Whew! And I’m sure in a couple of days/months/years, there will be something else that we’ll need to connect to or join. Sometimes it’s just too much. But most of the time it’s a whole lot of fun. It’s very, very cool to be able to connect to all of our customers all over the world with just a few clicks!
As my business has molded and shaped itself over the years, so too has our name. It is not an easy thing to name a business at the beginning without knowing exactly where you will wind up. So the progression of our name has been an interesting, not to mention confusing, journey.
Since we started out as a business that took old furniture and made it look new again, I thought that Before & After, LLC made a lot of sense. Soon, however, that was not all that we were selling…in addition to adding our word stones, we began to carve out a niche of selling beach themed accessories, taking advantage of our location in Annapolis and its waterfront location. So when we went online, it made sense to add BeachDecor.net to our letterhead…making it simple for folks to remember our web address.
Then along came the stones and tokens and the beach decor slowly made its exit. Selling word stones and pocket tokens under a name like BeachDecor.net just did not make sense…so here we are at CourageInStone.com. I feel we’ve finally nailed it…mainly because we don’t have room for a 4th name on our marketing materials.
I have probably spent way more time worrying about our name then is warranted. The great thing about having an online business is that it’s all about the search engines and the content of your website. It’s very rare that people find us directly by our website address. But when the name of my business does not match the product, I feel that the universe is a bit off kilter.
Have you ever named a website? It is not as easy as it looks. There are several main factors that you need to consider. Length, in combination with ease of typing is a big one. WordStones.com is great… WeSellAwesomeWordStonesandPocketTokens.com is not. Another huge factor is whether the website address is for sale. Just like everything else in the world, website addresses need to be purchased. Someone may already have a website at the exact address you need. Or, someone might own a website address without it even being live, sorta like owning real estate without building a house. The property might be for sale, but at a marked up price. A third factor that was necessary for me was that the name conveyed what we were about. Limiting that to a simple, easy to type, available website address was tough.
Here in the office we brainstormed for several days and threw out a ton of names. We narrowed down the field to what we thought was a fabulous address. ScatterHope.com. But when we surveyed about 10 friends independent of each other, they all shot it down immediately. Disappointed, we went back to the drawing board – although we were very glad to have taken a survey because we obviously stunk at choosing names! Sitting at dinner one night, I was lamenting to my husband how difficult this task was. “Well, what do the stones do? What’s the biggest reason people by stones and tokens?” he asked. “I think mainly they give people courage – for whatever it is they are going through, good or bad.” I said.
Hmmm….courage in stones. CourageInStone.com
So here we are. And hopefully over the years our products have given plenty of courage, hope, strength and healing. And while I know the stones and tokens aren’t any of these things intrinsically, I do think that if you believe, they can create power and energy.
We sell the word ‘Hugs’ in our glass engraved spirit stone line. The word has been offered for a while now, and when we first carried it we sold them with pink ink instead of our standard black or gold. It was the only stone we sold in pink ink – the color just seemed to fit the sentiment and the stones were very popular. Ultimately, however, we decided to switch the ‘Hugs’ back to the standard ink colors to give the whole line a more uniform feel.
Recently a customer called and asked if we had any ‘Hugs’ left with pink ink. She needed 5, but specifically only in clear glass with pink ink. We had just gotten in a new shipment of stones, but I was pretty sure we had a few pink ones left on the very bottom of the bin. I told the customer I would…
In front of my desk is a large world map that covers most of the wall. While I print out shipping labels, I find the different countries we are shipping to. Some of our packages have a long way to travel! Brenda suggested I keep track of the international locations for a month and these are some of the interesting (and faraway!) places we’ve shipped to…
At the top of the International list is Australiaand Canada. Just this month we’ve sent over 20 packages to each of these countries!
We’ve been all over Europe…TheUnited Kingdom alone 8 times this month. Here are some of the other European Countries:
Netherlands
Ireland
Norway
Spain
Portugal
Denmark
Italy
Hungary
We’ve shipped twice to Russia (Moscow and Smolensk), as well as Japan, Mongolia, Israel, India and New Zealand.
I wonder what interesting places we’ll ship to next month…stay tuned!
A customer called today and said “I don’t know how many people work there, but…” and it got me thinking.
We often talk around here about how people must perceive our company when they call or place an order. Do they think we’re Amazon with a distribution center of massive proportions? Do they think we’re one person, working out of our garage? Or do they think we’re somewhere in the middle? And most importantly, do they care?
I used to take great pains to ensure this fact was never quite revealed. For sure, we are not Amazon by a long stretch. There was, however, a short time when I did work out of my basement. But when someone calls and obviously can’t determine whether we’re one or 1000 people, I realize that it might not matter, as long as several things are in place.
First of all, we have the distinct advantage of being an online company, which means we can reach a large amount of people with very little effort. Well, by ‘very little effort’, I mean that relatively speaking of course. After years of massive amounts of blood, sweat and tears, when we go home at night, the business still runs. Without us. Hallelujah!
Secondly, when the business is physically open, I’ve chosen to surround myself with two awesome people. (This is not always easy…read my blog post At least they were being honest.) Two fabulous people do the work of 10 mediocre people. It’s simple mathematics. My hope is that I’ve created a warm, honest, fun, inspired workplace. In turn I expect motivated and passionate employees. So far it seems to be working.
