Stop shooting yourself

in the Subject Line!

     I had occasion today and yesterday to delete a few thousand emails that had accumulated at an old, unused email address. 99.9% of them (including substantial numbers from leading name companies) had subject line copy that was too stupid for a 6 year-old to consider opening.

     Okay, I realize the vast majority of these were spam, but you would have to be from Pluto or Uranus to think you could find value in clicking open emails with Subject copy like:

• Get Yore Advanced Collage Decree Today: EZ and cheep [I gather we'd not be talking about a Master of Fine Arts in Writing here.]  
• Women will cling to you day and night[This is not something I can imagine a desirable state of existence regardless of gender.]
• Hi. Angelina here. I missed hereing from you[Wow! An old acquaintance; I mist you two!]
• Jumpstart your customer base now! They’ll come rushing to your door with their wallets out! [Not sure that jumpstarts are such a good idea for my surgeon clients! And not many doctors run anywhere with their wallets open anyway!]
• Call Today! Start Earning $10,000 A Week Immediately![Okay. let's see, that's $520,000 a year. Hmmm, not bad. Must be a steroid franchise!]

     You get the idea. And you surely get your own fair share as well. The point is that there’s also a very large and very successful email marketing medium out there that is thriving because the people involved are professional enough to recognize that GREAT Subject line copy gets emails opened.

     What makes it great?

1. First (like the ingredients and message of every great direct mail campaign envelope), it’s as personalized as can possibly be.
2. Second (like the copy for every great billboard and branding theme), it’s seven words or less that tell a story that has a beginning, middle and ending and is persuasive!
3. Third (like every great ad and every great marketing campaign), it succeeds at attracting attention, creating interest, stimulating desire, and bringing about action while assuring satisfaction.

     WHEW! That’s a lot of stuff for one email Subject line! Yup! And it takes a lot of time and special skill that can often be pricey. But, how important is it to get your email advertisement opened to start with?

     Remember: no matter how spectacular your message is inside, it’s not worth a hand of sand if your prospect doesn’t open it.   

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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Ready to roll your gasping,

bleeding business into the ER?

     At a  9AM meeting you asked for a copy of an old 12-page report by the end of the day. That didn’t seem unreasonable, did it?  

     Probability is that your headache only came on when you realized that not only was your request ignored, but that the employee who smilingly agreed to provide the copy actually took a two-hour lunch and then left for home early.

     Of course you needed some icing on the headache cake, so your eager-to-please employee obliged you while you were on a conference call by dropping a “Sorry, the copy machine’s been down all day” note on your desk for you on the way out!

     How many times have you asked someone who works for you to get something done quickly and then discovered that the task ended up in the “SLOW” pile? Okay, every one’s not “Charlie Hustle,” but assuming that you’re making your “RUSH” requests in a reasonable and courteous manner, maybe the person on the receiving end simply doesn’t share your sense of urgency?

     Do you find more evidence of this in your observations of employee dealings with customers and clients? Perhaps it’s time to recruit your people into developing or up-dating your business mission statement and –in the process– to make sure that some key reference is made to “responsiveness.”

     Why not just repremand and push everyone to move quicker? Because you need your people to buy into the way of thinking you want the business to have if you’re interested in having them behave more responsibly than hired temporaries. After all, doesn’t the government aspire to be in a position of simply dictating change?

     Ah, but the government knows nothing about running a business. In fact, the government seems unfortunately destined to experience that rude awakening soon… the reality that change cannot be dictated anywhere with any degree of success by anyone, except perhaps at gunpoint in a dictatorial regime, is not far from discovery.

     People accept change more quickly and more wholeheartedly when they have a hand in designing the ingredients and/or the parameters of what behavior is expected of them. Giving them at least the opportunity to suggest recommendations for inclusion in the revitalized guidelines for conducting day-to-day affairs makes them part-owners.

     People who are business owners and those who have risen to the occasion and accepted at least the conduct–if not the roles of part-owners–are the same people who accept an ownership mindset. These are the people who you can count on to be responsible, to have a sense of urgency about them in all that they do. And businesses with a sense of urgency succeed.    

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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  Is Your Business   

Half-Pregnant?

     I am convinced that the number one reason for business failure is not the economy, not insufficient capital, not poor management, and not over-regulation by government, though all are symptomatic.

     Government interference is of course particularly irksome because it’s being crafted, dictated, and delivered by an arrogant socialist stampede of naive, incompetent leaders whose total business experience equals zero.

     So, what IS the number one reason for business failure?

     Dig deeper.  

