Lisbeth Calandrino::

225 E. 60th St. – New York is all about fun and different. My friend Tony said we can’t go to New York City without going to Serendipity 3 for their Frrrozen Chocolate. Tony had taken one of his daughters on her birthday and had a banana split, which is a yearly favorite for his own birthday.

Serendipity goes back to 1954, when it was founded in a basement on 60th St. by three entrepreneurs (hence the "3" in Serendipity 3) who pooled their entire fortunes together (totaling $300).  Visited by a number of celebrities — Marilyn Monroe, Bill Clinton, Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, to name a few — Serendipity is the place for a decadent dessert, a great meal and a nice walk through their coffee house boutique. The store houses everything from Serendipity 3 perfume to chocolate body rub and, if you can believe it, chocolate shampoo.

The ambience too is unique and charming. There are Tiffany lamps and other collectables located throughout the store, and the waiters are darling.  Visit the store's site for additional details. Everyone is friendly and make you feel like you're on the inside — whether it's a conversation with Lynn the manager or Joe Calderone, who handles the publicity.

Serendipity also houses the $1000 gold sundae. Of course I had to ask “who buys the $1000 gold sundae?"  Lynn has the “scoop.” All kinds of folks, she says. A lighting guy from Las Vegas, a law school graduate and a variety of Sweet 16 birthday celebrants.

I was told that Mayor Bloomberg helped Serendipity celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2004 by declaring Serendipity Day in New York City.

This is the place to bring your sweet tooth and leave your diet at home.

What can we learn from Serendipity?

• Be different or be outrageous. It doesn’t matter as long as your customer’s approve.
• Let everyone know you’re different
• Do things that your customers would like, such as “Books for Cooks.”
• Make your customers feel welcome – have photos of them and ensure a friendly atmosphere.
• Keep yourself out in front of the public.

 In other words, don't be afraid to try something new. And yes, you can even declare your own holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

According to Information Resources, Inc. 2008, half of U.S. consumers consider at least one sustainability factor when selecting brands to buy or stores to shop. If you're in business, this is certainly a good reason to go green.  The more I read about green the more I know that green is more than a trend for our world, it is our world.

The other day I was buying a birthday present and instead of using a fancy paper gift bag I decided to purchase an ecofriendly bag that could be saved and used at the grocery store. I am becoming more conscious of how much paper I use and shred and frankly I'm ashamed. I do much of my food shopping at the Honest Weight Food Coop in Albany, New York and am surprised at how many people bring their own bags and how many of the bags are made of recyclable materials and are a permanent solution to plastic and paper bags.

2008 ImagePower Green Brands Survey also states, "Though U.S. consumers are more concerned about the economy than the environment these days, they still will pay more for green products." For most of us, business is slow and most retailers are looking for new ways to meet and keep customers. So why why not tout your "greenness" as much as you can? If you're going to talk the talk you had better walk the walk. In a 2008 survey by Burst Media, 12.1 % of consumers say they never believe the green claims and 65.3% say they sometimes do. Therein lies the reason: if you are going to build green into your business you'll have to "show 'em you mean it." Not sure how to go organic? Go here to learn.

Walk the walk seems to be the norm for Amy Rao, CEO of Integrated Archive Systems Inc. in Palo Alto, California. Amy  grants each of her 63 employees $10,000 toward the purchase of a gas-saving hybrid car. This is quite a commitment on Amy's part but she considers herself a committed environmentalist. Maybe you can reduce your own business travel or provide incentives for employees to use public transportation. How about buying bicycles for those who are willing to bike to work rather than drive? Whatever you do, get the word out to your customers via your business blog or through other media resources.

According to the American Solar Energy Society, by the year 2030, there will be 40 million jobs in the green sector, which will be up from 8.5 million in 2007.

Is the boomer your customer? Sara Wilson states that not only are boomers representing the biggest wealth transfer in history, they also started the green movement. They are concerned about the environment, health, financial planning, travel and everything in between!

November 26 is the last day of Green Week for NBC. If some of you are participating in green, let me know what you are doing.

I'm not sure that green beer on St. Patrick's Day qualifies.

