One of the best ways that we can get our image across to our customers is in the uniforms that we wear.  If you think of a restaurant, each person has the brand on their uniform, while at the same time the uniform allows the customer to know what our role is within the business. We take this for granted, but our customers expect it. At the restaurant, what the host is wearing immediately tells the customer what they do and what type of restaurant this will be. This goes for the chef as well whose chef shirt is critical. We all look back at the kitchen and asses the professionalism of the chef. I found a solid company that can produce these uniforms for us at www.iDbyLandau.com. Look at the chef jackets and you will see that the iD0104 projects a different statement than the equally nice iD0131. Take a look at these chef coats again, you see the difference in image and branding. You need to take the time to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. iD by Landau has put together a great site with nice images to make a sound buying decision. I appreciate the way they use models so I can get a real life idea of what my restaurant will look like. iD by Landau also has many other uniform styles to shop for. They create uniforms for small businesses, Spa’s, hotels plus they can help you withe your Logo and monogram needs! I love a site that is so laser focused. This is where business needs to be!

Our family is huge on crafts these days for entertainment. Its fun and educational. We are starting out with clay projects and we need all kinds of supplies like lead free glaze pencils. We found AMACO/Brent to be the finest and most professional site to use for the unique craft supplies. For example, they make 572 different liquid glazes for both professionals and families like mine. They are then broken out for easy shopping, into categories like low and high fire glazes, under glazes and over glazes. I really like the photography they use on this site to give a good graphic detail of the items they sell. Our children like the variety of glaze chalk they have for sale. They come in delightful pastels and hues that the kids love, especially for spring! Take a look at the example image on the glaze chalk page to see what you can create with these colors. It is titled, “Our First House” which gives some idea of just how these colors stand out. Our favorite tab is the Kids and Crafts page, where you learn that they also produce modeling clay and magic mud which our children just cannot get enough of. You may be interested in downloading there 2009 catalog to get an even better idea of what they sell. I found the site to be very easy to use, with all sorts of links to more information on neighborhood clinics with a great help staff when needed. 90 years from experience speaks for itself!

I have friends who are considering a corporate move to the United Kingdom. Its hard to believe, but yes there are plenty of jobs in the world and they still need top talent and will pay to move them overseas. One of the issues that they must think about is affordable car insurance. Your local carrier in the US is probably not licensed in the UK and would it not be nice to find affordable insurance from those who know what they are talking about? The family will need specifically Van Insurance because unlike the US, they really do not drive too many SUV’s over there. The streets are much smaller and not as wide.

At www.autonetinsurance.co.uk/ they have the solutions to this problem. You can save up to 70% on your van insurance and with one click you can get a quote. What is more, you can get quotes on pet insurance, motorcycle, business, travel and caravan insurance. For us on this side of the pond, caravan insurance is RV insurance. What I love about this company is that if you find a better deal with the same level of coverages, you will get your money back. They shop 40 carrier to make sure of it. That is what shopping on the Internet is all about and few companies seem to meet this demand. Thank you www.autonetinsurance.co.uk for doing so! Further, their site is very easy to use and navigate. Just click on the type of insurance you need, click on give me an online quote or call their phone number, enter your information and receive your quote.

Have you ever wondered just how you would go about filing a home insurance claim and making sure that you had received the very best in settlement claim payouts? Probably not until the catastrophe happens, like a tree falling on the house or a fire etc. Step back and imagine for a moment trying to figure out just how much you lost, what items cost to replace, structures to be removed to waste and structures to be rebuild, the costs etc etc. The list goes on and on. I found mysmartclaims.com and I am very impressed. Their program is simply the finest and most professional out there. Their program is so comprehensive and developed to make sure the claim was accurate and that you received the right amount of money needed to replace your loss. Their Public Adjuster program is what you need to look into after you receive your settlement paperwork from your insurance agency. You have rights when buying home insurance and one of them is the right to re-open a claim within so many years depending on your State. In Florida you have 5 years, you will need to look into your state. You pay their $299 fee and begin to walk through their program. If you do not recover more than the cost of their fee, you get your money back. That is why I love these guys so much. This is what believing in your product should be all about! This is a very well made web site, along with informative graphs to show you the cost of their service and a lawyer plus some examples what other customers were able to recover after using their system. If you have an old claim you are still upset about, look into your state laws and if you are in the right time frame why not use this service because of the money back guarantee. It just makes good common sense.

I have to admit that I am using more bill pay methods online but with my new business up and running, I am going to need personal and professional checks to buy. Another friend recommended carouselchecks.com where you can find Checks here for sale in variety of professional and personal style format. With the purchase of business checks, they are now offering a free Logo and a free free binder. I really like this professional format to pay my supply stores and employees. Our family loves all the Checks with sports themes, kittens and especially the American Pride line. For the businessmen out there, there are especially checks for payroll and accounts payable. They also have computer Voucher checks you must take a look at. Carouselchecks.com has live online help to walk you through the process and offers great security to stop fraud. This is the last thing you need in the new economy where desperate people do desperate things. They also offer return label stickers, Ink stamps, checkbook covers and laser jet starter kits. I really like this well made site. It is easy to navigate and find the information you need. Plus, the pictures they use are very professional and are made from classic scenes using great photographers and artists. I think you’ll enjoy your shopping experience here!

