Various 1950s Chevys at the Route 66 Cruisin’ Reunion on Saturday, September 21, 2024. The original Instagram reel is here.
And if your Inland Empire business needs help with B2B written content, find out how Bredemarket can drive content results.
Tag Archives: ontario
Too Many Dollar Trees?
Are there/will there be too many Dollar Trees in or near Ontario, California?
This used to be my Alpha Beta, a grocery store chain acquired by Kroger and Albertsons.
Then it became a 99 Cents Only Store. (Actually a 99.99 Cents Only Store, but close enough.) And we know what happened there.
Now this location, on Mountain Avenue near D St. in Ontario, California, is slated to become a Dollar Tree. (Actually a Dollar Twenty Five Tree, but close enough.)
Just like the former 99 Cents Only Store on Euclid near Francis, which has already reopened as a Dollar Tree.
And just like the three Dollar Trees within a two mile radius in Ontario, Upland, and Montclair.
Maybe it’s just me, but I doubt all of them will survive. The dollar store market hasn’t gotten appreciably better.
Jay Littleton Ball Park Destroyed By Fire
Jay Littleton Ball Park in Ontario, California was destroyed by fire this week.
From the ABC7 story:
The historic baseball field was built in the 1930s with a wooden frame grandstand.
It’s owned by the city and operated by the public works agency. It was designated a historic landmark back in 2003.
It’s been renovated several times, but officials said there was still likely a lot of old wood in the structure, which is dry and burns quickly.
The Ontario Eastern Little League is sponsoring a GoFundMe for repairs.
Graber For Sale Confirmed
According to Loopnet (and, according to Amanda Matthiesen, Coldwell Banker), the Graber Olive Company property at E 4th St in Ontario IS for sale at an asking price of $4 million.
“They would love a partner or someone to continue the Graber Olive brand but understand the property may be developed.”
(If zoning allows. I’m sure some residents would raise a stink if a condo developer bought the property.)
Oh, and some business details:
“Their online sales are normally $75000 to $150000 per month, including selling to Augusta National for the past 70 years. This last year due to poor Olive production they elected not to produce the Olives in 2023.”
My Visit to Graber Olive House This Morning
No visible indication that the Graber Olive House property truly is for sale.
Maybe it’s not.
But if it is, what will become of the historical artifacts?
Bredemarket’s Five Secrets to Hosting a Successful LinkedIn Audio Event
Bredemarket, the curious wildebeest, wanted to learn more about LinkedIn Audio Events. So I hosted my own. Based upon my now-extensive experience in this medium, I can share my five secrets to hosting a successful LinkedIn Audio Event.
Don’t start early
Um…I failed to do this. The event was supposed to start at 8:00 am Pacific Daylight Time, and I started at 7:58.
Meticulously plan
I didn’t do this either. I scheduled the event at 7:41, 19 minutes before it was supposed to start, and only 17 minutes before it actually started.
Use the best audio equipment for stellar sound
Um…this was on my phone, with no headset.
Host from a quiet place with no distractions
I definitely failed here. I started the event outside the (former) Yangtze Reataurant on very busy Euclid Avenue in Ontario, California. If anyone had joined the last-minute event, they would have heard all sorts of traffic noises.
Have a purpose for the event
This is the only thing I did right. My purpose? To learn the mechanics behind LinkedIn Audio Events. I didn’t learn everything—since I was the only attendee, I couldn’t channel my inner Anna Morgan and invite another speaker to the stage. But I figured out some of the mechanics.
Lessons learned
(Personal preference: I don’t refer to this as a “post mortem.” No one died.)
In addition to the lessons implied above (plan, ensure a superior audio experience, etc.), I learned that you will never get to listen to this morning’s event. LinkedIn doesn’t post recordings of the event after the fact. So I can lie and say that I shared the most scintillating details, even though I didn’t.
But I achieved my purpose, and maybe I will host a real audio event some day.
I did some more experimentation this morning, but my other experiments were live video tests on Facebook, on the Bredemarket page (not the groups; another lesson learned).
I’m Taking Small Business Saturday Off
Although Bredemarket is a small business, I’m not doing anything for Small Business Saturday.
Why not? Because Bredemarket is a B2B business and not a B2C business, most if not all of my clients have been closed since Wednesday afternoon enjoying the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.
So I’m celebrating a mostly non-business Saturday. Instead of filming Bredemarket content, I enjoyed a not-so-nutritious breakfast (skipping Starbucks AND Del Taco) and bought TWO birthday cards for my wife. (At 50¢ each, that’s an entire dollar!)
See everyone Monday.
When I Had To Describe This Technology, Words Failed Me
(TL;DR people can click here.)
What is this technology?
