“Start savin’ your

toenails, kid!”

     Growing up, my father always told me things were too expensive by saying “they cost an arm and a leg.”

     Heaven forbid, I used to think, that we should ever willfully exchange body parts for materialistic possessions! Unless of course hair, and toe and fingernails suddenly blast the roof off the commodities market, and can be traded in collector jars or Ziploc bags for cars, flat screen TVs, Wii programs, iTunes, and sushi hand-rolls.

     But remembering the exaggerated childhood lesson in economics, I am prompted to raise the question: Am I really worth what I charge? I look around me and see a zillion other businesspeople, who haven’t a fraction of my hard-earned experience, charging outrageous fees for services they clearly haven’t a clue about, like strategic marketing and leadership development (or HRD, or CRM, or SEO, whatever those are).

     I see even more zillions of people who are self-proclaimed writers (minus of course the ability to communicate) or “social media experts” (can you believe even: “Twitter Coaches”?), yet when I weigh my worth, I rationalize that I write as well if not better than many of those over-the-top-paid authors out there. And only God knows about the rah-rah Twitter Coaches? (And the crowd roared: “FF, RT, Give ’em a Tweet and break their feet!”).

     It gets tiring to be so overloaded with pinkie finger talent and only be getting 35-cents an hour. So what’s the answer? Wayne Dyer? Zig Ziglar? How many dollars have you spent buying quick-fix books, tapes, pyramid marketing schemes, CDs, instant cash programs, seminars, webinars . . . huh? And who’s making money on whom? 

     Oh, and a great interview the other night on Delaware TV with a man (who looked like he was wearing Salvation Army clothes) captioned “Avid Gambling Fan.” The slot machine puller noted how wonderful more casinos would be because “it’s a great way to be able to donate to charity and not pay taxes.” 

     The point is that you’re worth to others whatever you think you’re worth to yourself, and if your life is all about thinking you’re worth 35-cents an hour, you are! If you are so blind as to see slot machines and casinos as your savior, you are surely headed back to the Salvation Army for a full wardrobe. Wayne and Zig? They have plenty of right answers, but your brain has to be open and receptive enough to gain their value.

     Twitter Coaches? Pfffffft! Good luck! The answer about what you’re really worth is in your spirit. It’s in your attitude. It’s what you believe about you. And all of that is a choice. So stop sitting around choosing to drag yourself down when you can just as easily choose to pull yourself up? Hmmmmm? That’s maybe a better question. 

               Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! 

Just because you’re a hotshot,

don’t blow off doing your homework!

      I recently noticed two free-standing specialty coffee kiosks gone from two strip mall parking lots I regularly pass. The business owners — a franchise I believe — are no doubt fretting that they made a bad investment decision, probably blaming the economy. 

     But the truth is much more obvious. They simply didn’t do their homework. They thought they had an idea that was so spectacular that it would work anywhere: Starbucks-style coffee on the go at drive-up booths in busy shopping areas. You do know the word “assumptions” is spelled “T~R~O~U~B~L~E” ? Apparently, they did not.

     What they overlooked (by not doing their homework) was that you can’t set up shop for a retail establishment of any kind that specializes in expensive, exotic coffee in shopping areas (no matter how much traffic) that boast boarded-up storefronts and are primarily frequented by welfare and food stamp recipients, in a poverty-stricken state.

     Even in good times in a rich state (are there any of either of these left?), to charge $3-$6 for a cup of coffee-to-go approaches the cusp of gouging, and is best left to major parkway service centers and sports stadiums where captive audiences will pay the piper. 

     So these owners knew they had high-traffic areas, but never checked out shopper profiles. And even this would have been obvious had they had their scouting eyes open: junk-heap cars and trucks, and shoppers in Salvation Army-style clothing ear-marked the parking lots.

     Of course it’s possible that these owners might have thought they were so entrepreneurially sharp that they could sell ice to Eskimos.

     Compounding the issue was that perhaps they saw nothing off-putting about cars lined up at these one-person kiosks, having pulled up because there wasn’t time to stop at WAWA or 7/11, waiting in bumper-to-bumper lines for some tweep to order a fat-free, candy cane brandy latte with 3 shots of carmel splash espresso, and skim milk with real whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon… 

     And even that bit of customer aggravation would be resolvable and — in some neighborhoods wouldn’t matter anyway — if some value-added benefits were made part of the waiting time (not unlike the idea of Starbucks laptop connections).

[Don’t get me wrong here, I am not endorsing Starbucks; I don’t like their operations, their rip-off prices OR the taste of their over-the-top coffees; they are simply a convenient example.] 

Bottom line: Realtors beat it to death, but they are right! Location is indeed critical for every (even in-home) business. But if you fail to do your (complete) homework and don’t think through the strengths and weaknesses of any potential location, you do it at your own peril.”

     If the business has promise, excuses don’t cut it when hotshot entrepreneurs run it into the ground. Specialty coffee –in the right locations — can still command big bucks in this economy. Stupidity cannot. 

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 LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP? See Hal’s Guest Blog Post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 WONDERING WHEN NO is Better Than MAYBE? See Hal’s Guest Blog Post in BonMot Communications’ Angelique Rewer’s FREE HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED e-zine www.thecorporatecommunicator.net 

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