It’s a beautiful sunny Monday morning in Prince Edward Island.

My day started very early – I was scraping ice off my windshield at 5am getting ready to go to the gym to meet my trainer. One of the reasons I love going there so ungodly early in the day is because of the man who works the reception area in the mornings. He’s just a great human being and I have yet to see him without a huge smile on his face.

He genuinely loves what he does and I know he does because it shows. I could recognize his laugh from a mile away because I hear it so often in the mornings. I think he sets a different tone for the gym than you find at other times of the day. He used to tell me (back when I was a bride-to-be gym rat six years ago) that the morning people were different…making it a better time of day to workout. But I kind of think it has a lot to do with him being so cheerful and friendly there behind the desk.

I remember when I was a waitress, one man I worked for stressed that people can get great food anywhere, but he wanted his restaurant to stand out for customer service. I remember him making a big deal about staff smiling because you never know what’s going on in someone’s life and a simple smile could really lift a person up.

I never forgot that, and to this day, when I’m walking down the street and meet someone I make a point of looking up and smiling. I think it’s important to acknowledge a fellow human being, and I like to think that maybe my smile will be contagious and eventually become a bright spot in someone’s day.

If you work in a home office and don’t see many flesh and blood people in the run of a day, put a smile on your face when you’re on the phone (that was a rule we had when I was a Subway Sandwich Artist but that’s a story for another day) because it really does make a difference in how you’re perceived on the other end of that phone.

If you’re a business owner, do you sound happy or stressed out when you interact with your customers? If you have a staff, do they know how important it is that they appear happy to be at work? And no matter who you are…remember that a smile doesn’t only make you look more attractive as soon as  you put it on your face, but you could make someone’s day by sharing it with them.

(Nothing to smile about? Check out this YouTube video and try NOT to smile. I double-dog-dare-ya!)

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Reasons Jaime deserves Chocolate Cake in a Mug:

• It’s cold and snowy outside.
• Her voice is gone and she’s sick.
• It’s Friday.
• One dish to dirty. One!!!
• It’s chocolate cake. In a mug.

Yes this is completely off topic, as was the recipe for 5 Minute Chocolate Cake that I published last year but I couldn’t NOT share this.

The picture on the right is from a glorious blog post I found today on Bacon Concentrate – a recipe for Chocolate Cake in a Mug:

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

• Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.
• Add egg and mix thoroughly.
• Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
• Add the vanilla extract, and mix again.
• Put your mug in the microwave for 3 minutes on high power.

You can read the original post here which includes beautiful pictures. It’s a really nice site for food lovers like myself.

I will make this cake tonight as soon as the children are in bed, and I will be eating it with a scoop of ice cream and a glass of milk.

Here’s to a wonderful chocolate-filled weekend!

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This morning I was presented with a bouquet of flowers from my husband. The leaves were rotting off the stems and many of the blossoms were dead. He bought them a few days ago, and they perished in a closet is my guess.

Last year, he let our daughter pick out a Valentine’s bouquet for me and it was also dead when I opened it which was kind of cute because she picked it out herself.

Now, I know it’s the thought that counts and I shouldn’t complain about someone giving me flowers even if they smell a bit because they’re essentially rotten. Petrified maybe. But…this isn’t how things started out.

This morning, I was brought back to my first Valentine’s Day with my honey, back in 2001. We hadn’t been together all that long, but he pulled out all the stops. He told me I would need a fancy dress for the evening and he suggested I pack a change of clothes.

I got all dolled up and he picked me up that evening (wearing a suit) and led me to a limo that was sitting in the parking lot of the building I was living in. There was wine, a huge arrangement of flowers, a drive through the downtown watching snow gently falling. It ended up with us having a four course meal at one of the nicest restaurants in town.

I won’t go into any more detail, but you get the picture. He tried so hard to impress me and it was all so romantic. I was effectively swooned and since we were still in that Honeymoon phase of our relationship, I thought I scored the only romantic man left on the planet. Turns out he’s not all that romantic by nature but he really wanted to impress me. I had fallen in love with him before that Valentine’s Day date and it wouldn’t have mattered to me if that night we got a heart shaped pizza and watched a movie.

But here’s the problem. Eight years, a marriage and two children later, I still get that little ball of hope in my belly leading up to February 14th that I’ll be swept off my feet again. But two years running now I’ve been given rotten flowers.

Why am I sharing this story? What does it have to do with running a small business?

When you start out a relationship with a new client or customer, are you setting expectations at a sustainable level? Because when you start doing business with someone and impress them with champagne and caviar, after a few years, you can’t be giving them beans & franks with Kool-Aid.

If you’re super responsive with a new client (especially if you’re new in business and will bend over backwards for a paycheck) you better be able to keep that up after your business is full of paying clients and the shiny has worn off the relationship.

In other words, if you start out with a half-dead bouquet, it won’t be so bad eight years later when that’s what your customers are expecting

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It’s a cold and dreary day here as seems to be the usual for Remembrance Days in my memory.

My mother’s father signed up for WWII when he was 17 years old, he didn’t die in the war, but he passed away when my mother was a little girl. I was raised to put importance on this day and remembering our veterans.

Please take a couple of minutes today to remember why it is that we enjoy so many freedoms.

I can’t watch this video without crying.

Lest we forget.

A Pittance of Time by Terry Kelly

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My regular readers know that I like to decorate my website with the seasons and for the entire month of October we’re going pink to help raise breast cancer awareness.

A portion of all Mann Made Time’s profits for the month of October will go towards finding a cure.

No matter what your age, girls, start checking yourselves for lumps. I’ve heard of far too many women in their 30s or younger who have been devastated by this disease. And hopefully those of you who need regular mammograms are scheduling those now.

Canadians wishing to donate directly can visit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Those south of the border may wish to visit the Susah G. Komen for the Cure website to donate.

We can’t all give to every foundation that needs to raise funds, but breast cancer is an epidemic. I think it’s good karma to give. It has touched so many people that I know. I encourage everyone reading this to do what you can to help find a cure.

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