Thursday
25Feb2010

Working at My Own PACE!

DateThursday, February 25, 2010 at 11:17AM | AuthorDeborah Baska, VP Marketing Operations

For the past 2 months, my kids have asked me, at least once per week, “Now, when are we going to PACE in Branson?”  (The Petroleum and Convenience Store Exposition of Mid-America) You see, I’ve always tried to involve my family in my career—it makes things fun for me and helps them understand this other facet of my life to which I’ve been devoted for almost 19 years!  

I’d like to think that going to PACE is exciting to my kids because they would miss me so much if I went away for the weekend without them.  But, I’m a pretty realistic person, so I know that what really excites them is all the loot and goodies they get from the vendors.  After all, it’s a convenience store tradeshow – there are samples of things to eat at every other booth, as well as giveaways from cushy trucks shaped stress relievers, to Frisbees; from pens to t-shirts; and more!

But, aside from making me a hero in my kids’ eyes, why do I like PACE? Since its inception, PACE has been one of my favorite industry events.  It brings 2 days of exhibits, connections and education to convenience store retailers in Kansas and Missouri – at an extremely affordable cost – FREE!   The fuel marketing business is really its own little “small world”.  PACE brings all of us from Missouri and Kansas together – customers, competitors, prospects, vendors and suppliers—and everywhere you look, you see familiar faces.  It’s kind of like an annual reunion!

For those of you that haven’t attended a PACE show, I wanted to bring a little bit of PACE to you.  So here are my Top 5 Favorite Things about PACE 2010:

5.  Pizza!  Yes, I always look forward to trying 5-6 varieties of pizza from the various vendors.  Bonus:  Since I was observing Lent on Friday, I got to eat cheese pizza all day on Friday, then “had” to try everything again on Saturday in the meat varieties!  My pick of the PACE this year – Mean Gene’s Pizza, marketed by Hot Stuff Foods!  (Mean Gene is really sweet, and the pizza was thin, crispy and cheesy!)

4. Exhibiting! CarterEnergy has attended many a PACE in the past, but this was our first year exhibiting.  It was fun and effective!  We met so many people, and I loved the way it gave people – customers, vendors, etc. – a place to go and find us.  Where is CarterEnergy?  Booth 123! We were a destination!

3. Location!  I loved the Branson Hilton Convention Center.  A special shout out to the bellhops who were so friendly and helpful, especially when my son’s bag of PACE SWAG exploded all over the lobby!  The whole Branson Landing area is a great place to convene – shopping, dining and the piano bar (where the whole convention meets up after hours).

2. Seeing Our Customers! It was such a thrill to meet customers from the Branson and Southwest Missouri area.  But it was also exciting to see several customers from the Kansas City area!  Friendly faces in far-away places.  You never know who’ll you run into at PACE.

1. FRED!  This was the cool new find of the show – Fred Natural Spring Water.  What makes it so cool?  Packaging!  When we first saw people walking around with these bottles, we did a double take.  Maybe we are all just adolescents at heart, but we cracked up at the idea of saying, “Hey look at me!  Looks like I’m drinking a little something-something!”  But, no, it’s just water!  Anyway, EVERYone was looking for the FRED!  And, as supply became scarce, we were all saving the bottles!  Call me a dork, but I even put mine in the dishwasher when I got home…

So, if you are in the business, be sure to check out your local industry tradeshows.  CarterEnergy will be at the Texas Food and Fuel Expo in July and just recently attended the Colorado 3 in 1 show in Denver. Regional and local tradeshows give you great value and networking opportunities for minimal cost. 

If you are NOT in the business, ask your local c-store operators to stock up on some FRED and get out and conduct your own c-store pizza taste test.  Let me know who your winners are!

