“It’s not the economy, stupid!”

Anonymous paraphrase of some political statement

     From organizational development studies,  we know that the solution to every group problem lies within the group. From business success and failure analytics, we know the solution to every business problem lies within the business.

     Stop looking out the window for answers.  It’s NOT the economy that’s the problem. And the answer isn’t outside. The problem and the solution are HOW YOU DEAL with the economy!

Get this “throwing in the towel” and “folding up the tent” and “boarding up the windows” and “closing on Fridays” and “cutting back hours” mindset out of your mind.

You are not the Post Office!

You are not the government!

You are an entrepreneur.

YOU are better than that!

ANYone can quit when the going gets tough.

Success takes courage.

     Show some gumption, you!

     You were full of spunk  when you started your business. Did you lose your spunk when you lost your marbles when you lost you mind thinking that “too much other stuff was to blame?

     Have you chosen  for the economy, the market, the competition, the cost of raw materials, the overpriced goods and services, the disastrous fuel prices and cost of shipping, the lack of customers, incompetent employees, and overkill regulatory compliances to de-rail your business onto a failure track?

     Well? Did you?  Are you STILL using all this nonsense as an excuse for not working your sales pipeline? For not training your employees? For raising your own prices to keep from absorbing supplier cost increases? For not getting on-the-job as early as you used to? For delegating sales functions? For cutting back to “no-frills” customer service?

     PSSSSSSST:  No one else can sell your business products/services as well as YOU can! And no one else can appreciate and serve your customers as well as you. It’s your business; it’s your baby! Get back out there and start talking it up!

     PSSSSSSST:  SALES is the ONLY activity that brings in money! Turning off lights, doing your own books and taking out your own trash are nice economical and ecological things to do, but THEY DON’T BRING IN MONEY! 

     When you can cut out  the excuses, and realize that making your business successful in spite of what everyone around you may seem to be saying (because THEY haven’t learned to cut out the excuses) IS A CHOICE. You CHOOSE your behavior. And you CHOOSE your business’s behavior. It is just as easy (in fact easier) to choose success as it is to choose failure.

     Get your glove and get in the game, and step up to the plate when it’s time to make things happen. PSSSSSSST: Like…NOW?! 

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Faster Than A Speeding

Twitter Tweet . . .

First and foremost,  I hope that the “Twitter Tweeter” who is  responsible for the 9 words I plucked off of Twitter (to feature in my blog post tonight) steps forward. I’d like to put a gold-medal ribbon around her/his neck.

Staring blankly at the rampaging scroll  of recent Twitter trash, I was reading:

“Gosh” and “Golly” and Obama this and Rush that; how to get 14 zillion followers in 24 hours; who’s listening to Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog;what stale peanut butter tastes like; when did Jesus last appear in midtown Manhattan; what the weather is in Southwest Padula; the now infamous “I did not…” quote by Clinton; and how cool Ban-Ray sunglasses are; THEN 9 words rolled by that caught my eye . . .

WHY?

WHY NOT?

WHY NOT ME?

WHY NOT NOW? 

     Whoa!  I said to myself, “Self, these four questions, these nine words, could turn the business world around.” Then I scribbled them down quick before they fell off my screen into Twitter oblivion (Yes, some people do still write things on paper! And, yes, Virginia, there IS a Twitter Oblivion!).

     When I looked up,  sure enough; they were gone. Was it a mirage? NO, I had them on this little scrap that I stuck in my pocket. For days, I kept pulling it out to think about. Guess what I figured out? These 9 words could be the official Mantra for Entrepreneurs.

     These 9 words  are the reason that upstart business startups get started! I mean you’re not likely to see this grafittied on nursing home walls, or in the men’s room at your local bar. This is heady stuff here.

     WHY? WHY NOT? WHY NOT ME? WHY NOT NOW?  works big-time as a thought-provoking motivator for salespeople. And aren’t we ALL salespeople? Well? Aren’t we? When did the last day ever pass in your life that you were not trying to “sell” something to somebody?

     If you’re honest,  the answer may be “never.” Even babies and puppies try to get attention. The blessed difference is they don’t have hidden agendas! So, back to the question, and back to the four questions, and 9 words:

WHY?

WHY NOT?

WHY NOT ME?

WHY NOT NOW? 

     My humble suggestion:  Write them down, paste them up, and think about them everyday for 3 weeks. I’m betting that you will astound even your skeptical self!     

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Sometimes

Smaller Is Better!

Stop trying to jam  big-budget marketing into today’s low-budget economy! You’ll lose time, money, energy, and respect! (Maybe even your business!)

Having helped to start  hundreds of successful businesses, I’m rarely wrong when it comes to predicting business failure. And I’ll tell you right now that I can name a doctor, a manufacturer, a furniture retailer, a trucking business, a bank, a college, and two car dealerships that are positively headed South. The worst part is they don’t even know it. (Or perhaps they do and just don’t want to admit it!)

They’re all caught up  in trying to beat the economy by overwhelming it, like the poor schlemiel with a gambling addiction, throwing good money after bad. Each of these incipient failures have undertaken paths of reckless endangerment, thinking they are some kinds of hot-shot entrepreneurs. Sadly, they are not likely to survive long enough to see the economy turn.

     SOMETIMES  

(contrary to all the “enlargement” spam emails),

 SMALLER

(as the little Beetle automaker has proven time and again)

  IS BETTER!

     Marketing  doesn’t have to be exorbitantly expensive and splashy to be effective. There are some enormously successful direct mail campaigns out there that use postcards. Some of the world’s greatest print space advertisers have discovered they can be equally effective with great (tiny and infinitely less expensive) front page classified ads.

     Baseball managers  who lack big-time sluggers resort to winning games by playing “small ball” …focusing on the basics like not swinging at first pitches, drawing walks, bunting, base-stealing, catching with two hands (!) and playing “heads up” on each pitch. It works.

     Professionally-written  email campaigns can be hugely successful for no cost beyond a writer and a technician (and maybe a list rental). I am presently preparing a frugal campaign for one client that calls for strategically-placed highly-specialized business cards instead of the elaborate and expensive brochures he originally planned.

For another client,  I am preparing an inexpensive customer attitude survey that will get the business significant sales simply by virtue of asking for opinions (and might even collect some valuable ideas and feedback as well!) Bumper stickers are making a comeback.

Bartering  website banners and, of course, the much-talked-about use of social media also represent free and often very effective marketing tools. And, done right, not enough can be said about the value of professionally-done (and again, free) public relations news release and BUZZ (word-of-mouth) programs.

Before you dig  into your pocket to bet on yet another roll of the dice, stop and think about other effective, less-expensive ways to get your message across. The ways are there waiting for you. When smaller is better, open minds open doors!

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Next time someone calls you

“Four i’s,” say thank you!

Radio station WIIFM  (What’s In It For Me?) has been on the air now for over 30 years that I can remember, as the acronym for reminding marketers and advertisers and salespeople that benefits, not features, are what people buy! You want to make a sale? Tell prospects how they’ll benefit, not how great you are!

Okay,  you got that, right? So what’re the “Four-i’s” in SMALL BUSiiNESS STiiMULUS?

Here it is,  all you acronym fanatics (and don’t say I never gave you anything!):

• Intelligence –

Cause literally EVERYone outside Federal and state government circles knows that ONLY small business job creation will reverse this sick economy, and that small business owners must rise above the meaningless token incentives being waved around… and go for the gold under their own steam!

• Innovation –

Cause everybody has ideas, but very few see them through to completion!

• Impression –

Cause you never get a second first one!

• Integrity –

Cause without it, you have no business and no chance of survival in ANY kind of economy! Doing the right thing all of the time means having no exceptions.

     The bottom line is  that if you are lacking in even one 0f these four I’s, you are in big-time trouble, and need to get on the stick before 9am tomorrow morning! And, incidentally, none of these qualities, values, characteristics, whatever you want to call them, costs anything.

In fact,  all four involve conscious daily choices to pursue them. When you have Intelligence, and know your market, know your industry, know your competition, know your product and service benefits (and features) and know what you’re up against with narrow-minded government perspectives that will only provide lip-service instead of solid support, you will be in the best possible position to move your business forward.

     When you choose  innovation and innovative thinking, you are choosing to see every step of the birthing process for launching a new idea. That focus alone will carry the best ideas forward and lose the unproductive ones quickly along the way.

     When you realize  that no one will take the trouble to judge your business twice and that your first impression must be the one that flies, you will be well on the way to achieving the acceptance levels you seek. This means not settling for inferior marketing, advertising, sales, promotion, merchandising, and public relations programs and materials.

     Integrity is the backbone of business.  The recent failures of giant corporate entities have underscored the truth of this point. The day-to-day failures and successes of small businesses are 100% attributable to having and consistently demonstrating high levels of trust and integrity or not. Failures blamed on under-capitalization are failures of poor management. Failures of poor management can inevitably be traced back to failures of integrity.

