Home Page Re-design

You may have noticed that we've made some improvements to the site as of late. The home page was re-designed just before the holidays to streamline navigation and provide an improved featured product area. We removed the images of each design from the home page and added a section to enable you to browse by product type. The reasoning behind this change was to provide a clean look and feel to the home page. You can still browse by design if you wish by clicking on the design link located in the browse designs section on the left side of the home page. The featured product section now has a rotating feature that provides the ability to present multiple special offers while maximizing home page real estate.

This round of improvments is just another baby step toward our long-term vision for the website. As you may know by now, we are dedicated to continous improvement so be sure to check back frequently to see what's new. I also invite you to join our mailing list to receive updates and special offers in our monthly newsletter.

New Design for the Holidays

Looking for that perfect last minute gift for the Project Manager on your list? Look no further! We are thrilled to launch our first Christmas design just in time for the holidays.



I originally intended to finalize and release this design about two weeks ago, but I was caught off guard by that whole emergency appendectomy thing. Better late than never I guess. Let me know what you think.

The Project Management Hut

I am always on the lookout for great project management resources and websites. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon The Project Management Hut. This site has a wealth of blog postings and articles ranging from categories such as Agile Project Management, Portfolio Management, Best Practices and Certification. The categories are far too numerous to list here, but you'll want to check it our for yourself at: www.pmhut.com

After spending several hours on this site, I decided to send quick note to share my feedback about the great content they had on their site. I was then contacted by the founder of The Project Management Hut, Fadi El-Eter. After exchanging a couple of emails, Fadi graciously offered to publish a posting on his News section informing his readership about PSG Novelties. Check it out! www.pmhut.com/news

Not how I planned to spend my weekend

As a project manager by trade, planning is something I do all the time both on the job and in my personal life. As a matter of fact, I think it is safe to say that I haven't met a project manager yet that wasn't just as fanatical about organizing and planning their professional commitments as they are with their personal life. Ok, raise your hand if you've created a project plan for anything non-work related. I rest my case. So, this past weekend I had not one, but two Christmas parties on my fun filled agenda for the weekend. Unfortunately, those plans changed late Friday afternoon. I had experienced abdominal pains late Thursday night, but chalked it up to a tuna wrap I had for lunch that day. (gimmie a break, it sounded good at the time) By the time the lunch hour came around on Friday the pains were still there. Only this time, the pains seemed to be more on the right side. So, after calling my wife and having her strongly urge me to call the Dr., I was able to get in to see the Dr. to get it checked out. The Dr. checked me out and sent me off for a CT scan. She said it could be kidney stones or appendicitis. I wasn't too keen on the idea of passing kidney stones. 3-hours and 3 CT scans later it was determined that I had appendicitis. 6:30pm and I was off to the ER for an emergency appendectomy.

Wait it gets better...

So, I'm sitting at a stoplight on my way to the ER and *crash* I get hit from behind by another car. It turns out there was a 3 car pile up behind me that decided to invite me to the party. The officer at the scene asked if I had any injuries. I said, yes, but not as a result of the accident. I'm on my way to the ER to have an emergency appendectomy. He was nice enough to quickly take my info and send me on my way.

7:30pm and sitting in the ER. This may be a good time to mention that I hadn't eaten anything since 12:30pm that afternoon. The good news is the ER had a nice flat panel TV to watch while I waited. The bad news is the TV was tuned to the Food Network. Good Eats was showing us how to make the creamiest, tastiest cheesecake; Diners, Drive-ins & Dives was paying homage to Bar B Que. Heck, even Emeril's show was interesting. Approx. 3-hours of torture was brought to a close when they called me back.

Approx. 2:30am Saturday morning: surgery went great and I was taken out of recovery to my room. I was released 8 hours later to the comforts of home.

I didn't get to go to the Christmas parties, but the good thing about all of this is I have been afforded some "down time" away from my consulting assignment to focus on creating some new holiday designs. I will post again once the new design has been added to our online shop.

PSG Novelties Newsletter Issue #1

The first PSG Novelties newsletter was distributed earlier this week. I’m sure that many of our subscribers could tell it was our first newsletter based on the minimialist look and feel. I went with a pretty basic layout for the first issue, but don’t despair, I do plan to “jazz” it up with a few more bells and whistles for future issues.

For anyone that is not currently a subscriber, what are ya waiting for? You’re missing out on all the super cool updates about what's happening at PSG Novelties along with special offers exclusive to newsletter subscribers. It's easy to sign-up. Just type in your email address in the newsletter sign-up box and you're done. From one spam hater to another (spam as in the unsolicited email, not spam the mystery meat), we promise to keep our email communication to a minimum (1-2 per month) and to never share your email with anyone else.

PSG Novelties Family & Friends Special Offer

Well, the holidays are here at last. I always seem to outdo myself each year at the size of the mess I make while preparing the turkey. I just finished brining the turkey and this year was no exception. Cold + Wet + Heavy + Slippery = Big Mess. At least this year I managed to contain the wrestling match to the kitchen sink. Hopefully, you have better luck than me.

I wanted to share that PSG Novelties is having a Thanksgiving Friends and Family Special. Receive $15 off purchases of $50+. Valid through November 28, 2007 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Use Coupon Code: FRFAM2007.

Note: this offer excludes Gift Certificates, bulk orders, taxes and shipping fees. Cannot be combined with any other offers, discounts or coupons.

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Design!

We are excited to announce the launch of our newest design! This design is a compilation of project management realted acronyms. Here is a small sampling of the acronyms... click on the project management acronyms link below to see the full product catalog.