Related sites:

• Energy Star

• US Green Building Council

• Green Biz

Everything you read, no matter where you turn, is a story about a retailer cutting their workforce or closing their doors. The latest cuts include Home Depot, Starbucks and Macy’s. The reasons are largely due to the disappearing cusotmer, but a large part is simply a lack of vision and an understanding of one's core customer.

For these companies, the problem is not knowing how their "bread gets buttered” or who butters it. Survivors will be those who can move, turn on a dime and embrace new technology. The good ones know if they don’t take care of their customers someone else will.

Even good retailers are having to “bare bones” it and many find themselves back on the sales floor, in the warehouse with little time left to think about growing their business. They're in survival mode.

It’s always about supply and demand. In tough times, threre's less demand and more supply. Fewer customers and more products. If you are a supplier and want to win your customers over you will have to get smarter and change the rules. Everyone gives lip service to relationships but most of the time that’s a cover-up for selling more products. Selling more products is the name of the game but if you’re desperate the customer will get an uneasy feeling, not trust the message and ultimately not trust you. Forget the sale.

Today, if you are a supplier of products, you have two problems: there's more of you and fewer of them. Even more important, as a supplier you have to rely on your customer to sell your products to the end user. When times were great and there were more end users — if you were a supplier — you didn’t have to worry if your product got sold.

For now, this party is over. Suppliers are watching their customers dwindle in size — not only because customers are zipping up their purse strings but because suppliers are not employing efficient strategites to get those who are willing to spend.

The New Supplier

Enter the new savvy supplier, ready to pitch in, support, and educate their customer.

The strategy? Seeing themselves as more than a supplier and investing in tools that will help their customers be more profitable.  They're ready to do what it takes, to step out of their supplier box and belly up to the bar with money and information.

The payoff? Keeping their customers by keeping their customers profitable.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to provide a presentation for United Tile on the West Coast. This is a supplier who gets it — gets the partnership, gets the “out of the box” thinking and wants to be the supplier of choice. Their mission is big, to be the major supplier of product and knowledge for their customers.

“I want us to be part of the solution," says Ron Cook, Executive Vice President of United Tile. "I want to provide our customers with useful information that will help them stay in business as well as plan for the future. We also want our sales reps to be well versed in our customer's world so that we can get through these trying times with them.  It means we’re going to learn more about our customer’s business as well as our own."

"Most of us," Ron continues, "are far from an ability to change the economy, but through education and training mixed in with a little fun we can put ourselves and our customers in a better position when things turn around."

His is one group that gets it. Here are a few tips on how they're doing it:

• Let your customers know you’re in it for the long haul and on the same team.
• Genuinely want to help your customer, pitch in and find out what it will take to help them build their business.
• Educate yourself on best practices in your customer’s world.
• Provide ways for them to learn and share their learning.
• Make it fun; there’s enough doom and gloom out there already!

It’s up to you and me: no one has yet come to bail us out!

The nation’s second largest bank in the nation, Citigroup, will cut 50,000 jobs in coming quarters and join a number of others in the growing “gimme group.”

It seems every time we turn around there’s another demand for hand-out money.

The world must have forgotten the cry at the Titanic: "women and children first!" But the people who are crying the loudest, “The Big Three,” are the same ones that accuse women and children of sitting with their kids milking the system. The only difference is this bunch is sitting in their limos telling the nation how we owe them.

The Auto Industry

Sure I know Detroit is in a mess; years ago upstate New York experienced the loss of GE, Carrier Air Conditioning, IBM, and others. It will never be the same. Nothing is. This is the problem. We hate to change, we want things to remain the same and be easy. It doesn’t matter, time marches on as they say and it will change whether we want it to or not. I heard in New Jersey this week there was a small-car rally. Did Detroit miss this?

It sounds like high-end welfare to me. If we bail these companies out, can we require their management to go to rehab and get new job skills? If we give them the bail out, do they have a plan to compete with Honda or Toyota? McDonald’s seems to be working hard at focusing on their customers. Can we require that the big three attend Hamburger U or seminars expounding on the The Toyota Way?

In a Wall Street Journal article this past weekend, David Yermack cites the following about a speech given by economist Michael Jensen in 1993 to the American Finance Association.

