America’s

“Childish” President

is Using America’s

30 Million

Small Business Owners to 

Play Politics Instead of

Fix the Economy 

Okay, so just a couple of hours after this post was written, the man has backed down from his one-upmanship scheduling of his “Jobs Speech” and will instead deliver it the following night. While I’d like to think my post and others had some impact, truth is that Mr. O realized a bigger better political advantage to moving his appointed time out from under the GOP Debate.

The bottom line is nothing else in this post changes: Don’t expect anything new, and don’t expect jobs to come begging for employees. You can be certain more taxes are on the way to fund the man’s extremist plans to spread the wealth . . . and now, of course, to spread the fantasy jobs!

~~~~~~~~

Mr. O has suddenly scheduled what will inevitably be great oratory on our catastrophic quagmire of an economy –that he has compounded at every turn and hasn’t been able to do a single constructive thing about since 2008 — for 8PM, Sept. 7th.

He takes a childish posture in setting his stage at precisely the same time as the long-planned GOP Presidential Candidate’s debate . . . and then he says the responses to his one-upmanship are “childish.”

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black?

~~~~~~~~

Why should we small business owners and entrepreneurs and managers care?

First, because business owners want to hear how other Presidential candidates plan to fix the economy that Mr. Obama has failed to fix.  

Second, because it’s been proven ad nauseam and reinforced by every economist worth her or his salt that the only road to economic recovery is for government to WHOLEHEARTEDLY support and encourage new business job development by entrepreneurs.

~~~~~~~~

The White House knows this and has intentionally ignored thousands of opportunities to initiate tax incentives for new business job creation and tax incentives for new business innovation (leading to job creation). So, why now? November 6, 2012 is right around the corner. Why a Sept. 7th 8pm speech? Because politics beats reality.

No need to be a brain surgeon to understand this. Any small business owner or legitimately unemployed person gets the reality of it. Why doesn’t the White House? This hyped up speech will –I guarantee– be about nothing realistic. The opportunity for that has already come and gone more times than the EverReady Rabbit! 

Mr. O will pay token attention to small business, but never reach out a true helping hand. He will bury nice-sounding words in meaningless rhetoric. And therein lies the problem:

America needs jobs. New small business provides virtually all new jobs. America’s 30 million small business owners do not trust Mr. Obama. Period.

Why should anyone capable ofr creating new jobs create new jobs because of promises from a man who has a long track-record of not keeping promises? I create 50 new jobs because the government assures me of new job salary rebates or some other fantasyland benefit. The promise collapses. I am stuck with 50 people I can’t afford.

~~~~~~~~

The Issue Is TRUST.

This White House has failed to earn the trust of small business over and over and over again.

Without trust, there can be no relationship.

There can be no deal.

There can be no forward movement.

There can be no salvaging The Great Obama Depression.

There can be no economic recovery.

There can, and undoubtedly will be a lot of talk and a lot of smiles and a lot of handshakes and reassuring references and pats on the back. But –mark my words– it will all be for show. This is simply one more campaign op! Surely the Republican Debate will crank out more business-friendly job creation proposals.

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  Open Minds Open Doors 

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  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

 Your Advisory Board

includes a lawyer, 

an accountant, your

rich uncle, and

your pastor?

Nope.

Well maybe one or two of those types do actually hold court with you once a quarter or twice a year and offer trusted advice and opinions about where your enterprise appears to be headed . . . and maybe you listen, and maybe you don’t. And maybe they’re helpful. And maybe they’re not.

After all, typically, they’re not paid. And you do remember that someone once told you you get what you pay for? Ah, but a good advisory board is usually made up of people who have a physical or emotional investment in seeing you succeed. And that trumps paying a fee for services. 

No compensation? Well, maybe some coffee and donuts — or fruit, cheese, and crackers, depending on your level of health-nuttiness. Wow! So now you’ll read a little further?

Advisory Boards, generally, are a good thing for most small business ventures because –when they include a small group of diverse, talented people who like and care about you– they can shed light on your darkness and provide enough reassurance or guidance to afford you to step back and observe your brainchild firsthand.

