Godiva Chocolates

Do you and your friends often ask each other, what you can do to make your marriage last? To make it last and to make it better, isn't all that difficult. You must want it to last and remember the Golden Rule. Do not treat or speak to your spouse in a way you would not enjoy. Next, must come the surprises. Not a card and candy on Valentine's Day, it is boring, expected and mundane. Besides, you have sent flowers many times, even to where she works; her co-workers knows that someone cares and she get "bragging rights". Women love bragging rights.

You have also left unexpected messages after a tough day. Or, just doing some chores you don't usually do, without being asked. You consistently give compliments and reassurance too, and not just when you "want something". You are known for a surprise dinner or breakfast; whether you cook it or go out. You make time just for yourselves and communicate. Flowers or a card for no reason, are given and sent. You will pick up the dry cleaning or the kids when it's not your turn. You are the type of man who will do the unexpected to remind yourself why you fell in love in the first place. You know it will only get stale if you let it.

It's Valentine's Day 2007 and you really want to 'knock her footies' off! Here's an idea. It will take some planning but you are up for it. It will make your sweetheart feel loved and appreciated for months, even years to come.

Here's a step by step plan for a Valentine's Day neither of you will ever forget!

1. Call the office and arrange to have the day off for her. Tell them she's likely to come to work for a few hours but do not mention anything to her. You are to take the day off, too. Have your calls sent to your mobile because she's going to call you for sure! 2. Arrange a sleepover for the kids that night. But more on that later. If no kids, disregard everything relating to the kids from here forward.

3. Call to have a cleaning service clean the house. Tell them to arrive promptly at 8:30AM. You'll be home while someone is there.

4. Call and hire a limousine for the day. The driver is to be her chauffeur, bodyguard and personal attendant for the day! Fax or email them the day's itinerary. Request fresh fruit, chilled San Pellegrino and sparkling cider with 8 champagne flutes be available. Order at least 4 bottles of the water and 2 of the sparkling cider.

5. Call a florist an order two-dozen red and one-dozen yellow roses. Have the red roses picked up by the limo driver.

The driver will deliver red roses to her at work when he picks her up.
The yellow ones will be delivered to you home.
And the other red roses will be picked up by the driver before getting you.
You are to go to the Jewelers (something sparkly), Victoria's Secret (sexy lingerie and a bathrobe, each wrapped separately) and her favorite boutique in the Mall (something semi-formal and sexy) at least a week before Valentine's Day and select the items of your choice for her.
Have them gift-wrapped.
Request a long stem red rose be given to her when she arrives at each store, with a love note that you have written.
They'll do this for you just ask! Remember to tip them handsomely! Your note tells her of your love and instructions not to open each gift until she receives a note to do so.
Also, buy a box of Godiva chocolate for the kids from the two of you; and for her, from the kids. If no kids, give it her from you.
Take the kids to buy Mom's card the weekend before Valentine's Day. Don't tell them about the other surprises. There's something for them, too.

6. Call a Day Spa and arrange a manicure, pedicure, cut & shampoo, massage, facial and makeover. Have a single long stem red rose given to her as she signs in at the desk. Set this up for 12:00PM. Instruct them to give her the one-hour massage first followed by lunch, which is being brought in, then the manicure and pedicure, the cut & shampoo, facial and makeover.

7. Call a Personal Chef and arrange to have dinner prepared and served at your home promptly at 6:00PM. Have him prepare her favorite entrée and dinner, dessert and bottle of wine or San Pellegrino if she doesn't drink. You will meet and interview the chef before 'the day' and be there to let him in to help you work your magic. Have the chef prepare a light lunch for her also and have it delivered to the Day Spa at 1:00PM.

Items #1 through #7 are arranged at least two weeks in advance. It's Valentine's Day and here is how it all unfolds:
05:30AM You get up half hour earlier and serve your wife breakfast in bed. This and having the kids bring their cards to her will be the only unusual thing taking place that morning. Don't forget to give her your card, too. Get everyone out on time and you return home after you are certain she has left.

08:30AM Cleaning lady arrives.

10:00AM Limo driver picks up red roses from florist.

10:30AM Limo driver picks up your sweetheart from work, taking her roses and a card. He goes inside and asks for her. He escorts her to limo and whisks her off to the beginning of a most memorable day arranged by you!

11:00AM Wife arrives at the Mall. Limo driver takes her to Geiss and Son's Jewelers where she receives a long-stem red rose, a wrapped gift and note from you expressing your love and instructions not to open gift until later.

