Attitude of Gratitude

Today is the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday. Besides too much food and the strange occupation of watching hours of football (why is it football if you pick the ball up?), this is a reminder and an opportunity to put our daily grind on hold to give thanks (to Whom?) for the blessings we experience. And to recognize people who make a difference in our lives. And at Saelig I acknowledge the One Who makes us truly “happy, prosperous, and blessed”.

So this reminds me to say in this space:

Thank You to all our faithful customers.

Thank You to for my employees, who have shared with me that working here is the best job with the best atmosphere they've ever had.

Thank You for the suppliers of the quality products we sell.

The E-Myth website www.e-myth.org suggests that:

“when you deliver your product or service "on time, every time exactly as promised" you create a customer experience that can turn a one-time customer into a life-long advocate. In short, you've nurtured a customer's gratitude ...” - that's one way of thanking customers: deliver quality products on-time, with friendly and helpful personal support.

This month's Reader's Digest had an article about someone who said Hi to literally everyone he met for a whole month. It made an amazing, positive difference in his world.

Maybe a great New Year Resolution would be to live in an Attitude of Gratitude....

Thank You!

USB Made Simple

I spend a lot of time searching for new products to bring to USA, and readers of this blog can sometimes get a heads-up on what's coming to our product line-up. We've found a supplier of high-quality, excellent value USB bus analyzers and generators: MQP Electronics based in UK. Their products are easy to use and are well priced - see www.mqp.com. We should have them in stock in a week or two.

On their website is a useful document for getting to grips with USB protocol "USB Made Simple". Take a look at http://www.usbmadesimple.co.uk/

ESC Boston Show

Our supplier Quantum Research (now part of Atmel) was showing on a 42" LCD - in 3D graphics - how their new area array sensing technology can detect multiple fingers on a touch screen, and indicate touch intensity too. Samples are now available and production quantities will be available in Q1 2009. They also showed a cute Quantum-laden toy dinosaur with multiple hidden touch sensors, programmed to respond like a pet.

Microsoft was making a big deal of .NET and had three of our fast-selling GHI boards proudly on display (see http://www.saelig.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=FF017&Category_Code=)

elektor magazine (well-known and highly-regarded in Europe) is trying to establish itself in USA and is using Audio Engineering staff in NH to accomplish that. They'll be sending us 500 magazines to distribute – let me know if you’d like one free – this is a one-of-a-kind magazine with articles from their European staff of top-notch engineers. (http://www.elektor.com/)

Speaking of magazines, I spoke with Circuit Cellar staff - Tom Cantrell's EmbedRF article will appear in February edition due to others in pipeline.

It was good bumping into to quite a few of our customers as well as suppliers at ESC, but I wonder if the show days are over. ESC Boston was slated to get about 3000 attendees. Quantum staff told me that they were just at the Maker Fair in California, which brought in 50,000 visitors, with 5,000 people going through the Quantum booth.

I wonder how many share my opinion about shows being less relevant now.

It's the "Reell" Thing!

A business – or any other organization for that matter - as it evolves, becomes like its leader(s) or founder(s), sharing their characteristics, preferences, and foibles. In growing Saelig, I’ve looked at other companies from time to time for ideas, but not found too much inspiration – there’s too much emphasis on growing at the expense of the individual. So I was encouraged to see the philosophies of a Minnesota company, where friend of mine works – Reell Precision Manufacturing Corporation (see www.reell.com – and pronounced “Ray-el”). Located in St. Paul, Minnesota, this is a remarkable organization because Reell’s values are the core of the identity of the company.

Reell’s founders wanted to build a company that viewed success as more than return on investment. They wanted to provide exceptional products and services to customers while creating a work environment that fostered a balanced life for its co-workers. They named the company "Reell" (ray-EL'); a German word meaning honest, trustworthy and good, to reflect these values.

Reell is founded on the belief that life's highest purpose is for each person to fulfill his or her true potential. To this end, Reell is committed to providing an environment that supports and encourages the development and advancement of each coworker. Reell offers training, experience and career opportunities to help coworkers achieve their goals, provides excellent benefits (including premier medical, dental and adoption plans), educational reimbursement, holiday and personal time off, short-term and long-term disability, an employee assistance program, flex-benefit deduction, a 401(k) plan and an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

They believe that it is not striving to compete with each other or other companies but the pursuit of excellence to be better persons that leads to success. Their Company Statement acknowledges that “the potential of persons to be all they can be is within each one, waiting to be expressed.” It is not about someone (a supervisor, a boss) driving others towards excellence but about “free[ing] each other to grow and express the excellence that is within all persons.” (www.reell.com/about.htm)

The Vision, Mission, Declaration of Belief and the Direction Statement at Reell are summed up in four short, practical principles that help everyone in the organization to make decisions “consistent with God’s purposes for creation according to [each person’s] individual understanding":
1) Do what is right: We are committed to do what is right, even when it does not seem to be profitable, expedient, or conventional.
2) Do our best: In our understanding of excellence we embrace a commitment to continuous improvement in everything we do. It is our commitment to encourage, teach, equip, and free each other to do and become all that we were intended to be.
3) Treat others as we would like to be treated
4) Seek Inspirational Wisdom


These seem like good principles on which to build a growing company!

Checking out other blogs and emails, I saw this on marketingprofs.com and it got me thinking how Saelig features in these topics (maybe you should do the same?):

Brand Aid

Clarify your position. "The first step to building brand equity is to define your positioning," - the single thing your company stands for to your customers".

We like to be known for bringing unique OEM products to the attention of our customers (principally American engineers) - with excellent technical support and ethical business practices. To our vendors, we like to be known as part of their home team, with extremely effective market-creating abilities.

Tell your story. Give your position an external expression through your best corporate stories—an insight that led to the company's inception, the extraordinary measures you took to satisfy a customer or how your big breakthrough happened.

Saelig was created by an engineer for engineers - but we need to do a better job of telling the stories of how we frequently go "the extra mile" for our customers.

Bring it to life. "Make sure that the way your company looks and feels to the outside world matches that truth," he says.

We have to make sure that we operate with our customers' interests in mind at all times, while also satisfying our suppliers' needs.

Build the brand. You can make an impression before your customer ever initiates a transaction. O'Toole cites a naming consultancy called Igor that publishes at its Web site a free 100-page guide on its methodology.

We've had some nice feedback from engineers who like our innovative newsletters and interesting product mix. We trust that we're becoming known as a company that wants to make our customers "happy, prosperous and blessed".

The Po!nt: "These are practices you don't need a billion dollar marketing budget to emulate - you can start today."

Could we be doing more to build our image? Sure, but I'm encouraged when we get emails, or comments at shows, from customers who've followed our progress from the early days of 1988 when we just sold one product - a Forth-based controller board.

The Power of Forgiveness

I saw this on Inc.com and thought it might be worth repeating as a good general business principle:

The Power of Forgiveness Posted by Clint Greenleaf at 5:14 PM

http://blog.inc.com/by-the-book/2008/08/the_power_of_forgiveness.html#comments

"I recently received a phone call from Tony Alessandra, the author of The Platinum Rule. Tony is a hall of fame professional speaker, a bestselling author, and is close friends with many of my friends. The first time we met was over the phone, when he called to let me know that I had quoted his book without his permission. Yikes. I own a publishing company -- I should know better.

A bit of history. In 2000, I wrote a book called A Gentleman’s Guide to Etiquette. The book was published by Adams Media in Boston, and it was a moderate success. Since the book went out of print in 2005, I have reacquired the rights and plan to republish the book on my own next year. Anyway, in the book I mentioned “The Platinum Rule,” which is a smarter take on the Golden Rule. While the Golden Rule has us treating others how we want to be treated, “The Platinum Rule” gets us past our own ego and taste and has us “do unto others as they would have you do unto them.” It’s a brilliant concept that works.

So, Tony calls me and says that I’ve made a mistake. But the way that Tony told me about it was wonderful. He started by introducing himself and saying that he needed some of my help. He was aware of my book and that it made no mention of him or his book, website, etc. He then asked me how we could best solve this error.

Now let’s be clear -- I’m in the wrong here. No question. Tony had a ton of options at his disposal. He could have sent a harsh letter or had a lawyer send a harsher letter. He could have called and shouted at me. But his choice was not to cause drama and stress, but to find a winning solution. He was sure that there was a way we could fix this omission without too much trouble.

After a few minutes of discussing our options, we came to the conclusion that since the book was out of print, and that I wasn’t currently promoting the book, we didn’t have many options. I admitted my fault and Tony was very forgiving. That Tony was content with that was incredible -- I made a mistake and he was willing to let it go. And his great attitude made it that much easier for me to find a way to make it right. That day, I decided to re-release the book and give him the credit he deserves in the new printing. I think he’ll find out about my plan when he reads this. Thanks, Tony, for being so understanding.

So, when you have an opportunity to call someone on a mistake, remember Tony’s method. He didn’t pound his chest and tell me how great he is -- he worked with me to find a good solution. Now I’m spending my time telling everyone how great he is. If you can do the same when you’re right, you’ll probably find that people will bend over backwards to do right by you."

Reminds me of Mat. 6:12-14

Favorite entrepreneurial sites

I'm sure all small business owners have sites and magazines that inspire them to greater things.

Here are some of mine:

Magazines: Inc. FastCompany Entrepreneur

Sites: www.inc.com www.fastcompany.com www.entrepreneur.com http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/beyondstartup/u/manageandgrow.htm
http://www.toolkit.com/
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/
http://www.dondebelak.com/
http://www.ben-means-business.com/

And a daily email that makes me think is "Sparkling Gems From the Greek" (www.renner.org)