Not too long ago I decided that I wanted to try out a digital phone service for the business phone line. Originally I was semi apprehensive over it as a landline seems more reliable in everyway. However, I recently needed to change the location of the line and couldn’t justify paying hundreds of dollars for it. I still remember the first time when someone came to hook it up and all they did was walk in for about 10 minutes and tested the line out.

So, as of Monday I have been using the digital phone service and so far so good. I am going to be saving a lot too it seems as after the 3 month promotional period I will be paying about $35/month compared to my original $58/month with the old carrier. It’s too bad that I can’t really get away with using say a cell phone as a business line similar to how some people trim their home phone bills.

So today I was in this store called Canadian Tires looking for a piece of exercising equipment and when I arrived around the section that had these products this lady walks up to me. She was an employee and immediately tells me how they were giving away these free small portable radio players and literally she gives me one to hold as if it was mine now.

The funny thing was I actually recognized these items as you can buy them from cheap places such as dollar stores and I was fully aware ahead of time that this business gives these players away for people who sign up for the store credit card.

She then went on how the store that day was also giving out these $30 certificates too and everyone was qualified to take advantage of it. All she needed was for me to agree to it and that she needed my name and information to sign up for this great deal. It was kind of amazing too as she didn’t even mentioned one word about it being a store credit card.

I continually told her that I wasn’t really interested in it and of course she pressed on about all the free stuff I would get. Eventually, she did blurt out that another benefit to signing up for this program is that I would get a great store credit card as well. I politely just told her no again and again and ultimately she just gave up. Course, she took back her one dollar player and all too.

It’s just kind of amazing on the things that people do to try and confuse you about what you are really signing up for. Like they say, nothing is truly free.

As mentioned many times, usually when you see sale signs indicating that an item is say 50% off you still have to do your due diligence as that sale price may not be all that it seems. As many of you may know, the business Linens N’ Things has recently started a going out of business sale and stores are advertising a 10% to 30% off on all the products in the store.

I must have passed at least two of these stores here recently and they sure know how to draw a crowd with these big yellow signs plastered everywhere about them going out of business. From my experience though, this is one of the most expensive retail places there is to buy stuff. Even with the discount, from what I saw it was still more expensive than other places most of the time

Someone then just recently forwarded me this video about one of the stores in the US and it was a pretty interesting watch. Essentially, it looked like someone got lazy in the company and in the process of changing prices they simply just stuck a new price tag over the old one. That sure didn’t make them look too good. You can watch the video at

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/17851557/index.html

In all fairness, sometimes a business does have to mark up prices in order to adapt to the market condition. While that may have been the case here too, this was a great possible example I thought on how you have to be careful in not placing all your trust and judgment on those sale signs to be certain that you are getting a good value.

Just the other day I met a fellow while working on a production who needed to use a phone as his was out of power. Sure enough, he asked me if it was okay and I had no problems with it. Afterwards, I talked to him a bit more and it was interesting to see that he had skills and knowledge in a field that I am not an expert in but was interested in learning more of. He then semi joked that since I let him use my phone he was willing to help me out.

Upon speaking to him a little further he didn’t really believe in charging people money but rather if someone wants to learn from him then he is willing to do it as time permits. I was just thinking too how ironically when people do this you kind of feel like returning the favor should a time come when they need your help too.

I know for myself whenever I offer help in this fashion the important thing is that it is genuine. Sure, there are situations where you should expect something in return for your services, but there is a time and a place for transactions like that. I have always found that it helps to surround myself with people with similar values as well which helps a lot in finding out who you can confidentially do business with.

I received a notice lately about an advertising campaign in regards to a US political issue. Apparently, it had something to do with a vote to ban gay marriage in California, something calleda Proposition 8, and there was an ad campaign that targeted bloggers in the Forbes network.

I guess the network did the right thing and made it an opt in ad campaign as I’m sure this could create a lot of controversy. Interestingly enough, it made no real difference for me as the campaign offer is below the minimum CPM price point and so it can’t be display with the settings I have.

This is always an interesting decision you need to make from a business perspective though where accepting and rejecting offers that while may be very financially rewarding, you have to remember that in many ways people will automatically label you to what you advertise as well. Although, if it does pop up and you happen to be a reader from California, it would be interesting to get some feedback on what the campaign is like from a viewer’s perspective.