An ounce of thanks

Is there any better time to say thank you than the present moment? Over the past 19 years of our business, I have been amazed over and over at the generosity and kindness of our customers. With a tough economy and lots of other great businesses out there, our phone continues to ring and business flows.

It is always a good time to remember to say thank you. For without you where would we be? In return we hope you feel confident knowing we are always just a phone call away. Ours is not a big company but what it lacks in size we make up in heart. We take our work personally, we do our very best to help out, even if it means referring you to another company. Having happy customers and the satisfaction of a job well done is pretty much what we shoot for.

Currently, I'm taking a online class from South Seattle Community College on Online business. My class assignment was to find our business a tag line. Do you think 'thanks" would work? As I was contemplating tag lines, here are the words that came to mind: confidence, honestly, relaxed, personal, experience, gratitude, fun and helpful. It's not a tag line but maybe those words that come to mind are what keeps us in business. We may not have the best web presence, I don't even write to you for web presence. Our business is more like conversations between friends. I hope remembering to say thanks is always part of those conversations!

with our deepest gratitude, we wish you a happy and healthy home,
Denise

Blue Sky Services

A long overdue desicion- no training wheels.

This spring, Dallas and I are taking our training wheels off our business. Most of you know 90%+ of our business comes from word of mouth, return customers or just people who meet us along the way. Our phone book adds maybe give us 3-4% of our work. Every month we send a check to a company in Iowa for that add. The folks in Iowa don't know anything about us, our business or even our community.

Why do we keep the phone book adds? I know it seems crazy. I guess it's because that's what most businesses do. Each year when we meet with the add companies it feels like no one will ever call if we don't have an add. You would think after 19 years with our great clients/referrals we would know better, but still it seems like we are jumping without a net.

This year we decided we are not going to renew any more phone book adds. We'll stay listed in case you need to find us. But we are going to focus on our strengths, making our business as personal as it is.

It feels a little like peddling your bike for the first time without training wheels. Once you get over the panic of no little wheels to hold you up, its kind of exciting and exhilarating. We might as well have fun and take a little risk-which is probably no risk at all. This is just a decision long over due.