Tis the season !!!

                                                      

Edition 121 Monday 19^th December 2011

Hi, Christmas, it can be the best of times and it can be the worst of times ! For six people I know who love it and get right into the spirit there are six who cant wait for it to be over ! For me christmas is about family and in particular the kids. It is a magical time to be a child surrounded by excitement, fun and loving family.I am grateful I have wonderful childhood memories of christmas. I can remember being devastated when Billy Tanner told me at Browns Bay Primary there wasn’t a Santa Claus and searching for hours for Santas sleigh and reindeer in the car park of the Browns Bay RSA at the kids christmas party ! I believe it is our role as adults to create these lifetime memories for the kids in our lives by making sure christmas is a happy, loving family time. As adults therefore we have a responsibility to make this happen at all costs.In some cases this will necessitate us forgiving and forgetting historical ‘family stuff’ that threatens to torpedo the day. Time to bury any bitterness or grudges and to focus on the importance of family and the joy of giving. Life is too short to be left with regrets for not making the effort. This may well be the last christmas some members of your family get to share with you (who knows?) so don’t you be the one responsible for missing the opportunity to be together! To this end our Jones clan will be venturing out West to our shack for Christmas this year and we look forward to hosting for a welcome change. We are looking forward to some annual leave and plan to enjoy the summer on the wild west coast as well as taking in the action at the Tauranga and Mt Maunganui half ironman triathalon events in the new year,

We hope you have a stress free, loving and enjoyable christmas and new year break with friends and family. Thank you for your continued support and feedback, we have loved bringing you the ‘Upbeat’, there is no way we could have sat down 121 times to do just that without every single one of you.

The team at ‘Upbeat are taking a break and will be back on Monday 16^th January 2012.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Clinton, Harry and Boris Jones, Cheers Jonesey !

Harry the festive hound cant wait for his 8^th summer holiday at the beach…surfs up bro!

There are three rules for success: the first is-Go on. The second is-Go on. And the third is –Go on! ………………..Frank Crane

Bob is a chimney sweep and he is a legend !

A what? ……I know you didn’t think they still existed but think again because they still do!

Bob is our local chimney sweep and he has called me at least 20 times over the last 3-4 years. Everytime  he is in our area I will get a call to tell me and ask if I want to take advantage of him being in our neck of the woods.

Each and everytime I have declined hoping Bob would get the message and stop calling but…..religiously he would call me again next time he was in the area.  He would also say stuff like, “when was the last time you had a ‘safety inspection” or “did you know that even log burners get a build up of soot”. These were things that I ignored initially but also things that I couldn’t help thinking about after declining Bobs umpteenth approach to do business. Crikey you couldn’t fault his follow up , persistence or persuasion…….so this weekend when Bob called yet again I finally relented and totally impressed with his follow up, spirit, persistence, persuasion and thick hide I agreed to do business with this modern day ‘Fagan of the West !!.

What a pleasurable and professional experience it turned out to be as Bob and his helper Michael completed their safety check and clean in no time at all. They left the house in pristine condition and even had time to admire my rugby memorabilia and tell me how much I looked like famouse All Black captain Gary Whetton (correct apart from the slight height differential of 300mm) nice one Michael !

Some great lessons here for sales sizzlers,NEVER give in, sell the SIZZLE (safety, insurance, clean burning, compliance, longevity, warm, cosy etc etc). Good example to us all in sales and in life of the importance of some basic sales principles not to mention a clean chimney for the fat fellas visit!!!!!

“Don’t be discouraged.Its often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.”

"Giving a Continental !!!!"

                                                      

Edition 120 Monday 12^th December 2011

Hi, Ive never been that great with measuring things or areas, I always seem to underestimate the room required to fit stuff in. If I do happen to allow enough room then I tend to overlook the room required to get said article to final resting place. That said, I got that familiar sinking feeling on Saturday when I turned up to pick up my latest trademe purchase and realised immediately there was no way it was ever a) going to fit into our allocated area b) or going to be able to fit in any of the entry points to our property!  Crikey! I hate that feeling….you know the one where the payment is electronically past the point of no return and the one heightened by the happy seller as the 5 burley men load the goods( and new problem)on to the trailer of the not so gleeful buyer! A word of advice , always allow more space than what is required! All is not lost however as a fleet footed 11^th hour deal was done with one of the burley male volunteers that now sees him free trialing the scoobey doo ‘chick magnet’/therapeutic/rejuvenating late model spa pool(large!) at his pad in ritzy Ranui Heights. Back to the drawing board on this Christmas project for the Jones Boy for now !

Some good academic progress in the Jones camp of late with niece Stacey graduating and snaring her first teaching position whilst son Mark enrolled on an exciting new tertiary adventure in Sydney!

Hey, its not easy being a ‘Jones’ you know and having to keep one step ahead of you lot !!

I hope you had an awesome weekend trying to keep up all the same and enjoyed being with friends and family. I hope you have a great week ahead, try to stay calm as things get hectic in the lead up to the Christmas/New Year break , take care, have a good one. Cheers Jonesey .

