Our Monmouth Blog

I’m a sloppy barbecue chef. Nothing draws the flavor of hops out of an import than a sirloin that’s been marinating for twelve hours. Once on the grill I continue to apply a liberal smothering of steak sauce.

Or as Winnie the Pooh would interject – smackeral, Piglet.

All that tangy, salty liquid flashes and splashes into the guts of the grill. Neil Young was right: Rust never sleeps. Now I have replaced the burners and jets of a few barbecues in my attempt to reduce suburban waste. If diapers do not decompose in landfills, will my great grandchildren be scaling the summit of a colossal mountain of Weber and Coleman cast-iron cookware?

The old barbecue just ain’t what she used to be. So yesterday I shot her. The Missus issued a simple command: Go buy a new barbecue.

I like to frequent Mom-and-Pop hardware stores. Hire the little guy. Invest in the local economy instead of shipping my cash southward on the Turnpike to some corporate headquarters in Delaware.

For years I’ve patronized Becker Family’s Hardware on Route 34 in Colts Neck. As a Realtor® getting keys cut is a weekly occurrence. My man Jerry cuts a mean stencil of Schlage aluminum. Pat is always courteous and quick to assist.

But at six o’clock in the evening I found myself meandering towards … one of those Conglomerate Big Box home improvement airplane hangars.

Disclaimer: Should I identify this public traded company? I mean, whose going to file a legal action against a consumer blogging a complaint? How about Freedom of Speech (while the Congress approves massive wire-tapping and privacy invasion)? Pass.]

Beckers closes at five. I’m not a conglomerate “homer.” Probably because the corporate borg undermines American manufacturing and disenfranchises competition. No. I believe the Big Box retail concept reduces me and my money to Small Shopper Status.

I walked into the store and approached a young male employee loitering amongst the young female cashiers, strutting his denim overall’d self. The Lion King meets Clerks.

“Excuse me,” I interrupted.

Immediately the young man turned around, entered my personal space and boomed, “WE DON’T HAVE ANY!” directly into my face. He closed with a smirk and half-sinister chuckle.

“Is this boy impaired?” I asked myself. I was twenty years old once. I remember trying to impress young women. I was so startled that I didn’t hear his condescending apology.

“Dude, you know I’m just fooling with you.”

He cleared his throat and tried desperately to recall his corporate Customer Service training.

“How can – er, may – I help you?” Props for conjugating the verb correctly.

I grumbled and walked away. Even my knees creaked. Truth be told, I sloughed away like a grumpy old man. I just wasn’t in the mood to serve as fodder for adolescent lust. Probably because I’m no longer an adolescent and at my age lust is scheduled between oil changes and Graduation Parties. The lad was rude or crazy. Is this the mental state of service?

Rust never sleeps in an old barbecue and apparently lust never sleeps in department stores. The Customer Service desk politely asked me to return outside to the grill section and assistance would arrive shortly.

Assistance appeared as – you guessed it — my favorite playa.

“I’m sorry about before. I can get someone else to help you,” Don Juan DeWalt sheepishly and rationally offered.

“You’ll do,” I countered, not realizing until later that I subconsciously tossed out the last line from Babe the Pig. I felt both youthful and magnanimous again. The young horny squire apologized. Let’s move on. Let’s start the healing.

Besides, I was hungry.

I found a suitable grill. The young man helped load the box onto my truck. The Vice President of Human Resources would be heartened to hear he recovered adequately during the consumer’s (that’s me) shopping experience.

Yet that outburst and my subsequent embarrassment would never have happened at Becker’s Hardware. Yes, conglomerates offer wider selections and competitive pricing. There’s something to be said for the small business owner treating his patrons larger than life, however.

Next time I’ll cook my steak in the oven and wait for Mom-and-Pop to open in the morning. Or take the little woman out to eat and maybe later go parking up on the Scenic Overlook. Hubba hubba.

Andrew J Lenza is the Broker and Owner of Andrew J. Lenza Realty in Colts Neck. When Andrew isn’t writing or enjoying Monmouth County life he is serving his clients needs in the residential and commercial sectors of the market. You can visit Andrew at www.andrewlenza.com

© Copyright, 2008. Andrew J. Lenza, All Rights Reserved.

