Web 2.0 is fun, but deciding what you’re going to use can be the real challenge. It takes time to do it all. Is it worth your time to use Twitter?

Would you like a web 2.0 application that allows you to connect with your customers?
If you said Yes, it’s a must! What if you could even build a list that connects you to potential new customers? Well…Twitter is all that, yes a must.

Twitter is better than building an email list. Why? Deliverability. When you post to Twitter it goes out to each followers page. What even better is you can quickly build a list, I built mine to 900+ followers in less than 90 days.

The connection you make with your customers and potential customers is WHY it’s worth the time. “What are you doing?” is what you’ll be answering. Don’t be Twitter Spam - Just let people know what your doing. “Adding new candle display” might be a great post for a gift store owner.

Are you ready to get the conversation going? Ask a question, like “Would you like to goto Hawaii for $199 for the week?” or “Did you vote today?” Your followers will simply reply back with a direct message (dm) by simply putting @jaynapier and answering the question.

It’s this two way conversation and the ability to share what your doing that creates the new Web 2.0 relationship with your customers and clients. Major companies would be smart to plug in and listen to what people are saying. I
recently posted about an issue I’ve had with Dell and the $4000 notebook I’ve had trouble with from day one. It’s a PR challenge for them, but also an Opportunity to make things right.

During an advertisement for an overnight shipping service, an announcer seriously intones ‘When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight.’ But for many, the question remains if the mail is truly delivered during the night time.

The answer is both yes and no.

Logistics of Overnight Delivery

Overnight delivery policies and rates may differ from carrier to carrier, but most share one thing in common — time frames in which overnight packages can be delivered fluctuate greatly. Factors, such as when the package was handed over to a shipping representative, can greatly affect whether important mail is sent out before the close of business.

For instance, if you were to take a package to the local shipping center of your choice before noon, your package will be in transit and may arrive at your destination the following day. If however, you get the package in near the time of closing, the package may be placed in transit but cannot be guaranteed to be delivered the next day.

Now, in regards to the terminology ‘overnight’ can be a bit misleading.

As in our earlier example, if a package arrives at a service center early enough and is designated as an overnight shipment, it will immediately be sorted in the overnight bin for delivery. This means that it will actually be en route to its destination that very day. If it comes later in the evening, most commonly after 3 PM, then the package will be placed on a mail freight air service and in some cases, this air cargo will ship out in the evening.

Again this can also depends on the policies of the company and the type of overnight delivery service you choose.

Types of Overnight Delivery

Just as there are several different mail carrier agencies, there are different types of overnight delivery packages. Depending on what you need to accomplish, the cost of the service may be expensive.

Critical Overnight

There are many packages that absolutely have to arrive on time, and in some instances, such as with medical supplies, it can literally be a matter of life or death. With critical overnight shipments, packages can be guaranteed to get there the very next day to all fifty states, and in some cases Puerto Rico or Canada. This is because the service offers special air carriage 365 days a year and seven days a week. Most other services only occur during the business week.

International options are also available although, depending on where the destination location is, it may not exactly get there on time. When purchasing Critical overnight service, keep in mind the fact that the guarantee is somewhat limited and look into other options before paying the extra expense of critical overnight shipping.

Next day Air

By utilizing commercial airlines, next day air packages can be delivered to any major US city in the US. Using modern day technology, like route optimization technology, shipments can be safely and effectively delivered on time when applicable. Next day air is a cost effective way of getting shipments to the proper locale but carries an even lesser degree of guarantee than critical overnight.

Again, if in doubt, discuss with the shipping representatives what the pros and cons of using Next Day Air.

Next day Air Saver Shipping

This type of next day service only delivers within the continental US and cannot guarantee early morning delivery. Anyone who chooses this less costly route needs to be aware of that all important fact, especially if the package has to be there before noon.

If the time of morning does not matter, but getting it there the following day does, this is a wonderful option and is less expensive than the aforementioned services.

