Jamie's Blog

And it Always comes back...

October 31, 2006.

The irony of this post is how I started my day...I read my news in the morning on www.cnn.com every day.  I always quickly scan the articles before logging on to my check email.  Today an article about Oprah giving away $300,000.00 caught my eye so I read it.  Unless you live under a rock you probably heard she gave $1000 to 300 people (oh not to forget Bank of America sponsored it too) insisting they must do something charitable with it, and then document it on there new DVD recorder.  I thought it was a great idea, and am anxious to see the show...then went on with my day.

So....today I got not one but two emails back confirming we were in two articles regarding 'giving back'.  Being the media savvy entrepreneur I always reply to emails from journalists or magazines looking for information for an article, or just sending some company information to an editor.  So, I did not think twice of sending out two separate responses to two separate requests on charitable things we did.

Let me back up a second, and mention we give back to the community, to victims of Hurricane Katrina, terminally ill children, families on EMHE (another blog), church functions, charity events, sponsor sport teams, etc.  I feel as a business owner it is my duty to give back.  I also feel blessed, lucky to have such success and damn it it feels good to help people.

I am happy we did give back, and I am happy to get some free publicity - I actually  hope it inspires others to give back too.  And I do agree with Oprah, who said, "I can honestly say that every gift I've ever given has brought at least as much happiness to me as it has to the person I've given it to," (Amen, Oprah and psst.....call me!)

Say Thank You and Mean It!

October 29, 2006.

I have really been putting off posting here, and I apologize for the delay.  I was out of town for a week with my husband on our 10 year wedding anniversary.  What did we do you ask? Where did we go? Hmmm.....let's see we went up the coast and then to the wine country and we were gone for 6 days and five nights...WE DID NOTHING.  I mean okay, so we ate, and wine tasted, shopped, went for a walks, jacuzzi and then we ate some more oh wait we read on our balcony.

Doing nothing is EXHAUSTING!!  I had enough of doing nothing, as did my husband.  I could not wait to get home and dive back into work, um but there was hardly anything left to dive into.

Things went smooth, real smooth in fact it was super smooth at JPD while I was away.  I had nothing to do when I got back to work, well okay I had some stuff to do.  But it was amazing how well it went!  I am so proud of everyone and so relieved that I don't need to BE there to make it run smoothly.  Some might be concerned that the fearless leader is not needed, not me - plug merrily away I got other things to do!

I sent an email out thanking everyone that helped out and made sure work went off without a hitch while I was on vacation.  I then went out and bought a bunch of snacks, drinks and junk food for this week (budgets tight, but I wanted to do something).  I sent another thank you out today...

As my mom always says, "You can not say thank you enough" and I will say it again tomorrow when I see them in person, and again at the staff meeting and again next week.

Tracking Visitors to Your site

October 18, 2006.

So, yesterday we had a big spike on our website, in fact it went up Monday and continued to go up on Tuesday.  Today we are going back down.  We had 12% of visitors to our site from Lafayette, California, and 34% were returning visitors from all over the United States.  In other parts of the world they are viewing our site also, London, Buenos Aires, Singapore and even Dubai!  Last week we had a record Monday with our biggest day ever of views to pages and almost all were new visitors, it was 3 times the average amount of viewers to our site.

So...how do I know this?  And if you have a company website YOU should know this too....

It's called Web Analytics, and there are many companies that do this...it's basically tracking activity and performance on your website.  Analytics measures whatever you want it to measure, effectiveness of a marketing campaign, measures traffic to a website, measures activity of a shopper - it's Big Brother for sure!

We use a free product from google (www.googleanalytics.com), and it gives us a glimpse at what our customer is doing.  Now, don't get me wrong I don't know exactly where they live, I don't know who they are, and I don't know what they are looking at.  And I believe it can be skewed....what if one person in Malaysia (not likely) looks at my site 45 times a day?  I am told it should be cookied and they will look at each user as a different visitor.

So, back to why the spike?  Our angel ornament was featured in Country Living's Holiday Gift Guide, however it hit newsstands back East over two weeks ago.  So, who knows?  We do not have a marketing campaign that we have been wanting to track, or an advertisement in a magazine.  We do PR and that is all we do.

