blunders and bloopers in business

[mr.ro]

So im here on a shoe string budget and I decide to get some business cards printed from vistaprint I design them, upload them, go through all the hoops to order them. only to realize that I did the mistake of misspelling a word. so come to find out vistaprint is an automated company meaning they save money by not have people answer phones which is why they have low prices. so i was unable to reverse the order and change the design so I lost out on money and time.

I just wanted to start something maybe we can laugh at see what things we have did in business that we can look back at now and wonder how we made that mistake.

[cbscreative]

Thank you for sharing that. I think my view of business cards is well known by many of the members here. Even at the high end for costs, business cards are so inexpensive that it is a mistake to do them cheap. When you hand them out, it may very well be the first impression of your company, and it always leaves some impression. Make it count. If I get a cheap, unprofessional card, my first thought is to wonder what other ways they cut costs. No deal, sorry, you lose. It is so affordable to do them right that I am very unforgiving of anyone who doesn't take their business seriously enough to do so. There are some exceptions to that, but very few.

OK, with that, my blunder is probably not as amusing. One reason I am so strong on marketing now is that I had such horrible marketing several years ago with a sign business. I had talent, did high quality work, yet sucked at effectively marketing the company. I think many small biz people make that same mistake. In my case, I was losing business to people selling junk because my marketing was weak. At least now when I lose business, it's because the potential client either doesn't care or doesn't understand. I can live with that because there are plenty who do.

[vangogh]

Good topic.

I've done my share of typo blunders. Mostly they were on resumes when I was applying for jobs or on the cover letters I was sending out. I've also done my share of poor marketing, though I try to always learn from my mistakes.

I guess a recent blunder was in a software purchase. When I bought a Macbook a few months ago I wanted to install virtualization software and then add Windows to it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to research the virtualization software and ended up buying the one that wasn't quite as good. No big deal there. I thought I had a copy of XP I could install, but couldn't find it so I went out and bought Vista. Naturally after I opened Vista and installed it and couldn't return it anymore I found the copy of XP I had. Couple hundred I didn't have to spend. Oh well.

[KristineS]

I did a typo on a blog post that was supposed to get us national exposure once. I wrote the post and instead of saying inexpensive, which was what I wanted to say, I said expensive. I swear I read the thing like 40 times, but somehow I missed that. Of course it changed the entire meaning of the post.

I still shudder over that one.

[billbenson]

When I get an order, I have a program that sends me a receipt and an order. I forward the receipt copy to my customer and the order to my partner who processes the order. I do it that way so I get a copy of both the order and receipt. Customers always call for their receipt when they get their bill.

A month ago, I forwarded the order email to the customer. The order email has costs as well as prices on it. Turned out it was a new clerk in her first week on the job. I sent her an email with the receipt copy and said there was an error on the prior receipt. She bought it and didn't forward the one with costs to her boss. Got lucky.

[orion_joel]

Probably my biggest blunder to date would be the lack of marketing, or more so professional marketing.

However in saying this i have also made many type blunders, but to date all of them have been on prices, however actually in my favor. Because of a flat 10% sales tax in Australia, some companies prefer to be quoted ex tax and some inc tax. For whatever reason. A couple of times i have made the mistake of quoting the inc GST price to a customer expecting ex GST. the 3 or 4 times it has happened they have still ordered, and confirmed with purchase orders with the price i quoted and added the tax on. When this has happened i will generally just split the difference, and tell them i got a better price form the supplier and wanted to pass the saving on. Which makes them even happier.

[mr.ro]

well im glad to know others here have did their fair share of typos. orion_joel I would not mind getting more money and not having the customer get mad that is a win win blunder.

vangogh man that sucks when you don't research a software purchase before you buy and it doesn't fit the bill. I have made that mistake as well with audio software.

[Baseline]

Had a standard block on my surveys regarding "public" information. For some reason, we lost the L....... on I don't know how many surveys....... that are recorded, and in the courthouses all around here........


sigh.........

[cbscreative]

I'll bet we could have a great time with typos and bloopers. I can't think of any really funny ones of my own off hand, but I always enjoy seeing those lists of church bulletin bloopers and newspaper headline bloopers.

Here's an old list of newspaper headlines, but still funny:

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash Expert Says

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Experts Say School Bus Passengers Should Be Belted

Iraqi Head Seeks Arms

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over

Eye Drops Off Shelf

Teacher Strikes Idle Kids

Clinton Wins on Budget, But More Lies Ahead

Enraged Cow Injures Farmer With Ax

Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told

Miners Refuse to Work after Death

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last a While

Deer Kill 17,000

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Ban On Soliciting Dead in Trotwood

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half

New Vaccine May Contain Rabies

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors

Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case

Prostitutes Appeal to Pope

Stolen Painting Found by Tree

War Dims Hope for Peace

Enfields Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

[seolman]

I may have the biggest blunder of all from about 28 years ago. I had a small business building reverse osmosis water treatment systems and i was bidding on (what for me was) a big job. I worked for 3 days and nights slaving over my calculator and (at that time) Lotus 123 spreadsheets. I got all finished and sent the quote off around 3am and crashed. The next day I got up all self-satisfied and reviewed everything and almost had a heart attack. I had cut and pasted the wrong numbers into the proposal - virtually my cost. Three days of work down the drain and I ended up telling the client we weren't interested in the project so if they did decide to buy I wouldn't go through the embarrassment of telling them what an idiot I was.

Ahh to be young again...when you think you know it all.