Advisory Boards provide a sense of reality you might not otherwise solicit or be exposed to.”

Okay, you’ve got all that. And it either sparks an idea, or it just lays there flat on its back, rolling its eyes at you! Well, here’s a definite sparkler:

Start a Rotating Teenage Advisory Board.

Huh? Why? Why not? When did you last waltz a thirteen-year-old boy or girl through your place of business and ask him or her for observations?

I promise you he/she will see things you never noticed, and maybe never even thought about. Does it matter that your business makes products or delivers services for nursing homes (whoops, how un-PC of me: long-term care facilities)? Or nursing mothers? Or male nurses? Truck drivers? Scuba divers? (It rhymed!) No it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you regularly host small groups of teens through your office, plant. store, or worksite, and that you non-judgmentally LISTEN to what they have to say, and keep a journal or take dated notes of key comments. Pay careful attention to the questions they ask (and how they ask them) before trying to answer them.

It’s true that teenagers (as when each of us were) are different, weird, and aloof.

They are preoccupied with texting, handheld electronics, and each other.

They may seem the least unlikely to contribute anything of value to a non-teenage market business.

Yet –refreshingly– they lack developed prejudices.

They are naive and breed a rare perspective of business innocence.

You can learn more and spark more ideas from one business visit by a youngster, or two or three than you are likely to from ten top industry or profession muckity-mucks who will surely carry competition chips on their shoulders, and be more inclined to maintaining a political edge.

One business I heard of makes a practice of gathering small groups of teens from the local middle school and high school (pre-arranged of course with the parents, but not with school administrators who would tangle up the process) and rewarding them with praise, snacks, juice, and bookstore gift cards for bright ideas offered.

The owner has translated teen visitor input into new product launches, line extensions, and revenue streams, that produced enough income to allow some scholarship funding in return. What can you get? What can you give?

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If I had my life to live over

If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously.

I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I’m one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it over again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.”

   

— Nadine Stair, 85 years old (in 1968), Louisville, Kentucky

(Links inspired by these words were inserted by Hal)

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SURPRISE HURRICANE-PROMPTED SUNDAY POST TONIGHT. NEXT POST MONDAY OR WHEN POWER IS ON. PLEASE CHECK BACK . . .

Another storm,

another dollar.

 Hey, life happens. 

Stop whining!

Besides,

breathing beats cash.

There comes a time (a few actually) in every life, when we business owners and entrepreneurs must take a back seat to Mother Nature. You DO remember her? I’m not talking about over-the-top dirtpeople, or eco-freaks who launch themselves into hysteria with every stepped-on ant or toilet flush.

I’m referring to cataclysmic shifts in the planetary forces of nature that stop businesses dead in their tracks, that cannot be dismissed or disregarded or wiggled around. I know it’s hard to own up to the fact that anything could be more important than business . . . yet, looming out there under the signs, ads, and brochures, is life!

Here we quake-inexperienced East-Coasters are emerging out of an unheard of earthquake, the 5.8 magnitude of which –though nonchalantly considered routine by West Coast standards (I mean, what isn’t?)– was sufficient test of our mettle . . . and: CABOSH! Along comes a Hurricane heralded as major by all the IM (Irresponsible Media).

I’m reminded of Rob Bell’s quote in his courageous, easy-read book, LOVE WINS.  The quote refers to tangles born of the politics of religion, but seems to me to fit the media hurricane circus and pandemonium we’ve been bombarded with for five days:

“Sometimes what we are witnessing

is simply a massive exercise

in missing the point.”

Who’s not fed up with mainstream media’s overkill –and frequently contrived– “storm tracking” coverage? Enough already! Sports belong to ESPN; leave hurricanes to TWC. Stop with all the prima donna network weather forecasters (Whoops, I mean “Meteorologists”) who can barely find the maps they swoop their hands over. 

Of course no one wishes storm destruction and risks of life and injury to others, and of course there are many calls for reminders to be prepared in an impending hurricane but please, media people . . . give us a break. Your relentless focus on doom and gloom, is –all by itself– enough to send people flying off city rooftop gardens!