     In the past few years, I personally experienced or had first-hand reported more than two dozen incidents involving owners, operators, and managers of sizeable, established businesses hurtling their business interests the wrong way down one-way streets with reckless abandon.

     All have either since collided or failed or are on their way

All have or had the following characteristics in common:

• Lack of follow-through and a vested interest in maintaining the status quo (amazingly, even after hiring outside consultants to ignite, stimulate, and motivate!) 
• Disregard for and disrespect of their employees, with tokenism providing the prevailing wind 
• Disregard of the very talents and solutions they were outsourcing to shore up their own shortcomings (hard to believe, especially after paying for services, but true!) 
• Complete resistance to initiate two-way “partnership style” communicating
• Not having a sense of urgency.    

     I reduce all of these weaknesses to driving a business the wrong way on a one-way street. It’s noteworthy that many of them talk(ed) the good talk…but to themselves: Mission Statements with no teeth!

     Without keeping open to and encouraging two-way communication by exercising strong listening and feedback skills, by making assumptions instead of addressing differences, and by disregarding the very consulting input they were paying for (and then not providing feedback), they were/are setting themselves up for failure. 

The economy, under-capitalization, poor management, and over-regulation are excuses. Businesses succeed–even with all of these factors working against them–by communicating openly at all levels all of the time. Communicating openly at all levels all of the time is the ultimate trigger for business transparency.

Transparency, like pregnancy, cannot be half-way.

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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The World’s Greatest Expert

on Death and Dying–

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD

–Points to Five Stages:

• Denial and Isolation
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

     She said we –all of us–  must experience each of these five stages to one degree or another in the order they are shown above with every loss experience. The only exceptions being instances where people get stuck in a given stage and never get beyond it.

     So as business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs, some of us experience bits and pieces of these five stages everyday with daily losses.

     Kübler-Ross said that losses are not limited to human death, and can  include the loss of a limb or faculty, or ability… loss of a valuable possession (a home, a car, a business), loss of companionship (including divorce and separation), loss of freedom (including jail), loss of a job, loss of a client, loss of a prospect or opportunity, loss of self-esteem, loss of authority, etc., etc.

     And to a lesser degree, we even experience these stages when we lose a dollar, a photograph, a letter, an address, a contest, and so on.

     So what’s the point? Healthy successful people do everything humanly possible to channel all their energies and mental focus on reaching the level (or “Stage”) of ACCEPTANCE as quickly as possible, and on maintaining themselves at that level as permanently as possible.

     Everything else is non-productive. Everything else leaves us feeling deflated and defeated and negative. Some people stay in these places their entire lives. Some are institutionalized. Some do themselves in.

     Stages 1-4 are pure torment. We must go through them, but the goal needs to be to move through them as rapidly as our minds and bodies allow us to. Getting through the maze may take friends and rescuers to stand by shoulder to shoulder. We have all performed that function for someone else, but perhaps have forgotten?  

     Keep always in the front of your mind that no matter how out of control it may feel to be stuck somewhere in denial and isolation, or in anger, or in a bargaining position, or a state of depression, it IS a matter of choice!

     The minute we choose to accept loss, the quicker we can get on with a happy and productive existence and make the most of the short time we each have here on Earth…make the most of the relationships we’ve been blessed with: with other people and places and purposes.

     We need not choose to lock ourselves into suffering and misery. Life and business life are way too short to have wasted time and energy with anything besides being happy and healthy and in active pursuit of our dreams.  

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the end of the daily 280 POSTS tale! Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)

Do you have a Wimp Complex?

More businesses these days seem to be functioning like wussies!

     A (farmland) truck dealer is giving away a free tractor with every truck purchase. What a great idea, especially given an uncertain overloaded inventory of vehicles manufactured by what has become an uncertain source. But the dealer has stopped short of making the tractor deal a slam-bam promotion, and will no doubt write it off as a loss. (Lots of examples of how to make trucks fly off the lot with this idea : call me!)

     A small handmade product retailer says she’s closing (to become an Internet business and work from home) because the mortgage payments are too high, and there’s not enough store traffic. There was no mention made of the sparse high-priced inventory or the two large dogs that came bounding from behind the counter, jumping on (literally) six panicked customers in four minutes.

     The owner of a new Chinese restaurant (with better quality food and lower prices than any of the dozens of others within 20-30 minutes) reports he cannot attract enough business because two of his customers who run their own companies told him that business everywhere is suffering and that it might take him a couple of years to break even. (Y’think he’s heard about The Emperor’s New Clothes?)  

     The Post Office cuts services and raises prices. (Now there’s a great solution vs. maybe being more competitive with UPS and Fed Ex?)

     One state government is talking about financial crisis tactics that would close down the government one day a week along with their (greatest natural resource) parks operations which are the primary tourism industry attraction and income source… while approving a gazillion-dollar casino and racetrack complex (no doubt to cater to the gambling unemployed). 

     Financially-strapped ferry operations aren’t far behind. They’ve lowered foodservice quality and raised their vehicle and foot passenger rates through the roof, and can’t figure out why they’re continuing to lose money. (Must be products of the same graduate school that cranked out the Postal Service and government muckity-mucks!)

     This list could go on for thousands of pages, but the point of it all is that entrepreneurs–true entrepreneurs–have more gumption than these examples. They have more spunk. They rise to the occasion, and make things happen by sinking their teeth into the situations that are throwing knockout punches to people in the business examples noted.

     Entrepreneurs are the catalysts of change. They represent both the past and the future of this country. They don’t get discouraged over news from other business owners, or economy woes… and certainly not from government “leaders” who have no business sense or experience whatsoever. 

     Entrepreneurs take promotional ideas all the way through to completion and, in the face of hard times: work harder, stay open more hours, increase services and market competition, and lower prices as necessary.  When times are tough, it’s time to go the extra mile! 

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the end of the daily 279 days old growing tale! Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)

Sign up now for

“The Dirt Floor Visit”!

Well, I promised exciting news for tonight, and I’ve got it.

     BUT–

• if you’re not a grandparent,
• or don’t know a grandparent,
• or haven’t yet told a parent that she or he is about to become a grandparent,
• or haven’t told a parent the he or she is already a grandparent,
• or don’t have friends who are already grandparents, or about to become grandparents,
• or for some bizarre reason just don’t care about grandparents (is that possible?)

     — then it’s okay to leave this post tonight and go about your site-surfing because you definitely won’t be interested! Come back again soon though. I love you anyway.

     Now, those of you who are left: Hunker down, and give a listen!

     Mark your calendar for September to go to Barnes & Noble or your nearest bookseller (online or in-person) and sally on up to the counter (or just plunk out your PayPal or charge card numbers) and plop down $20 US, or $25 in Canada (you get a nickle change in either country), and go home with a copy of the wonderful new book edited by writer/ publisher/painter and Internet talk show host Valerie Connelly, to be published by Nightengale Press, entitled:

THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING

     As a thrilled, privileged, and happy contributor (of a reality-based story called “The Dirt Floor Visit” about grandpa and 12 year-old granddaughter!), I have just had the good fortune to read the first draft proofs, and I must tell you that:

Absolutely no grandparent in the world should be without a copy!

     You will not believe the great advice, the messages of love and understanding, the dynamics of grandparent and grandchild that never make it to the TV screen!

     Get a dose of the real grandparent/grandchild world of diapers and gurgles and thumb-grabbing and eyeglass-pulling and hugs and kisses and confidences and interactions you probably never imagined were part of this special relationship that spans the planet and the centuries. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll grab the arm of your chair.

     You’ll hear more about it here (Stay Tuned!) as well as at www.TheArtOfGrandparenting.com once school starts again, and the leaves begin to turn. Reserve a copy now for yourself, or your favorite grandparents or your favorite grandparents-to-be.

     What a great gift! It’s all about being able to share in the special relationships that make (and will make) any new or growing grandparent experiences special! 

Tomorrow: Back-to-Business Basics 

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the end of the daily 278 days old growing tale! Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)

THE FUSE AND THE FUEL

Igniting business and professional development with authenticity

Living in a monastery…you have more opportunities than you might have elsewhere to see the world as it is, instead of through the shadow that you cast upon it.”    

(From BROTHER ODD by one of my favorite authors, Dean Koontz)

     Being in the driver’s seat of your own business, you have more opportunities than you could ever have elsewhere to see your company, your organization, and the products and services you offer as they truly exist, instead of through your own biased eyes.

     How? By asking! Ask everyone you speak with every day—staff, customers, vendors, sales reps, your landlord, competitors, your mother-in-law. Well, okay, maybe you can skip your mother-in-law.

     Ask each person what she or he thinks of your company, your products and services, your people, your reputation, your community involvement, your pricing. Stop being afraid of what you think you might hear. Respect and appreciate honest answers. Every answer can help you be more successful! 

