Lakeshore Garden Space

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

I’m sitting in the Atlanta Bread Co. here in sunny Orlando and reflecting back on a week filled with fun, beaches and of course - amusement parks we visited. My wife always warns me to turn my marketing brain either off or keep it hidden from her when on vacation as I’m always observing things anywhere I go as they relate to sales, marketing or customer service.

I must tell you as a loyal reader of my marketing and motivation ideas, rants and wisdom (yes, I’m getting carried away now) that I risked life, limb and mamma’s wrath to bring you relevant lessons direct from the marketing front.

Temptation overcame me last Thursday and I couldn’t resist noting some great marketing taking place. As my wife, three children, mother-in-law and myself all waited in line last Thursday for a ride at Epcot, I could resist temptation no longer and I turned around slowly and grabbed a pen and receipt from my back pocket and carefully scribbled out five things on the back of a receipt that I noticed at Animal Kingdom and Epcot that were forms of great marketing in action. Read the rest of this entry »

 MARK DE ROO, ADVISOR

It’s 3 a.m.  And once again, you’re awake.  Maybe, this is the third time you’ve awakened since hitting the hay.  And it’s not just tonite.  This has become a pretty annoying nightly ritual.

Maybe, it’s time to give Dr. Thomas Maas a call.

Dr. Maas from Cornell University is a so-called “sleeping expert.”  He’s written a book on the topic as well as providing tips on Good Morning America.  He’s also become an advisor to the mattress folks at the Simmons Company.   Yeah, Simmons as in the famed “Beauty Rest” mattress.

If you visit the Simmons web site, you’ll see a page on “Sleeping Tips” from Dr. Maas. Among his tips are some pretty basic suggestions as:
·    Taking a warm bath
·    Reducing caffeine
·    Not smoking

I suspect your Grandma  had these same words of wisdom.  What was noticeably absent, however, on Dr. Maas’ Top Ten list was “eliminating hassles at work.”

Say what? Read the rest of this entry »

PRANAY RAJGARHIA, ENTREPRENEUR

Let us discover the answer to the above question over many blogs. In the blogs I will outline what is needed when a manufacturer manufactures a screw as compare to software development or selection process for custom or off-the-shelf software. To avoid editing issues I will have two sections Manufacturing and Software.

On the surface the two looks to be the same. Following are high level steps for both:
Manufacturing:
1. Problem Statement: What is the screw need for?
2. Engineering to design screw: Specify material, dimensions, angles and more
3. Forecasting: Forecast the demand of the screw.
4. Costing: Calculate the cost of manufacturing the screw. Read the rest of this entry »

SHAWN PACANOWSKI, ADVISOR

According to a recent survey, more Americans believe it is harder to start planning for their retirement (30% surveyed) than it is to begin a diet (28% surveyed). For many small business owners and entrepreneurs this finding has held true. In the midst of financial strain and other associated stresses of launching a new business enterprise or keeping a current business viable, future financial independence is easily overlooked. The next best invention or business idea is the foundation for future retirement income—or so the thought goes. Seldom do most consider or believe they can save a little each year in a traditional investment account. Simply put: Saving isn’t easy. It takes discipline and knowledge.

Some statistics have stated a meager 23% of Americans age 55 or older have accumulated retirement assets of at least $250,000. That means 77% of Americans approaching retirement have failed to consider funding their retirement years beyond a Social Security check. That is a sobering thought. Read the rest of this entry »

GUEST BLOGGER, TONY RUBLESKI 

The setting: A marketing conference in Nashville two weeks ago. 1200 other entrepreneurs from around the globe and I were wrapped in a hypnotic spell watching a rock star perform with one major twist. Instead of our hands in the air clapping along to the music, we were all seated and writing down notes as fast as our pens and laptop keyboards could process marketing advice from arguably one of the top media stars walking the planet today. I’m talking about Gen Simmons from the classic rock band Kiss.

Gene’s band Kiss isn’t as popular on the current music scene as they were in the late 1970’s when the ‘Kiss Army’ was recruiting new fans faster than a politician can grab a check at a fundraiser, but they are still a huge business and his popularity is still strong. His fame and marketing prowess has allowed him to capture whole new generations of fans and lots of wallets for that matter.

Three BIG Marketing Strategies From This
Musician Turned Marketing Genius Read the rest of this entry »

RYAN WALLACE, ADVISOR

“People were meant to create.” I came across this statement in a book recently and it really stood out to me as I began to analyze what this statement truly means. Some people create relationships and friendships, politicians create confusion, artists create beauty, others create chaos, and we entrepreneurs create ideas that become businesses. Creating something is no easy task regardless of what it is you are attempting to create. Friendships take time and effort and politicians have a long road until they can truly figure out what they stand for. The question we need to ask is why do we need creation from people and where does it come from?

