog Full-Time

Just over four years ago Jon Gruber registered the domain name "Daring Fireball". He didn't start writing his blog for another five months.  Just a few months later, Gruber got lots of people's attention when he covered a story about a bogus testimonial that Microsoft had made up about a woman switching from a MAC to a PC.
That story Microsoft Make-Up got Gruber lots of attention.  He has not disappointed.

According to the Blog Herald ,Gruber has decided to leave his day job and try to make a go of it as a full-time blogger

"As an avowed Mac geek, Gruber’s blog is one of the key blogs to read for all things related to Apple, their computers, their software, and just about any related topics. Daring Fireball also reaches out into many other topics, all of which Gruber handles with class and a great writing style that I only wish I could emulate.

If you’re like to support John’s work at Daring Fireball, visit his memberships page."

Gruber, circa 1977

In announcing his decision last week, Gruber talks about the business of blogging . The decision to go full time has been two years in the making. His business model-- membership based. $19 a year, Free when you purchase a  T-shirt. And, you can purchase as many T shirts as you want.

"When I launched the membership program two years ago, I wasn’t sure whether it would be a failure, a bonanza, or something in-between. Ends up it was something in-between. I mean that in a good way, because it was way more successful than I honestly expected. But it was also less than I had sort of secretly hoped.

What I wanted was for this to be easy — for the revenue from the memberships and t-shirts sales to amount to something that, when combined with the money from a modest dose of advertising, would clearly constitute a reasonable full-time salary.

But there’s a reason why you can’t say, “Wow, look at all those people supporting their families with their weblogs devoted to deeply intricate Mac and web nerdery,” or, really, why there aren’t that many people supporting themselves full-time from their weblogs, period. That reason is because it isn’t easy."

In the end, Gruber said he decided to take the jump because "Daring Fireball is what I love to do."
In his post Gruber says,

One point I want to impress upon you is that the proper response to this announcement isn’t so much “Congratulations” as it is “Good luck, I hope it works”. Success is far from assured, and I’m feeling more than a little gut-wrenching uncertainty.

It’s difficult for me to write this sort of thing, to step out from behind the curtain and address you, the reader, directly — as I wrote two years ago, “Just me, your humble author, hat in hand, heart in throat, asking for your support”.

For those of you who think this is worthwhile, however, that’s what I’m doing: asking for your support. And I don’t know how to do so otherwise."

There are more than a few bloggers who will be watching and hoping that Gruber is very successful at this venture.

 

" I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas"

This is cross posted at Blogher

As American Women begin to realize that the "Mommy Wars" is nothing more than a case of WAG THE DOG, it seems as if things are heating up in Germany.



The The NYT Week In Review has an article about Ursula von der Leyen, a physician and mother of seven, who happens to be Germany's new minister for family affairs.

"The question is not whether women will work," she said in an interview. "They will work. The question is whether they will have kids."

Germany, she says, must make it easier for women to do both, because it now has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. The number of children born here in 2005 was the lowest in a single year since 1945. If the trend holds, the population will decline 17 percent by 2050 — hobbling the economy and an already-strained social system."

While Germany has a very generous parental leave system, they make it almost impossible for a mom to return to work. Their kindergartens and child care centers close at noon--most public schools close at 1:00 p.m. In the NYT article, Dr. von der Leyen says she wants to completely rewrite German family policies.

"Dr. von der Leyen says she now wants to combine the flexible child care of France with the financial incentives of Sweden. Her main proposal, adapted from Sweden, is to shorten parental leave support in Germany to 12 months, but tie payments — up to $2,2,00 a month — to income. Higher-income families would have more incentive to have babies, while the shorter duration would prod mothers to return to work sooner.

She would also require fathers to take at least two months off work, if a family is to receive the full 12 months of benefits, to pressure men to take more responsibility."

Meanwhile back on American front, The New Republic has a terrific editorial about the Wag The Dog Nature of "The Mommy Wars" and the fact that while politicians may be loathe to enact more family friendly laws, the bottom line is businesses are becoming more family friendly because its good for the bottom line.

