I was writing a blog about mosquitos and it is almost finished, but Bee’s are taking priority today.

We were at a family reunion over Labor Day weekend and a bee snuck in my wife’s can of Arnold Palmer Ice Tea and stung her in the mouth. In just a few minutes her lip and jaw were blowing up. In less than a half hour Sandy looked like a Botox experiment gone wrong. 

It was a little scary and I rushed her to the hospital. Luckily we were within minutes of the hospital where she works and before I could park the car she was being attending to by her ER work family.

Here is what I learned: We need bees to pollinate plants and flowers. Just a few years ago their was a fear that the sudden death of bees could severely affect our eco system. 

Bees are also dangerous if you get stung, especially if you are allergic. My neighbor had a friend who died driving the church van when he was stung and he left his epi-pen in his golf bag. Unfortunately, he died almost immediately.

Bees are also like business associates. We need them and sometimes we keep them at a distance because we know that if agitated they will sting you. It will hurt and may kill you in a business sense. 

Bees have similar characteristic to sharks in my viewpoint. You never know when they will attack and our not very predictable. When I was younger I ran with some sharks but now that I am older and perhaps wiser, I prefer predictability and honey.

P.S Sorry Sandy forbid to post a picture

A few years ago, I bought some really nice diamond earrings for my wife while we are on a cruise. I had heard of the jewelry store before and they had a decent reputation so I was not uncomfortable buying the earrings out of the US. Besides they were duty free, right!

I admit that I haggled pretty hard and in my opinion made a phenomenal purchase.  This was confirmed during an embarrassing moment at our local jeweler who noticed Sandy’s new ear sparkles. He is a super honest man and confirmed we made a great buy that he could not match.

But the story isn’t about the purchase of the earrings. It isn’t that I am bragging about my negotiation skills. It is about what happened afterwards!

Inadvertently I must of filled out a form that listed our birthdays and anniversary. And yesterday was Sandy’s birthday and the store owner called to wish her a happy birthday. Just like he does formey on my birthday and our anniversary.

This is a high-volume jewelry store on the island of St. Kit so the call was probably a little pricier than your USA unlimited plan. The call was a sincere, happy birthday. Not trying to sell us anything or even an innuendo of a solicitation. But it was thoughtful! And we would definitely consider another purchase from them. I am even going to write a “trip advisor” post because I am so impressed with the customer service follow-up.

In the world of sales this was a luxury purchase not a necessity.  We differentiate this by the term Gold Medals verse German Sheppard’s. I have to ask when is the last time you called a customer just to say happy birthday or happy anniversary. Do you even know when their special day is?

If not, find out and start building more sincere relationships. It will pay off with long term loyalty.

It amazes me how many companies have no idea what their projects cost. The other day I was interviewing a seasoned concrete expert who has been in the industry for over twenty five years and he told a story about how the company he is working with now, is the first one to ever perform detailed job costing.

Up until working with his current company customer pricing was done by what the market would bear, square foot pricing and guessing. No wonder so many of the companies he has worked for are no longer in business.

Job Costing is actually an easy task that will provide a break-even number that guides you to where the selling price should be. It can be achieved in many ways, preferably with some automated software. An Excel spread sheet is a great place to start!

It easy fairly easy to achieve a “true cost” and determine a project break-even which is the starting point I recommend. Once you master that you can decide how exacting you want to be.

If you would like to have a discussion about your costing practices, no matter what stage you are in please feel free to give us a call.

Guy

Last week I was going to St Louis and when I arrived at the gate at Midway Airport I stoped at the counter to check how full the fight was. Usually Southwest has very full fights but this was my lucky day. The agent told me their were approximately 35 open seats and when I told her I was already A16 we agreed I need not upgrade. I was checking some emails on my laptop when I was summoned back to the counter by the gate agent.

STRANGE!

She handed me an envelope. I asked what it was inside and she said she wan’t sure, so I decided to open it on the spot.

Inside was a Thank You note from the three terminal mangers for Southwest. Their was also a SW luggage tag and a business card holder that adhesively attaches to your cell phone. Two mundane give-aways but they were SW branded. The Thank You was hand written and very thoughtful. Two morals to the story; first always remember the power of a hand written thank you note! Secondly, while other airlines were making news for disturbing passenger interactions, my airline was personalizing notes and giving away trinkets to their best customers. I’ll bet the total cost was under $2.00, but it was the personalized thought in an industry that has all but forgotten great customer service. Thank you Southwest for anther great experience.

The new Mazda Miata RF is a statement by Mazda about reinventing as classic brand with a totally new design. This is our first Mazda and we were lucky enought to lock in a “Launch Edition”.

Their is more to the story than a completely resesigned model that has a 25 year history and sold over one million Miata’s. It is a sales story about customer satisfaction and reoccuring purchasing!

The branding is unlike anything I have experienced in the many new vechicles we have purchased in my lifetime. We have purchased at least six new vehicles since 2011. Not one company communicated with us after the purchase except for a “product recall notice”.

Since we have purchased  the Miata RF we received and awesome Tourneau watch which was part if the launch addition.

Just the other day a smartly boxed package about the size of a paperback book arrived with a message from the CEO welcoming us to the Mazda family. It included other information about the history of Mazda along with other information on how to download their phone app and some information about other accessories and warranties. None of it was presented as trying to sell something.

So far we love driving the little car even though it only has a thousand miles on it, we are preparing to drive it from Orlando to Chicago on its first long road trip. Some owners may polish and garage their RF, not me, I’m going to do my best to wear it out. If all goes well I’ll buy another one in a few years and a hundred thousand miles from now.

Watch your thoughts for they become words.

Watch your words for they become actions.

Watch your actions for they become habits.

Watch your habits for they become your character.

And watch your character for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become.

My father always said that… and I think I am fine.

–Margaret Thatcher