It's official! After weeks of hard work, the new website is up and active!!! I am very excited!

I have wanted my website and blog to be one website for a long time! I just could not figure out how to do it. James worked hours with me over the last month or so to develop the new site and bring everything together! Thank you so much James for all of your help! You are awesome!!

My new email address is: kristie@kristieskreations.com. The .us email will continue to work as well!

What do you think? Please feel free to leave feedback/comments!!

Labels: email, Kristie's Kreations, update, Website

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

Sunday morning Mark brought me the Business section of the Star Newspaper and said look at this.  In the upper right hand corner of the newspaper was a small picture of one of our clients, Steve Gray of  Steve Gray Renovations!  How exciting!

[caption id="attachment_387" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="        Steve Gray with GREAT Embroidered Shirt!         The picture found on www.indystar.com."][/caption]

Steve had a very nice article in the Business section about how he started his business five years ago and how he has been able to see it continue to grow! If you would like to read the article, here is the link.  I am sure you remember Steve because I have spoken about him several times on my blog.  The first one is found right here on this link.  He is the reason that I had to get the Wii for Christmas!!

Congratulations Steve!!

By the way, I LOVE the embroidered Turtleneck!  I hope it is keeping Steve's Neck Warm!!  Where did you have that done. . . Kristie's Kreations?

Labels: Accomplishment, blog, Embroidery, Fishers, Indiana, indianapolis, Kristie's Kreations, Logo, Newsletter, Steve Gray Renovations, Website

Labels: blog, Embrodery, Embroidery, Fishers, Indiana, indianapolis, Kristie's Kreations, logos, Newsletter, 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