Well, okay, your heavy-handed scare tactic broadcasts did at least serve to convince Mr. O that he’d be storm-safer at the White House than puttering around a reported $50,000 vacation week (his tenth this year? Must be nice) Martha’s Vineyard golfcourse.

Who could deny the (rapidly-growing-in-popularity)

  Obama Regime motto: “Leadership from behind”? 

No doubt whatsoever he will once again seize the opportunity of a natural disaster to represent his sleeves-rolled-up self in the role of “return of the conquering and compassionate hero.” As business owners and managers, we have already seen too much of this too often. Were we to practice such falsity, our businesses would crumble.

Also without a doubt, we can count on the talking heads at CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT and their affiliate braindead-behaving editors at The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, et al, to play it out for all the advertising dollars their sadly misguided Obama-obsessed bosses can muster.

The point that’s missed by all the sensationalist journalists is that the public gets it. Go through the updates and recommended preparation steps at scheduled news broadcasts. If and when the event actually occurs, lead up to it with information, not Chicken Little alarmist reports. Who cares what trees fell in Bongo-Bongo?

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  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

My Special Message is

that YOU are Special!

First of all, thank you! Thank you dear Twitterers for all your Tweets, RTs, shout-outs, and endorsements, but most of all– for your visits to this blog and expressions of personal and professional support.

I have had the good fortune to hear from so many of you who’ve gotten over the Twitter Jitters by Tweet and email and phone, and blog comment boxes, and even some: in person. Thank you. 

No, I am not retiring. I’ve always believed that when you retire, you die. So many people I grew up with have, sadly, done both. No, I still choose to work fulltime and continue to maintain a schedule I am told would embarrass many people half my age.  No chest-thumping here; just a lot of long hours.

But, ah, I love what I do (mostly, write and consult on business and professional practice growth and development, and –because they need to work in tandem– on personal growth and development).

For whatever it may be worth, here –in more than 140 characters (whew!)– are some answers to some of the questions I have been asked alongside the road on my Twitter Journey:

I believe wholeheartedly that God intends us all to live life to the fullest and to help others to do the same thing. But I am not an evangelist.

If I were to quit now, I’d be wasting time and opportunities to contribute and exchange life values, motivating ideas, creative energy, and good cheer with others.

And that’s unthinkable. 

I believe in your freedom and your right to pursue your legal and moral life interests as you choose, whatever they may be, and as long as they don’t bring harm to others.

For the same reasons, I try not to bug any of you with sales pitches; in fact, since it’s April 2008 birth, I’ve never hosted a site banner, sales spiel or advertisement on this blog.

                  

And the proof that people seek unadulterated, commercial-free blog content is in the numbers. When I started, I had 100 visitors a week. By last measure, this blog now averages closer to 100 visitors an hour. Much if not most of that increase is from Twitter – from you and the praises you sing to your friends and followers.

I am deeply appreciative for that support.

As for my follow and follower numbers: they’re low (compared to Tweet numbers) because I hand-pick each Twitter account I want to follow. Automated programs may deliver quantity; but I care about quality. I seek Twitterers with shared interests. I read each Twitter profile, visit available websites, and a check recent Tweets to see if they have topical substance that interests me.

Topical substance topics that interest me include (in no particular order):

          business, marketing, small business, dogs, writing, leadership, branding, other authors, entrepreneurship, goals, economic impact,  teaching, sales, communication, books, other bloggers, personal development, self-help, sushi, goals, motivation, stress management, productivity, baseball/softball, action attitude, health, grandchildren, patriotism…and of course, God.                                           

The Twitter Journey continues to be one of great fun, enlightenment, opportunity, and growing friendships. Thank you all for indulging me this pause during my blog post march forward as an advocate of small business. And, [P.S. I have no ties to Twitter, nor do I even know anyone associated with Twitter; it just works, that’s all.]

Your visits here are always welcome and secure from Internet invaders, lists, pop-ups, hysteria, and exaggeration. 

Have a GR8 day and week ahead!

Warmest regards – Hal     

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I learned the hard way. 

