Margret Sloan

A friend of mine is a convenience store manager, on the morning shift. I see her once a week or so, and I try to make a point to buy a few things from inside the store in addition to buying my gas there, as she gets bonuses based on the sales from sodas, candy bars, potato chips, and the other things they sell inside.

I was distressed to find that someone robbed her store last week. Thank goodness she was not working that night and the person running the store was not hurt, but it is disconcerting to think they my friend is truly in danger of being robbed or shot at any time. The thieves took a van and rammed the front doors with the van, then hauled the ATM machine and cash register into the back of the van and drove off.

This morning they are traffic bollards across the front of the store to prevent anyone from ramming the front doors again. Bollards are the tall round posts that re installed in the pavement and spaced a few feet apart to restrict traffic.

It’s a shame we have to resort to obvious crime deterrents like bollards in front of your place of business, even in the nicer neighborhoods. When I mentioned this to my boss, he thought getting bollards would be a good idea for our own building. With a little surfing we were able to find a website that provides all kinds of bollards - I never knew there were so many different types and uses - and we found exactly what we want to order. We will need movable bollard because of our landlord and the lease restrictions. That’s no problem, the same website carried movable and temporary bollards, too.

We used the website www.trafficguard.net because their site has color photos of the different types of bollards and clear, easy to read and understand descriptions of their products. You don’t have to be in the construction business to figure out which ones will meet your needs, and if you have any questions you can call their tool free number and talk to a customer service representative before placing your order.

Real estate agents and brokers have the need for a very specialized database, with information relevant to their industry. Agents need to keep track of critical documents, such as offer letters, contracts and closing statements. Most agents use some sort of database to keep track of clients and prospects, and often merge those names and addresses into letters, envelopes and postcards as part of their marketing campaigns.

A successful agent is very busy and keeping organized and efficient is critical to their success. Computers have been a great tool for agents, but until now finding software specific to real estate agents has been hard to do. Now there is help for real estate agents with a software package called Agent Organizer. If you have an interest in software for real estate agents, take a look at the website for Agent Organizer and see if this new program meets your needs. You can try it out for free for 15 days so if you decide to buy it you will know what to expect and how to use it.

They say that a well run business will appreciate its employees and value its clients or customers. One good, inexpensive way to demonstrate a company’s appreciation is the use of recognition programs. A good recognition program not only praises an employee for business achievements but also for personal milestones, such as birthdays, employment date anniversaries, and even encouragement during setbacks, such as serious illness or surgeries. Acknowledging these milestones or personal moments with a premium quality greeting card is the perfect way to express that you care and appreciate your employees.

Our Human Resources Manager ordered a collection of all occasion cards from gallerycollection.com and had them custom imprinted, but we also pass them them around to the rest of the staff for personal notes and signatures before presenting them with a flourish or small ceremony to the recipient. The Business Birthday Cards are a nice way to help celebrate employee and client birthdays. I also like that the envelopes are a classy, deckle-edged heavy stock, and they are made of recycled paper.

I’ve been fascinated with the thought of an atomic watch for years. The thought of a watch that automatically checks throughout the day to validate the correct time is just amazing, and if they can do that, then most likely they can also update what timezone you are in when traveling.

Casio has several atomic watches in their G-Force line, which is another strong selling point in my book. G-Force means it is super tough, and lots of guys need a tough watch - especially guys who work in construction or the military, and guys who go hunting and camping need a watch that is rugged. If you need a great birthday gift or even a going away gift for an active, outdoorsy guy in the office, you should take a look at the website www.bluedial.com and consider a casio watch. I would certainly get one for my boss on a special occasion.

My daughter-in-law is in the process of moving to her new apartment this week. I rounded up all the large empty boxes I could find and sent them over to her so she could get started packing. The new apartment has an extra bedroom and is more spacious, so I’m glad she’s moving up.

She’ll be turning the extra bedroom into a home office so she can do more work from home and not have to pay for child care, plus she’ll be saving cash by not having to commute. Of course, setting up the home office will take a bit of cash, but you can’t make money if you don’t spend money.

We’ll be underwriting some of the home office equipment to help her out. Since we are on a tight budget, we are looking for ways to save as much money as we can, yet we can’t always get the cheapest products - there are some quality and reliability issues to consider as well as price.

A great source for money saving coupons is a website I found online. There are a variety of coupons to save significant money on Dell small business computers. We are also going to need some home office furniture, at the very least a computer desk and task chair.

I’m not sure which way to advise her on a printer for her new home office. I haven’t had much luck with the last ones I’ve bought. At the moment I’m using a cheap laser printer that only prints black and white, but it is a workhorse and I can use refilled toner cartridges, which saves a lot of money. I think for the sake of just getting started, she should probably have one like what I’m using, and when she starts making money she can upgrade to a color printer later.