Jul 26 2011

Harboring Resentment?

I grew up with unreasonable demands being made on me and my brother and my mother by my alcoholic father. I began thinking that that was life, and all the other stuff that came my way from teachers and coaches and bigger older kids was just more of the same. So were the demands of college, grad school, and parttime jobs. Or so at least it all seemed.

                                                                    

The more I kept inside, the

                          

tighter, more withdrawn

                      

and resentful I became.

 

                                                                                                           

Ever feel that way yourself, or am I just imagining? Don’t we all hold onto some kind of resentment? If it has to do with responsibility, maybe it knots up our shoulders. If it’s a love relationship, it may give us chest pains or heartburn, sadly sometimes heart attacks and heart disease.

Some experience “butterflies” in their stomachs, pains in their lower backs, or legs. We get headaches when oxygen and blood flow get sidetracked from traveling freely through our necks and end up like crimped garden hoses. We run to surgeons and chiropractors and massage therapists and drugstores and liquor cabinets for relief.

Did you ever have such an explosive feeling inside that you wanted to scream, but you ended up instead making some feeble guttural sounds, swallowing the wrong way, coughing or choking, or perhaps you simply stuffed food down your throat because it’s hard to express how you feel when your ability to speak is blocked with food?

All of these symptoms and often not-such-good solutions are magnified for small business owners and managers. Besides all the everyday life stresses of family and friends, small business owners and managers cannot leave their workday traumas at their workday worksites. Doing business 24/7 is what life is about. Entrepreneuring takes guts!

When you own or run a business,

you even dream about it!

                                               

If someone insults a corporate or government guy at work–and hopefully this is a rare or never occurrence–he may feel resentful and carry it around, or dismiss it, or confront it. Insults are standard daily fare, however, for many if not most small businesses, and the pressure is enormous to not dismiss it or confront it reactively

“Trading insults” leaves us with more insults than we started with!

By reacting insread of responding, it will surely come back to haunt

because only reacting opens the floodgate to OVER-reacting! 

                                          

So if all of that is the valley of darkness,

how do we rise up into the light?

Well, here’s how I did it. Try this little recipe.

You might pleasantly surprise your SELF! 

                                                  

First is to acknowledge that we harbor resentment and identify what circumstances or to whom we attach the ill feelings. Next is to take some deep breaths to better circulate that oxygen and blood flow. Then ask ourselves if it’s really worth hanging onto the upset feelings and to what ends or purpose?

Is it worth “hanging on” in exchange for the bitterness to take its toll on our one and only bodies that we want to have usher us into long happy and healthy lives? Take some more deep breaths. Are you so stubborn that you’re willing to give up years of life in exchange for not being a big enough person to forgive? Isn’t it time to move on?

Watch how good your body starts to feel when you finally agree to answer those questions honestly and let go of that resentment you’ve been harboring all these many days, weeks, months, years.   

                           

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting.  God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Jul 24 2011

Only You!

“I am me . . . 

                         

in all the world,

                           

there is no one else

                     

exactly like me.

                        

I am okay!”

                                                                                                                                         

 — World renown family therapist VIRGINIA SATIR

                                                                        

[What? You came here looking for that all-time great 56-year-old recording hit “Only You,” by the Platters?]

People around you may sometimes prompt you to think –because you own or run or manage a small business or professional practice– that you are Mr. or Ms. (or Dr.) Awesome in the flesh. And perhaps that’s warranted, especially if you are what’s commonly referred to as “self-made,” in which case: congratulations!

If, however, you can’t even begin to think about your business success because right now you’re down there in the trenches with America’s other 29,999,999 small business owners who are struggling to survive the fanatical progressive/socialist/liberal agenda that has steered government into a trample-free-market-competition mode.

Then the time has come to step back and take personal stock of who you are and where you’re going. And I’m sorry to tell you I can’t help you with where you’re going; only you know that answer. Godspeed!

So let’s explore the real you, the only you, the you that only your inner circle of family and friends knows. I can help you with that. I have lots of experience guiding people (especially business people) to find themselves. It’s not always easy. Some entrepreneurs thrive on making themselves be needles in a haystack.

Begin with accepting the awareness that you are unique.

There is (if you check with your friendly local DNA expert, and as Virginia Satir’s quote above says), no one else exactly like you.

