I’ve been planning to self-publish my fiction books ever since I started writing them. One of the keys to self-publishing success is a professional cover. Just because we say “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” doesn’t make it true. Be honest. What do you notice first about a book?

Lots of self-published authors go the cheap route and cobble something together, using stock photos or badly drawn art. It shows when you look at a book on Amazon, and the better the cover, the more likely the book is to sell.

I didn’t want to make that mistake, so I was ready to pay for a professional cover. I met Joe Kolb of The Graphic Issue at a chamber event, and I had the feeling he was the guy for me.

What do you think?

I sent him a one paragraph synopsis of the Case of the Haunted Vampire, and he sent me a.concept design. I was amazed! He nailed the idea the first time. The meeting between Paul and Dafydd, the two main characters is the scene that sets up the entire series, and I was very happy with how Joe portrayed it.

He was responsive throughout the entire process, and made certain I was happy with the final product.

Joe does more than just cover art for books. He’s a full service graphic designer. If you want a good design, done right, the first time and with an eye toward getting exactly what you want, definitely contact Joe and the Graphic Issue!

Sometimes you need just the right gift. You want it to be unique and exactly right for the person. Where do you go?

Easy, Baskets-n-Bags, owned by Karen McKinney and located in Vienna, VA is the place to go. Of course, they make excellent baskets. I wouldn’t be writing about her otherwise, but Karen goes above and beyond.

Many years ago, I was selling windows, and I made a real “oops” with a client. I knew I needed to make it up, so I called up Karen to get her advice. She suggested an appropriate price range and what should be in the basket. When I asked if I should hand-deliver or courier it to the client, she suggested courier and told me why. (Less awkward for everyone.)

It worked, and I managed to salvage the relationship.

I’ve also used her for family occasions. My husband is tough to buy for, and she’s come up with great ideas. One year I wanted to create a Halloween basket for my son. The stuffed bear from that one is still around here somewhere.

Looking for a good basket person? Look no farther. Call Karen, and she’ll take good care of you! But fair warning. Don’t stop by her site when you are hungry. It’ll just make your hunger worse.

Before I started my business, a former business consultant told me something I’ve never forgotten. The most important person in your network is your banker.

He was right. I’ve had my banker do some really good things that have helped my business. Unfortunately, my awesome banker left her bank, and I needed to find a new one.

I won’t name names, but I’ll tell you that I stayed with a bank I didn’t like, in a location that was a constant pain because my banker was good. Losing her was tough, but I think I’ve found a good replacement in John Kell of M&T Bank.

A banker is only as good as his products and support staff, so let’s start there. I was paying some considerable fees at my old bank, and when John told me that the basic M&T business package included a suite of services for a year with NO fees, I was thrilled. Saving money already. When we get close to the end of my first year, John and I will look at options, and I’m confident we’ll find something that will work well for me.

All the staff I’ve met have been fantastic. About a month after I opened the account, they discovered that my LLC paperwork had lapsed. Obviously, I wasn’t happy to discover that my attorney had dropped the ball, but I needed to know it. My attorney took lots longer than I’d expected to get everything fixed, but John and his staff persuaded corporate to hold off closing my account until I could get it fixed.

Bless John. He also let me vent more than once about the situation, and he took it well. I wasn’t mad at him, but my attorney wasn’t returning my calls, and John did. I hope I didn’t give him reason to regret anything.

John checks in with me regularly to see how my business is doing and to be certain everything is okay with my account. There was a mix-up in setting up my account, and I was charged some fees, but they’ve all been reversed.

It’s great when everything goes well with a service provider, but the real test of a business is how they handle problems. John was frank with me about the mistake they’d made, and they fixed it. I can’t ask for more than that.

Looking for a good business banker? Talk to John. You’ll be glad you did. Since he doesn’t have a social media presence, and I don’t like to publish someone’s email on the web, give me a call, and I’ll introduce you.

And John, get yourself on social media so we can find you that way, okay? If you need some help, I know a good social media coach.

Today if you are in business, you pretty much need to have a website, and there are thousands of companies eager to help you out. How to choose?

Well, I’ve gone through the typical pattern. First, I did it myself. Then I found a friend who redesigned it for free. Then I hired a cheap web guy. Finally, after being frustrated by those options, I hired a real web design company.

And I have no plans to switch again. Who did I hire? Cavendo. I met the owner, Jonathan Arehart, at a networking event, and I liked him. When I gave up in disgust trying to deal with my last web guy, I sat down with Jonathan and asked what he could do to help.

We didn’t do an actual redesign. All we did was move my hosting and translate the rest of my site to WordPress. Now I can modify any page, not just my blog.

