Archive for the ‘business’ Category

As you know I love the book Man of the House In it Tip O’Neill tells the story of Mrs. O’Brien during his 1935 race for the Cambridge City Council. The only race he ever lost. When she says to him that she will vote for him even though he didn’t ask.

When O’Neill protested that he had known her since he was a child, had shoveled her walk and cut her grass, and didn’t think he had to ask for her vote, she replied, “Tom, let me tell you something. People like to be asked.”

Yesterday after my dentist appointment I was going door to door to business in Leominster promoting the show and trying to sell ads. I was having no luck selling when I noticed a small insignificant looking African variety store with a Ghanian flag on the door.

Logic said pass it by after all at best I could hope to sell a $20 ad for a single week, so why bother when Wyman’s Liquor Mart Inc was across the street and Leominster Credit Union was there. But you know I was there and it never hurts to ask. Turned out the man there owns an international shipping company that ships to the gold coast of Africa: Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and when I told him the range of my 50,000 watt radio signal he asked me to come back on Tuesday with Ad samples.

If I had ignored that little story I would have lost my best lead of the day.

Which brings us to the blog htotherdizzle and Hallie Miller.

Last night I found a comment pending for my Good News runneth over post it said the following:

Hi! My name is Hallie and I have entered a Savvy Magazine photo shoot contest. I know you don’t know me but the winners are chosen by the public and if the public doesn’t know they need to vote…well, you guessed it, no one votes! Could you take a moment and look at my photos and decide if you would vote for me or not? Thanks! Here’s the link, could you pass it along?

It had all the classic signs of spam, an icon of a beautiful woman, a link different from the e-mail but I also noticed it was a wordpress blog, and my spam filter didn’t grab it. Intrigued I searched for the name, and did a search for the link and sure enough it goes to a modeling site that is having a contest.

I thought of Tip O’Neill’s story and I thought of all the doors I have knocked on in the last few days and realized she is doing the exact same thing I am. She is chasing her dream unafraid to ask a total stranger to help.

So Hallie Miller this is my gift to you, I am not only approving your comment, and voting for you but I am linking to your post on the contest and putting up this blog post to let everybody know about it.

I hope my readers go to the Explore modeling Site to vote for you.

Happy Thanksgiving Hallie!

Update: I didn’t include a picture of Hallie Miller because I didn’t have her permission, but I did tell the story to Stacy McCain who is a lot less shy.

Oh BTW you can vote once per day. Works for me.

After long day of promoting the show door to door it’s nice to come home to good news like this:

Finally, after weeks of canvassing, absentee ballot counting, and legal challenges, Rep. Dan Maffei (D) has conceded to Ann Marie Buerkle (R) in the NY25 race.

A press conference is scheduled for 4PM today.

Ann Marie is a treasure and I didn’t realize her pro-life credentials were so strong

Remember that (a) Buerkle was endorsed by Sarah Palin, and (b) Buerkle is pro-life and was a former spokeswoman for Operation Rescue.

I wonder what Morning Joe will say about this race where Palin endorsed and nobody outside of Me Stacy and the Lonely Conservative thought was a winner?

Ann Marie is a fine woman and will be an even finer representative, I just wish more of the stories were “Ann Marie Wins” rather than Maffei concedes.

There is also good news of a non political nature as not only is BBC America going to be showing the Dr. Who Proms this year but the Christmas Special actually be shown, on Christmas.

BBC America have confirmed they will be showing the 2010 Doctor Who Prom on Christmas Day, the same day they show the 2010 Christmas Special A Christmas Carol.

And if that’s not enough the new preview of the Christmas special is out:

Is that awesome or what?

Oh and today some blogger out of Tennessee you might have heard of has confirmed as a guest for January 15th show.

Now if the potential customer whose ads I’m now writing like them then my cup will runneth over even more.

Chris has been in business for 27 years so he knows how to stay in business during good times and bad:

His advice keep up or increase quality, decrease quality and give some low-end options for people who can’t afford a $20 steak but can afford a $9-$12 meal.

It sounds like some business didn’t take that advice:

The manager of Don Otto’s – a recently shuttered food market in the South End – is blaming neighborhood patrons for its untimely demise, cooking up an angry message to fair-weather fans of the Tremont Street eatery.

Blaming the customer? It gets better, or worse depending on how you look at it.

“People don’t understand their purchases make a difference, and that by buying something that wasn’t exactly what you want, it gets you closer to what you want. It’s an investment.”

It’s not our job to provide you with what you want. It’s the customer’s job to buy what you don’t want to keep me in business.

And unlike Tom Kahale advice Don Otto’s believes price should be no object.

Among their customers were U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has stopped by for their locally made lasagna. But in this economy, $28-per-pound steak and $8 cartons of eggs was not a recipe for success.

The arrogance is simply astounding. That’s why Don Otto’s is out of Business and Williams is about to start its 28th year without the advantages of a major metropolitan area or customers like Tom Menino or Barney Frank.

Alena Eisenhower runs the Dessert Bar Sweet at 305 Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, she talks about running and opening a business in a bad economy:

If the president had more people like this on his staff maybe we’d be doing better.