                                                 

Next, consider that if in fact this is true for every human on Earth, then HOW employees and customers respond to the messages you put out is never exactly the same twice.

Now that should tell you something right off the bat. What you want others to know about you, your products and services is very likely to be not what they are getting from your messages. But let’s return to you.

Government has cultivated dependency among the brain-dead, who make themselves too busy with life to bother with work. Who needs a job when you can get it all (food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education) for free? There are others who work just enough to get by, but most of them seem to have RDD (Responsibility Deficit Disorder).

You are not among those who live off of others or you wouldn’t be reading this.

But some questions for you are in order: Do you choose to make yourself too busy with work to live life? Is it essential to your survival or are your business priorities simply wrapped around “what if” worries? Do you take enough breaks and pat yourself on the back enough for the good things you do? Do you eat and sleep right?

Have you ever almost died”?

Do you get enough exercise? Are you answering these questions truthfully? Do you realize that because you are unique, so are your needs, so is your activity level, so is your spunk and gumption, so is your faith, your sense of patriotism, and your entrepreneurial spirit? When did you last stop to think about those values and variables?

What can you do right now to give your unique self a boost?

We do, in fact, become what we think about. Have you been thinking about what you really want to become, or have you been preoccupied with being the person you think others want you to be? There’s no such thing as working smarter and not harder. The issue is one of balance. There is a way that you already know . . . and, there is prayer.      

                                                    

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting.  God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Jul 23 2011

NOW AND THEN . . .

The best source of business

                     

 is always existing and 

                        

 past business.

 

                         

What have you done lately about resurrecting contact with old friends and business associates? The amount of time, money and energy plowed into developing new business in new markets with customers and suppliers who’ve never heard of them is a phenomenal waste. Put the same effort and resources into those who already know you. 

Even brain-dead politicians know this. Why do they concentrate campaign efforts on those who have supported them in the past? Because to those people (voters), they’re known entities, and that alone is often enough to trigger contributions or in the case of business, sales. There’s no need to start the get-acquainted process from scratch.

“Go straight to the heart of the matter,”

(my father always told me!)

                                  

At the heart of winning more business in as catastrophic an economy as we’re living with, is the need to revisit, renew, and re-cultivate old friendships, old acquaintances, old customers and clients, old suppliers and vendors, old investors and lenders, old employees and employers, old partnerships and alliances. ALL former supporters.

These are people who you may have lost touch with (and perhaps on purpose), but with rapidly changing times often come changing more receptive attitudes. Someone who was an employee and left for a better career move may now be in a position of being a customer, or a referrer, or a supplier, or even an investor! How will you know? Ask.

Small business owners and managers typically avoid past contacts for many reasons, but none of those reasons (unless they would open some legal wounds) are good reasons for glossing over possible resources who have a favorable impression of you. Spend your time, money, and effort there instead of digging up new prospects!

When you communicate your message to someone who knows you, you can skip all the preambles; there’s no need to waste words explaining who you are and where you came from and how you do what you do. Go straight to the heart:  

  • “I know it’s been awhile, but I thought you’d be especially interested in . . . because . . .”

Or . . . 

  • “As soon as we put out this special (new product or service, warranty, price deal), I was reminded of how it would/might/does/could have great value/appeal/interest to/for you, and thought you may be interested in this ‘sneak preview’ of . . .”   

                                                                            

In the end, it’s all about consistently using the best sets of words to deliver your message, and targeting past and present business contacts which allows you to engage their interests without having to have them get past the preliminaries of who you are. That small difference puts you a giant step ahead in the sales or recruitment process. 

Oh, and a no-brainer by the way, you can also reach these people and get them to your website, store or office with personalized (free) emails or (inexpensive) postcards instead of extravagant network TV $pon$or$hip$.                                                                                                                 

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  Open minds open doors. 

 Thanks for visiting. God bless you. 

   Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Jun 15 2011

Prices Up! Leadership Down!

Small Business Suffers (See personal note at end) . . .

                                                   

Highest Consumer Prices

                         

in 3 Years!

                                                                 

(and the Worst Leadership Since Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter!) 

 

The highest consumer prices in three years were reported today for food, clothing, fuel and transportation.

the oppressive nature of obvious federal government efforts to control, manage and force small businesses into bankruptcy, this news is not surprising. What is surprising is that America’s 30 million small businesses have thus far failed to find and focus and rally their strength in numbers– to respond en masse!

