Linda Samuels (left) and Laverne Auguste (right)

Recently my good friend and colleague, Linda Samuels, invited me to sit on a panel of professional business people and entrepreneurs at the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University in Boston. The purpose of the gathering was their experiential/field research presentation of their business plans by four of Linda’s Executive MBA students. The members of the panel were there to listen, take notes, ask questions and make suggestions for the path forward. We were, after all, working professionals who presumably had taken our share of hits, gotten up off the canvas, persevered and  kept going.  I was honored to be invited.

College or College of Hard Knocks

There is a presumption among those entrepreneurs of my generation who did not go to college that the lessons learned in the so called  “College of Hard Knocks” are far more valuable than those learned in college. Not true! If I had been half as prepared to start my business as Linda’s students will be, I would have made fewer mistakes, lost less sleep and made more money. No matter how comprehensive a business plan is, you can never totally avoid the hardships of starting and growing a business. Linda’s students know this. That’s why their plans include an exit strategy. When I jumped into my business I didn’t know what an exit strategy was. I did what the Vikings used to do. I landed on foreign soil and burned the lifeboats. I couldn’t  “exit” if I wanted to.  So much for the “College of Hard Knocks.”

St. Lucia’s Gift to the World*

Laverne Auguste Presenting her Experiential Field Research

Back to Linda’s Executive MBA students. Meet Laverne Auguste. She is from the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Part of the Lesser Antilles, St. Lucia is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. As of 2010, its population was 174,000. Its main industry, like much of the Caribbean, is tourism. It’s easy to see why. Because her success depends largely on being first to market it would be imprudent for me to discuss the details of Laverne’s business. You will have to wait until she graces the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine. I will say this: She will create jobs and raise the standard of living first in her native St. Lucia, then throughout the Caribbean and quite possibly the rest of the developing world. Why do I say that? Because she has “it” – that combination of talent, passion and resilience that fuels all entrepreneurs. A young woman with her intelligence can succeed at anything. But she didn’t choose just anything. She chose something that she is passionate about and believes in. It was her passion and commitment that inspired her to name her company after her  grandmother, Martha Auguste, who instilled values in her as a child and even today is a major influence in her life . The fire is lit. It won’t go out.

My Takeaway

Listening to Laverne talk about her business was inspiring. Her plan was thorough and thoughtful. It covered every foreseeable  contingency. It  was also eye opening. I came home, pulled out my business plan and chuckled to myself. Let’s just say I had left some things out. Like burning the lifeboats. I will be going back to my plan and reworking it.

And Now Back to You

I’d love to hear from successful entrepreneurs who did not go to college. Did you ever wonder if your path would have been easier if you had? Do you feel like you missed something that you couldn’t have gotten any other way? Or looking back, do you think college wouldn’t have mattered that much? Talk to me.

Find out more about Suffolk University’s Executive MBA program.

*In the interests of thoroughness I should point out that two Nobel laureates, Arthur Lewis, an economist, and Derek Walcott, a poet and playwright, have come from the island of St. Lucia. My guess however, is that future generations of St. Lucians will remember Laverne Auguste for having a greater impact on their daily lives.

I have a habit of taking on more work than I should. There, I’ve said it. I don’t think I’m a masochist. I just have a hard time saying no. This is not all bad. It certainly forces me to be more organized and efficient. But as deadlines loom, I begin envying those people who thrive on four hours sleep a night. You know who you are. Really, I wish I was one of you. I’m not. And it’s not an age thing. I couldn’t do it when I was 20 years old either (although I did it anyway). To be clear, I am not a workaholic. At least I don’t think I am. It’s just that I will, for stretches of time, fill my plate with enormous portions of work. I generally don’t realize what I’ve  committed to until I see the telltale signs:

• I want to throw something at the phone every time it rings (how dare they interrupt me)
• I forget to eat (what is that annoying growling in my stomach?)
• I’m completely unaware of the time (you’re kidding, it can’t be 5 o’clock)
• I forget to take out the trash (I’ll do it next week)
• I forget I have dogs (what is that smell?)
• I realize I’ve been wearing the same clothes for three days (what is that smell?)

It’s About Feeling Worthy

Hello! Anybody in there?