Burning bridges might 

 work for “isolationists,”

but . . .

But even if you’re the owner of the most microscopically small home business being run out of an empty closet, you cannot afford to be caught with a “smoking match.”

When you cut off communications with people or organizations –whether intentionally or inadvertently makes no difference–  you cut off future options and opportunities that you may never imagine being possible right now. And when you least expect it, it will surely come back to bite you in the butt. 

It should go without saying that this bridge-burning dynamic applies equally to all of us as individuals as well.

How did I learn the hard way?

At many levels, I had to fight my way through childhood poverty and abuse, through high school insensitivities, college insecurities, impersonal graduate school, and the disillusioning beginning-a-career years. I beat my way through the bushes and put on a happy face, but I used my struggling existence as an excuse for aloofness.

Former (far wealthier) classmates disbursed to all corners of the globe with pocketsful of parent’s money? What did I care? I’d never see them again anyway. They served me no immediate survival purpose. Screw ’em. I was preoccupied with affording clothes, a car, and often, a next meal. How could I relate to summers in Europe?

I chose to feel bitter. For awhile I held grudges. But those feelings never lasted because they left no room for me to earn my keep and work my way up the corporate ladders that I saw as my only escape route. It was something like a forced retreat from upset feelings because upsets didn’t pay bills. I had no room left for anger.

The end result was the same.

Burned bridges.

I never intended to sever relations with those in my various graduating classes, and in steppingstone jobs.

It just happened.

Yet the consequences of often having no place to turn when a turn was necessary were no less difficult to bear than had I actually set the connecting spans on fire.

Ill feelings can obviously (now, in retrospect) trigger a conscious or unconscious desire to disconnect from the circumstances or people responsible for igniting various upsets, but what I’ve learned the hard way (after losing many close contacts over time) is that effort invested in long-term relationships can often produce great returns.  

It’s water over the proverbial dam at this point, and my life has been graced so many times over with strong business and personal relationships (that I finally did learn how to hold on to and nurture and enjoy), that I can only be grateful for them and for what they have made possible. Yet, there’s still this twinge of regret.

Perhaps you or someone you know will be prompted to think twice before cutting ties or burning bridges after hearing this (true) short story from someone (me) who almost learned too late the deep values of long-term relationships — in life and in work. When did you last give someone the benefit of doubt? Forgiveness works!

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Here’s a “glue clue” for you!

Someone in your family or on your business or advisory team is the one who most holds you and the million little pieces of your business enterprise together. Who? How? Why? What have you done for her or him lately?

Did you know that small, frequent rewards (and typically inexpensive ones) are at least twice as effective as one large one? Did you know that cash –even in this struggling economy– is not always the best reward? Have you discovered (or been reminded lately to re-visit) Maslow’s Hierarchy?

After many decades, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory continues to be business’s most effective tool for motivating employees, partners, referrers and sales personnel, among others. No need for a degree in nuclear reactor dynamics to put this classic theory to work for your small business.

It simply takes a sense of diligence 

and a little detective-type methodology.

When you make a habit of taking ongoing temperature readings of, for example, employee hot and cold buttons, you gain a sense of what makes each one tick and how various life changes impact attitudes. This gives you leverage for better motivating because you can reward someone’s performance with what that person values.

All of us are located somewhere on the Maslow Hierarchy ladder (or pyramid as many management textbooks illustrate it. At any given moment in time we are either at a level of basic physiological needs, or safety needs, or social needs, or esteem needs, or we are at a point of self-actualization.

We move fluidly back and forth between these different need levels according to our daily (sometimes hourly)changing life circumstances. A person who has achieved a state of self-actualization, who is feeling self-fulfilled could tumble back down to a basic needs level in an instant.

Consider how fast your brain snaps back to basics as the result of a family death, a bankruptcy, an accident, a job-firing . . . from really, any kind of loss.

After years of having no financial worries, putting food on the table can become a sudden challenge. Having a neighboring home or business robbed can immediately cause someone at an esteem level, who is excited about winning recognition, into a security needs frenzy, shopping for insurance, alarm systems, new locks, a fence. 

