I was fortunate enough to "meet" Ruth, a new HomeschoolBlogger, through a comment she left on my blog last week.

I went and checked out her business and wow, does it look neat!  Maybe this is what I should do, since I've so little time left to try to scrap myself.  I can see this working well for folks in states that require portfolios of homeschooled students' work. 

Ruth...email me!  I want your business endeavor featured over at Workerette.com and SmallBizMentor.com for a "Meet & Greet"!

My urge for spring cleaning is overflowing everywhere.  Just the other day I took about 8 bags of books to the local library for donation, and I've got tons (well, a pick-up bed full) of household items to donate to a local charity as well.  Got the backyard pretty well cleaned up, so a dump run will take place next week too. 

Bit by bit my home office is being tackled as well.  Old projects I'm no longer participating in are biting the dust (or perhaps becoming the dust, via the shredder) and new projects are being mapped out.  Many of y'all already know I'm a clean desk person, so my things are put away nightly, but this next week will see the closet and drawers totally revamped.

Much of this is brought on by urge, and much of it by need.  Next week a deep cleaning of the house will begin, as I've decided to put it on the market.  (Anybody wanna buy a nice house?  Pretty please?  C'mon, somebody make it easy on me...a nice discount applies for the buyer if I don't have to use an agent!)

Anywho, all that aside, the project and planning urge has spilled over into my work life as well.  Those of you who own or operate small- or home-based businesses should pop by and see me over at SmallBizMentor.com.  Just today I posted the new calendar of "events", so to speak.  Be sure to leave me a comment over there to say hi and share your favorite tips and resources!

Keep an eye on this blog regarding the projects as well...within the next few weeks I'll have something very interesting to share with you...and I'll need YOUR help with future endeavors!

Okay, am I the luckiest gal on the planet or what?  I've got friends building businesses everywhere I turn!  My friend Jess Harvey is bursting at the seams when it comes to cool ideas, and I recently got to peruse my buddy Lisa Barthuly's brand-spankin' new website, Homestead Originals. 

Not only did Lisa tell me about her endeavor (which I got a little sniff of this Christmas when an absolutely incredible candle arrived on my doorstep!), she also agreed to fill out the questionnaire I created for my Know More Media blog efforts.  Soooo, be sure to pop by and read her answers and insights about building her home-based business.  THEN go to her website and order some candles...trust me, you'll love 'em!  (And many of you know how picky I am about that sort of thing!)

Hey everybody!  I just got finished with the posting of an EXCLUSIVE interview with Jessica Harvey, founder of TheHomeCast.com and independent consultant for Once Upon a Family, over at SmallBizMentor.com and Workerette.com! 

Jess is one of my most adored friends and colleagues.  Not only is she a homeschooling momma of two, she's also running two businesses.  Talk about trying to find balance!  If you want to know how Jess does it, what caused her to create TheHomeCast, and what her goals are for her Once Upon a Family endeavors, pop on by today and read her responses to my questionnaire at either SmallBizMentor.com or Workerette.com.

(Small business owners and women in business, if you want some free publicity, be sure to leave me a comment here or at either of my KMM business blogs.  I'll get the questionnaire right out to you in Word format so you can share your insights and expertise too!)

Just a quickie update for those who were wondering about that odd energy bill situation from yesterday.  Today was library day, and when I returned home from the trip, I found I had a message on the good ol' answering machine. 

It was the gent from the energy company, who did get everything situated today as promised.  He apologized again for the delays and explained all is now well, including that the charges that should carry over to my account are in place and the charges that I shouldn't have to cover are remaining on the ex's new account.  Come Friday, billing statements will be issued and all shall be as it should be.  Woohoo!

Good customer service, 1; Bad word-of-mouth ZERO!

Okay, HomeschoolBloggers, I know there are a ton of you here who are freelance writers or owners/operators of small- or home-based businesses.  I want you to join in the fun over at my other blog by contributing your funny home business translations at this post.  A couple of my colleagues from Know More Media have already taken a minute to post their "translations" too.  While every home worker has had moments where what they've said isn't necessarily what they meant, I believe that those of us with kids learning at home will have some great ones too.  Come laugh along with us!