Maybe some day I will be able to see you Jane Smith at 456 Elm Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan, looking at those Snowman ornaments over and over, and over again, tracking you as you explore our website.

Um, did I say loyal?

October 11, 2006.

I do consider myself a loyal business partner, and a loyal friend for that matter.  I have stood loyal by:

• Failing Sales Channels
• Companies that do not pay their bills on time
• Sales Representatives that do not 'represent' very well
• Contract Employees that were not working out
• Small companies that helped me develop my brand

That being said......I feel awful about something that happened today.  I have worked with a company for over three years.  It is a small business owner that has helped me in many ways.  I have gotten advice on computer programs, printers, color adjustments, paints to use, paper quality and weight, price cuts.  We have gotten free training, we have worked well together. 

However, we are now paying rent, we have an accountant, we have bills to pay.  So, for the first time ever I had to get multiple quotes, one from my friend, two others from strangers.  I got thee quotes and my loyal friend's quote was not the lowest.  We discussed it, I was honest and said I had to go with the lowest bid - I said it's business.

So, I gave the job to a new company, discussed the process and moved on.

Today, I got a call from my associate and he wanted to try to get a better price.  I reluctantly let him and assumed he could not match the price we had already established. Well, that's right he got a better price and he was asking us to go with his company.  To be honest, I was tempted to go with what I was familiar with and make my friend happy.  I almsot did, but then I thought about it for a few hours.

I had to go with my word, I gave my WORD to the other company and I had to stick with it.  I am nervous about branching out, I admit it.  I may get a raw deal, this is true.  However I have to stick with my word, even if others don't.

So, that being said I had to ask myself if i was loyal?  And yes, I still believe I am loyal, I will continue to use him and go to him for quotes, however I have to do what is best for my company.  It's not personal, it's business.  I have said THAT a number of times, so then why do I feel so crummy though?

Being Loyal in Business

October 2, 2006.

One of my favorite movies is The Godfather (1972) and the book is an incredible read also.  I have seen it numerous times and even did my final paper on it for a film class in college.  Yet, I did not realize how much I would re-use a quote from the movie after starting my own business:

Michael: Sonny...
Sonny: You're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very, very personal.
Michael: It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

This is true 99% of the time, even for women business owners this is true.  It is NOT personal, it is business.  Yet one is it personal?  When do you decide to make it personal?  When do you decide that you need to bend the rules?  When do you decide that this time it IS personal? 

Well I decided to make it personal last week.

I started this business in late 2002, yet did not pursue the web until middle of the year 2003.  I can remember doing searches on the web for products like mine and for top children's boutiques.  I would look at them over and over, not quite brave enough to call them or submit my products.

Then one day I got my nerve up and I sent an email to one of the sites I had admired for so many weeks. I sent a nice email, with a few attachments of photos of my products.  The owner actually called me on my 'new' business line I had just put in.  She was very nice, very complimentary and she really showed me what to do with getting my products on line.  She became an advocate and a friend who was also honest about my prices, even telling me I was charging too little, where instead she could have just marked her prices up.

Long story short, almost four years we have worked together, she used to talk to me and confide in me and really help me when no one else would.  I really appreciated her honestly and willingness to help some one she did not even know.  At the time, she was one of our biggest accounts.  Now at over 150 channels and climbing,and some major companies, her company is not one of our biggest - but that does not make her channel any less important to me.

So after working together for about two years she asked me a favor, not a big one, but a favor.  I was very willing to help her out and I agreed.  It was one of those 'what if' scenarios, and I was happy to oblige her, I owed her and I was loyal.

Well, this past week, that favor came a knockin', and I remembered my promise.  I called back my friend, had asked her about our conversation over two years ago.  She was dumbfounded that I a. remembered and b. was willing to keep my promise.  I told her I was loyal, that no amount of money was worth that.

We don't talk as much as we used, back in the day when we weren't as busy we talked weekly.  I do have fond memories of one conversation though, I told her something about me being so new to the business and I was just a small company, a nobody.  She actually raised her voice at me, scolded me and said, "You are NOT a nobody, you are a somebody.  And mark my word, some day you will be very successful, I know this about you.  I know you will be very big some day and you are already a somebody.  Don't ever say that again."

I miss those conversations.....