So why do I do it? Well there’s the money. But that’s not it.  It’s more about this: each time a client hires me I hear the Sally Fields quote playing in my head. “You like me. You really like me.”  I don’t know about you but I like to be liked. It’s very validating. It’s just that it may not be such a good idea for too many clients to like me at the same time. But in the adrenaline rush that always accompanies signing on a new client, I forget that the number of hours in a day does not expand in proportion to how much work you have to get done. Something on my personal to do list ends up not getting done. Someone in my life ends up feeling neglected. During one of my work marathons it’s not uncommon for me to emerge from my office to find that Darla (Yorkshire Terrier number two) has left me a token of her displeasure at being ignored. Ooops!

It Still Has to be About Quality

I take enormous pride in how I do what I do. Integrity demands that. So while there are countless opportunities to cut corners, to take the easy way out in ways that no one will ever know, I won’t go there. That’s why all my clients speak well of me. (Okay, maybe not all but certainly most). And that’s why, no matter how much is on my plate, I will never sacrifice quality. That’s also the reason I occasionally end up looking like the photo at the top of the page. Scary isn’t it?

Why Am I Telling You All of This?

I am committed to blogging as least once a week no matter what. Even if I’m in one of my “how the heck am I going to get all this done” periods. It’s important to me. It’s also important that whatever I put out there in the world is an honest expression of me. I don’t have a public and a private voice. I have one voice. My voice. So rather than scuffling to find a topic this week, I thought why not just simply share what I’m actually feeling. I’m guessing there are some of you out there who every now and then experience the same thing. It’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up.

And Now Back to You

Do you commit to more than you can do? If so, how do you handle it? If you’re one of those “I only need four hours of sleep” types, I’d love to hear from you. If you’ve got a routine or a technique for getting through these periods of high work volume, can you share it? Talk to me.

The Ugly

What makes this site ugly?  The site title – Sixties Press – is on a dark graphical background and is difficult to read. The navigation links are all different text colors and are on different colored backgrounds. Why? This homepage makes me want to run away screaming. I was around in the sixties. This site would have been ugly then too.

The Bad

This homepage is a Monty Python parody right? Well, no it isn’t. It’s a for real website. Where do I go? What do I do? How do I find what I’m looking for? Be warned! Staring at this homepage may cause seizures. I don’t know what else to say.

The Good

Disclaimer: I use MailChimp as my Email Newsletter hosting service of choice. I am not, however,  on their payroll. I have chosen MailChimp as an example of  a good  (good is an understatement) homepage because it’s everything a successful homepage  should be.

So what makes *MailChimp’s homepage so good? The way it answers the following questions:

Q. What does this company do?
A. Easy Email Newsletters

Q. What can I do here?
A. Sign up for free

Q. What kind of place is this?
A. A fun, friendly place

Put another way, MailChimp’s homepage is clear, focused and easy to digest quickly. Compare it to the first two examples and you’ll see what I mean.

And  Now Back to You

When you see a homepage for the first time, what do you look for? What makes you stay and what makes you leave? What are some of your homepage pet peeves? Talk to me.

*MailChimp’s award winning interface was designed by Aarron Walter, the author of Designing for Emotion.

Thank you to webpagesthatsuck.com for showcasing frighteningly bad websites year after year. Take a quick visit. You’ll see what I mean.

Success – what is it? Everyone, it seems, has a definition – literally everyone. What I know for sure is that it’s elusive, impossible to define, very subjective and something everyone wants. Curious about what others had to say, I visited the Brainy Quote website. Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorites:

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
David Brinkley

How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?”
Logan P. Smith

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.”
Erma Bombeck

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill

Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”
Arnold H. Glasow

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”
John Foster Dulles

These next two are my favorites. The Shirley Jones quote because it’s funny (I like funny) and the Tennessee Williams quote because …. well just because.