What is surprising is that the Obama Administration has been pathetic at best in it’s token offers of olive branch diplomacy through its stagnant SBA puppet show. (Okay, well, maybe that economy-killing attitude is notso surprising after all. I mean, it actually makes sense as accompaniment to our business-leaderless federal government.)

Messrs. Obama and Biden have thrown entrepreneurs and small businesses under the bus.

                                                                                      

In the process of over-taxing, over-regulating, intimidating, undervaluing, and completely disregarding the basic economic-growth interests of entrepreneurs and small business enterprises, widespread meddling in large corporate businesses and attempts to disintegrate free market enterprise competition from healthcare have prevailed.

Lest we forget, by the way, entrepreneurs and small business enterprises are the entities that built America into the world leadership posture that Mr. Obama is relentlessly trying to dismantle at the expense of all Americans. 
It’s inconceivable, his “fiddling–outlandish First Family expenses, preoccupation with sports, and managing to be conveniently and consistently “out of town” while oil spills, floods, tornados, poverty, unemployment, foreclosures, and the undermining of America’s military and global image rise to the surface of day-to-day reality.

And now it’s consumer prices! What’s next? Must be “Dignity” because it’s trumpeted in every speech, and trampled in every action.

                                                                     

Leadership that incessently talks “dignity” and never delivers really cannot be allowed to continue. You and I and our families have struggled and suffered to keep our businesses afloat, to survive.

Has it occurred to you that we are no longer working for ourselves; we are working for the government battling against all odds to make an honest living, but losing ground daily because what we do manage to earn is turned back in to be distributed to others who are too lazy and too manipulative to work for themselves.

Why bother getting a job? Huh? After all, everything’s free. Why bother with even learning English or getting citizenship? Americans are so stupid that they’ll pay for everything anyway. Take advantage. What a great country!

______________________________

A SPECIAL NOTE TO BLOG VISITORS

                                                     

I rarely comment personally here, because this blog was created for those seeking business development ideas, methods, stories and encouragement. It was never intended as a political instrument but, you know, it’s become increasingly difficult for me to choose to not be tormented by business-inexperienced, know-nothing leaders who –day after day– pound away at entrepreneurs and small business.

If what is said here offends you, please don’t just click off; call me or send a note and let me know your thoughts. I promise you a respectful response. 

Until someone can prove otherwise, I see no exception to the conviction that Mr. Obama has no regard for –or understanding of– what makes America’s economy tick, and that he chooses to ignore even finding out because that pursuit alone will cost too many votes?

Pardon me, but I believe, dear professional practice and small business owners and managers, that this kind of shortsighted, misdirected leadership is not leadership. It is sick, self-serving, do-nothingness that we cannot continue to live with, and that our economy cannot much longer tolerate.

We have the clout to make that change:

Election Day – November 6, 2012.

Vote Responsibly! 

                                                                           

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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! 

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Jun 06 2011

It’s about “TRUST”!

No, No, Mr. O . . .

                                        

America’s economic

                                                                     

mess is NOT simply

                           

“a bump in the road”!

                                       

                                      

It is an issue of TRUST.

 

Here’s the bottom line, right up front:

                                                            

I believe you have proven your self and your ideology (over common sense and genuine citizen need) unworthy of my trust, my children’s trust, my grandchildren’s trust, the trust of America’s military, the trust of America’s healthcare professionals, and –among others– the trust of America’s business owners, operators, and managers.

So, without trust, the question becomes: Why should we create new jobs only to get higher taxes? What reason have we to believe that taxes will not be raised again to even more crippling levels? Your word? I don’t think so. Some meaningful tax incentives for new small business job creation? Bring ’em on!

 ——————————–

You have put tons of tax dollars where they don’t belong:

  • In the greedly hands of over-the-top unions and States whose votes supported you.

  • In the incompetent hands of corporate giants and government agencies, neither of which creates new jobs that are REAL.

  • And in the frivolous hands of social programs you apparently value above weather-disaster victims in “Red States,” and the interests of free market competition businesses that are struggling to get free from government choke-holds.

_______________________
                                                                        

You’ve been putting BandAids on a gaping wound and have not stopped the bleeding, yet you persist in doing everything possible to squash small business, the nation’s only source of real new job creation and our only hope for turning the economy around.

