Unless you’re a surgeon

or bombsquad defuser,

 nothing gets done

  by standing still.

Yesterday we talked about constantly moving targets. We touched on the challenges presented by rapidly changing rules, attitudes, circumstances, and information access.

To impact consumer, employee, and supplier behaviors positively, entrepreneurs and small business owners must flex, adjust, adapt, and go with the flow.

We must also hustle.

When problems surface, pounce on them. I’ve actually seen unsavvy (and ultimately unscuccessful business owners and managers walk away, pass the buck, blame others, close up and go home, and –in one instance– put a “Gone To Lunch” sign on the counter at 11:55am, and literally chase out eight customers who’d been waiting in line

. . . oblivious, obviously, to the common knowledge that every unhappy customer tells a minimum of ten other people who tell ten other people. So, in this case that makes 800 bad-mouth comments. Can your business survive that? (“Quick like a bunny” was my father’s motto; it always earned him big tips.)

Having a constant sense of urgency communicates leadership, compassion, integrity, authenticity, and professionalism. Others will assign those values to everything you are associated with — your products, services, ideas, and all of the people involved with your business. Pretty good return for zero dollar investment.

Don’t be so afraid of making mistakes. Yes, ”haste makes waste,” and ”failing to plan is planning to fail.” But you can’t run a business cornerstoned by trite expressions. When you take reasonable risks, you are not betting the farm, or running off to the nearest lottery window, racetrack, or casino with your gard-earned dollars.

Unless the task at hand requires some Herculian effort (e.g., securing a king-size mattress onto the roof of a Washington Bridge-bound VW) or is intricately detailed (e.g., drawing blood, folding a parachute), be on the alert about when you can hustle your muscle and please your customer or employee or vendor with a prompt response.

All of this takes an action attitude and a determination to “Git R Done,” but, hey that’s simply a matter of sleeping and exercising enough, eating right, and making the choice. This starts to sound like some kind of training camp? It is. If you’re going to make this all work, you have to choose to keep yourself in good shape, and stay with it! 

Try walking faster. Oh, and keeping a journal of response times for various tasks and services will give you a sense of where you are, where you need to be, and give you the information you need to improve the sense of urgency you deliver. What every day? No, but maybe a day or two a week to start, then a monthly check-up. 

Remember the Chinese proverb: “Talk Does Not Cook Rice.”   

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

 Thanks for your visit and may God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Do your part for the planet!

