Category Archives: business

Dec19

the doing.

Posted on December 19, 2025 by beth

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oh, the joy of looking through the christmas catalog

asking santa and opening up

exactly what i’d hoped for on christmas morning

I was going to make my own candy!

eat as much as I wanted

start selling it

make my fortune

I was just ten

the world was my oyster

while it didn’t work out exactly as planned

i had a blast creating my incredible edibles

they didn’t taste great

a cross between sugar and rubber

forgot I needed an income

to buy more of the stuff to make the goo

similar to my ill-fated earlier business plans:

1. my bakery plan when I got my easy bake oven

with no funding for more cake mixes

and it took a long time to bake a cake with a light bulb

2. my spider breeding in my garage plan

when no one wanted to buy them

after seeing lots of webs in the corners there

but I didn’t actually

know how to breed spiders

3. my stamp collection plan

where I licked them to put them in my book

because they were pretty

and they immediately lost all value

4. my taking things from my big sister’s’ room to sell to my neighbors plan

except that my sister saw them for sale on the table in our driveway

the stand quickly got shut down after my mom was alerted

and I got in trouble.

–

all of this has not dampened my entrepreneurial spirit however.

perhaps

I have just not hit upon quite the right business model as of yet

and it was probably good that I got a job as a teacher.

—

‘the gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.’

-james dean

Aug15

superior service.

Posted on August 15, 2025 by beth

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while recently at my friend’s lake house

we made this beautiful puzzle

of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

she purchased during her recent visit to the northern regions

beautifully made of wood, precision cut, and challenging

but together we managed to complete the puzzle

except

for one piece

that I tried to jam in

I broke it

our ‘gluer’ didn’t put it back together quite right

so we accepted that it was finished without it

but I felt bad

so I wrote to the company

to see if they could possibly replace the piece

I took photos of it and where it was supposed to be

always worth a shot

the artist who made the puzzle

also the company owner

said she would replace it

(talk about customer service!)

I thanked her

excitedly waited for the piece to arrive

within days it showed up at my house

what should arrive at my house

all the way from the upper peninsula

but an entire puzzle

at no charge

from the artist herself

as her and her husband

are the small business owners

of their own family owned company

she is a Ukranian artist

who makes the puzzles

among many other things

he is an American veteran

I was so amazed by their kindness

that I’d like to publicly thank them here

by sharing a connection to their business

I will certainly buy puzzles from them myself

thank you again for reminding me

that there are wonderful people out there in the world

and for your beautiful work

(all links are below)

Artist, Kateryna Nelson

https://www.facebook.com/artfactorytwinportsWIMNMI

https://www.artfactorytwinports.com/shopall

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtFactoryTwinPorts

artfactorytwinports.com

Gwinn, MI, United States
artfactorysuperior@Gmail.com

—

“customer service is an opportunity to exceed your customer’s expectations.”

-John Jantsch

*John Jantsch is an author, speaker, and marketing consultant who specializes in assisting small businesses. He is the author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, and The Commitment Engine.

Jul19

earning for learning.

Posted on July 19, 2025 by beth

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Saline tween turns rocks into college fund:

Eleven-year-old Tucker Lambert hopes money earned from his startup – he digs rocks out of neighboring farm fields and sells them to landscapers – will pay for him to attend the University of Michigan, M-Live reports.

The rocks, if left in the ground, would damage farm equipment, so Tucker digs them out and sells them from $1 to $50 depending on the size.

Customers can buy the rocks by setting up an appointment with his father. If you don’t need any rocks, you are welcome to contribute to his GoFundMe campaign here.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/tuckers-rocks

Tucker’s Rocks est. 2024 Rocks, Stones Boulders, Landscaping Rocks

From Dad:

My 11 year old son has collected rocks for 2 years now. Tucker is a very busy young man. He collects the rocks from local farmers’ fields. He sells these to save money for his future college fund.

Tucker does all this with one four wheeler and one wagon. He digs the rocks out with a shovel. He is a small operation, located in Saline, Michigan.

—

“build your house on the rock of learning;

no one can take your education away from you.”

– john spence