Mr. Jensen's presentation included a ranking of which U.S. companies had made the most money-losing investments during the decade of the 1980s. The top two companies on his list were General Motors and Ford, which between them had destroyed $110 billion in capital between 1980 and 1990, according to Mr. Jensen's calculations.

So if we don't bail them out, the world will go to hell in a handbag? It doesn't make sense. It feels like everyone screaming for the gimme is standing over us with a sledge hammer promising the end of the world if we don’t give them what they want.

State workers are upset because they’ve been asked to take a week’s vacation without pay, or that their copay on their insurance has been raised five dollars.

Tishman Construction, the largest construction company in the US, says they employ 20,000 more than the auto industry and that our infrastructure is falling apart, bridges and roads are in sad need of repair.  We know that’s true, but does that put them on the top of the list.

My own personal gimme: let’s go for the construction industry. Of course this is self-serving but aren’t all the gimmes self-serving? Let’s get in line.

It’s not the question of who needs it, it’s more of who will push the economy forward and how we hold them accountable for the money.

Sure I know that the city of Detroit is in a bad way, but can the big three fix that? It may not be fun but upstate New York had to move on when GE, IBM, Kodak and Carrier Air Conditioning cut jobs or moved on. Not great but the world has been changing, did you miss it? No more big trucks, we want small and green.

Hey what happened to the ninth ward in New Orleans? There are still sad homes with no inhabitants, numbers still on the door explaining how many people and animals lived there and how many died. Another mismanaged bailout.

I was there not long ago and the ninth ward is a still reminder of a gimme gone bad — and then forgotten.

Outsourcing

Speaking about mismanagement, we wanted everything cheap and we got it. We’ve outsourced the skilled jobs to India, Manila and wherever else people work for peanuts. I really do have a hard time understanding the Delta agent and the Hewlett Packard rep. The last straw, however, is the technician from Time Warner Cable. Sometimes I get so frustrated I just hang up in the middle of the conversation.  Why aren’t these people located in Detroit or Las Vegas or New Jersey somewhere? Why are all the skilled people driving cabs in NYC and the jobs they are skilled for being done by someone way out of the country?

I’m afraid that when these people come around for their gimmes, the jobs will go out of the country.

Should Anyone Get Bailed Out?

So let’s go back to the real issue: who should get bailed out? Why would anyone bail out a business that was in the toilet, losing money and didn’t have a good business plan? I don’t know any bank that would give a business money without a product to sell, a way to sell it and a track record. I shouldn’t say that because apparently that’s one of the problems.

Free money, is it really free? In 1985 I wrote a grant which I submitted to the Charitable Venture Foundation. The grant was for a targeted group of women, to teach job skills and get these women back in society. My idea was to develop a pilot program for women who wanted to pull themelseves and their children out of poverty. I was told I was embarking on the first grant of its time: a live-in program that included job, education and emotional skills. It took me one year to get this grant, it was in the neighborhood of $140,000 and contained numerous stipulations.  I had to raise a matching amount of $140,000 worth of in-kind gifts as well as employ people with the skills to make this work.

I supplied an extensive business and marketing plan and was held accountable for every dime and reported monthly on my spending. An accountable gimmee. A lot of work – not a huge success. But movement forward may not have to be a huge success.

Getting Back to Basics

Before we do anything, how about some basic rules of business?

• One, know your customer. If they want little “green” cars, build them. The new "rich" is green and eco-friendly. Rich is less about showing off and being big. I’m not in the car business but I can read and follow the consumer.

• Have a plan. How will it work? Who will do it and what kind of track records do they have? How are they planning for the future? Do they have the skills for the future?

• Know when it’s time to change. If your business doesn’t change it will be history.

• “Know when to hold em, know when to fold em.” Good for poker and business.

• Train your employees for the future; have them be part of the solution rather than the problem. What has GM been doing over the last 10 years?

Not much time to worry about how it all happened but we better be sure we have a better plan for the future

What others are saying…

“Lis is a high-energy and very personal presenter with a great sense of humor. Her presentation is based on a very solid understanding of the flooring retail market and is full of very practical ideas of how to improve the business of a floor covering store.” – Svend Hovmand, Chairman, Crossville, Inc.

“Lisbeth Calandrino is the most dynamic force available in the industry today. Her extensive experience and deep understanding of business allow her to immediate hone in on the best strategic solutions available to an organization. Combine that with a practical no-nonsense approach to identifying and understanding industry issues and you have solutions second-to-none, guaranteed to last and sure to be fully embraced by the organization working with her. Lisbeth is not for the faint-of-heart. She will pour heart and soul into developing solutions that address current and future market conditions, expecting you to be as committed to the process. If you’re passionate about your business and its long-term viability, you won’t think twice.” – Christine B Whittemore, Director, In-Store Innovation, Wear-Dated Carpet–Solutions Inc.

“Lisbeth, thank you for your key note addresses for the Arizona floor Covering Association. Your interactive, thought-provoking delivery hit just he right notes with our audience of small business owners, distributors and manufacturers. Every time you address our group your presentations are new in content, extremely useful and fun to listen to. It’s also great to get a view of our target female customer from  a woman. A number of our board of directors commented they could have stayed all night and listened to you. Come back again. I have someone outside the industry doing one for me.” – Peggy McCarthy, Executive Director, Arizona Floorcovering Association

“Lisbeth, our conference attendees enjoyed not only your message, but also the humorous and real life way it was delivered. The round table discussions were a great way to deal with the most important topics facing our owners as well as a way for them to share their information and learn from each other. I received numerous posive comments from our business owner who now understand the issues facing them more clearly as well as having new tools to wow and service their customers. We would love to have you back again.” – Christine Rankin, President, Carpet Network, Inc.

“I am thrilled to have been a part of many of Lisbeth’s presentations. Every I listen to her the content is always different and relevant, market trends up to date and delivered with extraordinary high energy. The information I have gained from Lisbeth over the past years have proved to be invaluable in my business and my life.I am impressed with her subject knowledge as well as her presentation skills. I look forward to having my employees attend more of her seminars.” – Kevin Gamble, Co-owner, 332 Hardwoods

“I recently attended my first seminar with Lisbeth.  I was impressed with her understanding of human behavior and how I might motivate my staff. Since networking  and outside sales is of particular importance to our business, I found Lisbeth’s ideas to be right on  target and gave me new ways to grow our business. Lisbeth’s thorough understanding of the flooring industry  has given me tons of new ideas. I can’t wait to go back and share them with my staff. Thank you Lisbeth!” – Herb Hildebrand, COO, Great Lakes Carpet and Tile

“I wanted to thank you for the classes. I have learned more in 2 days than I thought possible.  I enjoyed your class so much.  Please know that you have made a difference in my life, your are such an outstanding person.” – Katherine Miller

“I enjoyed your presentation and look forward to reading your blogs as well as any other information you send my way. The energy that you displayed while you were speaking seemed to flow through you and out to everyone that was listening. Your passion for us to better ourselves was overwhelming, I look forward to putting into action some of the things that you talked to us about.”
- Jeff Rudisill

I tell people that prior to the elections I received at least one e-mail a day from Obama asking for something. Would I attend a rally, send some dollars, talk to a friend or attend a barbecue? The barbecue sounded interesting, so I made the phone call and asked where it was to be held. I was told Lexington Avenue in the city of Albany, my home town. I said to the caller, do you know where Lexington Avenue is? I guess he thought I needed directions so he proceeds to read me the mapquest directions from my home. No, I said I know where it is, it’s definitely the wrong side of town and certainly not a place where I should go alone at night. He proceeded to tell me that one of my neighbors was going (who I knew) and that she would be happy to pick me up. It would be a great time and he could assure me I would meet some great people who were supporting Obama. Wow, I thought, the power of networking and these tireless folks.

So, about the barbecue, it was splendid. The people were gracious and I left my $25.00. It was a college student who had called me, someone from the new "generation O.”

The 18-29 year olds came out in droves to support Obama and the numbers are staggering, between 22-23 million, according to the Center for Information and Research of Civic Learning and Engagement. This is the group that managed Obama’s Facebook page, raised over $125 million dollars online and who sent me a text on Election Day asking me to vote for Obama. When it came to the electronic media, Obama had it all tied up. Following the election, Obama posted pictures of election night on flickr and introduced a new Web site, change.gov, on Thursday. Tell me what you think it said, be part of the change.

