Aug 06 2011

Are YOU “Downgraded”? (+38 other questions)

With America’s ship

 

sinking, and “Captain”

 

 Obama busy arranging

                                

 deck chairs, is YOUR

                        

business credit rating

                           

on its tippy-toes?

 

                    

Would it matter? What would you (or are going to) do about it? What’s in your best interests? Your family’s best interests? Your customer’s and employee’s best interests? Is that concrete or quicksand beneath your feet? What are your personal circumstances that cornerstone (and that undermine) your business?

To what extent should you care about other’s opinions and evaluations? If your answer to that question is that it depends on whose opinions and whose evaluations, can you identify those “influentials” and jot down their names on scrap paper? Can you rank them 1-10 in terms of importance?

Can that list serve as a priority action plan target for you? 

                                                 

What’s your best guess about how long ’til you can bolster or reverse your current business situation? Do you think this is another “that depends” answer? If so, what exactly does it depend on? Do you truly believe that, or are you just making convenient excuses? 

Is it worth it to answer all these questions? (It is if you’re a real entrepreneur!) Are you a real entrepreneur who has cut out your own path in the world? Or are you a make-believe entrepreneur who’s simply been in the right place at the right time to inherit someone else’s (parents? grandparent’s?) dream? Or are you making that dream reality?

Are you shifting back and forth through the gears, or coasting along in cruise control? How committed are you to your SELF and your ideas and your business . . . really?

                                                          

What if anything do you need to do right now to shore up your small business or professional practice enterprise to withstand the increasing fragility of marketplace, industry, and national government credit rating downgrades? What do you need in order to get these steps started? How will you get there? 

Are you really paying enough attention to sales? Are your sales efforts as productive as you want them to be? How can you boost these efforts? Are you focusing all your resources on growing sales or on growing debt? Have you considered that your business will never make money by turning off light switches?

Can you increase revenues by courting existing and past customers more often and more attentively? Are you putting too much energy, and time, and money into trying to open new markets and gain a new customer base? Do you know that such efforts are probably ten times less effective than focusing on past and present business?

Are you tired of answering these questions? Did they make you think?

                                              

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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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Jun 16 2011

PIE-EYED?

Not “Pie-eyed” intoxicated

                       

. . .Pie-eyed as in bleary

                      

from studying

                                                     

 too many pie-charts!

 

Actually, if you have this ailment, you are either reading too much of USA TODAY, or you are reading too much into your competition.

Try the following exercise on behalf of the entrepreneurial professional practice or small business that you own or operate or manage or partner with. It will give you an “Aha!”

  • First, draw a pie. Whatever kind you like is fine. Next draw a slice that approximately represents what you think is your business or professional practice share of the primary market you’re engaged in (SOM, as corporate biggies call it).

  • Do something to highlight it: color, fill it in, draw your favorite fruit into it, add crumbs or a topping if you want.

  • If your slice is too small to fit any decorative ingredients, put an arrow off to the side that shows your sliver and decorate your arrow (or if the sliver is simply a reflective glint off the pie tin, you may want to consider closing down and trying some other business . . . or there’s always government work that requires no pies and no thinking).   

  • Next, assuming you do have a reasonable or promising piece of the pie in front of you, take an educated guess at what you imagine the sizes of the other market portion slices that each of your key competitors controls.

  • Draw in and label those slices. Are you still with me, or have you been nibbling?

  • Now stand back (or lean back) and take a good, hard look at this pie. It’s a graphic representation of the market your business is in. What’s going on in the middle?

  • Scribble a little tornado into the dead center of the pie, overlapping all the tips of all the slices. That is where everyone in your market is killing each other, fighting to get a bigger share.

                                                               

Just think about how much time and energy and money is spent in that little area of commotion. That little battlefield becomes so consuming and wasteful that many business owners and managers fail to see what else is happening.

Pay attention for a minute to what’s outside the pie (the box, the bun). What do you see? Endless space? More pies?