"Business has been understandably unenthusiastic about the calls for increased benefits, flex-time, and other working-mom "perks." In a corporate culture that values face time and late nights at the office, suggestions of flexibility are reflexively dismissed as a drain on productivity. But, slowly, this culture has been changing--often as companies realize the brain drain of moms-in-flight. Ernst & Young, noticing a high turnover rate among its female employees, piloted a project in the mid-'90s that allowed all workers to telecommute; the firm's percentage of women partners has since tripled. Other corporations, including Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, have created new reduced-hour jobs designed for working mothers. With women now constituting 46 percent of the U.S. workforce and receiving more college degrees than men, there are clear economic incentives for businesses to develop similar third-way options."

If you agree with the editorial you'll leave on the side that there never was a "War Between The Mommys" in the first place.

That's a relief since there's a scheduled Cease Fire on the Mommy Wars slated for May 15th.

Oh, I do have one itty bitty...no make that major issue with the post at Workplace Prof Blog that sent me subscribing to the New Republic.In tee-ing up the editorial from the New Republic, the male blogger wrote:

"According to conventional wisdom, there is an on-going ideological divide between stay-at-home moms and women who choose to put their careers above their families. A continuing cultural war of epic proportions seethes just under the fabric of American society."

Excuse me? Women who work are putting their careers above their families? As my daughter Berit would say, " Are ya jokin'me?"

While we are focusing on this cease fire, can we please concentrate on eliminating editorially imbued statements about either choice?

If you are going to describe one group as stay at home...then describe the others in the same kind of vanilla lanuage--they are moms who work. Period.
Not moms who put their careers above their families. Not moms who pay more attention to budgets and deadlines then their children's soccer game scores. They are just moms who work. Get it?

It's time to stop the editorializing. The facts are the facts. Women who work are moms. To say that moms who work put their careers ahead of their families is about as ridiculous as saying that every stay at home mom follows the advice of Dr. Laura.



Hat Tips to Bumblebee Sweet Potato for recommending the NYT article and to Workplace Prof Blog for leading me to the New Republic Editorial which they hat tipped to Dana Nguyen.

NOTE:

While The New Republic is a subscription -based magazine,it does allow me to email the article and so if you would like to read the entire editorial just send me an email and I'll forward it on.

Title quote: Hillary Clinton during an interview on 60 minutes during the 1992 presidential campaign.
Image Credit:Dr.von der Leyen with her seven children. Appeared in NY TIMES Week in Review. Jochen Luebke/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images

Tags: Business, Mommy Wars, Women, Germany

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Time,Time, Time Is On My Side (yes, it is)

If I had been thinking, I would have known that there was no way that I would remember the phone meeting I scheduled for 6:30 on Tuesday evening.

Tuesday was a very busy day. At 6:30 I was not only exhausted, I was facing another three hours of work. So I decided to take a "break' with my daughter and watch two episodes of LOST( thank you Netflix) which we are now addicted to(how did we avoid watching this show for two years?)

The appointment was in my Blackberry and my Blackberry was within hand reach, but in order to see the appointment, I would have had to deliberately open the Blackberry and check to see if I had scheduled something.

I didn't do that. When I heard the phone ringing in my upstairs office at 6:30, I ignored it. I knew that anyone who wanted to get in touch with me would try my mobile. I was on a break and had no intention of dashing upstairs to answer a call.

Now, if I had been using one of the many online calendars that are now available, I could have received an RSS reminder via my mobile phone and/or Blackberry and I wouldn't have had to spend Wednesday groveling about missing the appointment Blogher Charlene Li who blogs about technology developments in media and marketing </a> has been thinking about calendars too. She has lots of calendars to deal with and since 1998 has been using Yahoo!'s online calendar---but she may be making a change.

