Nailed It!

Inspired Ideas – You Gotta Love It!

Have you witnessed within yourself a spark of creative inspiration lately? Perhaps a game changer for your business or even your life?

Here’s a “middle of the night” idea that inspires. Simple, good cause, good timing and great fun. Peter and Andrea plan to get married this summer. How are they going to raise money, a modest amount by today’s standards, to fund their special day?

Cans, wedding cans to be exact. Peter has always been a recycler, melting down cans into ingots, and then accumulating them for a run to the local recycler. So Andrea comes up with the idea in the middle of the night to recycle cans, 400,000 of them, to raise just under $4,000 by the end of July, this year. As of this writing they’ve recycled the equivalent of 75% or 300,000 cans in just three weeks!

They put together a website, www.weddingcans.com where you can track their progress. Like to contribute but you’re in Cucamonga, California? No problem! They have PayPal. Take your cans to the local recycler, catch a latte on the way home, and send the rest thank you very much!

Their web site www.weddingcans.com has gone viral – international, local and national television; the Morning Show (CBS) last week, numerous radio interviews, emails from around the world. Alcoa donated the equivalent of 150,000 cans and said the coverage has been more effective to getting out the recycling message than years of marketing – a worthy investment!

So stay tuned and recycle. Hopefully they will have their special day, at a castle in northern Idaho as planned. Meanwhile we will continue to accumulate cans – Instant Sign Factory is one of the drop-off points – and watch Peter, who runs our digital press, leave daily with bags of loot.

So what is Peter’s take on all this new found fame? He says it’s a fun ride but in addition to financing their wedding, it’s all about the message, “recycle!”

Isn’t it great to see great ideas work? Don’t forget to check out their website.

Get inspired! Good selling!

HO! HO! HO! Making a list and checking it twice?

This year is in the books-good, bad and the ugly! Time to reflect on successes and strategies that fell short. Before we succumb to the Holiday festivities let’s also review that budget that we meticulously prepared several months ago. The playing field has changed for many-no point in going to war with an outdated plan and weapons!

Let’s make a list:

• Check our assumptions - revenue, operating costs, margin expectations, product mix…realistic, achievable goals are useful. Exceeding our sales goals may bring on another set of challenges. I’ll take those any day.
• Marketing – do we need to rethink our target markets and sales campaigns or are we okay.
• Revisit material costs – you may get a pleasant surprise. Check your large purchase items. If you are having to adjust your pricing in the market, they might be adjusting too…don’t get me wrong, we all need strong vendors, but everyone is doing a little belt tightening. Continue Reading »