Project Management Acronyms

Satisfaction Guaranteed!

I was recently asked if PSG Novelties guarantees its products, so I thought I would take this opportunity to share our 100% Money Back Guarantee on all products we sell.

You can shop from home with the comfort of knowing that your order is backed by a 100% Money Back Guarantee. This 30-Day Guarantee gives you plenty of time to check items for color, high-quality, and size for yourself, family and friends. If for any reason you need to return or exchange an item, just contact our Customer Service department and you're done!

Monday – Saturday
9am – 9pm EST
Toll Free 1-877-809-1659

PSG Novelties on PMThink.com

We are very excited to report that Jerry Manas has written a blog article about PSG Novelties. Jerry is President and founder of The Marengo Group, LLC, a Philadelphia-based project management consulting firm, and co-founder of PMThink! Project Management Thought Leadership, where topics such as portfolio management, project management, and governance are researched. To check out the blog click here .

New Designs!

We are happy to unveil four new text designs. Here are brief descriptions and images of each design. Click on the link under each image to see the full product catalog.

Project Recovery Expert

This design is perfect for the Project Manager that thrives on the challenge of picking up the reigns of a stalled project and leading the team to success.

Project Delivery Specialist

If you are a Project Manager that specializes in communicating the vision and rallying your project teams to consistently deliver projects, this is the design for you.

If you want something done right, give it to a Project Manager

Managing a project without a project manager is like trying to fly a plane without a pilot. This design offers a friendly reminder to those decision makers in your organization that are often tempted to cut corners while attempting to do more with less.

Trust me. I’m a Project Manager

This is a fun design for any project management enthusiast.

Featured Design for October 2007

Just in time for Halloween, our featured design for the month of October is I See Deadlines! This design illustrates the stark reality that most project managers face on a day-to-day basis. Late nights at the office studying project schedules as deadlines loom on the horizon.

Most Popular Designs

PSG Novelties has only been officially open for business for a few months now, but believe it or not there are already a handful of designs that have risen to the top as our most popular sellers.

Quality First! (unless it impacts the project schedule)

There’s never enough time to do it right the first time, but always enough to go back and do it again.

Got PDUs?

We will continue to keep you informed on our most popular designs each month in the monthly newsletter.

The New Website is Live

I am very excited to share that we officially launched the new website today! In a previous post I spoke about surrounding myself with people a lot smarter than me. Well, this was no exception. I called on a great friend (Gavin Taylor) to help me take a bunch of ideas I had jotted down on a scratch sheet of paper and turn it into an amazing website.

Even better, he developed the site in such a way that a layman like myself could easily manage and maintain it. Gavin would be the first to say the site is a work in progress, but I think it's great! Technically, this version of the website (http://www.psgnovelties.com/) is only phase 1 of the website strategy.

I really wanted a website that was functional, easy to navigate, and had an overall "clean" look and feel.

I would really appreciate your comments and/or suggestions for improvement!

Doing More with Less

Shortly after founding PSG Novelties, it became clear that I needed to surround myself with people that were a lot smarter than me. I had a lot of great design ideas (ok, I am biased), but I was what is commonly referred to as "artistically challenged." I could draw stick figures with the best of them, but beyond that I needed help.

My epiphany came while reading a great book by Timothy Ferriss called 'The 4-Hour Workweek." He spoke about automating and outsourcing your life. The particular reference that caught my eye was Elance.com. I went to the site and found a wealth of freelance companies and contractors that were more than qualified to satisfy any skill set deficiencies I had.

Instead of hiring a graphic artist or illustrator, I could bid out my projects on Elance, browse portfolios, profiles and feedback ratings, and select a company to complete my project at a reasonable price.

I mentioned "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss. Here are some other great books that I would recommend for small business owners.

'The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It' by Michael E. Gerber
'Duct Tape Marketing' by John Jantsch
'Good to Great' by Jim Collins
'The Success Principles' by Jack Canfield
‘Eat That Frog!’ by Brian Tracy

When One Door Closes...

We've all heard the saying, "when a door closes in your life another opens", or, "every ending is a new beginning." Well, that's exactly how PSG Novelties came to be. I had carried around the idea of creating novelty products for people in and around the project management profession for some time, but it took an abrupt ending to breathe life into that idea.

I co-founded a project management consulting firm with two great colleagues and friends in 2006. We didn't know it at the time, but running a business with three equal equity partners is a recipe for disaster no matter who you are. Needless to say, we came to an impasse on how to strategically move the company forward and we decided it would be best for everyone in the long run to restructure the company. I sold my ownership interests in the company to start my own project management consulting firm and we all went our own ways by way of an amicable separation.

It ended up taking me three months to find an attractive consulting contract. That time off was truly a blessing in disguise for me. It was during those three months that PSG Novelties was born.

I founded PSG Novelties on July 2, 2007 with the desire to create fun and creative high quality products for project management professionals and enthusiasts. Soon thereafter, we partnered with Cafépress to produce and distribute our products to a world-wide customer base.

PSG Novelties definitely energizes me. It is also a great change of pace from the project management consulting world.

Welcome to the PSG Novelties Blog!

Greetings,

Welcome to the PSG Novelties Blog!

PSG Novelties is a small company located in Brownsburg, Indiana. The company was originally conceived from a desire to create novelty products for project management professionals and enthusiasts. We are currently in the process of building upon this foundation and have new and exciting product categories in the works that will be released in the near future.

Our passion is creating fun and creative high quality products that make people smile. If you like what you have seen thus far, sign-up for our free newsletter to receive company announcements, new design and product notifications and exclusive special offers.