Harry the business hound is disappointed the spa wouldn’t fit, he had told all his mates and he, Kate and Oscar were selling tickets to locals for when we were at work!!!!

“Quality is never an accident; It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”  Continental Stairs Quality statement

I read this statement last week on the wall at Continintal stairs Ltd one of our customers. Before I saw this statement I knew there was something different about this business. Businesses have a look and feel about them from the moment you get involved. It can be by phone or physically but a business that is focused on customers and quality will engage and capture you immediately.

Invariably that engagement will be through that business’s most valuable asset…… its people. Their enthusiasm and their energy levels will be a clear indication of how good they are to deal with, how successful they are and the quality of their service and their products.

Continental Stairs run a slick operation in a competitive market sector, they are a family owned business with a commitment to their people and the quality of their service and their products.

This is a successful recipe for any business, ask Don Braid the General Manager of Mainfreight one of New Zealands most successful home grown companies.

He is New Zealands ‘Business Leader of the Year’ for 2011 and just like the team at Continental Stairs his philosophy is all about investment in people, service and quality!

Mainfreaight have expanded worldwide and continue to experience annual double digit growth, recession, what recession? is the question they pose as they close in on the $2billion turnover mark for this financial year. Not bad for a bloke(Bruce Pleisted) who started the business from home in the 70’s with $7500 and an old Bedford truck !

Neither Bruce or Don have  a reserved car park or an office in the Mainfreight car park or head office, they slot in just like the rest of their team ready to do what it takes to deliver quality service.

Setting a great example for their team and to those of us who are striving to deliver a similar outcome……..good luck on the journey.

“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with quality.”

Running Happy !!!!

                                                      

Edition 119 Monday 5^th December 2011

Hi,its hard to beat the smell of freshly chopped pine from our ‘real’ christmas tree that will fill the house with a forest floor fragrance for the entire festive season. It is a smell synonomous with Christmas and the annual first weekend in December tree hunting mission. Our ‘local tree man’ features personal tree selection and chopping from a large field where your tree is replaced with another seedling as you remove it which is kinda cool in a sustainable green sort of way (this green gorilla is saving the planet).Into the trusty truck and off home to painstakingly erect, trim, straighten, shift, adjust, trim, straighten, decorate and redecorate!! it is all so exciting and soooo christmas. Staying on the end of year christmas get sorted mode/trend/theme I ever so slightly loosened the purse strings over the last week and replaced a pair of work shoes and my beloved Brooks Adrenaline runners ,my best mates(apart from Harry & Oscar) for 30km of fun every week! Once I got over saying goodbye to the old pair I couldn’t believe how amazing owning some new shoes made me feel (no wonder some people have so many pairs!!). We headed to the big smoke with every other Westie on Saturday night where we screamed(and sweated) the night away with Aussie rockers Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel! You know you are getting old when you have trouble tolerating a crowd for a couple of hours and with that this slightly grumpy old man admired Jimmy and the boys for making a better fist of it than he did ! I hope you all had a chillaxing(my word of the week) first December weekend spending time with friends and family as we all look forward to another big week. Have a happy and successful time, cheers Jonesey!

Harry the jogging hound would love someone to invent some runners for hounds!!!! (harden up mate)

“Every runner has a dream. A dream of the ideal run. Our job is to make it come true.

This isnt just a pair of the worlds finest shoes. Its our passion. What you see here is the result of paradigm-shifting technologies that have been tested and re-tested (again and again). Years of research on fit,ride, comfort and biomechanics and an almost frightening obsession with every last detail.

Brooks mission is to deliver ‘the perfect ride for every stride’ . Tucked with care in this box is your ‘Run Happy’ revelation. Go set it free!”…… Brooks running company passionate mission

We are all customers with wants , needs , likes and dislikes. If you are anything like me you will pretty much be a creature of habit and you will have favorite labels and proven winners when it comes to purchasing things.

Running shoes are  definitely a good example of this for me. I bought my first pair of Brooks running shoes over 10 years ago and the love affair has flourished ever since. I was captivated by their commitment to what they do and from day one I felt like I was important to them and an integral part of their quest , their frightening obsession with every last detail. I accepted their invitation to let them know what was important to me as a consumer, a customer and above all else ‘a runner’. I pay extra to own a pair of Brooks, it is something I think we all need to strive to get our customers to do. The ‘Run Happy’ battle cry and the ‘perfect ride for every stride’ mission that every pair of shoes is designed to achieve gives me as the wearer a sense of responsibility and ownership for helping ‘my brand’ win that race.

It is something I think we all need to concentrate on getting our customers to buy into with our own brands. We are striving to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of our customers by providing them environmentally sustainable solutions to their waste removal requirements. We are part way there but we have some way to go before our customers feel the way about Green Gorilla as I do about owning a pair of Brooks Adrenaline runners….how do your customers feel about your company and its products?, a good time to ask them and establish why…..good luck with that…have a good one !!

Passion “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.” Helen Keller