If you can be aware enough of changing need levels for individual “glue people” who help hold you and/or your business together, you can reward each –at her or his personal level– for maximum impact. An esteem-needs person will often be more receptive to a plaque, a news release feature, or a certificate than to a cash bonus.

Someone struggling with car issues will appreciate new tires, an oil change or gas allowance. One successful business owner covers the cost of braces for a low-salaried employee’s teenager. Another sends top sales people on limo trips with spouses to shows and dinner (less expensive than permanent salary and commission raises).

The point is to pick out rewards that fit the person and the circumstances instead of making across-the-board judgements about what you think will motivate best. And don’t automatically assume it’s money. In fact, by targeting rewards to individuals, you can save huge amounts of money and earn great appreciation in the process. 

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“Phone messages?

Pfffft!” said she, 

“Never do ’em anymore

 . . . text me!”

You gotta be kidding. Didn’t you ever hear the NY Lottery commercials that said: “Hey! Ya Never Know!”?

That deleted or squirreled-away phone message could be that your long-lost cousin has left you a big-time inheritance, or someone who wants to be your customer or client needs to know where to send you a fat retainer check, or that your dog was just diagnosed schizoid. Okay, okay, so you already knew your dog was a basket case.

The point is if you make a practice of not answering phone messages, or emails, you run the risk of not making the most 0f every opportunity. Real sales pros (and even a few accountants!) understand this. In the long run, opportunity losses can cost considerable time, money, and energy — not to mention some valuable relationships.

But you’re just too busy, right? Wrong! You can never be too busy to respond to someone’s question or greeting or information, even when you didn’t ask for it.

The reason should be obvious, but for for the benefit of those who get themselves caught up in their own clouds of dust, I would suggest that:

A) The message, though simple on the surface, may very well have more important –unspoken– information standing behind it. (Is it worth dissing a call from an old not-so-favorite contact who has referred you into a big-money project with her brother-in-law, but didn’t want to leave that piece of information in a voicemail?)

Hey, Ya Never Know!

B) Answering your messages isn’t just a “business life – whatever” deal. It’s a very large part of branding. Your responsiveness is read by others as a key indicator of who you are and what your business is all about.

C) Every communication is an opportunity. (Two $40,000 projects in a row once came to me because I took the trouble to call back a courteous response to some convoluted, almost-unintelligible phone message from a total stranger about my services

. . . I was tempted to dismiss it as a crank call or a time-waster, and just delete it. But I called back anyway, and was pleasantly surprised to connect with someone who had scouted me out, knew my whole background, had pre-determined to hire me, but who simply wasn’t very articulate on the phone.

Does this happen all the time? Of course not. But what’s to lose by responding? A couple of minutes? Sure, I’ve probably wasted a couple of minutes a hundred times before, but this 101st time earned me $80,000.

When’s the best time to answer your messages? If you are so busy, you feel you don’t want to spare a minute during busy hours, return non-urgent phone messages between 11:30am and noon, and again between 4:30pm and 5pm.

Most people are in a hurry during those two half hour windows — to get to lunch, or to get out and head home. You can bet on short, get-to-the-point conversations.  

Emails? Check regularly for and respond right away to ones you consider urgent, but don’t waste time deleting those that aren’t until –maybe– mid-day, and –generally best– the end of the day when you’re least liable to get hooked into opening junk.

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No good examples from

the White House, but

  small business excels.

 My last post here, “A Sense of Urgency,” raised hackles among some visitors I heard from who all seemed to express the notion that “Standing Still” and former idealist President Woodrow Wilson’s failed “Watchful Waiting” policy toward Mexico should be dictating business and politics today. 

Don’t take it personally, but that’s sick thinking.

Doing nothing, as the White House appears to relish, has never been –nor ever will be– a policy or guideline for small business success. Standing still and watchful waiting may deck the halls of Congress and the Oval Office, but they represent the anthisis of what needs to happen to grow business and military strength.

Small business and military strength must be grown to preserve and protect the freedoms we enjoy in America, and to revive and revitalize our still sinking economy.

