Tony Brewer

Have you ever even heard of the term virtual office space?  Neither had I, until yesterday.  We had a big office conference meeting yesterday; the topic of discussion was about expanding the business into different marketing areas while minimizing the expenses.  One of the participants in the meeting brought up the suggestion that the company consider using a virtual office space.

She explained that with a virtual office space, our company would, in essence, outsource the basic office needs to another company.  The company she was familiar with is called Davinci.  They have hundreds of office locations throughout the United States.  Their services include providing their customers with live receptionist service, access to conference rooms for meetings, and a variety of other business associated services such as toll-free or local telephone and fax numbers, electronic fax, online command center, email, digital voicemail, fax to email, voicemail to email, unified messaging, call screening and forwarding, outbound calling, order taking, and customer service.

This is a solution that a lot of companies have been using when they are considering expanding into an area without making a large investment early on, setting up a test market area.

The receptionist does not just answer calls and takes messages, but also schedules appointments and is well versed on the company so the receptionist can also answer questions about the business that he/she is representing.  Part of the service includes being able to use their locations as a physical office address for the purpose of printing on business cards, and being able to use their conference rooms for meeting with clients.

I went onto the website of the Davinci company after the meeting to see where their locations are; they have about ten different office locations in the general area that our business is considering expanding into.  So I think that this is a definite possibility.

I was glad to read on the BBC website that twenty two people have been arrested so far in conjunction with the tainted milk scandal in China. According to the story, nineteen of those arrested are managers of pastures, breeding farms, and milk purchasing stations.

The story goes on that they have discovered underground locations where the melamine was being produced, and it quotes one of the men arrested as saying that he was using the “protein powder” so that his milk would meet the protein standards of the milk company he was selling his milk to.

Is it even possible that these people are/were so ignorant that they really thought it was simply a protein powder and not a deadly toxin?

I was listening to a radio show yesterday while I was driving to a doctor’s appointment and the two announcers were talking about how they save money on groceries by using grocery coupons.  The conversation started when one of them was reading a news story about how the majority of consumers don’t use coupons at the grocery store because they feel that there is a negative social stigma associated with using coupons.  They were surmising that the negative social stigma was that the people in line around them would think that they are being “cheap” when using grocery coupons.

My own mother refused for years to use coupons; she insisted that the only people that used coupons were “poor” people, and she refused to “be poor.”  A few years ago I had to work really hard to suppress a laughing fit when she was complaining to me that she was having financial difficulties and was now resorting to “cutting out food stamps” from the Sunday paper sales fliers.  I told her that food stamps you have to sign up for through the government, what she was cutting out were coupons and that meant that she was smart, not poor.  I told her that I’ve been cutting out coupons ever since I’ve been on my own, and that you can save a lot of money with coupons.  I don’t think it means you are cheap, or poor, simply smart!

One of the newest ways that I’ve learned to maximize that savings with coupons is with the website called thegrocerygame.com.  This is a type of club that you join, and have to pay $10 every two months for membership.  You do get the first month for free to see if you like it, and if it saves you money.  The club sends you information each month that helps you to maximize your savings by matching up coupons and deals at the participating grocery stores that are local to where you live.

I’ve been reading conflicting reports on why drinking bottled water is a bad idea. Some reports say that if the bottled water gets too cold the plastic will leach toxic chemicals into the water, some say it will happen if it gets too hot. I don’t know what the truth is there, do you?

For me it really doesn’t matter very much, I bring my own tap water with me to drink. I just can’t justify spending a couple of dollars on water when I get it for free at home!  And by bringing my own water, I don’t have to feel guilty about filling up landfills with plastic bottles, or trying to find a place to take them to recycle them.

We are going to be having our annual weekend long company retreat next month.  The company rents out about a dozen cabins in the woods on a lake and we spend the weekend together “bonding.”  What is nice about the retreats is that it is a forced mini-vacation and we all have to stop the hustle and bustle of trying to make a buck and just relax for a while and get to know each other in an environment that is not as stressful as the workday can be. The weekend will be full of fishing and hiking and horseback riding and canoeing, and just relaxing around community meals. I hope it will be a really good time. Every retreat I’ve ever gone to has resulting in the employees getting along better at work, so I think it is a good investment in time and money.  At the end of the retreat, the employees will be getting their annual bonuses, and that’s always a mood picker-upper!

This year I’ve been the person assigned to order some customized apparel to hand out to the employees to wear during and after the retreat.  I’m going to order some custom design t-shirts from the designashirt.com website.

I found their website today as I was looking for a company to order shirts from, and was impressed with their selection of high quality apparel and the sheer number of options for customizing the apparel. In addition to T-shirts they also sell polo shirts, denim shirts, and button down shirts. I was thinking about ordering button down shirts but then I got to thinking that we wear enough of them during the work week! They also sell some really nice quality hooded Hanes sweatshirts, and I’m thinking that maybe I’ll talk to the boss about springing for a little bit of extra money to pay for sweatshirts too!