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

Tonight I posted this on both Stark Reality and Smaller Indiana. Because some of my readers may not read these websites, I thought that I would add it to my blog as well. I am looking for any wisdom you can give me!

I was working on upcoming posts for my blog tonight and decided that I wanted to add a stock photo or a fun cartoon picture to one of the blogs. It has been a while since I went looking for pictures that are out there to use - free.

I started out at Google Images. After looking at pages of pictures, I noticed that they now have the following stated under the pictures: "Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright." Like I said, it has been awhile since I searched for pictures so this may have been on there for awhile but I just saw it. Not wanting to worry about copyright, I kept going thinking that I would find one that did not say this. Of course, I did not.

Deciding on a generic picture I clicked on one and saw that it has istockphoto written across it. I checked out istockphoto.com and noticed that you have to pay for the pictures. While I understand that this is a business for someone, I was looking for a picture that was free.

Continuing on my search for a fun, free picture I then did a Google search for free, royalty-free pictures. Of course it brought up many websites to check out. After looking at many websites and not finding one that I wanted, I decided that this was crazy and why not ask others where they like to go for this type of pictures.

Do you add pictures to your blog posts? If so, where do you go for the pictures you use?

Labels: blog, Favorite, Free Photos, Photos, Smaller Indiana, Stark Reality, Stock Photos, Website

UPDATED 10-27-08**  I just found out that this class is SOLD OUT!  If you are interested but were not able to register, let me know and I will let you know about Amy's future classes.  Congratulations Amy!

I mentioned earlier about a training class that Amy Stark is going to be conducting.  Here is the information if you are interested.  Contact Amy if you are interested.

Embrace The Stark Reality

When
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 from 09:30 AM - 11:00 AM (ET)

Location
WorkOne Express at College Park
8910 Purdue Road
Indianapolis, IN 46268

Click for Details and Registration Information

Labels: Amy Stark, blog, Kristie's Kreations, social media, Stark Reality, training

Last week I wrote about attending the Braden Business Fall Open House.  Since I do not know who has RSS feeds of my blog, I sent Carole a link to the blog letting her know that I had written about her and her company thinking that she would like to know.  Well, not only did she like it but she also sent it to her bosses!  Thank you Carole!  I appreciate you letting everyone know about me.

My point of this post is because she said that she would like to start one and it had me thinking.  It took me months of thought before I finally jumped in and started my own blog.  I have not kept up with it as much as I wanted but hopefully that will change!  I really enjoy doing the blog and only wish that I could make it look more like my website or part of my website.  Hopefully I will figure that out over the next few months.  In the mean time, I will continue to use this WordPress blog and keep learning!

If you are interested in learning more about blogging or the social media aspect there are many people out there that can help you.  It really is not that hard especially if you are willing to try different things and take chances!

One person in particular that has really helped me to appreciate social media is Amy Stark!  She has been wonderful in explaining the different things that I need to learn, do and keep up with.  Amazing though, I think I am the one that hooked her up with Smaller Indiana!  Anyway, back to Amy if you are interested in starting a blog or trying to figure out this whole social media thing, you should contact Amy and check our her website.  She is also throwing the idea around of starting a class teaching the different social medias!  They should be good.  I will let you know when I find out more information.

In the mean time, what do you think about social media?

Do you blog?

Do you know how to RSS to a blog?

Labels: Amy Stark, blogging, Braden Business Systems, Kristie's Kreations, RSS, Stark Reality

This morning I got up early to make it to my bimonthly networking meeting for NAG.  Today was special because I was the featured speaker.  Jeff Bowe and I take turns facilitating the meetings but today he was running a little late.  This meant that not only was I speaking at the end of the meeting but I was also facilitating to get things started.  Unfortunately after everyone had their chance to go around the room and give there minute or more spiel about themselves, I only had about 7 minutes to speak.  Because it was running late, some of the members started to get up to head to their other appointments.

During my brief speak, I was able to mention a few things that were on my list.  Again, because of time I only was able to quickly mention these items.  One of which is the start of this new blog!  I explained how it is very important to me that I become the expert when it comes to embroidery and promotional products for my customers.  If I do not know the answer then I will do my best to find the answer.

Most of the blog discussion occurred after the meeting was over between a few of the remaining members including Amy Stark, Jeff Bowe, Mary Pat McKee, Jim Hugenard and of course myself.  We discussed how to get others to know about your blog.  It was mentioned that we need to start checking out each others blogs and leave messages on their blogs.  The helps to move blogs higher in the search enginges.  When I returned to the office I did just that and started by checking out a few of their blogs.  I started with Jeff's.  Read my comments.

I was able to show a few samples of the picture weave gifts, quality of embroidery, green products, antibacterial promotional product and embroidered toilet paper.

[caption id="attachment_63" align="alignnone" width="330" caption="Embroidered Toilet Paper"][/caption]

Of course the question that I always get was asked, "Why embroider toilet paper?" and of course the answer is "Why not?".  I then continued to give other reasons such as it is a very memorable item!  Anyone that I show it to will always remember that I embroider toilet paper.  I am OK with this because at least they remember me.  Another reason is that is shows that we can embroider on things as delicate as toilet paper.  It is a unique way to show your company logo along with the embroidered towels.  Always have your logo in front of your customers even when they use your restroom.  And last but not least, it is a gift for the person that has anything.

So, what do you think?  Do you like the embroidered toilet paper?  Do you have other uses for the embroidered toilet paper?  I wouldlove to hear them!

Labels: Amy Stark, blog, Blogs, Embrodery, embroidered toilet paper, Embroidery, gifts, InFocusSelling, Kristie's Kreations, logos, MPM Marketing, NAG, NAG - Non Affiliated Group, Stark Reality