Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Adopting new technology in your business - part 2 of a series

You can adopt new technology in an effort to stay ahead of competition or to distinguish yourself from the competition, but the most compelling reason to adopt new technology is because you have a broken business model.

Of course, by the time you realize that your business model is broken, it may be too late to save your business. Therefore, it is important to keep your eye on technology trends that apply to your business and understand what the implications are.

A broken business model occurs when you have not changed your method of operation, but other companies in the market are doing a better job  of meeting your customers needs.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you may want to skip the rest of this article and find some light reading like this or this.

Newspapers have a broken business model because readers have found the Internet to be a better source of accurate and non-managed news.

Telephone companies have a broken business model because customers have discovered they can get unlimited long-distance calling through their Internet connection.

Established companies have a natural resistance to adopting new technology because this causes them to discard the investments they made in older technology.

When they pay too much attention to "sunk costs" and refuse to see what is happening right now, they can be creating a broken business model for themselves.

If you are the owner of a business, you can find that your business model no longer works because of external changes in the marketplace. You can sit and complain that customers no longer come to your location or you can change your business model to accommodate their changing needs.

Sometimes this is as simple as providing an email address for customers to send orders to you at all hours of the day.

Sometimes it is a matter of providing a website so prospective customers can find out about you. The Thomas Register and other catalogs are being used by fewer companies every year. If you cannot be found using a search engine, you do not exist for many prospective customers.

One point to consider is that technology should be used to enhance the customer experience, not destroy it. Misuse of technology has created the ubiquitous "phone tree from Hell" which keeps you online forever with little hope for human contact.

There are some simple tests for what new technology is right for your business. I will try to cover these in another article.

The hidden pitfalls of adopting technology - part 1

We all know the bright and shiny face of skillfully crafted consumer technology and for the most part as consumers, we enjoy a relatively painless relationship with a wide range of exotic new technology.

Our cell phones connect us to faraway places while we careen madly about on the highway. We zap our toast or pop tarts and they come up just like we want almost all of the time. We receive music and news from satellites, our cars tell us more about our environment than we can safely absorb, and voices from our dashboards tell us to turn left in 200 feet.

When it comes to automating a business however, technology is a two-edged sword. It takes a high degree of skill to master the technology sufficiently to actually make money using it. It also displaces long-established manual procedures which are part of the DNA of the organization and have never been fully documented because they are understandings, not procedures.

When technology works for me as in the image shown here, life is fine and my days are productive. I am happy and make the people around me happy. When technology eludes my grasp, my days are filled with frustration and suppressed rage, mostly at myself for falling into a self-made trap.

I have been an early adopter for many years, but that was because I was one of the people who were creating and selling technical solutions. I had very little real understanding of the needs of the business owner who has to keep things running for years on end and absolutely HATES upgrades and new models of anything!

Now that I am a business owner myself, I find myself caught on the horns of a dilemma.

As a newcomer to the field of custom picture framing, I was able to embrace the latest computer technology for designing framing solutions and cutting mats because I didn't have anything to unlearn. I could go for whatever solution made the most sense today without having to regret the loss of traditional skills.

On the other hand, I wrote my own software for a simple Point of Sale system that was based on how I was doing business. Since I crafted it to handle my business model exactly, there was nothing extra and nothing that had to be "worked around". It worked fine, but it had a major limitation, a hand-built supplier database.

Now I am trying to upgrade to a one-size-fits-all retail Management System with all sorts of bells and whistles and I am struggling!

Consider the benefits of creating an outstanding customer experience...

When you are able to create an outstanding customer experience, your customers return for more of the same and tell their friends about you.

When you adopt this attitude about your products and services, your biggest problem becomes figuring out how to keep on doing it in a way that lets you prosper. It can represent a revolutionary change in your business model and makes life far more enjoyable.

This approach eliminates most of the effort that normally goes into cold calling, upselling, and convincing customers that your pre-packaged solution is right for them.

It encourages you to find out what customer expectations are before you invest a lot of effort and fail to meet them.