Sell your local products 

and services worldwide.

~~~~~~        

Now we know for a fact (in spite of Mr. Gore’s ranting and raving), that there simply is no such thing as manmade global warming (which has clearly proven to be a figment of the man’s imagination), it’s probably time to turn up the planet’s heat with our businesses.

There’s no need to defend that global warming discrediting statement, by the way, just ask any credible scientist instead of the pseudo ones Mr. Gore carries in his pocket.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is no greater opportunity to market your goods and services outside the neighborhood, town, county, state, or region that you’ve been limiting yourself to . . . than now . . . with the Internet (Oh, and thank you again, Mr. Gore; where oh where would we ever be had you not invented it?).

Why “now”? Because, as my mother used to say, there’s no time like the present. How to do it? Like what are the steps?

Step number one is to cast aside the political creeps behind creeping Socialism (November 6, 2012). 

Step number two is to extract the small-mindedness from your brain that’s been locked in there, afraid to let you step outside your business comfort zone.

With inexpensive –often free– media options to exercise (from emails and texting to Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn), you will gain by exploring (or expanding your mastery of, if you’re already dabbling) the market opportunities for what you sell. Now is the time to Action Plan your way into marketing your offerings worldwide.

Exactly where are those opportunities for you and your business? Odds are you know what they are and where they are, but you’ve simply not been willing or motivated enough to consider their pursuit. Be willing. Be motivated. Make that choice for yourself.

Stop thinking you need to be limiting local services and products you sell to the neighborhood or town that supports you.

If you truly care about your neighbors, help stimulate your local economy with global money!

Illegal aliens have been doing it for years. They work in the U.S., typically tolerating inhumane living conditions in order to wire maximum amounts of American dollar wages earned to their desperate families in countries whose governments intentionally keep their people in poverty.

How about bringing other country’s money into your town? How about working to help change the opression of other countries’ governments to make them do a better job so that their people won’t want or need to come to the U.S. for their families to survive? Isn’t that a better, more permanent solution? 

Does it mean cracking down on illegal border entries and drug lords and war weapon distribution channels?

Absolutely, but isn’t that a smarter, better thing for our grandchildren than to continue with the Socialism “share the wealth” mentality that strips away America’s freedom that small business job creation built, and that America’s servicemen and women have preserved?

I’m talking about the freedom that we have all earned and enjoyed, that strengthens core family values and that serves to undermine the terrorist acts, threats, and organizations that rise from the rubble of America’s economic weaknesses. 

It all comes back to the economy. And job creation. And America’s 30 million small businesses.

With government support in the minus zone, there can be only ingenuity, innovation, self-reliance,  guts, and gumption. Are you up to it, or ready to go down without trying?

There are no limits except

those in your mind.

And those limits are a choice.

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

 Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

TY, Thank You, THX,

Thanks, Appreciation,

Appreciate, Appreciated,

Appreciative, Grateful,

Gratefulness, Gratified,

Gratification,  tks, Please,

Pls, YW, You’re Welcome!

Have you paid off  your TY IOUs lately? Do you have a list of them? Are they in some order? Which ones are the oldest? To whom do you owe more than one TY? What are they for? What were the circumstances? How long ago exactly was the favor or courtesy or thoughtfulness extended? Might it now be time to clean some of these up?

If you don’t have one, let’s start with a business list, then move on to personal, or vice versa if you prefer. I like to keep a thank you list next to my desk phone, divided into two columns: “Calls” and “Emails.” I add to them during the day between meetings, other emails, and other calls, and cross out the ones I’ve handled as each day passes.

Why? Who Cares? EVERYone cares. Which also answers the question “Why?” Simply put, there can be no better investment of your time and energy for boosting your business and personal reputations. And sales pros will tell you that personal and business reputations built on these courtesies translate directly to sales.

Oh, and let’s not forget that long-lost art of a personal handwritten thank you note stuck in the mail or office inbox. There is NOTHING compares with receiving one of those. And the busier you are, the more impact a note from you has. In other words: The more personal you can make your expression of thanks, the greater the impact!

It’s hard to beat a message that has a little hug hanging on its coattails!

Probably needless to add, but it’s well worth remembering: It’s also FREE, which makes it a no-brainer practice for business owners and operators, and especially for professional practice principals, who are seldom regarded as grateful for their patients and clients! 

Social media subscribers probably use the expressions in this post’s headline more than any other segment of society except Salvation Army Santas. It’s become standard fare Internet ettiquette. It’s the sub-culture of long-distance communications dipped in politeness and exchanged for the world to see, but seldom felt from the heart.

Twitterers send Tweets. If you like the Tweet, you respond mostly with a RE-Tweet (or RT) as a polite form of endorsement. Someone whose Tweet gets an RT, inevitably returns a TY (Thank You) note Tweet to that endorser. That endorser may send (Tweet) yet another note, like YW (You’re Welcome).

