Get Yourself Cranked

In One Minute FREE!

Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve gotten something this good for free. And it works, and there are no sales gimmicks or strings attached. It simply is good solid proven stuff that I taught for many years in high-priced management training programs. And here it is for my blog visitors just for visiting!

If you own or run or manage or operate a business or part of a business, you are probably already a partial nutcase so I won’t try to make you sane. But I WILL give you a technique you can use every day, over and over, that I guarantee will make a difference for you if you are your usual tenacious self about following through.

Best times for this:

• 1. As soon as you wake up in the morning
• 2. Before you go to bed at night
• 3. While exercising (especially in rhythm to your walking or jogging or lifting or stretching)
• 4. Every time you can possibly think of it during the night or workday, and can sneak in 60 seconds

Take the following as a guide and adapt it to your SELF. Say it convincingly to yourself as much as you possibly can for 21 days.

If you do this with serious concentration and conviction and enthusiasm (even when you don’t feel enthusiastic and even when you are NOT all of the things you are saying to yourself!), you will be truly amazed at the results you produce within a short period of time. 

Ready? Here you go… 132 words… CHANT!

“Healing energy in; healing energy in; healing swirling white light into my body.  

I AM my body: left/right/center. 

I am relaxed, happy, alert, safe and sound, healthy (I’m getting younger every day, stronger every day, more flexible every day, healthier every day), wealthy (all my bills are paid; all my debts are paid; money comes easily and frequently). 

I am painfree day and night; my mind and emotions are clear; I am staying at my ideal weight of xxx pounds and am physically fit. 

I sleep easily and wake up when I need to, feeling rested and alert.  

I treat all people, animals and plants with caring and respect. I recognize that everyone I meet is fighting SOME kind of battle.

Something wonderful is going to happen to me today!”

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Dear SBA: You’re out of touch! 

     I just read  a meaningless, unintelligible, patronizing, jargon-filled statement by SBAs Delaware District Director which reinforces in spades a conviction I’ve voiced in prior posts that the Small Business Association is utterly useless to small businesses and waaaaay out of touch with reality.

     She headlines her article  “100 Days After the Recovery Act” and starts out by telling readers how great all the new SBA programs are to “help small businesses weather this economic storm, and ultimately continue to grow and create jobs.” Where was SBA when these kinds of comments were being posed as requests over a year ago on this blog and many others?

     She ends with:  “America’s small businesses are the key to our nation’s economic recovery.”  (Duh) “The SBA is using every tool in our toolbox –and creating new ones when necessary– to help small businesses lead us out of these tough economic times.” (Double Duh)So tell us about the tools in your toolbox! In plain English would also be a nice thing to try to do, by the way.

     Get this, business owners:  You think the SBA is relevant so you read this gobbledygook (or gobbledegook if you prefer… a word that’s really worth looking up!) and imagine you might get an idea or two about how to help your business recover, right?

     Wrong.  Unless of course you happen to be well versed in “loan programs–7(a) and 504” because then you undoubtedly understand about “eliminated fees for borrowers” on 7(a) “and for both borrowers and lenders on 504” and that they’ve “temporarily raised the guarantee.”

     Oh, yes, and we should be thrilled  to know that “there’s been a 30 percent increase in average weekly loan dollar volume” and –on top of that– the new SBA launched ARC loan “program provides loans up to $35,000 to viable but struggling small businesses,” and that “SBA has now put in place programs implementing 88 percent of the $730 million provided.”  

You must be kidding, SBA!

• What is “7(a)”? Who should be expected to know this?

• What is “504”? Who should be expected to know this?

• What “eliminated fees”? Why? When? For how long? So what?

• Why eliminated for just borrowers on one loan and for borrowers and lenders both on another, and who cares?

• What exactly does “temporarily” mean?

• What “guarantee”? Whose? For what? For how long? What are the terms?

• 30% increase? This has something to do with my small business?

• So what? What does this have to do with me and my small business?

• What exactly is “viable”? Is it not defined because not many will qualify?

• What exactly is “struggling”? And again, how is this determined?

• What difference does it make to ANYone that 88% of $730 million has been “implemented”? I’m trying to put food on the table. Who are you trying to impress?

• What does “implemented” mean, exactly? Why can SBA language never be straightforward? Likely because no small businesspeople are speaking.

     Find me ONE “struggling” small business owner who understands all this crap. Just one. The problem here is that the SBA is simply another BIG-business-run federal government agency that hasn’t a single clue about owning and operating a small business … and that is more concerned with covering its butt and looking good to political administrators than with helping small businesses create jobs. It is tokenism run amuck.    

I served two consecutive 2-year federal appointment terms on what’s been called the country’s most important SBA regional advisory council (NY/NJ/CT and the USVI. I  resigned  because 31 of the 33 membership seats were filled with major corporate executives. I and one other member were the only ones who owned and operated small businesses. The job of representing and cultivating small business interests was not getting done, and it’s still not.

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Banking on your bank?

Don’t waste your time!

     The economy continues to hemorrhage.  Oh no, that’s just not true, I heard that it’s not true on the news today:  The federal government says “we’re seeing many signs of things turning around.”

     I can’t imagine  what’s in some one’s line of sight that would prompt THAT statement. Also in today’s news, Microsoft just laid off another 800 employees. You connect the dots.

     The point is that when the going gets tough,  the average hard-working business leader thinks: The BANK. The BANK will bail us out. The BANK will lend us what we need. The BANK is the answer.

     One leading national bank  says they’ll even give loans to illegal aliens. Another says it will help customers who need help. Don’t you believe either one of them, or any of the other sleazy branding line enticements being offered out there in medialand. 

     You cannot depend on The BANK.  Period. Banks are tripping over themselves trying to outdo hospitals and the US Postal Service in the stupidity and low trust departments.

