Marketing and Sales

In preparing a small business, marketing has a gigantic influence on your business. Having said that, it seems as if a lot of marketers do the same wrong thing over and over again. For example, when you create an ad, it is unwise to put white lettering on a dark background. This makes the ad difficult to read and thus people will not read it. If you look around at all the ads that you see, so many have this reverse type. The main lesson I learned about marketing this week was that no matter what you sell, you have to make a promise or demonstrate what the product stands for instead of explaining what it is or what it does. Only then can you capture and hold the attention of customers.

Death of a Dream

A wise proverb once predicted that when your dream dies you go through 5 stages:
1) Anger,
2) Denial,
3) Door-to-door rocking,
4) Temp job, and
5) Acceptance.
Despite my monumental shift in my business model, I have not exhibited any of these stages. (That or I am in the denial stage).
At the end of the day, all dreams can come true if you don't let them die.

Business and Art

Working in a sterile, price oriented environment, I often forget about the creative side of business. Most businesses are like art. Specifically it is a creative expression fo individualism. This seem especially true in the small business where the business is actually the individual. Perhaps this is what is so appealing about small businesses (well that and not having bosses).

Books

During my collegiate years, I never took my to reading. The usual story was I got assigned a reading, skimmed through it, taking note of important points, and then try to get through the quizzes. On about 4 total hours on a plane this weekend, I finished a 200 page book and when I got home, there were two more books waiting for me at home from Amazon. I am not sure exactly at what point I started to become a bibliophile, but this has certainly become the case.

New Words

Drachm:
(pronounced dram)
a unit of apothecary weight equal to an eighth of an ounce or to 60 grains.

Furlong:
One eighth of a mile

League:
3.5 miles

Manubrium:
The broad upper division of the sternum with which the clavicle and first two ribs articulate

Capsaicin:
The active ingredient in chili peppers, the substance that gives chili and cayenne its heat and is a strong irritant to skin and mucous membranes.

The Cable Guy

I managed to make my first trip to Wrigley Field and I must say that it was pretty much what I expected: a intimate atmosphere, a hand operated scoreboard, and a afternoon of watching pitiful Cubs baseball. I saw a balk, a wild pick off throw that advanced a runner to home, and several Reds homeruns. But then came the real reason Cubs fans go to the games...the bars. Although I was suppose to be at rugby practice I chose to drink instead. I thought that me call to teammates from the bar explaining that I was at the hospital was less than convincing. As the night progress, fights came and passed, until we were refused admittance to a local pub. At this point I decided to run home for the evening. I am fairly sure that I tripped and fell on the way back, but I was determined to get home. For the next day I had to wait for the cable guy.

The 'appointment' was scheduled at 8am to 12 noon. Needless to say, I felt pretty bad that morning. After a breakfast sandwich, a shower, and a nap I was not feeling much better. I was not until 11:30 that the cable guy turned up. So he came in looked at the cable outlet and said that he could not do the install because the satellite TV line was infringing on the cable line. So he came, left, and repeated several times until he told me that he could not get a signal through the line. (time:1:00). Then I said that that seemed funny since the satillite TV signal came in fine. After telling him this, he stared at me in disbelief and questioned the validity of my statment. Then he decided that since a signal could get through that he should attempt the install one more time. After failure yet again, he told me that he could not complete the appointment. It was at this point that I feared I waited for 4 hours and then put up with him for 2 more so he could come to the appartment and disconnect the recently installed DirectTV. Thankfully he had not messed it up. In the end, a DSL internet will be providing the service at this location and inerations with the cable company will no longer be necessary.

The Routine

I recently got back from a short stint at home for Easter weekend. It seems that these long weekends move almost as fast as a two day weekend. And then I start to get sad that my long break is over and then I have to get right back into the routine. But then once I get back in to the routine, it doesn't really seem that bad. That is until I remember how much better it is breaking out of the routine.