You have demonstrated repeatedly that you have not even the slightest understanding of business or of how to undo the economic disaster that –in your relentless efforts to hold socialistic values above the financial survival of those you were elected to represent– you exacerbated. You have proven unworthy of the peoples’ trust.

You are plunging us into yet another (deeper by all appearances) recession. And –to make matters worse– your steadfast refusal to own up to the fact that every single attempt you’ve made –arrogantly and obstinately in the face of what knowledgeable businesspeople the world over have advised– has failed miserably.

Yet your oratory claims progress when every American with a brain realizes there is none. 

                                                       

I laughed hysterically today, at hearing the White House quote that America’s economic disaster “is a bump in the road”! (Of course, I was wishing it was laughter that was triggered by funny stuff instead of the sense of panic that crawls under the surface of every business owner’s skin!)

It’s all about TRUST, Mr. O. You haven’t earned it; you don’t get any. Why should any business owner (and there ARE 30 million of us, regardless of what your warped numbers show) trust you in urging to create new jobs when we know you will immediately raise taxes on those who do create new jobs. Truth? Of course you will.

Do you think we’re stupid?

                                                                               

Oh, and it’s also hard to not mention that following the “bump in the road” comment, came yet more undermining-of-reality: a declaration by Ms. Pelosi that “if not for the Obama Administration, things would be even worse.” Now THAT is truly laughable!

 Lest we forget:

It was you who inherited an economic molehill

and made it into a mountain of financial disaster!

                                                                                          

A 3-year-old can connect the dots: It’s the Obama Administration that’s made and continues to make the economy worse. Why is it so incredibly impossible for you to face facts, own up to your errors and move this country forward by honoring the input of small and mid-sized businesses and their owner/operators.

They know how to solve the economy. You don’t. Will you persist in pretending until the week before Americans rise to make a difference on November 6, 2012? That may be too late, even for you!

                                               

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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!

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May 02 2011

Well done, Mr. Obama! Now let’s get down to business, shall we?

An open letter to the President . . .

CONGRATULATIONS, Mr. Obama,

                                       

for a job well done.

                                

Now let’s get down to business!

 

Ah, at last. For what appears to many to be the first time since assuming the Presidency, you have actually acted in what most of the world’s eyes and ears would surely agree to be a “Presidential manner.” You have risen to the task of delivering a non-political Presidential attitude. Thank you. It’s a burst of fresh air.

Your “watch” has brought a piece of justice to America. Thank you!

It is time now for you, personally (and Presidentially), to bring justice to America’s entrepreneurs . . . to recognize and accept that it is SMALL business that ultimately holds the key to turning around this miserable economy, which many small business owners feel your political agenda has been insensitively fueling.

You stated today:

“Today we have been reminded as a

   nation, there is nothing we can’t do.”

                                                            

Your statement no doubt includes being able to rise above political campaign agendas that have fostered one unrealistic attempt after another to turn the economy around. And I don’t think anyone faults you for trying.

But, clearly, you have not respected entrepreneurial small business and professional practice owners and operators and managers. Your economic recovery pretenses have done nothing except increase taxpayer burdens -especially for small business– and have only served to mushroom the federal deficit.

Your statement would also seem to include being able to follow the footprints of history in stimulating —instead of bumbling corporate giants and incompetent government agencies— small entrepreneurial business startups.

Surely you have the proof of this wisdom. You need look no further than the genuine job-creation pathways carved out by new small business enterprises. It is there that you will find true economic growth.

Americans are universally proud today of the military intelligence and guts it took to destroy the evil leader of the terrorist world.

But we continue to remain hopelessly (and needlessly, many believe) bogged down in this economic quagmire.

                                                         

We are paying more than we should have to pay at the gas pump. This means that we are having to charge customers, clients, and patients more than we want to for shipping and transportation. And higher shipping costs mean higher food prices. Of course you know this. But you’ve been trying to put out the fire with gasoline!

These are not whining complaints. But the solution –contrary to your recent suggestion– is NOT to get a more fuel-efficient car. It is also NOT to stop using FedEx and UPS in favor of the less expensive (and totally incompetent) US Postal Service. Neither is the solution to eat more junk food because it’s cheaper. 

Many of us who own and run small businesses, Mr. Obama, are overtaxed and over-regulated to the point of bankruptcy. Instead of being free to innovate and lead the way (as in all economic turnarounds), we are forced to follow those who have no business sense, understanding, or experience . . . and who are unwilling to seek it!

Can we now finally sit down and talk about politically-UNencumbered, real and genuine tax incentives that encourage new small businesses to create new jobs and reward them for succeeding?

Can we do this with real small business leaders — NOT the corporate executive-laden SBA, or government Economic Development groups, or professorial think-tanks?

                                                     

Can we do it now? Are you willing to take a reasonable entrepreneurial risk and sit down with some real small business people? Will you listen instead of defend? Will you process instead of preach? Will you give America’s 30 million small businesses genuine incentives and a free hand to go to work to solve the economy puzzle? 

America loves that the first step behind the promise of rooting out terrorism has at long last been honored. Now it’s time to return the economy–the issue that undermines all others— to the point that allows people to regain their dignity and self-respect without reliance on government handouts and token pats on the head.    

We have earned more than lip service, Mr. Obama.

Can we do it? Can we do it now? 

                                                

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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!

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Apr 12 2011

UNDERMINING YOURSELF

STOP BEING

                         

A FIREFIGHTER!

                               

When you undermine those

                                    

who work with you, YOU

                            

become less effective. 

 

 

Entrepreneurs, small business and professional practice owners and managers are notorious for undermining the people they work with. They’ll ask a partner, associate or employee to handle a certain task or make contact with someone in their absence, then –an hour or two, or day or two later– will turn around and do it themselves.

                                                                      

Sound familiar?

______________________

I’m reminded of one of those yea/boo stories [I need a bucket to bail out the boat (boo!); ah, here’s a bucket I can use (yea!); oops, my bucket has a hole in it (boo!); the hole is in the top (yea!) . . .].

____________________

When you ask someone to do something and then whisk the job away because it wasn’t done the way you would do it or because it wasn’t done as quickly as you wanted — or worse, maybe it was already done, but instead of checking to find out, an assumption is made that it wasn’t, and the task ends up being needlessly duplicated. 

Besides that such actions are looked upon unfavorably by both internal customers (employees, investors, referrers, suppliers, lenders, advisors) and external customers (purchasers and consumers) and are considered highly unprofessional in business circles . . . the behaviors persist.

By pulling the rug out from under someone you’ve charged with a responsibility, the likelihood is great that you will also have managed to ignite fuses of discontent, frustration and neurosis.

Not to mention the not-worth-it losses you’ll suffer in credibility, respect, and reputation. 

                                                                        

I know personally of two employee shooting rampages attributed to having “assigned responsibilities” prematurely withdrawn, or arbitrarily reassigned. 

When you as a leader empower someone (or set someone up to become empowered), be extremely clear what needs to be done, and how (assuming there’s no room for interpretation or alternate approaches), and by when. Then go away. Don’t disenfranchise an individual that you’ve just enfranchised.

“Well,” you say, “this sounds good, but nobody else does stuff as effectively as me. If I don’t ‘ride herd’ on those I give assignments to, they’ll never get done.”

Are you really saying that you don’t trust those you’ve partnered with or hired? Is what you mean that you think you’re better than anybody else? Is what you mean that you like running around like a maniac, putting out fires?

Are you really saying that under all these pretenses, you simply don’t trust your SELF or your own judgment?

This may sound embarrassingly obvious,

 but worth the risk of mentioning anyway:

When the kinds of carelessness

that start fires to begin with,

are eliminated to start with,

you won’t need to start with

being a firefighter. 

                                                                                     

Maybe it’s time to consider corporate life, or a job with the Post Office? Most towns have openings for roadway cone placement. Nothing to undermine. Think of all the stress you’ll spare yourself.

Entrepreneurial leadership means–among other things– that you need to trust those you’ve trusted to work with, to get the jobs done that you ask them to do, and go about your business of growing your business instead of wasting your time and energy, and everyone else’s. 

Think twice before you delegate. Make sure you are delegating to the best person to get the job done under the circumstances. Make sure you explain carefully what’s needed, and by when, and how much room there is to determine methods and techniques for getting the job done. Set “How Goes It?” follow-up plans. Trust. Walk away.

When you undermine others,

                                                you’re really undermining yourself.

# # #

  931.854.0474   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!