Have you, in other words, been staring at one star in the sky and not noticing the rest of the solar system? Or beyond? Have you been focused on one tree and ignored the forest? How about just concentrating on your one slice and seeing only what else is in the pie? There is a limit to the amount of toppings you can add, you know.

So why not (are you ready for this?) . . .

e–x–p–a–n–d—– t–h–e—– p–i–e—–?—–?—–?

What happens to your SOM when you make the pie larger? Yes, yes, the competition grows bigger too. But are you in business to succeed or to kill your competition? When you are the entity responsible for making the pie bigger, you are also going to capture the lion’s share of the increased market because you are the one opening the floodgate.

Instead of we’ve got better stuff and we’ve got cheaper stuff and we provide better service deals, what about looking around to see how many prospects there are out there who do not own or use ANY of your existing market products or services, and then take the high road that “We want EVERYone to experience this type of market offering!” 

Not sure? Call or email me. I love making pies bigger. Yum! Happy weekend. See you Saturday!  

                                                   

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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 28 2009

EMPLOYEES WHO UNDERMINE YOU

Mind Over Undermine

                                                                                                           

     At some time or another, every business and professional practice boss discovers a hired or inherited employee or group of employees whose sole mission appears to be to undermine operations—from manufacturing to customer service/patient care to administration to sales.

     Sometimes it’s vindictiveness, jealousy, bitterness, resentment…all good stuff, right? Sometimes, though, it’s naivety, ignorance, immaturity, misplaced loyalties, or just plain stupidity. While the reason might be important to uncover, what’s most important is to act on the discovery before it has chance to fester.

     If it’s too late to contain the infection from spreading out and affecting others in your organization, it may require you to rise to the confrontative occasion and call for all the cards to be put on the table. This, however, is not always the best solution.

     Why? Someone who may have been undermining you or your business or practice may be truly innocent of premeditation, or was perhaps unwarily acting out someone else’s issues. In that situation, you could be pulling the plug on someone who is a valuable potential asset to your operations or reputation.

     This may be the right point, instead, to pull in a professional to facilitate differences and/or re-train problem employees, or to counsel you on how to do it, or to force the situation to a head on your behalf. At any rate, it’s certainly worth the time to discuss the circumstances with an outside consultant before making that decision. 

     Prepare a short bullet list of issues and individuals involved with your own assessments of how effectively each performs in the roles for which they/he/she were/was hired. Try to keep your comments as objective as possible so as not to prejudice an outsider’s opinions, but articulate your issues and concerns clearly.

     Make your mission clear, and make your goals for each position that’s involved clear ones. In the process, look to your self as well, and question what (if any) contribution your own statements or behaviors may have contributed. Ask your consultant for a straightforward, unvarnished opinion and recommendation.

     Decide when, where and how to act, and what to say. Be receptive to whatever responses you provoke, and assess those in private. In the end, you will have given enough time and energy to the situation to justify moving forward from the point of implementing your decision. Then move forward.     

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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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Apr 20 2009

IBM, Babe Ruth and Thomas Edison

“Your success in life will

                                             

depend on what you do

                                                                              

after you do what you

                                                                              

are expected to do!”

                                                                                                
— FROM A STORY TOLD BY INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED
AUTHOR AND MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER BRIAN TRACY
                                                                                                               

     In its heyday, upstart computer giant IBM had a rallying cry that reverberated throughout the entire sales and customer service industry. The words, “The sale begins after the sale is made!” set the tone for an entire generation of customer service based sales and customer relationship management that followed.

     IBM support people were said to literally descend from the sky in parachutes within an hour of any service call. In fact, we are still following this tenacious, persistent, kill ’em with kindness, build-that-database, get-that-return-sale attitude. And actually, it’s more pronounced now than ever, ushered in by lightening fast advances in hi-tech and media communications, and the rapid advances in consumer savvyism.

