Lots of times you will have one bad business dealing with someone. It could be the local chiropractor who expected his business to be flooded with people as a result of a national placement and didn’t get it. Or, it could be a business that thinks they will get a placement as soon as they hire a PR firm, even though we tell them it takes a minimum of six months.

A few years ago, when I still had my home office in Long Beach, HJMT represented a state of the art fitness facility. It had a full Olympic sized swimming pool, lap pools, running tracks, exercise equipment and more! It was a really cool place!

HJMT was hired to publicize and promote the new center to area residents and throughout the neighboring villages. We had a grand opening and News12 LI, Channel 55 and LI News Tonight filmed the facility. Newsday and the Long Beach Herald were also there. We secured solid local PR. We even did a direct mail piece for them among some other things. So what happened? The doctors who owned the place decided not to pay us. (Lot’s of times businesses don’t have the money so they make up excuses or they just want to prolong the payment.) In any event, I ended up taking them to court. Eventually they paid HJMT and things moved forward.

Do you hold this against them? I don’t. I actually used one of the doctors to perform my knee surgery.

My friends think I’m absolutely crazy.

“He’s a good doctor,” I said. “Just because he didn’t run the business well, doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’m very impressed with him and his expertise.”

“Your what?” said my friend Steve. “How could you go to a doctor who you sued? Are you crazy?”

Well maybe a little, I thought. I just like to see the good in everyone and I knew that he was a good guy deep down. He ended up paying me and that was that.

If you have one bad business dealing, do you boycott the service forever?

I don’t. If I believe in a product or service, I will use that product or service. It’s just business not personal!

The 2008 summer Olympics have been really fun to watch. From Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals to the two American girl gymnists — Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson winning gold and silver, it’s been an exciting season.

Funny with every Olympics or major event, there’s always politics. Besides Mark Spitz being upset that he wasn’t sent to Bejiing to see Phelps break his record, or the Americans complaining that the Chinese women’s gymnastic team were under 16, there’s been a lot of controversy over the sponsorship opportunities at the games.

This year there were four major sponsors. And now, the Chinese government, according to Geoffrey Fowler’s article in the Wall Street Journal, are seeking post event sponsors!

For only a few hundreds of millions of dollars your corporation can be placed on the Bird’s Nest for the next 30 years! But the Bird’s Nest isn’t the only thing for sale, there’s the water cube and several other facilities.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is a an article written by Jason Dean, entitled “Ignore that Logo Under the Tape!” Dean talks about how the Chinese government wants to make sure that the sponsors get the biggest bang for their buck so they have taped all logos on elevators, garbage cans, meters, etc. So, if you pull the tape off, a Chinese worker will quickly put it back on to cover up the logo.

The article says that the only place that they don’t do this is in the Bird’s Nest on the “Toto” toilets because the tape makes it look “sloppy,” not clean!

It’s kind of ridiculous, don’t you think? The major sponsors are getting enough exposure. They appear on commercials, they are announced throughout the games and appear in most of the newspaper articles written about the games. (I chose not to disclose the four major sponsors here!)

Could you imagine if we adopted this for all sporting events and fund raisers? I could just imagine my staff and I at HJMT trying to cover up all the logos at the Oheka Castle or the Uniondale Marriott with pieces of masking tape or with band aids.

For example, we’re organizing an event for St. Agnes High School in College Point. The high school is turning 100 this year and it’s an all girls high school. We’re having a huge fund raiser at the Milleridge Cottage on Long Island. I could see it now, Lori Alexy, Ellen Heydt and Stefanie Topper running around puttting tape over all the logos to make sure that the event sponsors get the most bang for the buck… Do you even think that people notice these logos, even on the back of a toilet seat?

It’s 6 am in the morning. You walk through the doors of Long Beach Memorial Hospital expecting to be greeted by a friendly security guard but instead, there is no one around. The gift shop is closed. The admissions office closed. You walk past the elevators. Still no one is around. You walk down a long dark dingy hallway.

“Hello,” you yell, but no one answers.

You keep walking. Eventually you will see someone, right? You think to yourself, is this a bad dream? Should I turn around and go home? Why am I here?

You go past another set of elevators. At the end of the hall, you hear someone chatting. You make it to the door and a tall, big boned, African-American woman with one tooth smiles and tells you to take the first elevator to the second floor.

You walk into the elevator and press number 2. When you get to the second floor, you notice that there are still no people around. Now you really begin to have second thoughts, why am I doing this?

