There was a time, once upon a time, when I was young and foolish, and convinced I knew everything. Well I did know everything. Of course I did. After all, I was 29 or 30 and way past the dirt-poor boyhood lessons of life and growing up. In fact, I had been growing up in New York, which –when I look back– was a miracle all by itself. I mean, who grows up in New York?

A New Yawka? Ugh, who

wants one of them around?

It’s a weird thing when you think you know it all and have seen it all and have been there and done that and have the t-shirt, and then: swhooooosh! —out of the blue– the real you, broadsided with a new learning experience.

It happened when I was one of those hot-shot Madison Avenue advertising guys you may have seen portrayed on TV’s “Mad Men,” or maybe not. (Actually, that show was not very authentic, but what does TV have to work with except half-truths anyway?). I commuted 40 minutes each way by train into the city, M-F, creating great ads.

I married too young, and as I went “over the hill” at age 30, I was already ending a messy marriage, and winning diapers-galore legal custody of my three children (2,2, and 4), one of the twins profoundly retarded. Imagine the small army of friends, neighbors and household help (from a loyal young caring live-in couple, Wayne and Peggy).

As luck would have it, my troubled twin (now PC-termed “profoundly developmentally disabled”) slept all day and cried all night as I walked the floors with her. So with endless spare time on my hands, I made the mistake of taking up with more of the politics I’d left behind as a teenage and 20-something volunteer for the Democratic Party.

I know, I know, but it was because my parents were lifelong Democrats — “The working man’s party,” my father proudly exclaimed. I figured he should know which team was the good guys because he was of course, a working man! Besides the Democrats all spoke from the heart and made powerful promises and shook my father’s hand.

So what’s changed? The Democratic Party. It walked away. Democrats are now the party of greedy union bosses, elite academics, never-say-die tree huggers, fat and happy government employees, free handout beneficiaries . . .  and UN-American, share-the-wealth-with-thieves-and-illegals-to-build-votership idealists with no sense of reality.

Then I became an entrepreneur.

Democratic Party leadership (now there’san oxymoron!) is invested in destroying entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial spirit . . . obliterating the same entrepreneurial spirit that built this great nation. They are on a relentless anti-capitalism freight train crusade to run over and destroy small business enterprises and ownership

. . . at the expense of job creation and economic survival!

Doesn’t sound like much of a good trade-off to me, but, hey, what do I know? I’m just a transplanted New Yawka whose business is busy fighting off our great White House visionaries who obviously value votership over entrepreneurship. 

Can there be such a thing as short-sighted visionaries? How about 30 million short-circuited small business owners? How about we vote together for a change? November 6, 2012. Be there.                  

# # #

Your FREE subscription:  Posts RSS Feed 

Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting.  God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

July 2, I promised a “SMASHING” small business message tonight 

Well, maybe it won’t  

 smash you, but if you run

a busy business . . . this

will make you think!

If it’s as true as piles of pundits, preachers, parsons, pastors, pioneers, and philosophers proclaim, [Alliteration trophy, here I come!] that all of life –yes, ALL of life (including how you handle your business) is simply preparation for death . . . are you ready?

Let me guess: you’re too busy living to think about death right now, eh? Or you’re one of those young,  indestructible types who just refuse to believe death is even possible or worth considering until you’re 89?

Hey, good for you. Either of those may be as honest an answer as you’re capable of mustering at the moment.

I mean, after all, unless you’re a last-will-and-testament lawyer, an estate planner, serial-killer, burial plot salesman, funeral director, or a N.J. Mafia guy, you’re probably not giving much thought to this inevitability on a day-to-day basis. 

Well, don’t let me dampen your holiday-shortened work week, but reality –in case you haven’t looked around lately– the odds are that, recently, someone whose life has been close to yours has died unexpectedly, or will soon.

Maybe a business you know has recently closed down and boarded up. And probably, your own has visited some shaky ground sometime over the past couple of years.

How do you get ready for something you don’t want to think about? In all likelihood, the best way to do this is to ask yourself some hard self-assessment questions that you surely have the answers to, and surely are able to change outcomes any time you choose. Try the following for starters, and add your own in the process:

• Have you done a good job with yourself? With others? With your business?

• Have you and your business helped others?

• Do you make someone happy every day?

• Do you stand up for what’s right?

• Are you tolerant of other’s opinions?