Well it is that time of year again where many a couple has gotten engaged during this spring and now wedding plans are to be made. One site I would suggest in buying engagement rings is bluenile.com. These guys are a publicaly traded company on the Nasdaq which brings great validity along with the fact they are the largest online retailer of certified diamonds and fine jewelry.  Further, when buying diamond rings you must also know just what kind of stone shape you want. Finally, Bluenile has been profiled both in Forbes and the New York Times hence you should have no worry buying diamond rings online. Your ring is shipped free on FedEx and they provide a 30 day no questions asked full refund if you do not like the ring you bought. It does not get any better than this!

One of the frustrations I get is when after spending so much time to buy an item, at a price I like, I get the nasty little surprise of the shipping cost. Then I have to spend time trying to find out just who had the best deal after all. Its sad that no online shopping profit is made at the hidden shipping rate. Not much in the way of customer service if you tell me. One way to settle is all together is finding Free Shipping Coupons. I found a great site that publishes free shipping deals. From here you can locate your favorite merchants and others who are offering free shipping. The whole reason for using the Internet is finding the best price. I love this site, for example I found Babies R US and found that they have free shipping on the new Nintendo DSI. Further, I just blogged about Renewable Energy and I was able to link to Baby Earth who has environmentally safe products and learned that they have free shipping on orders over $99.00! My favorite deal though is the Magellan Maestro 4370 GPS, which is $100 off with free shipping. This site is full of deals which you can search through category, new deals or expiring soon. It is a nice professional site with excellent customer service. Go here first before you suffer finding the best deal which can take hours. Freeshippingdeals.com has done the work for you.

With spring coming on fast and the sun breaking through the clouds, it is time for me to invest in some new sunglasses. Even with the new economy, the Sun still shines and I feel so much safer driving with quality sunglasses on. I went out to the web to shop for sunglasses and found opticsplanet.net to be my first choice. They are one of the largest US authorized dealers of top name brand sunglasses that I need.  I am simple person and I quickly found myself connecting with the Bolle Snakes Anaconda Sunglasses. For me they are cool, functional and on sale for $43.95. Plus, when you order over $29.95 you get free shipping as I will for my new shades. When you click on any pair, you get a wealth of information about your choice. For me, I learned about the shatter proof polarized lenses, the Thermogrip temples and nose pads. Then Bolle offers 12 different models of the Anaconda series mixing frames and lenses. If you are in need of prescription lenses, just click on the Rx link and you will learn how they can get your prescription into your favorite lenses. This is much more than a general site with discount lenses. Take a look and you will see a professionally made site, easy to click through and loaded with information. They customer service rocks as well with their 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.

I guess its Auto day for me today. I just learned that Auto Zone’s profit increased in the second quarter by 8.6%. I have to guess that we have not only decided not to buy brand new cars as I wrote about below but have also decided to keep driving our current car and on top of it all, fix it ourselves. Could this be a little metaphor from the early days of Home Depot, where we all became Handymen and women, updating our current home rather than buying a new one? That could be a stretch but the point is that we can take on a few jobs ourselves. Walmart wants 30 bucks to change your oil. I can do it myself for 12.50 from Auto zone and take the oil back to them to recycle. I think its a great idea. Why not show your kids some home mechanical work too at the same time. Of course, things like timing belts and transmission work should go the pros, you will be amazed how you can top off all your fluids by yourself. Very few cars have to be lubed anymore. Remember those huge lube guns you would snap on at the hubs to lube…those are gone and are impacted at the factory. So now its just oil and the filter which is just a snap. Good luck auto parts stores as we all become more self sufficient.

My family seems to keep running our of computer storage space due to the large number of photographs we take of the family. Plus, we have multiple small business files that we need to keep safe. On great resource to keep this data secure and backed up is through the use of online backup from idrive.com. They offer 2GB of free back up right now to get you started. But if you are like me, that is not nearly enough. For a small fee of $4.95 a month, you can get 150GB on online storage. What a great deal. There service is compatible with both the PC and the MAC, and they have received multiple awards from PC World and PC pro among others. What really makes idrive.com so nice is their time machine like storage system update where they restore as a point of time. Plus they have now an update for the iPhone. I really like the spread on the website itself, making it easy to navigate and shop for just the service you need in backing up your system. Plus, they have a very nice customer service hot line to call. As you know, one of my favorite pages anyone can do is that one reserved for testimonials. I appreciate how these guys publish good objective feedback we can use in making our decision to buy from them and get you learn how this service has helped so many. When looking into online backup, look into idrive.com