A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending Entrepreneur magazine’s 2012 Growth Conference in Long Beach, Calif., as a member of The UPS Store team, which sponsored the event.

For the more than 850 entrepreneurs who convened at this year’s Growth Conference, there was an undeniable feeling of optimism and determination to learn and grow their businesses.

I admire entrepreneurs. I know many in my own life and career. Each of The UPS Store franchisees is an entrepreneur in his or her own right. What they do is truly amazing. It takes an enormous amount of courage to chart a path, not knowing where you’ll end up in the end.

The conference kicked off with a keynote address from entrepreneur and small business expert Chris Brogan. I was fortunate to sit at a table with one entrepreneur who was hoping to glean some motivation from the speakers to help her get started with her business.

When Chris took the stage, I knew we were in for a fantastic day of learning and growth. Chris spoke about the hard lessons of being an entrepreneur and what you can do to focus on growth in your business. Being the social media buff that he is, Chris spoke about the importance of focusing on relationships versus transactions within social media, becoming a relationship-minded business. (Watch the complete video of Chris Brogan’s keynote.)

The rest of the day was packed with great content and networking opportunities. Several leading entrepreneurs and small business experts hosted workshop sessions that helped attendees learn how to raise capital to start a business, increase productivity and output, use social media to market to consumers and create consumer passion for your brand. One of our very own franchisees, Gary Williams Jr., was also featured in a panel discussion during one of the workshop sessions.

The highlight of the day was the awards luncheon, where Entrepreneur magazine and The UPS Store awarded the winners of the Entrepreneur of 2011 contest. The most inspiring one came from winner Lee Rhodes, a cancer survivor who founded glassybaby. Lee donates a significant portion of the company’s revenue to help fund treatment to cancer patients. Her goal is to donate 10% of revenue.

Check out the highlights from the entire day.

How do you travel for 6 weeks to 25 different cities and fit luggage for me and my mom, and all the goodies we’ve purchased along the way in a 1999 Chevy Prism? The simple answer is: you don’t.

My mom and I traveled around the country on The Smoothest Road Trip Ever.  During the promotional tour, I shared my story about how I started my skincare company, Simple Sugars, with young girls and college students with the hope of inspiring them to follow their dreams.

I started the company in 2005 when I was  11-years-old and my mom decided we would have a homemade Christmas. She insisted my brothers and I make the holiday gifts we wanted to give to family and friends. So I made body scrubs with pure sugar and all-natural oils. I have very sensitive skin and have never been able to use commercially produced products without experiencing skin irritations. I decided to make an all-natural product that would be safe for very sensitive skin like mine – one that would be fun to use and smell great, too.  That’s how Simple Sugars was born!  I know, simple, right?

My business has grown a lot over the years but I want more people to learn about it so I hit the road.  My ’99 Prism, also known as The Simple Sugars Super Smooth Mobile, and I logged 9,782 miles. (I just arrived back home in Pittsburgh last night as I write this).

Since the trip required a lot of stuff, and a Chevy Prism isn’t necessarily the roomiest car on the road, I had to figure out how to transport all of our materials. We needed product samples and display signs, tables, t-shirts, our clothes and (my shoes!!)  Plus, we picked up a few items along the way. Well, maybe more than a few, I mean it’s not every day you get to travel around the country right?

The problem was logistics – But I know my shipping partner and one of the sponsors of the smooth trip – UPS loves logistics. I am a pretty expert car-packer by now, if I must say so myself, but even I couldn’t squeeze one more thing into the car by the time we hit Minneapolis.  Well, unless I kicked my mom out – this was not an option even after six weeks of togetherness.

The solution was to use UPS to ship the materials to us at various points along our route. We picked up boxes at The UPS Store locations in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis and used UPS Next Day Air®, and UPS 3 Day Select®.   We also shipped presents for my family and some of the mementos I acquired along the way back home to Pittsburgh using UPS Ground.

I’ve met so many great people, made some business connections, eaten ridiculously delicious food in some of the greatest cities in the world and seen so much of the beautiful landscape of this country.  In a word, this experience has been awesome! The smoothest road trip ever!

Stay Smooth.

Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock. The sound of aged wood and brass chime in their package, waiting to be opened and displayed.

These antique beauties eagerly await their turn to proudly sit on the mantle of their new owner’s fireplace. Fragile and beautiful, the clocks from Old Timers Antique Clocks travel across the country, arriving safely to their new homes unscathed and ready for the new year.