It’s said that these kinds of exchanges are all cover-ups for the acknowledged impersonalness of social media communications, that they somehow compensate for handshakes and eye contact and voice tone and inflections. Well, they don’t really. Not much could. But they do set social media cordiality apart from other media forms. 

Anyway, Thank you for visiting. I am truly grateful for the minutes you spent here, and if any of what I said is helpful to you in any way, well . . . YW.

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116 

  Open minds open doors. 

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you. 

   Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Many traditional marketers haven’t a clue . . .

Real entrepreneurs

respond in an instant and 

develop ideas thoroughly

from beginning to end.

Today’s marketing people are not adapting well to current economic realities. They see themselves as part of the solution to a problem that they do not understand . . . one they are not trying hard enough to overcome.

The no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel economy we’re presently in doesn’t, for example, automatically translate to everyone being interested in finding a better dollar deal. Instead, when budgets are restricted is when entrepreneurs need to invest more heavily in building long-term relationships, as they would expect of their own suppliers.

Traditional marketing pros are missing this.

They are still knocking themselves silly trying to fit business owners into their media and social media games and patterns and rate cards and strategies instead of adapting what they know to help entrepreneurs do more with less

. . . instead of pulling their chairs up to the same side of the table.

This doesn’t mean reinforcing the customer service department. It does mean building customer service into the job decription for every single employee. When every staffer is also a customer service specialist –poof!– you no longer need a customer service department! Nurturing long-term relationships becomes your new business. 

Marketing traditionalists are missing this point, and others like it. The “new” cyberspace marketing pros are also missing the point. First off, the whole world is NOT tuned into the Internet which means the perspective that every human on Earth is aware of Mashable, Tweets, BFs, DMs, clouds, and txtmsgs is false. So the perspective is warped.

Second, when traditionalists wrap their marketing strategies around media airtime, print space availabilities and “special rate card deal packages” or “online marketing and SEO experts” (most of whom are self-designated, unproven, and over-priced) parade out their website and email bells and whistles, entrepreneurs end up the losers. 

If you’re a small business owner, operator, or manager, you need to be looking AWAY FROM formula marketing solutions that do not bend over backwards for you the same way you bend over backwards for your customers.

This is not an economy where you can simply accept blanket marketing recommendations without questioning.

Marketing pros need to be thinking more like entrepreneurs. They need to be looking much harder at ways to market products and services for maximum impact without spending as much money as in the past. They need to be offering their services more on a performance incentive basis, and put their wallets where their mouths are. 

Entrepreneurs need to challenge marketing people more to get “more bang for the buck” and –by the same token — be willing to reward generously for performance. A marketing success that produces $1 million in new sales should be well worth a $250,000 or $300,000 fee because you end up with the balance — money you never had before! 

Bottom line: Get streamlined. Get simple. Look under new leaves. Push for impact and relationships instead of deals. Yeah, I know about car dealerships; but they’re in their own world. This post is about reality and your business. It’s about looking to Twitter instead of network TV, postcards instead of elaborate mailers, emails . . .

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

  Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you.

   Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

“For though we slepe

 or wake, or rome, or

 ryde, Ay fleeth the tyme.”

[c 1390 Chaucer Clerk's Tale]

“Time flyeth away

   without delay.”

[1639 J. Clarke Parœmiologia Anglo-Latina]

What? You thought today’s generation was the only victim of flying time?

Sure, technology overload has plunked us all into the fast lane, but time –if we are to give the ancient quotes above any credibility– has no reputation for being a gracious host.

If you want more on the subject of “time flies,” click here. 

If you’re interested in what this has to do with your life and business right this very minute, click here.

 

We live in a benefit-hungry world,

with no time to spare.

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

  Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Seeking sales fireworks?

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting. God Bless You.

God Bless America and America’s Troops.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

 Every step you take,

 every word you say,

 every blink you blink

  . . . is marketing.

You’re a professional practice or small business owner or manager. Whether you have 100 employees or work out of your bedroom closet, the words you use (and don’t use) and the ways and places you move (and don’t move) say worlds about where you’re headed and how long it will take you to get there.

Every step you take and word you say, every blink you blink is a form of marketing to someone for something.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to get your rich brother-in-law to loan you his $1,700,000 Bugatti Veyron to drive your best customer to dinner at the club, or whether you want to motivate your new assistant, or get approval to cash in a free WAWA coffee coupon that expired yesterday, you are constantly engaged in marketing.