To create an outstanding customer experience, your focus must be on the customer and what that customer needs and wants. Once you know his or her expectations, then you can discuss raising of the expectations and what that might entail.

This is a natural and almost effortless process if the customer's expectations are discussed and understood before going on to discuss solutions. It might have profound effects on your life as a business owner.

Most of the transactions that annoy you as a customer involve people who are proposing solutions to problems you don't have or providing solutions you did not ask for. The transactions that customers remember fondly and share with others are the ones where they got more than they expected.

On the other side of the coin, most of the transactions that annoy you as a business person involve doing a lot of work for an unhappy customer. When you exceed customer expectations, everybody wins.

What changes in your business model would it take to provide an outstanding customer experience on a routine basis?

Nepotism again...

A reader asks about the positives and negatives of nepotism in a school setting.

His comment read:

Regarding nepotism and ethics, what about a situation where a teaching staff where the principal has a practice of hiring married couples? Approximately 25% of our staff is comprised of married couples. He is very open about the practice saying it's like a family, but I argue that it could turn into a dysfunctional family. .... What are the positive and negatives of such a practice in a school setting?

I'm not sure I would consider hiring married couples nepotism. I have worked for many companies where several members of a family were employed. Usually, the company did not allow these people to work in the same department or for each other.

I consider nepotism to be the favoring of a relative or a friend over other employees. When family or personal connections interfere with the orderly management of a company, it is a recipe for disaster.

When workers or managers are productive and do the job that people expect of them, nobody cares who they are related to.

When employees or managers are incompetent and are protected because they are friends with or related to someone else in the company, the company has a hidden chain of command and hard working people resent it. Good people will leave as soon as they spot this occurring because it is unfair and unprofessional. Timid employees will remain and moan about their lot.

Are the incompetent people in your company being protected by someone?

Deprogramming a Vista Machine - Part 2

It has been 13 days since I converted my laptop from Vista to Windows XP. The process was more involved than I expected, but for me the end result justified the effort. Your mileage may vary.

In a head to head competition with an identical Compaq Presario laptop running Vista, the converted XP machine is observably faster starting up and is less prone to those annoying blackouts which occur when you ask the Vista system to do something it is not ready to do.

The downside to this adventure is that you have to learn a lot more than you ever cared to know about driver software and the idiosyncrasies of machines that were designed to run Vista and are not really supported by XP.

I no longer relish looking under the hood of my cars or inside the guts of my computers. I have learned the hard way that cutting edge refinements require constant upkeep and are not compatible with standard upgrades.

When you modify a mass-produced system in any significant way, it no longer is part of the mainstream repair and service network. You are on your own, so to speak, and you had better be satisfied with the help of Internet forums.

The bright spot in all of this is that customers are using the Internet to work around problems and the forums are full of useful information on converting Vista machines to XP machines and advice on handling arcane problems involving Conexant High Definition Audio Systems, whatever they are.

I have been installing new drivers on the XP laptop while I am writing this and the laptop now recognizes some of the hardware that was previously hidden from it.

A few more steps and the laptop now has a fully operational sound system. What a relief!

If I had it to do over again, I would go to my local PC expert and if he had done Vista to XP conversions successfully, I would get him to do the conversion. Proper division of labor, you know. Give the work to the person who does it professionally.

If you are already in the midst of doing this conversion for yourself, here is a link that may help you with audio problems: http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?pid=8558#p8558

Deprogramming a Vista machine - part 1

One of our shiny new Compaq laptop is no longer a Vista machine. The benefits of better graphics and more sophisticated software were frequently offset by disturbing hang-ups and interminable screen blackouts. It also seemed that the machine ran slower as more updates were added. Vista  was a painful reminder of the early Window operating systems that were sold to run on PCs with 128K 256K memories!

With those first version of Windows, the allure of a graphic interface was severely dimmed by the fact that it took forever to boot and longer to execute. Die-hard DOS fans snickered while we pioneers waited and waited for screens to update.

History repeats itself, of course, and so 25 years later I have Vista machines that offer lots of promise but are not really ready to deliver the goods.