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Thursday
25Feb2010

Winter Escape to the Lone Star State

DateThursday, February 25, 2010 at 9:43AM | AuthorJayme Tappan, Customer Experience Coordinator

My days of being excited for snow are over! After the conclusion of school and college, snow really isn’t exciting anymore.  If you don’t have the possibility of school or class being canceled, the only options you have to look forward to are:

  • Your pipes freezing
  • Getting stuck in your driveway
  • Traffic jams
  • The bottom of your pants being wet
  • Having to clean off your car/windshield

Unfortunately, I experienced all of the above, and some more than once, this winter.  I have never looked forward to spring so much in my life!

As you can imagine, I was more than willing, even thrilled, when my supervisor suggested I take a trip to Dallas, Texas!  It is always warm and sunny in Dallas, right? Wrong…

However, despite the colder than anticipated temperatures and a day and half of pouring down rain, I did have an enjoyable trip.

The purpose of my journey:

  1. Scout locations for the 50th Anniversary RoadShow
  2. Visit some of our Commercial customers
  3. Continue my education and training

I was able to spend a half day with each of our Dallas Area Managers:  Mike Kittrell and Bob Penrod. I enjoyed meeting and learning from them – both have been in the industry for 20 + years!  They did a fantastic job of showing me around the area and introducing me to their customers.

As you already know, or should know (check out our Facebook fan page), this is CarterEnergy’s 50th anniversary.  To celebrate we have launched a What Will Fuel the Future campaign (WhatWillFuelTheFuture.com).  We want to engage kids about their future in America – after all, they hold the largest stake in fueling the future.  We have a 34-foot, eye-catching trailer that is filled with fun, educational, and interactive exhibits.  We will be taking the RoadShow to several big venues, as well as to many customer locations and schools

I am very excited to be involved in our 50th anniversary celebration as the retail site coordinator: getting to know the customers, learning how they operate their stores and how they will promote the RoadShow to their customers; interacting with kids, and learning things like: 

  • The University of Warwick in Britain is testing a Formula 2 race car that runs on 30% biodiesel made from chocolate waste that comes from a nearby Cadbury plant.
  • The car’s steering wheel is made from carrots, and the mirrors and front wing were made with potato starch and flax fiber. (http://www.vegparadise.com/news86.html) 

Want to know more fun facts about What Will Fuel the Future?  You’ll just have to attend one of our RoadShow visits. Our first stop – The Dallas Auto Show, March 3-7.  Then it rolls into our first round of customer visits in Plano and Frisco, Texas.

Estimated weather in Kansas:  42 degrees

Estimated weather in Dallas:   60 degrees

Bye Bye Winter………Hello Dallas! 

 

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Friday
19Feb2010

The Hidden Changes of the Banking Industry

DateFriday, February 19, 2010 at 3:18PM | AuthorKerry Oliver, Chief Administrative Officer

When you read about banks failing and see on TV that the FDIC has taken over a bank, are you thinking about what all of this might mean to YOUR BANK? Well you should—we all should—especially if you use that bank to support your business.

Simply, banks are struggling with their prior decisions for investments, mostly real estate, and now have uncollectible loans and have to create cash reserves for future uncollectible loans. Cash comes from the bank’s fees, deposits and investments. As bank costs increase and deposits decrease banks can get caught in a very unhealthy position. Additionally, state and federal regulatory agencies have increased their audit frequencies and the diligence of those audits, requiring greater adherence to policy and standards.

All of this means that your bank may have to change how it has been operating or that they have ceased providing certain services. Here are some “surprises” about your bank that you have told us about:

  • No longer accepting real estate as collateral – must find other source(s) of collateralization for notes coming due.
  • Not interested in renewing a note if it is for real estate – must find a new lender.
  • Nightly overdraft protection disappeared overnight.
  • Speculative real estate is of little to no interest.
  • Very conservative/stringent on underwriting new loans.
  • The loan to value has dropped significantly.
  • The value of real estate holdings has dropped significantly.

Be proactive in knowing what is going on with your bank. Research the bank on the internet by looking for recent articles that may highlight concerns. Make an appointment to meet face to face with your banker, but before you go, do these simple things:

  1. Document a few questions to ask about the bank’s stability and longevity.
  2. Refresh your Business Plan.
  3. Pull out your business and personal last quarter and most recent annual financials (make sure they look professional).
  4. Create a cash forecast for your business – “Cash is King” and it takes cash to generate cash!

