Trusted Provider

Posted by Gaylord Campbell

I am always surprised by how many people who own their own business don’t put any thought in to their service providers. Many of the fellow business owners who I know simply sign up for the first company they find that can offer a service they need, and then end up being disappointed in the level of service they receive. It seems like kind of a no-brainer to me—you put some research in on the front end and you get a partner who providers stellar service and is dependable. One particular partner I’ve been impressed with is my phone and internet provider. After doing a lot of research on T1 Long Island, I chose a company I felt confident would provide me both speed and reliability for my internet and phone, and I am so happy with my decision. I obviously have a lot of responsibilities, and I don’t need to worry about things like whether or not my phones are going to be clear, or whether my internet service will work when I need it to. Save yourself some frustration and do your research in the beginning!

Internet is a must have for a small biz

Thanks to Lemuel Craft

When I think about how new the internet is it kind of freaks me out just a little bit. I can remember back when I was a kid my family had an IBM PS1 computer at the desk in our kitchen. Windows wasn’t even a huge thing back then and if you wanted to run a program there was always a c:/ involved. We had something on the computer called Prodigy, which was a very early version of the internet. Then of course came America Online, which revolutionized how Americans used the internet. Now days everyone has internet with the at all times on their smart phones. When you think back to the days before having access to the internet it is hard to imagine how we did anything. How did we get directions to somewhere we had never been? How did we keep track of credit transactions at our businesses? How did we look up the greatest restaurant in the area? Now no business can survive without the internet. If you are a small business owner in the market for T1 connection check out t1.xo.com.

Booking Flight

Contributed by Milford Woods

My in-laws are coming to visit us in March. For some reason, they are extremely bad about booking their flights. They just don’t understand exactly how to search different websites and find an inexpensive flight. They usually just call their favorite airline over the phone and try to book a trip. It usually ends up costing them way too much money. I told them this time, that I was going to help them book a flight. My mother in law insisted that they had it, they found flights for seven hundred dollars a piece. I logged onto kayak.com using my clear wireless internet Covington connection and searched for flights. I ended up finding them first class tickets that were non-stop for five hundred dollars a piece. That saved them four hundred dollars and they are getting to fly first class! I am going to have to teach them how to do this when they get out here in March. They shouldn’t be wasting that much money! There are a lot of things you could be doing with four hundred dollars!

Fantasy Football

Article written by guest blogger, Victor Flowers

My husband loves fantasy football. We have clear internet through http://clearwirelessinternetservice.com, and every Sunday he spends the whole day online, checking his fantasy football scores. While I give him a hard time about how much time he spends on fantasy football, I actually think it is pretty cool how close he and his high school buddies have stayed over the years. He still keeps in touch with the same group of seven guys that he went to high school with. Even in their mid-thirties, the guys get together every year for holiday parties and the fantasy football draft. Even though they are spread out all over the country, they will meet in a central location to have a guys’ weekend every year or two. It is really amazing the friendships that they have created over the years. Several of his close friends are in the military, but they guys will work around everyone’s schedule to make sure everyone can be there when they get together. I can honestly say that they are some of the closest friends I have ever seen. The wives have even become close over the years. It is a true blessing to have the lasting friendships that my husband has developed, even if it is aided by fantasy football.

Taking my daughter to Fashion's Night Out events

Guest post written by Theresa Fall

I don't really come up with that many excuses to drive into the city besides taking the kids to Broadway plays and it's not like we do that very often. It's too expensive to do it as often as we would like. But I thought that it would be really neat for my 13-year-old daughter if we went into the city to go to some Fashion's Night Out events. Besides, I kind of wanted to go too and see some of these famous designers and celebrities so we just made it into a really fun mother-daughter bonding experience.

We did a lot of research online to see exactly all of the events that we could go to within reason. I didn't want to promise her we'd see certain people if we wouldn't' be able to fit those events into our busy schedule. While I was looking online to get that info, I ran across some stuff on tv and internet packages . I showed it to my husband and after that we decided to change over our service to one of the ones we saw on there.

Our number one goal of Fashion Night Out was to go and see Harry Potter and that we did.

Dad's Advice

Written by Shannon Tillman

When I was a little girl my dad told me that if you did something you loved you would never work a day in your life. That really stuck with me for some reason and I’ve been trying to live that out ever since to the best of my ability. Dad’s gone now but I think he would be proud of my small business and the fact that I absolutely love getting up and going to work every day. It’s nice to be my own boss and make my own decisions about things like bank card processing and how to market and what to do with our profits although it’s nerve-racking paying other people and trying to keep this place afloat when times are tough. The economy’s been hard but I know if I can get us through this that we’ll be fine for posterity so I’m just going to keep on keeping on in hopes this little business of mine will keep growing. I’m sure dad’s helping from wherever he is, of course!

Movie Marketing Jumps the Shark

Open Screen Day at The Chronicles of Nani. My honey requested a photo on my digital camera when I was grocery shopping and a little space for a guest blog spot. I'm only too happy to say, "yes!"

Guest blog written by Nani's wonderful, sexy, loving husband:

Did you have a big party at your house this week because the movie Avatar was released on home video? No? Neither did we. But apparently lots of people were expected to do so, at least by the people at Kroger supermarkets. Not only was the movie itself available for sale at the grocery store, so also were specially decorated cakes and cupcakes, slathered with blue icing and festooned with movie imagery.

Now, I'll admit right up front I'm not a big movie buff. I don't go to the theater very often, and the three DVDs I requested for Christmas were all of films from the 1970s and 1980s. I haven't seen Avatar, and I understand it was a big moneymaker, if for no other reason than way-out-there special effects. And I suppose if you have kids who like to watch the same shows over and over again -- I did see the original Star Wars about five times when I was 11 -- you might be able to justify buying more movies on video than I do, too. But a party at home to watch a movie you just brought home from the supermarket? Really?

This is not completely new territory at Kroger. Every year they have specially decorated foods on display for the Ohio State-Michigan game, and for the Super Bowl. They even had special-color M&Ms for OSU-Michigan a few years ago, but around here that game is BIGGER than the Super Bowl, even when one of the two teams stinks. Guess that's because the Lions and the Browns have never been to the Super Bowl. But I get why they do the special spreads for events like the football games: people really do get together to watch them. So my question returns: Did you have a big party at your house this week because the movie Avatar was released on home video? Do you know anyone who did? Or did most of those blue cupcakes end up at your local homeless shelter by Friday?