After I won the Oscar, my salary doubled, my friends tripled, my children became more popular at school, my butcher made a pass at me, and my maid hit me up for a raise.”
Shirley Jones

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won’t come out while you’re watching.”
Tennessee Williams

Yes, it’s Personal. Very Personal

As you can see, everyone has their own take on success. It’s a moving target. Not only does it look different to different people, it looks different at different stages in your life. It certainly doesn’t look the same to me as it did thirty years ago. Let me digress for a moment. I belong to several professional networking organizations and local chambers of commerce. These memberships give me access to hundreds of business people. From plumbers to attorneys and every conceivable profession in between, I can always find someone I know, like and trust enough to refer to one of my clients. At a recent business expo, I met Chris Gilbert, a video production veteran with a great idea – capturing the essence of a business in a one minute video. I immediately recognized an opportunity. I referred Chris to one of my clients. They connected and Chris was hired. I was so happy when he called to thank me for the referral. But it was more than just happy. It was a deep feeling of satisfaction – a sort of pervasive contentment that just made me smile inside. My definition of success had changed again. So here it is:

I am successful to the extent that I can contribute to the success of others.

Now Back to You

Do you consider yourself a success? If not, have you thought much about it? If you could wake up tomorrow morning and suddenly be successful, what would that look like? Is it about money? Is it about having choices? Has the idea of success changed for you over the years? Talk to me.

Photo credit: Manoj Kengudelu

Daydreaming - both a danger and a benefit

Millions of people work from home. I’m one of them. That means that except for time spent in client meetings or at networking events, I spend hours each day in isolation. Yes, Teddy and Darla are around but they’re dogs and don’t usually have good advice when I’m stuck. Lately I’ve been wondering if this is such a good idea. It’s not the working from home part. It’s the working alone part. If you work from home with no one else around you all day then maybe you’ve been wondering the same thing.

So here is my take.

The Upside

• It takes me 10 seconds to get from my bed to my office. 12 if I’ve had a late night
• I can wear silly clothes – this is one of my favorite benefits
• I can daydream and no one will smack me on the head and tell me to snap out of it (see photo above)
• I save a ton of money not renting an office
• I can write off a lot of my expenses
• When  the spirit moves me I can pick up my guitar (visible just over my left shoulder in photo) and bang out some tunes
• Food (very important) is just footsteps away

The Downside

• It’s hard to know when my work day is over
• It’s a little tricky having clients over
• The dogs bark while I’m on the phone
• I can daydream and no one will smack me on the head and tell me to snap out of it (see photo above)
• When  the spirit moves me I can pick up my guitar (visible just over my left shoulder in photo) and bang out some tunes

Distraction or Inspiration?

St. Martin - Daydream or Inspiration?

If you’re paying attention then right now you’re asking yourselves “how can you have two items in both the Upside and Downside lists?” Good question. …and the core of my dilemma. You see there are times during my day when reaching for my guitar clearly is a distraction. But I’m a creative person and more often than not taking a little time in between brilliant ideas to noodle (yes, wrong use of word) on my guitar gets the creative juices flowing. Voila! Distraction turns into inspiration.  That’s why it’s on both the Upside and Downside lists. Same thing for daydreaming. I have photos of St. Martin, the idyllic Caribbean island, pinned to the corkboard over my desk. My wife and I, along with our best friends, vacationed there a few years ago. It’s one of the great memories of my life. But sometimes I blankly stare at these photos daydreaming the day away desperately needing to be smacked on the head and told to snap out of it. Other times I deliberately stare at these photos determined to do the work necessary to get me back there. See where I’m going with this?

And Now Back to You

On balance, working from home works for me. But not because there are more reasons on the Upside list than the Downside list. It’s more subtle than that. It works because it feels right. At some point in the future it might not feel right anymore. When that happens I will reevaluate. What about you? If you work from home what are the issues you struggle with? What distracts you? What works for you? Talk to me.

Darla and Teddy

Teddy: I was fine before you got here, kid. Life was pretty quiet and predictable

Darla: ….and boring

Teddy: And who are you … Miss Excitement?

Darla: At least I’ve got personality, and, I’m the lap dog lady boss always wanted. She can’t get you to curl up in her lap no matter how she begs.

Teddy: Aloof goes with the territory when you’re pure bred like me. I came with papers you know. What would you know about papers anyway, kid?

Darla: Papers …. I don’t need no stinkin’ papers. I’m cute.

Teddy: Cute? Is that what you call that overbite? You’ve got a lot of mutt in you kid. Don’t forget that. And, what’s with the barking? Do you have to go nuts every time you see another dog or hear the doorbell ring or see a car drive down the street? You’re giving the rest of us a bad name.

Darla: Hey, I’ve got a lot of energy ok? What would you know about that, pops? You’d sleep all day if it weren’t for me.

Teddy: Energy! Is that what you call it? You are so immature. You gotta slow down and enjoy life. And another thing, if you don’t start realizing how small you are, you’re gonna get yourself killed. Remember the time you went after that Weimaraner down the street? If boss man hadn’t snatched you up off the ground, you would have been lunch.  

Darla: Oh yeah. I could have taken him. I know I could have.

Teddy: Taken him? You kidding me? You’re a 4-pound Yorkshire Terrier, kid. And you’re not getting any bigger. And, I’m not bailing you out either.

Darla: Bailing me out? Every time you hear a noise you run the other way.

Teddy: Survival, kid. That’s what it’s all about.

Darla: Hey you gotta live a little you know…. Hey pops?

Teddy: Yeah, kid

Darla: Can I ask you something?

Teddy: What is it now?

Darla: Were you really happier before I got here? Tell me the truth.

Teddy: The truth? You can’t handle the truth!

Darla: Hey, I’ve seen that look in your eye when we’re wrestling with the rubber chicken. Don’t you even like me a little?

Teddy: Alright, kid. Come closer so the boss can’t hear. Yeah, I guess you’ve kinda grown on me.

Darla: Gee thanks pops….I love you too.

Here’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time. Maybe some of you have too. Balance… that state of being where the pieces of your life exist in some reasonable proportion to each other. I’ve long believed, long hoped really that I would get to a place in my life where my skills, talents and interests would all be in play at once resulting in a fully formed me. Instead, at a point in my life where there are certainly more yesterdays than tomorrows, I’m still chasing balance. I’m not sure it exists. Or maybe balance simply means different things to different people. When one considers the great masters of art, music and literature it’s hard to imagine their lives being balanced. More than likely they spent disproportionate amounts of time perfecting their craft… and neglecting everything else.

Balance For the Rest of Us

But most of us aren’t masters. We’re regular people with diverse interests and varying degrees of talent. So how much time do you spend doing the different things you love to do? Perhaps the more important question is why? Why do you do the things you do? I suspect that if you asked someone who has talent, whether it’s knitting, playing a musical instrument, filling a canvas with color and shape or painting the Sistine Chapel, why they do it, the answer would simply be “I would not feel alive if I didn’t.” Passion. But how do passion and balance coexist? I don’t know.

It’s A Discipline Thing – I Think

When I was at Berklee College of Music in the mid seventies, I had a friend – a fellow guitar player – who brought a timer into the practice room with him. I don’t mean a metronome that helped him keep time to the music. I mean an egg timer he brought from his kitchen. You see he created a practice schedule for himself and the timer helped him stick to the schedule. Scales for an hour, improvisation for an hour, ear training for half an hour then back to scales. When the timer bell sounded he moved on to the next segment of his schedule. To me this sort of regimentation seemed more suited to an engineer than a musician. At any rate this technique never worked for me. But I’m not very disciplined. Are you?

It’s An Inspiration Thing – I Think

How can you schedule inspiration? How can you time creative surges? You can’t. But if you play music, or write, or paint, or quilt or knit only when you’re inspired, your passion will live in the shadows. That’s not where it belongs. Passion must be nourished. It has to be in the front of your being where everyone can see and feel it. What I think is that if you can pursue your craft when you’re not inspired, inspiration will come more frequently. And your passion will light you up. Isn’t that we want?

It’s a Sharing Thing – I Know

We don’t own our talents. We have stewardship over them. And when we don’t share them with others we are in breach of a fundamental, albeit unwritten contract. Thinking of my talents in this way helps me get unstuck. Would that work for you?

And Now Back to You

Do you have trouble finding the time to pursue your passions and interests? Does it feel like a waste of time when you do? How do you get unstuck? Talk to me.

Photo credit: Yogendra 174

The Yarn Harlot, aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, writes about knitting and life and yarn with such a unique perspective that she attracts even non-knitters. Her blog led to book deals. The books led to talks all over North America. Now, those books and talks draw in more readers for the blog, creating a sweet little loop toward ever growing popularity. As an indication of how many readers she has, each post draws more than 100 and often more than 200 comments.

Looking at this as a newbie blogger, it all seemed so simple. Start a blog, get a book deal, give some talks, watch the blog audience grow, get a bigger book deal, give more talks…you get the idea. I knew it really wasn’t that easy when I launched my blog, knitaway.blogspot.com, but in the back of my mind, I had hopes of at least building a small following.

After a lot of time and effort, that’s all I ever generated with that blog – a very small following. No book deals. No speaking engagements:  Just a tiny audience that consisted of my mother and a couple of friends.

It wasn’t a total waste. I had fun. I connected with some people in other parts of the country that I would never have met otherwise and I have a great online journal. What I didn’t get, however, is something some people would call a “return on investment.”

That’s fine if blogging is a hobby, or something you want to do just for fun. But, if you want to blog to build your expertise or promote your business, you certainly have to get more readers than my mother, or your mother, or your mother’s mother, for that matter.

So do what my father says and “Do as I say, not as I did.”

The blog isn’t about you, even if it’s about you

The topic may be your thoughts and activities, but ultimately this is about your readers. What do they want to hear or know about? Maybe you’ll entertain them with funny stores from the shop. Maybe you’ll educate them about a particular subject. If you’re tempted to write about your root canal, that’s okay as long as you can answer the question, “Why would a reader care?”

Listen to others

This is actually one thing I did. I spent a lot of time on other people’s blogs. I read them and commented on them. Many of those people became a part of my small audience.

Blog regularly

Since mine was a hobby blog, I never felt a strong obligation to post on a regular basis. I’d go weeks without a post. This is a big part of why it never progressed beyond a hobby blog. This is a quick way to lose potential readers. Even if a reader is blown away by a post, he’s not going to keep coming back if there’s no new material. There are just too many other great things to draw his attention.

Know your audience

When I started blogging, I thought very little about who would read my blog. This is something you should think a lot about. Who do you want to reach? You may want a broad audience, but you are best off focusing on one specific person. This will help you tailor the blog and make it personal. Plus, once you know who that is, you will have a much easier time finding good material because you will be looking for things that will interest that person.

Linda Samuels - author, educator, tireless entrepeneur

Linda Samuels has a rare psychological condition. She doesn’t hear the word no. It’s not that people haven’t said no to her. They have.  Many times. She just turns it into an opportunity to re-invent herself. As a young woman growing up in Mansfield, Ohio, she had the grades and the desire to follow her father into the medical profession. Prevailing cultural attitudes changed the plan. It was, after all, still a man’s world and medicine was man’s work.

Moving On

Linda didn’t become a doctor. Instead, she took her degrees (University of Cincinnati BA in biology and Masters of Science in population genetics) and her husband, moved to the Boston area and began a stellar career teaching biology at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Linda is no ordinary person and she was no ordinary teacher. During her more than 25-year tenure at Dana Hall, she was named Outstanding Biology Teacher in Massachusetts by the National Association of Biology Teachers, inducted into the Massachusetts Hall of Fame for Science Educators, and chosen as a finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Seeing a Need and Filling It

Most would call this a fulfilling career but Linda wanted more. Recognizing that biology textbooks were failing to get young girls motivated, Linda decided to write her own. In 1999  she published Girls Can Succeed in Science! One reviewer on Amazon had this to say about the book:

“This innovative book is a must-buy for all middle school and secondary science teachers and parents. Chock-full of unique classroom activities and demonstrations, and guided by a new philosophy for boys and girls that really works! You can tell it’s based on over 25 years of real classroom experience, and it’s fun as well as educational. This is a one-of-a-kind book that fills a special niche in the science book market, and fills it to a tea!”

See what I mean about Linda?

Second Chances

Recently, Linda designed and taught a course on entrepreneurship which she titled Passion to Profit. Nothing extraordinary here (not for Linda, anyway)  except for one thing. Her students were inmates and her classroom was the library at the Pondville Correctional Center, a minimum security prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts. Did I mention that she is fearless?

