For the past few months, the sales of TV screen protectors in our store have slumped while sales of flat screen televisions have skyrocketed.  I was a little concerned as to why this was happening, but I wanted to turn the sales around and convince our customers that they needed to buy a TV screen protector with their new television.

After consulting with our sales staff, I realized that they were missing the one thing that they needed to be doing to make our sales turn around: upselling.  Basically, they were not asking the customer if they wanted to protect their new television for years to come.

So, they are now required to go for the upsell, and hopefully we will see some results within a week.  If they don’t implement the new marketing tactic, they will have disciplinary action taken against them, and risk being terminated from their employment.

As I live and breathe for music, it seemed like it was the end of the world when my Zune dock cable quit working. It seemed like a life or death situation for me to find another one and I needed to do it very quickly. I could not find any in the town where I live and I was forced to look and order one off of the Internet. I got a really great price, but the problem was that I was going to have to wait for it. I did not know how I was going to survive with a CD player for a few weeks.

The day the package came was one of the happiest of my life. I had my Zune car charger plugged in all the way to the post office. I was really happy when I saw that they had thrown in a Zune travel charger for free. I love free things almost as much as I love my Zune.

When I look down at my mobile phone, I am amazed that it is so powerful.  Sure, it has only been in my life for a few years, but I never realized how important it was until today.

You see, I was just sitting down today contributing to a mobile community while doing some mobile file sharing with some friends.  It wasn’t until I realized that this little thing in my hands was letting me do all this that I realized how valuable my phone was to my life.

I can’t live without it.

In fact, I would say that my cell phone has more of an impact on my life than my computer.  It goes with me wherever I go, and is with me throughout the day.  You might even go as far as saying that it is my lifeline to the world - without it, I don’t know what I would do.

Whether you’re interested in the latest backpacks that are wired to charge your cell phone, laptop or mp3 player, (the jury is still out on how long it takes to charge a notebook computer, and a cell phone and your favorite music player), the fact of the matter is, electronics are here to stay.

Fortunately our society also has room for things non technical. “One size fits all” does not necessarily fit everyone, whether clothing or attitudes or consumer goods.

Still new gadget offers appear daily in a marketplace that is evolving so rapidly that tech writers must specialize. There’s just too much for any one person to keep up with.

From beading to auctions to ground pepper to mechanical pencils, chances are there is a handy-dandy little gizmo to save time and effort, make a job easier or save money. And tomorrow, no doubt, there will be sixteen more.

Our company does a lot of phoning to clients outside of the country and has a large phone bill.  For many years, the expense of doing as many calls as we do has impacted our bottom line to where we are barely profitable.  We were waiting for some sort of technology that would address these costs for us so that our profits could soar.

I was very excited with the development of VOIP phones as it signaled that we were finally at the point where our long distance expenses were going to be a little more reasonable.  I didn’t hop onto the bandwagon right away, as I wanted to wait and see how well the technology worked.

Needless to say, it didn’t take long before we made the leap to VOIP, and we have never looked back.  In fact, thanks to that technology, our company has had its’ most profitable years ever.

Cell phone conversation overheard:

So my boss comes to me and says, “You’re now the new IT manager, effective immediately.”

No “would you like the job?” No “what do you think?” Just “you’re it.”

My first thought is, “This is not good.” And then that classic line from Star Wars pops into my head, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Well that only lasts about a minute, because I suddenly remember an email I got that morning about a company that provides IT support for small businesses. I’ve got a business of my own on the side now, non-competitive with my J-O-B, so I quick sign up for their service.

Now when tech problems arise, I pick someone else’s brain, solve the problems and look like a genius, I’m actually learning a lot about networks, and all this troubleshooting is helping my business.

So I go to my boss last week and say, “Here’s my resignation.” He says, “What about the IT thing?” I say, “Put me on retainer as your IT consultant.” He says, “You’ve got a deal.”

Everybody’s happy. You’ve gotta love win-win situations.

Our church has decided to do something a little different this year.  Like most churches, our children are in Sunday school during the regular Sunday service.  But what has been decided is that the adults will have a Sunday school class before the regular church service begins.

Instead of the Sunday school class being led by a elder in our church, we have decided to subscribe to a nationwide Sunday school class for adults.  Ideally, this gives us the opportunity to learn from another leader from our faith and grow as a church body.

The Sunday school conference call begins at 9:30 a.m. and typically lasts roughly 45 minutes.  Graciously, the conference calling is provided by a nationally recognized teleconferencing firm.  From our experiences thus far, the service has been extremely reliable, and the quality has been excellent.

Due to the success of the program so far, we are currently considering enrolling in another conference call based Sunday school class in the fall.

There is one reason that I have loved being an electronics salesperson – you get to play with all the new toys.  Over the years, I have been able to play with DVD burners, portable DVD players, LCD and Plasma televisions just as they came out.  This has been great and an excellent educational experience for me.

At work today, we had the opportunity to discuss the upcoming OLED TV technology.  It will be the replacement for traditional LCD technology, with the benefit of using less power.

Another key example of the OLED information that we learned today was the fact that the new televisions will be slimmer than current TV offerings because the OLEDs do not require a backlight.

We were also lucky enough to see the future product offerings such as the Sony XEL 1.

Though it looks like we will have to wait to have the new OLED televisions in our store, the future looks promising – I just can’t wait to try one out.

There are a number of forums that I am a member of that I like to participate in the conversation.  You can find me online discussing everything from cooking to computers - there are a broad number of topics that I am interested in.

I participate the most at a mobile forum talking about the latest gadgets that are on the market.  All I can say is that I am a big fan of these “toys” and have found myself buying them on a consistent basis.

They are not cheap.

Now, I have been trying to find a better place to buy these gadgets online - something that would let me buy more without breaking the bank. 

While on the forums the other day, someone was talking about a store called “Gadget India” where they buy all their electronics - at low prices.  Intrigued, I checked out the India gadget store, and I was surprised at the pricing - not only would I save more, but I could buy more gadgets with the money I saved.

So, I have placed an order - and if the transaction goes well, I think I will be buying more gadgets from India.  If not for the forums I participate, I would never have found the opportunities I have.

I don’t know how familiar you are with Blackberry ring tones, but I am becoming more and more so. I recently won a Blackberry through a radio contest, and having never been the owner of a cell phone before, I have not stopped playing with the thing since I got it.

The ring tones are what I like to play with the most. I am not a real social person, so do not get many calls, but I play around with the ring tones every day. As I also won a contract with a phone company, I have been using Verizon ring tones as well. I have a lot now, to keep me entertained.

I like to download MP3 ring tones and listen to them. My husband jokes that I would have been just as happy winning a cheap MP3 player, as I am with the cell phone. He is wrong though, because I have already had two, yes two, phone calls. Call me a social butterfly.