Continue reading »]]> I wrote this customer testimonial letter for Holly Bonderson of American Classifieds in May 2009. To this very day even though we don’t advertise much, she still checks in with us.

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To Whom It May Concern:

I first became acquainted with Holly a few years ago when she first worked at the customer service desk at American Classifieds. During this time I worked with another Sales Representative and became disenchanted because of inconsistent service and sloppy work where he made mistakes on our ads.

During this time, Holly was promoted to a Sales Representative and I was recommended to her.  I specifically asked for someone who was going to be competent as a replacement because we were regular advertisers of American Classifieds and needed reliable service.  The office recommended Holly for our account.

I am happy to say Holly has been and continues to be a delight to work with.  She is conscientious, competent, and mindful in her care of our account. She makes my life so easy with her pleasant, easy demeanor.  She is diligent in her weekly email reminders that I do not miss deadlines because every week passes by so quickly.

Even when I occasionally forget the email reminder, she makes a friendly reminder phone call to me personally.  I often regard her as my “right hand” person when it comes to ensuring that my advertising requirements through the American Classifieds are properly executed.

For the foreseeable future, I want Holly to continue being our Sales Representative.  And if anyone at her office ever decided to take her off of our account, I can honestly say I would quickly become unhappy by such a decision.

Holly is truly a credit and valuable asset to American Classifieds. I highly recommend her to more demanding clients that need a friendly and capable Sales Representative to handle and care for their account.

Sincerely,

Matthew Chan
OwnerFinanceHomes.com

Continue reading »]]> It isn’t often I write a letter like this for a group of people but I was happy to do it.

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May 13, 2011

James M. Wells III, Chairman & CEO
William H. Rogers, Jr., President & COO
c/o Suntrust Banks, Inc.
303 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

Mr. Wells & Mr. Rogers:

I wanted to take a moment to do something a bit unorthodox. I am making a formal compliment by writing this unsolicited letter to give high and proper recognition to the staff of the Bradley Park Publix branch in Columbus, Georgia.

The current branch manager is headed by Patrick O’hara. The current assistant branch manager is Kim Guzman. I would also like to recognize the prior assistant manager, Joe Theriault, who has since moved on to another Suntrust branch but fully deserves recognition for his tenure at Bradley Park Publix. The tellers/customer service staff include: Glorimar Irizarry, Amy Mills, and Kim Wilkes.

The reason I have taken the time to write this unorthodox letter is that too often complaints rule the day. I believe it is quite infrequent for someone, especially a customer, to say “good job each and every time I see you” in a meaningful and impactful way. I know enough about the banking business to know that being on the “front lines” can often be a thankless job for them which is one reason why there is so much turnover in the industry.

But for this distinguished staff at Bradley Park Publix, you need to know that at least one of their business customers cares enough to write about them and appreciates what they do day in and day out without fail. Working at a Suntrust Publix branch can be challenging due to their limited workspace and the high amount of walk-by traffic. They are, without fail, always “onstage” compared to their traditional branch counterparts. Even when there are no customers in line, they are still being indirectly observed from afar by virtue of the Publix store environment.

As a general rule, I try to conduct my business respectfully and fairly. I am friendly but generally stay removed and distant. Having said that, I do not think the staff knows they have won me over during their individual and collective tenures there. I truly like each of these individual employees as people and I respect them for who they are.

I remember most of my first meetings with them and have watched them grow and evolve wonderfully. For example, when Patrick assumed his position as branch manager, I remember him reaching out to call me and leave me a voicemail to come and meet him. I remember how a fellow staff member spoke highly of Kim Guzman when she first came over from another branch. I remember Glorimar Irizarry during her initial training and how she has since evolved to be a very capable and confident teller. I remember teasing Kim Wilkes how there are just too many Kim’s at this branch to keep track of. I remember Amy for her confidence.

Recently, I was happy with the decision to promote Kim Guzman internally as replacement for the departure of Joe Theriault. As for Joe, he has since departed the branch but he was tremendously upbeat and always of great service attitude. His enthusiasm is infectious.

As a team, I think they are phenomenal and they seem to exude this magical work chemistry when they are together. If they have disagreements or conflict with one another, they conceal them well and I am unaware of them. They are all friendly and respectful to one another and that work chemistry seems to translate well to their customer interactions.

As far as I can remember in my recent business history, I consider them my banking “dream team” in that I feel that if I call any of them, they know and recognize me. I feel they take me seriously and treat my requests or issues with priority and importance. The fact that they work in such close quarters to one another but also so close in physical proximity to their customers appears to work for them. In most cases, I would expect that close quarters and close proximity to customers would, in fact, make them more stressed in their positions.

As I conclude this letter, I respectfully request that my letter be considered for any future career opportunities your employees may seek. I would also request that you pass a copy of this letter on to them. In the spirit of giving formal recognition, I feel that Patrick O’hara, Joe Theriault, Kim Guzman, Glorimar Irizarry, Amy Mills, and Kim Wilkes (individually and as a team) should be recognized for their ongoing, outstanding customer service. I appreciate them very much.

In the meantime, I look forward to continuing to visiting them in my normal course of business as I always do several times per month.

Respectfully,

Matthew Chan
President

Cc: Allen Taber, Area President

Continue reading »]]> I have to vent here but I am really tired of Blue Cross / Blue Shield of GA (Georgia). Their rates for Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Georgia continue to spiral out of control and their payment servicing is antiquated. For years, I have been asking for the ability to pay with a credit card online.  I do not trust the auto-pay process where people can deduct from my bank account or automatically charge my credit card.  I prefer to do it manually. But they just ignore it. Without competition, they can pretty much dictate how you should do things no matter how antiquated it is.

But each and every month, I have to block out time during the day to manually call their toll-free number and enter the stupid membership number which includes alphabetic characters (phones don’t easily allow alphabetic entry). I get put on hold and then I have to start over every month by giving them all your payment information. They don’t store your email address and I have to recite it every month.

It doesn’t help that the insurance industry doesn’t allow competition. From what I hear, every state allows only a couple of insurance companies to operate in each state.  That may not be a monopoly but it is a duopoly.

I bet if the medical insurance industry was to be opened up to nationwide competition, every medical insurance company would behave better.

The deal is I have the good fortune to be healthy and have not had any major claims only getting physicals once a year and maybe another office visit for something minor. Count me in as another person who believes the health care system is broken in the U.S. I am healthy now but if I got sick, no telling what kind of grief I would have to go through.

And to add insult to injury, Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Georgia (GA) is based where I live in Columbus, Georgia.

Continue reading »]]> Because of my personal distaste and dismay of the Stock Photo industry which started with the Getty Images Extortion Demand Letter, I have taken steps to personally boycott the Stock Photo Industry and advocate not using stock photos altogether.  The stock photo industry seems to be rapidly consolidating into two companies:  Getty Images and Corbis, as they buy their way into near-monopoly status with them setting outrageous rules, policy, and pricing.

This article will not give you all the information necessary to entirely eliminate the need for stock photos in every situation.  However, this article will give you some ideas and strategies to wean yourself and perhaps altogether eliminate your need for stock photos.  I firmly believe that if you put your intentions behind the idea, you can make huge strides towards eliminating the need for stock photos altogether.

The very first thing you need to think about is whatever media project you are working on is, do you truly need a photo at all?  Chances are that you are working on a website, book, magazine, brochure, news story, banner, or some other media project.  Alternatives to photos might be diagrams, cartoons, illustrations, and drawings that you or a graphic artist you hire can create.  Can you take your own photo to fit the need?

If you hire a graphic artist to create your own artwork, do not hire anyone in China or India where there is very little respect for intellectual property.  They may be inexpensive but you can never be assured that their work is original.  There is little recourse for their bad behavior because they are so far away.  I recommend hiring graphic artists from the U.S. because as a professional community, they have a greater respect for intellectual property than their Chinese or Indian counterparts.  They will think twice before using pirated material.

I would avoid hiring any company that outsources their work to graphic artist worker bees.  In other words, I always want to deal and negotiate with a graphic artist professional themselves, not some agent or agency that farms out graphics art work.

If you do want to use and take your own photos, I highly recommend investing in a good digital camera so that you can begin taking your own photos.  I also recommend getting to know amateur hobbyist photographers who have access to good cameras and enjoy taking photos.  Very often, amateur photographers with good cameras are trying to find a way to justify the costs of their hobby.  By hiring them inexpensively, you can get some great looking photos but also help the amateur photographer pay for his hobby.  Make sure they understand that you are they are working for hire and that you will have full ownership and rights to the photos.

