Oak Biz Blog - Oakland County Small Business Blog

PC Buyer's Agent puts computer buyers, not sellers, in control

2010-07-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Mike Whelan knows that most people would rather go to the dentist or make a speech then purchase a desktop or laptop computer.

The Rochester Hills technologist has empowered tech buyers as the first "PC's Buyer Agent." Whelan's goal is to advise and make highly personal recommendations for each specific user. "I guarantee you WILL get insider objective advice from an industry veteran who's only incentive is your total satisfaction with your new PC."

After each consultation, he then directs buyers to use his name brand manufacture direct resources, which results in significant savings over the costs of retail or Internet buying. As a result, PC Buyer's Agent customer have a personalized experience from start to finish which delivers the computer they want at a price that's better then wholesale.

To learn how this process work, go to http://www.pcbuyersagent.com/ or call Mike directly at 248-559-1001.

Thank You For Your Patience ... We Will Be Back July 26th

2010-07-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

I wound up taking an unforeseen hiatus from this blog. I want to invite you back starting July 26th for more the profiles and stories of business owners, professionals and leaders in and around Oakland County. Thank you for understanding. All the best ... always!

The Primacy Club brings members the good life for less.

2010-06-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

Ken Peterson feels there is a better way to experience the good life and not spend lavishly to enjoy it.

As founder of The Primacy Club, group members have access to yachts, luxury motor coaches, touring motorcycles and premium sports cars. "We're offering people an opportunity to enjoy all the major toys, with 75% off the on their cost and none of the upkeep or maintenance," said Peterson.

Through their Shared Equity Lease program, The Primacy Club members have a three year access to their choice of these premium leisure time assets. Peterson has partnered with leading retailers to deliver new, well maintained premium products for his members. Members see a return of their share of the asset‘s residual value once the lease term is over. Prospective members are required to submit an application fee and submit to a background investigation.

For further information, go to www.theprimacyclub.com or call (888) 842-8280.

Third Thursday Invites Everyone To Come Celebrate Fifth Anniversary

2010-06-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

Five years ago this June, fifteen friends joined Dean La Douceur for lunch and a chance to network about their businesses. This monthly meet up has grown in to The Third Thursday Round Table, one of the most popular open business networking events in Southeast Michigan.

Everyone is invited to attend a fifth anniversary celebration of The Third Thursday Round Table; to be held on Thursday June 17th from 11:30 to 1:30 pm at Shields Restaurant 1476 Maple Road in Troy.

Dean, host and President of Rochester Hills based Round Table Promotions and Publicity, will mark the occasion by sharing six marketing, promotions and publicity strategies he has learned from hosting his event which business professionals can use right now. Special guest local singer/songwriter and musician Laura Jean will also perform.

Bonnie Caprara wrote an outstanding article about this event in January 2010 for The Oakland Press: http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/01/03/news/local_news/doc4b40358290cd2145652313.txt

Event admission is only $10, plus one’s own meal, beverage, and gratuity ordered off Shield's lunch menu. Limited Seating Is Available - Reserve your seat by purchasing room admissions in advance at http://www.roundtablepandp.com/tickets or call 248-383-5793 for more information.

How Important Is Clean To Your Company?

2010-06-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

Are business owners seeing cleaning and janitorial services as a luxury more than a necessity? One casualty of the current economic downturn appears to be commercial and office cleaning services.

One retail service provider I know requires their staff to specifically clean for the last 15-20 minutes of each shift. Management has used the promise hiring of an outside cleaning crew as a carrot in front of their staff to achieve certain marketing and performance goals.

I was recently introduced to CoverAll, which promotes itself as a Health-Based Cleaning Service. In addition to providing clean and attractive facilities, CoverAll prides itself on eliminating the germs and contamination that can be a underlying cause of illness. Their mission is to provide a combination of national research and resources with local ownership to carry out the cleaning.

CoverAll’s Northville service center serves our area. For information on how to use their services, how to become a franchisee or if you are an existing cleaning company looking to sell them your book of business, go to http://www.coverall.com/ or call 248-349-4505.