She is escorted to Victoria's Secret and receives the same as above.
She is then escorted to Cachet's and receives the same as above.




11:30AM Wife is back in the limo and beside herself with glee! She's called you, how many times by now?

12:00PM Wife arrives at the Day Spa. She receives a long-stem red rose with a card from you. This card tells her to open the box marked, "open me now" from Victoria's Secret. She unwraps a lovely bathrobe for her luxurious afternoon at the spa. They will carry out your wishes as given to them. The pampering begins with a deep tissue massage.

01:00PM Wife is enjoying lunch at the spa in her new bathrobe. (She's in a private room. Don't be alarmed!)

01:30PM The pampering continues . . .(manicure, pedicure, cut & shampoo, facial and makeover) Meanwhile . . .

Your house has been cleaned and the cleaning lady's gone.
The yellow roses have been delivered by the florist.
Your dark suit, white shirt and burgundy tie have been ready for this day! (You're looking GQ or Brooks Brothers-like, for sure!)
The driver will pick up the red roses before picking you up from your house.
You've packed the kid's overnight duffle bags, not forgetting their school clothes for the next school day or the Godiva chocolates.



02:00PM Personal Chef arrives and begins his preparations.

03:00PM You are picked up by the driver from your home; bringing the roses, chocolates and duffle bags with you. The chef is left to help make this a magical day for your sweetheart.

03:30PM Kids are picked up from school and taken for an excursion in the limo! Give each of them the chocolate with their Valentine's Day card. Fill them in on Mom's day! Enjoy sparkling cider in champagne flutes with them. Make a toast! See the city as a tourist or let the kids show off for their friends!

04:30PM You and the kids arrive at the Day Spa. All of you go inside with roses and chocolate in hand, to get Mom. She's radiant in the jewelry and dress you selected for her! You and the kids escort Mom to the limo.

05:15PM Make another toast with the family as the kids are driven to where they will spend the night.

06:00PM You and your wife arrive to your home promptly. The driver is tipped handsomely and leaves.

You and she enter your home, candlelight and a path of rose petals make a trail to the dining room and your bedroom. (You know how to keep the home fires burning! You only wanted a suggestion for an extra special Valentine's Day 2007!) Go, you! A very romantic touch! (You had these delivered with the yellow roses to your home.)
Soft music is playing. The chef takes the roses and packages from her as you take her to the family room for a slow dance. You share a kiss.
You escort her to the dining room and is served a romantic, scrumptious candlelight dinner and dessert.
You're wondering how she looks in that sexy underwear and lingerie.


I guess it is time to dismiss the chef and me. Before I leave, I know you want to thank me for giving you a 'sweetheart' of a plan. She's the most beautiful girl in the world to you. You love her with your heart, mind, body and soul. You would be this extravagant every day but you know it is not necessary. She loves and accepts you without all the fanfare. But . . . you will have added not only to her bragging rights but to her thanks to God, yet again, for the best husband and father in the world! Keep Him and each other first and it will last. You can tell her where the idea came or not. It can be our secret. Do you wonder how you'll top this next year? Ask me, I would love to help!

Note: This plan can be adapted for a stay-at-home Mom or retired wife, any day of the year and from a wife to her husband, very easily.

guitar amp stands

Here are 13 marketing ideas that if properly executed, will improve your sales results... GUARANTEED! This is good news; so don't waste money doing useless marketing when you can spend it wisely. Yes, the devil is in the details, but if you don't take some time to look at your plan you will fail, even the Cheshire cat knew that.

#1. Create a marketing/business plan for a 12-month period. Your plan can be simple, but it should provide a road map for your marketing. Project the number of homes you want to sell this year and then determine your marketing budget. It should be at least 5% and rarely more than 10% of your gross revenue. Now you know what you can afford to spend. Any plan is dynamic and can change, but revising a plan is better than a knee-jerk reaction from a lack of planning. Don't forget expenses like Realtor sales co-ops, model home expenses, literature, media, and point-of-purchase displays and plan renderings...

#2. If you still have standing inventory, make sure you have good Realtor relationships. Realtors often control between 70-85% of all home sales in a market, particularly standing inventory homes. Since Realtors are occasionally hesitant to sell to-be-built homes, relos are often very good prospects for speculative homes. So make sure you are getting a brochure, e-mail or something into the Realtors hands on a regular basis since they generally control the relo market.