Changing the World

Linda thinks big. She wants to change the world. BillionaireBabies, LLC, her latest and most ambitious project seeks to empower today’s children to become tomorrow’s leaders. She has already made significant progress toward her uplifting goal. Imagine teaching kids the importance of planning, budgeting, research and analysis and making it fun. That’s Linda’s gift. Better yet, imagine future generations of children growing into adulthood already knowing how to run a business,  balance a checkbook, write a business plan, respect the environment and one another. Stephen Aveling-Rowe is one of these children. “I’ve got a new goal, new excitement,” says Stephen, adding that Linda’s BillionaireBabies program has taught him to act on his ideas, “not just let them sit in your brain.” Stephen Aveling-Rowe is 12 years old and lives in Australia.

Learn more about Linda’s diverse activities:

• www.BillionaireBabies.net
• www.PremierCapital.biz
• www.LearnScience.net
• www.FocusTechnology.biz
• www.LindaSam.ACNDirect.com

It’s tempting to label Linda Samuels a “late bloomer.” Tempting but not true. Linda is always blooming. Not late, not early. Just constantly.

And Now Back to You

If you were writing a Someone You Should Know column, who would you choose to write about and why? Have you thought about it? What makes someone extraordinary? Talk to me.

The good folks at Starbucks in Winchester, MA get it.

Here’s a secret. It’s all about customer service. Here’s another secret. Simple isn’t the same thing as easy. There’s a huge difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it. With that said, here goes.*

1. Answer  Your Phone

I can hear the moaning. What’s that you say? You’re too busy to answer the phone? Really. How  do you feel when you call a company and are told, by a recording, to “listen carefully as our menu options have changed?” I’m used  to it by now but I still don’t like it. When I was working with John Webb from Webb Transportation Services, LLC several months back, it was clear to me that his business was thriving.  I asked him what he was doing that his competition was not. “Simple,” he said. “I answer the phone.”  I tested him by calling the company several times. Guess what. He, or his Director of Operations answered the phone every time. Not every other time. Every time! How refreshing.

2. Return Phone Calls and Answer Emails

This is a tough one. Our inboxes are littered with emails – many of which are spam or plain junk. I get that. What I’m saying is this. Identify which messages are relevant to your business and answer those quickly – the same day if possible. If you’re being asked about something you’re supposed to do but haven’t done yet, politely say that in your response. Responding quickly and honestly is better than waiting a few days to finish what you’re working on and then responding. If you’re in a meeting or at a client site, answer as soon as you can. (I have to say this: if you’re in your car, pull over. There. I’ve said it.) You get the point. I try to practice what Brain Tracy calls single handling. That means responding to important emails right away instead of leaving it for later. You will be more likely to forget if you don’t do it right away. The main point is this. Don’t ignore emails and phone messages (unless you’re doing  it intentionally and with knowledge of any consequences). Doing so will eventually erode your reputation and damage your business.

3. Do What You Say

Nothing will hurt your business more than making promises you don’t  keep. If you tell a client you will have their proposal to them by Thursday, get it to them by Thursday (Wednesday would be better). If you promise to gather some information and email it to them by Monday, email it to them by Monday (the previous Friday would be better). How annoying is it when a client tells you they will get you something by a certain day and then doesn’t do it? But here’s the thing, if you don’t do what you say, don’t expect your clients to either. Remember Ghandi’s famous quote “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

4. Show Up

For some reason – I have no idea what that reason might be – general contractors have a reputation for showing up late or worse, not showing up at all. (General Contractors, don’t send me hate mail. I’m only stating what I’ve observed and what others have told me.) When Alan Weisner started his interior painting and home fix it business several years ago, he knew that simply showing up at the time promised would separate  him from his competitors. So committed was he to this mission that he named his new company We Show Up. Brilliant! Several years into his enterprise, We Show Up has consistently garnered the Better Business Bureau’s highest A+ rating, qualified for Angie’s List’s Super Service Award in 2010 and 2011 and won Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston Home Award in the Small Repairs category north of Boston for 2010. Amazing what happens by just showing up.

*Disclaimer: I have not mastered all four of these points. I work on them consistently. I thought you should know that.

And  Now Back to You

As a business owner, what is your take on the four points  mentioned above? What about as a consumer? Do you agree? Is it unrealistic in today’s fast paced world to expect businesses to do these four things? Talk to me.

Photo credit: SierraTierra