It finally got to the point where I spent more time waiting than working

I have work to do and software which runs just fine on Windows XP, so I chose to lobotomize one of our laptops and gave it a new and more stable personality.

I reformatted the hard drive and installed a full installation copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 2. 

The other laptop will be a control subject and will remain a Vista machine. We will watch its performance and see when it starts performing faster than its "deprogrammed" twin. If it takes more than 6 months, it too may become an XP machine.

I was able to make the change from Vista to XP in a day All it took was a little research on the Internet.

Now I am installing all of the special drivers that are needed to get the most out of this new laptop hardware

I am using PC Doc Pro and Driver Genius to make the task as easy as possible.

I'll let you know how I fare.

Technical Support that raises my hackles

Occasionally, I get in surreal exchanges with Technical Support people and it is all I can do to keep my composure. The images accompanying this article have nothing to do with the companies I spoke to, but they illustrate ways in which hard work does not serve customer needs.

There seem to be two main problem areas in dealing with Technical Support:

One is where the rep is on full automatic. You state the problem concisely and he responds, "So, what is the problem?"

Every piece of data you give him goes through some sort of filter and comes out meaningless to him so he paraphrases what you say.

Using short words and very simple sentences, you can eventually coax the rep to give you useful information, but the experience is not one you wish to repeat.

You usually end up regaling friends with the more absurd parts of the conversation until they are sick of it.

The other area is far more frustrating. You engage in conversation with a customer service rep who seems fairly knowledgeable and you describe your problem in detail and he says,  "I’m having a hard time seeing what the problem is.  Is there something specific you would like me to look at?"

The problem here is that the rep is thinking like a designer, not like a customer.

The problem I was dealing with today was that a company's software creates images that are all the same outside dimensions, even if the actual objects are vastly different in size. I have to resize the images I send clients to show how different choices affect the appearance of the final product.

The technical rep could not see why this was necessary. He could not adopt a customer''s viewpoint.

Can you image an auto manufacturer showing product image comparisons where their sport cars were the same size as their heavy duty trucks? That's what this software package is currently doing. It needs to be modified to convey a better idea of what it is producing.

Designers making life easier for designers is not the way to win customer loyalty. Understanding customer needs is critical to survival in a competitive marketplace.

Failing to get to the point...

Writing for the Internet and researching on the Internet has given me a new sense of what is important in communicating ideas to readers. This is the order that I consider important:

1 Get the reader involved

2 Deliver the goods

3 Give adequate references

Delivering #3 first, as in lengthy introductions, is a waste of time and turns off readers.

Incredible ideas do not need a lengthy sales pitch. That is so 20th Century!

A recent email from a reader introduced me to Ernesto Sirolli, a man with remarkable ideas about local economic development. His ideas were so persuasive that people copied his book, Ripples from the Zambezi, and sent it to their friends.

I looked up his book on Amazon.com, read a few pages and the premise was so intriguing that I immediately ordered a copy.

I have now had the book for almost a week and have tried several times to get to the substance of his book with little success.

There are at least 15 pages of irrelevant fluff that you have to wade through before you come to the first page written by Ernesto himself. This fluff was written by well-meaning admirers, but it contributes very little to the reading experience of a first time reader.

From the few pages I've had time to read, the power of his book comes from his case studies and this meaty subject is wrapped in layers of trivia written by academics and administrators. This trivia should have been placed at the rear end of the book.

I will read the rest of Ripples from the Zambezi, now that I have clawed my way through the fluff, but I advise others to cut to the chase and begin the book somewhere around page 7 to get a feeling for Ernesto and his ideas.

Aloha to another broken business model

The closing of Aloha Airlines is a tragedy for the nearly 2000 employees involved. They were given less than 48 hours notice that they would be out of work.

Here is the spin from Aloha management:

Airline president and chief executive officer David Banmiller said "..unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business, bringing to an end a 61-year-old company with a proud legacy of serving millions of travelers in the true spirit of Aloha."

Hawaiian blogger Rosa Say takes a more realistic view of the situation and I agree with her no-nonsense viewpoint:

"Broken business models, inferior customer service, and management which does little to nothing about both of those things is what causes businesses to fail. Tough competition and rising costs may accelerate your demise, but you can’t blame those two things for everything."