I Hate Cell Phones

I thought I lost my cell phone one Saturday (before I started drinking). So I looked, perhaps carelessly, in the spot I thought it most likely to be. My efforts not bearing any fruit, I proceed to drink my worries away. The next day we went to buy a new cell phone, as my battery on my old phone needed to be replaced anyhow, only to later find out that one of my buddies found it in the very place that I was looking. Fast forward one week. I went to the Verizon store to return the new cell phone and activate the old one and replace the battery. Step one: return the new phone, completed without a hitch. Step two: activate the old phone. This posed a bit of a problem. Since I was not name on the account I could not activate the phone myself. So I was on a four way converation with the store clerk, my mother, and a customer service representative. I called my mom, who called customer service, who called me. It was quite fun. Step three: replace battery. I questioned the clerk if they could tell if a battery is bad. He said no and then took the battery out of the phone and started to spin it on the table. Before I could exclaim, "What the hell are you doing?" he said that the battery is no good. He proceeded to show me how a new battery will not spin on a table because they are flat, where mine battery was bloated from overcharging. Apparently with a lithium battery you cannot charge them overnight. Something I was never told. Moral of the story, I hate cell phones.

Liquid Luck

Do you ever have a day when everything seems to go your way and then it makes you look really good. I am having on of those days today thus far. The problem is that when you think that everything is going to go your way all day, then suddenly it does not because you get overconfident. I hope my good luck during the day does not turn into confidence that I can have 37 drinks at my birthday party tonight (at which point I expect my luck to change).

Adventures in Mass Transit

Early this morning I had a brief foreshadowing of the things to come when my train pulled up with only three cars attached instead of the usual six. As we trudged forward, I discovered that my train would not be running express and instead I had to transfer to a red line train. Since I knew that I would have to navigate the reorganized train system I chose not to listen to my iPod which made made the trip seem a little longer than it should have been. After several muffled announcements I thought I figured out the reason for the delay and the path of the train that I was on. It turns out that another train derailed ahead of where I was and caused a mass rerouting of the transit system. Basically, I was on a red line train to Fullerton at which point it became a brown line train running express through Armitage until Merchandise Mart where it became an orange line train until it hit the southeast corner of the loop where it tranformed back into a red line. It seemed easy enough, but for some reason I had to explain this simple path to several of the other commuters. Ultimately it took me over an hour and a half to make a 35 minute trip to make me at least a half hour late for the second time this week.

Keep on Rolling

In a drunken blog entitled passion, I made the statement 'if you give up your passion then your life is pretty much over.' Recent events have caused me to focus some thought on this drunken exclamation. Although giving up your passion is probably one of the worst things you can do in your life, it is certainly not ending your life. It seems like there are time when you have to roll with the punches and try to make the best out of you current position. If you could do that then the path to persuing your passions may become much more pleasant.

Signs That You Don't Like Your Boss

1) When your boss leaves for vaction, you are unexpectly filled with joy.
2) When your boss is gone for vacation, you don't mind coming to work on Monday.
3) When your boss comes back, you find yourself no longer filled with joy and dread coming to work again.

Social Security

I needed to go into the social security office to get a replacement card. Although my efforts were thwarted by what would have been a two hour wait on Friday, I had to try again. This time I had a plan, get there before they open and beat the crowd. So I was the third in line and expecting to be in and out. But those two people ahead of me took about 25 minutes. When it was finally my turn, I gave here my application and the passport, she typed in the information, printed a reciept and was on my way. My question: why did the first to people take so long to do this seeming simple task?

My Very Bad No Good Rotten Morning

4 am it is raining fairly hard and I awake with a start confused as to what time it is. Although my clocks are all turned forward, my internal clock has yet to adjust. After confirming that I had another hour and a half to sleep, I cannot because of a shooting pain in my arm. Growing tired of rolling around in bed, I got dressed, turned down the offer of an umbrella (as thought I had one in my bag but ultimately did not), and walked to the train trying to stay under any shelter I could find. Success, I timed the train perfectly and had to wait for about 20 seconds. At which point I remembered that I had to come into work early today and was going to be late on this train. But it wasn't too bad as it would only make me about 15 minutes late. Then I tried to transfer trains, a task that usually takes about 2 minutes suddenly became 15 minutes. I could call any coworkers as I had lost my phone two days earlier and had no numbers. So I walked to the office a half hour late, wet, and really needing to go to the bathroom. I made a decision that if the day continued like this, I was going to go home, go to bed, and try again tomorrow.