by Nicole Ouellette | Dec 14, 2009 | Marketing Monday
Know an individual or business doing cool things with marketing/promotion both online and off? Let me know about it; I am always looking for ideas!
I spent this past weekend skiing in New Hampshire. I have a couple of friends who are members of ski clubs in the Mount Washington area and this weekend was the kickoff of the ski season for the Eastern Inter-Club Ski League or EISCL (pronounced “ice-sill”) at Bretton Woods. I attended as a guest, helping my friends at the registration table in exchange for a free lift ticket.
I later found out that the whole event was underwritten by Jack Frost Ski Shop, located in Glen New Hampshire.
Sadly, this was not obvious to me at the event but the good news is I learned a lot about the Jack Frost Ski Shop anyway. Here are some things we can all learn from them, and what I think could be improved upon:
by Nicole Ouellette | Dec 11, 2009 | This Week In Business
Nothing like coming home from a long weekend and not having the internet for a few days! It was a week of catching up here at Breaking Even Communications. Also, almost as if to drive me crazier, my computer hardware began failing me. First my printer, then my mouse, and finally my keyboard (well, the ‘5’ key) all bit it within 72 hours. Still, I managed to accomplish a few things this week.
I installed Tweetdeck on my computer, and have been kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
To be fair, there is a lot of free software that I rely on almost daily: Google Reader, Feedburner, Joomla!, Wordpress… Somehow installing another piece of software to manage my social networking stuff seemed ridiculous.
by Nicole Ouellette | Dec 10, 2009 | Personal Finance Tips
Daniel Scocco, author of Daily Blog Tips, is running a group writing project on his blog called 2009 in Review. I thought it was a fun idea so here are my best and worst ways I saved money in 2009.
Here are some of the best lessons I learned in saving money over the past year:
Asking for something if I need or want it.
When I moved into my house, I couldn’t help but notice my neighbors left a cool looking bookcase outside in the rain.
Maybe they were putting it outside while they moved furniture around or were giving it to someone else. Really though, I didn’t ask at first because I was worried I’d look like some cheap vulture.
I hopped onto the Ikea website to look at pricing some options. The cost was $69 for a Billy Bookcase… and $250 to ship it. Even my cheap local options still involved similar costs and the hassle of transport and assembly. Was my pride really going to get in the way of saving $100 or more?
by Nicole Ouellette | Dec 9, 2009 | Too Cute Tuesday
This week, Too Cute Tuesday had it’s final installment of ‘The Month of Giving…To Ourselves.’ As the author of this blog, I got to go last. And the party lasted until 10 last night, hence posting TCT on Wednesday!
Originally I had an entirely different plan for my free labor but then, the Universe intervened. A few days ago, my neighbors had put out a bookcase in their driveway.
“You should totally take it.” my friend Sean said. I hesitated, not wanting the first introduction to my neighbors being me as the cheap-o girl next door. I waited a few days and watched it sit out in the rain longingly. Then I marched myself over and was my usual direct self. I got the bookcase!
The next order of business was how to make it pretty. Enter TCT!
by Nicole Ouellette | Dec 7, 2009 | Marketing Monday
Every Monday, I profile a person or company doing cool things to market themselves online and offline. Got an idea for me? Let me know!
This Marketing Monday was not inspired by my happening upon something cool in the digital world but something I saw in the real world which reminded me of the power of retail.
One of my friends hosted a girls’ weekend at her place in Vermont these last few days. Besides hanging out and catching up in a general way, we also did a few fun local things, one of them being a visit to King Arthur Flour, seemingly one of the area’s largest employers.
I would like to say I am not a shopper. I am a get in and get out kind of girl when it comes to a retail experience. Also I am not a baker. Stopping at a store that sells flour sounded about as fun to me as visiting the dentist while watching paint dry. But when you’re with friends, you go along with this sort of thing and try to have an open mind.
Twenty minutes later, I was a convert. I left the store with French style flour and a baguette pan. I happily handed over money. King Arthur had successfully made me, a self proclaimed terrible baker, want to make the perfect bread. In my opinion, here’s what King Arthur is doing right:
