[Adapted from the "Curses, foiled again!" expression originated by the classic "ROCKY & BULLWINKLE" cartoon show...and with apologies to and acknowledgment of: the Northwest Minneapolis, MN, and Dartmouth, MA, hair salons of the same "Foiled Again" namesakes, also foiledagain.biz stationery and foiledagain.net custom foil stamping, and the "Foiled Again" CD and song and group, the Facebook page, and the Derby, England, "Foiled Again" Fencing Club. Ain't Bing wonderful?]  

With so many contemptuous disingenuous manipulative self-serving business souls running around out there, your odds as business owner of being “taken” by someone, escalate –it seems to me– in proportion to the growth of your reputation for integrity.

I’m referring to the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” types, the kinds of prospective partners and clients or customers who are masters of deception. They are disarming; they pick up on and exploit your enthusiasm; their false commitments seem credible.

Beware Falsified Authenticity!

The motto, slogan, branding line, t-shirt, bumper sticker that best represents the behaviors of these business impostors roaming the planet –and liberally practicing falsified authenticity– might be best expressed in three words:  Promises Not Kept.

Every business owner and entrepreneur has run across people in this category who inevitably cost them large amounts of “learned my lesson” time and money. Some may simply swindle you out of advances, commissions, or expense money. Some may actually be bold enough to bilk you and then take you to court, even blackmail you.

The business world is not just one big happy place!

Sadly, the business world is not just one big happy place filled with genuine people walking high moral ground who are anxious to help everyone in their path take a giant step closer to nirvana.

That’s not to suggest that utopia is impossible to reach; it’s simply an unlikely business destination for many.

It’s also not to suggest that most business leaders aren’t authentic; I believe they are! Or that they don’t practice goal-setting aimed at making the world a better place, I believe most do!

It’s the “one rotten apple” theory that every business owner and manager needs to be constantly and forever on the alert to avoid, because the associated risks of dissing the possibilities can bring down any business literally overnight.

Here’s the least you can do when you feel the least bit uneasy about someone who works him or herself into a position of significant influence and/or compensation (e.g., hiring or promoting someone to a key position, retaining an outside consultant or creative service or professional advisor, considering an investment or operations or financial or marketing partner, etc.):

• Do due diligence. Don’t stop with routine questions or reference calls. Ask references for references and talk with them (“Who else in your organization might I speak with who worked with this person when she was there?” is often a productive and revealing route to take).

• Be suspicious of offers that seem unbusinesslike, until proven otherwise.

• Have a meal together. Ask. Listen. Observe. Note the ways an individual deals with others (e.g., foodservice personnel? people at the next table?). Arrange to be interrupted and see how on-track the person stays, how agitated he responds (or reacts?) to the interruption.

Worried about these kinds of steps seeming too tricky? Worry instead about misreading someone because you put blinders over your good intentions. We’re talking here about the destructive minority who manage to infiltrate almost every business at some point.

They are people who are typically skilled communicators, who can be good at deception — even eye contact, handshakes, mental hand-holding and back-pats.

If you choose to let them set you up be a pawn (fill in the blank) . . . 

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Combative Couples,

Peeved Partners  and

Belligerent Boards

Constant arguing, bitter and mean-spirited discussions, “business infidelity,” resentment, continuous bickering and back-biting, breaking trust and undermining confidences, changing changes.

. . . I want out and it’s time to go!

Or, as the renown Scottish farmer/poet Robert Burns’ prophesied in 1786 with his “Ode To A Wee Mouse” in what may be the world’s most quoted and paraphrased bits of advice: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” (often go awry, or wrong)   

                                                        

How can you continue with the financial problems? The Mission and Vision disagreements? Operational differences? Business expansion and “parenting” plans vs. consolidation?

Do your business and business relationships look increasingly fragile? Are partners distancing themselves? Does collapse seem imminent?

Divorce between married couples is now in the mainstream of American life, and unfortunately serves to set the table for acceptance at a business level. What else is a business partnership besides a marriage? And family business upheavals can be the worst of all because they frequently involve or contaminate marriage relationships that are the very underpinning of a business structure.   

And those who are caught in the middle typically suffer the most. In a couple marriage relationship, it’s the children. In a business partnership it’s the partner families, employees, employee families, investors, suppliers and vendors and last, but not least, the customers! Nor does the damage line always stop there. In many instances, a neighborhood, community, town, region, industry or profession can also be negatively affected.

Ways to patch things up:

Start with giving the other person or people involved the benefit of doubt. You got into this relationship because something was extremely positive. By re-focusing on whatever that was, you may find that existing differences can be easily reconciled. Isn’t it worth a try? Don’t you have a lot invested in each other? Wouldn’t it be easier to move the business forward if differences could be worked out than to simply part ways and have to start all over again?    

So here’s the plan:                             

• If you can get past that first step of thinking, sit down and write out on paper with a pen, a statement of agreement to seek to resolve differences. Each principal involved in the dissension climate must be willing to do this.
• Exchange copies of these statements without commenting or responding.
• Plan a follow-up Q&A clarification discussion the next day (no rebuttals permitted) to review one another’s comments.
• Plan an open discussion of the Q&A clarification discussion a week or so later.                                    
• Next, and again something all involved must be willing to do: write out one sentence on paper that identifies exactly what you identify as the most critical problem.
• Then each needs to write out clear specific improvements desired in the form of a goal statement that is specific, flexible, realistic, and has a due date. 

Or get professional counseling:

An “outside” consultant who is experienced and skilled in both business management and human relations can help each individual involved put her/his differences in writing, channel productive exchanges, and foster committed attitudes aimed toward working through the differences.

A professional can help set up a recovery path with a schedule for renewable  efforts, and a contingency exit plan that can serve to strike a balance and encourage renewed efforts to make things work. Many leadership training-based organizations can provide assistance in identifying and retaining qualified coach/counselors.

This is always a better solution-approach than slamming the door and walking out! And it just might work! 

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

reach out and grab? 

Do they win meaningless awards?

Or do they just lurk quietly in the

shadows, sucking their thumbs?

Time and again , the slick-talking, 3-piece-suit, hot-shot marketing and ad agency “experts” came swooping and swaggering down into small town America from big city America, and stuck it to star-struck, bedazzled small business owners who learned the hard way that all that’s written doesn’t sell!”

                                                                    

Do your business sales messages sell? Have you been blaming the economy, the competition, the weather and your spouse for lousy words that simply don’t cut it?

Do the words and images your business uses to sell your products and services reach out and grab your ideal prospects and turn them into loyal customers? Or do they stand timidly in the shadows of your business entrance, with their thumbs stuck in their mouths, muttering quietly to themselves about how great your company is?

If your words aren’t getting the job done, you have a copywriting catastrophe, and you are paying dearly for it!

If the words you are using to market, promote, publicize and advertise your business are not attracting attention, creating interest, stimulating desire, prompting action, and promoting satisfaction, you have a copywriting catastrophe. And you are paying dearly for it with more money, time, and effort than your business can afford.

First, you have to ask yourself if the person or entity who’s creating and producing your business messages has the right kind of skill, experience, and attitude to put you front and center on the competitive stage you most want to dominate — your neighborhood, your community, your state, region, industry, profession, nation, planet, or cyberspace.

Next, you need to outline or bulletpoint your goal issues. Be specific, flexible, realistic, and have a deadline.

Then go shopping. But battle-hardened advice would suggest that you avoid flashy Las Vegas-style or upscale “boutique” organizations that ooze out of high rent districts in favor of down-home, in-the-trenches wordsmiths with lots of business background (but not necessarily in your specific industry or business specialty), lots of diverse success stories, and a clear positive attitude.

You want a person or team that is more interested in making sales for you than in winning awards for her/him/themselves. You want a person or team that sees the long-term promise of a relationship with your business and is willing to put a meaningful chunk of fee compensation on a performance incentive basis. A bonus for demonstrated results puts a fire under most butts.

Great copywriting will do more than win sales. It can ignite innovative thinking and create revenue streams. It can reassure existing customers while bringing new ones to your door. It can motivate employees and suppliers alike. The right words can renew. revitalize and pump up entrepreneurial spirits. But, sorry, they can’t make your coffee for you. Cream and sugar?

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Line in the Sand~~~

Are you really sure you understand your target market?

Are you still selling what you’ve always sold the same ways you’ve always sold? Are you using the same best sets of words in the same tone of voice? Still giving the same premiums and discounts and “special” offers, the same warranties and reassurances? Still emphasizing the same benefits and features?

If your answer to any of these questions is leaning even just a little bit toward yes, odds are you have either gotten lazy, have not been keeping up with the times, have not been sizing up your target market the right way, or you’ve been spending too much time in Disneyland.

Let’s eliminate the first and last choices and assume you are being conscientious, but have maybe lost touch with some of what’s going on in your customer (buyer) and consumer (user) markets (which of course are sometimes one in the same and sometimes different). Consider this:

They seemingly cannot

                                       

function for more than

                                    

a  couple of minutes

                                 

without looking to see

                                  

if they are receiving a

                                      

text message.”

                       — Fred Hertrich, Professor of political science, Middlesex (NJ) County College,   describing one of the prevailing winds in today’s college student population – to underscore: 1) the frustration of many teachers trying to deal with rooms full of distracted people and 2) the necessity of today’s faculties to communicate with students electronically.  

(East Brunswick, NJ, Home News Tribune, 8/21/10)

Has the prospective customer or consumer you seek most to influence crossed the line of electronic literacy? “But,” you say. “I’m not selling electronics!” Perhaps, but you are selling to people who are either electronics-literate or not.

Computer savviness is no longer the guide (unless you’re selling to nursing home residents) because everyone knows something about computers. The place where the line is drawn in the sand is:

THE TXTMSG LINE

Most older-than-45 people can and do use cell phones, check websites, visit blogs, send emails, search Bing and Google, and purchase online. Most know how to use WORD and many use Twitter and Facebook. But very few of these folks text message because they grew up in a different world.

Older Americans learned that “correct” and “proper” communication depends on neat handwriting and that spelling, punctuation, and grammar are paramount ingredients. Lax email messaging is about as far as these folks will comfortably stray. Texting is to them like “Emails Gone Wild!” and too “teeny-bopper” cult-like to be able to relate to.

Well, that may not mean anything to you, unless you’re targeting 20-somethings or 60-somethings, who clearly will not respond positively to the same old kinds of messages delivered in the same old ways. It’s not a bad idea to periodically step back and reassess what you’re saying to whom, and how you’re saying it.

Think of it as a

GR8 NU WAY 2 C HOW UR MAKIN UR PT.

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

#1.  It has been proven conclusively and repeatedly that job creation is the only pathway to economic recovery, growth and stability.

•  Federal statistics released this week demonstrate that U.S. jobless rates continue to rise. The value of the dollar continues to fall.
•  None of this matters to you? If you run a small business, it should. And what follows may matter even more to you.

 #2.  America’s entrepreneurs constitute this nation’s “agent of change” talent pool. Entrepreneurial ventures now account for over 30 million small businesses in the U.S.

 #3.  The overwhelming majority of new jobs in the U.S. is — and has always been — created by small business.

 #4.  The federal government – with no business experience at any level — has been giving staggering amounts of cash handouts to big business, which creates virtually no new jobs.

 #5.  Federal civil servants (which is a nice way of saying “people who haven’t an ounce of entrepreneurial spirit or savvy, and probably haven’t a single innovative hair on their bodies”) received an average pay and benefits in 2009 [according to a USA TODAY analysis reported today] of $123,049. The average private sector worker earned $61,051 total.

Where’s the incentive?

Misplaced of course. And why would you not look to a federal employment career where you can make twice as much money as you could by working for a private business? You’d have to be crazy!

On the other hand, maybe you believe in yourself (not a common characteristic among federal employees . . . except for those who hold elective office).

 Maybe you actually believe in the spirit of America, and don’t care about being disregarded, dismissed and just plain dissed. You think it’s time to take a stand for small business? You either do or you don’t.

If you don’t, you’re clearly in favor of providing bailouts to corporate giants and gargantuan financial support programs for totally useless federal ventures that – like most federal civil servant position compensation plans – simply drain the economy and put nothing back in. Is that what you went into business for?

 Brain surgery certification is not a prerequisite for being able to understand that small business represents America’s only viable economic solution, and that continued reckless spending to underwrite federal and corporate pursuits is not the answer.

 It’s a safe bet that any small business owner could easily and realistically $100 million in totally wasted spending inside of a ten-minute interview. Start with federal employee salaries!

 “The average federal

                                         

salary” [according to

                                

USA TODAY], “has grown

                                 

33 percent faster than

                                      

inflation since 2000 . . .

                                       

and pays an average of 20

                                              

percent more than private

                                 

firms for comparable

                            

occupations.”

Federal workers are overpaid. Period.

 Oh, and what are they overpaid WITH? Tax dollars of course. And how many of those tax dollars come from honest, hard-working, small business entities? Connect the dots.

 Does it frustrate you to have your business growth and job creation opportunities be constantly limited and handcuffed, be over-regulated and over-taxed by politicians who are supposed to be representing you?

 Does it undermine the very existence of your business to have to answer to politicians who are not business-minded, have no sense of business, do nothing to stimulate a competitive environment in the marketplace, and just don’t get it?

 If these situations bother you, there are two important things you can do:

 1) Put your business into overdrive

. . . and develop more innovative and more economical ways to market your products and services, and to attract and reward and appreciate your customers.

 2) Start taking steps on your own behalf

. . . and on behalf of restoring this nation’s economy, by working with others in your industry, profession and community to replace those who spend what you earn on initiatives designed to hold you down, so they can spend even more of what you earn.  

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

  proud of yourself!”

“No, I own a business

and I have a life!”

Self-pride can, and almost always does, get in the way of progress — and even survival!

Self-pride. Now isn’t that like stubbornness? “Stop being so stubborn,” my stubborn mother used to say, “it’s gonna get you in trouble. People care about you as a person and they respect what you’ve accomplished, but no body cares about your honor except you   . . . not even me!”

So, yes, I am the son of a wise mother.

As a management consultant and entrepreneur coach for many years, I’ve seen my share of business and life failures. Research studies always point parental fingers to “being under-capitalized” as symptomatic of poor management and the key reason for business failure.

But rarely does anyone look beyond “poor management” being the ultimate culprit to see what else is lurking in the shadows . . . what else is there to account for business and life failures?

Someone should be looking. Why?

Because at the end of this fraying personal and business lifeline is a very heavy anchor that is best categorized as self-pride. It’s something that happens when you choose to get sidetracked from your business and life pursuits, to deal with some imagined threat to your ego.

You put day-to-day operations off to the side to entangle yourself in a legal suit that you know you’re right about just to gloat in satisfaction at having humiliated an annoying competitor, or to realize a thousand dollars payoff after legal expenses.

How much business is lost in the process of your ego-indulging diversions?

The minute the sidetracking starts, it has a tendency (like An object in motion tends to stay in motion) to snowball itself into an avalanche. And it doesn’t take long (sometimes just minutes!) to get to the point of completely immobilizing growth and survival modes.

In minor role applications, the sidetracking diverts needed attention from goal pursuits, family well-being, and from business and career opportunities and success.

Turning your spotlight inward takes the focus away from where you’re headed, and when it gets dark — you’re bound to trip over or run into some thing. You may or may not get up, or be able to.

In major role applications of this sidetracking, businesses go bankrupt, couples get divorced, children get abandoned, and some people can end up depressed enough to be taking their own lives as their failures become more pronounced.

What to do?

There’s always choice involved. Turn the other cheek! Why not? Is letting go so hard when you consider the consequences of holding on?

When you choose to feel insulted (you’ll know when you feel your face flush or knees wobble or stomach churn or head ache or fists clench), you need choose to stop where you are and stop whatever you’re doing.

Force yourself to take some (at least 3 or 4) really deep breaths, while saying to yourself with each inhale, “Healing energy into my body!” and with each exhale, “Stress and tension out of my body!” Remind yourself again that your behavior is your choice!

You can choose to escalate a situation or simply back away from it because it gets in the way of your success (and presumably because you prefer success to getting sidetracked). Getting (choosing to be) sidetracked is simply an admission that you have chosen for someone else to get inside your brain and control your behavior.

Don’t choose your self-pride over your self!

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

learned from 30+ years 

of sales-winning advertising

I know, accenting the negative isn’t always the best thing, but if you know what NOT to do, it’s a lot easier to figure out what you can and should do. I don’t pretend to know what you can and should do, but I sure can tell you what I’ve found out that doesn’t work (and throw in a few hints about stuff I know that works better!).

Here’s the scoop:

1. Do NOT advertise that you have integrity, or even about what wonderful integrity-inspiring things you or your business have done. When you conduct business at all levels with a high-trust approach and attitude, you will gain or boost a reputation for integrity that speaks for itself!

2. (…and this is really #1): Here is the single most difficult marketing, advertising, sales and PR challenge to face for all businesses everywhere (yes, you did indeed read that right: “all businesses everywhere”)– ready for this? — Do NOT promote how great you are to the rest of the world. Nobody cares. Well, maybe your mother cares, but nobody else does.

3. Do NOT get too cutesy. Readability must come before cleverness in font (lettering) use and treatments (Italics, boldfacing, spacing, underlining, shadowing, using a horseshoe for the letter “U” or crossed swords for “X” or an egg for “O”…etc.). And don’t trust a designer to worry about readability; most have no training or experience in how to design with and around text, especially branding lines.

4. Do NOT emphasize product and service features. Nobody buys features. People buy benefits. Make sure your marketing, advertising, sales, promotion and PR efforts focus on benefits — on answering the question, what’s in it for me?

5. Do NOT buy into fancy dog and pony presentations that stress how the work a creative service provider individual or organization or group or team can do for you will put you head and shoulders above the rest of your industry or profession. Get rid of creative service providers who seem more interested in winning awards for themselves than in making sales for you. Use performance incentives.

6. Do NOT ever accept a media rate that’s printed on a “rate card” or “rate sheet.” Think of it as the asking price for a house just put on the market this morning. Media people who aren’t willing to work with your budget aren’t worth your time and consideration. There are always other ways to market your business.

7. Do NOT try to hand-off advertising/marketing/PR responsibilities to someone who works with you because they articulate well or can write a mean email. And don’t try to do it yourself unless it’s what you specialize in. Remember that there are two success keys involved: writing skill and psychology expertise. Persuading customer and prospect brains is what it’s all about. 

8. Do NOT communicate too little or too much. Ask prospects and customers what they think the right amount of information is. Have someone who’s experienced at it run a focus group for you to get these answers, and to test alternative marketing approaches. 7 target market representatives for an hour works for this purpose. Give each a $20-$25 value reward for their participation.

9. Do NOT “settle” for ads, commercials, websites, landing pages, blogs, brochures, news releases, or social media executions or strategies that don’t feel right! If you don’t feel sure about something, remember it’s your business. Your gut instinct is your best decision maker.   

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

and Tire-Kickers

Do Not Make For Productivity 

FAR beyond the vast sea of incompetency that floats the government boat, and WAY past the time-wasting frivolity of corporate giant muckity-mucks, America’s 30 million small business owners–together with countless millions of managers and sales professionals–live with the day-to-day reality that TIME is money!

Time (yes, it’s worth repeating) is money!

Why the big lead-in? Because time is not money for the politicians who pretend to be running the business of managing the country (unless it’s electiontime!). And because big business CEOs, CFOs, CITs, CMOs, COOs, and all the other Cs out there are preoccupied with how to justify their 9-5 existences, instead of how to make the most of all available time — including nights and weekends! 

Now that that’s settled, lets’ move to those who invest themselves in wasting other people’s time. Retailers are used to them and happily accommodate them because the tire-kickers and window-shoppers will almost certainly return some time to make an actual purchase if their non-purchase trip is a rewarding enough, pleasant experience.

BUT B to B services can die long, slow, painful deaths by dealing for too prolonged a time with this mentality.

In other words, customer service begins at the front door of a retail business and it really doesn’t matter if the individual coming in, is there to ask for driving directions or is going to be walking out  with a $1,000 purchase. “Kill ‘em with kindness and bend-over-backwards service” is the rule.

When you’re selling services to other businesses, however, customer service begins AFTER the sale is made, so the qualifying-of-the-prospect need is to be courteous and expedient. Prospects need to be qualified and then dealt with accordingly. To let someone who sends an email inquiry or who calls in a telephone request for a customized proposal (a particularly common occurrence in consulting) — especially when fees and rates are asked for — jerk you around for an hour or two is a bit masochistic on your part.

People who pull this stunt are usually looking for free . . . free ideas, free outlines, free plans, free approaches, free advice, free services. Many of them will call half a dozen sources and combine responses to set a budget for themselves and use the input for criteria in setting the stage for another competitor to do the job. 

Giving away what you make a living 

 at does not make for productivity

under any circumstances . . . .

except perhaps for charity

— when it’s affordable.

The solution is to quickly qualify prospects to determine the seriousness of their intents by promptly informing them that you will be happy to do as requested the minute you can get an advance of $500 or $1000 to cover your costs, and that that amount will be credited against any work you end up doing for them.  

Your job is to make sure the “inquiring minds that want to know” are serious and committed to doing what they claim to be interested in doing, and that they’re willing to pay for your time to help them figure out how to get started. Without this, you’ll end up with enough ankle bites to drop an elephant (which, in case you never noticed, have really fat ankles!)

And it’s hard for business owners and managers

  and sales pros with bitten ankles to run full speed. 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and Our Troops.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

the brink of  bankruptcy

have only truth to sell! 

Regardless of how you explain it or how you think you got there, businesses that teeter-totter, balanced on the brink of bankruptcy got there through poor management.

Not enough capital, not enough sales, the wrong personnel, the underestimated expenses, the increased cost of raw materials, the lack of bank loan support, weak operational planning, bad press . . . it’s ALL poor management!

But no need to bury your head about that. 

• First: You have company. 9 out of 11 new businesses reportedly fail within the first five years, and a best guess is that probably half that many fail after the first five years.
• Second: Every (Right, “Every”) highly successful venture of the many thousands I am keenly aware of has its success roots traced back to major failure. Forest fires create new and stronger trees.

Not unlike cutting and running on the battlefield or in the sports arena, the choice to fold up the tent is of course always available and, for some, it can gallop into position rather abruptly and become a choice that is no longer a choice.

For many, however, the moment of truth can breed heroics! It has a lot to do with courage, gumption, spunk, resilience, stick-to-it-iveness, passion, and drive.

It also has more to do with common sense and authenticity than most who face the threatening storm typically would care to admit. But facing the consequences with your business on the line — especially where the increasingly common issue of bad press is involved –requires more of one ingredient applied thoroughly and consistently than any other: truth.

Recent bad examples abound on the big business side of the coin with brokerages, mortgage companies, automakers, and scores of big-name corporate product recalls, with the over-exaggerated media hyperbole in oil leak containment effort reports.

Many see the same kinds of mismanaged and basically DIShonest accountings of activities surrounding sinking hospitals, banks, the post office and, sadly, many small business ventures.

There lies deep within these complex business failings a desire to save face at all costs, to cover one’s butt — a desire that is actually stronger than the desire to succeed. 

A sizeable hospital has disavowed it’s attachment to an affiliated and approved and endorsed physician who is alleged to have literally destroyed a community that the hospital has thrived in and nurtured its whole life.

Instead of going to the great lengths and expense and repeated hand-wringing it did to deny a relationship with the person in question (a tragically mentally sick doctor is the only way to describe what the evidence appears to point to), the hospital needed only to:  

• Step up

• Own up

• Tell all

• Admit past screw-ups and negligence

• Ask forgiveness, and

• Act immediately to bring the public to the truth of it.

Resistance to speak the truth in trying circumstances because the consequences are imagined to be humiliating, inevitably ends up making the dynamics and repercussions of the act itself far worse than when it started out.

Toyota’s response to failure was to smother it with marketing dollars. But peoples’ memories can’t be bought off! The hospital referenced will likely fold or be bought out for a monumental financial loss – all because the administration lacks backbone!

When the going gets tough, speak the truth. Sweeping the mess under the carpet only makes cleaning harder.       

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and Our Troops.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

so does Twitter!

     Think of Twitter as one gigantic 24/7 trade or professional show and customer service center up in the sky!

     And start out by just plain dismissing all the “magic secrets” about how to use Twitter to build your business, because there are none.

     Just because social media may be a fairly new avenue for you to be dabbling in for your business, don’t be intimidated by all the crackpots!

     Never a day passes without at least a dozen solicitations attempting to sucker new users into a commitment to get new fans and followers, to learn the magic, the secrets, the steps, the bullets, the actions, the methods, the techniques, the 3 this, or the 7 that.

     If your business works, and you have a respectable reputation, and you know what you’re selling (believe it or not, not everybody does!), then simply use Twitter posts to make provocative, or engaging, or teaser-type billboard/headline-style statements, followed by the website page other Twitterers/Tweeters can click on to learn more.

     But you can’t stop there. . . not any more than you would avoid a courteous greeting up front, or make a sales pitch at a service counter or on a trade show floor, and then not listen to what the prospect or customer has to say, even dumb comments about the weather.

     Be social. This means stepping off your sales pedestal long enough to take notice of what others are posting on Twitter, and to make and post some pleasant response to those you might agree with, and that fit the business image you want to project. Be careful with humor, especially avoid jokes you wouldn’t comfortably share with pre-teens.

     This can include you doing an “RT” (for “Re-Tweet,” same as “repeat”) of other comments and/or quotes you particularly relate to –  no different that a prospect mentioning a name or place or thing or idea that’s on your personal list of favorites, and you commenting back, as you would in any conversation with a friend whose attention you value.

     This is an important ingredient in making Twitter work — being yourself, and pretending you are in a real (instead of virtual) room facing the little (avatar) faces, sharing niceties. If some comment makes you choose to feel angry or upset or overly emotional or cocky or sarcastic or arrogant or pedantic or anything besides pleasant, choose to ignore it and move on to other comments.

     You will not win friends and influence sales by losing your cool or tossing your cookies or acting P.O.’d at some moronic statement.

     People “out there” need to see that you are approachable, easy, and friendly before they’ll pay you any serious attention by deciding to “follow” you (your posts) or to visit the web pages you include with your posts. This is, after all, SOCIAL media first. Those who see and read your comments will allow you the business focus as long as you behave like a good guest at their party. 

     Get yourself hooked up with a free “Tweet Deck” to gain a more useful perspective and to better accommodate your comments. Then take a couple of hours each day for a couple of days (spread out into time chunks is best) to follow the basic flow of people and comments and analyze them as a prospective market.

     Take notes.Pay attention to who’s who:  the rampaging political types, the religious fanatics, the nut cases, the teeny-boppers, the famous quote quoters, the too serious, the too frivolous, the sex-seekers, the weirdos. Get a fix on who you want to visit your webpage and start clicking on their “Follow” buttons. Many will reciprocate and be your followers.

     Decide early on if you want only a selective following or you want to play the numbers and amass big numbers (depends on what you’re selling).

     When you think you see a way to fit . . . fit! Twitter works for those who work at it.  

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and God Bless America’s Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT day for someone!