Okay, so here I am back in the saddle after about 4 hours of sleep. Isn't jet lag a wonderful experience? I finally managed to drag myself to bed about 3:30 this morning and was in the shower at half seven. I spent most of those quiet hours searching through all the interesting blogs that Seth Godin references in his new book, "Small is the New Big". If you haven't read it and you think it is just another business book, then you really need to reconsider that position. It is filled with "remarkable" ideas and insights and truly cranks up one's creative thinking genes. I finished it on the plane coming back from Lisbon and have already used several of his ideas with our marketing teams. You see, we sell internet solutions, everything from mom and pop consumer web sites to highly complex managed hosting solutions. It is a wide range and means that we deal with customers that have varied needs. We have MS developers that just want the kit and they do the rest without much help from us. We also have small business owners that require a lot of assistance and are very demanding in the level of support that they expect. It makes for interesting days, especially when you know that sometimes the amount of revenue being generated doesn't truly warrant the level of support being provided. I guess I'm a tad old fashioned because I think that all our customers are important. Most business books will tell you that in a transactional business it is the automation that is important, not the individual customer. I understand it from a operational perspective, but I also like the fact that a designer in Deleware feels comfortable calling me personally when things are not being sorted to her satisfaction because it helps me keep my fingers on the real pulse of this business; i.e.: the customers who pay our salaries. Have a wonderday folks. By the way, Ellie was absolutely chuffed to find out that I named this blog after her and said to say hello to everyone. Of course now, she wants her own blog!