Your Legal Resource makes valuable legal connections.

2010-06-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Lori Williams describes herself as "A connector at heart."

Williams is a twenty-year attorney and owner of Your Legal Resource, PLLC, a legal referral and legal consulting business. For the past six years, the Southfield resident has connected individuals and small businesses in need of legal advice and representation with the right lawyer.

Too many people trust a well meant referral from a friend or colleague, often with mixed results. Williams matches the attorney’s years of practice, personality, affordability and location with each client’s needs. Her teams of attorneys cover all areas of specialty throughout Metro Detroit.

Williams also helps solo and small firm attorneys start and grow their practices. Her services include branding and marketing, mastering networking, and creating strategic relationships to generate clients and revenue. From her experiences as a practicing attorney, Williams knows that “Working on the business while working in the business is often a challenge for attorneys.”

When looking for the right legal referral, Lori Williams is the right resource to call. For more information, visit www.bestlegalresource.com or call 248-594-4470.

Signature Chiropractic Delivers Signature Health Care

2010-06-04T04:08:00.000-07:00

Every industry has a trusted professional to whom his peers refer 'the tough cases.' In the health care industry, this is Dr. Michael A. Lorente, D.C.

As Director of Signature Chiropractic in Clawson, his patient roster includes everyone from professional athletes and celebrities to families simply looking to feel better.

His pragmatic approach to health care is one reason why, "We often do in seven to ten visits what many others may require twenty to twenty five to achieve." Lorente uses a diagnostic method called ACCU-CK 2000 (said Accu-Check), which reads each body dynamically. He feels assessing how his patient is actually responding at that moment is crucial to finding the best methods of treatment.

Lorente also advocates a whole system approach to total body wellness, including proper nutrition. He recommends using the Herbal Tracer Guide, which is a simple non-invasive test to determine an individual's correct nutritional needs and the right amounts of herbs and vitamins to achieve this.

Signature Chiropractic is at 909 West Maple Road, Clawson.. For more information, call 248-288-3280 or http://signaturechiro.com/

"It started with one house and a lot of fear." says Real Estate Investor Fassett

2010-06-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

To hear Dennis Fassett explain how he started as a real estate investor, "It started with one house and a lot of fear."

Back in 2004, Fassett was a director with a local automotive supplier and on his way to being a V.P. "I thought I had it made," he explains, "In 2003 we put a large addition on our home and took in my terminally ill mother. Then in 2004, the automotive industry tanked and threatened to take me down the drain."

"I decided to take action and start building a safety net for my family. I looked at everything. After much searching, the only thing that I found that would allow me to leverage my time and make the money that I needed to was residential real estate, and in particular rental houses."

His problem was that Fassett knew less than nothing about real estate. "There was a lot of blah blah blah about learning the business," the Franklin resident recalls, "and of course all the people that told me I was nuts to be buying real estate as it was crashing."

Today, Dennis tells a very different story. "My real estate portfolio has done nicely," he says, "including 11 single family houses and a 20 unit apartment building." But Fassett isn't content to stay put, "I just closed on a 23 unit apartment building in the City of Detroit last Friday that I put together a partnership to buy, and just had an offer accepted on a 57 unit that I'm also putting together a partnership to buy."

Dennis Fassett’s little safety net business has grown to the point that when he closes on the 57 unit property, "We'll be taking in nearly three quarters of a million dollars in revenue annually." The best news is that from the month that he rented the first house back in May of 2006, Fassett has never had a single month that wasn't cash flow positive, " ...and I still have the first dollar that I made from the first rent payment my first tenant paid."

For more about Dennis Fasset, http://www.greatlakesinvestmentfund.com or call 248-971-0764.

Navigating Through The Risks Of Credit Card Processing

2010-05-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

Bill Pirtle knows how vital credit and debit card processing services can be to business owners.

He also knows that there is so much misleading information, misrepresentation and confusion surrounding these services. As a result, "Many merchants have been locked into long-term and expensive contracts."