Heed the Four i’s  as if they were your own two i’s because in the end, the i’s have it!

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Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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

Hal@Businessworks.US         931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

“Stick to your knitting!”

(and risk going down the tubes!)

All of history’s great management gurus  have traditionally advised business owners and managers to stick to their knitting, as in “do what you do best, put your head down, and charge forward!”

But these are radical times  that call for radical solutions. “Sticking to your knitting” can earn you bankruptcy. Look around you for the proof. Would you like a list of all the (big AND small) single-minded-pursuit businesses that closed in the last two years?

Except for those few businesses  that thrive on hard times… do-it-yourself stuff and debt consolidation and pawn shops and vulture lawyers… those who do best are adapting and expanding and re-inventing themselves!

You run a service business  but have more to offer than just your accounting skills. I’m not talking about your tuba-playing. Surely you have taught others something about your specialization at some point. Why not add that ability to the range of services you offer?  

VOILA!  Now you are also a consultant and trainer. Package these add-on services, price them, and include them on your business cards and letterheads. Hey, nothing ventured… 

You’re a painter or designer?  Add less-expensive, one-of-a-kind postcards and greeting cards to your lineup.

You sell furniture  and discover the new senior housing complex down the road provides a small alcove area next to every front door; nothing you carry fits there, but you (or someone you’re connected with) have (has) some carpentry skills. Measure twice; cut once. Skinny/tall/customized corner cabinets! Sell affordably and POOF! A new revenue stream and new prospective customer base.

Every problem is an opportunity.  

A lousy economy is an opportunity

to innovate and spin new business

directions out of your old knitting.

“A stitch in time…”     

And now’s the time to prune the

brittle dead and the overgrown.

     In this second straight year  of continuing economic setbacks for you and your business, you have no doubt suffered losses —money and people— you would certainly have preferred to avoid. And now you’re sitting out on the farthest-most limb of your company tree, saw in hand.

     Well, scramble back down  and spare that big old branch. It may not look altogether healthy, but there’s some green stuff coming out of those barren bark areas, and it’ll survive and thrive if you just —instead— get out the pruning shears for one last ruthless sweep of the brittle dead and the overgrown.   

     But, wait, you say,  you’ve done this already, just months ago! Well, if you’ll promise to shoot the message and not the messenger, I’ll take the risk of telling you that you need to consider it again. When overgrown shrubs and dead branches are lopped off, more nutrients go into growing that which remains and the discarded pieces will return to life in some other form.

     When you let go  of marginal employees, you are strengthening the organization and you are giving everybody a chance to reinvent themselves. They may not like it; they may suffer for it; they may not see it as an opportunity, but in the end they’ll be happier for finding work situations that are better suited to them.

     UNLIKE trees and shrubs,  you are dealing with human emotions and frailties, so a realistic tone of understanding, empathy, active listening, and genuine helpfulness is what you must offer as your end of the trade-off. Losing a job is equal to losing a life for many because it’s such a devastating blow to the ego and self-esteem.

     You must be tuned into  that dynamic and do everything possible to help ease the life transition your business survival needs are prompting. Yes, you must be firm in making and communicating your decisions, but you must also be willing to listen, eager to refer, agreeable to compensate, and share in the responsibility. Why? Because it comes with being a leader.

     And why now?  Because as we let go, we grow. Because the longer we hold onto weak, unproductive, marginal employees, the closer we come to the point of no return, where it’s simply too late to let go and too late to survive.

     Just keep in mind  that there is also a time for every purpose under heaven, and that one purpose of a leader is to show heart in helping the downtrodden to see the light, while showing courage in inspiring the strongest of remaining forces to move forward, onward and upward for the collective good.

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

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This blog free via list-protected email: click RSS Feed above…$1.99/mo on  AMAZON Kindle. Creative? Add your own 7 words to the 318-day 7-Word Story (under RSS) We’re making it up as we go!  GET Hal Alpiar short story in Sept. release book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING Amazon, B&N, OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication $22.45 total check only (includes s&h), payable & mail to: TheWriterWorks.com, LLC @PO Box 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include continental US ship-to address. 9/13 is Grandparent’s Day!

Is Your Business Jogging In Place?

Accountants and lawyers  (UGH! What a combination!) will quickly tell you that your company is a legal entity that needs to be thought of as a separate and distinct individual.

So, okay,  why should a company be any different than a person when it comes to cultivating and maintaining good health? Like, what could possibly be better for your business than to feed it nutritious meals?

  And while you’re at it,  make sure it gets a good night’s sleep as often as possible… but minus the pills; just turn out the lights. You might also see to it that it does the prescribed number and reps of bench presses, and that it jogs a couple of miles and swims a few laps every day.

  Some good head-clearing  cross-country runs beat jogging in place, by the way, and the swimming? Hey, it’s the best total exercise there is, with no pressure on backs, knees… or computers, file cabinets, copy machines and elevators.

Of course you also know,  while we’re on this subject of general health—-the ubiquitous variety, not some empty-suit czar called “General” —-that certain bad habits can do in even the most fiercely determined health and fitness efforts. You do know this. Stuff like smoking and alcohol or drug dependency will knock the greatest Olympian out of competition.

Sooooo,  why would you allow your business to develop destructive dependencies? Just because you hear other business owners moan and groan about the econ0my doesn’t mean you should be tossing in the towel anymore than that you should take up heavy drinking and drugs because your business is a couple of blocks away from a rehab center.

     Your business needs exercise!

Take it for a walk,  play Frisbee with it (no computer games; those babies are already over-burdened), go bowling. Air the place out. Periodic housekeeping is a good thing. Overhauling policies and procedures is an invigorating experience. Changing hours, suppliers, responsibilities, terms, and hats are all events that represent a clearing of the decks.

When new business  isn’t in your face, you need to be getting ready for it. Your company needs a little tree -shaking to let the nuts fall out. Sure, tree-shaking is good exercise. Anything you can do to work up a little sweat…

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Hal@Businessworks.US or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

I am humbled and grateful

for all the congratulatory

calls, comments, and emails!

     Here you are, all you wonderful, caring, thoughtful and supportive friends who have sent along good wishes for my short story contribution (“The Dirt Floor Visit”) to the new Nightengale Press book released in September, 2009, entitled The Art of Grandparenting…

T H A N K    Y O U :

Kathy Alpiar, Rick and Ann Alpiar, Marian Marshall, Tim and Victoria Marshall, Timmy Marshall, Christopher Marshall, Claire Marshall, Laraine Abbey, Peter and Beatrice Leeds, Terry and Margie Thomas, Bo Woods, Jim Oliviero, Rob and McGee Boyd, Helen Kelly Harris and Kim, Lois Anderson, Bonnie and Clyde Austin, David and Gail Hall, Andrew Jackson, Erin Kennedy, Forrest Moyer, Barrie Proctor, Vivien Cord, Kevin Bousquet, Molly Peehler, Patrick Varine, Glenn Rolfe, Tony Emanueli, Ron and Cyndi Freschi, Jim Haines, Bob Wainwright, Bryan Eisenberg, Michael and Naomi Infusino, Dr. Jeffrey Alpern, Melanie Adair, Dr. Ian Fries, Krista Behrend, Walter and Stephanie Bandurski, Robert Luzius, John King, Doyle Slayton, Ken Kraft, Jim Jordan, Rhodie Jorgenson, Paul Harp, Anna Marie Cavarocchi, Carol Kirsimagi, Jim Harris, Dr. Michael Mark, Rhina Guidos, Beth Durham, Valerie Connelly, Susan Smith, Michael Potter, Judy Vorfield, Pat Sherry, Ed Wulkan, Tom Kavanagh, Richard and Karen Townsend, Beverly Marsh, Sky Brady, Jim and Sandy Hall, Jan Battaglino, Danielle Dixon-Moyle, Ernst Dannemann …

 …and others who continue to be added weekly!

YOU ARE ALL THE VERY BEST THERE IS. I TRULY VALUE AND APPRECIATE EACH OF YOU.

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Are You Juggling Seagulls?

     With the economy  nipping at your hindquarters, if it’s beginning to feel like there simply are not enough hours in the day, you’re probably not on the verge of the nervous breakdown you’re thinking you’re on. You’re probably just juggling seagulls!

     Oh, right,  well that makes everything okay now, doesn’t it? I mean anyone can do that little trick if she just puts her mind to it. Seagulls are, after all, very cooperative creatures and will surely do whatever you might ask of them. “Roll over, Jonathan!”

     Serious,  we already know that time and tide wait for no man. One of our parents said that once. So (the other parent probably said) time marches on. What this means is that since you can’t change time, you CAN change two things that use it up: Tasks and Takers.

     Tasks.  The simple answer here is to delegate. You’re worried that no one else will do the tasks the way you do them? Guess what? You’ve no doubt heard that SOME things never change?

     Well, others not doing stuff the way you do stuff  is one of those things that never changes. Extract your ego! Accept the fact that if others do things differently than you, the world will not end, and that getting the tasks done is what’s important. 

     On the more complicated front,  when you just can’t bite the proverbial bullet (which certainly has to hurt one’s teeth), then accept the fact that EVERYthing you do doesn’t have to be letter perfect (unless you’re an editor!), and make your mind up that getting the task done is what’s important. (Hmmm, did I say that before?)

     Okay, you’ve got the time deal  and the tasking functions covered, so there’s just one more nasty little seagull to catch up with and confront: Takers! These are people who have no regard for your time or sense of urgency and will–consciously or unconsciously– take every conceivable minute of your time up, if you let them.

     Aha,  therein lies the complete juggling trick! Yeah. Don’t let them. Period. But that’s hard, you say, especially when one of them’s your mother-in-law. Yeah, well, spit happens you know. The bottom line is that people will not take advantage of your time if you make an active choice to not allow it.

     “Excuse me,  but I need to be on my phone (in my office, at a meeting, working on a speech, visiting the bathroom) right this minute. Perhaps you can catch me a week from Thursday when I’m on the road; just call my cell phone (which will certainly be on it’s last charge bar by then).”

     If you are getting stressed  from juggling seagulls, either give up juggling, or move farther inland.   

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

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This blog free via list-protected email: click RSS Feed above…$1.99/mo on  AMAZON Kindle. Creative? Add your own 7 words to the 315-day 7-Word Story (under RSS) We’re making it up as we go!  GET Hal Alpiar short story in Sept. release book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING Amazon, B&N, OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication $22.45 total check only (includes s&h), payable & mail to: TheWriterWorks.com, LLC @PO Box 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include continental US ship-to address. 9/13 is Grandparent’s Day!

Reality Check!

      Just in case  you’re star-struck with the idea of starting your own business venture, be aware that there’s a little more to it than flipping the black and red “Yes, We’re Open” and “Sorry, We’re Closed” sign twice a day.

There’s . . . 

• money (at least twenty times more than you can even imagine needing!) 
• industry experience, training and know-how
• knowledge of the market and the competition
• customers (you’re going to need a few to start)
• suppliers (you’re going to need a few to start)
• location (which is often critical, depending on the nature of the business)
• utilities
• a formal written business plan
• investor and/or loan payback arrangements
• basic office and business supplies
• inventory of products and/or services
• credibility (industry/community associations?)
• advertising/marketing preparation
• advertising/marketing implementation
• an accountant
• a lawyer
• an advisory board
• employees
• a bank and bank account
• maybe a post office box
• maybe charge card or PayPal arrangements
• maybe a charge card
• furniture and equipment

…this could go on for pages!

     And don’t tie-up  your brain with this next thought, but you surely need to be conscious of the fact that 9 out of 11 new businesses fail in the first 3 years, and that it takes 5 years on average just to break even financially.

     Be aware that  most businesses fail because of poor management. Period. It’s common to hear that a new business didn’t make it because it was under-capitalized, but if you think about that for 2.5 seconds and can be honest about it, under-capitalization is:  poor management!

     You can be  a free-wheeling entrepreneurial spirit all you want, but reality dictates that you have to do some planning and have a ton more money than you think you need just to get up and running. This is a “haste-makes-waste” point in time where shortcuts don’t work.

     Of course there are always  Steve Jobs and Bill Gates success stories about starting in a garage and working “on a shoestring,” and I wish for you to be that kind of successful, but reality is that these two superstars are each one in trillions.   

     If all the above  thoughts have fueled your fire instead of discouraged you into retreating to the life of a bottom of the barrel employee, you might actually have what it takes to make it work. Go for it! (Oh, and if you need to call me for help, do it please before running out of money! Thank you.)

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

# # #

This blog free via list-protected email: click RSS Feed above…$1.99/mo on  AMAZON Kindle. Creative? Add your own 7 words to the 314-day 7-Word Story (under RSS) We’re making it up as we go!  GET Hal Alpiar short story in Sept. release book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING Amazon, B&N, OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication $22.45 total check only (includes s&h), payable & mail to: TheWriterWorks.com, LLC @PO Box 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include continental US ship-to address. 9/13 is Grandparent’s Day!