So, does overnight shipping overnight–it depends on the time you drop off your package and what courier delivery service you utilize-but the one thing you can be certain of is that overnight shipping will get your package where it needs to be in the fastest amount of time possible.

Part of the appeal of customer-centricity is that it takes very little business acumen to grasp its core concept. Focus intensely on customers, align your products or services with their interests, and voila: a customer-centric culture is born. Simple, right? Not quite. Becoming a truly customer-centric organization is perhaps one of the most difficult transitions an organization can make, fraught with hidden obstacles and unanticipated challenges. Here are three potential roadblocks on the path to a customer-centric strategy, and how to get around them.

Failing to understand your most valuable customer A customer-centric strategy is only as good as its customers. You cant let the average customer dictate what you do, says Robert Duboff, CEO of Hawk Partners LLC and coauthor of the book Market Research Matters. Generally speaking, Duboff says, 20 percent of a company’s customer base generates 80 percent of its profits. Given that split, its imperative to put your most valuable customers at the heart of your approach.

Identifying those customers need not take exhaustive research and complicated measures. It can be a fairly straightforward process, as it is with the Net Promoter Score, or NPS, a metric developed by Bain & Co.s Fred Reichheld. As set forth in The Ultimate Question written by Reichheld and published by Harvard Business Press the NPS approach consists of one simple question: On a scale of one to 10, would you recommend us to your friends?

Based on the answer to that question, customers are segmented into three categories: promoters, who actively champion a particular product to their friends and colleagues; passives, who are lukewarm about the product; and detractors, the opposite of promoters. A given company’s score is simply the difference between its number of promoters and its number of detractors.

NPS has proven to be a powerful tool for such companies as General Electric Capital Solutions, which has used it not only to identify customers that are already valuable promoters but to gain insights into how it can convert detractors. For a business like GE Capital Solutions, which serves more than 1 million very diverse customers in many different industries, NPS helps us better understand what our customers are feeling and how we can improve their experience with us, says Stephen White, a spokesperson for GE Capital.

Failing to support your external customer-centric strategy with an internal customer-centric strategy Speaking of valuable customers, what about that most priceless customer of all your employee?

While most companies aren’t in the habit of regarding their employees as customers, those seeking to instill a customer-centric culture should rethink their stance, argues Elaine Berke, president of Westport, MAbased EBI Consulting, which specializes in helping organizations develop customer-centric strategies. Customer-centricity needs to come from the inside out, says Berke. Leadership must avoid a double standard that makes it OK for managers to argue with or demean staff while still being courteous and considerate to external customers.

Consider the case of the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University Hospital. In developing a comprehensive Service Excellence initiative aimed at boosting its level of patient care, the hospital included employee satisfaction as a core component of the program. The hospital conducted an extensive survey to gauge employee concerns that turned up such simple, actionable insights as making it a point to compliment co-workers and instituting criticism-free no negativity days.

Customer-centric organizations value and respect internal customers as much as external customers, says Berke. Like the old saying goes, If you’re not serving a customer, you’re serving someone who is.

Failure to identify the moment of truth Companies spend considerable time and resources developing metrics for processes, execution and other day-to-day functions but often overlook defining their moments of truth those points at which a customer interacts with a company’s product or service and forms an impression. Companies are usually very good at creating metrics around [such procedures as] production deliverables but have a much harder time knowing how to create and measure standards relating to the quality of customer service being delivered, Keith Bailey of Sterling Consulting Group says.

In defining a company’s moments of truth, Bailey suggests looking at three different angles quality of product, quality of procedures and quality of relationships. Taking a hotel as an example, the quality of the product would be the cleanliness and comfort of the rooms. The quality of procedures would be such factors as how it long it takes to check in or how long customers wait for room service. The quality of relationship would be the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff.