Rosa's personal experience flying Aloha Airlines is a large part of her feelings. She reported that service levels on ‘Aloha’ Airlines were horrible.

Times are tough and there are always competitors who can outspend you, but there is no excuse for providing crappy service and blaming the demise of your company on "unfair competition".

Read Rosa's article Working Beyond Their Means for an excellent presentation of the whole story.

Do not believe in the trap of scarcity

Scarcity is an interesting trap. If somebody makes something "scarce", it can appear more valuable than it actually is. Your attention becomes riveted on the "scarcity" rather than looking for available alternatives.

(This was written a few years ago and it is even more true today. With the current state of the Internet, the barriers to self-publishing or starting a business are significantly reduced.)

When there is the prospect of getting your CD or book published, an artificially created scarcity can keep one fixated on something that is unlikely to happen. There are saner ways to proceed.

Look at the role of scarcity in maintaining control of traditional publishing. There are millions of people who write and only a handful of publishers who have figured out the keys to getting their books in bookstores.

Well, traditional publishers used to be the only real outlets for a writer, but that is no longer the case.  There is no shortage of publishers who can print an excellent quality book and ship it to customers on demand.

With a little work, you can see your work in print and on Amazon.com. You can generate sales without having to rely on traditional publishers or bookstores.

Bookstores are another example of scarcity. There is only so much room and they must stock what their customers will buy. As an unknown, your books will only appear in a bookstore if you or your friends bring books to the store.

If you sell online and offer free shipping, why would anyone need to find your book in a bookstore?

Today there are tens of thousands of writers who write well enough to command a following of readers. The vast majority of them seem to be caught up in the maddening hamster wheel activity of writing, submission, and rejection by companies that have no way of profitably publishing their work.

I've been following the literary efforts of some dear and talented friends for some time and have wanted to whack them gently alongside their heads to get them to wake up and see the possibilities they are ignoring. Some are online, some are not, but they all are transfixed by the traditional dream of being "published".

There are some incredibly persuasive reasons to look outside the resource-limited world of traditional publishing, if your writing is more interesting and thought-provoking than most of the material you read in "mainstream" publications:

1. When you publish your own work, you gain an immense amount of real experience as to what your market is. You also get honest feedback that helps you determine what to do to get more people reading your work.

2. Blogging is the first step in becoming a self-publisher. The feedback you get in your comments and from watching website visitor logs is instant and brutally or refreshingly honest.

You can use this to good advantage in developing a public awareness of your work and a community of people who are interested in seeing that you succeed. They will buy your book and, more importantly, they will tell others about your writing because it is interesting information that they are the first to hear about.

3. There is nothing so psychologically destructive as inviting unnecessary rejection.

Applying for a job when the company cannot pay what you are worth is ludicrous. Submitting manuscripts to companies that are frantically searching for a viable business model is worse.

If a publisher is doing well, it is because it has found a customer base for whatever it is currently publishing. The only works that will interest them are clones of what they are already publishing.

4. THERE IS NO SCARCITY OF OUTLETS FOR YOUR WORK!

Get over the idea that your piece is only valuable if it appears in a traditional magazine, collection or whatever. The only value of appearing in a well-known publication is the immediate visibility. Once it is published, it becomes old news by next month. 

Traditional publishing is a zero-sum game (If someone else gets published, you don't get published). If a known author with a track record of sales has something to release, a traditional publishing house would be crazy to publish something by an unknown instead.

If you were publishing, you would do the same. With limited production capability, you would choose the popular "brand" to sell, not the "unknown" brand.

As a self-publisher, you can publish your work in small quantities as I did, or you can use a POD publisher. Either way, your work will be available for people to buy it and you will do the same promotional actions as if you had published through a main-stream publishing house. There are unlimited outlets for your writing, all you have to do is use them.

There is unbelievable satisfaction in having people say, "I heard about your new book!"

Sometimes they even say, "Where can I get one?"