#3. One of the most overlooked but cost effective tools are small 14" x 22" directional signs. These signs are without a doubt the best dollar for dollar value for builders. The sign should only have a directional arrow, your company/community name and a product designation (townhomes, single-family homes). That's it, just simple directional information. It's not fancy, big design stuff here, just a plain sign that clearly communicates directions. The job of a directional sign is to communicate directions!

#4. If you don't have a website, go out and immediately have one professionally created. The cost ranges from $3,000-$10,000 depending upon complexity. According to recent statistics, as many as 70%-85% of all new home searches begin on the web. The three keys to a successful site are: navigational ease, design strength, and upload speed. Don't overdue it. Complex websites are often too slow, difficult to navigate and worst of all expensive. Start out simple and just get online... it's imperative so do it now!

#5. Do not rely on search engines for customers to find your site! Too many builders believe that coming up in the top 10 of a search engine is easy, it's not. I know all about those emails you get saying, "we guarantee you will remain in the top 10 of three search engines for at least one year." Most of those people are lying to you! Market your URL everywhere you spend marketing money and utilize portals such as move.com and newhomesource.com. Prices run as low as $135 per office a month and these sites will drive you leads.

#6. What candy bar fills you up? What car is the safest? Who delivers pizza in 30 minutes or less? Which chocolate will you give a client, Hershey's or Godiva? Every question adds up to one often overlooked marketing concept: the unique selling proposition (USP). You must understand your USP if you want to increase sales. Your USP is a marketing message that clearly communicates your product's most distinctive and compelling selling point. It will answer the question, "Why should I buy from this builder?" As builders there are several USPs you need to consider. You must continually market the USP of your business in order to maintain and improve your brand image. This is a long-term effort that generally does not produce traffic to sales centers. It is subtler, yet effective in building brand. The second, and I believe most important USP, is the one you have for each individual community you market. The USP for every community you build in can be very different because the target market is also very different. You must understand your audience and formulate a USP based on their real needs and desires, not your concept of what they want.

#7. Create professional advertisements. You must understand that the 18-year old at the local paper may have twelve ounces of design judgment, but they probably don't have an ounce of wisdom concerning ad creation for the building business. Your ad may be the only chance you will ever have to attract that potential client, will you trust it to someone without the experience necessary to truly hit the target. Make sure once you understand your USP; state it powerfully in the headline, and reinforce it in subheads and body copy. Tie the graphic to the headline to reinforce and empower the presentation. Spend the money to do your advertising professionally.

#8. Clean up your home sites. Many buyers visit your homes when you're not there. So it's very important to put a good face on what they see. Clean up the inside and outside of your homes every Friday so the site doesn't leave you looking shoddy, sloppy and disorganized. Perception is reality! If you are perceived as sloppy and disorganized by visiting prospects, you are sloppy and disorganized to the person who believes it: the customer you may lose.

#9. Good site signage is worth every dollar you spend. If your site signs are getting ratty looking, invest some money and get new ones. Once again, these small oversights are glaring clues to prospects about how you do business. A sign can communicate, "we don't care about the details," or "the details are very important to us." Put the best possible face on your marketing.

#10. Maintain consistency in your marketing message. That means the same colors, shapes, logo, and tag line if you use one, should be used everywhere: trucks, hats, signs, coffee cups, brochures, etc. Inconsistent imagery creates disjointed marketing and reduces the effective brand value. Take the time to create a palette of correct imagery and use it. It will pay off in the long run.

#11. If you can't afford a model home, but build speculative homes, try these ideas. Arrange a special Realtor event just before settlement with a light lunch so the local agents can get a taste of your construction quality and have an opportunity to meet with you personally. Make sure you open the home for an open house (without carpet or with additional carpet protection) the week before you settle. Keep a brochure box filled with company literature in an obvious place during construction. Ask the new owner for permission to put a small sign out front that says, "Future Home of Mr. and Mrs. Young." These small gestures will produce results if performed consistently.

#12. It's spring and that's the best possible time to get great photos of your homes. Take the time and money to get 3-5 great shots of your beautiful homes at least once a year. Always get photos of your homes for marketing use, preferably with nice landscaping and after the homeowner has occupied the house. If you do this you should always get a written approval from the homeowner to use the home in ads or brochures.

