Do you purchase solely on price?

Do you purchase based on the sales person or company?

Do you shop around and find the cheapest product?

How much do you research a product before you purchase it?

Do you only buy from those that you are comfortable with?

Last week I received an email from a potential customer.  At the end of the email, she asked me if I would be willing to put together a quote for her.  Of course I responded.  I called her back instead of in an email so my questions were not as confusing.  At the end of our conversation, of course I told her that I would be more than happy to give her a quote.  I ended up stopping by her office later in the day to drop off a catalog.  I sat in her office and had a great conversation with her and one of her coworkers.  It was very nice!

During the conversation I found out that she knew a lot about me and we had just met.  How did she know so much about me?  I asked and found out that she had really researched me.  She checked out my website and read several of the posts on my blog.  She knew more about me than some of my existing customers!  It was great!  This was proof that what I am doing and spending my time on . . . IS WORKING!  Now we have not completed an order for her yet but it is moving in the right direction!

Then today I had a conversation with a great friend, Amy Stark.  During this conversation, I found out that she feels as if most people do business with those that they like and are comfortable with.  For me, this is very true!  I will do business first with my friends, those that I have met networking or from a referral!

Does everyone else feel this way?  Unfortunately I am not so sure that they do.

What do you think?  Who do you like to purchase from?

Labels: Amy Stark, blog, Competition, Embroidery, Fishers, Friends, Indiana, indianapolis, kristie, Kristie B, Kristie Bradford, Kristie's Kreations, logos, Networking, Promotional Products, Purchasing, Stark Reality, Website

Labels: Embroidery, Fishers, Good Embroidery VS Bad Embroidery, Good VS Bad, Indiana, indianapolis, Kristie's Kreations, Logo, logos, Networking

Today I had several fun things planned including a few networking events.  We got at least 11 inches of snow yesterday, last night and this morning!  Check out my picture on TweetPic!  I added it to Twitter this morning about an hour ago if that and there have already been 44 views!  Awesome what Twitter can do!

[caption id="attachment_369" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Nathan and Lisa in the snow!"][/caption]

Because of this beautiful snow. . . Mark is working from home today. . .  School was canceled for Nathan. . Day Care closed for Lisa . . . and my events have been rescheduled!!

I have decided that it will be a napping, pj, catchup day!  Of course we have some embroidery to do but that can be done around the naps and of course in pjs!

Some of the fun embroidery we have to complete today and tomorrow are t-shirts for Nathan's K-Plus Program.  This Saturday is the World Fair for the YMCA.

Because one of the assistants in his class is from Somalia they have chosen Somalia as their country.  They will be presenting songs and food from Somalia.

Kristie's Kreations offered to embroider 'SOMALIA" on the front of the shirts that the kids and teachers will be wearing.   Nathan is very excited because he loves telling every about Kristie's Kreations!  And what is better than everyone in his class wearing shirts embroidered by Kristie's Kreations??!!??  I will post a picture after this weekend!

Over the holidays, our show was Nathan counting in Somalia.  Of course this will be one of the things that the kids will be doing for the parents.  Hopefully my parents will be able to come up and see the show!  They are in the Evansville, Indiana area and did not get as much of the snow that we got but they got 1 1/2 inches of ice with additional snow on top.  They are without power because of all the limbs that fell out of trees and broke their transmitter!  Because my dad is an electrician, he has Macgyver fixed it so they have temporary electricity.  His Macgyver move was to attach two wires with jumper cables.  I am so proud of my electrician, Macgyver Dad!

I am off to start working!  If you are in Indiana, enjoy playing in the snow!

Labels: blogging, Embroidery, Family, Indiana, indianapolis, Kristie's Kreations, logos, Networking, Photos, Snow

Today I went to visit a fellow NAG member, Carole Palazzo, with Braden Business Systems.  Braden had their Fall Open House which was a wonderful event!  I have not ever visited Braden before but was I ever impressed!  They had a very nice facility as well as an excellent show room displaying many of their machines!  I am not sure if I should just call them copiers because they were so much more than that!

There were machines there that would read the veins in your finger (not your finger print!) and from that reading, know which document to print out!  There were other machines there that brought me back to college and to my previous teaching years.  The name was the only thing that was similar though.  I always worked with a Rizzo machine when I was in college as well as when I was a special education teacher.  The machines that I worked with were nothing like what is available now!  I was very impressed!

Not only was I impressed with the machines they had available but I was also impressed with the people that worked there.  They were very knowledgeable about their product as well as very friendly!  I never had any idea how big Braden was!  They seem to be very team oriented!  By that I mean they really support their employees.  One the one wall in the hallway they had pictures dating back to 1998 of trips they have taken their employees on.  It looked like they were having a lot of fun.  It was also enjoyable looking at the pictures to see how Carole has changed over the years!  I am sure that her wonderful personality has always been there though.

A new area that Braden has just started is Office Supplies.  They were giving away free samples as well as catalogs of the items that can be ordered.  When you order from their webpage you will have them the very next day!  If you are in the need of anything copier oriented, please call Carole!  She is a wonderful person and really knows her stuff!  Not only did I enjoy walking around Braden today but I also left with some really nice give aways!  Thank you Braden Business Systems and Carole!

Labels: NAG - Non Affiliated Group, Networking, Open House

Well, here is blog post #2. If there is anything that you would like discussed, please let me know as I am more than happy to have suggestions! I figure that I will start out discussing unique points about embroidery and Kristie's Kreations. Other things may come along in between but this is my plan! I hope you enjoy!

Last week, I attended a networking event. While at the event I was introduced to someone that, in her business, visits restaurants on an almost daily basis (she is not in the embroidery or uniform business). During our conversation, we began to discuss the different uniforms that restaurant employees wear. She stated that she frequently hears how unhappy restaurant managers are with their uniforms. Whether it be with the look of the embroidery. . . messed up designs. . . or wrong order. . . this is very sad!

One of the things that I always strive to achieve is excitement with our product! These managers definitely would not say they were excited about their uniforms.

Once someone has decided that Kristie's Kreations will be the company to develop their apparel program they can expect to get the best quality! I do this by being very picky! We may embroider a logo several times (like 6 0 12 times!) before our customer ever sees it. After we have approved of a sewn out logo then I am ready to show our customer. Once I show it to the customer 9 out of 10 times it will be approved.

There are times that our customer will want to make changes. This is totally fine! Once again, we welcome input and want to make sure it is what they want! We MUST have their approval of the logo before it EVER goes onto an item! I want to make sure that they are happy with the end result!

I am not saying that mistakes do not happen because they do. In fact, they may happen more than you know. I will discuss this more tomorrow. Have a great night! Kristie

Labels: Embroidery, Kristie's Kreations, logos, mistake, Networking, restaurant