No responses yet

Mar 31 2011

Seeking Crossed Paths

If you are one of the following, you are all of them . . .!

Small Business and Professional

                                                 

Practice Owners and Managers,

                                      

Educators, Sales Professionals,

                                        

and Entrepreneurs

 

 

What makes you different? Just the path you’ve chosen to take? Think about the one you’re on. 

                                                                                                   

It doesn’t matter if you teach third grade, own a chain of pizza parlors, sell advertising space or socks or perfume or gaskets. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a heart surgeon, hot dog vendor, social media guru. or a charity fundraiser. It makes no difference whether you manage a work team, a sports team, or function like the Lone Ranger.

The bottom line is that you’re not a government incompetent or corporate mogul or union thug, which means that you work for a living.

You work at what you do, what you support, believe in, were trained for, invented, designed, inherited, created, or stumbled into.

Does that pretty much cover it?

                                                                                   

Ah, but what makes you the same? How could such diverse specialists have common grounds? Well, hey, you’re all leaders, right? You’re all communicators. And you are all (like it or not, willing to admit it or not) heavily engaged in selling on a daily basis.

You spend the bulk of your energy attempting to engage the interest and support of others in the ambitions, goals,  practices, opportunities, beliefs, ideas, and challenges that occupy your table, fill your plate and dance around your dining room.

Even when you’re not “at work,” even when you’re at family gatherings (you know, Ground Hog’s Day and Boxing Day, stuff like that), you’re still selling (oh, that nasty word again, especially for all you professional practice types; I know, there’re not too many brain surgeons rolling up their sleeves in supermarkets these days doing a “tell ya what I’m gonna do for you” presentation. There is that guy,though, with the sets of knives . . .)

What is it that you do when you get ready to give someone your spiel? Isn’t it that you (and sales professionals know this better than the rest of the world) are seeking common ground, shared interests, places where you can better relate to your audience? Aren’t you looking for places your paths have crossed?

Oh, my, there go all those light bulbs at once. Wait a second will you while my transition lenses back off. Ah, such a flood of light! 

So back to places your paths have crossed . . . of course that’s what we instinctively seek! Isn’t it, by the way, the premise for Facebook and LinkedIn?  

Whether we’re teaching a classroom full of students, explaining a procedure to a patient, a reason to donate, a special deal on foreclosed property, the benefits of sushi, the truck’s suspension system awards, how the use of Twitter can outperform Facebook, why everyone should buy a new mattress every ten days, or how easy it is to use this new bookkeeping system . . . we are constantly looking for common interest areas we can use to establish rapport.

                                                                

We go to great lengths and ask a zillion questions to get to the point of “So you’re a Cubs fan, huh? Poor guy; you’ve really suffered over the years. I used to hang out with a few of them when I commuted from New York to Chicago for three years; I had an office at One East Wacker Drive on the Loop. What’s the name of that rooftop restaurant there?”

Well, maybe not all that dicey, but you get the point. We all seek crossed paths. They help us get closer to what’s under our skin. Prospecting is easier, but –more importantly– growing our relationships with existing customers, clients, patients, employees, suppliers, investors, lenders, and referrers is also easier.

Stop fighting it. Getting to know others better is a pathway all by itself . . . and one you can never tell where it will lead, but usually it will go where your authentic self opens doors and focuses spotlights. Open minds open doors.

# # #

 

931.854.0474   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!

No responses yet

Mar 28 2011

The Recession Still Roars

Reported today on Sirius radio’s America’s Newsroom . . .

One of every eight American

                            

homes now stands empty! 

 

Based on today’s news . . .

This “one out of eight” no doubt

                             

includes The White House!

 

 

Double-speak –such as that evidenced in tonight’s feeble address by Mr. Obama in attempting to justify his unauthorized headstrong reaction (instead of a measured response) to the challenges and sickness of another nation’s madman leader– doesn’t work for America’s people.

And guess what? Double-speak also doesn’t work for the business you own and/or run and/or manage.

Small business owners, first of all, know instinctively how to practice responding instead of reacting.

If we don’t, we’re out of business. Period.                

  • It is lack of leadership that has emptied American homes. It is lack of leadership that has led America to falter and approach other nations balanced on weak knees.

  • Lack of leadership is what brings down business enterprises and national governments alike. Clearly, America’s White House is as empty as the two suits that run our country.

