How a Purple Elephant gives new life to computers

The purple elephant is on the taller one standing on the right

Although we try not to accumulate too much ‘stuff’, like most folks, things do tend to pile up around our house. “Waste not – want not” was something I heard many times growing up and I use that as my rationalization for not [...]

Afghanistan is now closer to home

Our cookies made the troops in Afghanistan happy.

The postman delivered a priority mail box the other day. We receive a lot of shipments, but weren’t really expecting anything in this type of box. I recognized the name as one of our customers from the military. We sent his unit some of our [...]

Customer service, megaphones and The Golden Rule

Social media is the new megaphone

Customer service, at both extremes, is like handing someone a megaphone for your business. As human beings, we love to tell stories about either the great service, or the poor service, we have received. Everything in the middle, that simply meets our expectations, seems to get lost in [...]

Why I gave my competition a gift

Sometimes it’s nice to give your competition a gift

No question about it, turning down business is hard, especially in today’s environment. The very idea might seem counter-intuitive. It’s taken a number of years, plenty of dollars, and a few clicks on my personal odometer to get to the point where I understand not [...]

Sowing seeds of hope

Anna and Debbie put together some personal kits for the people of Haiti

Try as I may, I simply cannot imagine what it must have been like. I’ve been without a home before, but I always found shelter. We lived through hurricane Fran in 1996 and were without power, but still had food, clean [...]

What did you see in 2009?

2009 was a tough year for lots of folks. And unless you are living on Wall Street, where tax payer funded bonuses will hit eight figures this year, you might be feeling a bit somber about 2010. I believe there is a better way to look back at last year.

Do your homework

Did you do your homework?

Someday, I hope that Anna will thank me. It’ll probably take her a while to understand, but the lessons and lectures on homework and discipline I seem to dole out on a regular basis will pay off for her in the future. Like any athlete that expects to reach [...]

Gourmet cookies – with a little attitude

Gourmet cookies – with a little attitude

One of the great things about our business is getting to work with some really cool companies to combine our cookies and gifts with their marketing and branding ideas. A long-time friend and customer, Mike Minogue from Dark Horse Creative always inspires me with his packaging ideas for [...]

Have you ‘unplugged’ lately?

The last time I heard the challenge to ‘unplug’ from technology, it came from one of my favorite sales trainers, John Costigan. In one of his newsletters, he challenged readers to get off all email and cell phones for 24 hours. Sounds easy, but when you run a couple of businesses based on the Internet, it can be challenging.

A look back in time

Tilling the soil from which we eat

I don’t drive a DeLorean, but we did manage to take a short trip back in time last weekend. The North Carolina Work Horse and Mule Association hosted their Annual Corn Planting Day at Indian Ridge Farm in Linden, NC and we headed out for an afternoon of [...]