Your husband is with you and he tells you not to “chicken out.” “It will be okay,” he says.

Finally, you arrive at a desk with two people — an older Asian woman who says, “you’re late!” When you explain that you didn’t know where to go and could really use a valium, the other woman, an older, caucasian woman in her late 60′s with gray hair, says that she could use one too.

The Asian nurse takes you to a room where she does your blood pressure, and puts in a line for the I.V. You change into a “fashionable robe and shower cap” and you’re ready to go downstairs to the operating room.

The older woman wheels you down in a child’s wheelchair and you feel every bump along the way. “Don’t you have a bigger chair?” you ask. “Why, this one is perfect,” she says.

She places you in a holding area prior to the surgery. “Can I have a valium now?” you ask. “Hahaha,” she says and leaves you sitting in a little cubicle in your little wheelchair.

An Indian woman passes by and says hello to everyone but you. She looks at the chart. “Oh,” she says to you, “I guess you’re my next patient.” She’s dressed in very tight clothes and you could see the lines of her underwear. She’s also wearing high heels and you’re thinking to yourself, is that how she’s going to operate?

She disappears. Your doctor walks in and tells you you look lovely in the attire you are wearing. “Thank you,” you say and think, you still have time to leave.

A nurse wheels you into the operating room. It’s freezing. “What is it like 30 degrees in here?” you ask. “Yes, they keep it cold to kill the germs,” she says. “But, don’t worry, we have a heated blanket for you.”

The next thing you know, everyone is putting something on you and you have absolutely no control. You’re strapped on the table and then the Indian anesthesiologist puts medication in your arm and then slowly, slowly, slowly, you remember nothing…

You wake up to tubes in your nose and shots of demorol. Your doctor is talking with you but you don’t comprehend what he’s saying. “Is your husband around,” he asks and he leaves. The next thing you know, you’re upstairs with the Asian nurse again. She quickly comes back with a percocet and you sit and wait.

Now your leg is all bandaged up. You have a brace on it and can’t bend it. You’re feeling groggy. The next thing you know, a young man is helping you learn how to walk with crutches. “Do you have stairs?” he asks. “Uhh, yeah, I live in a high ranch” you say.

He shows you the stairs and now you’re ready to leave. “Okay, good luck to you,” the nurse says. And the older nurse wheels you down stairs….

When I first started the business more than 16 years ago, it was easy to get corporations to sponsor events and programs. As time went by, it became harder and harder. Today it’s nearly impossible to get corporations to sponsor events.

Corporations are telling us they want to sponsor programs. Or, they tell us they have limited budgets. Or, they say they just don’t have the money to do it this year!

We used to count on banks for their support. Now, it’s very rare that banks will sponsor events unless they are totally committed to the cause.

The other day I was trying to get sponsors for an upcoming event and all I kept thinking was..

“Where have all the sponsors gone? Long time passing. Where have all the sponsors gone? Long time ago. Nonprofits have used them every one. When will they ever learn?  When will they ever learn?”

I hate office politics. That is one of the reasons why I decided to start my own business. I never realized that no matter if you employee four or 300 people, there is no getting away from the “drama.”

Through the years, I have worked for dozens of offices and it’s always the same. There were negative people, upbeat people, over producers, under producers and people who just talked badly about everything. Another commonality I saw between offices was that there was always one person that no one liked!

I remember my last job; my boss was that person. He was very rude and everyone was afraid of him. He would make fun of people in public and embarrass them. Everyone was so unhappy and yet no one talked with him about why they were unhappy. Yet, no one left. They all stayed on for years and years.

Sometimes I wonder if happiness or unhappiness relates to turnover. I look at other businesses and I can’t understand why there isn’t more turnover? In my business, we have a lot of turnover and yet, I go out of my way to do good by my staff. Does that make sense?

One time I rented a house in east end and invited my entire staff to join me. We went to the wineries. We went for a nice dinner. We played golf the next day. And yet, a week after the trip three people resigned.

How can bad feelings be eliminated? How can one reduce turnover? Is it that in this computer age we forget how to communicate with one another? If people talked with each other about their feelings, could office politics be eliminated? Would people feel more part of the team?

Before I started my own business, I imagined an office environment where everyone loved coming to work and enjoy every moment of the job. Now, after 16 years of being in business, I not sure if an environment like that can exist. But I can keep trying…. Can’t I?