     What does this mean for you, the entrepreneur, you the small business and professional practice owner/manager? Here are some thoughts to think:

     Brian Tracy’s quote at the top says it best. The point is that you who own/run a business are of necessity, engaged in sales. Keeping sales and production (that’s service production as well as product production) in balance is part of the alltime great entrepreneurial challenge. The whole world admires a one-man-band, but that doesn’t make producing the music any easier.

     Going the extra mile is what it’s all about. Moving forward even when you think you can’t is what it’s all about. Greatness has only ever come from those who pushed onward in the face of major losses, and who did it again and again.

     Edison tried unsuccessfully to invent the lightbulb 9,999 times before defeating the darkness. Babe Ruth’s incredible home run record was matched only by his incredible strikeout record. We all know and have seen many of the great Olympic performance hero stories. Each has always involved taking the extra step, even when all hope seems lost. 

     When you’ve completed what others (partners, family, employees, customers, vendors, industry and community associates) expect you to do, keep doing! Starting in a half hour before others and staying a half hour later is a good beginning. Making better use of time scheduling and delegating is another.

     Regardless of the tools you choose, it’s what’s under your hat that makes the difference…and the overriding awareness that whatever you do to exceed expectations is 100% your own choice. No one else will choose success for you and make it happen. But you can do both! Starting now.   

 Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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Apr 15 2009

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE MARKETING

Pain Shots: 1-Free-With-11?

                                                           

At some point in your career, you’ll know when you’ve seen it all. How about discount coupons for a lawyer? (Or, hey, what about one free last will and testament thrown in with every divorce case?)

Every third chiropractic spinal adjustment (whoops, sorry: “subluxation”) gets a $10 rebate? (Maybe they should be packaged with an oil change and lube job?)

How about a one-free-with-eleven deal on hypodermic needle injections from a pain clinic? (Depending, of course on what kinds of toppings you like…pepperoni, extra cheese…)

     P L E A S E, Dear Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant, Dentist, Chiropractor, Physical Therapist, Nurse Practitioner, Acupuncturist, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Nutritionist, Occupational and Speech Therapist – PLEASE stick to your professional expertise and find someone with professional marketing expertise to represent you and communicate your messages to the outside world.

     Professional training and hands-on experience certainly make no secret of emphasizing and reinforcing the need for professional practitioners to exude self-confidence. And the temptation is great to think that adding “entrepreneur” to your list of credentials is, as baseball old-timers call it, a can of corn! (Or for the less athletic: a piece of cake!)

     But the truth is that all one needs to do is open any phone book to professional listing sections and check out the ridiculous ads . . . 

  • Will you race off to the plastic surgeon because his ads show a sexy centerfold “After” patient?

  • Do you really need a specialist at Reiki, EFT, EST, Craniosacral Therapy, and Rolfing in order to quit smoking? 

  • Do you get all jittery inside merely thinking about the excitement you know you’ll feel when you call that dentist whose ads proclaim he now has mucosal blade inserts?

  • Can you just not wait to handshake and backslap all those thousand dollar suits standing around a five thousand dollar desk in the ornate law office ad photo simply because the headline says “Our Attorneys Work For You And We’re There When You Need Us!” (Right, as long as your wallet’s open!)

  • Oh, and surely you can’t wait to get to that doctor who’s a specialist in electrodiagnostics. Don’t we all like to get zapped once in a while? 

  • Is an IRS enrolled agent tax law specialist CPA necessary to help you get a bank loan?

                                                      

     Professional marketers with professional marketing skills will present you and your message in the best. most professional environment and be able to emphasize your strengths in simple, straightforward, layman’s language.

     They will get you better prices for printing, and database lists, and media time/space than you can get on your own. They will know the best ways to reach your target market (and better help you define it) on the best dollar-value basis. They understand and market via the Internet! 

     They will know the best sets of words and highest impact graphics to use (including fonts, spacing, colors, layouts and designs, photos and illustrations, sizes, materials). They will have experiences that you will not have and that you will not want to pursue anymore than you’d want them to perform your professional services on your family!          

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

No responses yet




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