For more than 20 years, Kenneth and Susan Markley, owners of Old Timers Antique Clocks, have been buying and selling shelf and tall case floor clocks from all over the world. Visit their website and you will find many American, Dutch, German, French and English antique clocks in excellent condition and ready to trade.

“When we first entered into a relationship with Antique Networking, we had no idea what our business would become,” Kenneth Markley said. “Now, with scores of ‘hits’ every day, our website sales are beyond our fondest dreams and have placed us among the leading antiques clock dealers in the nation.”

Due to the growing demand for their clocks, the Markley’s head to The UPS Store on 4900 Carlisle Pike in Mechanicsburg, Penn., where franchisee Tim Elder and his crew carefully pack and ship the clocks to their new homes.

“Throughout the years, we have shipped our clocks using Tim Elder’s The UPS Store center,” Kenneth Markley said. “Tim professionally packs each clock himself, using double-boxing to make sure every piece is delivered safely. Their expertise in careful and appropriate packing has resulted in flawless results through the years. To date, Tim and his staff have packed and shipped more than 800 clocks for us and in 2012, we hope to ship many more!”

After a decade of shipping clocks with Tim and his team, the Markley’s have become a part of The UPS Store family. The Markley’s even have their own tally sheet in the back office to keep track of every clock they ship.

“The Markley’s are like an institution here,” Elder said. “When Ken comes in, everyone gets excited to see what type of antique clock we’ll be shipping since many of them require custom made boxes. We look forward to using our experience and creativity to pack each and every clock in such a way that it arrives in perfect condition.”

Obviously, the Markleys’ Old Timers Antique Clocks and Tim Elder’s The UPS Store location are living up to our favorite motto: small business helping small business. Keep on tickin’ into 2012!

During my short spell as a driver helper, the most invaluable resources have been the drivers, who have a reflexive knowledge of their routes that borders on clairvoyant. They can tell you not only where they will be in 30 minutes, but where all of the other nearby drivers will be, which customers will need extra time, less time, one push cart or multiple ones. If something throws a wrench into the flow of their day, they are already three steps ahead of the problem and are calling other drivers for support so nothing interrupts the deliveries and pickups. The second most valuable resource is their DIAD scanner, which they have been showing me how to use throughout the week.

I won’t lie. Even though UPS just upgraded to the DIAD V, which I have personally dubbed “The Final Frontier,” for the novice like myself the DIAD scanner is not an intuitive gadget. I grew up in the Nintendo generation and we had four buttons on the controller. The DIAD has a myriad of buttons that give me vertigo when I look at it. They perform all manner of functions: scan packages, call up lists of tracking numbers, enter signatures, notes, names, void scans, etc. With every package in our system scanned an average of 16 times during transit, the importance of the DIAD cannot be underestimated. It tells both the customer and UPS exactly where your package is at all times. During the busy holiday season, that information is doubly important.

Learning to use the DIAD isn’t easy, but the drivers are masters at it. The driver tells me after the signature to push the “enter” key. Which one is that? None of them say “Enter.” Is it the one that has a half-circle on it? No, wait, the one with the check mark? Nope. How about this one that looks like a crescent moon? As I struggle with the DIAD, I suddenly hear the voice of a leprechaun in my head saying, “Yellow moons! Green clovers! Orange stars! Blue diamonds! And purple horseshoes!!!” <sigh>

While the DIAD itself is not my immediate forte, the art of stacking packages is something that I have come to pride myself on. Drivers must stack them rapidly, securely, and as high as possible, whether in a shipping truck or on a push cart. You want to move the maximum number at a time to shorten the time it takes to finish the job. All of the boxes are different sizes and shapes. Imagine if you opened up a game of Jenga and found out all of the wooden bricks were different! Upon opening a UPS shipping truck cargo door, you’re stepping into the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark – a huge room full of boxes. Your job is to start offloading them quickly, but you must be careful! Some are huge but are actually quite light (bean bag chairs). Others are small but as heavy as lead bricks (God only knows). But there is one universal truth I have learned – cardboard is just like California. At any time without warning, it can crumple and collapse into the abyss!

Remember the object of Jenga? Don’t let the stack fall. Same goes here, except this time you’re standing under it! Cardboard is not reliably stalwart and gravity is a harsh nemesis! 

I’m fairly certain the DIAD would survive the avalanche better that I would…

My stint as a driver helper passed Wednesday last night. The pace has been rapid-fire as the cargo volume heats up closer and closer to the holidays. Deliveries number in the multiple hundreds and pickups from the major retailers at the end of the day are even more numerous. Throughout all of it, I have enjoyed the experience, despite a disagreement with a delivery cart yesterday that ripped the backside of my brown pants (more on that in another blog post.)