The whole process was fairly smooth. Chris, my designer, hit all his deadlines and kept me informed at every stage of the process. Everything was going well until we actually finished the migration. That happened late in the afternoon, and I tested a couple of links. To my horror, I realized that all my blog links were dead.

I called Chris, and a couple of hours later, everything was fine. He admitted he’d made a mistake, and he fixed it.

For me, that’s the ultimate test of good customer service. I understand mistakes. I’ve made plenty. But I respect people who admit them and then fix them quickly.

I refer Cavendo whenever anyone mentions needing a website. They do good work. And when they screw up, they admit it and fix it. They also respond quickly when I have questions. What more can you ask of a company?

Need a website? Know someone who does? Call Cavendo. I’m sure you’ll be happy too.

Previous Feature Fridays:

Meet Simon Turner, Marketing and Business Consultant
Meet John Coleman, CPA
Meet Jamie Nicholas, Print Broker

Ever run out of business cards at an event? Or do you need that perfect brochure? Perhaps you want to print up some booklets to share your knowledge?

If you need any of those things, you need a good printer, and I have one for you. Jamie Nicholas. She’s been my printer for about four years now, and she’s good.

She’s a print broker, which means she can shop around several printers and find the ones with the best price and exactly what you need. She can save you money over contacting the printer yourself because of the relationship she has with them, and the amount of business she brings them.

I know her prices are good. I’ve shopped around, and no one could beat her for what I wanted. You see, I’m picky about my business cards. I want them on a heavy stock, and the other printers I talked to either couldn’t give me the stock I wanted or were going to charge me double what Jamie charged. Why would I do that?

Price isn’t everything, though. Service is excellent. A couple of years ago, I wanted a simple change to my card. All I asked Jamie to do was add my coaching credential after my name and substitute my new logo. She came back with an entirely new design, and I loved it. I still get compliments on the design of my card! Talk about exceeding a customer’s expectations.

She knows I’m picky, so the last time I ordered new cards, she suggested a different coating. I’d never heard of it or seen it, but I trust Jamie, and I told her to do it. When the cards came, I loved them! And I get even more compliments.

But what about when something goes wrong? How does Jamie handle that? Remember the card where I asked her to add my credential initials? Well, I sent her “ACC,” but what she put on my proof was “AAC.” I missed it in the proof and didn’t catch it until the cards arrived.

I called Jamie, and we checked the proof. Sure enough, I had missed it. She offered to reprint the cards at a significant discount. It was my error. She could have charged me full price, but she didn’t and I appreciated it.

She’s my printer forever. I refer her whenever someone needs printing, and everyone I’ve referred has been happy.

Need a printer? Need a really good printer? Call Jamie. You’ll be glad you did!

Previous Feature Fridays:

Meet John Coleman, CPA
Meet Simon Turner, Business and Marketing Consultant

This edition of Feature Friday introduces you to my accountant, John Coleman of Commonwealth Business Services.

John has been my accountant since I started 1 to 1 Discovery. He’s been with me through both that journey and my failed sign store “adventure” a few years ago. I think he is a great accountant, and I have not hesitated to refer him to clients and other associates.

But I’ve always had a niggling question in the back of my mind. Is he really saving me more on my taxes than Turbo Tax? (And now that Turbo tax has an iPhone app…) Be honest. Haven’t you had the same thought about your accountant? It’s hard for those of us who aren’t money people to really know.

Well, I’m going to tell you, it’s the wrong question. The right question is “will Turbo Tax help me through an IRS audit?” I think we all know the answer to that, right?

John Coleman and his staff have been with me for the last nine months as we’ve navigated the frustrating, frightening and expensive process of an IRS audit. I’ve hated almost every minute of it, but John has given great advice, and the best part is, we won! I understand that’s not the usual result of these, so John’s proven himself to me.

A few highlights of the story and John’s performance.

Last May, I got the totally terrifying IRS letter announcing the audit of the 2008 return of the (now-defunct) company that we’d used to buy the sign store. After I got past the inevitable “Oh SHIT!” moment and was able to speak words of more than four letters, I called John. He told me to send him a copy of the letter.

For a brief period of time, it looked like it would all go away. But I wasn’t that lucky. The official audit was the day after my birthday (great timing, eh?) John took care of it. Through the whole process, I’ve never met the auditor, which is good. From some of the stories I’ve heard, I probably would have punched her out, which I doubt would have helped my case.

Before the audit, John and his people drove me insane with all the requests for paperwork, canceled checks and the like. I swear there was a request for blood in there somewhere. A few times I wanted to tell John where to put his requests, but I got everything I could find. (Still anemic, even now.)