If you really want people to read your work, please take a hard look at self-publishing. You owe it to yourself to do so. There is no justification for a good piece of writing to remain unpublished. I have also proved to my own satisfaction that self-publishing caused a traditional publisher to license my work after I proved that a market existed for it.

This article applies to almost every form of publishing including music on CDs or MP3 files and artistic works of all kinds. You can reach customers all over the world if you use the Internet wisely.

The Leningrad Cowboys - nothing succeeds like excess

Finland's answers to the Blues Brothers are still alive and rocking today.

With their extreme hair styles, bizarre glasses and pointy shoes, the Finnish rock group, the Leningrad Cowboys make a splendid contrast to the Red Army Choir as they performed together recently in a rousing rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" to the enthusiastic applause of Russian teen-agers.

This is a seriously off-the-wall group and if you are into truly bizarre musicians, you may enjoy this video. I definitely want a pair of the glasses they are wearing.

Like the Blues Brothers, the Leningrad Cowboys are a product of a movie, in this case, "Leningrad Cowboys Go America", in which the world's worst polka band comes to America to find fame and fortune. Their dead-pan humor and relentless pursuit of success at all costs made them a cult favorite for all 10 of us who watched the movie.

Now the group is world renown. If you Google "Leningrad Cowboys images", you will find hundreds of images from their CDs and concert tours.

Thanks to old friend Gunter Leonhart for the link to http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/3114/85/  and to gonza.techno for the image.

UPDATE: Sippican Cottage, another woodworker/blogger has posted more performances by the Leningrad Cowboys. Visit his site for two fine videos.

I've been backsliding - but I can still get up

It has been so long since I blogged, I knew I was slipping back into "corporate mode" where it is all work and no time for reflection.

Starting a business has that seductive quality about it where it seems that with just a little more effort, something worthwhile will be gained and a rest point will be reached.

That is not the case at all, you know, because there is always another challenge around the bend that can be surmounted with just a few more hours effort... Days go by and there has been no time for savoring life.

What brought me up short was listening to some visitors from northern Virginia discussing their lives and careers.

Their work and commuting takes 13 hours a day and they are dedicated executives who are all striving to achieve worthwhile goals in an increasingly unstable working environment. Listening to them was like opening old wounds and I experienced a sudden rush of empathy and personal weariness.

I thought, "I've been there and I've done that and I thought I'd gotten it out of my system. But here I am working 15-16 hours a day in a beautiful country environment and I'm not taking time to enjoy the sunshine and the beauty of country life."

Damn! I've fallen into the clutches of a seductive career opportunity again!

Encountering a career situation that allows you to create almost without limit is incredibly addictive. Days pass with your attention fixed on situations and designs that test you to the limit. The outside world becomes a blur of flickering images and tiny voices that attempt to distract your attention from the designs that challenge you.

Our visitors jolted me to my senses and my absence of blog posts galvanized me into a semblance of action. I'm back in action and I will try to share some of the beauty that I have been observing.

I'll leave you with two images to enjoy. This one is titled, "Elves in my Garden" and it is a new work from local artist Liz Stucki that I had the pleasure to frame.

The earlier image is a photo of the artist's storm-shattered window showing the delicate tracery of the broken safety glass after a recent storm. Liz is currently figuring out how to capture this image in another pen and ink drawing.

I am looking forward to seeing what she does with it.

(click on images to enlarge)

What does the Jacksonville Center do for Floyd County?

It helps keep Floyd green

For 13 years, the Jacksonville Center has been supporting artistic endeavors and rural creativity in our region. It is an organization of dedicated volunteers backed up by an extremely small group of paid staff members.

It serves as a focus for creating and supporting new artists and artisans. There is no other activity in Floyd that is dedicated to that activity. The public schools offer art instruction and various artists offer internships, but until recently, there were few other opportunities for artists to learn new skills and display their works locally.

Not everyone is aware that some internationally renown artists and artisans teach courses at the Jacksonville Center. Some instructors drive long distances to help students develop their skills and launch careers.

One of the outstanding aspects of the Jacksonville Center Community is the way experienced and successful artists share their hard-won knowledge with newcomers to the field of art.

Hundreds of successful artists and artisans in the region are members of the Jacksonville center and some are members of the Board or manage the Hayloft Gallery exhibitions. Their actions inspire others to contribute to the Center and to take courses.

Every year, some students choose to become artists and artisans after taking courses from the professional artists at the Jacksonville Center. These new artists become contributors to the local economy and some return to teach at the Jacksonville Center as they gain professional skills and generate their own following of fans.

There is a synergy at the Jacksonville Center that keeps it going, even though the Center is perpetually strapped for operating funds. Grant money may pay for buildings and additions, but operating expenses are supported by donations from businesses and individuals. That is why there are so many volunteers who give time and money to keep the center open. It is one of the few places in the county where you or your children can unlock your creativity and learn skills from professionals in the field of arts.

But, even after 13 years of serving Floyd County, some people still don't understand why government grant money is provided to the non-profit Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd instead of "deserving individual artists".

They really don't comprehend that the Jacksonville Center IS DESERVING INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS.

They also don't understand that grants aren't "given" away. They must be won through a carefully thought-out application process and after a lot of hard work. The grants are government's way of extending government services without adding the taxpayer burden of a staff of government employees and a local government office.

The few naysayers who say "stay away from the Jacksonville Center and support local independent artists and craftspeople and their displays in privately owned galleries and studios" do not have a clue what the Jacksonville Center does and must not be talking to the many artists and gallery owners who support the Jacksonville Center and donate time to it.

If you are an artist, you want your work in as many venues as possible and you want those venues to promote you and your privately owned studio as much as possible. The Jacksonville Center does this. It is open to all artists and is a resource that this county is very fortunate to have.

The next time you find someone criticizing the Jacksonville Center for "competing" with Floyd artists in any way, you might ask them exactly "who" is being affected. You will not get any specifics, only general grumbling.

The Jacksonville Center is non-commercial and is run by local artists and other volunteers. Anyone criticizing the Jacksonville Center as being "bad for local art businesses" has a hidden agenda and deserves being investigated themselves.

We need all of the cultural incentives we can muster to inspire us to unlock our creativity. The Jacksonville Center and the artists who support it are a driving force for self-sustaining economic development in Floyd County. Selling talent will help keep Floyd green. Selling only land leads to another, and less desirable future for Floyd.

Help develop local talent in all areas and help keep Floyd green.

Enhancing the imagination with software

Some fortunate people can observe a few pieces of information and can easily envision a finished creation in extraordinary detail. Their powers of visualization are highly developed.

Others struggle to visualize relationships and results and need pictures, diagrams and even solid objects in order to grasp how things might go together to create a harmonious whole. If you have ever struggled to present a new idea to a group, you have already met these people.

Fortunately, technology and computers have come to the aid of those who have difficulty conceptualizing results from seemingly disrelated actions. Visualization software is used in architecture and in designing everything from cell phones to shopping centers.

In the custom picture framing industry, there are new varieties of Visualization Software which allow us to create multiple scenarios for matting and framing an image.

This software allows us to quickly explore what happens to the appearance of an image if we make changes to mat colors and dimensions and select different mouldings to frame the image.

For example, some people can see an artist's original painting as seen here and by glancing at a collection of mouldings and mats as seen in the next image, can synthesize a mental model of what will produce an acceptably dramatic presentation of the image.

For the rest of humanity, it helps if we can explore various "what if" scenarios and make sure that we have considered enough options to give us peace of mind in our final decision.

Computer-generated images allow us to quickly assess the effects of making changes. If we stay focused and don't let our imaginations run away with us, we can usually generate enough different solutions to satisfy us in less than 20 minutes. Since the computer stores our choices, we can review them at our leisure and even send them to friends for comment.

Some have asserted that this kind of decision-making tool extends the decision making unnecessarily. The answer is to use this kind of tool only when a client can't visualize the finished product or is not present to assist in the decision-making.

In these cases, Visualization software can save time and money. You generate a number of alternative solutions for a design problem and let the client mull them over on their own time. If you have done your work well, they will have enough alternatives to choose from and will be in control of the final result.

