Please Use the Bathroom! 3 Ways to Enhance Client Experience - [read]
When it comes to providing an overall customer experience, fast casual restaurants seem to have the market covered. After all, the fastest-growing segment of the restaurant industry has for several years given consumers an overall experience they can't get anywhere else, and anyone can walk through the door and use the facilities. When it comes to the client experience, here are three brands doing each one well. - fastcasual.com

Engage Moms: 7 Things Fueling Moms Now - [read]
Outsmarting the economic pinch may be one more item on their already full plates, but moms everywhere are rising to the challenge with gusto. Combining old-fashioned resourcefulness with digital-age savvy, today's moms are pioneering new ways to keep their families afloat.
- mediapost.com

Why Women-Led Businesses are Surviving, Better - [read]
A survey released Thursday shows women-led businesses are surviving the recession better than most other businesses, according to Florida International University's Center for Leadership and The Commonwealth Institute South Florida. Read about the characteristics and behaviors that help women weather the storm. - miamiherald.com

Revise Packaging, Not Prices - [read]
Some small businesses are finding new growth by creating lower-end offerings and discounts. Other small businesses have found success by identifying rising costs customers were facing and trying to alleviate the burden through incentives. "You've got to give customers an option that they can afford," Mr. Thompson says. Once the economy does improve, he says, he hopes customers will upgrade to more-expensive offerings. - wsj.com (wall street journal)

Roadmap for Recovery: 5 Survival Steps - [read]
Strategies borne of consumer insight will empower you to look ahead with informed foresight and create a plan for coming out the other side in a better position. Here are five ways that design thinking can help you survive the short term and connect with consumers. - fastcompany.com

There's No Place Like Home - [read]
Americans are sticking closer to home these days. The pool in the backyard is a bigger draw. Dinner at home tastes better. So, is there insight here? In a recent post aptly titled "Getting Ahead by Being Local," C. B. Whittemore writes at the Flooring the Consumer blog how the new down-home perspective is paying off for businesses, offering tips on how to add a "local" flavor to just about any customer outreach.- ft.com

NAHA Finalists Announced - [read]
Don't miss the 20th Annual NAHA Awards as part of the best industry event of the year - PBA Symposium, July 19, 2009 beginning at 6:30 PM at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. Register online to attend the Awards only or for the entire Symposium, and view the Finalist's portfolios online. - probeauty.org

Simply Put
“There is no failure except in no longer trying."
- Elbert Hubbard, American Writer