• Do you take your business practices beyond good customer service and good employee relations?

• Do you respect and act gracious to every person you encounter every day, regardless of her or his appearance, behavior, influence or apparent socio-economic or educational status?

• Are you setting examples for others to follow on the job, and off?

• How will others remember and define you?

Like the necessity (no matter what your age and assets) for formalizing and maintaining an updated written will, the questions above only take on great value and deep meaning when you take the time and trouble to write down your answers to each on paper, and then periodically review them for progress and adjustments.

How else can you know if you’re truly making the most of your time on Earth if you have no frame of reference to draw from, explore, adjust and upgrade? Your written records of you empower your productivity. 

Until such time as you may be judged, you are your own best judge.

To thine own self be true! 

# # #

Your FREE subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

  Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Itttttttt’s a wrap!

Waitaminute! What makes you so sure?

You’ve been working at this deal for awhile now. It finally looks like things have fallen into place. You are almost ready to count your chickens before they’re hatched. You’re 99% sure that the long-sought-after customer/client is, at last, in your pocket.

You’ve started paying attention to champagne ads, and checking booking schedules for that dream cruise.

Winning with the who who’s in your pocket all depends on how much you learn from past mistakes. Yes, most of us have been there at least once. It’s called:

Presumptuousness

Presumptuousness is cornerstoned by assumptions. Not a lot of architectural integrity there. In case you haven’t given it much thought lately, assumptions can be dangerous. A necessary evil, so to speak, that can often be the result of a series of correct hunches, and still be wrong.

In business, politics, and life, not many attitudes can be more foreboding.

In other words, anytime you decide that you think you know it all, you can be sure someone or some circumstance will come along and prove you wrong. It’s something like a distant cousin to Murphy’s Law.

When that dark shadow crosses your mind, stop what you’re doing. Take a deep breath. Stretch.

Ask yourself if what you believe about the outcome of that big deal looming over your checkbook’s future –or about the genuineness of the partner(s) or principal(s) involved– is based on fact or opinion.

Go back to your drawing board long enough to make sure you have some contingency plan in place to offset any pending disaster. (What’s worse than looking for a job when you have no job, or having the boat motor die miles from shore with no oars, or hosting a BBQ party and running out of fuel half-way through the steaks?)

I once hosted a huge New Year’s party that ended with guests in winter coats, hats and gloves at the punchbowl when the heating plant died in 20-degree weather. Ah,the lessons of life live and learn.)

It never hurts to follow the Boy Scout motto:

“Be Prepared!”

Or Henry David Thoreau:

“Be forever on the alert!”

Business owners make assumptions every day, sometimes every hour. It’s part of the game of business.

We need to project income and expenses, often for 3-5 years out,to satisfy prospective investors and lenders with business plan financials. We need to devise marketing and operational plan budgets farther in advance than most entrepreneurial comfort zones tolerate.

One of the reasons older entrepreneurs are typically more successful than younger counterparts is simply experience. Most business success seems to me to be able to be reduced to making effective educated guesses.

“All we ever have is limited knowledge” 

. . . that one was Einstein

So next time, you think you know who’s in your pocket, think again!

Even Presidents have learned this the hard way, presuming voter support that never materializes.

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

“Almost Dying”

is a GOOD thing.

Uh, because…?

Huh? Hey, if you “Almost” died, then you didn’t, right? 

. . . which means you’re still alive.

Well, Glory Hallelujah!

Like the baseball team that had to come back from being ten runs behind in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and one strike left, and –by some miracle– twelve straight hits, including a walk-off grand slam and two others, wins the game. How many times have we heard of being spared by being snatched from the jaws of death?

Okay, so we know that things like this happen in other places besides Hollywood, but what’s the payoff? A unique, new, more meaningful perspective on life is inevitably gained — one that was clearly missing when you woke up the day before you almost died.

The same dynamics apply to small business ownership and management.

For many entrepreneurs –particularly in the last two years of oppressive federal government controls, spending and taxation without representation– their businesses have also almost died.

Yet somehow, miraculous comebacks have been recorded. Even in the face of the Obama Administration’s (well-documented) every effort to refuse small business owners and operators the opportunity to make miracles happen. Even after having the pedestal of self-esteem and career accomplishment knocked out from under their enterprises.

And perhaps –to one degree or another– your own?