Pirtle, a Royal Oak resident, has given these business owners and managers the upper hand with his new book, Navigating Through The Risks Of Credit Card Processing. His insightful volume is based on his past six years working as a credit card sales agent.

Pirtle's book shows readers an interesting overview of the industry as well as many specific examples of how credit card processing actually works. His mission is to help all business owners to "get the best value and service, not just the 'cheapest' contract which is likely to have many hidden costs and fees."

Bill Pirtle's book, Navigating Through The Risks Of Credit Card Processing, is currently available for sale online through amazon.com. You can reach BIll at 734-272-6177 or http://www.merchantprocessingconsulting.com/

Raise Your Awareness Quotient When Networking

2010-05-14T03:46:00.000-07:00

While many business professionals talk these days about ‘Networking’, Terry Bean has written the book on it.

The Waterford resident recently released The Universal Guide To Business Networking, a book that will benefit everyone who uses business networking as a part of his or her marketing and promotional strategies.

Bean asks us all to raise our AQ – our Awareness Quotient of the many opportunities around us. His goal is to help others to “raise awareness not only of how you network, but also your awareness of your life …” His book is rich with stories and ideas on how to do both. The Universal Guide To Business Networking is available for purchase online at http://www.trybean.com.

Bean is also the catalyst behind the networking group Motor City Connect, which now boasts almost 5,000 members. He is also Chief Networking Officer and President of Networked, Inc. Bean teaches businesses and individuals how best use networking, including how to put in place a structured program with tools and strategies to best leverage our relationship capital. You can reach Terry Bean at http://www.networkedinc.com or 248-224-1326.

-- Dean La Douceur

MichiganMall.Com proves change is a good thing

2010-04-30T01:39:00.000-07:00

Jan and Marshall Rice know the only way to make MichiganMall.com better is to keep improving it.

The Rochester Hills couple have recently made several fundamental changes to their web portal. "It's now a search engine stimulator," says Marshall, "By linking your site to MichiganMall.com, the search engine algorithms will then rank your web page higher." MichiganMall.com also lists Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter pages, so that customer know all the ways how to interact with a business.

MichiganMall.com was established in 1998, as a comprehensive online directory of Michigan businesses. The couple has also serves as sponsors and organizers for the annual Celebrate Michigan Expo, held every September. "We know so many business owners and entrepreneurs," says Jan, "Our job is to help tell the success stories in Michigan."

Jan and Marshall Rice are passionate promoters of Michigan's business success through all they do. For more information, go to www.michiganmall.com or call (888) 315-1928

Failure To Plan Your Marketing Is A Sure Plan For Failure

2010-04-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

While most small business owners have great product knowledge and a drive to succeed, many will fail due to their lack of an effective business marketing plan.

"How do you know if you are achieving your goals if you don't know how to monitor and measure them?" says Sandy Barris, President of Business Marketing Services of Bloomfield Hills, "Your marketing plan is the tool that keeps you sales and marketing activity on track."

Some business owners visualize heavily detailed marketing plans about the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Barris disagrees, "An highly effective marketing plan can be just a page or two."

For those needing help with ideas, strategy and tactics, Barris has devised an online marketing plan developer. FastMarketingPlan.com develops specific plans for all types of businesses, including direct emails on how to effectively implement your ideas.

For more details, go to http://www.fastmarketingplan.com or call Sandy Barris at (248) 335-8766

-- Dean La Douceur

Moti Mahal continues a family tradition, returns to Royal Oak

2010-04-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Joe Ullah continues a family tradition. This past February, Ullah re-opened the Moti Mahal Restaurant in downtown Royal Oak.

His father ran the original Moti Mahal on Main Street. Many area diners first learned about Indian cuisine from his family's restaurant. For the past several years, the Ullah family was out of the restaurant business. Friends and customers constantly suggested they re-open.

Ullah decided to take a risk. He found a location on South Washington Ave., not too far from the original. He asked his father to return, manage the kitchen and bring back many of the dishes locals love.