There were the Obama Girls — the YouTube bunch that tied up the electronic media 24 hours a day, manned and femaled the Facebook, posting daily and answering the phone calls and emails. The tireless bunch who knew that they could make a difference because of what they knew and that Barack was in their corner. To them he was Barack, a friend with the same values, who didn’t mind them knowing him personally.

This is the bunch that read the book, drank the Kool Aid and wanted to live their dreams. According to a New York Times article written by Damien Cave on November 9, 2008, “A government under Mr. Obama, they believed, would value personal disclosure and transparency in the mode of social networking sites. Teamwork would be in fashion, along with a strict meritocracy.” This is the group that doesn’t mind if you know who they are, are forever blogging and MySpacing and value informality. They scare some of us too. How could they be pouring their hearts out for anyone to see? How frightening and look at those tattoos!

This was the group that opened remote offices all over the country; tied together by values and a culture of change. In addition, they understand the value of teamwork. Lazy you say? Not if they believe in what they are doing. With their social networking skills they can find you and bombard you with data. Obama himself is 47 years old and part of the post-boomer era.

The group believes in social networking and complete disclosure. The rest of us are trying to hide from social networking and can’t believe that someone can not only find out where I live and who I am, but can get an aerial view of my house!

I had a good chuckle as I listened to CNN and they talked about the old Jewish ladies living in Florida and how important their vote was. No problem, Generation O organized “Jew for Obama,” hit the streets and the nursing homes in Florida to bring out the vote.

So, what does this mean for your business?

In 5-10 years the O generation will be shopping in your store, looking for jobs and they'll know more about the electronic media than you care to know. But you will need them.

Learn to embrace change. Research how technology can grow your business, get someone to teach you. I got a great email from a 60 year old plus retailer the other day with an invitation to visit his Facebook. I said, you sign up for my blog and I'll join your Facebook!

Listen, be open with an eye for the future. It will always be the future; all of us are just passing through.

Boy I hope my new spell check will have some new words: blog, Facebook, MySpace as well as Obama in it. Oops, I have an email asking me to make a donation to help get the Democratic National Committee out of debt; for $30.00 or more I can get a limited edition 2008 Victory t-shirt.

It came from my very close friend David, whom I’ve never met.

Baton Rouge, LA

I’m in one my favorite parts of the country: Baton Rouge and New Orleans. What’s not to like about Cajun cooking, Zydego music and of course beignets from the Café Dumonde?

The city of New Orleans never ceases to amaze me, every time I come here I find something new. My last visit took me to the Garden District where I immediately felt like I was at home. The artsy neighborhood is filled with Greek Revival and Italianate homes. These style homes were built in the mid 19th century and are scrupulously maintained in this wonderful section of New Orleans.  I’m sure that most people first hit the French Quarter to get the full flavor of New Orleans but as soon as I wandered on to Magazine Street I felt that I had just gone home. My home in Albany, New York was built in 1871 and qualifies as belonging to the Italianate era. It wasn’t until I came to New Orleans that I got the full feeling of what the era meant—breathtaking. I was also told at the Whole Foods Market that I might also run into Angelina Jolie shopping in the arts district even though she lives in the French Quarter. To get a better look at the homes, etc, visit New Orleans Online.

So business-wise, what are flooring retailers doing in the area to build business? The general consensus is that retail business if off; most homes left over from Katrina have been either repaired, torn down or left abandoned. Many of those that have been torn down are being turned into commercial areas where there seems to be plenty of business. I’m told that money was appropriated for the hospitality market, such as hotels and restaurants to bring back the tourists and things are starting to move forward. Many retailers report having contracts for national hotel chains that are using local contractors and suppliers to rebuild.

I spoke with Kimi Walker, salesperson at Chavrin Brothers — a 132 year old store — in Chavrin, LA outside of Baton Rouge about business and what’s working. Kimi reports that she is looking for outside business and has begun by calling on real estate companies. Kimi will probably start delivering her “sussi,” which is a little gift that sorority sisters delivered to their new pledges. Chavin Brothers is a charming mini-home center with a history that goes back to 1875—something no other home center can claim.