Your business plan and loan applications are marketing documents. When you hire a consultant, you have to impress on that person or group (oh, sorry, “team”) that you and your business are worthy of her/his/their exertions on your behalf. You slide a little salesy language into explaining what your business is all about.

The thing is that most hard-nosed, competitive, aggressive business people know all this and make no bones about practicing proactive, assertive language and posturing at every turn in the road. But those who often have the most to offer in terms of creativity and innovation will typically get themselves caught up in the process, not the selling.

We can’t turn timid creative genius personalities into super sales pros overnight (and probably shouldn’t try or even want to), but we can help raise these folks up a notch by pointing out that five criteria are part of every successful marketing effort . .  and that EVERYthing is marketing SOMEthing! Your steps, words, and blinks must:

1. Attract Attention

2. Create Interest

3. Stimulate Desire

4. Prompt Action

5. Deliver Satisfaction

All five of these must be present in every form and function of marketing to bring about ongoing and long-term success. Look around you. The extent to which these five criteria are effective determines how effectively your message is being delivered to your target markets.

Look for the five in print advertisements and broadcast commercials; billboards and other outdoor advertising vehicle messages; print and video promotions and displays; online presence (websites, social media sites, etc.); sales presentations (in-person, seminars, webinars, teleconferences; trade and professional shows); public relations programs (events, news releases, etc); packaging and labeling; merchandising; even pricing can all be measured for effectiveness when they succeed at making these ten words work . . . even in your “elevator speech.” 

Remember you are being:

watched; heard and overheard; listened to (there IS a difference!); read about; sized-up; checked out; assessed; evaluated; figured out; thought about; tested; weighed; raked over; admired; followed; respected; loved; praised; scourged; mocked; appreciated; and bought

– all day, every day, even as you sleep!

The same way that you buy or don’t buy others, they buy or don’t buy you. Your best insurance for achieving success is to make the sale. Your best way to make the sale is to accept that it is what it is, and that you need to be forever on the alert to opportunities.

Opportunities are created by marketing that attracts attention, creates interest, stimulates desire, prompts action, and delivers satisfaction.

Drive your imagination forward with reality. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Twitter opportunities

bail small business out

 of still sinking economy!

Opinion, after creating thousands of small business marketing and management programs, and many life observations:

Since the debut of television, no other media vehicle has had such positive and pronounced impact for small business as Twitter. LinkedIn is a distant second and Facebook doesn’t even make it to the table.

________________

A little background . . .

• In case you haven’t noticed: since 2008, there’s been relentless government pursuit of globalization at the expense of business, marked by the near strangulation of entrepreneurial ventures and accompanying choke-hold on free market competition.

• In flagrant disregard for America’s economy, America’s employment opportunities, America’s military, America’s healthcare, and America’s self-esteem, spread-the-wealth idealogy has trampled the nation’s economic heart and soul beneath its runaway tank treads.

• America’s 30 million small business enterprises –the proven source of over 90% of all new jobs– have been chewed up and spit out while bungling corporate giants and their muscle-brained unions have been handed tax-dollar bailouts that have accomplished nothing.

________________

So where does Twitter come in and what’s “rightbackatcha!” all about? Twitter, first of all, is a powerful outbound social media entity. Among many applications, it allows for small businesses to broadcast availability of products and services out to the world at no cost. In today’s economy, this access is a Godsend.

More and more small businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities Twitter provides, and are discovering that INTERNET globalization opens new revenue stream pathways unimaginable just 5 or 6 years ago. Business today comes from many surprise sources . . .

A local plumber gets a service call from Betty whose cousin lives 2,000 miles away but cut and pasted his clever Twitter quote into an email to Betty because it mentioned the town Betty lives in. Betty figured that was better than the Yellow Pages. Voila!

LinkedIn, FYI, is a much more sedate, more corporate medium. It lacks both the flair and immediacy of Twitter.  

Facebook? Forget about it! For business, Facebook doesn’t cut it! Let it help you keep your Friends and family together and communicating, but don’t expect it to make sales for your business.

If you run a small business and you have a website, why do you need to find people to drive to your Facebook page to try to get them to visit your website? It won’t happen. The process is too big a run-a-around. Visiters bail out. Why waste time and money and energy?

Send people direct to your website! Facebook also demands constant monitoring to police inappropriate posts that you don’t want associated with your business.

So, now you’re on Twitter, but it’s not working? That’s only because YOU’RE not working.

If you “work” Twitter, you are careful not to flood it with repetitive sales-pitch messages, and you have fun with it by being social. Yes, that’s what makes it part of “social” media.

In other words, someone mentions or thanks or repeats (RTs) your comment (“Tweet”)? Reply with a thank you!

Say: “rightbackatcha!” or express some form of appreciation. Even a “TY” will do.

But don’t disregard others for the sake of ramming home your sales message. Your “Followers” will drop like flies.

About “Followers,” incidentally, if you’re not selling something that EVERYone needs (rubberbands, toothbrushes, water), you don’t need 36 trillion Followers; you need Followers who share your interests or who fit your market target. Be selective.

If you’re going to “play the numbers” and amass as many as possible, be prepared for the fallout. You will inevitably attract weirdos who will waste your time and energy.

So, someone tells you you’re great or that they like your quote or the title of the song you mention or the product or service you represent, tell ‘em “rightbackatcha!” or say Thanks (or THX). But you ignore sociability at your peril.    

Drive your imagination forward with reality. 

Open minds open doors.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Think you have

a busy business

 and lead a busy life?

Think about this quote

…and this 60-second bullet list!

Pretty scary stuff to be banging around your brain, eh? It’s no wonder you get yourself stressed out. Just think about the information overload comment and what’s happening in every passing 60 seconds worth of cyberspace. I mean,  any entrepreneur in her or his right mind could easily almost die or justify opting in to becoming an ostrich. 

But, no. Here you stand, taking it on the chin (and in the wallet)! You are in it, and you’re going to make it work for you because you are not a quitter, because you’ve got guts and gumption, because you believe in your ideas. What’s missing? Sometimes you teeter on the edge of not believing in your SELF. Sometimes you need a re-charge.

Well, step right up, business and professional practice owners and managers and operators and partners and investors! I know you think you’ve got a “killer” business, so I’ll tell ya what I’m gonna do: I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. Are you ready?

Here’s the deal: You stop reading newspapers and news magazines and newsletters . . . stop watching and listening to news reports and programs . . . take more deep breaths than ever before . . . think more about your family than you normally do and say a few more prayers than you’re used to . . . for 21 days!

If you fail to make something of really major importance happen for you and/or your business in that amount of time –21 days, but you must follow the news abstinence path outlined– I will devote a full blog post to promoting your business interests for free plus provide you –also free– with a professional news release you can use.

I’ll even throw in step-by-step personalized professional guidance on how to make it work . . . Over $2500 worth of professional services for FREE if you fail to succeed with the approach outlined above. No strings attached. No gimmicks. I will not try to sell you on anything else, or on any extension of services.

This is a straight ahead offer.

If you are successful, you get –free– a full 45-minute customized and personalized telephone consultation on how to make more effective and more economical use of your planned and existing marketing efforts. No strings attached. No gimmicks. I will not try to sell you on anything else, or on any extension of services.

This is a straight ahead offer. 

Deadline: You have until July 29th to stake your claim. I will expect a dated, detailed report of the steps you take and the results you produced or failed to produce. You can contact me by email or phone message anytime, and I will respond promptly.

You have nothing to lose except news

(and that never changes anyhow).

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

No-cost/low-cost marketing

doesn’t happen overnight!

When you commit to spending minimal or no dollars to get your marketing message out to your target market, don’t expect miracles. Be realistic enough to recognize that a great many factors can impact your effectiveness. 

Whatever you do must be well done. If it’s news releases, you need to distribute a series of at least 5 or 6 different ones, 10-20 days apart, to a reliable list of media contacts, whose names and titles are double-check spelled correctly . . . and who are treated with utmost respect and gratitude for consideration.

Remember you are asking these people to give you free publicity. They decide if you get it or not, if your words are worthy, if they like the way you ask, if they are in a receptive mood, or if they will require you to buy advertising time or space first.

Your releases must be:

• NEWSWORTHY – Use “enlightened” self-interest, not just self-interest!

• GRAMMATICALLY FLAWLESS – Use Spellcheck. Use AP and UPI “Style” books, and Strunk and White’s Elements of Style

• 1.5 PAGES MAX, AND 1.5 – 2 LINES PARAGRAPH SPACING

• 3-4-LINE PARAGRAPHS

• ACCOMPANIED BY:

  • Your contact info
  • Interesting, captioned photos whenever possible
  • Short, personalized-as-possible cover notes that point out why each release will have interest to the recipient’s reader or broadcast audiences

If you’re using social media and/or emails (and you should be on both counts, if for no other reason than to support and promote the use of releases), think before you “Send.”

Always include a shortened link to your site. Be social. A steady stream of sales pitches, day after day numbs Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn subscriber brains into Delete Mode.

As with your news release headline, make sure your message attracts attention without being alarmist or overstepping acceptable boundaries of good taste.

Be smart enough to realize that the economical course of action you choose for your marketing simply does not offer the same accelerated pace of providing and paying for an advertisement and getting immediate exposure.

“Free” takes time!

Expect — even when everything and every person involved in the process falls neatly into place — it’s going to take you longer than you want it to, to make things happen.

A news release that finds its way to a receptive editor may get tossed at the last minute because a major news event breaks. Coverage of that takes priority because it sells newspapers, magazines and broadcast aduiences.

That’s what sells advertising time and space and that’s what pays salaries.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!