What has amused me the most is the constant interaction a UPS driver, or anyone in a UPS uniform like myself, receives from the general public. I’ve taken to calling them “pickup” lines. Most of them are pretty common – “What can brown do for you!”, “Whoa – HOW MANY boxes are you dropping off?!”, “Whoa – HOW MANY boxes do we have to pick up?!” (That last one was me, in case you didn’t notice.)

There are the unique encounters though that make the day entertaining, and here are my top three “pickup” lines from this week as a UPS driver helper.

An older gent approached me as I was unloading the UPS vehicle and yelled out, “You doin’ a lotta fingerprinting today?” That gave me pause. I’d never equated delivering packages with CSI: Miami. “Fingerprinting?” I asked, trying not to sound incredulous. Was he crazy? Why did I forget my pepper spray? He revealed that he was a delivery person from a trucking company many decades ago and that was an old term for moving boxes. I briefly had visions of guys in pinstripe suits and fedoras waving Tommy guns. “Hot crackers! Move dem dere boxes, wise guys!”

A younger guy came up to me between truck loads and asked me how hard it was to get a job with UPS. I told him about UPSJobs.com and that there were many avenues to get employment. With a little hard work and a few years of dedication, you would have a stable job and probably move up in the company. “A few years? That’s a long time,” he replied and walked off shortly afterward. I guess he was one of many that are looking for that get-rich-quick scheme I’ve been hearing about. Had I been quicker on my feet, I would have suggested winning the lottery.

The winner goes to the man who called out to me, “You know, this is the busiest time of year for you guys.” At the time I was navigating a heavy pushcart of boxes through mall crowds to a storefront. I appreciated the information he gave me. In fact, I appreciated all of the interaction with the public. Most everyone is friendly. But this guy needs to know that I silently awarded him the Captain Obvious Medal.

Whether smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, Memorial Day weekend or any ordinary day during the year, UPS employees realize how the little things — perfectly executed — can have a huge impact.

All UPSers are directly responsible for the success of our deliveries and the satisfaction of our customers. Recently, we asked them about some of their most memorable customer experiences.

Here are a few examples of what they shared with us:

Larry – Georgia

During my initial years with UPS – at a time before tracking numbers and package visibility – I worked during the night sorts at several hubs. It was a regular practice if Christmas Eve was during the week to have packages that appeared to be presents that had been missorted that day consolidated and distributed to the management team relative to wherever they lived or were traveling to for Christmas. You cannot imagine the feeling you got when you knocked on someone’s door on Christmas day with a present and experienced the gratitude they expressed for going beyond their expectations to make their holidays special.

Bruce – New York

A while back, we managed to get Diana Ross’ dress delivered just in time for a concert at Madison Square Garden.

 Amy – Kentucky

I had a customer that exported large air freight shipments of live lobsters to Guam every Friday night. They had to move on a very specific routing, because the packaging only kept the lobsters alive for 72 hours.

I was on call late one Friday night of Memorial Day weekend when I received a call from the airline’s trucker saying that they missed the flight out. I had no idea what to do, but there was $40,000 worth of live lobsters headed back to Louisville, and I had to find a way to get them back in the tank before the time ran out.

I did not have a cell phone number for any one there, but my contact there had a somewhat uncommon last name, so I whipped out the white pages and started calling every number for that last name in Louisville. “Hello do you work at XYZ Lobster Company?” After about 10 calls, I found him. He recognized my voice, and his first response was “Why are you calling me at home?” When he heard what had happened he was ecstatic because he was on the way out the door to go to the lake when I called. Fortunately there was a happy ending – we got all the lobsters back in the tank in time, safe and sound.

Timothy – California

A manager for a nonprofit organization came running into the customer counter in a panic. She had a grant proposal that had to get to Washington, D.C., the next day. The East Coast air driver was already on his way to the airport. She thought all was lost, but I quickly processed the package and contacted the driver and asked him to meet her before the airport. The driver met her and got the document pack to the airplane in time. Our customer came in to the customer counter a day later overjoyed that their grant had gotten to D.C. in time. She let me know how much her nonprofit needed the grant to continue their work in the community. What I thought was just another day at UPS sometimes means so much more to our customers and community.