#13. Good marketing is a series of often-small steps that will help you grow your building business from a mom and pop shop to a successful building business or from 75 houses a year to 150. If you add a little to a little long enough you get a lot. Pay attention to the small marketing points and the larger ones will take care of themselves.

airplane weathervanes

The end of the year is almost here and the time to plan a holiday/end of the year bash at work has arrived!

This year, you're in charge-what are you going to do?

Whatever you do-don't bring in some balloons and fast food and a keg of beer!

There are so many fun ways to have a great end-of-the-year work celebration-and without that much effort on your part either.

Here are some that I personally have been to and had the most fun attending:

A few years ago, the owners of our business decided we should all do something more than eat dinner and go home. They wanted something interactive that would get us all talking about something other than what we did all day at the "9 to 5" location.

What did they do? Where did they go? Not far from our business was an "entertainment" mall. You know the kind-a multi-plex theater, at least a dozen restaurants and shops to go into. One of the venues was a theme restaurant called Dave and Busters-they rented one of the open-yet-set-apart areas for all of us. The package they chose came with a buffet dinner, 2 drinks from the bar and $15 dollars worth of tokens each. The tokens could be used to play video games, indoor basketball, games of pool, group wifi games, etc...

We all had a blast! We found a new camaraderie that we never knew existed. We talked to one another's spouse, talked about our families and our outside interests. Then we took the tickets we won and went to the "gift" area and picked out a bunch of silly gifts.

It was a fun and memorable evening!

Another year at the same firm, the owners found a bowling alley that not only rented us several lanes, but set up a "tournament", an appetizer bar and a soft drink/beer bar. The winner of the tournament received 2 free sets of bowling for 4 at their next visit and the owners added an extra vacation day to the pot. Again, this made our group closer than before and raised our working moral!

If your business is part of the vast majority who have to cut back on celebrations this year-try hosting a potluck and "Pageant of the Regift"! Everyone does the usual for the potluck, but everyone brings something from home-unwrapped, puts their name in a hat and then start handing out the gifts. It's a great way to get rid of Aunt Sadie's homemade knit bunny hat or Grandma's hand-painted jam jar. It provides a good laugh for one and all!

Now the last idea is a slight re-make on the actual theme that the company I worked for did-our bosses always received a lot of gifts from vendors, everything from flat screen TV's to plastic key chains. So, they still would call it the "Pageant of the Regift", but they would start with the "best" gifts and work down the "worst" items. One year I received a 5 pound jar of pistachios and a vendor stamped coffee mug set. Another, I received a "spa" set (wash puff, back scrubber, a hot/cold eye mask and several scented candles), a box of Godiva chocolates and the all important vendor stamped new mouse pad!

The point is-make your year-end get-together one that brings your work buddies together and gives everyone a different point of view as to who you are and how much fun you can have!

Happy Holidays!

green bean casserole

Godiva is a 10 month Birman chocolate point kitten playing with a piece of yarn.

Bikini Brief

TV Commercial on Asian Food Channel (Channel 69)Singapore Editor : Sebastian Ting Produce & Post Production at AFC

Hydrofarm

:)

woodstock chimes steering knuckle chocolate trivia

Valentine's Day is just around the corner guys and I want to give you suggestions for the best gifts to give women to make a lasting impression on her. This is a very important and special day for women and any special gifts you give her will win her heart.

A lot of guys are confused as to what to get a woman for Valentine's Day. They may just take the easy way out and just get flowers or a romantic card. Well, you can do better than that. You want to stand out from the rest of the guys. In other words, you want to impress her so much, she will never forget you.

Here's a list of gift ideas for Valentine's Day that are guaranteed to win her heart:

Gift certificate for a manicure or pedicure.

Find out her favorite color of roses and surprise her with a bouquet of roses.

All women love chocolate, so a box of Godiva chocolates would be an excellent gift.

Starbucks gift certificate.

Most women love to wear lingerie. It makes them feel sexy. Get her a gift certificate for a lingerie store such as Victoria's Secret.
Movie theatre tickets or tickets for an upcoming concert would be a good gift.

Sterling silver anklet or bracelet is sure to impress.

You can't go wrong by giving her scented candles. They love them!
Women love to take bubble baths. Buy her some bubble bath. Hopefully, you can join her in the tub to soak in the bubbles, if you know what I mean.

Ambercrombie & Fitch T-Shirt or Sweatshirt.

There you have it! Now go out and get her something. These gifts don't necessarily have to be with your sweetheart. They can be for someone who you wish was your sweetheart.

peanut butter jelly time