Behind the Button

Shipping and "handling"...indeed.

I just read (another) blog post from Seth Godin about "shipping and handling" -- woohoo -- but it got me thinking about you my customers. Are you? should you be? OK with (like Seth) receiving a couple boxes of checks in 19 days for $14 shipping? Or as in his previous post $8.57 shipping for a $2.48 plastic squeeze bottle from Amazon.com -- look at these rates -- I'm thinking their most profitable item might actually be "shipping".

I am not here to pat myself on the back, just to say that I think the most important thing is to be fair -- in fact I think if you can get it fair is pretty remarkable these days! So here is the deal at Buttons of Hope -- if you order 1-5 buttons shipping is $1.50, 5-15 buttons is $5.50, over 15 shipping is free! To be perfectly transparent (you see the actual $ amount on the USPS stamp) sometimes I make quarter or so and sometimes I lose a bit. While I don't charge for handling (although for now I make and Individually pack** most buttons personally) I do a lot of handling but I figure that is part of what you are paying for "all the handling" required to get one custom button from me to you!  **a quick shout out to maybe the best company I have ever dealt with --packing supplies may be boring as heck BUT Uline does it to perfection -- even if you don't use corrugated or ziploc bags --order something just for the pure joy of it!

Bottom line I think my shipping and handling is fairly priced -- if you don't please drop me a note and I will gladly refund you're shipping as for the handling well ...that is priceless!

Oh and the exasperated toad courtesy of my friend and uber web designer paul burton at what else...16Toads design!

Personal billboards that walk and talk: Kyle Fleischmann

I want to start with an amazing story of love, loyalty and determination. Kyle Fleischmann went missing 11/9/07 in my hometown Charlotte NC. (details and updates can be found at helpfindkyle.com or on facebook helpfindkylefleischmann).

Kyle vanished into thin air, literally. But almost immediately an army of Kyle's family, friends and total strangers marshaled themselves to find him. I have no new news here -- the media has done a nice job covering the many poignant angles of this story -- Kyle's incredibly courageous Mom Barbara enduring cancer surgery shortly after his disappearance, Kyle's Dad and siblings pro actively  leading the search efforts. And then there are Kyle's many, many friends who turned missing person search tactics on their head -- by first caring; and then working tirelessly and smart his friends both virtual and flesh and blood have used the best of the internet to turn over every stone and to keep the story alive. 59,188 members on Daniel Scagnelli's Facebook and thousands more on MySpace are searching, posting and most importantly talking about Kyle.

So what do photo buttons have to do with all this? Plenty, I think. The timing is prophetic but I have been working the past few months on a partnership with a major missing person organization to provide photo  buttons as search tools -- or as I like to say "personal billboards that walk and talk". It has been my vision to use photo buttons as a simple yet powerful tool to get a missing person's face out quickly, pervasively and broadly. Anyone can go to the website and buy one button -- We don't know where Kyle may be but now we have people in GA, FL, MA, CA, KY, MD and several other states who are today wearing his button at the mall, at the football game, at work....! Buttons of Hope is committed to helping individuals like Kyle's friends and organizations like the Kristen Foundation with a new and innovate spin on an old tool -- photo buttons.

Thanks to everyone involved with the search for Kyle, especially his family, Daniel, Bryan, Dan, Lauren and Jason for letting me help and a special thanks to Joan Petruski who though her non-profit Kristen Foundation has been working tirelessly to help reunite loved ones under the most dire circumstances.

Now go help find Kyle and wear your button!

In no particular order

Rather than be constrained by chronology -- I will bring you stories as I am inspired or have the time to write them. Writing is tough for me -- I struggle to find just the right word (that's what 3 years of Latin will do to you) and like so many I am brevity challenged.

I will be bringing you stories about the people who make buttons and stories about the people ON the buttons they make. Inspiring stuff, hopeful stuff -- some of the stories I will write and some will come right from my beautiful customers who share from the heart their stories behind the button....

Every button tells a story.

My goal with the Behind the Button blog is to engage, motivate and inspire you the reader. As founder of Buttons of Hope I have learned a lot, listened to some amazing stories and found daily inspiration in the stories behind the buttons.