Dec 26 2016

2017: TIME TO LEVEL THE FIELD!

STOP SYNCHRONIZED DIVING.

 

STOP PLAYING CHESS.

 

 GET THE PUCK OFF THE ICE. 

 

BURY THE FOOTBALL.

 

NOW.  IT’S 2017!!!

 

And there’s only room for Baseball!                                                                    baseball-1

 What? Why Baseball? Because… ta, ta, ta, ta, tah-tah!… baseball is THE ONLY competitive-physical-prowess-speed-agility-and-psychology sport with no time limits. And 2017 business success demands COMPETITIVE teamwork!

So, baseball has no ending time or closing minutes? Correct, but there can always be extra innings. Extra innings translates to endurance. Show me a business success not built on endurance.

Baseball serves business enterprises best as a teamwork model because teams must work together hard, as a team, to win. BUT, every single team member gets an equal chance to get up to bat and get a game-winning hit every game — as well as make great game-winning plays, with every pitch, every inning!

fielder

It’s all about teamwork wrapped around individual performance and a sense of competitive spirit. Yes? Well, how great would that be for your entire organization to practice? (Regardless of draft choice round involved ;)) 

Imagine management and employees supporting one another all day every day, while encouraging each other to rise to the occasion of ongoing conquest because every individual effort can potentially pay back the entire team in the process.

Imagine all individuals and departments involved making a daily practice of supporting and backing-up one another instead of finger-pointing, or making excuses for shortfalls. A dream? Only if you choose to let it be.

BEHAVIOR IS A CHOICE.

You (and your people) can just as easily choose to work together as a winning baseball team as you can choose to keep struggling along as a ragtag collection of aspiring superstars with no investment in the success of others. Oh, and as for critiquing along the way? Criticize BEHAVIOR, not the person at fault!

Even as a single, unified force, this kind of team will fall apart when any individual fails to perform in precision-matching her or his teammates. (Ask any oarsman on any 4 or 8-person crew team what happens when one rower is out of sync by even a second, or raises an oar just inches more than the rest of the team.)

All it takes to make a REAL difference is experienced coaching and training guidance, plus a fresh informed perspective on the best (most appreciated) ways to reward exceptional individual and team performance . . . rewards that do NOT become long-term financial burdens.

If this is a missing link in your organization– old, new, large, small, mid-sized, retail, service, B2B, industrial, sales, professional practice, healthcare– call me. I provide all of these services for fees you can afford now. And results are guaranteed! Ready? Then let’s “PLAY BALL!”

 

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Jun 26 2011

TIMING is the answer. What was your question?

It’s not all about the numbers . . .

How you time your

                          

purpose and your passion

                                                 

 determines your success.

 

                         

“Life is timing,” says a man commonly reported to be one of the world’s top 20 motivational speakers: Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, author and editor of nine business and personal life and leadership books, including one with over two million copies in print in 12 languages.

When you want to demonstrate some proof to yourself of the importance of timing and being able to make timing adjustments, go find the nearest batting cage; swing at a round of fastpitch baseballs; then take some deep breaths and swing at a round of slowpitch softballs. (Do them in the opposite order if you really want to challenge yourself!)

Hey, sometimes it’s the little things in life, like baseballs and softballs that can humble the best of us.

The reality though is that there’s much to be said for “being in the right place at the right time,” Of course saying and doing “the right thing” is what makes the difference. Just as adjusting one’s swing to the pitch is what makes a great hitter, adjusting your purpose and passion to the circumstances is what makes for great business success.

And it’s not all about numbers!

The answers to your marketing needs, e.g., will not come out of statistical analysis of market research. Leave that stuff for the corporate and government types who need to juggle and analyse numbers to cover their butts. You have a small business to run, and there’s no time for that. You try things. They don’t work. You adjust them.

Marketing is not a rational, unemotional, objective, cut and dried, black or white series of numbered quantifiable events. It’s an art. It’s a psychological-based creative art form. It requires substantial experience with and adaptations of psychology. It seeks to impact peoples’ minds with a message. Every person’s mind is different!

What about how you conduct yourself? What about leadership? Good timing and making good timing adjustments means there are some important “Don’t’s” to guide you as you step up to the plate:

  • PLEASE DON’T say one thing to an employee, customer, associate, consultant, referrer, supplier, sales rep, investor, lender, and then do another!

  • PLEASE DON’T promise any of those people what you can’t deliver.

  • PLEASE DON’T promise what you won’t deliver.

  • PLEASE DON’T ask for meeting options, and then change them when you get them.

  • PLEASE DON’T set meetings or appointments (note especially, professional practices) and then keep people waiting without some definite, reasonable, truthful, and on-time explanation. Acknowledge people waiting in line! And, by the way, a visiting sales rep should be treated just as importantly to you as your best employee or best customer.

  • PLEASE DON’T host a meeting and then interrupt it with non-emergency cell calls or txtmsgs that really could wait.

  • PLEASE DON’T call for a meeting and then change it on the fly at the last minute.

This is all starting to sound like a reminder list for exercising integrity? HA! YES!

HOW you time things, HOW you time your purpose and your passion is what others measure you by. It’s your own yardstick that you create. So, yes, integrity it is. Sizing up when and where to swing your bat counts alot. HOW you swing it counts most! 

Drive your imagination forward with reality.

Open minds open doors.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Jun 08 2011

“I Almost Died!”

“Almost Dying”

                                    

is a GOOD thing.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Uh, because…?

 

Huh? Hey, if you “Almost” died, then you didn’t, right? 

. . . which means you’re still alive.

Well, Glory Hallelujah!

                                                       

Like the baseball team that had to come back from being ten runs behind in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and one strike left, and –by some miracle– twelve straight hits, including a walk-off grand slam and two others, wins the game. How many times have we heard of being spared by being snatched from the jaws of death?

Okay, so we know that things like this happen in other places besides Hollywood, but what’s the payoff? A unique, new, more meaningful perspective on life is inevitably gained — one that was clearly missing when you woke up the day before you almost died.

The same dynamics apply to small business ownership and management.

For many entrepreneurs –particularly in the last two years of oppressive federal government controls, spending and taxation without representation– their businesses have also almost died.

                                                                   

Yet somehow, miraculous comebacks have been recorded. Even in the face of the Obama Administration’s (well-documented) every effort to refuse small business owners and operators the opportunity to make miracles happen. Even after having the pedestal of self-esteem and career accomplishment knocked out from under their enterprises.

And perhaps –to one degree or another– your own?

But somehow, for those who have returned to life, guts and gumption have prevailed. And here they are. Still breathing. Are you breathing?

What do we learn by almost dying?

We learn to value and appreciate more than ever what we’ve had (and still have) that we disavowed, disregarded, and just plain dissed.

                                                            

We discover people who we had no idea of before, riding to our rescue. We find that we still have a sense of ingenuity and a passionate drive to make our ideas work. Many find money and investors they never knew existed.

Many who have ventured or been brought close to the edge, to the brink of death, also find prayer and spiritual guidance that they might never have believed possible.

There’s something to be said for

reality bringing fantasy into reality!

                                                                                        

Suffering? No one –except for terrorist crazies and the ignorant self-indulged among us– wishes suffering on anyone. Yet all of us suffer for ourselves and our lives and our families as we do as well for our businesses. The trick is to choose to not get swept away by it, not wallow in it, not get so caught up in it as to miss the present.

That’s the hardest part. Letting go. Moving on. But small business owners and managers know this perhaps more than most because having your own business is like having another family, and it often feels like two lives are being lived. So, yes indeed, the trick is in fact choosing to go forward when it’s hardest.

Let’s close with the great quote by B. Olatunji:

“Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

                                 

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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 10 2011

Hope and Expectations

You can count sheep, but

                                        

don’t count your chickens.

 

 

“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched!” my mother always warned me. As usual, she was right. God rest her soul. Were she still here, she would have been marching around the White House with “SAVE SMALL BUSINESS” placards, and made herself a thorn in the side of the sooo-unbusinesslike Obama Administration.

Mom would have waved her finger at Mr. Obama, and lectured him on the need for the nation to rely on small businesses to reverse our ever-deepening economic quagmire. She would have looked him in the eye and might have said something like:

“Son, you need to know that hope and 

 expectations breed disappointment.

And you just better get on with it!”

                                      

Mom knew what the White House fails to know, and that professional practice and small business owners and managers –and, yes, all professional salespeople everywhere know in their heart of hearts (but often forget):

Only by taking steps to get things

done, do things actually get done!

                                                             

No, she wasn’t a polisci major. Mom quit high school at age 16, when both her parents died, to become mother and father and housekeeper to her three younger sisters and two “good-for-nothin'” lazy older brothers (who grew up to be lazy “good-for-nothin'”‘ uncles). She supported her “sibling family” working at a telephone switchboard.

After marrying my mailman father, she became a full-time homemaker (in the days they were called housewives). Mom knew hard work and tough economic times, but worked through it all with smiles and prayers. Her bottom line advice would be:

“Y’know, the more we sit around and plan and analyze and hope and expect, the less that happens. Because,” she would thump on her kitchen table, mocking my father’s pretend toughness, and say things that you could interpret to mean: “Because the game delays that result from energy expended could instead have been devoted and directed toward stepping up to the plate and swinging the bat.”     

(Mom was a big baseball fan.) 

                                        

Regardless of whether you are a photographer, accountant, publisher, undertaker, precision parts manufacturer, pizza parlor franchisee, shoe salesman, crime scene cleaner, mattress retailer, or social media marketing mogul, you can be sure that absolutely nothing works for your business if you don’t make it work. 

So get off your butt, get you glove and get in the game. If you prefer to be hoping and expecting, send in an application to become a monk, or join the White House staff. If you seek results and growth, listen to my mother who would tug your sleeve and tell you “Action speaks louder than hope.”

She would have concluded by saying something like:

“If there’s anything to count after you’re done with sheep and chickens, count your blessings, count your lucky stars, and count ON yourself. You and they (your blessings and stars) are all here and now . . . real. You and they are what you have. Make the most of you and them. And visit again soon.”

                                        

Thanks, Mom.

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           Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

“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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Aug 30 2010

DECISIONS, DECISIONS . . .

First and third OR

                             

first and reverse?

                                            

Given the enviable place to have runners when you’re up (first base and third base), you might think tonight’s post is another baseball story, or first down and a reverse hand-off in football . . . Sorry, sports fans: This one’s about an unusual car, and your unusual business decisions . . . but that’s getting a step ahead; let’s get back to the car. 

I once had a choice of gear combinations for a car I was purchasing. I needed something to get back and forth to college, back and forth to work, and back and forth to parties (some things never change!). A friend of mine, Joe, had THE car for me!

It was an all-black 1954 Sunbeam Talbot 90. Now you may think that sounds like it should be on  the kitchen counter for blending your okra and lima bean smoothies, but it was a car — a classic luxury vehicle in England in its heyday.

It had a sunroof, leather interior, rumble seat, running boards along each side, a hidden pull-out bar in the back, fog lights, six hidden compartments, and barely a mark. It was only a few hundred dollars “because it had a little gear problem,” but “had to be seen,” Joe said. He was right. It was a dream car. Almost.

The “little gear problem” meant I would have to make a decision. I could have only first gear and third gear, OR only first gear and reverse gear. Hmmm. First and third meant revving the thing up to 20-25 mph (which sounded like a dozen weedwhackers in flight), and then quickly “pop” it into third gear (it had “Synchromesh” for gear shifting with some ease) and cruise along, having completely by-passed the missing second gear.

OR . . . I could have first gear and reverse gear – always a good thing, said Joe, in case I ever needed to back up! I asked about speed, but was advised that “something had to go” and I could only have one or the other. With first and reverse, I would of course be able to parallel park, and get out of sticky situations (a date’s driveway?) without having to get out and push.

I could floor it in first and get to the weed-whacker noise level, then pop it into neutral and coast to a crawl, then pop it back into first and floor it again, etc. I took first and reverse. My decision didn’t please a lot of other drivers, but I couldn’t imagine never needing to go backwards.

Has your business been forced to go backwards in this economy? Were you prepared for it? Were you barreling along going forward when you first saw the telltale signs of government incompetence rewarding big dumb companies for doing everything wrong instead of smart small businesses for doing things right? Did you have to shake your head like a wet dog? Are you still?

Decisions that plan for future disaster (building an underground bomb shelter, investing in emergency crank-up radios with every news item about increased awareness of terrorist “chatter,” taking a loss on eBay for your world series ticket options for the Cubs and the Mets) are not always the best to actually implement, but thinking through contingency arrangements is always a good thing.

Developing an exit strategy for a brand new business is like having a pre-nuptual agreement. It seems like a stupid negative influence at the moment of highest positive attitude. It flies in the face of gut instinct. But it is not a bad idea, and it will almost always be of primary concern to any person or entity who is investing in the new business. 

Leave your self and your business “wiggle room.” You may not need to build a bomb shelter, but you’d better know where to go  and when if the business/market/industry or profession you’re involved with, or your state/region/nation continues to step deeper into an economical abyss. Have a plan. Keep it in your pocket. But have one. You might need to back up a little some day. 

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

 

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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Mar 11 2010

Let Salespeople Sell and Marketers Market!

Should “A-Rod” 

                            

be negotiating

                                

terms for Scott Boras

                                                     

to play third base?

                                                                

     With immediate apologies to all those “not a baseball fan” types who prefer brawn-over-brain sports that require heavy drinking to appreciate, and, oh yes, apologies also to all those who suffered great heartache at having to see Olympic curling competition come to an end.

     It’s just that even Herman’s Hermits have heard of baseball’s super-star Yankee slickster, and America’s champion sports agent (No, not the Tom Cruise character from the “Show me the money!” movie). And everyone knows that neither of these guys could do the other’s job with even a shred of success. Besides, it hooked you into reading this, right? 

     Well, this is not much ado about nothing because business owners and managers insist everyday on putting the avalanche of marketing burdens on the shoulders of salespeople who haven’t a clue about the most appropriate tools to use, nor any sense of the command of psychology needed to make those tools work effectively. And designating marketing people for sales roles can be an even bigger joke.

     Marketing is not sales. Sales is a function of marketing.

     Marketing is also the umbrella over all these other functions: pricing; packaging; online and offline promotion, merchandising, and advertising; online and offline public relations, community relations, investor relations, industry relations, business alumni relations, and much of customer relations; professional practice development; formalized networking, blogging, and social media activities; website design and development; and “buzz” (word-of-mouth) marketing.

     Sales has many parts to it. Not the least of these is that being a sales representative means running one’s own small sales performance business complete with bookkeeping and all the other migraine-promoters. But sales is sales.

     Marketers are the planners, organizers, strategists and creators. Salespeople are the movers and shakers. Salespeople are the lifeblood of every organization. Marketers provide the support services that bring prospects to the point of sale. Salespeople sell!

     If you want your salespeople to do a better job of selling, let them sell. Take away the responsibility for marketing that drains their energy, makes them crazy and is beyond their comprehension to begin with, and let them sell.

     Give the responsibility for marketing to people who are trained to do marketing. Let them come up with the words and pictures and designs and plans and budgets and strategies and slogans and jingles and branding lines and media plans and scripts and news releases and online program approaches.

     When their work succeeds at driving prospects to your door, reward them for the results; but then let your salespeople do their job! 

     Of course they all need to interact and share insights with one another. The more each team and individual knows about what makes the other(s) tick, the more successful all of them will be, and so will be your business. Your greatest challenge is to motivate everyone to do what they do best to take your business in the direction you want it to go. That’s leadership, and only you can do that!

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT DayGet blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

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Apr 23 2009

The Ultimate Business Stimulus Package: YOU

“I am me. In all the world,

                                                                                

there is no one else

                                                     

 exactly like me. 

                                    

I am OK!”

–Virginia Satir

     Run your own business? Post these 18 words on your dashboard, mirror and refridgerator . . . Why? Because even entrepreneurs need reassurance, and especially when economic uncertainties have a way of making us all feel like too many things–often including our selves–are sometimes NOT okay.

     Have you ever felt like that, or am I just imagining it? Have you felt like that more in recent times than in the past? Do you sometimes think maybe the news media is trying to sink your ship by heaping negative economy stories on your already overburdened shoulders?

     Does it start to feel suffocating? Do you step back every once in a while and start to question your own self-worth? Get out of it! Rattle your cage! Change the channel! Shut down the news!

     Do you really need to take the murders, muggings, accidents, freaky and bizarre incidents and people, and the incessant dwelling on negativity to bed with you every night? Do you really need to wake up with it every morning? 