  • Lack of leadership, in the form of poor management, is responsible for 9 out of 11 new businesses failing within the first 2-3 years of existence (source: The SBA)  

~~~~~~~~

                                                                                          

We —as small business owners and managers, and entrepreneurs– must learn from this place in history.

Incompetent leadership cannot be covered up with great oratory and superficial reasoning. We, the electorate see through it. While the facade pictures that are verbally painted may convince those who know not how to think for themselves, they no longer appease or hook those with intelligence.

When we cover up business incompetence, we lose customers; we go bankrupt. We lose.

If you or I were to run our businesses with the same Johnny-come-lately, wimpy, and universally arrogant intervention approaches that were expressed tonight by Mr. Obama, God bless us all.

He has done everything possible to undermine and smother small business because he fails utterly to understand it. He has in the process led us into world disgrace. His assessments –in addition to being unrealistic– are inflammatory to say the least. Talk about pouring gasoline on a fire!

You and I cannot make our business problems go away by giving a political speech and calling it an “explanation.”

We cannot avert financial collapse by offering endless apologies (or simply printing new money!).

We cannot achieve success by concentrating on competitors. 

                                                                 

Sad and unfortunate as it is, thousands of people die every day by acts of terrorism. When –and before– those forces become genuine threats to our existence, we need to act quickly and decisively and unapologetically to protect and preserve our interests.

Do we like what’s happening in Libya? Of course not. But Libya offers no such threat to America. The more the U.S. tries to become the world’s police force, the less effective the U.S. becomes. The more your business tries to monopolize a profession, industry, or marketplace, the less effective it becomes. But you already know that!

Do we like what all our competitors are doing. Of course not. Do we engage them apologetically and make that be productive for us? Are you kidding? Those who succeed in business are those who focus on their businesses, not on what other businesses are doing, or not doing, that may be distasteful. 

When it’s possible to help other businesses without putting your own at risk, go for it! Until then, strengthen yourself so you can get to that point. That works for business and business works! Being consistently authentic and honest and demonstrating integrity works for business too. Will shallow-minded ego-crazed politicians ever get it?    

 

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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!

One response so far

Mar 22 2011

Business Lessons From Kids

Kids are

                 

the world’s greatest

                                                         

salespeople because

                       

they know how to 

                                       

paint a verbal picture 

                                   

. . . and put you in it!

 

 

When’s the last time you took business advice from a single-digit-aged kid? Every small business owner, operator, manager, entrepreneur, and sales professional should have to do this at least once a month, even for a ten-minute long crash course.

Ask someone under ten years old to tell you why she or he likes something. Then listen. Ask questions but only for clarification. Odds are pretty good that you’ll end up inside that child’s verbal description of a thing, a place, or an event. You’ll get there by your own choice and you’ll enjoy the experience.

Those of you who are Mothers (or Mr. Mom’s) know all about the pearls-of-wisdom-from-the-mouths-of-babes thing, but in case you’re not, or don’t, don’t think for a minute that you haven’t time to waste with such foolishness.

Innovative business empires have been built on ideas and messages that have come from listening to children.

Children —and generally the younger the better– are less inhibited, have far fewer fears, and fewer feelings of self-importance. They may fantasize. They may not seem very realistic about things like money or distance or amounts or sizing up people or situations, but they speak the truth.

And they are passionate.

And they know how to

paint a verbal picture.

And they won’t hesitate to tell you

all the things you need to know

that no one else will tell you.

                                                                       

You will gain value from a child’s perspective.

His or her viewpoint, remember is looking up under your chin and your belly, and inside your nose. Put your new product, or a photo or video clip of it on the table in front of the nearest 8-year-old and ask what she or he thinks it is. Ask what it does, how it works, who would use it, why, when, where, how?

It’s a service? Simplify your explanation of it and see what you get back. Offer and ask for examples and comparisons. Does he or she if the product or service would be a good or bad thing . . . and why?

Tou’re looking to save your business money? What better deal can you make than to get an outpouring of honest, unbiased opinions about your business or business ventures for the price of an ice cream or hot dog, or a trip to the circus or a walk on the beach or through the park?

On top of all that, you’ll get a firsthand booster shot of salesmanship. Maybe you forgot about how important energy and enthusiasm are, or the importance of painting a mental picture with words, and walking a customer into it. Hmm?              

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302.933.0116     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

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