Considering each angle separately allows a company to isolate the negative moments of truth within each and develop a game plan for turning them into positive experiences. Procter & Gamble, for example, identified its moment of truth as that instant when a shopper picks up one of its products and decides whether or not to purchase its decision the customer makes in an average of six seconds. The company has overhauled its marketing with that insight in mind, creating a global First Moment of Truth business team designed to win over the customer in that moment.

There are as many different customer-centric approaches as there are customers, and each has its own unique challenges, but the road to a truly customer-centric strategy always begins with the same steps.

A great question a guy once asked me was about how to get business clients. The guy was a consultant - i.e. he was selling products and services to companies and he wanted to know if I could give him ideas how to get more business clients. Sure, I can give him and everybody else lots of ideas how to get more business clients and that is why I wrote this article.

When you are looking for new business clients, you should start with your existing partners. Companies you have worked for can endorse you to their customers. Chances are that their customers might need somebody with your skills and this is a win-win situation.

For instance, one of my business partners is a speaker who makes presentations mainly to companies but also to associations. One of the benefits of establishing contacts with an association is that this is an organization of people from many different companies, so you get a lot of exposure.

When he presents in front of those, one of the things that we set up for him was a referral campaign and also a contest where all they got to do is give a testimonial, put their name, email, and other contact information, and he draws right from that particular presentation. Winners are given gift certificates to hire him back again so he is getting repeat business.

I am not quite certain what his fees per presentation are but I think they are about $5,000. The gift certificates he gives are worth $500 and $250 and they must be redeemed within a specified period of time (three months, six months, or something like that). However, the main point is that the gift certificate makes people move and they take the action to hire him.

If the winner does not redeem the gift certificate, this is as if he or she had burned money. This moment is critical because this is the trigger for action - redeem or lose money. Everybody is happy with this arrangement because people enjoy his presentations and they get a gift certificate, which has a value and gives them one more excuse to hire him again.

It is important that people have a good reason to hire you again. I believe you can think of many intelligent ways to include such offers in your sales proposal. When you have the people in front of you, you can capitalize on that experience - just remind them later how much they liked your stuff and this will make them want it again.

Many companies think they are supplying good customer service. If you were to ask customers, many would say they deal with rude people and less than great customer service daily. If someone shared some secrets to fabulous customer service, you would definitely stand out in your market. The following five points are what can make your customers happy to interact with you and your company.

1. Make personal interactions with the client. At some point during doing business with a customer, you are liable to make small talk. Remember what your customer says and follow up an a key topic the next time you see or talk to them. It can be something as small as their health, or something that happened in their family life. To you, it is small, but to them it can be what makes you seem bigger than the others.

2. Tailor your customer service. This simply means adjusting your service to fit their needs. If a customer does not like talking about an order over the phone, you could email it or come in person to discuss it. Making adjustments for your customer will make them happy and feel like you want their business.

3. Treat complaints seriously. Instead of getting offended or brushing it off, consider any complaint a feedback and an opportunity to improve. Make sure, if possible, that the customer is made happy and that they walk away from your business feeling satisfied with the service. If they are unhappy, they will be sure to tell many people about their negative experience, significantly cutting your potential customer base.

4. Honesty. Being honest about the good and bad of your products will make your customers trust you. If you are dishonest, they will not come back. By inegrating honesty into your business values, you will setting yourself apart from your competition.

5. Enlist employees in expectation. Make it clear to all workers how they are to carry themslelves nad to represent your company. Offer incentives for those to demonstrate excellent customer service. Each time a customer interacts with an employee, it should be a good interaction.

The amount of time and energy that savvy Internet marketers spend getting massive, laser-targeted traffic to their websites can be challenging enough. But what about having to deal with customers? As their business becomes more and more hectic, customer service issues can sometimes be put on the back burner — particularly if one is trying to juggle all the balls at one time in his/her business.

Of course, business owners would never intentionally neglect their customers. After all, customers are the lifeblood of any business. It’s just that when one is attempting to serve people from all 4 corners of the earth, customer service issues can become less than what they should be. The fact is, the last thing you want are unhappy customers because if you don’t service them properly, somebody else will.

Second, it’s the repeat customers that really build a business, not the new ones. What does this mean? It means that customer care needs to take a front seat - pronto! It also has to be something that’s easily manageable. This is where the 3 Pillars Help Desk comes in. It’s basically a software package that sets up a customer help desk for you. You’ll be able to:

Prioritize all queries and respond to those requiring immediate action.

Access an FAQ database 24/7, and check the status of all queries whenever and wherever.

Customize who has access to certain administrative areas.

Set up the software without having any technical knowledge, and using it effectively.

Remember, you want to make sure you stay on top of all your customer service issues, because without customers, you’ll be out of business. It can’t be emphasized enough that if you don’t take care of your customers, they’ll simply get the answers to their problems elsewhere, and that’ll spell big trouble for you — and good news for your competition. So do yourself and your business a big favor, by handling all customer service issues efficiently and professionally as quickly as possible.

Simply by taking care of your customers, you’ll foster an environment of security, confidence and loyalty with them. And that’s something you simply can’t buy at any price. You can certainly thank your lucky stars the 3 Pillars Help Desk software can and will assist you in vastly improving this most important aspect of your everyday business activities, as well as improving your bottom line in the process.

You’ll be able to give each and every query the personal attention it needs - best of all, the customer is satisfied and you aren’t burned out at the end of the day! You owe it to your business, your customers and yourself to provide the most effective form of customer service possible.

At first glance, big picture thinking and customer focus would seem to be mutually exclusive terms. After all, the first phrase connotes a farsighted, panoramic view of business, while the second implies an intense, laser-beam-like concentration on the customer. Yet as revealed in Magnifying Customer Focus: A Study of Current Trends and Future Possibilities 2006-2016, a global study commissioned by American Management Association and conducted by The Human Resource Institute, the terms are not only compatible, they are inseparable.

The study finds that customer focus is a top strategic concern for many businesses today and is ranked as one of the most important needs concerning issues ranging from leadership challenges to ethical behavior and innovation. Yet it also reveals that there is a wide disparity between what activities companies practice when it comes to customer focus and what they should be practicing.

The study asked respondents to rank a variety of strategic actions in each of five areas environment/culture, communications, HR practices, measurement and organizational practices in terms of what their companies are doing now and then to rank those same actions in terms of what their companies should be doing. Here is a closer look at the results for each of the five areas.

In environment/culture, having the support of top management ranked number one in both the should-do and doing-it-now categories. On the surface this would appear to be a heartening result leadership is doing what it should be doing.

But that good news is undercut by the number two should-do action: having leaders set the example with customer-focused behaviors. This is only number four in the doing-it-now category, meaning that while leadership may nominally support customer focus, it is not necessarily supporting it with its actions. Perhaps that helps explain why including customers in our corporate value statements ranked number two in the doing-it-now category but only number six in the should-do category; mission statements are all well and good, but its action that counts.

In the communications area, Magnifying Customer Focus finds that companies are falling short of communicating the customer focus message internally. Respondents ranked the action of having an internal plan in place to communicate customer insights number four in the should-do category, but only number seven in the doing-it-now category, suggesting that many companies are missing this crucial component. Its important to note that this doesn’t simply mean leadership handing down memos. It means employees at all levels of the organization must share their perspective and facilitate feedback from the customer so the company can get a true picture of the state of its customer service.

Companies are placing too much emphasis on market share as an indicator of customer satisfaction, according to respondents results in the area of measurement. Regularly measuring market share ranked third in the doing-it-now category, but eighth in the should-do category, strongly suggesting that respondents believe this particular metric is of little value when it comes to gauging customer satisfaction. Bain & Co.s Fred Reich held has gone even further in questioning the relevance of market share as a reliable measurement of customer satisfaction. Reichheld maintains that although companies may capture market share and generate considerable revenue from dissatisfied customers, it is actually more costly than profitable in the long run to do so.

When it comes to HR, expecting employees to anticipate customer needs ranked number one in the doing-it-now category and number three in the should-do category. It seems that while the respondents believe this strategic action is important enough to be included in the top three of actions that should be taken, it is not the overall most important action. That distinction belongs to providing customer-oriented employee training, an action that ranked number one in the should-do category and number three in the doing-it-now category, a surprising result considering the number of customer service training programs currently in place. The takeaway from this seems to be that while companies may think that they?re addressing customer service training needs, they are in reality falling far short.

While the organizational practices area is a broadly defined subgroup with substantial overlap with the other four areas, it did produce some interesting results of its own. For example, responding to demands for customization and personalization ranked eighth in the doing-it-now category but ranked only twentieth in the should-do category. Customization and personalization have been hot topics lately, with many proclaiming them the next big thing, but clearly the survey respondents consider them overrated as a customer focus issue.

Conversely, the tactic of being customer-focused at all customer touch points, not just sales training and customer service ranked fourth in the should-do category and twelfth in the doing-it-now category, revealing a large disparity between its perceived importance and the extent to which its executed.

That point an urgent reminder that customer focus needs to be instilled throughout the organization and not isolated in one or two departments serves well to sum up the entire survey.

Despite all the rumbling and grumbling about poor customer service, there are always a handful of renegade businesses that somehow find ways to keep their workers fired up and their customers delighted and coming back for more. In these rarified places, highly motivated employees pursue customer delight with a passion; they ignite a flashpoint of contagious enthusiasm that spreads throughout the organization like wildfire.

How do they do it? They conscientiously avoid what I call the Top 5 Monster Customer Service Blunders”:

Monster Blunder #1: Trying to solve the problem with superficial employee training. Workers call it smile training programs intended to convince staff to look and sound more cheerful, while giving them no particular reason to feel any more cheerful. When you boil it down, this kind of training does nothing more than itemize the specific service behaviors workers are expected to exhibit. It then becomes managements job to somehow enforce these designated behaviors into the daily operation of the business. If this approach has any effect at all, it typically creates conduct that strikes customers as mechanical and insincere. Worse, it often intensifies worker resentment and cynicism.

Instead of attempting to dictate what workers should be doing to delight customers, the better approach is to give workers opportunities to generate their own ideas for delivering a better customer experience. Managements role then becomes helping employees implement these ideas, allowing workers to enjoy the motivational boost they derive from positive feedback from delighted customers. This level of employee ownership and involvement is a key cultural characteristic of virtually all flashpoint businesses.

TO AVOID THE BLUNDER: Train managers and supervisors, not just employees, to facilitate interactive brainstorming sessions in which employees come up with their own strategies for improving the customer experience.

Monster Blunder #2: Blaming poor service on employee cynicism. When business leaders complain to me about the cynicism of their workers, I’m always inclined to ask them if they believe these workers were already cynical before their first day on the job. If so, the organizations hiring practices are clearly not working very well. If not, then the cynicism may be a direct product of something in the organizational culture.

Employee cynicism is the direct product of an organizations visible preoccupation with self-interest above all else a purely internal focus. The focus in flashpoint businesses is directed outward, toward the interests of customers and the community at large. This fundamental difference in cultural focus makes all the difference in the world.

TO AVOID THE BLUNDER: Instead of trying to fix the employees, set out to fix the culture by removing operational obstacles to customer delight. Invite workers to participate in identifying and removing cultural roadblocks to further enhance their sense of involvement and ownership.

Monster Blunder #3: Using negative customer feedback as the primary basis for action. Businesses often implement elaborate customer surveys and other feedback mechanisms but then use them primarily to highlight customer problems and complaints. Employees come to dread these measurement and data-gathering initiatives, since the emphasis is always on the negative, on finding out whos to blame for anything and everything that went wrong.

