Mary Anne Carter
Mary Anne has her own blog now
Tag Archives: business
May 14 2012

Energy audit

by Mary Anne

There is a networking meeting that I go to every week where a lot of businesses send a representative to the meeting to try to drum up business for their company. One thing that I’ve noticed is that a lot of the people that go to the meetings really don’t seem to be interested in helping each other out at all, which is a little bit disappointing because the entire concept of a networking meeting is to help each other, right?

What’s even more disappointing is the fact that some of the people that go to the meetings seem to claim that they will give you a free offer of some kind, in order to drum up business for themselves, but when you contact them and ask them to do it, they don’t even call you back! For example, there is a guy there that is a home insulation contractor that goes every week and will stand up and tell people that his company will perform a free energy audit and he hands out business cards with the web page address of his company, saying that they have a list of energy saving solutions on their web site, but when I tell him that I want to schedule an audit for my house he never gets back to me! I have even gone to his web page and filled out the request form and they don’t get back to me! Is that any way to run a business?

Categories: Business, Computers and/or Internet, Home Improvement, Life, Local, Opinion | No Comments »

Apr 24 2012

Working the room

by Mary Anne

As we walked through the building, Tim introduced me to some of his business associates, and we wandered over to the tables full of food and beverages. I recognized the serving ware from the last social networking event we had gone to and I mentioned to Tim that it was the same stuff as before. He said that the organization supplied that kind of items to the events, that they could get them wholesale through a Hotel Product Supplies & Catering Supplies company’s website.

Well, ever since I worked for a Hotel Bathroom Supplies & Restaurant Supply Company myself back in 1972 and 1973 I have had an interest in where people can go to get those types of supplies at a wholesale price. The place that I worked at did not advertise that they would sell their products to walk-in customers, but people walked in just the same and bought things from the company.

I decided to try to look up the company I used to work for on the Internet, and I couldn’t find them online. I wonder if they’ve gone out of business! I did, however find the website of the PeachSuite Wholesale Hotel Supply & Restaurant Equipment Company and found myself spending quite a long time looking at the different flatware and stemware and thinking about how even after all of these years I am still using the same flatware that I bought back in 1972 from the company that I worked for. I’d say that was a good investment, wouldn’t you agree?

Categories: Around the House, At the Office, Business, Computers and/or Internet, Family and friends, Life, Local, Memories, Shopping | Comments Off

Apr 23 2012

Networking

by Mary Anne

Last week I was invited to attend a networking social event with Tim. The event was being held at the local Boys & Girls Club, and I agreed to go with Tim because I had never been in that building since it opened for business about three years ago. I was really interested in checking it out, just out of curiosity. And Tim told me that there would be free food and drinks, so I was all for going! I mean, how could you beat the chance to check out a place you’ve been wanting to check out and getting a free meal to boot!

So Tim picked me up at the appointed hour and drove me to the club. When we first walked in the door, there were four greeters there, introducing themselves with a smile and a handshake. One person was selling tickets to a 50/50 raffle, and another was collecting business cards for a prize drawing that was going to be held a little later. At first I felt a little bit awkward, but it wasn’t long before I recognized a few people that I had met before and I went over and chatted with them for a little while.

Categories: At the Office, Business, Family and friends, Life | Comments Off

Apr 19 2012

Carpet cleaners

by Mary Anne

Not long ago I was approached by a guy who is trying to make some money by selling self-improvement books. He had just moved into the area, with the hopes of finding a better job than he had working for a company of carpet cleaners chapel hill nc. He explained that he was laid off from work and moved up here but so far has not been as successful as he had hoped he would be. I invited him to attend the Wednesday morning business networking meetings that I go to at the local IHOP. Maybe he could drum up some business there!

Categories: Business, Life, Local, Shopping | Comments Off

Mar 15 2012

Storage wars

by Mary Anne

One of the television shows that my husband and I enjoy watching together is called “Storage Wars.” The first time I sat down to watch the show with my hubby it was a matter of me just wanting to sit down and rest for a bit and he was already watching the show. At first I thought that the basis of the show was lame, but after a while I got into the personality dynamics of the show. The basis of the show is that there are a lot of competitive business people that buy abandoned storage units from an auction and then they hope to sell the contents of the unit to make a profit. When we turn on the television, we never know where the group is going to be showing up as it seems as if they travel all around the country going to these kinds of auctions. Apparently they have done a lot of research into the demographics of the neighborhoods so that they can take educated guesses as to what type of items might be in the units.

For example, the contents of Denver self storage units might be related to the skiing industry, so if the business person is not interested in dealing with trying to sell items that would appeal to customers that enjoy skiing, they might actually skip that auction. Similarly, the show at a Miami storage unit might have a lot of items in storage related to surfing or boating, so there might be a different base of bidders there. And a show done at a Phoenix storage unit might have some valuable archeological items that could be of interest to museums.

There does seem to be a base core of participants that travel around for the show, and when I watch the show I always wonder how much the stars of the show are getting paid to do the show, and I wonder who came up with the idea to do a reality show like this. I just can’t even imagine how a concept of a show like this got approved to be broadcast in the first place.

Categories: Business, Life, Opinion, Television and movies | Comments Off

«Older Entries
 
Scrappy Theme by Caroline Moore | Copyright 2012 Mary Anne Carter | Powered by WordPress