     Banks are at least 50 years behind reality  and –just like the hospitals and US Postal Service– think that slick, clever slogans, spiels, and marketing devices coming from empty suits and empty heads are going to make up the difference, the decades of incompetence.

     Credit unions offer a bit more comfort,  because they answer to their “members” not a board of directors and stockholders (but can also be a bit more risky for businesses because loan percentages, for example, can end up being higher than credit card rates if you’re not careful and alert).

     You think BANK  because the BANK has convinced you that it is your good neighbor, that because it’s been doing business in your town for a zillion generations, that it’s honorable and will loan you the money you need when you need it for a ridiculously low rate because they’re your neighbor.

     Good Luck!  A lot of businesses are failing because they naively trusted The BANK would support them in hard times. Reality Check: The BANK supports itself in hard times.

     What else is there?  Investors. Great, but guess what? Today’s investors want immediate gratification ROI and enough proof and collateral to guarantee it. Not much help if you don’t already have the money you need! 

     “Angel” investors  are getting tainted with skepticism, and are also requiring more than you probably have cause if you had it you wouldn’t be looking for it! Hmmmm. Barter. Right. Well, barter is great up to a point, but it rarely if ever produces money. Stockpiled merchandise and services have increasingly marginal value. 

     So, that leaves (ta-ta-ta-ta-tah-tah!):  SALES. Innovative, value-added products and services = SALES. SALES ALWAYS BEAT The BANK. How to boost sales now must be your number one (and perhaps only) priority. There is no greater or more important issue for you or your business to be dealing with right now, unless of course you own or run The BANK. 

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Getting Even

Is Getting Nowhere!

     “Don’t Get Mad. Get Even!”  says the T-shirt. “Those guys in that company misrepresented themselves to us, and we’re going to make sure they pay for it; we’ll make them look like chopped liver to the rest of the industry,” says the disgruntled company owner.

      “I put that business in business, and what do they do?  They turn around and try to stick it to me; I’ll fix their butts good; just wait ’til they try to raise some investor money,” says the ego-injured entrepreneur.

     It won’t work. None of it.  The more you pay attention to trying to get even with someone or some entity that did you in, the closer you come to doing yourself in. If you’re crazed about delivering justice, join a band of vigilantes … or start over again and become a lawyer.

     But stop with the need to extract revenge.

     Vengefulness is a waste of time and energy  that diverts attention and costs opportunity loss. It prevents you from doing what you really need to be doing, which is making sales and growing your own business. The more you worry about what others are doing or not doing, the closer you get to self-destruct mode! 

     Not only are these kinds of evil thoughts and misdeeds  harmful to the growth missions you need to rally behind, but the ill intents get talked about and emailed about and txtmsgd about … and it seldom takes more than a day for others connected with your industry (including customers and suppliers and investors and referrers) to find out what you’re up to.

    Plus, the more you try to cover, hide, and disown it, the quicker everyone finds out. In the end, you’ll hang for it because your reputation, trust, and integrity will be flushed away in one quick jerk of the handle!

     It’s just plain not worth it to take your focus off of making sales  and put it instead on paybacks for upsets you have with another business. The best way to beat up another business is to stay away from it, and not bad-mouth it, just — plain and simple — outperform it.

     The best way to outperform another business  is to earn greater customer trust by delivering what you promise and by bending over backwards consistently, 100% of the time!

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

52,000 People Bitching

About Your Business??

     If you can’t deliver what you promise,  please—P L E A S E— close down your business and become a politician, or go work for the government. Don’t worry; you’ll be qualified! I guess I had a gullible sign around my neck, but in just a couple of weeks, I managed to stumble into three businesses that failed to deliver what they promised.

     From “Fresh-picked” apples  that I bought at an apple farm in upstate New York, and kept — as suggested —  in a cool place, that rotted out in 48 hours … to Comcast Cable TV that kept Kathy on the phone for one and a half hours arguing with a rep and three supervisors (one dumber than the next) for billing her 87 year-old mother for two years worth of equipment she didn’t have and never had (Kathy’s tenacity won a $248 credit!) … to a magazine editor who promised  to print a story I gave him and then never said a word about not doing it.

     Oh, there were others.  And I’m quite certain many of you could add many more of your own stories. What sucks is that not only do people lie about what they’re selling, they actually have the nerve to argue about it — and then to add a little fuel to the fire, pretend they know nothing about anything, and do everything possible to cut off communications. Amazing. They should all have to go before Judge Judy; she’d fix ’em..

We’re not just talking integrity here. We’re talking branding. BRANDING IS  having a customer know in her heart of hearts that she is getting what’s been promised, and will always have recourse with the business she’s dealing with who will literally bend over backwards, stand on their heads, spit wooden nickles and kill her with kindness… just in case they screw up!

     If you are in business and you are serious about making your business work,  please take the high road! When businesses (the boss, or ANYbody who works for the boss! ANYbody!) promise a service, for a specific price in a specific time period, or a product for a specific price to perform in a specific way (and be delivered at a specific time), that business must be prepared to follow-through EXACTLY as promised or suffer the consequences of being bad-mouthed.

     Bad-mouthed.  Studies show that one unhappy customer on one day will tell at least 10 and probably 20 other people how unhappy they are and will also in all likelihood embellish the story each time, and those people they tell will tell another five or ten each. [“You won’t believe what happened to Harry the other day…”] 

     Let’s say you run a 5-day a week business  and have just one unhappy customer a day (even though you may have 500 HAPPY customers a day!)? That’s a minimum of 2600-5200 people a year bad-mouthing your business, and being repeated to the tune of maybe FIFTY THOUSAND negative comments about your business. No, that’s not exaggerating. Think you’ll survive?      

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