"Like many working parents, I juggle multiple calendars – my work calendar, two kids, spouse, school, church, visiting relatives, and supposed, an exercise calendar. So keeping track of all of the bits and pieces of my life is the bane of my evenings – I spend WAY too much time managing all of the multiple calendars. Just last week, I spent three evenings scheduling playdates for my two lovely kids – not my idea of fun.


So in an effort to get organized, I’ve been trying a slew of the new AJAX calendar products that promise to be an improvement over my existing online calendar (I currently use Yahoo! Calendar, which has kept my private life buzzing along happily since 1998). Having trialed a half dozen of them (including Airset, CalendarHub, 30Boxes, Planzo, and SpongeCell), Google Calendar is truly a best of breed in terms of ease of use and functionality."

Charlene sees major business potential for the new Google Calendar saying the API will create a new ecosystem of applications around schedules.

"Here’s an example: a hair salon could use Google Calendar to handle online appointment scheduling. Each stylist would have their own calendar, and a script would match the requested services with various schedules (a service currently offered by companies like spasalon.com). The analogy to Maps is particularly poignant if you think that Maps helped us control “space”; now Calendar is helping us control “time”.

However, Google does have some competition and one of the upstarts is a calendar called Kiko that Cheery Visage blogs, "I have the hots for Bubbleshare and Kiko"

"I simply must gosh over its slick, sexy user interface. The interface is very interactive; you can click on any day and start typing, drag an event around the calendar, change an event's time by resizing it. After trying out Google's calendar as well, I can honestly say that Kiko beats Google in the user interface area, hands down (Kiko is much better developed). ... The overall color themes are very tasteful and pleasant on the eyes. It sure knows how to win a girl's heart by doing a smashing job on coordinating colors (nothing turns me off more than clashing colors, ouch).

It's got a public calendar view (if you enable it), attendee invitation and status, and appointment reminders can be sent by e-mail, instant message or text message through mobile phone (which also includes some international service providers, not just United States)."

Not only does Cheery Visage have the "Hots" for Kiko but she's also enamored with Bubbleshare- a photo sharing site that offers some "fun" features like captions, bubble captions. Bubbleshare will also create online puzzles and jigsaws out of your photos.

So in the unlikely event that you have some time to kill today, try the  Online Jigsaw  of a Mayan Calendar

Image Credit: Mayan Calendar from Calendars Through The Ages, a Web Exhibit

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The Final Frontier

It's definitely not for the view. Or the hours .Or the benefits--my health care now costs $700 a month and I'm healthy. Nevertheless, more and more baby boomers are thinking about starting their own business.

This at a time when fewer Americans overall are interested in going it on their own --down to 66% from 72% last year.

Whatever the reason,( and I do have my theories)  baby boomers have Entrepreneurship On The Brain --that from Yahoo's Second Annual Survey of  Entrepreneurial Aspirations.

"Baby boomer-aged survey respondents indicated a significant increase in entrepreneurial aspirations. For example, when asked, "At what age do you think it would be too late to start your own business?," 70 percent of respondents who were 45 to 54, and 72 percent of those 55 and older answered, "I will never be too old to start my own business." The Yahoo survey finds this a substantial increase compared to last year's survey, when 54 percent of those aged 45 to 54 chose the "never too old" response, and 58 percent of those aged 55 and above chose the same response. Across all age groups, respondents choosing "never too old" increased to 60 percent this year, versus 47 percent in the 2005 survey."

I first read about this survey in a post by Jory Des Jardins, one of the founders of  Blogher . For Jory, the survey confirmed her own belief that given the choice most American's would work for themselves. In her post, she shared a quote from Charles Handy from the London Business School.

"Anyone visiting America from Europe cannot fail to be struck by the energy, enthusiasm, and confidence in their country's future that he or she will meet among ordinary Americans—a pleasing contrast to the world-weary cynicism of much of Europe. Most Americans seem to believe that the future can be better and that they are responsible for doing their best to make it that way. It is an attitude that is both infectious and attractive, and it probably accounts for much of the dynamism of their economy, even if it irritates some Europeans on occasion."

In her post Jory said.