There are so many tools today to enhance your business presence. There is print advertising in magazines and trade journals. There are the multitudes of areas regarding your internet presence, which of course, can skyrocket your customer base if you know what you’re doing, or it can drain your wallet while catapulting your competition beyond your reach.
Whatever service-related business you are in, if you are dealing directly with the public, I’ll tell you, hands down, the biggest mistake that business owners make is client follow-up. I see it constantly in almost all types of businesses. Client follow-up is the most underrated, and by far, the worst executed part of the whole business process that prevents a company from reaching its full potential. After all, is business so good for you that you can afford to casually wait to respond to a request?
Case and point. You advertise on the internet, and you receive leads from some industry-specific lead program. Let’s say you get 5 leads per week from that source. Chances are, in our very hectic NJ environment, the client is just as busy as you are. In their quest to find the best service professional, he or she will try to choose the best whatever (contractor, paperhanger, website builder, and wedding singer) in the shortest time-frame. The service professional who returns the client’s call first, many times, good or bad, may be the beneficiary to that new client. That’s follow-up.
Another case and point. If you answer a request or respond to a lead, many business owners think that the potential client will (or should) return his or her call immediately if truly interested. Not so! The fact is that your potential client is so darn busy with his daily critical tasks; yours may be #12 on his list of things to do. Follow-up again!
A successful service professional must follow-up at least a few times without fail. And that sometimes means more than a few times, and that 4th or 5th call-back, email, or hand-written note sometimes closes the sale. On the other hand, you also need to keep in mind that if this repeated follow-up is not done in a professional manner, it could just turn the client off and cause him to pass you up for another professional. What can I say; life (and business) is more of an art than it is a science.
I will tell you this; if you don’t follow-up early and often, someone else will, and you’ll be short-circuiting your chances for obtaining new clients and limiting your business growth potential. You live and learn the specific techniques that work for you when following-up with potential customers. Be persistent without appearing too aggressive (or obnoxious!) and keep doing and refining those follow-up techniques until they become a science (i.e., YOUR OWN personal process).
So don’t get discouraged or taken-back by a potential client’s lack of response regarding your initial follow-up to their request. Learn to expect this in our hustle and bustle NJ environment and, no matter what, follow-up religiously the same way you would want someone else to follow-up for you to earn your business. What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll get better at the process and grow your business.

New Jersey pianist Arnie Abrams has been a professional musician and performer for over 20 years. He has provided live music for countless clients for their weddings, parties and corporate affairs throughout New Jersey, metro New York and Philadelphia.

Maryann Spoto of The Star-Ledger reported yesterday “Seven arrested in Monmouth County drug bust“.

Federal and state authorities said today they arrested seven people and dismantled an elaborate Monmouth County-based drug trafficking and money-laundering operation that each month allegedly netted $1 million and distributed more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine.

I have driven by that house countless times. I always admired it and often wondered “what job/business/inheritance the family had”. Well now I know……

Perhaps I should not be surprised but it is kind of shocking and way too close to home.

John Cichowski of The Record recently reported “Welcome to the stupid driver state”

With the warm-weather driving season under way, GMAC Insurance has confirmed our worst suspicions: New Jersey’s 6.2 million licensed drivers are the nation’s dumbest. The big auto insurer came to this conclusion after giving an online test to 5,524 drivers from the 50 states and Washington, D.C. (gmacinsurance.com/SafeDriving). Most questions came from state driving exams.

We didn’t simply flunk this test. We came in 51st — dead last — even worse than the drivers we love to ridicule in Washington, D.C. (50th), New York (49th) and Massachusetts (48th). This failure rate is more than embarrassing. It’s historic. In the four years that GMAC has been giving these tests, no state has scored lower than 69.9 percent correct answers — our score this year.

The stupid driver state? I know that you tested a little over 5,500 people to draw this conclusion and in all fairness our Governor doesn’t wear a seat belt and almost died in an accident. Fellow New Jerseans unite and together we can overcome this label. When we rank 50 next year we can flip GMAC the bird.

I don’t know what is more embarrassing the fact that we were the worst in the nation scoring the all time lowest score or that someone actually authorized expenditure for this type of ridiculous survey. Sounds like a ploy to raise my insurance rates, what do you take me for, a fool?

A virtual assistant (VA) provides administrative assistance to her/his clients. In essence a virtual assistant provides the same support that an administrative or executive assistant does. However, the service is provided at the virtual assistant’s office using the technology of the internet, email, and other collaborative tools instead of a standard business office environment.

A virtual assistant is a business owner and is not an employee. She/he is an independent contractor that partners with clients. Clients sign an agreement with the virtual assistant and, more importantly, the client is not responsible for any employee-related benefits because this is a partner-to-partner not an employer-to-employee relationship.

A business owner that is overwhelmed by the day-to-day administrative tasks at some point will realize that they can not do it all. At this time, the business owner makes the decision to free herself/himself of these tasks so they can redirect their time and energy to marketing and selling their product and/or service.

When this decision is made, they can look to a virtual assistant to take on a variety of responsibilities. The business owner will benefit from this arrangement because the virtual assistant will take on these responsibilities without the added cost of employee-related benefits. The business owner will pay for the time-on task.

Virtual assistant services are board and the services range from: Correspondence, Data Entry, Word Processing, Report Generation, Email Management, Web Research, Web Design, System Administration, Document Scanning, Transcription Services, Proof Reading, Desktop Publishing, and Project Management.

Bailey Business Services, Inc. is owned and operated by Helen Bailey. Helen provides virtual assistance to her clients as their administrative partner.