     Carry and use a pocket notebook. You remember notebooks? Those covered pads you write in with a pen (or heaven forbid, a pencil)? Make it your mission to collect feedback, suggestions, ideas, opinions, comments (WITHOUT reacting, rebutting, arguing, yes-butting, or defending; simply absorb them), and then DO SOMETHING WITH THEM!

     Separate and categorize what you collect. Consolidate the ones that are similar or that somehow tie together. Ask yourself what you’re learning in the process: “What I’m learning right now about myself and my business is__________”  is the statement to complete and bombard yourself with as many times a  day as possible.

     This is an especially good exercise to do when you’re wading knee-deep through boring conference calls and meetings, during commutes (unless you’re driving!) and while waiting for appointments or transportation.

     Process the information you write down. Honestly consider what you are in fact actually learning about yourself and your business. When you do, you will be taking a giant step toward rocket-boosting your creative mind, accelerating your own professional growth and development, and igniting the business initiatives you’ve always wished you could set fire to… but never had the fuse or the fuel to work with. Now you do.

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the end of the daily 277 days old growing tale! Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)

Are you a Zippity

or a Doo-Dah?

“You can never resolve a problem by condemning it.”

–World-famous author/consultant Wayne Dyer

     They may not always be right, and they might not always do things right, but Zippity’s get things done!

     Doo-Dah’s typically bungle what they attempt and rarely make attempts on their own to get things done anyway. For a Doo-Dah, it’s easier to make excuses than to take action…easier to complain about a problem or condemn it, than to attack it or solve it.

     How many Doo-Dah’s surround your business and personal life? Stop reading here for 30 seconds, and count them. Think about it. Go ahead: count! I’ll wait. How many?

     Are you helping them? Are they helping you? If you’re not gaining something by association, you’re losing. There is no middle ground. Either you are doing a good deed by spending time and energy (and perhaps money?) with each, and can afford to do that, and want to do that…OR you are losing speed, quality, credibility, and success.

[It may be useful here to remember that achieving the success you seek will surely afford you greater opportunity to help more Doo-Dah's, if indeed that's a goal for you!] 

     Distancing yourself from Doo-Dah’s may seem cruel, and may be impossible when family is involved. Ha! Hit a nerve there, huh? Well, considering that most shrinks will tell you that everyone has a dysfunctional family, it should be no surprise that you ended up with a Doo-Dah brother-in-law or uncle or cousin or parent or child.

     But guess what? If you don’t start taking steps sooner than later to surround yourself and your business with Zippity’s, you run the risk of falling prey to the disengaged incompetence of the Doo-Dah’s now and forever after. It’s your choice.

     If you really can’t let go of being Mr. or Ms. Do-Gooder and you’re not into switching to a priesthood, nunnery or social worker career, then you’d better learn to live with your business and your life being universally uneventful, stale, and stagnant…an investment in the status quo.

[Can your business survive that? Can you?]

    No, it’s not a likely scenario if you are actually still reading this. And assuming you are still reading this, get yourself Zippity’d and stayZippity’d.

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the end of the daily 276 days old growing tale! Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)

WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.

–Continental Airlines

OPEN DOORS. OPEN MINDS.

–United Technologies

     I’ve never been a big fan of Continental since they lost my business presentation luggage 14 years ago (note, by the way, how long we harbor ill feelings about a bad customer experience!).

     In all fairness, though, I must confess that Continental’s branding line stands head and shoulders above all others in the airline industry.

     In fact, “WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” actually serves to set a best practices philosophical mark for small business to emulate. Doubts? What small business have you ever heard of that couldn’t stand to improve itself by working hard and flying right?

     How about ANY business for that matter? And, while we’re at it, might we also want to consider application of “WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” to any PERSON? Just imagine what a pleasant and productive world this would be if we could all live by these four words.

     Not good enough to get you cranked up?

     Okay, how about adding four more words that come from a great corporate campaign of old for United Technologies: “OPEN MINDS. OPEN DOORS.”

     So there you have it. Put’em together and what have you got? 8 words that can literally reverse global economic woes, change the world’s governments and politics for the better, and produce increased, ongoing opportunities for cooperation, growth, success, and universally happier existences.

     Sounds great buthow do you start? By getting started. At home. In your own office. On your own worksite. With yourSELF:

“OPEN MINDS. OPEN DOORS. WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” 

     Start now.Tonight. Tomorrow morning. 8 Words. Write them on paper and tape them to your computer screen, cellphone. desk drawer, briefcase, rearview mirror, medicine cabinet, ceiling fan, wristwatch, your son’s forehead! Watch what happens. You will astonish yourself. I guarantee it!  

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the end of the daily 275 days old growing tale! Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)