Flashpoint businesses, too, rely on a variety of customer feedback tools but for an entirely different purpose. Here its positive feedback that becomes the primary basis for action. Feedback is used to uncover and highlight everything thats going right. Managers actively seek out hero stories examples of employees going the extra mile to deliver delight. Positive feedback is the catalyst for ongoing recognition and celebration. In this kind of culture, theres always some new reason for cheering and hoopla. Its why employees in flashpoint businesses find it easy to see themselves as winners on a winning team.

TO AVOID THE BLUNDER: Start using your own customer feedback data to uncover and celebrate examples of service excellence.

Monster Blunder #4: Reserving top recognition for heroic recoveries. Does this scenario sound familiar? A customers order gets fouled up, and a dedicated employee catches the problem and goes to heroic lengths to correct the situation or make up for it in some way. The appreciative customer advises management of this employees heroic initiative and management in turn gives the employee special recognition for his or her efforts. You may be wondering, Wheres the blunder in this?

Its a monster blunder when these kinds of recoveries are the primary if not the only sources of employee recognition. If foul-ups represent workers only chance to feel appreciated on the job, then in effect such foul-ups become almost precious to the workers. If, later, management announces that steps are being taken to correct these foul-ups for good, its news that may not win much support from employees. It can feel like this kind of corrective action will rob them of their only chance to shine.

Flashpoint businesses celebrate heroic recoveries, of course but they hand out the splashiest recognition to employees who delighted customers where no foul-ups were involved. This makes it easier to motivate workers to strive for the elimination of operational problems.

TO AVOID THE BLUNDER: Reserve your most extravagant recognition for service champions who deliver delight in routine transactions that have no element of heroic recovery associated with them.

Monster Blunder #5: Competing on price. This is one of the most commonplace (and costliest) mistakes in business. When it comes to purchasing decisions, price becomes the ultimate deciding factor only in cases where everything else is equal which is almost never. Theres usually at least one little something that gives one business an edge over another one. The real competitive advantage belongs to the business with the highest perception of value, not the one with the lowest price. The overall sense of value is based on the total customer experience, which takes into account less tangible factors, such as helpfulness, friendliness and the personal touch. These values often allow businesses to retain their competitive edge despite slightly higher prices.

TO AVOID THE BLUNDER: Institute a formal process by which employees can continuously come up with new ways to expand customers perception of value.

Concluding Thoughts: The kind of customer-focused cultures we find in flashpoint businesses obviously don’t happen by accident. These organizations create, implement and refine a process for producing delighted customers. A good place to begin is to stop the top five customer service blunder monsters from rearing their ugly heads in your organization.

Question and answer seminars for your customers can help you accomplish many things. Some examples are: you can create buzz about your website, increase your mailing list size, launch a new service or product, or even increase your profits.

Q&A seminars are a great way to quickly increase your mailing list. Simply place a message on your site that explains that you are holding the session, including the day and time. Don’t announce how one is to access the seminar. Have your prospect fill out a form which is a part of your autoresponder; the autoresponder will then send them an email with the information with the teleseminar/ web conference.

If you are preparing for a product launch, having a question and answer seminar can work similarly to holding a press conference. It gives you the opportunity to explain the benefits and features of your product, and create publicity, and hopefully to increase your sales. The more information you can get out about the new product, and the more likely they are to want it and buy it.

Question and answer seminars also give you the platform to communicate and interact with your customers on a personal level. Some businesses will have a special seminar for only past customers. This format also is a fantastic way to get feedback on how to improve your existing product, and to get some ideas for future ones.

A smart thing to do when offering such seminars, is to record them, and sell them alone or packaged together at a later date. You can also add them as free bonuses to your other products when you sell them.

Another option is to open these seminars up to other people as a form of advertising. If your website is focused on business information for women who want to work from home, a virtual assistant or ghostwriter may be more than happy to pay you a fee for the opportunity to speak to your audience. To be most effective, the presentation shouldn’t simply be a sales pitch. The presenter should provide some helpful information, as well as promote their business.