"I think of one of my closest friends, a British man, who does very well for himself, and I still don't quite know--after 10 years of friendship--what he does. And yet, when he calls me and asks me how I am I immediately interpret the question to mean, "How's business?" and I proceed to give him the status update of every project on my plate."

A couple of days ago, while driving home in rush hour traffic, I took the opportunity to call Carol, a former associate. Once a high powered executive, Carol  now is a consultant, working very part time. As part of our "catch up" she mentioned she had just seen Susan, another business associate who had "resigned" from her very high powered job after new management at her company made it clear that her services were no longer valued.

Susan  had spent her entire career at this particular company--more than 20 years-- eventually becoming one of the most powerful women in the organization. She's been "retired" for several months.

When I asked how Susan was doing, Carol nonchalantly  mentioned that Susan was planning on starting a consulting business with her partner.

Maybe it was the time of day. Maybe it was the traffic, but my skepticism was heard loud and clear over the wireless magic of Verizonwireless. Carol assumed  my skepticism had to do with their ability to earn an income.

She reassured me, "they have saved a lot of money, they probably never have to work another day of their lives."

"It's not about the money, " I said, not feeling the least little bit in need of reassurance,"It's the mindset. They have spent 20 years in Corporate America. They have no concept of  what it's really like to be a business owner."

If someone were to ask me to bet on whether Susan will be successful as a consultant, I would have to say, probably not.

The general yardstick is that four out of five businesses "close" after five years --the statistic used to be four out of five businesses fail after five years but now that statistic has  been redefined  to acknowledge that some business owners simply want to do something different.

But whether Susan is successful really isn't the point. The point is that for baby boomers, becoming self-employed is often the final frontier.

"The survey found that nearly one-third (31 percent) of those polled said that doing work that they really love was the main reason for launching a business. The second most popular reason, selected by 22 percent of respondents, was "to be my own boss." Less than one-fifth (17 percent) said they decided to start a business "to make more money."

Welcome to the real world.

Image Credit: Flickr image by The House Family

Notes: Susan and Carol are pseudonyms. The conversation did take place. Susan and Carol are real women with real stories.

Tags: Entrepreneurs, Blogher, Business Culture, Women, Yahoo

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Tool Time

Over at Blogher, contributing editor Laura Scott shared two fun tools. The first is Spell with Flickr created by Kastner

"What is this? Spell with Flickr is a small program that lets you type in whatever you want, then goes to flickr and grabs pictures for each an every letter! It also allows you to change the images that you see, so you can find better images for your word or phrase!"

In addition, to Spell with Flickr, Laura also shared EGO SURF

"Whether it's big or not so much, if you've ever done a vanity search, you want to check out EgoSurf.

The idea is quite simple: You enter your name or online handle, and your blog URLs, and let the site go to work.

What's different -- and what makes the site more than just another whimsical web 2.0 widget -- is that they actually run a "deep search" and qualify those hits that come up:

"Using our patent pending deepthroat™ search technology, we seek deeper than most. Using one degree of separation, we look at each page retrieved by the search engines, and seek out links to your sites.

This deep searching routes out even the most obscure references. Our finely tuned egopoints algorithm is then applied to the search result".

After you check out your own  ego, it also lets you see who else is ego searching and who has the biggest ego. when I searched for the top 50 I was very surprised to see my ego is in very good company. I really had no idea !

biggest egos

"media girl" "shea gunther" adrants alezzittazz anil dash anita bora anita rissler anshuljain antville avalonstar barelyfitz bloginfluence carwreck conversations catheroo chris kimble universit... churchofmoo david maister dooce dw-world elana centor emsxiety evil-asian21 fabian schlenz jadwigas shop johntp joystiq kalyn denny kawaii nostalgika kobikan kykurnal ladygunn laurence simon liam mayron lisaviolet marja-leena rathje mijnkopthee ralston carwreck conve... red shoe ramblings renemt sam breach shivaranjan sibanac spaziodigitale staralicious the unharshed mellow ungluecklichgluecklich vagueboy vitaly friedman warumono-chan zoomshare

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An Invitation to Join the Resistance

The year was 1972 or 1971( it is a blur) In Columbia, MO there was a "Gas War" where for a brief time--maybe it was just the afternoon--gas prices dropped below 20 cents a gallon.