Since he's opened, the response has been overwhelming. Old friends and newcomers are discovering Moti Mahal. Joe Ullah is thankful he took a chance and re-opened. Loyal diners are grateful as well.

Moti Mahal is at 411 S. Washington Ave., just South of 4th Street in Royal Oak.

-- Dean La Douceur

A CAN DO Assistant With A CAN DO Attitude

2010-04-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

MaryAnn Page had no other choice. She found herself unemployed, needing health insurance, and without many options.

She chose to put her administrative and business skills to work to help fellow entrepreneurs. She picked a name for her company, “Your CAN DO! Assistant,” which reflected her wide range of talents and abilities.

To meet business owners, MaryAnn joined the Ferndale Area Chamber of Commerce. She attended various other business events and found out how to network effectively. She learned how to better market, promote, and price her services. It took time, but customers did come.

Today, MaryAnn has a stable of clients who regularly call on her to assist with staging a seminar or helping out with several projects. The Ferndale-based entrepreneur loves every minute of it -- no two days are ever the same.

MaryAnn Page is a CAN DO professional with both attitude and talent to match. You can reach her at 248-496-2771 or at maryann@yourcandoassistant.com.

-- Dean La Douceur

Hyper-sensitive Customers Demand Superlative Customer Services

2010-04-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

A bi-product of the down economy is ‘a hyper-sensitive customer’ who has unrealistic expectations about how they deserve to be treated, says customer service guru Lori Jo Vest.

The Troy resident and co-author of Who’s Your Gladys? says shoppers today are time and money poor, feels guilty about spending, are less loyal then before and believes that retailers are privileged to have them in their stores.

Vest cites a recent survey from Great Britain, where three out of four respondents said they would walk out of a store if they experienced bad service from retailer.

“When times are tough and customer dollars are scarce, it’s companies with exceptional customer service that weather the storms,” advises Vest. She feels that no matter what else your company does, “Ramp up your customer service to the highest possible level.”

Lori Jo Vest and Marilyn Suttle are the co-authors of Who’s Your Gladys? - For more ideas about superlative customer service, including how to purchase their book, http://www.whosyourgladys.com

-- Dean La Douceur

A Powerful Polished Look Is Your Best Asset In Business.

2010-04-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

In business, a strong first impression is a key to success. Image Consultant Julie Maedar wants all business professionals to understand a polished look can be a powerful asset.

She reminds clients that looking right does make a difference. "If you're not sure, then err on the side of too dressy, not too casual. No one will ever fault you for looking too good." When looking for what's appropriate in a workplace, Maedar suggests "Look for the most successful person that you want to be like."

She offers each gender one simple rule. For women, always consider the rule of "too's". If it seems too short, too trendy, too old or too revealing, chances are it usually is.

For men, keeping their attire current and sharp is very important. Men need to pay attend to a garment looks, fits and feels. A man needs to replace clothes that look tired -- no matter how dear a friend it has been.

Julie Maedar is a certified image consultant, with offices in Troy. She is also co-author of the book Inspired Style, which is scheduled to be released this May 2010. Her web site is http://www.newleafimageconsulting.com

-- Dean La Douceur

Make smart choices about Smart Phones

2010-04-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

The constant wave of new smart phones makes choosing the right one for your business use a real challenge.

Dave Peckens, of digitaleverday.com, recommends that your choice may come down to access to a variety of applications verses your need for a sturdy, secure messaging tool.

BlackBerry phones are a secure messaging tool featuring a QWERTY keyboard and proven levels of encription. Smart phones like the iPhone and Google Android have an abundance of application options and touch screens.These keep a balance between them serving as an entertainment device and a messaging tool.

"How you plan to use your phone is the key," advises Peckens, "BlackBerry's are a business die hard since 1995. iPhones and Android products are now in their second generation." He advises always working with a professional with whom you feel confident. "If he doesn't seem to know what he's talking about, chances are he might not."

Dave Peckens is founder and Chief BlackBerry-ologist of digitaleveryday.com. He can be reached at 248-875-8599.

-- Dean La Douceur