Professional photographers can be expensive depending on what you want and who you use.  For these folks, I recommend bartering with them for exchange of services if you have talents in your profession.  I find many professional photographers finicky.  They will sometimes not give you full ownership or rights of the photo even though you paid them to take a photo.  They are quite protective and their thinking is aligned to many in the stock photo industry.  Admittedly, this is a broad generalization and based only on my experience.  I am simply not optimistic that you will get good value from a professional photographer but it certainly does not hurt to try and negotiate with them.

Another source of quality photos is product photos from product manufacturers.  Often, they are happy to have their products publicized and placed in a positive light and will give you free rights to use their photos.  Product companies mostly police and control their photos because they don’t want their photos used in a manner they did not intend or in a way that paints their company or products in a negative light.  Many will grant you free usage of their photos if you approach them the right way.  However, large companies can be a challenge sometimes because of their size.  They may be so large that they may not even get back to you.  Again, it never hurts to try.  Product companies are in the business selling more of their products, not sue people who use their product photos.

If you choose to take your own photos, invest in a digital camera that can take a resolution of 4 megapixel images or higher.  You want to take high-resolution photos as your master copy.  You can then “downsize”, crop, and enhance the photos for your websites or other uses.  I recommend buying an easy-to-use photo editor such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 that allows you to crop and resize photos easily.  The photo editor can greatly enhance the quality of the master photos you take.  You can also enhance colors and adjust lighting with the software.  Special effects such as blurring, stretching, pixelating, framing, adding captions, etc. are included with photo editing software.

I truly believe that with the increasing power and technical capabilities of digital cameras, cell phone cameras, and camcorders, the value of stock photos and stock photo companies will eventually decline.  It is going to be a losing business to be in.  This whole notion of extorting your way to profitability is distasteful and eventually will fall by the wayside much like what has occurred in the music recording industry.  One only has to look to RIAA for that lesson.

Along the “do-it-yourself” philosophy, you should have the mindset that you will fit images or photos you create to your media project, not let your media projects deciding the specific images you need.  Stock photo companies are trying to brainwash you the idea that THEY have the perfect photo for your particular needs.  If you are creative, imaginative, and resourceful enough, you will almost always find an alternative or work-around solution that does not require the use of stock photos.

If you want to show the stock photo industry you don’t need them, the best way is to simply generate more of your own photos to devalue theirs and then use your own.  I have published two books recently and have been able to successfully avoid using stock photos of any kind.  I used my own photos as well as authorized product photos.  I created my own artwork.  If more publishers, graphic artists, and graphic designers started doing this, I truly believe the stock photo industry could be brought down to their financial knees very quickly.

Many years ago, people said that we would run out of .com domains available because all the good ones were taken.  It is true it has become more challenging to find a good .com domain name.  However, I have made it my policy to not deal with any domain speculators or domain squatters.  I won’t be extorted into paying thousands of dollars for an available domain I can register for less than $10.  And because I have set that restriction and policy for myself, I have always been able to find many suitable .com domain names for my various websites.

It is the same principle here.  Think abundantly.  Think creatively.  Tap into your imagination.  There are many ways to implement a visual concept besides a specific photo you might have in mind.  There are many ways to implement a concept visually. Do not let the stock photo companies brainwash you into thinking you have to use their particular photos because there are no other ways of finding an image for your particular website, logo, banner, sign, book, magazine, or other product.

The best kept secret that the stock photo industry hates are government websites and their photo collections.  Great public domain photos can be found from U.S. government agency websites.  “The people” own the photos, not any one individual or organization.  USA.gov is a government-operated website that was launched to help U.S. citizens have better access to various government agencies and resources.  Specifically, USA.gov has a page called U.S. Government Photos and Images which contains links to government agency websites that have public domain images.  The diversity of images available is quite impressive.   An off-shoot of that page is the State Photo & Multimedia Galleries which links to public domain images at the State level.

Some of the more notable ones I like and found impressive are listed below:

• NASA Images has space-related photos.
• Our Earth as Art has photos relating to the earth, weather, oceans, and nature.
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library has photos relating to animals, plants, nature, and wildlife.
• NOAA Photo Library has several collections of photos relating to nature, weather, oceans, and wildlife.
• U.S. Department of Defense DefenseLINK has photos relating to the military, war, politics, and the President.
• Library of Congress Geography & Map Reading Room has images relating to historical and current maps.
• National Archives America’s Historical Documents has images relating to history, politics, and historical events.
• National Park Service Digital Image Archives has images relating to nature, history, and national parks around the U.S.

