Doing some early tweeting this morning I typed “orporate” for “corporate”.

Hadn’t had my coffee.

Better now.

And what are those signs supposed to convey? Things will be better? In what way, better prices, better service? But they don’t say that, do they? So when you think about it wouldn’t you say we’re really none the wiser?

I mean, maybe the prices are going up rather than down, maybe the range of goods or services is being “streamlined” so you can’t any longer buy your favorite items there, maybe staff numbers have been “rationalized”, so now it will take even longer to get served.

Whereas the sign on a coffee shop at my local mall today says something different. It says “Under New Happy Management”.

And while passing by the other morning I noticed a woman from the coffee shop serving some people. She was bright, cheery, efficient. Of  course.

Thinking about writing this post I asked myself, how do I deal with clients and business colleagues? Do I let the challenges of business and the GFC get me down so I act and sound overwhelmed and grumpy? Or is my home based business always (or most of the time) under happy management? It’s been going for 21 years, but I’d like to think so, at least for now and the future.

Is your business under happy management? Any tips? Feel free to share your story here of how you’ve made it so.

This one I love for its simplicity of style and for the beautiful succinctness of its message.

Theoretically, the message on the sign could be just as legitimate if the honey had been farmed in Outer Somewhereorother, shipped across an ocean or two, bought at another place and re-packaged for this local growers’ market. Taken alone, that is. But the implicit message, that there have been no intermediaries other than the bee farmer, is clear and is validated by the fact that the bee farmer himself is here – or his wife on the rare occasion that he is not here himself.

They have the stall set up so you can taste the different honeys and it always fascinates me how different the honey tastes, depending on what plant is involved. Two of my favorites are ironbark and macadamia.

The farmer doesn’t have brochures or flyers. If you have a question he is happy to explain and he clearly loves what he does and what his bees produce. And because his prices are just neatly below, but not too much below, the “no name” honey (shipped from Outer Somewhereorother) at the local supermarket, you would need to have either no functioning taste buds or an iron will, if you were to walk away without buying.

The one change I would make to the sign would be to lose the inverted commas (quotation marks) – but maybe that’s just the unreconstructed English teacher in me.

(I called this post “Honey Man” because that’s how we refer to him, as in, “Is Honey Man here today?” or “Ah, there’s Honey Man!” I’ve had enough chats with him now, I really should find out his real name!)

Marketing lesson for me: tell the story as simply, honestly and directly as you can, know your product and trust the intelligence and taste of your audience to figure out some interesting nuances for themselves.

Do you like this sign? Do you think you could improve on it?

Minister of Defence, Republic of Indonesia – blog is Juwono Sudarsono: integrity in the strict sense