John – Missouri

About five years ago we got a new stadium in St. Louis. As the new stadium went up, the old one came down. Team ownership made available to the fans an opportunity to purchase a set of seats from the old Busch. UPS set up shop at the old Busch Stadium and got down to the business of boxing up all those seats and getting them to some very rabid fans. Each stop was a pleasure. Some were season ticket holders, some were employees, some just had to have a set, but all were excited to see me and share some of there favorite Cardinals memories.

Jason – South Dakota

The following customer letter explains my best customer experience:

“On Thursday, October 18, I needed to send an overnight package. My wife works for me and usually does all my shipping, but she was out that afternoon and this package needed to go and be delivered on Friday, so I prepared the necessary paperwork and called for a UPS pickup. What I didn’t realize at that time was I had used the Second Day Air booklet and blue label on this package. I checked the overnight box on the form and I thought everything was good to go.

The next day at around 4 p.m., I received a call from the person who was expecting the package letting me know that it hadn’t arrived yet. I asked my wife to call UPS and run a check on the package so we could determine where it was. She then informed me that it was scheduled for delivery on Monday morning. This was a major problem because the package included football tickets for a game that started on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

I quickly called the UPS number and the person was very professional and helpful. Through a series of questions and answers she was able to tell me that my package was in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, station and was being sorted for final delivery.

She then told me that she would contact the Sioux Falls station and that they would try to locate my package, and if they were successful someone would call me. About 30 minutes later, Jason Bouwman called me and informed me he had my package in his hand. At that point in time, I was about ready to drive the six hours myself and deliver the tickets, but Jason informed me that if he could work it out around his son’s sports practice he would actually drive half way down to Sioux City, Iowa, and meet my client to deliver the package. I arranged a conference call to get us all together, exchange information and to set the meeting location.  At 9:39 p.m. later that same evening, I received another call from Jason, saying that he was with UPS and my package had been delivered.

That is what Brown did for me. After I made the mistake that caused the whole crisis, two very professional UPS employees went the extra mile to serve the customer.”

This year, for one week at the height of the holiday shipping season, I’ve left my office in public relations and become a UPS driver helper to lend a hand delivering a few of the millions of packages UPS will process leading up to December 25th. My first day was December 12th. The Friday before, I received my safety training and a few minutes learning how to use our DIAD package scanner. In the race to get the packages out, UPS hires driver helpers in droves and Atlanta is no exception. They tossed me a brown UPS pullover which isn’t quite long enough for my arms. I was reminded of stories my grandfather tells of being thrown a pair of boots that didn’t fit exactly right during boot camp in World War II. Yeah, it’s kinda like that, but once the day begins those concerns disappear.

I met the driver I would assist at a major shopping mall here in Atlanta. The first task was deliveries to some of the stores inside. Pretty straightforward. The driver would scan, I would stack. Then we’d roll ‘em over to the location. But very quickly, his vehicle was empty and it was 5 p.m. Don’t be fooled. No one was going home. That’s when a UPS driver’s day just gets started! Now it was time for pickups from the major retail stores. We navigated his brown UPS package van into the underworld of the shopping mall. Loading docks and narrow passages. Offloading the hand trucks and heading into the hallways behind the many stores. It reminded me of that scene in Terminator 2 when John Connor is in the back hallways of the mall running from that evil robot. Any minute I expected Schwarzenegger to burst through a doorway yelling, “Get down!” Yep – exactly like that.

Michael French, UPS driver helper

Our first customer had more than 80 pickups! My driver said that was nothing. The customers we picked up from were too busy during this time of the year for many pleasantries, but that’s cool because we were in just as big a hurry. We loaded the massive boxes in multiple trips. We were moving briskly with the hand trucks. Unfortunately the freight elevator is never in a hurry. The door for the elevator is about the same size as the one on Jabba the Hutt’s palace and raises only marginally faster. Next Day Air parcels are separated and go on the back lower shelf so they’ll be the first ones off before 7 p.m. at the sorting facility. The rest get stacked tightly in the delivery vehicle. Then it’s onto the next round of pickups. This time it was a designer shoe retailer. One package was going to someone named Monica in South Carolina. I considered briefly how every package has a person’s name – every box heading into a different person’s life, different experiences, a million different situations and personalities. I hoped Monica will be happy with whatever she ordered. I rapidly started to resent Santa Claus for getting all the credit.

By about 8 p.m. we were done for the evening. But now it’s the a.m. and in about 30 minutes, I will have to be ready and out the door, because there’s more deliveries today where those came from.