First round went to the IRS. They refused ALL the losses from 2008. I won’t say exactly how much that was, but let’s just say there were a few digits before the comma…

John asked for a meeting with the auditor and her supervisor. In preparation for that meeting, there were requests for yet more papers. And then John dropped a big one on me. He wanted to me to spend almost $3500 to get a well-respected tax attorney to write a letter supporting my case. Honestly, I thought about taking my chances without the letter, but John’s advice hadn’t led me wrong yet, so I gulped and said okay.

Good thing. John said the auditors were surprised we went to the trouble of getting the letter, but it was what tipped everything in our favor.

In case you were wondering, I only understood a few words of the letter. The salutation and the closing. Everything else was incomprehensible to me. That must be why lawyers can charge so much.

More rounds of documents. I swore I’d given them everything earlier, but no, the IRS wanted even more.

In the end, I’m paying a bit of tax plus interest for 2008. And as soon as that’s processed, we amend my 2007 and 2009 returns and I get back everything I just paid to the IRS and more. So the IRS ends up losing money on the deal! Which doesn’t give me back all the money I’ve paid to defend myself, but as least I have the satisfaction of saying Nyh! Nyh! Nyh! to the IRS.

Was it frustrating? You bet, but I knew I was in good hands. Was it expensive? Hell yeah! But it cost roughly half what I would have paid if I’d lost. And through all of it, John and his team explained, supported and did their best for me.

One of the things that most impresses me about John is that he knows what he knows, and he knows what he doesn’t. We hired a couple of other accountants to advise John on some things he was pretty sure of, but he wanted everything to be solid. That’s part of how I knew John was always doing his best by me.

Would Turbo Tax have been there for me? Can you imagine going to a meeting with an auditor and sitting there next to an empty software box?

Do you need an accountant? Well what are you waiting for? Call John right now! He’s worth every penny.

Join me in two weeks when I introduce you to an amazing print broker.

Previous Features

Meet Simon Turner

As I was driving home in a horrible snowstorm, I had the idea for a new feature for my blog. I’m a networking coach right? Introductions are my stock in trade. Maybe, just maybe, I should introduce my readers to people and organizations I find worthy of knowing. During the drive, I came up with lots of people I could write about, and I knew I had a good one. Look for a new feature person/organization every other Friday.

Some of the people will be ones I’ve known a long time. Some only a short, but all of them will have a reason I think you should know them. And if I have an existing or previous business relationship, I’ll disclose that. The only thing I won’t disclose is whether or not they have been clients because that’s a violation of my professional ethics.

I thought I should start with the person who spawned the idea (though he didn’t know it at the time.)

Meet Simon Turner of Strategic Practical Thinking

The first thing inquiring minds want to know is “Simon, is your middle initial ‘P’, and you were trying to turn your initials into your company name?”

Now that I’ve embarrassed Simon, let me discuss why I think you should know him.

I haven’t known him long. We met last November at an event where I was speaking. We chatted, and he said he was a marketing and business consultant. I’ve known lots of them in my time in business, and mostly they don’t impress me. But something about Simon sparked my interest, and we agreed to hook up later.

He actually called me the next day, which always makes a favorable impression on me.

Our first meeting was great. Simon looks at all of a business, not just a few parts, and I know how important that is. His stories about how he has turned around other businesses resonated with me. It’s obvious we have a similar approach to doing business, and he knows a lot more than I do about how to grow medium to large companies. I need that knowledge base to refer, and I’m glad I’ve found it.

We agreed to a follow up meeting, and that meeting was Wednesday. In fact, he’s the reason I left McLean late and took 3 1/2 hours to get home. But it’s okay. We had a great meeting.

Simon knows how to take a complex topic and break it down to make it simple. He demonstrated that in our meeting when we were brainstorming about a future co-branded presentation. He scribbled out a tree of related businesses, and within minutes, we had three to target for upcoming presentations. I’ve seen committees take hours to get to the same conclusions, and I think we did it in about 5 minutes.

I’ve made introductions on his behalf, and he’s working on some for me. I see a great future strategic partnership in the works, and I’m delighted. I’ve been looking for a Simon Turner for a couple of years now, and I think I’ve found him.

Did I mention that he sent me a cool checklist to make it easy for me to find referrals for him? Let’s see if I got it right.

If you or a business you know is struggling with a website, sales, marketing communications or a business plan, Simon can help. What might be some specific things you could listen for?

1. I think I need to hire some staff, but I’m not sure exactly when or how I’m going to ramp up to that point.

2. The focus of my business has changed in the last couple of years, but my business plan hasn’t. Do you know anyone who can help?

3. I’ve got a good stream of prospects, but none of them are closing. What should I do?

If any of those sound familiar, contact Simon. Or if you’d rather, touch base with me, and I’ll introduce you directly.

What do you think? Like the Feature Friday idea? If you do, stop by in two weeks and meet the company that saved my ass when the IRS audited a company I used to own.