EZ Paint Tools: The EZ Clean Paint Brush

Global + Giving = Great!

You may have noticed that we have added a widget to the right hand column of this blog.  This is an organization that we just became aware of through a friend of the company. 

GlobalGiving connects people that want to contribute to world-changing projects with pre-screened organizations. I love it because it gives me a chance to pro-actively identify projects that I am interested in and give what I can even if it is just $10 bucks.

As our company grows, we will be looking for ways to work more closely with this great organization.

Cool Tools

We are excited to be selected as a featured product on DIY Networks  cool new show called "Cool Tools"!  We had a great time working with them at the National Hardware Show earlier this year and we wish them great success with their new show.  (Check it out Thursdays at 9pm).  Thanks to them we are having some success of our own!  Buy your paint brush at one of our great retailers or online.

Media Love: BrandWeek

Not sure how we missed this nice post, but is sure is cool to have been a blip on the radar of BrandWeek! Thanks, we dig you guys too!

Blog Love from: Our Fixer Upper

We got a nice mention from Mindy at Our Fixer Upper the other day.  Thanks Mindy!  We're glad you like the brush.

They are working on a really beautiful 1890’s Victorian in central New York state.  Don't miss the great job they did on the master bathroom, dining room and others.

But by far the coolest part is when they decided to see what was up in the cupola!

This just in!

We just saw that we got a nice mention in the Indianapolis Star.  Thanks Indy!

Blog Love: Turning Green Gold

"Turning Green Gold" is a blog from a friend that I made at Seattle Open Coffee (SOC is another story.  Follow the link to learn more!)

We are adding them to our (newly installed) BlogRoll with this Blog Love post because we dig what Michael is up to. 

So here it is: Thanks for the post Michael!  But more than that, "Go get 'em."  This is a good idea and we can all use some help learning about new solutions, new companies and better ways of using our footprints on this planet.  We all look forward to your future posts.

Congratulations, RichContent!

Congratulations to our friends at RichContent.com!  Mark and his team  launched their company and media service products yesterday.  We have been privileged to get a few peaks behind the curtain over the last few months and we are convinced that this is an extremely powerful tool to help companies that are trying to build and maintain their brands on the web and finding that adwords are both expensive and temporary.  RichContent's solution is an innovative way to take REAL content and leverage it across all electronic mediums.  And once there, it stays.  Because it is REAL content!  Genius right!  Check it out before they start pricing it for what it is really worth.  We will! 

The picture above was taken as they flew their flag over Bellevue, WA yesterday afternoon.  What a perfect day and perfect way to announce your company.

Online Store Updates

We made some much-needed updates to the online store today.  The store runs on an e-commerce package called Zen-Cart.  And while we have nothing but praise for the flexibility of their software, the number of options are daunting.  As we prepare for our next set of marketing campaigns, it seemed important to have the store looking as sharp as possible.

We changed out the header graphic and tightened  up the top half of the page.  We also made some headway with the meta-tags and copy on the home page.

Next up on the to-do list are new buttons, faster loading images, improved navigation and hopefully somewhat smoother check-out.  Online stores are just like "real" ones.  There is always something to straighten up and improve.  And when your name is EZ Clean Paint Brush, you gotta look slick!

3rd Day Might be the Charm

I realize this doesn't have much to do with painting, but one of the goals of this blog is to capture a few thoughts and milestones of starting this business.

My wife got a new laptop and that got her a great discount on a new printer.  So we bought her one of the latest and greatest HP PhotoSmart printers and she loves it.  I took the "old" (barely 1 year old!) to the office to help out on some print jobs.  Somehow on the trip downtown, it stopped working, so I tried to download new drivers and software for it.

HP makes it really fast and easy to find the exact driver that you need.  But to my puzzlement and confusion, the file that I needed would not download.  I tried different methods, different browsers and different login locations.  But I could not download the file.  When I tried it with my FTP client, it looked like it was a 0mb file.  So I reached out to HP's Customer Support team using their online chat client.  I reached someone very quickly, but they were completely clueless, finally telling me that a printer that I had bought at an Apple store was only for Windows.

I hung up in total frustration (Adios, Matthew!).  Sometime the next day, I had calmed down and decided to take another run at the problem.  Again, I tried to solve it myself, but when I got the same result, I went back into their chat system.  (I was going to try to use their email support system, but you are required to supply a serial number and I didn't have that.)  Again, I met one of the poorest support people ever.  I have been using computers (and specifically Macs) since 1985.  That is 22 YEARS!  I have made most of the mistakes that can be made, but I have also learned more than just the basics about how these machines work.  So I  thought that I was giving a pretty clear, simple explanation of the problem.  All I wanted "Irma" to do was to email me a copy of the file since there was a pretty good chance that there was a problem with the one on the FTP site.

She had no idea what I was talking about.  Finally, she said that I had to enter an entirely different support system.  I was about to go crazy.  I hung up and decided to try again later.  Finally today, I thought let's see if the phone dudes are any more knowledgeable.  Miraculously, I got through to someone in less than a minute.  (Major Kudos to HP for getting that part of the process figured out!)  But Jordan was as quick as the rest to try to send me off to some other place to get help. Before he could close the call, I begged with him to try to download the file that I was after.

What do you know?!?!?  It wouldn't work for him either!  Hey!  I knew what I was talking about!  I asked him to file an internal ticket to check it out and I would try again tomorrow.  Who knows, it just might work.

If we (EZ Paint Tools) EVER, EVER, EVER treat one of you like that.  Please contact me directly!  Customers are precious.  We love you and we will do all we can to help you to have a great experience with our products.

When the President Comes to Town

We are working from our Bellevue, WA office this week and there is going to be a fundraising event later this afternoon.  Because our offices are on the same block as the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Bellevue, this is not particularly big news.  They have some sort of event in their conference centers and ballrooms several times a week.

What sets today apart is that the President is coming to the one today.  I had  a teleconference at 7am this morning so I wheeled in pretty early and didn't have any trouble at all.  But at noon I stepped out to get some lunch ( Subway: 6" Roast Beef on wheat, no cheese, no toasted!).  As soon as I stepped out of the building, you could see that security was in full swing.  Metal railings up all the way around the block.  There was no pedestrian access on the block accept to leave.  If you wanted to enter, there were only two access points that could be used.  The construction crews on several of the buildings nearby were sent home at noon.  Streets were blocked off.  I am tempted to hang out until this evening to see him arrive, but I have plenty to do and there is no way of knowing how long it will take to get out of the parking garage.

The thing that struck me the most was both the enormity of the security and its relative informality.  The cops were helpful and courteous.  ("Sorry about the inconvenience." one of them said.)  No bags were searched.  Nobody stopped the car on the way in.  No passes, ID or papers.    I realize that things will be strict at the event itself, but when I used to travel to Manila, there were 14 checkpoints between the entrance to the airport and the actual seat on the plane.  This was much easier.  For all of the changes since 9-11, it is nice to be reminded that we still live in a fairly free society.  (But they are probably monitoring this internet connection and reading this post!  <grin>)