Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Unattended children...

Unsupervised children who are let loose in stores to "play" must be a retailer's nightmare.

Some Floyd Galleries in high traffic areas have little signs which politely mention that if your children break something, you pay for it.

This cheerful sign seen in Margie Ryan's Over the Moon Gallery in Floyd, Virginia suggests a novel response to overly permissive parenting.

Thanks Margie, for the gentle humor.

Hello? Made in Floyd?

Over a year ago, I wrote an article titled, "Made in Floyd - branding or just common sense?" and created a non-commercial website Made in Floyd for the purpose of featuring the Floyd Artisans I write about on this weblog.

I have links to this Made in Floyd  website on several of my weblogs and I purchased the madeinfloyd.com domain name in 2006.

I was inspired by the Made in Floyd labels that Jayn Avery used on her pottery and felt that other artisans might benefit from creating a Made in Floyd brand.

At the same time, I registered the fictitious name Made in Floyd as a dba for a non-profit group which was to publicise the benefits of buying artifacts and other goods made in Floyd County.  After consulting with a local lawyer, I tabled the creation of the group until time and resources are available to carry the idea through to the point where it can be useful part of Floyd's sustainable economic development.

The Made in Floyd website has been in operation for over a year. Go check it out. I have more articles to add and will cheerfully add articles written by others about Floyd area artisans and their products.

This is a non-commercial site and the purpose is to advance the cause of Floyd artisans, artists and agri-businesses as well as local businesses offering unique products or services.

I envisioned a grass-roots marketing effort based on a recognition of the unique qualities of Floyd crafts and services. If anyone is sincerely interested in creating such an organization, I will be happy to have their assistance.

If anyone else wants to claim credit for inventing Made in Floyd, go right ahead. It probably started more than a hundred years ago, but as far as I am concerned the idea started with Jayn Avery, who may have picked it up from someone else.

Meanwhile the domain is in use and will continue to be a free source of information about Floyd products and services.

If you have a website or an article about your Floyd made products, send it to me and I will post it on made-in-floyd.com
  

A time to mend and fix up...

The cycle of life becomes more apparent as one experiences it over and over again.

There were times in recent years when it seemed easier to discard the old and buy new. That was when our personal economy created plenty of money but consumed our time. It was easier to eat out and buy stuff instead of mending what we had and cooking leftovers. It was not so much conspicuous consumption, as it seemed to be the best use of very scarce time.

Now that we march to the beat of a different drummer, we have time to plan and freedom to choose what we will or will not do. Our income is less than in the frantic years of 60 hour weeks and interminable conference calls, but the freedom to choose more than makes up for the apparent loss of income.

The wonderful thing about mass production and the industry that creates it is the amount of money that flows through the enterprise. If you are in the right spot, you can scoop up enough of it to almost make up for the fact that you are an interchangeable unit in a very large machine. You are a cog in the machinery, but a very well paid one at times.

You ponder the wisdom of your choices every day during your long commutes to and from work...

Once you enter the post corporate world, either through choice or through being laid off, your lifestyle undergoes many changes. You have more time than money and you can still make things go right if you cast off your old wasteful ways.

You can learn to shop more wisely and you will find bargains that you never encountered when you were madly running in place to keep your position and your sanity while living the corporate life.

You also learn to use the wisdom of others who have learned the lessons of surviving on a "less than average" income. You may find to your surprise that you discover some great recipies and some highly satisfying learning experiences that can be enjoyed on your new income level.

You will also come up with innovative ways of improving your situation in life and making a living in a depressed economy. It is all a matter of adjusting your viewpoint and confronting the situation you are facing rather than bemoaning the situation you used to enjoy.

There is always money to be made if you bother to find out what people need and want that you can provide.

As a contractor friend once told me, "We'll always survive. In good times, we build houses. In bad times, we repair them."

This philosophy is applicable to the housing-related field of custom picture framing. I am finding unexpected opportunities in what is generally considered to be a down market.

The economy will recover again and businesses that can survive in a tough economy will be in a better position to move out smartly when business improves. A lot of small business owners are sharpening their skills in these hard times.

It will be most interesting to see how business models evolve during these next few years.