There are many ways in which you can hold your seminar. Some companies will allow you to use one teleconference line free of charge. Or, for a nominal fee, you could book a web conference room. Through this you can show photos, graphs and even PowerPoint presentations. You might also choose to take advantage and use a conference room and a teleconference line at the same time.

After you’ve established the method, date and time of your event, it is time to start promoting it. If you have an existing mailing list, make sure to let your followers know about your seminar. You might even display some information on your site, as well as mention it in any email or forum signatures you use. If you have a team of affiliates, get them involved as well. If you don’t have existing affiliates, as anyone you network with online to help you get the word out. You may even want to consider purchasing some targeted advertising for your event.

After you have some experience holding question and answer sessions, it becomes easier to plan and promote future ones. These can be a fun way to promote your product and service and connect you with others- be sure to enjoy the time you spend doing it.

What should my child bring to Shakespeare Camp? What clothes are appropriate?
A bag lunch (no food is provided), any necessary medication, and afternoon snack if attending aftercare. Some sites have faith-based food restrictions, which you’ll be informed about in the confirmation letter. We highly recommend bringing a large bottle of water, and sunscreen for outdoor sites. We provide all worksheets, a class folder, a script, and materials for prop, scenery, and costume construction. Campers will sometimes volunteer to bring props and costumes from home.

Why do you use costumes? And how much are they?
Costumes raise the level of professionalism when the child performs. It adds excitement for the children, and unifies the group in public. Our costs vary, but average between $35.00 - $75.00 without shoes and tights. We have a winter and spring costume piece that goes over basic black items. These stay the same for years, so even when your child outgrows them, or leaves Talent Team, the costumes can be resold.

What can I put in my blue box?
You can put a whole range of recyclates into your Blue Box in Clackmannanshire. Cans (both aluminium and steel), glass bottles, plastic milk bottles and clear plastic water bottles can go in but please rinse these recyclates out. Textiles can be bagged up separately but again can you make sure these are clean as they are sent out to third world countries for reuse. We take all types of textiles including hats, belts, shoes and costume jewellery.According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, the most frequently worn suit labels are Bebe; Parallel; Tahari; Emporio Armani; Christian Frances Roth; DKNY; INC. at Macy’s; Laundry; and Claudio, from the store of the same name in the Beverly Center. The shoes are from Charles David and Kenneth Cole. Ally’s suits retail between $300 and $800.

How did you get started making corsets?
I’ve made them for years as part of theater costuming. There’s a fun narrative that gets passed around in those circles. A commonly heard gripe is that sometimes when you design a production with period costumes that require proper corsets or undergarments to achieve the correct silhouettes, certain pesky actors will stop wearing them, ruining the look (and this is usually once you’ve gotten on a plane to fly back home or have departed to work on other productions).Your diving card/certificate, warm jacket, sunglases, peak cap, towel, costume, sunblock, comfotrable shoes & cameras (we do stock disposable underwater cameras at a reasonable price). Seasick tabs should be taken on the day at 07h00, we recommend “Avomine” tabs which should be purchased the day before at the pharmacy.

Why do you use costumes? And how much are they?
Costumes raise the level of professionalism when the child performs. It adds excitement for the children, and unifies the group in public. Our costs vary, but average between $35.00 - $75.00 without shoes and tights. We have a winter and spring costume piece that goes over basic black items.

What supplies should I bring to camp?
For dogs, bring dog food, dog towels, leash & collar, chew-proof tie out (stake or tree tie), water dish and food dish. Optional things to bring for your dog include brushes, costume for the contest, dog bed, dog crate, toys and treats.Wear any clothes that you can move around easily in. Wear shoes that won’t slip off or grip very much so that you can turn on the floor easily. However, it’s not too important for beginner classes. When you become more advanced, you might like to buy dance shoes or even a dance costume for special occasions. In Jazz/Funk, it is better to wear sneakers. You’re better off wearing a short sleeve top that you can strip down to because you’ll get pretty hot in most of the classes.