Third, we sell products that mean something. I know it comes across in our voices on the phone, in our emails, in our blogs, on Facebook, and on our website. We believe in what we sell and all that goes along with that. We believe in our manufacturers, and the quality of the product, and we believe we are fair.
And last, but certainly not least, we try very hard to conduct business in a professional, honest, and organized manner. We take great care in getting the correct product to you in a careful, timely and inexpensive manner. When we make a mistake, we correct it. If you need help with an order, we give it. We try not to get snippy. We try to get it.
So when all of the above happens…it’s easy to masquerade as something bigger than we are. But in the end, I don’t think any smoke and mirrors are necessary. And we’ve filled almost 30,000 orders to prove it.
Just as customers sometimes say the darndest things (see ‘You did not just say that’), so too do employees. I’d like to think that I foster a pretty relaxed atmosphere…one that encourages creativity, hard work and loyalty. I try to be fair, reasonable and accommodating. But in the past I’ve had some pretty strange things said to me by employees…things that make me think that some have taken this ‘relaxed’ atmosphere to mean ‘anything goes’. This is, of course, compounded by the fact that we’re a small business with minimal staff…so when one employee goes missing, the whole company suffers. I’ve jotted down a few of my favorite comments from past employees. Emphasis on past.
I had an employee text me she was going to be late to a morning meeting because she ‘needed more sleep.’And no, the meeting was not at 6AM. (I never could quite decide which was more infuriating…the fact that she actually had the nerve to tell me she needed more sleep or that this was communicated to me in a text.)
A lovely lady told me once that she would be unable to continue working until 6PM because she needed to get home in time to have dinner on the table for her husband. (Bear in mind this was in 2004, not 1964.)
I received a voice mail one Saturday morning from “Stacey”, one hour before the start of her shift, letting me know that she would be unable to make it to work as she had gotten married the night before. (This from a girl who to my knowledge was not even dating anyone. I never saw her again…)
An employee once described our warehouse as a ‘tomb’. (I can only assume she was implying that coming to work was like coming to her death.)
“Leslie” once asked to leave early because she really ‘wanted to go swimming with her mother’. Huh? (I’m all for excercise…and I understand swimming is an especially healthful activity, but does it need to be done in the middle of your shift when you are a third of the work force?)
Another employee once called in late because she ‘wanted to go jogging’. (While it would appear that I have particularly healthy employees, I’m pretty sure they don’t teach exercise over work ethic in college.)
After requiring an employee to vacuum after each shift, she quit the day after she had to change the bag…and actually cited that as the reason. (Apparently vacuuming was ‘low’ enough…changing the bag was crossing the line!)
I had an employee use me as a character reference for her parole officer. (I kid you not…thank goodness this was AFTER she was no longer an employee!)
Despite the above list, I have been even more lucky to have some outstanding employees in 10 years. I have cried with and to some exceptional people, laughed until my stomach hurt, accomplished endless goals, grown the business 10 fold and looked forward to coming to work most days because of employees that I have surrounded myself with. But the above sure does make me not take for granted the folks that make my life easier!
1. To observe (a day or event) with ceremonies of respect, festivity, or rejoicing.
2. To perform (a religious ceremony).
3. To extol or praise.
4. To make widely known.
I started thinking about the word ‘Celebrate’ the other day. We throw parties to celebrate so many events in our lives; impending births and birthdays, engagements and weddings, anniversaries and retirements. We get wrapped up in the big celebrations , but what about the “praise” meaning of the word celebrate?
Here is my personal list of things that people should be celebrated for more often…
– A great report card
– Getting a fantastic new job or promotion
– Hugging your grandmother no matter how old you are
– Finally passing your driving test
– Potty training a small child (mom or dad gets the praise here)
– Cleaning the bathroom after potty training a small child
– Being a good friend
There are many more things that could be added to this list, these are just off the top of my head. I think the word celebrate should be used often, and in many forms. Make sure to never forget the small stuff!
We’ve all heard the real estate adage ‘location, location, location’. There is a similar adage in customer service; ‘perspective, perspective, perspective’.
Recently we had a customer call to order pocket angels for a child’s funeral. As is the nature of funerals, time was of the essence and we assured her we could ship the product for overnight delivery. She was relieved. We were moved.
A child’s funeral.
Later that day, we received an email from a different customer. “Unacceptable…a joke…complaint…extremely disappointed” were words that jumped out at us. Mind you, this is an extremely rare occurrence – thank goodness – so it’s a bit shocking at first. Then shock gives way to laughter when we realize the distraught customer is completely wrong. (The old adage that the ‘customer is always right’ did not apply here!) The exchange of emails that followed brought to mind a conversation one might have with a 3 year old.
3 year old: “I want the blue one.”
You: “It doesn’t come in blue.”
3 year old: “But I want the blue one.”
You get the idea.
It is difficult to handle each of these situations with aplomb on a daily basis unless you have the proper perspective. Shipping pocket angels to be used at a child’s funeral is so profoundly poignant as to be surreal. Soothing an unreasonably disgruntled customer over a simple miscommunication is difficult and in the end leaves you wondering what the point is. Which brings you back to the first customer and why we do what we do. It is this endless cycle, with the positives far outweighing the negatives, and a healthy dose of perspective, that keeps us coming back to work every day.
CourageInStone 