If you use a credit card to buy gas - always get a receipt

We do not live in a perfect world yet, and some of the things we rely on do not always work the way we think they do. I have had enough readers tell me of their adventures with gas pumps that it stirred me to write an article about the things they have discovered.

For example, the gas pumps that you use every week are not as foolproof as ATM terminals. There are a number of ways in which the ongoing transaction can get messed up and can put you at risk.

Your best protection is to make sure that you always get a receipt. If the pump does not print a receipt for you, go inside the store and get one. You may be surprised at what you find.

The pump system may have dropped out of credit card mode and defaulted to a cash sale mode. What that means is that you pumped gas into your tank, but your card has not been charged and you need to see the cashier and pay for it in person.

There are several ways in which a credit card transaction can fail to complete successfully. This is by no means a complete list:

In smaller gas stations in remote areas, a dial-up connection is required to complete the credit card transaction. If that gets interrupted, the card is not charged and you will need to pay the cashier. There may be no message at the pump, but there will probably be no receipt either, so you have been warned.

On some pumps, I am told, picking up the nozzle before the authorization is complete will void the transaction and set up a cash sale.

In some stations, the clerk initiates the authorizing message at the pump, so that customers are not kept waiting for a dial-up connection to go through.

In other stations, the printer is out of paper so no receipt is printed. Do not assume that this is the case. Some readers who have gone in to get a receipt from a cashier report that their card were not charged. Do not let this happen to you.

Driving off without a receipt can create problems for you and for the gas station. In Virginia, this can expose you to threat of arrest and loss of license.

Once you have a receipt, you have confirmation that you paid for your gas.

For a graphic description of what can happen if you fail to get a receipt, read my earlier article.

Simplify Your Life

I wrote this a few years ago for someone who was a little overwhelmed. It still applies today.

• Tell the truth more often.

Then you won’t have to remember what you said to whom.

• Tell the truth as kindly as possible. 

Then you won’t have to say you are sorry so often.

• Curb those impulses to lash out with righteous anger.

Then you won’t have to spend so much time mending relationships.

• If it sounds too good to be true, find out what the exchange is.
Criminality is simply getting something for nothing. If you are not one already, why become a criminal now?

• If life is hard to face, don’t make it more complicated by running away from it .

Find some part of your life you can confront and do something about it.

• If you can’t think of anything else, find an animal to care for.

They will probably not give you any grief about it and you will feel better.

• Find somebody to help, starting with yourself.
If all else fails, take a walk until you feel calmer and rested and look at these again.

This and a lot of other useful tips can be found in my book, Danger Quicksand - Have A Nice Day which is still available as a free download..

The dreaded learning curve...

One downside to change is that you have to master new skills. This is a formidable barrier to making major changes in any company because it takes time that is normally used to keep the business running. When you are a one person company, a long and steep learning curve can be overwhelming.

Actually, running a business is a continual learning curve because there are always new skills to learn, but what happens when new technology arrives on the scene which promises to change the way business is done?

If you are at the top of your game, you will probably wait for a few years and see what others do with the new technology. If you are an upstart in the marketplace, you will probably leap at the chance to gain a competitive advantage by embracing new technology.

If the learning curve is brief and easy, like using a GPS system to facilitate deliveries, you will probably incorporate it into your daily routine without a hiccup.

If the change involves using new and unfamiliar software, you can find yourself buried in complexities and confusions that will increase your workload without producing additional business.

This is where I am at this particular moment. It is also why you have not seen many posts for the past few weeks.

I have been evaluating two additional software systems which can change the way I do business at Floyd Custom Framing. One of these is a qualified success and the other will have to be put off for later evaluation.

The successful innovation is a Visualization system from Wizard International which lets me do what-if scenarios on custom framing projects. This is a huge time saver and lets me communicate suggested changes to customers without requiring that we meet face to face. The learning curve was relatively short as it was similar to computer applications I currently use.

The so far unsuccessful change is the incorporation of Retail Management software into my fledgling enterprise. Like most POS (point of sale) software, it requires strict procedures in order to enter a customer order successfully. It also requires entering data that I have not yet decided to include, so the process is far more cumbersome than the system I am currently using.

I wrote the software that I currently use to generate work orders and record sales and it contains only those features which I need. It is a lean and easy to use system as it was built as needed to grow the business. The downside is that it contains a hand-built database that is difficult to maintain.