The government and big business continue to prove every passing day that not only do they have no answers to this incipient 2nd Great Depression (“The Obama Depression”), but –rubbing salt into the wound– they give nothing but lip service token talk to proclamations of supporting small business. Truth? They HATE small business! 

Small business hangs on in spite of the formidable clout corporations and the government have in tow — PRECISELY because small business owners, operators, and managers are responsive to market needs. There’s no time wasted studing market share and shifts, or testing stuff to death. A sense of urgency is ever-present.

As small business owners, we must –first let Mr. Romney know that it’s not just “Corporations” that “are people.” Small businesses are (to a FAR greater degree) “people” too! (And, BTW, DNC Chairperson Debbie Schultz in protesting even the “Corporations=People” equation simply demonstrates that her ideology is dumber than dirt.

Of course “businesses are people.”

ALL businesses.

Next, we need to teach responsiveness by

example within our business enterprises.

Acting responsively and responsibly with every interaction –customers, other employees, suppliers, even what may appear to be disintersested inquiries– means instilling and reinforcing awareness that EVERY person’s needs and wants are the most important in the world, with never an exception. 

Translation:

Cultivate respect and an action attitude.

Sales professionals know this instinctively and typically make a practice of attacking problems before they become disasters. Stop looking to Washington for guidance. Take a page from sales pros.

The US Government 

is presently leaderless.

Consider the total lack of urgency and response to The Gulf Oil Leak; Mid-West Floods; Moammar Gadhafi; Japan’s Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster; Illegal Immigrants Pouring Across US Borders EVERY night; The Debt Crisis; and 20 more calamities. 

Your business would fold if you practiced such laxadasical “take another vacation” attitudes.

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Unless you’re a surgeon

or bombsquad defuser,

 nothing gets done

  by standing still.

Yesterday we talked about constantly moving targets. We touched on the challenges presented by rapidly changing rules, attitudes, circumstances, and information access.

To impact consumer, employee, and supplier behaviors positively, entrepreneurs and small business owners must flex, adjust, adapt, and go with the flow.

We must also hustle.

When problems surface, pounce on them. I’ve actually seen unsavvy (and ultimately unscuccessful business owners and managers walk away, pass the buck, blame others, close up and go home, and –in one instance– put a “Gone To Lunch” sign on the counter at 11:55am, and literally chase out eight customers who’d been waiting in line

. . . oblivious, obviously, to the common knowledge that every unhappy customer tells a minimum of ten other people who tell ten other people. So, in this case that makes 800 bad-mouth comments. Can your business survive that? (“Quick like a bunny” was my father’s motto; it always earned him big tips.)

Having a constant sense of urgency communicates leadership, compassion, integrity, authenticity, and professionalism. Others will assign those values to everything you are associated with — your products, services, ideas, and all of the people involved with your business. Pretty good return for zero dollar investment.

Don’t be so afraid of making mistakes. Yes, “haste makes waste,” and “failing to plan is planning to fail.” But you can’t run a business cornerstoned by trite expressions. When you take reasonable risks, you are not betting the farm, or running off to the nearest lottery window, racetrack, or casino with your gard-earned dollars.

Unless the task at hand requires some Herculian effort (e.g., securing a king-size mattress onto the roof of a Washington Bridge-bound VW) or is intricately detailed (e.g., drawing blood, folding a parachute), be on the alert about when you can hustle your muscle and please your customer or employee or vendor with a prompt response.

All of this takes an action attitude and a determination to “Git R Done,” but, hey that’s simply a matter of sleeping and exercising enough, eating right, and making the choice. This starts to sound like some kind of training camp? It is. If you’re going to make this all work, you have to choose to keep yourself in good shape, and stay with it! 

Try walking faster. Oh, and keeping a journal of response times for various tasks and services will give you a sense of where you are, where you need to be, and give you the information you need to improve the sense of urgency you deliver. What every day? No, but maybe a day or two a week to start, then a monthly check-up. 

Remember the Chinese proverb: “Talk Does Not Cook Rice.”   

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 Thanks for your visit and may God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone!