D6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday July 28, 1999 Business To reach this section call 845-3824 Fax:337-5567 Address plate has curb appeal Photo by Peter C. McCusker Melany Hellstern holds on the the reflective metal HomeFinder Curb Plates in front of Mayor Ann Mulvale's home. Behind Ron Liersch, Operations Manager Cdn. Medical Response, Ward 5 Regional Councillor Liz Behrens and Town Councillor Janice Caster join ambulance attendants and Firefight ers in showing curb signs. Entrepreneur says safety is the issue By Am ber Clarke SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER During her evening runs, Oakville entrepreneur Melany Hellstern noticed how difficult it is to see many home address numbers. Most numbers simply aren't illumi nated and many people do not leave out side lights on. Numbers displayed in brass tarnish and deflect light, and garage doors, bushes or branches often cover up an address. Hellstern, inventor of the HomeFinder Curb Plate, did a little investigating and discovered non-visible addresses are a concern for emergency services, including fire, police and espe cially ambulance response. She wants to make locating address es easier, and let people know emer gency services has a hard time finding home addresses not visible from the road, especially at night. "If an address isn't visible emergency services aren't sure where to look, and this slows them down," said Hellstern. Ron Liersch, operations manager of the District of Halton and Mississauga Ambulance Services, agrees. "Finding residence numbers has always been a problem with emergency services, particularly for ambulance and particularly at night," said Liersch. Common problems include numbers not visible from the road; script numbers or roman numerals, dark numbers that are difficult to see at night and house lights that aren't turned on to illuminate num bers. Volatility a way of life when investing The previous articles looked at two successful strategies for investing -- invest in equities for the long-term and the importance of international invest ing. Today, we will review the impor tance of learning to live with volatility. When it comes to investing in equi ties, your enemy is volatility. It will scare you into doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. My view on volatility is simple -- it just happens. Like it or not, you have to get used to it. Two comments on volatility might be helpful. First, there has never been a time over the last 200 years where a stock market decline was not fully recovered and the market went on to achieve new highs. PETER WATSON Dollars & Sense Declines can be significant. Stock markets can lose 20%, 30% or 40% of their value in a very short period of time. When this happens, you can have several emotional reactions. The prime reaction for most people is fear that you will never recover the losses. Some will be mad at themselves for risking their savings in the stock markets and some will be mad at their financial advisor for not giving better advice. If you sell when the market is down, you turn a paper loss into a real loss. At this stage, it is critical to be patient and have a long-term approach. A second type of investment volatil ity occurs when your specific invest ments perform poorly in the short-term. Let us assume that you own several mutual funds and for whatever reason, one or two of them performs poorly. One option is to be pro-active and sell the ones that have performed poor ly. Research suggests that this might be an error. Studies have shown that selecting the mutual funds based only on past performance is at best a guess. Even the "top" mutual funds per form poorly at some point. Maybe, the manager follows a management style that is out of favour given the current market conditions. It could be that some of their well thought out ideas did not materialize. As a general rule, if you try and fine- tune your investments too often, you will increase the likelihood that you will guess wrong. Investments are hard to predict in the short-term and every investor should try to become accustomed to the inevitable volatility in the market. Peter W atson, MBA, CFP, RFP is the president o f Peter W atson Investm ents -- an O akville firm specializing in retirem ent planning, RRSPs, and investm ent plan ning. He can be reached at 842-2100. Customers demand your immediate attention By Dave Anderson SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER The customer is our reason for being. It is only through the creation of long-term returning customers that we can ensure job security and the survival of any company. Nothing is more important than our customer. Every associate must understand that reality. It is also crucial that the customer know. We tell the customer through the quality of service we pro vide and by the sense of urgency we bring to serving him or her. A sense of urgency toward the cus tomer means stopping what you are doing and paying direct attention to the customer immediately. Immediately does not mean in a few seconds or in "just a minute." Immediately means immediately. It doesn't mean finishing the social conversation we are having with a fellow associate. It doesn't mean T h e B u s i n e s s ^Doctor finishing the business conversation we are having with a manufacturer's repre sentative. It doesn't mean listening to the ongoing conversation of the manag er or the district manager or even the company president. It means excusing yourself politely and immediately, and looking after our customer right now. A sense of urgency is important to any business. It conveys an air of pro fessionalism and caring. Having a sense of urgency does not mean rushing the customer. It means rushing ourselves. We must be sharp and crisp and focused in our actions. We must move as if we are efficient and interested in what we are doing. A sense of urgency should also mean that we are capable of talking to two people at the same time. Customers need time to think about what we have Moen names marketing manager Paul Sagar has been appointed to the posiuon of director of marketing and communications for Oakville-based Moen Canada Inc. Sagar brings more than 25 years of senior level marketing experience from firms such as Tremco, Timex, Black & Decker, and CIL. He holds a Bachelor of Business Management and Business Administration Diploma from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. Moen Canada Inc. is part of the Home and Office Products group of Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE:FO), an international consumer products compa ny based in Greenwich, Connecticut. been saying to them. It is not necessary for us to pause and wait with them. Certainly, we should continue helping our original customer, but there is no reason why we cannot talk to another customer while the first is making up his or her mind. Our purpose is to serve efficiently and professionally with a sense of urgency. We are actors. Our role is to per form, not as we would in some casual social context but in a way that demon strates that the customer's time and patronage are of value to them and to us. It is not what we say that tells the most about us, but what we do. A sense of urgency is crucial to our success. We are the only ones that can tell the cus tomer that the company cares and the best way for us to do that is by demon strating a sense of urgency. Dave Anderson is available for sales m eetings and annual conferences, 705- 526-7661. L O C A L B U S I N E S S When faced with an emergency situ ation, said Liersch, people are often so caught up with the emergency they fail to realize the need to turn the lights on, or have someone wait outside so emer gency services can get there quicker. "Anything that will assist us in deter mining a residence where we are required is valuable," said Liersch. Hellstern designed her product to be both visible and consistent. It can clearly be seen day and night, and each plate is placed in the same location - on the front curb beside the edge of the driveway, on the curb closest the front door. The plate is made of aluminum and the embossed numbers are raised to increase the surface area of the plate and make it highly reflective. It won't rust or fade and is attached using an aggressive adhesive. The HomeFinder Curb Plate is guaranteed to stay on your curb for five years. "A recycling truck hit one the other day and didn't take it off," said Hellstern, who has an MBA in marketing, and has owned and operated several small busi nesses and franchises. The District of Halton and Mississauga Ambulance Services endorses the HomeFinder Curb Plate. Mayor Ann Mulvale purchased a curb plate for her residence and the Fire Department purchased plates for each fire hall in Oakville. Deputy fire chief John deHooge says having street addresses highly visible at all times is a concern for the fire depart ment. "It's a combination of where it's located and whether it's visible at night with lighting," said deHooge, who explained the curb plate will help but is not the only answer. Some common sense and general maintenance will always help emergency services find you faster. "Anything that helps us is worth while, whether its trimming bushes, installing a light, or replacing bulbs," explained deHooge. In fact, a new,town bylaw currently (See 'Plates' page D5) OAKVn H B i\r B A www.oavkillehonda.com Elizabeth BILBUA Sales Representative m H M ii i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i r o y a l Le p a g e Roy* UPage Rari E s a* S m c a Ud B rw» ebilbija@oakvillespecialist.com T E R N E T A D D R E S S G U I D E LOCKWOOD www.brantflorist.com gifts@brantflorist.com C R Y S L E R 845-6653 175 WYECROFT ROAD ymw.lockwoodc m m m place P \ K I ( ) I > () l U I I I I www.oakvilleplace.com T Q W N E CHEVROLET OLDS MOBILE GEO www.townechev.com YOUR OAKVILLE HOME CONNECTION WwW.virtuallyoakville.com OAKVILLE CHAMBER of COMMERCE www.chamber.oakville.on.ca chambei@chamber.oakville.on.ca I Home www. cogeco. ca/home High Speed Internet over cabli *FOR BASIC CABLE SUBSCRIBERS. J49.95/M0NTH FOR NON-SUBSCRIBERS. - 8 -ATHOM E http://www.oavkillehonda.com mailto:ebilbija@oakvillespecialist.com http://www.brantflorist.com mailto:gifts@brantflorist.com http://www.oakvilleplace.com http://www.townechev.com http://WwW.virtuallyoakville.com http://www.chamber.oakville.on.ca mailto:chambei@chamber.oakville.on.ca Entrepreneur says safety is the issue By Amber Clarke PETER WATSON Dollars & Sense By Dave Anderson Elizabeth ebilbija@oakvillespecialist.com LOCKWOOD C R Y S L E R www.chamber.oakville.on.ca chambei@chamber.oakville.on.ca I Home -8-ATHOME