Are you impressed with these websites?  I was.  It is all free and much of it is available in high-resolution.  However, you should realize that not all images from government websites are public domain.  You will need to seek out the image usage rights notices on each website.  As I said USA.gov is a great starting point to a wealth of high-quality public domain photos.

If there are any other great public domain or government photo sites, please let me know and I will add them.  If you have any additional tips to stop using stock photos and boycott the stock photo industry, send them to me and I will incorporate them into this article.

Continue reading »]]> I am happy to announce that Martha Leverett (who has managed my office and accounting for nearly half a decade) and I have decided to join forces to launch Intrepid Bookkeeping Services, a brand-new accounting and bookkeeping service firm in the Columbus, Georgia area.

We have worked quite well over the years and have complementary skills sets. We felt there was a need for a more progressive bookkeeping and accounting firm in our area. It has been my experience that many current firms are not technologically progressive and very conservative in how they operate.

Having embraced used and implemented technology in very creative ways in our own accounting operation, we felt other businesses in our area could benefit from our experience. Since we have a good business reputation and established track record in our area, we are optimistic in finding some great new clients to work with.

The sales description of Intrepid Bookkeeping Services is listed below.

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We provide expert and accurate accounting and bookkeeping services to small businesses in Columbus Georgia (GA) and surrounding areas.

We provide the following bookkeeping and accounting services:

• “After-the-fact” bookkeeping & reports
• Clean up “shoe-box” accounting receipts/paperwork
• Year-end accounting & reports
• Multi-company / multi-business accounting
• Multi-industry accounting expertise
• Payroll check generation and payroll reporting
• QuickBooks & Microsoft Excel accounting & support
• Training & Consulting
• Remote & Long-distance client support
• Small business startup support
• Small business office computer and network setup
• Off-site accounting data backup

We have multi-industry accounting experience!

Look at the wide variety of industries our clients come from:

• Real estate agency accounting
• Property management and landlord accounting
• Building & construction accounting
• Attorney/Lawyer & law firm accounting
• City/Municipal accounting
• Retail & point-of-sale accounting
• Ecommerce & Internet business accounting
• Auto Dealership accounting
• Furniture retail store accounting
• Senior accounting (Accounting for senior citizens & the elderly)
• Trucking accounting
• Storage shed retail and rentals accounting
• Publishing & book sales accounting

Continue reading »]]> It has been no secret that I have had to downsize and make drastic changes to my business since late last year. The credit crunch has certainly taken its toll on me. As we are now well into 2010, I am happy to report that the big changes I made have made a difference.  I am far from making a complete turnaround or comeback but I am happy to say I have a better sense of direction going forward.

One of the big changes is deciding to expand my property management business back to Orlando, FL and to seek out some consulting opportunities. I have also tweaked my business relationships and associations.  Part of my setback was in associating with people who drank the same kool-aid which blinded me to things we should have foreseen.

The people I want to know about my business largely know.  And the people who don’t know, well, it wasn’t a priority for me to let them know.  There is an inner circle and there is everyone else.

I am looking forward to seeing how 2010 turns out.  One thing is for sure, it won’t be boring!

Continue reading »]]> This was first posted on The TurnKey Publisher’s Blog.

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The idea of incorporating video with the book and ebook is a good one.  The idea of tying in Social Media into books is also a good one.

However, from what I have seen from the Simon & Schuster “sample” vook, it is offensive to my sensibilities because, once again, New York publishers are trying to take a proprietary approach to something I believe is relatively simple to implement but trying to lock out other parties.

I am a proponent for the the independent author and publisher who wants to reputably take their work directly to the open market. To date, I have mostly seen “cheese” because people make very little effort to respect some publishing conventions.

I had already made plans to make an announcement on a different note but this whole proprietary vook thing has got me bothered.  I launched “The TurnKey Publisher” series as a direct attack and alternative to the traditional publishing model but now comes the vook.

As such, I feel I need to respond rapidly. I don’t have time to write a book on it, so I am simply taking my proof of concept and giving it away.  Essentially, it is my hope to put a damper to any proprietary vook / video books formats.

On December 1, I will be releasing my non-proprietary version of the vook for FREE.  I will also be providing instructions how to do it for FREE.  My Twitter subscribers will be the first to find out about this. With any luck, people who like what they see will spread the word and rally around this open-implementation of vook.