The mere idea of creating something excites me. I remember when I received my driver’s license, not just my permit allowing me to drive with mom and dad; but my singular license. As I hopped into my red Dodge Stealth and took off, I knew the world would never be the same. I wasn’t just excited to be “on my own,” but there was a sense of something new being born inside of me. I had the freedom to do much more than I ever had before, and with this new found freedom, I did exactly that. Between trips with friends, going to the mall, dating girls, and giving money to the state and insurance companies for fines, I was creating. Read the rest of this entry »

Web link contributed by Aaron Schaap

I’ve got a bunch of tips on how to do this for business. Among them:

Buy Macintosh computers, save money on an IT department uy second monitors for everyone, they will save at least 30 minutes a day, which is 100 hours a year… which is at least $2,000 a year…. which is $6,000 over three years. A second monitor cost $300-500 depending on which one you get. That means you’re getting 10-20x return on your investment… and you’ve got a happy team member.

Buy everyone lunch four days a week and establish a no-meetings policy. Going out for food or ording in takes at least 20-60 minutes more than walking up to the buffet and eating. If you do meetings over lunch you also save that time. So, 30 minutes a day across say four days a week is two hours a week… which is 100 hours a year. You get the idea.

Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs. Tables are a complete rip off. We buy stainless steel restaurant tables that are $100 and $600 Areon chairs. Total cost per workstation? $700. Compare that to buying a $500-$1,500 cube/designer workstation. The chair is the only thing that matters… invest in it.

Don’t buy a phone system. No one will use it. No one at Mahalo has a desk phone except the admin folks. Everyone else is on IRC, chat, and their cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone, folks would rather get calls on it, and 99% of communication is NOT on the phone. Savings? At least $500 a year per person… 50 people over three years? $75-100k Read the rest of this entry »

GUEST BLOGGER, TONY RUBLESKI

It’s amazing when you give your mind a project or powerful question the response you sometimes get back! I can speak of this firsthand after a recent display of it in action. It seems lately that the popular press reporting on how bad the economy is or other headlines predicting recession and tales of economic woe are ratcheting up in intensity and showing up frequently in conversations with other people I meet in the business realm. I’ll explain the rest of what recently happened to me that once again proved the awesome power of channeling our thoughts and letting our mind bring us ideas and solutions, but first a little history update.

People who know me well, can attest to the fact that I’m not a big fan of negative news. Yes, it’s part of life but it shouldn’t dominate and control most of our thoughts either as far too many people give it the power to do. In the age of instant, 24×7 news and media saturation it’s easy for people to become addicted to a steady diet of doom and gloom and then alter or scale back their goals and dreams. Fellow faculty member John DiLemme is even tougher than me on this point as he feels that TV is close to being the equivalent of letting an armed felon into your house in terms of danger to our thoughts, goals and health.

While not as popular as it was almost a year ago the hit book and movie The Secret has in my opinion opened up many new people to explore the power of personal development and overall why we must be careful what we focus our time and attention to. While many have debated the merits of The Secret I do consider it a positive breakthrough and worthy of study as we did in many issues of my paid offline newsletter A Captured Mind last year via up close and revealing interviews with many of its key players such as Jack Canfield and John Assaraf. Read the rest of this entry »

TERRY MADDEN, ADVISOR

Every summer, a group of close friends and I head out to some corner of the USA on our motorcycles and enjoy a week of cowboy style freedom. At least that is what we call it from the comfort of our hotel rooms. Two summers ago we rode through the southern portion of South Dakota. For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity, it is truly beautiful and truly desolate. We spent stretches of up to an hour riding without seeing another person or vehicle.

The obvious question that jumps out is what does this have to do with Michigan and also, since I write about sales, what does this have to do with career development? Let me get straight to the point. My ride through South Dakota is what I expect to find when I drive through Michigan. Every day the news is gloomier and gloomier about our fair state. From the reports, I expect to drive down the road and see no one. Amazingly, I shop at the local market and see people spending their money. I walk downtown in Holland and see clothing shops and restaurant’s filled with customers.

I am by no means minimizing the hardships a lot of people have felt. Times have been difficult for many and there is a sizeable number of people who have taken a step back career wise and financially in the last five years, myself included. This does not equate to a bankrupt state however. While better than 7% of our citizens are unemployed, this also means that better than 92% are employed. As I talk with people in industry on a daily basis, most companies are always in the market for talented individuals. The difference is job seekers need to create opportunities instead of searching in the old and antiquated method. Read the rest of this entry »

JOE LAMPEN, ADVISOR

After doing some thinking about where West Michigan is as a community, and where we may be headed, I came to the following realization: A strong West Michigan presence in the Global Economy will have less to do about what the global marketplace is supplying us, and more to do with what we’re supplying the global marketplace.

This may not sound that different from any other ‘global economy’ comment, but it seems to me that this really challenges the perception of how most people think the global economy effects them. The part of the global economy that gets reported in the news, talked about around the water cooler, and despised on ‘black Friday’s’ is the part that “takes our jobs” away from hard working Americans and outsources them to lower wage countries. But we shouldn’t be focusing on job retention. Instead, we should be focusing on job creation through new revenue opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »