If you own a small business,

then small business

politics owns you.

You can run but you cannot hide. 

Even if you are a one-man-band or one-woman-band with no internal politics, you have no choice but to deal with external politics.

~~~~~~~~~~

You’re an owner, operator, partner, or manager of an American small business or professional practice. You may own all or a piece of what you do, but the government (and politics) owns all of you!

~~~~~~~~~~

Regardless of all other influences in your life, when you own or run a business of any type or size, you still must face the fact that the massive amount of government controls and regulations alone can ruin more than your favorite breakfast, a good night’s sleep, and even a kaleidoscopic sunset. It can ruin your health and your family. 

Since the government for the most part dictates what you can and cannot do; what you must pay for goods, services, and taxes, and when; who you can and cannot do business with and hire or fire; how you must treat and insure those you hire and how you must treat and pay off those you fire

. . . since it dictates what kinds of tools and equipment and forms and suppliers and shippers and transportation you must use . . . even how you state your business to others . . . and since government is born of politics, while somehow managing to also be its inseparable twin . . . There IS a breaking point.

It’s a never-healing small business stress fracture!

And now, clearly on track toward a Marxist dictatorship by way of the nonstop and sorely misguided Obama Socialism freight train, America’s small business community has reached that breaking point. 

First off, there are 30 million small businesses in the U.S. Don’t believe the White House; they are patently and intentionally wrong; home-based businesses are conveniently ignored. The government doesn’t consider home-based businesses as worthy enough enterprises to allow them to be included under useless SBA jurisdiction.

You run an online business out of your closet, a jewelry-making business out of your garage, a cookie business out of your kitchen, or a grass-cutting business from your truck . . . you don’t count! The government only wants your tax dollars. Beyond that, you don’t exist! So, back to the beginning: there are 30 million of us!

If you are anything like the vast majority of small business owners and operators, home-based or otherwise, you clearly have a goal to make a difference with your life and your enterprise . . . for your self, your family, your community and hopefully –by the ways that you do what you do– for our nation as well.

That means taking some minutes out of your hectic schedule. It means putting down your tools, equipment, keyboards, dishtowel and whatever else you make a living with, for just long enough to take that step you dread into the sleazy world of politics. It’s time to do your part — show and inspire others to leadership. 

It means taking just long enough to visit or write a couple of letters or emails to politicians about why you think small business matters. Take just enough time to support those who support your ideas about why small business matters. Why? Because small business does matter. And because it matters that we all step up.

Imagine the impact: 

30,000,000

visits and letters and emails calling attention to the economic recovery role of small business and why government must invest in small business –not with more wasted cash handouts– with tax incentives for innovation and tax incentives for job creation.

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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! 

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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  Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you.

   Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

How much “mental litter”

is cluttering up your brain,

. . .  your business?

Overwhelmed with what my wife calls “Crapola”? (She’s a super organizer; I’m not.) Are you ready for the Litter Patrol? Do you need to schedule a Department of Corrections van full of orange or blue or yellow-suited guys with plastic bags and spiked sticks to descend on your workspace? Crawl inside your brain?

 Okay, well maybe you could do without spiked sticks in your brain, but odds are pretty good that if you’re a small business or professional practice owner or partner or manager, you’re an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are born of creative ideas and innovative pursuits. That usually translates into a trashy, cluttered workspace.

1. When did you last check your computers? Virus scan? Defragment? Clean out email files? Clean out Word files? Reorganize your record-keeping? Update your username and password list? Trash Bin everything that’s long over with and has no future app or reference value (especially pre-Bing and pre-Google historical data).

2. Kill the paperwork! Are you holding on to 10 or 20 years worth of tax records, owner manuals, documentation for old business plans, no-longer-relevant presentation materials? If these kinds of paper files (or cartons of) no longer have any real value for you, they have confusion value. Kill ‘em! If some or chunks of some have value, just save those.

3. When did you last see the surface of your desk? No need to clear it off, but if you can’t organize it better (and keep it organized), you’re wasting time and energy and money. Entrepreneurs can’t afford to waste any of these, ever! Seeking negative attention? There couldn’t be a more feeble excuse. 

Is your workspace starting to look like one of those TV hoarder shows? Piles of magazines and newspapers you can’t get to? Toss ‘em. The news will be the same in the next issue. You won’t miss a thing; I promise! The fewer old letters, thank you notes, sticky note reminders, children’s drawings of your dog on Santa’s lap, the better.

Photos, awards, small treasures? No problem. But all the other “crapola” (I’m starting to like that word), the more distracted becomes your brain, the more disorganized become your thoughts, the more convoluted becomes your business.

It’s hard to think OR act when you’re up to your knees (ears?) in trash. And you DO need to think AND act!

So, is this all about “letting go“? No. That’s 50%. What’s the rest? Keeping what you’ve let go of, gone! Making sure you stay on top of this physical, mental, and emotional litter problem. It does no good to make a token effort. Token efforts serve no purpose. Choose to clear your pathways and enhance your options.

Drive your imagination forward with reality. 

Open minds open doors.  

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“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! 

Stop worrying, creative-types…

You’re not going

the wrong way

. . . you simply have a unique perspective! 

You’re an artist, writer, sculptor, musician, photographer, performer, designer, craftsperson, stylist, architect, landscaper, sign-maker, entrepreneur . . . and people call you “Weirdo”

__________________________

You laugh it off . . . but, somewhere deep inside, you worry that maybe you are weird. (I’ve been there; I know.)

After all, you hardly fit those corporate suit meetings or the trappings of that threatening vast jungle of government incompetency. And you do indeed march to a different drum. You’re really not anti-social or inherently contentious. You simply are what you are. Period.

So much of what you do requires isolation, keeping “strange” hours, eating only when you’re starving from whatever the closest container may hold, not watching TV, forgetting birthdays and anniversaries, periodically forgetting to wash or brush your teeth or fasten your seat belt, or even to use the bathroom until it’s almost too late. 

Many creative businesspeople fill in the blanks with Twitter. It’s a good social outlet, and a decent sales tool for those who work at it.

There’s little point in trying to explain to others what makes you “counterclockwise”

– that you’re really not going the opposite direction of society, and clocks.

You are just standing behind the clock, reflecting what’s in front of it. You’re simply thinking and functioning from a different perspective.

HA! Sort of like a dyslexic visionary? ;<) But hey, whatever works, works.

                                                            

If you can see the same thing differently from the ways others see it, you have a special God-given talent worthy of nurturing and training and developing. In other words, make the most of what you have and stop thinking (worrying about) what others who lack those skills might say or think about you. Rise above it!

Accept that you are extraordinary.

Easier said than done, you may say? Then reach into one of those deep dark corners of self-expression and remind yourself that it’s a choice. Everything you do and say and create is a conscious or unconscious choice. HOW you create and innovate (following a creative idea all the way through to completion) is a spiritual process.

That HOW part –your ability to capture, control, and exercise your spiritual process– is the difference between you and your white shirt and tie brother-in-law or athletic “jock” sister or your federal/ county/ town agency employee neighbor. The HOW process is what comes from your heart and soul. It is what primes the process pump.

You need always to be focused in the present, here-and-now moment as you perform for it only takes one slip of the knife, the brush, the camera, the tongue, to deliver catastrophe to your heart and soul. Here’s the best way to do that: Deep Breathing. (It keeps you in touch with your self, and each passing moment as it passes!)

When you DO come out of your artsy little closet to rub a few elbows, practice asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. Every question you ask and every answer you get holds out the promise of spectacular creative thought because it’s coming from outside of you but is something you ignite.

Rely forever on yourself and your instincts.

You are more often right about a creative decision than you give yourself credit for. When it comes to business, if that’s a problem, study up on it. It’s not as complicated as you may think. Like finding a doctor who’s skills and experience match the ailment, find professional services with creative management experience.

Or, when you get to the point of possibility, hire or commission someone with good business sense and/or good organizational skills and a sense of finances — someone you trust who can take it all away from you. But be careful to not use the occasion of such new found freedom to slack off or get careless. It’s an opportunity to grow!

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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 wonder we feel like

drops in the bucket

with all this

trickle-down spending!

I mean where do we business owner types get our ideas? Sometimes from bits and pieces of what others say and do, and sometimes from opportunities that emerge or smack us in the mouth when we’re not looking. The steady bombardment of media drivel and twisted reports of government greatness can make us stop in our tracks.

We start to think, hey, maybe things aren’t so bad after all. Maybe gas prices will stand still and small business tax incentives for job creation and innovation will actually start to move forward. Maybe there’s more spending power in my bank account than I thought. Maybe tomorrow it will start raining ducks! Maybe I should have hope.

Hope. Yeah, well, that doesn’t accomplish anything. So let’s go back to the trickling action and see what we can learn

From the White House to the State House to the County Seat to the Town Hall, look and learn from all the mindless trickle-down spending muscle-flexing.

I’ve seen people in my town climbing through dumpsters for food scraps, and the mayor and council decide to spend a thousand bucks to buy a town logo and open a mega-million-dollar floodgate of “revitalization.”

Hey, why not? The White House thinks it needs to buy votes so it prints a few million and sends it to the States. The State people think it’s a great thing and that the counties will love them for passing along some of the dough to “green up” the place. The county guys want the poverty-stricken town’s votes, so the town gets a thousand bucks.

The money is spent on a new logo for the town. Next, of course, will be “beautification teams” and landscapers and architects and engineers and street widening and off-street parking and bigger more complicated infrastructure — more fire, police, EMTs, water, electric, sewerage.

But, hey, why not? Easy come, easy go. Spend it now.

Brick walks and old-fashioned looking gaslight fixtures? Go for it. Have fun! After all, you can’t take it with you. Besides, it will spruce up the boarded-up places with broken windows. And why be selfish. Think of your grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Plan ahead for future generations. Spend. So what if the revitalization isn’t needed. Do it anyway. It’ll create jobs, and we need jobs. What does it matter that nobody much cares about beautifying the town except two struggling over-priced restaurants. No one can afford the gas to drive through here anyway.

Oh, and take a guess where that revitalization money will come from. 

There you go. Consider yourself trickled down to! How does that feel? Seems like you need deep pockets and no sense of reality to be successful in politics. Just slap backs, pass out money, and make everything green. “I’ve always wanted a logo” the mayor explained as he railroaded the town council vote through.

Well, who knows? Maybe that’s the kind of thinking we need. A new $1,000 logo for a town where food scavenging and foreclosures and unemployment are almost more the rule than the exception. 

And are you as lucky as we are? I mean we’ve already got mandatory recycling services that we’re forced to pay for even if we want to do our own recycle sorting and transporting. I am NOT badmouthing recycling. I simply want the choice to do my own.

Don’t you just love mandatory stuff?

Well, that should certainly wrap up all the country’s economical and terrorist and natural disaster and devaluation and plummeting national image in one neat tidy package. Isn’t it just exactly the way you would deal with these kinds of problems in your own business?

No?

Oh, right, you know better than to tax and spend

and ignore others’ needs.

Hmmmm. How come you know all that

and our great leadership hasn’t a clue?

Think about it. You have ’til November 6, 2012. Nineteen months to get UNtrickled. Y’think? Well, there ARE 30 million small business owners being trickled on

 . . . as you read this.

Thought for the day: Strength in numbers!

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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!

Is speculation

feeding your doubts? 

 ( With appreciation to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell for popularizing the Ashford and Simpson lyrics in their 1968 hit song, “Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing.” It is used in this post title because it fits the message below and because it was likely to attract more visitors than the headline, “Is speculation feeding your doubts?”) 

You’re an entrepreneur of some sort. You own or manage a professional practice or small business that you started or bought or inherited. You’re pretty sharp about most things, and probably more innovative than the majority of businesspeople. Way more than corporate and government types. Not even an issue.

Management, though, and maybe the finer points of leadership, have never found that comfort zone among your greatest strengths. So perhaps you tend to rely on others for those skills? 

If others are providing the majority of practical, shirt-sleeves back-up support your venture needs in order to allow you the time to pursue sales and financing and creative idea development, you may be putting too much risk into your business.

Even if they’re half wrong, government reports claim 9 of 11 new businesses fail in the first 3 years because of poor management, and that even with good management, that it takes 5 years on average just to break even. You may want to re-read that and digest it before you respond with: 

“Hey, whatever works!” 

Why? Because your reality might speak otherwise. 

It’s your business. When you have doubts about operational or staffing issues, get out from behind your desk or dashboard or computer screen or BlackBerry, or office or garage or kitchen door (or wherever you camp out every day) and check it out yourself. In person. Regardless of when or where. Go to it! Speculation breeds screw-ups!

When you depend on other people’s reports –no matter how loyal or trustworthy they may be– remember that they don’t have your perspective or your personal business interests at stake. It’s not a matter of trust. It’s simply not their business. They do not see things with your sense of vision. Go to the trouble spot.

This is not a suggestion for you to become a firefighter, solving everyones’ problems.

It is a recommendation to take increased responsibility for operational and staffing issues that can impact your bottom line. Others, for example, may have great intentions, but intentions never led anyone to accomplishment or success. Only action does that!

If, for instance, you have reason to believe that your customers or clients or patients are not being handled properly on the phone or by email, become a customer/client/patient and see what you get back. Be your own “mystery shopper.” You can be a detective without acting like one. Ask questions. Take notes. Check resources.

You don’t need to flash your badge, wear a trenchcoat or yell “Aha!” every time you find a clue.

Instead of telling, lecturing, scolding, threatening, or intimidating someone you find is getting it wrong, consider showing her or him by example how you would get the job done. Remember how you once learned something you’re fond of? Remember that your people are your most important asset!

Leave the how they do it part up to them – as long as the task and/or attitude is accomplished on time without compromising quality or results. Food for thought: Everything need not be done your way!  

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“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!

Before you throw all your

  tech stuff on the BBQ . . .

Recognize, first and foremost, that your greatest assets are your people. If you’re a one-man-band, maybe “your people” are a loving spouse, partner, children or parents who assist you, or a reliable friend or two who consistently refer(s) others to you . . . or a hotbed of talented interns.

If you’re the owner of a small to medium-size business, perhaps “your people” are account or department or office or branch managers.

The point is that I am NOT suggesting you run around torching these folks, or even giving any of them a baseball-dugout-style “hotfoot.”  I AM suggesting that you ask yourself (and answer) the following questions:

Can you readily identify and easily separate your internal and external customers?

What percentage of each day are you actively marketing to each group?

In other words:

• How much and how often are you (externally) marketing your people?

• How much and how often are you (internally) marketing TO your people?

• How much and how often are you (internally AND externally) marketing THROUGH your people?

Do you think the meaning of Customer Service is to have a Customer Service person or department?

• If each and every one of your internal customers know how to relate to and respond to external customers, why would you have to pay someone or a group to perform this function?

• Ideally, anyone in your organization whom I might reach by phone or meet in-person should be able to handle my customer service needs.

Your marketing people or your own marketing sense tell(s) you how to motivate external customers. You surely have a strong idea of what sells and what doesn’t sell them on your product(s) and/or service(s). Do you have a sense of confidence about the best ways to motivate internal customers?

Do you apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

If you try (or have tried to) apply Maslow’s Hierarchy, are you (or have you) doing (done) it from a position of strength — by first being a detective to understand individual “hot spots”? Has this approach helped you to realize that the best internal customer rewards are not (in spite of all popular beliefs) not always cash, raises, and bonuses?

As a leader who is heavily invested in growing the loyalty, respect, and receptivity of both internal and external customers, are you making a conscious effort to breed entrepreneurial thinking accompanied by reasonable risk-taking behaviors? Or are you breeding investment in the status quo?

Are you fostering and nurturing innovation. Do your people come to you with just ideas, or do they fully exploit the ideas they propose with well thought out paths for implementation that include all possible operational, financial and marketing applications? Do you get a thorough and complete picture instead of just a quick sketch? 

Having great people behind you is great for your ego. Having great people behind you who are inspired and highly motivated, who deliver comprehensive plans of attack, is great for your business.

Which is more important? 

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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!

IN LEADERSHIP, SALES, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP . . .

It’s NOT Consciousness

vs. Unconsciousness

It’s how you make them

work together!

I just received an email from Dr. Royston Flude in Switzerland, a long-time friend and past business consulting associate. Our connection dates back to the “Dot Gone Revolution,” to Internet business management and writing interests we shared at that time in New York.

Dr. Flude, I might best categorize as a global futurist. He has one foot planted firmly in the pursuit of scientific discovery and applications to life and business management, and the other planted firmly in the universes of prayer, consciousness, and human behavior. More details available at www.cmdc-spoc.org

Royston tells me he has been working on “the impact of Consciousness and its therapeutic outcomes.” Related to that, he notes he “can confirm the power of a strong self-worth and prayer” and that he is conducting some research in the U.S. on the outcomes associated with the use of therapy dogs . . . these are all issues I have strong evidence of personally.

___________________________ 

Last week, someone sent me a video of a presentation given by one of my most admired and respected writers, Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, Tipping Point, What The Dog Saw, plus a zillion awards for his magazine and newspaper work as an imaginative investigative journalist).

In the video, Gladwell said his latest writing project is about “Taking the Unconscious Seriously” and relates that topic to relying on first impressions and snap judgments (particularly in war, dating, marriage, and police work) . . . quite a mix, but also concepts that I have strong evidence of personally.

___________________________

So, “conscious” and “unconscious” stuff has occupied much of my conscious and unconscious mind today.

Here’s where I’ve ended up:

In business – 

Reliance on the UNconscious mind is what separates most corporate existence from most entrepreneurial ventures. The UNconscious mind is the trigger for creative development and the delivery of innovative thoughts and actions. It is also the trigger for sales inasmuch as it is most closely tied to emotional responses and emotional buying motives.

The UNconscious mind, however, is only as effective as it has the potential to be, when it is launched from a platform of Consciousness, and regularly serviced by an element of conscious control.

In other words, to make the most of most business problem/opportunity dynamics, the Conscious mind must assess, goal-set, and strategize with a thinking approach that’s logical, rational and unemotional before unleashing the UNconscious pursuits of tactics designed to implement the strategies to reach the objectives or goals.

But, ah, it’s not that simple: Booster shots of Consciousness in the Unconscious process, and vice versa, attest to the need to be (as Thoreau once urged) “forever on the alert.” It’s rare –if ever– one would simply use one tool , then drop it to use the next. Ah, consciously, that is.

To complicate matters even further, consider whether it can be possible for instantaneous “instinctive” decisions (which often seem the best) to come straight out of shoot-from-the-hip, knee-jerk, UNconscious mindsets that directly bypass Consciousness?

The solution: Like the creative wood-design carpenter who keeps a tape measure on her or his belt or in a pocket, keep Consciousness and Unconsciousness both, at the tip of your tongue, and at the edge of your mind. Why? There’s never just one way to look at any business situation.

And then there are those times when you simply need to let go of rational thinking and trust your SELF, your UNconscious judgments, and your prayers. 

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“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!

The best way to inspire 

your people is to accept

them as your internal

customers . . . and not

your puppies.

Did you ever think of your “inner circle” of employees, your key support staff, as a pack of puppies? Not the same as a litter; those are all the same breed. A pack! A pack of puppies. Some are more aggressive than others. Some are more animated. Some bark louder. Only a few pay serious attention to the tasks at hand. They run and jump in every direction, except at dinnertime — they all like to eat!

And all will, of course, perform as challenged

for the smallest of treats.

They look up to you as their leader. They pay off your expenditures of energy and time (which they sense or understand) and money (which they do not understand) with unsolicited admiration and unquestioning, unchallenging instincts to follow your commands and your examples. They won’t cross you because they don’t want to risk missing dinner and . . . because they know you’re “the boss”! 

As they grow, they become more set in their ways. Regardless 0f temperament, most like to explore –the woods, the beach, the basement, maybe only their own paws, but some thing. They can get discouraged though quickly when explorations are frowned upon.

Have you seen employees become discouraged when management emphasis is having them learn to stay in line, follow orders, and continually focus on past events and future plans at the expense of the present moment.

Puppies and free-wheeling innovative employees are present-moment creatures.

To keep things manageable, you coax them all (puppies and employees alike) into a the security of a routine. As if almost in a trance-like state, routines tend to be non-threatening and predictable. But, wait! Is that what you want for your entrepreneurial mission? Are you in search of  innovators or household pets?

The trouble is that as the relationships grow over time, and the reward treats become bigger and more expensive, there seems to rise from the ground in a great cloud of smoke, an irresistible temptation to mix up that smoke with some mirror tricks, and/or become lackadaisical, dependent, and reliant on the leader for direction.

Consider the ultimate corporate and (excluding military, police, fire, and EMT services) government life routines of: 9 to 5, paychecks, benefit plans, and (for those lucky-but-mostly-come-to-be-unappreciative few), holiday turkeys. These are wonderful reassuring kinds of expectations for cultivating employees to behave like pets.

It keeps them in control, and makes healthy, fun-loving life companions out of them. But (and you know what’s coming):

Entrepreneurs and small business owners and managers can no longer afford compliant, obedient, do-nothing employees.

Despite preachings you may hear from the White House, there is no denying that these are, and continue to be, tough times.

Trying to be profitable in a country that is virtually broke is like trying to play inspired World Cup Soccer in a silent, empty stadium.

Employees must be catered to as much as customers. Innovation needs to be ignited and encouraged daily. Employees are your key internal customers and they will either drive business for you, or they will quickly transform from entrepreneurial puppydom into corporate and government sheep, waiting for you to sheer and feed and shepherd them!

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“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!

Well, It’s Your PEOPLE,

Of Course!

Whether it’s your spouse helping with bookkeeping while you run a home-based business, or it’s a workforce of 3 or 300 or 3000, if you are not doing a GREAT job of motivating each of them, your business will never get where you want it to go.

Having the world’s greatest business plan, fat investors, and full access to cutting-edge tech systems and equipment means zip without committed support from those who work with and for you! Your PEOPLE are your most important asset!

And that kind of support only happens with your consistent leadership by example.

Job one is to do whatever it takes to figure out how to best open each individual’s mind, then open it, then keep it open.

Because open minds open doors.

 

The more people are encouraged to think for themselves, and to think in innovative terms, and to always think first of customers, the more opportunities they will create — for both the business and themselves, which translates to steady growth.                                                   

3 Key questions to ask yourself (and answer) in order to succeed and grow:

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1)   Can you readily identify and separate your internal and external customers?

2)   Can you really tell the difference?

3)   What percentage of every day are you marketing to them?

This set of questions and answers is all about your ability to market your people, market to your people, and market through your people.

Successful entrepreneurs focus intently on these (above) fifty or so words . . . take a minute!  

 _______________________

Do you think that the meaning of customer service is to have dedicated customer service people?

Successful entrepreneurs charge every employee with customer service responsibilities all of the time. Parttime assistants as well as the most senior officers need to be able to handle every customer service issue at any time.

Customer service interruptions should be the rule, not the exception. 

Can you “ask, don’t tell” with the words you use? Unless you’re a creative director guiding designers and writers, can you “engineer, not architect” with verbal pictures you paint? 

When you lead by example, can you diagram ideas, and resist “giving orders” in favor of putting others and yourself on the same side of the solution table?

Successful entrepreneurs recognize that marketing through their people means being careful with what is said and how it’s said.  

Are you breeding entrepreneurs (and can you manage them)? Or are you breeding investments in the status quo (and can you manage that)? Are you encouraging enough reasonable risk-taking? Are you rewarding failure when great efforts are expended?

Do your actions take the 5-step direction of:

1) THINK

2) CREATE

3) THINK

4) INNOVATE

5) THINK

?????

Creativity only happens when thinking stops, and innovation requires re-activating THINKING in order to take the creative ideas all the way through every step of the strategic process from concept to launch, with all anticipated needs addressed. 

Then THINK AGAIN — Assess the innovative plans and designs.

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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!