STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More Business

• Business Buzz: May 12, 2008
• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Enjoy becoming a big winner
• Women, Wisdom & Wealth: Can you tell true from false?

Share and Enjoy [?]

Business as (un)usual

Time is money, and when a mini-disaster recently threatened a business’s daily bottom line, help was at hand.

Spa and Salon Botanica owner Debbie Schroeder and her staff were attending to half a dozen customers when a water main break affected parts of the Shops of Marco on March 19.

The customers were in the middle of color sessions, so Schroeder and her staff had to rinse them off using gallons of bottled water.

Customers scheduled for later that day were asked to shampoo their hair at home if they were coming in for cuts, while those wanting color were asked to schedule later.

The problem, said Schroeder was that it was just before Easter, not a good time to put people off.

By the next day the problem hadn’t been fixed, so on a whim Schroeder called Julie and Dan Vu at their Modern Nail and Spa in the Island Plaza.

Schroeder particularly needed to accommodate clients requiring hair coloring.

Julie Vu had no hesitation, Schroeder recalled, so Schroeder and her staff boxed the necessary supplies, re-routed clients and got down to business as (un)usual.

“It is so nice, with so much controversy going on, that there were people willing to help out,” Schroeder said, especially so because the Vu couple never once intimated what might be in it for them.

Watch that whistle

Considering that it’s possible to lose one’s job through sexual harassment at work, just exactly what does that constitute?

In recognition of April being Sexual Assault Awareness month, Project Help, Inc. will provide local businesses with free training workshops on sexual harassment prevention in the workplace.

These classes are taught by certified counselors and conform to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) regulations.

The workshops will focus on what harassment is, how to prevent it, and how to handle it if it does occur.

The classes will be customized by audience so human resource managers and employees receive appropriate information.

For more information call 649-1404.

Marco Hilton aces diamond award

Diamonds may indeed be a girl’s best friend, but those applied to the hotel industry reflect a different kind of glitter.

They’re recognition for excellence in service and amenities in the form of Four Diamond Awards, which are presented to qualifying lodgings throughout the state and nation.

Once again on the receiving end of the AAA Auto Club South’s Four Diamond Award is the Hilton Marco Island Beach Resort.

It joins 13 other recipients in Collier County for 2008.

According to an AAA release, recipients represent the upper echelon of the hospitality industry and make up 3.2 percent of the 60,000 Diamond Rated lodgings and restaurants throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

The system is the only rating system that covers all of North America and one of only two that conduct physical, on-site evaluations.

Evaluators inspect each property annually, and although AAA considers and investigates member feedback during reviews, it does not depend on guests’ opinions to derive a rating.

AAA Auto Club South is the fourth largest affiliate of AAA with more than 4.1 million members in Florida, Georgia and the western two-thirds of Tennessee.