That was the first time I remember being excited when the price of gas dropped.

On that day, I filled up my Dodge Dart for about what I now pay for 1 gallon of gas.

Like many people, I received an email yesterday suggesting there was a way to protest the price of gas without sacrificing. While my friend Charles sent me the email, there are many bloggers who are sharing that same message in their blogs --for whatever reason-- a lot of them seem be members of my space.

In case you didn't receive the email, here is a portion from  Kimber-Lily's blog at my space.
Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T
purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies
(which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not
selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their
prices. If they reduce their prices, the other
companies will have to follow suit. But to have an
impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon
and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now,
don't wimp
out on me at this point...keep reading and
I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of
people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us
send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and
those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =
3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches
the sixth group of people, we will have reached over
THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to
ten friends each, then 30 million people will have
been contacted! If it goes one level further, you
guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

The invitation to join the Resistance Movement comes on the heels of Friday's announcement that the former CEO of EXXON is getting a $400 retirement package. Most of the posts on this particular subject seem to be direct lifts from the New York Times article or from a post that ABC News had on its web site.
What I didn't find is a lot of commentary about this from women bloggers. Yes, I found women bloggers who did a copy and paste of the news article and said it was outrageous, but so far I haven't seen any analysis.

I would like to see the analysis.
Does his compensation matter as we watch gas prices jump over the $3.00 mark?
Are people mad enough to try to "boycott Exxon and Mobile" strategy for the rest of the year? If people did that, would it make a difference or is the email just someone's idea of how to get his message out to 300 million people?

Are people mad enough that they are ready to conserve gas using other methods?

Are we seeing an increase in Mass Transit and our Mass Transit systems going to try to lure new riders?

If mass transit isn't an option, then what about carpooling? Are we seeing an increase in interest there? In doing this research I found a blog/community site called Pooln The blog itself is out-of-date but the site describes itself as
"..a national community for folks who are interested in carpooling. We're trying a community/social-network approach to carpooling here. Join the experiment! Register with us — it's free!"

Are people not writing about this because as much as we don't like paying more for gasoline, it still doesn't hurt enough to make us stop going to the fillin' station?

Image credit: Flickr image byjdardin

Tags: gas prices, carpooling, consumerism, business, mass transit, executive compensation

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Lost in Translation

As frustrated as I get talking to folks at call centers in India -- and it is a frustrating experience 90% of the time-- it is still better than trying to deal with companies who just don't think its important to give customers the option of a phone call.

Just today I wanted to try a new software called Notepager,I discovered it at a blog called Small Business Software which is run by the parent company of Notepager.

The concept sounds great. You install some software, create a recipient list and you can send txt messages via your computer. Why is that important? Primarily because I have a 17 year old daughter whose primary communication method is TXT messaging.

But also, TXT messages are a lot less invasive than the phone and  there are many people I deal with in business that don't have a PDA or Blackberry Being able to send a quick TXT message to a regular cell phone is just easier than leaving a voicemail.

The only problem--I can't get it to work. I read the instructions but something is getting lost in the translation of the setup wizard. I am obviously not understanding something that I need to do.

I have tried it three times. I believe in the three strikes and you're out philosophy of doing business.

 Yes, they have support forums up the yahzoo but I don't have the time or inclination to figure out which topic will provide me with the answers I need. Once I am at the point where I can't interpret the instructions, I want a translator and that usually means I want someone to talk to.

 This company doesn't  even have a technical support email system that I can send my questions to. So I sent it to the webmaster.If I don't get an answer soon I will be requesting a refund.

Then there is the design company that requests are discussions about layouts and creative design be conducted through a password protected communication system.

