Part of the job of any business owner is to help customers form positive associations with the company, and to ensure that they have a positive experience when buying. The problem is, for every factor over which business owners have control, there are five or six over which they have none.

For those of you who may not know, an "elevator speech" is a short presentation about your project or passion that can be made in the time it would take an elevator to get from the top floor to the first floor of a building. Elevator speeches are generally not more than two or three sentences long. The theory is that an elevator speech should help you pare down your presentation to the core and most important elements and then allow you to articulate those elements in a few sentences.

As many of you who run businesses already know, choosing which suppliers you will work with can be one of the most important decisions you make. A poorly run or organized supplier can slow down your production, cost you countless hours trying to straighten out problems, and may have problems filling orders on time or filling orders at all. The decision to work with a particular supplier should be made after you’ve done some checking, and after you’ve determined what you need from that supplier to make your business succeed.

I may be dating myself here (in fact I'm sure I am), but some years ago there was a commercial, I believe for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, that featured two people who had a collision and ended up mixing their peanut butter and chocolate. The whole point of the commercial was that two things that weren't supposed to work together – in this case chocolate and peanut butter – really could work and even complement each other.

Sometimes, when you search the Internet, it appears that every business has a blog. Individuals have been blogging for a while now, but companies have been slower to get on the bandwagon. Now, it seems, companies both large and small are starting to see the benefits of having a company blog. In the case of some companies, this is a very good thing. For other companies, it hasn't been good at all.

As many of you already know, machine-embroidery businesses come in all shapes and sizes. Some are one-person, one-machine, one-head operations that operate from a spare room. Others are multiple-machine, multiple-head businesses that operate from a warehouse floor. Often companies of many different sizes can be in competition for the same jobs. The businesses that are ultimately successful are the ones that set stand out from the pack. Today, I'd like to discuss a few ways to do that.

Like anyone who has ever been a customer, I tend to notice when customer service is done well, and when it is done poorly. Since part of my job is to oversee customer service for EnMart, I analyze each case to try and figure out how I can take what I've learned and apply it to the customer service our companies provide.

EnMart is exhibiting at eight trade shows (so far) in 2010. In March alone, we exhibited at four shows. Our people, me included, have logged a lot of hours in trade show booths, and we’ve met a large number of people.

The first thing you should know about this blog is why it has the title it has. I’ve named a lot of things in my time, and I always try to find a name that conveys the attitude of the product. In this case, I wanted a name that did three things. The name should 1) specify that I’m talking to a specific group of people who 2) decorate.