Don’t give up HOPE! We do know that there are banks out there that are lending money for real estate. If your financial position is healthy and the property is viable, you should be able to find a bank interested in financing the location and building a relationship with you and your business.

Need help with this?  Let me know what questions you have regarding this subject!

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Monday
15Feb2010

Will the Learning Never End?!

DateMonday, February 15, 2010 at 8:18AM | AuthorDeborah Baska, VP Marketing Operations

On the eve of our “What Will Fuel the Future?” RoadShow Sneak Peek, I’m finally sitting down to write the blog that has been on my mind for quite some time.  Creating this experience for CarterEnergy has been an amazing learning process. I would even add that it has been somewhat humbling to learn exactly how much I don’t know.

This brings to mind a tool I learned about long ago: The Conscious Competence Learning Model.  It goes something like this:

  1. Unconscious Incompetence  - You don’t know what you don’t know
  2. Conscious Incompetence - You know what you don’t know
  3. Conscious Competence - You know what you know
  4. Unconscious Competence – Instinct or deeply ingrained skills

Obviously levels 3 and 4 are where most of us would like to think we live our lives.  For instance, I drive to work in level 4. Sometimes, I arrive at my office and I don’t remember seeing anything along the way because it is such a deeply ingrained routine for me (Is this truly a “competence” many of you may be wondering).

There are also many skills of which I’m fully aware that I do well (if I may be so bold as to say). I rock at Word Mole; I can write pretty engaging customer newsletter content; and I make an oh-so tasty spicy beef stew.  Yes, life is good in the land of competency.

Now, let’s hop back up to level 1 – Unconscious Incompetence.  I call this the “ignorance is bliss” state. If you don’t know you don’t know, isn’t life still good?  What you don’t know can’t hurt you.  Right?

From the first day that our team developed the concept for the “What Will Fuel the Future?” RoadShow, I have been continuously bumped back to level 1, and I have not found my state of ignorance to be all that blissful.  In fact, it has been anywhere from uncomfortable to downright frightening!

 Let’s look at the short list of things I didn’t know going into this project, some of which, in fact, I didn’t even know I didn’t know:

  1. Mobile Marketing – Oh, is that what they call this? Definition from Wikipedia: Marketing in a mobile fashion, i.e. a roadshow or tour. There are actually companies (like our partner Unchained Creative) who specialize in this.  Of course, I just now learned something else I didn’t know I didn’t know – when you do a Google search for “mobile marketing” the top search returns are all about marketing via mobile phone devices.  Just goes to show, even when you think you know something, you may not!
  2. Truck Talk – I’ve never been a car, or truck, girl.  I don’t pay attention to what people are driving; I don’t have a clue how the 2010 Taurus differs from the 2009; and to me, a pickup is a pickup.  However, I learned that “pickup” as a description doesn’t work very well when you are trying to get quotes to paint one or trying to determine specs to pull a 34 ft. gooseneck trailer.  After many calls and emails, I now know that we have a 2005 Sierra 3500 Crew Cab long box. It can seat 5 people and has a trailer hitch.  Whew! And…just yesterday I learned what “dually” means (and that ours is not one): “a utility vehicle or pickup truck with two sets of rear wheels on one axle.”  Will the learning never end!
  3. Trailer Talk – My boss told me to go to the internet and look for trailers for sale.  Okaaaaaayyy….go ahead, you type in “trailer” as a search, see if you find that to be very helpful.  Now type in “gooseneck trailer”….getting better, right?  Now try, “gooseneck trailer 34 ft”.  Bingo! Who knew?  (I’m sure many of you did, but not me!).
  4. Exhibiting Protocol – We’re building this fabulous educational program and going to utilize our time, talent and treasure to make it available to the public because we believe it is the right thing to do.  I didn’t know that despite our good intentions, we are still viewed as an “exhibitor” with all accompanying fees and regulations attached.  That wasn’t a line-item in my budget! (However, many of the venues really get what we are trying to do and are excited by the content of our program, and have, thus, been very helpful in working with us.)
  5. Working with Stock Photography –I didn’t know it was so darned expensive!  And I didn’t know that you can’t always get what you want—but I do know that you usually get what you need!  Case in point: We found out that the trailer design and photos we had approved were actually not available.  Not available in high enough resolution; not available because one of the models had royalty fees (out the wazzoo) attached to her; not available because one of the models was missing a shoulder (not in real life, just in the photo).  All devastating news at the time!  Are we back to square one? How did we solve this problem? We took our own photos! We learned a whole slew of things about setting up a custom photo shoot.  And look what we got!  Fabulous, high quality images of 4 amazing, engaging and real kids.  We wouldn’t have wanted it any other way!

