October 24, 2007 by chad.

As is often the case I am sitting here with 10 minutes to spare before I need to go. Despite the limited time frame I feel compelled to write a short shout out of a post to the blog. (Consider it my dedication to you, dear webizen)

I have been in business for almost four years and I have learned a great deal about business and how to conduct one. Have we always been successful at every venture? NO. Oscar Wilde said experience is the name man gives to his mistakes. This is definitely true, but the trick is not to make mistakes that will destroy you. I am grateful that I have not done that, but I digress….  The main reason why I bring this up is not to say that we must make mistakes to succeed. Case in point, networking has always been the way I work and networking is how things get done. The first real business decision I made besides coming up with a brandable logo is join the St Cloud Chamber of Commerce and not merely rely on that membership to benefit me. I have been an active member of the chamber and it accounts for nearly 80% of my business. This business comes from chamber members, their employees, or the people they know and refer. Its not what you know but who you know that makes things happen. If you know a lot of people and gain a reputation for good work, then the work will come to you in the end.

If you are a business person and you are not maximizing your networking potential then there is opportunity you are losing. If people don’t know who you are and what you do then you are likely lost in a sea of uncaring soulless existence. I will be the first to tell you that knowing a lot of people can also be a hindrance  especially when you want anonymity, but as a business person it is my job and duty to be out there. Our success relies on it!

One of the other ways I am networking is with an independent networking group called the Granite City Circle. It is a focus group of business owners and professionals that helps maximize your marketing through word of mouth. Through understanding and building relationships with other professionals in the are, you can succeed through others. I encourage people to be a part of groups like this, whether they are independents or structured national organizations like BNI. Gotta bolt now. GCC is meeting in a half hour and I need to be there. If you look at the GCC website and are interested in joining, let me know. The location of the meeting is changing due to the fact that the Meeting Ground in Sartell shut their doors last week.

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October 17, 2007 by chad.

A good day and a bad day are just a matter of perspective. Today I was rushing to get the kids to daycare in time for an 8am meeting. I got them there and left fine, but no farther than half a mile down the road the Jeep just quit running and the check engine light came on. It wasn’t just a plain old stall this time. As I type this i am sitting the the waiting area of Hwy 10 Tire and Auto and making something of it. While it was not part of my plan and changed a lot of what I had on my plate for the day….what can ya do? When things are out of you control you can only accept and take what is given. That old adage if life hands you lemons you make lemonade.

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October 15, 2007 by chad.

I was just talking to my friend Shawn Preisler from Family First Chiropractic and he and I were lamenting the limitations of dining out in the St Cloud area. Don’t get me wrong, there are a number of very nice restaurants in the area, but nothing really daring as far as the food goes. In Germantown USA, we all expect meat and potatoes but I need to see more.

St Cloud has a lot of restaurants. I mean A LOT! That is the benefit of being the market town in the area. Unless you want to drive down to the cities to go shopping, then St Cloud is your likely destination. My wife would remember shopping at Crossroads Mall growing up and how it was “the big shopping spot” to go. Where there is a drive to shop there has to be a bunch of places to eat.

On the Italian front there is little in the area save for the House of Pizza, which boldly declares its specialty in its name. With Ciatti’s having closed due to downtown redevelopment, there is little else besides the odd restaurant with some form of pasta. Yea, I suppose, if I wanted to go to the Ground Round to buy something that resembles pasta I can do that. Nothing they serve will ever have the care and craftsmanship of well made pasta and sauce. Mexican also has a durth of option with only one close to authentic. Since I have a forthcoming review series on Mexican cuisine, I am not naming names.

One great addition to the restaurant community in St Cloud is the number of newer ethnic foods. There’s all sorts of Asian restaurants. We have Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and even one chain Mongolian restaurant.

We need a barbecue join on the order of Tom’s Smokehouse in Eau Claire, WI. Its a landmark for its smokey barbecue sauce and tender ribs. I like ribs a lot.

Remember, if you are reading this and want to see a review of any restaurant, please let me know. I do not operate in a bubble…although it seems like it sometimes.

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October 10, 2007 by chad.

One would wonder based on the lack of activity on the blog in the last few weeks. So much to talk about and so little time…anyway, I might just skip a bit for the sake of making it enjoyable and yet palatable. I am sitting here with Peter Douglass of Intersection Marketing Solutions drinking coffee at the corner bean. He just happened to be coming here and I know Peter from the St Cloud Area Chamber. His business has everything to do with the web. They develop internet and e-commerce strategies for small and medium size businesses. Check out the site they designed for Heavy Metals Inc. They just changed web hosting companies so…irony of ironies, Intersection’s website is not up. Maybe by the time someone reads it, it will be.

I am constantly amazed by the progress my children make in their development. The doting father I may be, but a lot of other people have told me so. Genevieve is up to two and three word utterances at a shade under 1 1/2 years old. That is apparently early. She is almost as advanced as that parrot Alex that just died after 30 years of research. Its a pretty amazing story to hear that bird that could use a hundred words and spoke in sentences on its own. Our dog, Neiko, thankfully is not the brightest of companions so I wouldn’t have to worry about her talking to me. lol  I love that dog though. She is good with the kids and has a real repore with Genevieve and Kieran.

Went back to southern Minnesota this last weekend to help with recovery. This time we did not work to help people with their homes. This time we worked on a park in the town of Hokah, MN. We were working on fixing Como Falls Park. Here is a great link to show you before and after pictures of where we were. The water was so strong it uprooted park benches that had 2 1/2 to 3 feet of concrete at the bases. The creek itself complete changed course and their were a tonne of downed trees. We worked with the town to cut up and move some of those downed trees. It was a VERY tiring day, but there are many more for the town of Hokah to ever get this beautiful park back to what it was before. Nature has a way of healing itself, but humans can significantly decrease the length of time it takes to recover by simply giving of themselves for the betterment of the community. This is a perfect example of how one person can positively impact their community through simple acts. A little here, a little there. We do not need to measure success in grand actions, but in the simple expression of concern for the public lands everyone shares. Pick up some trash, rake a yard, or plant something that everyone can enjoy. If everyone did it we would indeed be living in a far more beautiful world.

Need to get back to work now, but I wanted to make this first post since it has been a few weeks since my last. When it comes to catching up, we have to walk before we can crawl, crawl before we can walk, and walk before we can run. I am crawling back to being a good blogger. Have a great day, webizens.

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