The trick is, of course, to provide enough alternatives to choose from, but not so many that the client is overwhelmed. This takes a certain discipline, because people who are proficient with software like to show every possible alternative that can be generated.

I have found that it is very easy to generate six to eight really interesting variations on almost any framing design, so I stifle this impulse if clients or spectators are present as it invariably overwhelms them and creates splitting headaches.

It is far better to limit myself to presenting four alternatives or less. That seems to provide plenty of choices and is capable of being easily solved for the optimum choice.

The technology is not perfect yet as the computer renditions of frames is not perfect, but if you look at the examples shown above, you can see they provide a close approximation of the final framed product shown here. This pastel was created by Gretchen St Lawrence and is currently on display at the Art Under the Sun Gallery in Floyd, Virginia.

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.

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.

It's showtime in Las Vegas

I'm off to Las Vegas this morning to spend a few days at the West Coast Art & Frame Show at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The picture framing industry is supposedly taking a beating from the entry of big box retailers into the field and from the slump in the housing market so it will be very informative to get some firsthand information from new and established framing shops which are still doing well.

I've signed up for six seminars given by experts in the picture framing and art publishing fields, but I will make time to visit a few of the 600 exhibitor booths at the show.

The attendees at WCAF include retail frame shops, galleries, wholesalers, and production framing companies.

An industry in flux presents enormous challenges and interesting opportunities. It is not always an advantage to have your livelihood tied to processes and practices that have been historically successful.

Processes and materials are continually evolving and computers are appearing in many shops for the first time.  Used wisely, these can enable a small outfit to outperform a much larger and older shop that is wedded to manual processes.

In the same way, a small shop which is fully aware of the importance of maintaining excellent customer relationships can operate successfully even in the presence of big box retailers. It's all a matter of choosing a market niche where you have an advantage. Big Box retailers have an enormous price advantage, but in most cases, they offer minimal customer support because they sell commodities.

As a new framer, I am one of the smaller firms that will be attending the show, but I have been following industry forums and it appears that this field, challenging as it seems right now, is being infiltrated by people retiring from corporate roles and taking on the challenge of a custom framing shop.

Many of these new shops are independent and do not operate as conventional retail shops. The availability of computerized equipment and internet exposure is changing the ground rules so that a small framing operation can provide a professional service without all of the trappings of a conventional storefront.

Control of costs and reaching new customers effectively is critical to surviving in a tight market. I hope to find some useful information on this as well as new designs to bring back with me from this show.

A disaster in the making

We have a local gas station, Floyd Express, where some of the pumps don't work and unsuspecting motorists can get threatened with arrest by the local sheriff.

UPDATE: you can avoid having this happen to you by insisting that you get a receipt for your credit card purchase of gas. See my latest article on avoiding problems at the gas pump.

Background data: In Virginia if you drive away without paying for gas you could lose your driver's license and receive a fine of up to $250.

In Floyd Express, at least some of the gas pumps doesn't work. You put in your card, get authorized, pump the gas...and then you don't get a receipt.  Some times you get a message to see the cashier.

So what you say, you don't need a receipt, you paid and got the gas.

What you don't know is that they may not have recorded the sale and they may call the sheriff and tell him you drove off without paying.

The authorizing message that shows up on the pump was initiated by one of the clerks inside, not by a computer. You have no way of knowing whether they recorded the sale or not.

I have been buying gas there at least twice a month and have received receipts about 50% of the time. Sometimes I have seen the message to see the cashier and have gone inside to find out that the printer was out of paper. Other times I have just ignored the message and went on my way. I did not know how lucky I was.

My wife, Gretchen bought gas there today, swiped the card, got the authorizing message and pumped the gas. She was in the local coffee shop fifteen minutes later when the sheriff's deputies arrived to arrest her. Her friends in the coffee shop were convulsing with laughter as Gretchen was giving the deputies a piece of her mind and local columnist Tom Ryan was busily making notes for his next Enquirer article. Gretchen was not amused.