Last Saturday I hoped to gain inspiration so that I could shoot a video or capture an image to promote Bredemarket’s technology writing services—namely, writing blog posts, case studies, white papers, or other content to empower technology firms.
By mid-morning, with no inspiration, I captured a technology image of…something.
As I confessed in my “behind the scenes” video that day, I have no idea what this thing is, or whether this is used for water, gas, or something else entirely.
Why I did not know
And do you want to know WHY I couldn’t describe what I saw?
Because I failed to get a collaborator to work with me.
If an appropriate person from Chaffey High School presented themselves to me, they could have described:
- Why this technology was necessary.
- How the technology worked.
- What the technology was.
You’ll notice that I asked the “why” question BEFORE I asked the “how” and “what” questions. Because “why” is most important. If a student or staff member sees this thing on the Chaffey campus, they naturally want to know why it’s there. They don’t really care if it pumps 100 liters of whatever per second.
How I can produce the right words for your technology firm
And that’s how I will work with YOUR technology firm when Bredemarket creates content. We work TOGETHER to create the content you need.
Do you need to create content that converts prospects for your technology product/service and drives content results?
Learn more by clicking on the image.
P.S. Don’t wait. There’s a cost to waiting.
3rd Saturday, Tiki Style
Greg Rook’s “The End” exhibit at 3rd Saturdays on Saturday, October 21, 2023 at Holt X Palm (pronounced Holt and Palm) in Ontario, California.
#drivein #montclaircalifornia #art #photography #retro #tiki
Four Restrictions on Bredemarket’s City of Ontario Business License, and Why You Should Care
Remember when I said that I spent Labor Day renewing my City of Ontario business license?
Well, the approved license arrived in the mail today.
The electronic mail, not the snail mail.
This coming year will be the fourth year of Bredemarket’s existence. I started in August 2020, but it took a few weeks for the city business license and other paperwork to complete.
Now while the City of Ontario (California, not Canada) business license renewal entitles me to conduct business in the city as Bredemarket (when coupled with the Fictitious Business Name statement I filed with San Bernardino County), it is not an official endorsement of my activity by the city, and is definitely NOT an endorsement of the call to action at the end of this post.
More importantly, the City of Ontario has imposed four significant restrictions on the way that Bredemarket conducts business. Do they affect how I do business with you? We’ll see.
First: I must post the business license in a conspicuous place
Done.
Although as we will see when we get to the third restriction, the whole meaning of “conspicuous place” is irrelevant to Bredemarket’s business.
Second: I can’t conduct just ANY business
The business license is issued “for consulting services, including marketing and writing services.” The license does NOT allow me to bake pies, perform auto maintenance, launch rockets into space, or perform heart surgery.
Dang guvmint.
Third: No visitation from clients
Remember how the city requires that I post my license in a conspicuous place? Well, the city also prohibits me from having clients visit me at my work location. This makes sense, since residential neighborhoods aren’t really built to have a bunch of cars park outside a house where business is conducted.
This means that when I do have a person-to-person meeting (rather than a videoconference) to conduct business, the meeting has to be offsite. For example, a couple of years ago I met with an advisor at Brandon’s Diner in Upland. (And the lunch was tax deductible!)
Fourth: No signage permitted
Again, because my work location is in a residential neighborhood, I can’t put a huge neon sign in my front yard with the Bredemarket logo.
And no, I can’t put a small neon sign in my front yard.
Or any neon sign.
I wonder if the city will let me put signage on my mailbox? Actually, the UPS Store probably won’t allow that either.
So what?
The reason that these city restrictions don’t matter to you is because (since we still have the Internet) Bredemarket is perfectly capable of conducting its business online.
You don’t have to look for my business sign, or a parking place in front of the place where I conduct business. Why not? Because I can meet with you via Google Meet or another videoconferencing service, or we can talk on the phone, or even exchange emails with each other.
I’ve worked from home since March 2020—first for IDEMIA, then for Bredemarket, then for Incode Technologies, then for Bredemarket again. During that time I’ve been able to meet all of the needs of Bredemarket clients remotely, despite no public parking and no signage.
Well, almost all the needs. I haven’t been able to perform aortic valve surgery for my clients.
Dang guvmint.
The city does not endorse this call to action
Do you want to use the marketing and writing services of a government-licensed consulting firm?
More importantly, do you want to use the marketing and writing services of a consulting firm that ensures the right questions are asked at the beginning of the project, and that you have complete input during the writing and review cycles?
Authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.
- Email me at john.bredehoft@bredemarket.com.
- Book a meeting with me at calendly.com/bredemarket.
- Contact me at bredemarket.com/contact/.
- Subscribe to my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/hdHIaT.
Bredemarket 