I will have to upgrade to a more flexible Retail Management system which offers periodic updates of supplier information, but that will have to wait for another day. The learning curve is so steep that I will have to figure out how to handle it over a period of many weeks while keeping up with customer orders, reorganizing the shop, and planning for a retail location in town.

By then, I will probably have figured out how to add staff to share the load and expand the business model.

Places I enjoy doing business with

I am sitting here in the frozen darkness of this mid-February morning thinking about all of the effort that goes into attracting customers and then ensuring that they get a good customer experience.

Then I am reminded that there is a vital undercut to this whole effort of business planning, financing, promotion, etc. It is a powerful idea that is not generally understood:

One's place of business could be a place where people feel welcome, where the simple act of walking in the door makes people feel better, where every visit is an aesthetic experience.

Becky Mann, our Optometrist in Christiansburg, VA, has taken the time to create an outstanding example of a business environment that is sheer joy to visit.

Bright sunlight streams into the spacious lobby area where you are greeted by a ten foot tall giraffe wearing glasses, inviting islands of designer furniture on a gleaming hardwood floor, and by attentive staff whose work area invites you to approach and be greeted.

Becky has an exceptional sense of design and has handled every detail so that customers feel included in what is going on and are made to feel welcome and comfortable.

The Invision group services are excellent and the scheduling is so good that there is almost no waiting. I am usually in and out of there before I have had a chance to check out all of the tasteful displays of new eyeglass designs.

I usually leave with the thought that there is still more to see and enjoy, and looking forward to my next visit. That is an ideal customer experience!

Becky Mann has created an environment which covers all of the bases: a pleasing floor plan, efficient and friendly staff, and careful attention to aesthetics, but I think it is possible to achieve a similar result on a more limited budget.

My potter friends at Wildfire Pots in downtown Floyd have consistently created an inviting studio/retail environment that brings people in and makes them feel welcome and they have done it on a shoestring. They almost always have a welcoming table set where visitors can sit and chat while they have a cup of tea and share some of McCabe's homemade bread.

The Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd, Virginia, has also created a welcoming environment and it is being done almost entirely by hospitable staff making visitors feel welcome, because the floor plan and traffic patterns are not conducive to visitor comfort.

I am sure you know of other places which offer a similar experience. These are the places that encourage us to come back through the quality of their welcome.

Points of interest rather than space - Sanity Check Part 2

It occurred to me that one of the reasons that American attention is directed so much at America is that there are so many unique points of interest in this country. There are probably more unique points of interest in Manhattan alone than there are in some entire countries.

Readers have commented that they were required to study maps, imports/exports and other characteristics of countries in school. I did that also and as I recall, most countries were covered in a few pages, some in a paragraph.

Consider what that would mean when the subject was our state of California which had a gross domestic product  of $1,727,355,000,000 in 2006 which would have made it the eighth largest nation in the world in terms of the value of goods and services produced.

When we recall a place we have visited, we tend to recall the events, the vistas and the food that gave us experiences to remember and share with others.

I think a map that identified points of interest rather than space alone, might show an even more skewed  distribution than the map shown in the previous article. Certain countries might have to be enlarged to properly list the points of significant interest to visitors.

Creating this kind of map will be an exercise for the student ,as one of my professors used to say, but it is already being done with maps of topics on the internet where integrity and reproducibility of content is more important than the name or historical value of the source.

Imagine a map that captured this point of interest information and how it might appear. If anyone has a link to such information, please feel free to share it.

Time for another Sanity Check

Four years ago, I posted this "political map" entitled "The World According to the United States of America."

I think it's time I posted it again.

If you are an American, this map may serve as an interesting test of how secure you are in your beliefs and in your self-esteem. If you are a citizen of another country, this map may show something else entirely.

Please click on the image and read the enlarged version of the map.  What are your emotional responses to the captions it contains?

I've discovered that readers have a wide range of reactions to this map. I have been thinking that this map shows points of interest, rather than mere space. In a quirky way, it is analogous to the Internet where content is more important than the source.

Another look at the legacy of Chernobyl

Przewalski Horses of Chernobyl - this last remaining wild species of horse on the planet is still thriving in the "dead zone"