If you own or operate a

business or professional

practice . . . . . YOU are

“The Mother of Invention”

If you work anywhere in that vast sea of government or private mega-enterprise incompetence, click off here and visit some other website that lets you be corporately lethargic and obscure. If, however, you’re running or managing your own business or some innovative part of a business –real parent or not– read on: YOU are the “Mother of Invention.”

Now Peter Drucker who’s referred to as the “Father of Management” may not like that idea, but–I would challenge him. I mean, when did “Mother” ever lose to “Father”?

Today, in other words, is also a day to celebrate YOU being your business’s parent.

First off, anyone who works for you sees you in a parental light. You are looked up to for guidance and leadership. You are a role model. You may not like providing inspiration or being thought of as something special, but you ARE.

When you can face up to it and make the most of it, you’ll be helping your staff, your self and your business to grow.

Don’t just provide leadership. Provide leadership by example; people want to learn by watching and trying and doing.

Don’t just provide leadership. Provide leadership that’s transparent. Keep all your business dealings clearly defined and out in the open. Forget that you have a “Bcc” setting on your emails. Stop closing doors. Share information freely.

If you’ve hired good people to start with, you’re only toying with risk levels that are reasonable. If you’ve got a bad apple or two, your open-and-above-boardness will flush them out.

In other words:

Give everyone a chance to give you a chance

for your business to have a chance to succeed.

Now, Mothers and Fathers, let’s look at that “Invention” word that you’re parenting. And this, by the way, includes the world of healthcare– especially hospitals! If you’re not CONSTANTLY creating and inventing and innovating . . . coming up with new ideas, ways, methods, designs, plans, steps, contacts, messages . . . EVERY DAY, then you are investing in the status quo.

Keeping things the same, not rocking the boat, and “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” are the prevalent nonproductive notions anchoring most stagnant corporate giants, every government agency, and all unsuccessful small businesses.

Business owner Job One is to stay out of that trap. Don’t let anything interfere with your daily birthing of inventive thinking. It’s how you started your business. It’s what’s carried your business. It’s what will will make the difference between your business surviving and your business thriving in the months and years ahead.

This doesn’t mean every lightbulb that goes on over your head needs to light up the world, or even that little dark corner of your workspace, but it does mean that you and your business cannot afford to pull the plug on that open socket; keep trying out new bulbs; follow up with some and discard others. [Edison made 10,000 tries before inventing the lightbulb!]

Innovation, remember, is taking the rarest of those good ideas and seeing them all the way through, every specific step of the way, to their final destination markets — even if only on paper or the computer screen. Together with your business itself, it’s those parented ideas that become the inventions that you mother and nurture into adulthood. Happy Mother’s Day!

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0116

1) The Economy  

2) The E c o n o m y

3) The Economy  

4) The Economy

 5) The Economy  

6) The Economy

Standing 30 million strong, America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners are a force to be reckoned with. But we who own, run, and manage small business enterprises are all independent-minded. Who is there to pull us together? The SBA? A joke. The White House? A bigger joke. Corporate giants? HA! Unions? Right!

There’s no rocket science here: A strong economy requires new jobs from small business. ONLY small business (especially new small business) creates real jobs (vs. artificial ones created by government and unions). Innovation is the trigger. There is –and has been since 2008– ZERO support for small businesses to be more innovative to create jobs. Voila! Economic Quagmire!  

The only recourse we have for moving forward in a productive direction, that can make a difference is to grow our businesses to the point of stimulating increased innovation, comes in two assertive steps:

• Take the time out of our business lives to do something about prompting a change in our favor. [Government has made sure that there is no other choice. If we don’t take the time, we will not have any business left to start with.]

• Prod ourselves to become more active voices in our industries and professions and in every community that supports our business, to speak up for small business.

But I don’t like having to be political, says you? Well, sadly, it’s another no-choice situation. More here on that. The point is you must behave as if you were a candidate running on the PP&N (Preserve, Protect & Nurture) Small Business Party ticket. No, you need not become as despicable, overbearing or annoying as the role models.

It’s all about speaking up for what we believe in. If you simply feel you cannot live with that option, then find someone who can fill the role for you.

Recruit an advocate. Look around your business associates, family members, and those who live in your neighborhood. Find someone who can help advance your ideas and thinking about small business enterprises to be your spokesperson. Ignite your own crusade for meaningful incentives for innovation and job creation.

Make sure the person or group you select supports your position and agrees with the need to vocalize your interests to others. You provide the road map for this effort. Should it include, for example, giving talks or presentations to local organizations? Being available for news release follow-up contact? Ghost-writing a blog?

Oh, I’m sure it goes without saying, but reminders can be useful: You won’t find someone to help with this by not looking. Start now so we can breathe more life into small businesses to make a difference on November 6th.

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Is Your Vision Statement

A Mission?

Does Your

Mission Statement

Have Vision?

You’re getting ready for 2012 and you’re confused? Gee, hard to imagine . . .

Just because the media and politicians tell us the economy is getting better? Just because we’re looking at a healthcare reform that has absolutely nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with costing small business more? Just because enemy combatant terrorist situations surface from those we’re told are not really terrorists, and from circumstances that we’re assured do not exist? Just because global warming hoaxsters had us running to refrigeration investments?

~~~~~~~

We’re probably feeling like confusion is nothing new, right? So why not live with a little more?

Well, here’s why: The business you own or manage doesn’t need to be as misguided and convoluted as politicians and the media. Remember they get paid for creating confusion. Your success depends on keeping things simple.

Keeping things simple starts with attitude, awareness, and hard work.

First off, don’t let anyone tell you to work smarter and not harder. That’s baloney! Every business success comes from hard work. Next, don’t let people confuse you about the characteristics and values of Mission and Vision Statements. [No, they are NOT the same!]

A Mission statement is essentially a declaration of intent, challenge and pursuit. It is your goal statement that clearly and succinctly explains what you plan to accomplish over what specific period of time and by what means. It is action-focused.

And, like every meaningful goal, your Mission Statement needs t0 be specific, flexible, realistic and have a due date. [Without all four criteria, you’ve nothing more than a wishlist fantasy!]

A Vision statement is a summation of where you see your business in 5-10 years. It is a picture you paint in your mind and share with others. It answers the question: If you succeed in your mission, where will you be?

It’s a set of words that best describes what you imagine to be your future state of existence, and how you expect (hope) to be viewed by others: your employees, associates, vendors, customers, markets, industry or profession, and community. It is dream-focused. It’s primary value is to inspire pursuit of your Mission.

What’s your Mission for 2012? What’s your Vision for 2020?

Oh, and in the same fashion that it helps to start ANY mission with 20/20 vision, it is often most useful to put your 2020 Vision on the table (to keep focused on it) while you develop your 2012 Mission (or while you think up the ways to get where you want to end up).

~~~~~~~

More FREE insights on

 2012 “LEADERSHIP”?

Come visit me at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site and comment on my Guest Blog posts:

LEADERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

“I” IS FOR INTEGRITY

and “T” IS FOR TRUST.  

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Updated From the Best of Hal’s Christmastime Business Posts . . . 

EA$Y DOE$ IT ON

CHRI$TMA$ EXPEN$E$ 

                                                                      

“Down in Onunderoverup”? Huh? Oh: Down and in . . . Revenues and profits are down. It’s the worst holiday shopping season in memory. In and on . . . Brick and mortar businesses are getting killed by the invasion of online businesses. On, under, and over . . . Online businesses are being undercut by overkill retail sales events. Up . . .C’mon folks, let’s own up to the reality that this is a bite-the-bullet Christmas for probably two-thirds of all Americans.

 ~~~~~~~

IF — like many others this year who don’t work for do-nothing, free-spending government agencies or bailed-out corporate giants — IF you happen to be having a tighter Christmas ahead than those you’ve left behind, you may want to consider three points:

• Unless you choose for it to be (behavior IS a choice), you need not think that it’s corny, hokey, old-fashioned, ancient, not P.C., or “yeah, so?” (Thoughts are things!), to consider this first point…

1)

Here’s how it goes: choose for a minute or two to think that Christmas is not all about you, except as a a joyful celebrant.

While you’re staring at your screen right now, dismantle the whole holiday stress clog-up in your brain (take some deep breaths) so you can step back with a fresh perspective and see Christmas more realistically, for what it is: the celebration of the birth of Christ.

• Okay, now, flying on the shirttails of the first point, comes this second point to think on…

2)

How have you chosen to let others (and your self) set you up over your lifetime to choose over-the-top artificial representations of this joyful event to bump the real thing off into the wings from stage center?

How have you become victimized by decades of deep and hard-hitting commercialism? 

• Have all those sales, ads, commercials, endorsements, emails, txtmsgs, and “perfect family with perfect dog in their perfect home setting” images left you with the guilties because you can’t afford that surprise diamond or vacation gift for your spouse this year? Because the kids will have to settle for the cheap iPod and a slightly used Wii? Just one chew-bone and a single squeaky toy for Rufus?

3)

Welcome to reality. It’s the same place that many (probably the majority) of your customers have been quietly and more steadily inhabiting over the last couple of years.

It’s not just you. It’s not just them. It’s the vast majority of the world that’s actively downsizing 2011 Christmas gift-giving and expenses.

Well, realizing that you’re not alone sometimes serves to soften the edge. You should, by the way, also know that I am not a minister of any kind, nor have I any religious drums to beat . . . what then?

It’s Christmas!

Skimpy perhaps by past life standards, but this is this life, here and now.

We only go around in life once, and we’re in it together:

. . . business owners, partners, managers, employees, suppliers, investors, service and sales professionals, referrers, AND customers!

In a time of year that accents good will, “blame” is a nonproductive misfit. In a time of life that businesses struggle with the economy, fixing the economy becomes Job One for businesses.

What can yours do? What can you do? What can you do now, tonight, tomorrow, to take a major step toward righting your ship?

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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!

Still stuck in your 4-week-old delusion? You said: “America has lost ambition and imagination.” Remember? You prodded businesses to “Do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam. Unleash all the potential in this country!”  

Well, you’re wrong,

Mr.Obama. The only thing

America has lost is

leadership. And the only

thing lacking in America’s

30 million small businesses

is trust in YOU!

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!