She went back to the Floyd Xpress, accompanied by two sheriffs deputies, and summoned the manager after the clerk behind the counter said she had no record of the sale. Things went downhill from there.

The staff finally admitted that all of the pumps allowed people to pump gas without authorization and sometimes the transaction doesn't go through.

There is no warning that your card has not been approved, other than the fact that you have received no receipt. Since the printers are often out of paper, how can you be sure?

Would you like to gamble that you might lose your license because Floyd Xpress doesn't record your credit card purchase properly?

Make sure you get a receipt for your gas purchase.

Seems like they should fix the pumps. They know they have a problem but have not fixed it.

UPDATE:

This topic came up at the dinner table last night and someone suggested that Floyd Xpress might be trying to save money by not getting the upgrades necessary to get immediate authorization from the credit card company.

Such is the power of the Internet that a probable answer came with the first comment from Michael Kohne. Read it and decide for yourselves.

UPDATE #2:

I appreciate the effort that people are making to present both sides of how this situation should have been handled, but I do not allow more than one personal attack from a commenter, so if you would like to make a point, try to keep it factual.

Several people felt that the store was in the right and that customers do not have rights. That is their prerogative, but when a gas pump gives misleading information, whose fault is that? The authorizing message on a gas pump, followed by a message to pump gas is universally understood to mean that your card is being charged. The absence of any other message does not give a consumer a clue.

The store should upgrade their software as has been suggested elsewhere or post a sign on the pumps that patrons must come to the cashier to confirm their credit card charges. Then the problem becomes public knowledge.

We customers are not always right, but we are customers and pay money for purchases and for good customer service. If a merchant feels a patron has left without paying and knows who the patron is, it is a simple matter to call the patron and ask them to return and complete the transaction. Calling the Police or the Sheriff's office instead of the customer is assigning blame to the customer instead of working to find a better solution.

Bottom line: the pump/billing system appears to have been known to be faulty by store personnel for some time and yet no care is being taken to make sure that customers are warned of the problem. False arrest or the threat of arrest is no joke.   In a more litiginous part of the country, the store would have been sued long ago.

When I hear that something has been done about this, I will post all of the information here.

I hope it happens soon.

Follow the Ad Money...

You have probably noticed that newspapers and magazines are dwindling away.  My guess is that advertisers are turning increasingly to the Internet to reach customers.

Even in my quiet corner of Floyd County, Virginia, I am seeing some evidence that advertisers are getting increasingly serious about advertising on weblogs.

I received an email yesterday from an Online Marketing and Advertising Executive who is interested in placing an advertisement on my Making Ripples site - payment up front and an annual renewal.

A year ago, I would have jumped at the chance, but not now.

I used to get these emails from assistants and interns in advertising departments and the ads would be placed for one month at a time, so I can see that more importance is being placed on Internet Marketing and the competition for space is heating up.

Unfortunately for the advertisers, I am rethinking my whole approach regarding advertising on this weblog. I have experimented with Google ads and space ads for almost a year and I don't think the income makes up for the negative impact on the aesthetics and the effectiveness of this weblog.

I know there is a place for ads on the Internet and I will accept ads on my more commercial websites as I find a way to do that without impacting my own message.

I will also continue to place links and ads on this website for people who have supported me or who have a product or message that aligns with mine.

I feel that content is paramount on a weblog and that anything that detracts from the presentation of the content is contra productive.

I have watched blogs that followed the path of becoming ad income producers and they become almost "content-free" except for snippets of posts from other websites. They become less interesting as the percentage of fresh original content decreases.

I think that "fresh original content" will continue to generate traffic and I intend to continue providing that for the foreseeable future. It seems to be the best way to keep in communication with readers and share my ideas with them.

The big problem for advertisers will be in learning how to tap into weblog traffic by producing relevant copy that will be read.

I think that mass media has become a world unto itself and increasingly out of touch with reality so readers are finding less and less to be interested in. The results are already coming in as can be seen below.

From the Editor and Publisher comes this gem published November 05, 2007 8:10 AM ET:

Many Top Papers Take Big Hits

NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.