Tom Johnson of The Star-Ledger reported today “Cost of heating a home could skyrocket“. Call me crazy but hasn’t it already gone through the roof? According to the report:

The cost of heating a home in New Jersey with natural gas could rise by 20 percent if state regulators approve a pending rate increase. Public Service Electric & Gas filed for the increase, which would boost the monthly bill for the average customer by $28.60, to $174.06. The company, based in Newark, is the state’s biggest utility and has 1.7 million gas customers.

This degree of inflation is not sustainable:

1. The exponential rising costs of purchasing a home
2. Significant rising cost of fuels
3. Double digit percentages cost increases of food
4. Uncertain/shrinking job market

While I am no economist the trend is clear and we have some serious issues to deal with as a nation.

Stever Robbins’s of Business Explained by Stever wrote an excellent related post about spotting trends.

What steps are you taking to protect your financial future and the health of your business?

Every small business should have a blog as part of its marketing plan. A business blog can have a significant impact to your web traffic and help you make connections locally that you may have otherwise missed. Blogging has other benefits such as improved search engine results and can bolster readers perception of you and your business as a leader and expert.

A potential business blogger must also keep in mind the commitment blogging takes. Are you comfortable writing for public consumption? Are you prepared to receive comments on your thoughts? Are you willing to be challenged on controversial ideas? A decision to start blogging should not be made on a whim and involves planning.

Here are some of my favorite resources to get you started:

Andy Beard - Blog Search Engine Performance, Wordpress, Niche Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Tips and Social Media
copyblogger - copywriting tips for online marketing
success
Daily Blog Tips - tips to create or improve your blog
ProBlogger - the name says it all.

Know another great blogging resource? Let me know!

Happy blogging.

Saul Hansell got my attention yesterday with his NY Times Technology story titled “Google Fights for the Right to Hide Its Privacy Policy“.

The article starts off with a telling comparison:

What’s one way that Google is different from AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft? It’s the only one of the big Internet companies that doesn’t put a link to its privacy policy on its home page.

There also was some speculation in the article that this may be a preemptive move in advance of some advertising strategy changes to make it more competitive:

So why would Google apply to be a member? Some Internet executives wonder whether it is getting ready to start some sort of targeting system that might help its graphic ad network compete better with AOL’s more successful Advertising.com and others that do make use of information about users.

What I found most concerning is a quote by Steve Langdon, a Google spokesman:

We believe it is important for consumers to be able to easily find privacy policies and other privacy information. By simply typing ‘Google privacy policy’ into the Google search engine, consumers can easily find not only our privacy policy, but additional information about privacy.

Google why do you think this is ok? In my opinion this is just another example of blurring the rules so you can change them when it suits you too.

Google did you know that the Better Business Bureau requires all of members to Post and Adhere to a Privacy Policy?

Online advertisers should post and adhere to a privacy policy that is open, transparent, and meets generally accepted fair information principles including providing notice as to what personal information the online advertiser collects, uses, and discloses; what choices customers have with regard to the business’ collection, use and, disclosure of that information; what access customers have to the information; what security measures are taken to protect the information, and what enforcement and redress mechanisms are in place to remedy any violations of the policy. The privacy policy should be easy to find and understand and be available prior to or at the time the customer provides any personally identifiable information.

I believe that Google should be held to a higher standard, not a lesser one. What do you think?

The The Star-Ledger put together a nice list of local events. I have pulled out some highlights but the full list can be found here.

Holmdel
This year’s Memorial Day ceremony will include the announcement of two names added to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, presentation of two scholarships to New Jersey high school seniors and the induction of one Vietnam Veteran into the memorial’s “In Memory” program, 11 a.m. Monday, New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation, 1 Memorial Lane. Call (732) 335-0033.

Keyport
The Keyport Centennial Memorial Day parade will begin on Beers Street then end at Fireman’s Park. There will be a competition of floats with trophies awarded to the winners. Local businesses will offer “Centennial Specials” for the day. Festivities begin at 2 p.m. Saturday. Fireman’s Park is at the corners of West Front Street and American Legion Drive. Call (732) 739-5138.

Long Branch
The city’s Memorial Day services will begin at 9 a.m. Monday with a gathering at Fireman’s Field. Then at 9:45 a.m. there will be a wreath laying ceremony at West End Beach. At 10:15 a.m. everyone will gather at Jerry Morgan Park on Liberty Street between Broadway and Joline Avenue. Then at 11 a.m. at City Hall there will be the annual Memorial Day services and announcement of essay contest winners. Ending with an open house at VFW Post 2140 on Willow Avenue. Call (732) 571-6542.

Ocean Grove
In the spirit of the Memorial Day holiday, Ocean Grove will kick off its summer entertainment season with a free concert by The Atlantic Wind Ensemble titled “America, One Nation Under God,” 8 p.m. Saturday, Great Auditorium, 54 Pilgrim Pathway. Call (800) 965-9324.

If you know any others please let us know.
Have a great holiday weekend!