OK. I’ll stop with these 5 things, lest you all begin to think I’m completely incompetent!

So what is the point of revealing to you exactly how much I don’t know when it comes to doing my job? My point is one of HOPE! Once you realize that you “didn’t know what you didn’t know”, you immediately move into level 2 – knowing what you don’t know.  And this is a beautiful thing because: Knowledge is Power!  This is the point when you start growing; you start expanding your knowledge; your Conscious Competency begins to expand. 

I know that I’m not done with level 1 surprises, but I do know that I’m a whole lot more competent now that when I started this project 12 months ago.  Will the learning never end?  I certainly hope not!

 

 

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Monday
11Jan2010

Safe Winter Travel with Big Trucks

DateMonday, January 11, 2010 at 10:32AM | AuthorAmber Battle, Marketing Coordinator

Last week, as our latest winter storm warning was coming to fruition here in Kansas City, I started my trek home on the snow-packed roads and passed a CarterEnergy truck.  I thought how lucky I was to be heading in the opposite direction, to my warm home with my husband and pets.  Then I felt a touch of guilt, as I knew that many people in the service industry, like us, (who operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), would be working tirelessly in the severe cold temperatures and muck. 

My thoughts went quickly back to the road, as the possibility of sliding and careening into another car was a distinct possibility.  Personally, I get very nervous driving on slick roads in the wintertime, but the thought of colliding with a large vehicle is even scarier. 

While I feel I’m a pretty safe driver—and it’s the “other guys” I’m worried about—I also realize that it never hurts to review the basics of safe winter driving, especially how they relate to sharing the road with large vehicles, such as our fuel delivery trucks. 

  • Trucks require more time to stop, especially during winter, so try to maintain a distance of 20-25 car lengths between a truck and your vehicle.  A good rule of thumb is to look for the truck’s side mirrors.  If you can see both, you’re at a good distance—and the driver can also see you. 
  • Be aware of blind spots, in case a truck needs to suddenly change lanes to avoid debris or another obstacle.  Try not to linger alongside a truck; move past it or back off so that the driver can see you.  Check for the driver’s face in their side mirror, which signals that you’re visible.  Also, on the right side of the vehicle, the blind spot runs the length of the truck and extends out three lanes, so it’s usually best to pass on the left. 
  • When passing, keep a distance where the truck’s headlights are in your rear view mirror.  This helps ensure that the driver has enough distance to stop the vehicle during an emergency.  A tractor trailer fully loaded with fuel can weigh up to 80,000 pounds and take the length of a football field to stop under normal conditions; you don’t want that to hit your own 3,000 pound vehicle.   
  • Be careful around snowplows, which can be twice as wide as other large trucks.  They can be equipped with either a plow extending between12-15 feet in the front or a side wing plow extending 8-10 feet on the sides.  Try to keep at least five car lengths between these vehicles and use extreme caution when passing them. 
  • Keep your eyes on the road, especially far ahead of you.  Watch for brake lights from multiple cars and trucks, which can signal danger ahead and give you time to react.

For additional tactics on staying safe on winter roads, visit Weather.com’s safety tips for Driving in Snow and Ice.  And above all else, be careful out there!

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