     What would happen if you shut it all down for a few days and used the time instead to relax your brain and remind yourself how truly special and unique you are? Do you really think you would miss much? If you have doubts, take a quick trip to the library or on Google through past newspaper headlines.

     Go back 20, 50, 100 years! Surprise! The names and locations change, but the stories are mostly the same. It will be like missing a week of All My Children and General Hospital. Nothing new goes on.

     As a sort of sports version of the old expression to do reality checks by pinching yourself, I don’t recommend the method former baseball slugger Bobby Bonilla used to practice, but the idea worked for him; every at-bat, he hit himself on his helmet with his bat just before stepping up to the plate. You can be sure it helped him focus his attention.

     SOMEthing that only you know about can be a “focus trigger” for you. Take a minute and think about that one thing. What snaps your awareness back when your mind starts to drift? Figure it out and use it more. Snap your brain back to the reality that YOU ARE UNIQUE. That awareness, and following the path of reality that it conjures up, is The Ultimate Small Business Stimulus Package.

     In other words, get yourself cranked up, and keep yourself cranked up. It’s catching, and others –internal customers (like associates, employees and vendors) as well as external customers will respond in ways that bring you more business. Remember that what you love doing best is what you do best, and appreciating your self more will help you succeed at doing what you do best. Now THAT’s a stimulus package!       Good Night and God Bless You – halalpiar

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HAPPY FIRST BLOGBIRTHDAY!

For those of you who have been with this from the beginning (April 24, 2008), and those who have joined and visited along the way, thank you so very much! I hope you will continue to visit and comment and subscribe, and urge your business, personal, and professional growth-minded friends and associates to stop by. I am always open to your ideas and suggestions. Please comment or email me anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (“Businessworks” in the subject line).

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Mar 24 2009

UNLIKELY BUSINESSES (shore bets & mud)

Who Woulda Thunk It?

                                                                 

I’ve been running across so many situations lately I could only categorize as unlikely business bets that I’m wondering about this economy spawning an epidemic of them, and whether I might indeed indulge the sensibilities of visitors to this blog with periodic excursions into business unliklihood. What say you?

     First, though seemingly unlikely on the surface, is the speculative category of business that I’ll simply label as a “SHORE BET” because it goes like this: You can be sure (shore?) that all the weeping and gnashing of business owner, manager and entrepreneur teeth (alotta gnashing, right!) is taking place inland. Inland? What’s that supposed to mean?

     Businesses located on coastlines— oceans, bays, lakes, rivers –are more insulated from economic downturns I am told repeatedly by coastal business owners. What? Are you sober? You have research? No. I have instincts and experience. I have ears that listen to business owners and operators who have weathered some tough financial storms.

     An increasing number of (perhaps wishful, but) confident-sounding people are of the conviction that businesses that depend on waterfront industries and (especially) tourism, are actually gathering strength in anticipation of the further collapse of inland business cousins.

     They say that when people have fewer dollars to part with for vacations, they don’t cancel vacations, they travel closer to home, and they look for self-sufficient environments where thay can pay all-inclusive fees that include meals and other amenities. They look for areas that provide inexpensive assorted entertainment and amusement choices and full range food and beverage options.

     Naturally, I think about where I live in coastal Delaware, and the magnificent seashore here that is beginning to host more and more vacationers (and year-long weekenders) from NY, NJ, PA, VA, MD, and NC than ever before. It’s almost like our coastline has been quietly waiting to be discovered by nearby state travelers who are finding vacation rewards so abundant that they wonder why they ever headed for all those crowded Florida destinations to start with.

                                                                       

NEXT, is baseball mud!

                                                               

     As long as we have baseball, we’ll have baseball mud…highly specialized “Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud” that has been helping professional baseball pitchers get a better grip on the ball…that comes from a special secret location in a hidden New Jersey swamp!

     Now, talk about an unlikely business bet! Imagine Mr. Blackburne coming to you for startup capital in 1938.

     “Well, I got me this magic mud that professional baseball leagues will be buying from me for over 70 years. They’re going to age it for a month and a half. We’re going to sell them three-pound vats, two for each team in the majors, and that’ll hold them a full season…”

     “Yeah, right, mud, uhuh, sure, okay, well I’m not sure that’s such a good investment, Mr. B…”

     The amazing part is it’s true! And the company is highly successful. [Who woulda thunk it?]

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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