Kitty Miller works for Kennedy Decorating Center, another company of 35 years in Franklinton, LA. Kitty reports that the retail business overall seems to be sluggish but that the commercial sector is unbelievable good. The business was recently sold, but the original owner is staying on for a year. Kitty says that James is a wealth of knowledge and can answer most any question about flooring. Not only that but Kitty says he has made it his business to know everyone in town and spends most of his time networking.

I asked Kitty what will they do without his information when he leaves and she told me that he has made several CDs on installation procedures and on product knowledge. What a smart thing to do.

Kelli Rosher, one of those techie, smart, 30-year-olds at Barry’s Flooring tells me that their Web presence is very important to them; always thinking of new ways to reach out to customers.

A call to Heysi Fuentes, the owner of Integrity Carpet (a relatively new store in New Orleans), pretty much echoed the commercial market. Heysi just came back from a banquet dinner hosted by the Apartment Association of Greater New Orleans for their vendors. Her report is that this a great place to network and gives her a feeling of belonging. Everyone at the event was positive and is networking to build more business.  “If you’re going to do well in business, you will have to be active rather than passive," says Heysi.

In August Heysi had great plans for the Home Show but she and her family had to evacuate because of another hurricane and the show was cancelled. It’s replanned for the spring and should be a great event. I know she works hard at it and if there’s a job to get look out for Heysi.

What are retailers doing?

• The key seems to be networking; getting yourself out there and meeting people.

• Linking your Web site  to the Chamber of Commerce and other associations that will supply you with possible customers.

• “Working your connections.” If you belong to the Chamber or other networking groups you need to give leads if you’re going to get anything in return.

• If you’re going to do a home show, be aggressive. Collect names and follow up. And be friendly, don’t just stand around and wait for customers. Offer “deals” to people attending the show, have a raffle or make them feel special for visiting your booth. There are lots of ways for them to spend their money, do your best to get them to spend it with you.

• Get your vendors to participate in the home shows by giving you “goodies” to hand out to your customers.

• Build links to your vendors; it will increase your visibility as well as your Web presence; you just “look bigger.”

• Spend time getting to know people, and that includes everyone you presently do business with! 
   

My friend Chris Clark, a Mohawk Territory Manager, sent me an email the other day about the importance of calling on end users and contractors. With business having been so good in the 90's, Chris feels that many of his dealers may be neglecting this profitable aspect of their business. At this time it's wise to think of all possible avenues and look outside your business as well as inside for new customers. In addition to picking up some new customers you are adding a stronger foundation for your business. 

Here are Chris's tips:

1. No one likes to make cold calls, so warm yours up before you go out. Before you call on anyone, go online to find out who you're calling on, their background, how long they've worked in the field and anything else that's pertinent to your call.

2. Make a list of end users, contractors and specifiers in your areas. Who do they represent? What types of products do they use and who do they presently do business with? Get yourself armed with this information so that you are focused and know the purpose of your call.  Business is tough for everyone so the more you know and the less time you waste the better.

3. Remember that with outside sales the possibility of sales is endless and you don't have to wait for the customer to come into your store. With business slow everyone needs to go out and "beat the bushes" as they say. In addition, think of how your attitude will improve everytime you find a new customer.

4. Objections? Sure, many of the people that you call on already have suppliers. This doesn't mean that they aren't looking for the future. In addition, good business takes time, business that is based more on value than price. It's up to you to have the patience and the knowledge.

5. Don't forget the annual report of a business and other subs that also call on these businesses. Hopefully you belong to a leads club or a networking group and can ask if there's anyone that might know the person you want to call. Can someone provide an introduction for you, in person or make a phone call on your behalf?

6. Want to increase your value? Know as much about your new contact's business as they know. Know their challenges and how you can supply them with solutions. This also means you've done your homework and they're not just another customer to you.

7. Plan not only the products that you want to show but your presentation. I'm amazed at how many salespeople know their products but stumble through their presentation, not anticapting objections and questions.

8. A good salesperson knows what to expect from their customers. If you do mostly retail business and you're going out on commercial calls you'll have to brush up on "what makes these people tick." One thing to remember is they're used to buying products, are aware of pricing and always are looking to save a dollar.This doesn't mean that they won't pay higher prices. It's for sure they won't pay you more money for the same product that they purchase from someone else at a cheaper price.

