This morning, I didn’t have time to write my post because I had to meet the insulation installers across town. As I watched them stuff insulation into every crack and corner and saw insulation blowing around in the attic as though it were a giant snowglobe, all I could think of was

Asbestos! Vermiculite! Lung cancer! Poison! Death!

(dun dun dun)

Now I KNOW that modern companies don’t blow that stuff into our houses any more; it’s been banned for years. Yet I can’t help but wonder what IS being put into our houses and lives that we don’t know the safety of. We trust others to make the judgment call for us–usually the business itself. Of course, being interested in business and money ourselves, you and I kind of know what most businesses usually focus on–the money. How can we know who to rely on?

It’s like everything in our lives is marked “low fat”. Sometimes I feel like I’m STILL trying to convince some people that low fat doesn’t mean (1) no sugar, (2) low calorie, or (3) chalk full of nutrients. Yet the candy isle is filled with reminders of low fat content. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see “low sugar” on a hunk of cheese? So we have this idea that it’s okay if the label says its okay, and marketers and businesses know this fact and they use it against us.

The silence… the deadly silence… of American industry has been shown in Libby, Montana where asbestos was mined. From the research and personal stories I’ve had over the years, I gathered that miners were encouraged to wear breathing masks, but the masks got so clogged that the men quit. These same men were sent to company doctors when they started to hack, and when these men came home from work, wives would shake the clothes out on the porch, sending the asbestos into the air. The stuff did wonders for gardens, too (hmm, wonders), so the company often donated to community members. NOW that the town is all getting sick and losing citizens, the EPA has an entire directory that educates newcomers to the superfund of Libby. Funny thing, though, do you think anyone actually thinks of moving there any more??

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what industry REALLY tells us.

It seams like most people have a horror story they are willing to share about financial services of some sort. It could be a bank, a credit card company, or online services such as paypal. Beyond that, many more people have had bad experiences with their customer support. Which kind of makes you wonder what their end goal is. Seth Godin has been having some problems with paypal freezing his account for having a successful project.

If you do get to talk to an actual person, they are usually a gatekeeper with limited abilities beyond answering simple questions. Then you will often be transfered to another person who asks you the same questions and also has limited decision making powers.

With paypal for example if your account is frozen you will have to go through a large hassle in order to free it back up. The idea is they are doing it to stop scammers and conmen. Naturally with any data there is a balance somewhere between security and usability. Any company must make trade-offs between the two, but alienating customers as a result is never a good plan.

As Seth puts it

The question I’d be asking is, “Do people who go through process and manage to prove that they are not criminals end up doing more business with us as a result of the way we treated them?” If the answer is no, you’re probably doing it wrong.

If you would like to read more about his ideas on customer support lines as well as learn about his story, check out “Thanks for calling, please go away.“

Prepare to be bombarded with Christmas sales, decorations, endless stress, and other holiday cheer. Even though Halloween is still fresh on the mind, you need to think about the coming holidays. Of course if you run a retail shop of any kind, then you probably already have.

What kind of sales are you going to have? What products are you going to promote? How will people who don’t already know about you find out? Will you have enough of the hot products in stock?

Christmas is coming quickly, and you will need to take care of any preparations right away, because once the holiday spirit comes and everyone begins thinking about the Holidays, it might be too late!

It’s easy to anticipate the holidays equating to more traffic, more customers, and of course more sales. If you haven’t already begun your holiday campaign, you have a bit of catch up, because you can bet your competitors already have!

If you are in a business where you need to ship, get the materials to ship. If you are in the service industry, get any extra help you might need. If holidays even remotely matter to your business, then get ready.

Everyone is just like you… or are they? Have you ever noticed that people don’t always take the action or make the move that would gain them the most immediate ground, Perhaps then you might have determined that people don’t always have the same motives? Most of the time, most businesses have a similar motive, create the highest value for the shareholders.

But with individual people, victory at any cost might not be the goal. Or perhaps it is. Many people assume that everyone else is competing for the same result as themselves. Or that a majority has the same thoughts as themselves and sees things in our world in the same, or at least a similar light.

Everyone will define their own values and write their own rules. Many of them are not going to align completely with yours on all of the issues. But you won’t know that they are not on your side until the issue comes up.

Today we celebrate blog action day with 15,500 other blogs. The focus—our environment.

Many businesses say that they’d love to follow practices that are better for our environment and local community… but they say that those ideas simply cost too much. I doubt that. Most environmentally aware companies actually make MORE money through their efforts.

The immediate expenses would be higher during your implementation, sure. But in the long run? I bet your business would benefit even more. The same goes for any huge purchase like equipment and training courses. Bigger initial cost, better long-term results.

A lot of small town businesses aren’t going to make these changes on their own. You, the consumer, have to urge them. I have made it a habit to speak to managers and owners of local businesses. I tell them my concern and ask if it’s something that they’re addressing or planning on doing something about. Local produce? Locally-made foods? Recycling? Pesticide-free products? Programs that give back to the community’s development and sustainability?

Most employees just shrug me off. Mangers listen (or at least seem to pretend to!). If you keep going home miserable, complaining to yourself, nothing will change. If you start speaking out, things can start to change.

After years of Styrofoam at every function, my local church has quit purchasing Styrofoam. We spoke up. Today shouldn’t just be a day to post about the environment. Blog Action Day means we ought to be taking action, don’t you think?

The SBA (U.S. Government’s Small Business Association) even offers two environmental loan programs to (1) help engineer, manufacture, market, install, or service energy conservation measures or (2) allow the ability to plan, design, and install a pollution controlling facility. So what’s the excuse?

And how about all those local businesses that keep handing out Styrofoam…

While this is not exactly about a coffee shop business at all, having high densities is one tactic that Starbucks used while building their vast empire. They were able to capture more traffic and customers, even if the second shop would cannibalize the other’s sales.

The reason that I bring this up is because of a site that ebay owns. It essentially does the same thing as Craigslist, of which they own a 25% stake in. The only differences are that kijiji is pretty, and Craigslist has users. I suppose that Craigslist also has the advantage of being pronounceable.

eBay New Ventures Launches Kijiji Classifieds Sites …Mobile.de, a car classifieds site in Germany; and Rent.com, classifieds site in the apartment and rental housing industry in the U.S.

eBay also acquired Marktplaats.nl, reportedly the most popular classifieds Web site in the Netherlands, in November 2004. Marktplaats owns classifieds sites in Germany, Canada, Spain and Turkey.

One Starbucks location can’t penetrate the market 100%, and if ebay is correct, neither can one Craigslist.