I sent the requirements, expecting the graphic designer would contact me to discuss the project. Instead they presented a layout. It was all wrong.

We gave feedback via their note system  and explained what we wanted.They revised.It was still all wrong.

We gave additional feedback. I wanted to call. They don't do business via the phone.They came back with yet another design, and it was still wrong.

My client, who also  believes in the three strikes and you're out philosophy of business, has instructed me to send them a note saying the job is cancelled.

Normally it is not something that I would do via a note. However, since that is how they want to do business, that is precisely what I did.

While I understand there is a benefit in having everything written so you have precise documentation, a quick 10 minute phone call would have been all the graphic designer would have needed to understand exactly what we were looking for.

After that call, if the graphic designer wanted to send a note confirming our requests.just for the documentation, then that would have been terrific.

But that's not how they are choosing to do business. Had they just picked up the phone at the beginning of the project, they would have saved time and kept a client.

Image Credit: Flickr image by MireO5

Tags: business, communication, mobile phones, software, advertising, customerservice

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Notes From The Road - The Border

After staring at the bumper of the car in front of us for about 20 minutes while crawling our way to have US Customs inspect our passports and ask us why we were visiting Canada ,my daughter  Berit asked, "How much do you save on your car lease if you agree to have the dealership's name on your car?"

When I explained to her that there isn't a reduction in price, she asked what only a rationale person would ask, "Then why do they do it?"

Good question. Why do people willing allow their cars to become  24/7 mobile billboards for a car dealership? I have no idea. I also had no idea just how many people feel compelled to use their cars to share a personal brand message.

If you live in New Jersey, you can't do it --at least that's the word from Wikipedia which says New Jersey bans license plate frames--do the legislators have some evidence that license plate frames increase fender benders? I find that hard to believe.

As far as advertising mediums go, the license plate frame seems a rather benign and ineffective method for getting a message out. Who reads this stuff?  And if they do read it ,who remembers them?

On Saturday evening, Berit and I did read these plate frames  for about 30 minutes on Interstate 5. Much to my surprise, over 50% of the cars had license plate frames..I was astounded.  While the majority of them were the traditional auto dealerships ---Honda of Kirkland (with their website address ) , South Center Acura of Seattle, and Downtown Toyota. there were some cars that opted to use the frames as a personal brand billboard.

In that brief time, we saw cars sporting a variety of messages including:

'The Scuba Diver"

"Heading In The Wrong Direction? God Allows U-Turns"

"No island like Samish Island"

"I'd rather be golfing"

"My other car is an airplane"

Is  it a west coast thing? I drive around Minneapolis every day and if people are sporting these license plate frames, it is completely lost on me.

According to some out- of- date statistics, back in 2001, car promotion products including key chains and license plate frames  were the 1 th best selling promotional products  ---accounting  for 3.4% of the $18 billion promotional product industry.

Which brings me to a more in your face concept--The ID IT! Plates which claims"tens of thousands" have been sold worldwide"

'Forget bumper stickers and other cheap, cheesy decals. Classy I.D. IT! Plates are available in elegant polished chrome or a luxurious gold matte finish and are carefully hand assembled to your text specifications. They mount safely to your vehicle and have been road tested in the frigid Canadian north and in dry desert heat. Your plate can be run through hundreds of car washes and will probably outlast your car! Click here to see who is using I.D. IT! Plates.

And just who has these I.D. IT! Plates? According to the web site tens of thousands have been sold around the world.

"Webmasters - Small Businesses - Manufacturers - Corporations - Auto Dealerships - Political Organizations - Retail Stores - Limousine Services - Real Estate Companies - MLM's - Internet Businesses - Service Businesses - Schools - Universities - Trade Unions -  Associations - Churches - Individuals"

You'd think if tens of thousands of companies have these billboards on their cars that at least one real client would be more than delighted to have her business used in the I.D. IT! promotional materials.Instead, the company uses a pretend company in its promotional material.

Curious isn't  it?

. Tags: Business, advertising, car, license plates

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