9. If you want to play the game "their way,"all  things being equal winning this game means having the cheapest price. The key is to change the rules of the game. Changing the rules means changing the products, providing  an additional service that they can't get that has value. When I was in the commercial floorcovering business I remember one of my installers, instead of standing around watching her husband and son install the product, she would clean the windows and the window sills. Unknown to me she couldn't stand the carpet fibers and dust that was created during the installation so she took out her glass cleaner and started to "tidy up." The word got around and she became the deciding factor on some of our jobs. Stella was our added value.

10. Don't hurry the process. Put together a plan, how can I add value, what written material would be useful to your new customer?

11. Get yourself dressed up, a jacket and a tie. Looking like you care what you look like also gives the impression you care about how your jobs look. Get yourself a good looking briefcase and hit the road.

Next time: what to do when you get there.

In May of 2007 Oprah Winfrey helped Barack Obama get his campaign off the ground. I'm a news junkie and back then even I didn't know who Obama was. Not everyone was happy about her endorsement, and there were plenty of blogs talking about how she "sold out." Apparently, Oprah felt it was her time to stand up for what she believed in, despite any potential backlash.

Two economics students at the University of Maryland did some research, and to be honest I'm not exactly sure how they measured this, but their conclusion pretty much said that Oprah's endorsement was worth about a million votes. (Full PDF of the report available here.)

Which brings me to the power of your mentor.

Mentors are out there for everyone — you just have to ask. To get going, who do you know who can help you further your career? On the flip-side, is there someone you would like to help?

It's really a two way street, the mentor may not need anything but the expectation that you will live up to who you say you are. Remember, mentors that have clout are concerned about their own reputations. Do what you say.

To be a mentor is a privilege; to support those who are on their way with an important message to the world.

Maybe there is a trade for the mentor; don't be afraid to ask what it is.

Two powerful people can get more done than one powerful person.

Are you exerting your power? Are you making a difference?

What do you think about being a mentor or mentoring? Let me know what you think and your ideas about mentoring or coaching. I look forward to your comments.

According to Technorati, there are 150,000 new blogs created each day. There must be some reason. Blogging is an economical way to build your business by interacting with your clients in a world wide forum. What better way for people to become familiar with you, your skills and to build your branding message than an online forum?

Let's not mix up blogging with Facebook and other social networking media; business blogging is not about your life – it's about what  makes your business powerful.

Customers who sign up get automatic updates and can interact with you and give you feedback on your ideas. According to Steve Broback, in his article The Business of Blogging, "Google loves blogs and they rank high in search results. Google has become every company's de facto homepage. Research shows most new visitors to a given company's site come through links from Google so your blog can greatly amplify your site's search engine results."

Many businesses have Web sites that are static and just sit. A blog will wake up your site, your customers and your employees, a place where, if the content is right, people will keep coming back for more. If you're saying the right thing you will be building your business and you will be in control of the content. Too many have their Web sites built and don't have any way or any know how to change the content or "fix" little glitches. If the site builders leave, We have a dead Web site with outdated information and graphics.

Want to get started but don't know how? Remarkablogger has helpful hints daily on how and what to write as well as new developments in the blogging field.

Go out and look at other blogs in your blogsphere; what are your competitors doing? What are other bloggers saying? Take a look at Christine Whittemore's Flooring the Consumer for a great example of a full-blown blog. Check out Talkfloor for some industry blogs.

Write about your industry, new products, your experience with products and installation. Ask your customers to comment on your products, what do they think? Eventually you will have a network of people who will be singing the praises of your business. Don't worry about negative comments, it happens to everyone, just fix whatever it is and vow to get better. A blog is like having a world wide consumer panel without the costs.

Ask an architect to comment on a product you recently recommended or a general contractor and his experience with your work crew or your salespeople. Blog about the price of raw materials and have your manufacturers comment.

Blogs are like a form of public relations for your business, one that you can easily control and use to your advantage.

Keep them short, to the point and give them good titles.

Let me know what you think. Will any of you out there be blogging tonight?