Having spent waaaay too many years in retail management, I've come to appreciate good customer service and loathe bad customer service.  Whenever I encounter the former, I am sure to praise the person (and the supervisor thereof) who provided it.  With the latter, I often have to bite my tongue rather than offer retraining.

Today, however, I came up against a totally new customer service experience...one in which the person who was serving me made me want to serve them! 

There have been some issues over a power bill for my house that was originally in my ex-husband's name and which was recently switched over into my name.  The lady who originally helped me when I assumed the account switched the service address to my name, under a new account, but didn't backdate the account so that I assumed all charges during a certain billing period.  Instead, I received a significantly smaller bill and my ex received a bill for my address AND his own for two billing cycles.  Last week I went and paid the last known bill amount for this address in his name, along with my own bill for this address...but this week he received a letter stating a certain overdue amount was still outstanding (which he had not paid, and I had not yet assumed).  A collections threat was issued to him, which wasn't totally fair...but I still had no bill, and the amount he mentioned was the same as the amount he said his bill should be.  Hmmm...strange!  Needless to say, when I called the energy company I was unsure which amount was truly mine, and which was truly his, since I had just made two very large lump sum distributions to the company already.

Enter the customer service rep who ended up trying to tackle the double billing, dual accounts, multiple service addresses and payments made and due...along with a split cycle due to the error of the rep who first split the account...and payments made by both of us to our accounts over the past week or two.  AUGH.  When the poor guy mentioned he's been having a rough day, I could certainly empathize...and sympathize!  By the end of the 39 minute phone call, he admitted that there were so many things going on that he wanted to just tackle it for me in the morning. 

Enter my confusion.  He was probably three-quarters done.  Should I demand that he complete the changes at the (admitted by him) risk of creating more errors and confusion?  Or should I just trust him and assume that in the morning, when he's reporting to work refreshed and ready to deal with the problem as opposed to at the end of his work day when he's probably handled any number of complaints, snotty customers and computer problems? 

Needless to say, I chose the latter.  He has my cell phone number and promised to fix it all for me tomorrow, first thing, and to call me if he had any questions, concerns or problems.  The next statements will be cut on Friday, so he has a pretty tight timeline here to fix it all as it is...and since he provided excellent service to that point, I am going to trust that he will continue to do so.  And I'll have my bill in a week to verify all the changes. 

Wow.  How did it go from being my problem that my bill was incorrect to being my problem this fellow was having a pretty rough day?  Because it was easy to think of him as a fellow human because of his friendly, helpful manner.  Rather than just being a monotone voice on the other end of the line, he was pleasant, professional, and truly made an effort to solve my problem.  This, in turn, made me want to solve his, though I have no power to do so. 

At the very least, being able to laugh together about "typical Mondays" and not have complaints thrown his way may have made his day, and even week, go a bit smoother.  It's the least we, as consumers, can do, right?

Funny how far a bit of good customer service can go.

Looks like I wasn't the only one who decided to tackle the whole Valentine's Day theme over at TheHomeCast.com this week!

On Monday I decided to post a little entry about getting your greeting cards organized, in honor of all the Valentines that would be swooping into mailboxes this week.  Jess shared why she loves Rachael Ray and Eleanor offered up the "Cs" of homeschooling...a lifestyle she sure loves.

Tuesday Jessica posted a quick, important reminder (Big & Rich fans, tell me what new song this Scripture quote is in!) and Eleanor hit popped out of the Potting Shed with some summer-long flower ideas.  Then of course Kristina was in The Kitchen again, cooking up all sorts of yummy, heart-shaped goodies.  (Funny, no mention of venison straight from the Smokeys, Kristi!  heh heh)  And Anissa got in on the act by helping business owners find their "sweet spot". 

I tell ya what: I can't wait to see what happens come St. Patrick's Day.  You know my fellow Irish lass Eleanor and I will come up with something special.  What do you think the others will do?

Jessica over at TheHomeCast.com was recently interviewed by a fellow from the Tampa Tribune about one of her favorite chefs.  Go read the article then go see Jess!

My dear friend Jess is going to be a red hot commodity.  Want to catch up on this "smaht" lady's ideas?  Read the press release here!

Then go download the podcast at TheHomeCast.com.  Be sure to buy a CD copy of the full interview with Cindy Rushton too...the profits go to a great cause!  Read the details and view Cindy's sweet comment here.  Now that's high praise.