Santa’s been working overtime this month getting ready to make his rounds. Just in case you’re reading this Santa… I’ve been really good and I’m emailing my list to your personal account. And because I know Ole’ St. Nick has been working so diligently – and perhaps to offer a small bribe – I’m not going to leave him just cookies.  He’s getting praline layer cake and pretzels dipped in chocolate and covered with Georgia pecans from Savannah’s Candy Kitchen. I’m just saying – I really want Santa to take my list seriously. 

The man behind the candy is Stan Strickland. He’s so sure you’ll enjoy his treats he offers a full money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied. The inspiration to open his small business came from his mother who worked in a candy factory. At home, she made everything from scratch – even measuring with the “cup” of her hand. After spending hours working beside his mother, Strickland developed a similar passion for sweets and continues the family tradition of using only local and all-natural ingredients to make candies and cakes. A local sugar company uses trailer to deliver about 60,000 pounds a month!

When he started more than 30 years ago, Strickland only had one location on historic River Street in Savannah, Ga. Today, Savannah’s Candy Kitchen is the largest candy company in the Southeast, serving about half a million customers each year.

There’s a major rush during the holidays when daily shipments increase from 200 orders a day to about 6,000. Strickland relies on a sleigh with brown wheels and elves dressed head to toe in brown to deliver his precious goods. In December, a small team of UPS employees work on-site loading holiday packages onto trailers for delivery. They use UPS Quantum View® Manage to monitor inbound and outbound shipments and UPS WorldShip® to save time creating shipping labels.

New this holiday season, Savannah’s Candy Kitchen is offering free standard shipping on all online orders.  Click here to check out Stan “the Candy Man’s” favorite items including Chocolate Reindeer Drops… I’m not quite sure what those are but I’m sure Rudolf, Donner and Blitzen don’t like it.

14 days and counting ‘til Christmas!  It’s the time of year filled with sweet treats and those infamous popcorn tins. You know the ones with Frosty the Snowman on the side and filled with different flavors – usually super cheesy, salty and caramel.  If you’re looking for a gift that’s not filled with all those holiday calories that you promise yourself you’ll start working off right after the New Year – a resolution I fail to keep every year – try popcorn! The Popcorn Palace offers a unique selection of tasty holiday treats: Cinnamon Spice, Coconut Cloud Nine, Chocolate Drizzle Caramel Corn, Macadamia Butter Crunch and Berry Your Blues.

Small businesses pop up every day, but only some of them succeed and grow large enough to pop up on national television and find a spot on Inc. 500’s prominent list. Tim Heitmann started with just a small retail store in Chicago 15 years ago and continues to grow ever year. Today he sells and ships 29 varieties of gourmet popcorn to customers all over the country and has been featured on shows with Al Roker and Rachel Ray on the Food Network.

All holiday orders are popped, packed and shipped the same day. “A lot of work goes into producing our micro-batch popcorn, so naturally, maintaining the quality of our product is very important to us,” Heitmann said. The company’s meticulous production operation is the same even during the busy holiday season when orders double. The company depends on UPS to deliver those shipments on time. “We love our drivers who sometimes need to come later to get those last-minute orders.”

If you can’t pop into one of two Chicago locations, you can order online. Through the UPS Small Biz Daily Deals promotion, Popcorn Palace is offering free ground shipping to @UPS Twitter followers using the coupon code: UPSSHIP. Hurry and place your order today – the offer expires on December 13 at midnight CST.

Growth is always a hot topic for entrepreneurs and small businesses on the move. Inc. magazine has joined UPS to host a series of events with the common theme, Delivering Growth. CEOs from the magazine’s 5000 list offer personal and financial tips on growing businesses.

Small business owners in Atlanta and Houston have already learned how to develop joint ventures, expand products and services and successfully market their brand. The next live event will be in San Diego on December 13 to discuss Delivering Growth Internationally. Panelists will share how to find resources for export and custom regulations. If you can’t make it to California, you can join the session online at: www.inc.com/upslive.

The CEOs are sharing personal stories about managing risk while in pursuit of growth. They address topics such as accessing capital (with and without banks), overcoming cultural barriers for international growth and maintaining a reputation for quality in the midst of fast growth.

Panelists are leaders of fast-growth companies, including PopLabs, Jurlique, Ludus Sports, eCardio Diagnostics, SpeakEasy and Abukai. Some of the panelists are former executives at Fortune 500 companies, and have since made the transition to the entrepreneurial community.

From the Atlanta event, moderator Lisa Calhoun describes how small business growth isn’t just about numbers.