chocolate :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

A very tasty lesson in how to be remarkable

chocolate bouquet from Edible Blooms

Last night, as a panelist at the Networx Marketing Meeting in Brisbane, Australia, I received a delightful – and tasty – gift.

At the end of the discussion session each of the panelists was presented with a bouquet. When I saw the bouquets being brought up my first thought was that this was unusual, especially as three out of the four panelists were male.

I’m more used to getting a bottle of good wine at that stage.

Then I realised that the “flowers” under the cellophane wrapping were actually chocolates.

This was fun. And even more so when I got to taste the gift after I’d removed the cellophane and taken the picture here.

It was an example of being remarkable.

It was a purple cow.

Earlier in the evening, my fellow panelist Richard Slatter of wotnews and wearehunted fame, had talked about being remarkable – with a hat tip to Seth Godin and his famous purple cow.

I thought I had a fair idea of the precise meaning of “remarkable”, but looked it up anyway.

remarkable adj. 1. worthy of note or attention a remarkable achievement 2. unusual, striking, or extraordinary a remarkable sight

Clearly Richard (and Seth) were talking about the second meaning - unusual, striking, or extraordinary.

The chocolate bouquet qualified. It was made by the appropriately named Edible Blooms – whose tag line is “We make indulgent gift giving an easy and memorable experience!”

Worked for me.

So now I’m thinking, what am I doing or could I do with my business to be remarkable?

“Competent”, “capable”, “interesting” won’t cut it.”Unusual, striking or extraordinary will.

Please share, in the comments, what you do to be remarkable in your market.

There’s saying thank you with courtesy. And there’s saying thank you with courtesy and style. Leah Maclean is a virtuoso in the latter category.

Some time ago, Nancy Batenburg, a good friend of ours, asked our advice on a quote she had received for a new website with blog, for her business (link is to existing site). We were not impressed and wanted to do what we could to save her from spending a lot of money and being dissatisfied with the outcome.

We put her in touch with Leah Maclean, not only because Leah is a talented geek, but because she has a particular mission to help other women cut through the techspeak and get technological solutions that work for them. As her tagline says: Demystifying technology for small business women.

It was a logical referral. Of course, that did not mean it was going to result in a match, but it did. We’ve had great feedback from both parties and we know the outcome in terms of the website will be of top quality.

We felt good.

We felt even better today when the delivery guy handed over a big white box addressed to us. We knew what was in it because Leah had alerted us. Chocolates.

But not just any chocolates. These were hand-made, extra special chocolates. And the presentation was special too. Inside the elegant carry bag was the perfectly wrapped box with ribbon and an envelope with a beautifully designed card and inside the card a handwritten message of thanks.