But somehow, for those who have returned to life, guts and gumption have prevailed. And here they are. Still breathing. Are you breathing?

What do we learn by almost dying?

We learn to value and appreciate more than ever what we’ve had (and still have) that we disavowed, disregarded, and just plain dissed.

We discover people who we had no idea of before, riding to our rescue. We find that we still have a sense of ingenuity and a passionate drive to make our ideas work. Many find money and investors they never knew existed.

Many who have ventured or been brought close to the edge, to the brink of death, also find prayer and spiritual guidance that they might never have believed possible.

There’s something to be said for

reality bringing fantasy into reality!

Suffering? No one –except for terrorist crazies and the ignorant self-indulged among us– wishes suffering on anyone. Yet all of us suffer for ourselves and our lives and our families as we do as well for our businesses. The trick is to choose to not get swept away by it, not wallow in it, not get so caught up in it as to miss the present.

That’s the hardest part. Letting go. Moving on. But small business owners and managers know this perhaps more than most because having your own business is like having another family, and it often feels like two lives are being lived. So, yes indeed, the trick is in fact choosing to go forward when it’s hardest.

Let’s close with the great quote by B. Olatunji:

“Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

# # #

Your FREE subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

What’s your legacy?

What are you

leaving behind?

Lots of entrepreneurial-minded people end up leaving their business ventures behind when they leave life on Earth, but most –it seems to me– never give it any thought while they’re here. How many business owners do you know who actually take time out of their lives to do estate planning and succession planning?

Cartoon character Ziggy’s philosophy is probably about as much of a guiding light as the majority of entrepreneurs are willing to accept and practice:

We should enjoy here while we’re

 here ’cause there’s no here there.”

And, hey, far be it from me to suggest anything other than living for the moment. Being focused on the present, here-and-now moment, as much as possible, breeds success at every level. It is the fuel for achievement.

But, you know what? Let’s be honest about this: Most entrepreneurs, I’m quite sure you’ll find, barely take time out to eat or use the bathroom until they’re half-starved or busting at the seams. “Trial-and-error” still outperforms formal research studies and assessments. And most are unlikely to plan much beyond next week!

Entrepreneurs. They want what

they want when they want it!

A burning desire to make their ideas work is what drives the spirit, soul, and passion of every entrepreneur. In fact, contrary to popular opinion and stereotypes, the pursuit of “making big money” is secondary, if it’s even on the same wish list, which is rarely the case.

How would you like to get a complete –and guaranteed to be illuminating–  picture of your real self for free, no strings attached? How about if I can vouch for it being completely honest, and perhaps the most insightful summary of what you are all about that ever existed?

Are you ready to spook yourself out while you learn? Okay, here it is:

• Set up a one-page (8.5 x 11) Word document, or work with a pen and notebook page.

• Put your name and birth date at the top followed by a dash and today’s date

• Write your own obituary.

Don’t laugh, cry, shake uncontrollably, throw up, or think you have to be maudlin, guilty, or gushy. Simply the facts. Just the highlights. Give it a try. You will be amazed at how enlightening it will be for you to see what you actually write down or don’t write down, as the case may be. Clean it up. Polish it. Edit.

Read it back to yourself out loud.

Then, before you shred it, burn it, bury it, or lock it in a time capsule, ask yourself what you just taught you about you that you have been overlooking.

Decide what if anything you might want to follow through with that your obit page brought to light. Then, unless you’re completely satisfied with what you’re leaving behind (or the legacy track you’re on), do it! Attack that missing hunk. Get on with it. You will feel pleased, proud, happier and healthier for the effort. Pretty good ROI, eh? 

# # #

Your FREE subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

If you don’t know how to 

apply what you know,

you know nothing!

I saw some guest blog post somewhere today that made me laugh out loud because it naively proclaims that “expertise trumps experience” and then proceeds to flex 20-something-years-old muscle with empty rants and raves about Internet skills, from blogging to SEO and beyond.

Not being one to let sleeping dogs lie, I submit the following for your consideration:

• Younger generations have quite literally constellations worth of knowledge to offer to any given situation.

• They are born of Google and Microsoft and American Idol and Harry Potter. They are filled with energy drinks that make a cup of coffee seem like Darvon.

• We rickity old antique types watch high performance skateboarders, or teenage text message thumbs at work in astonishment — young people ooze skills that older people could never even have dreamed of possessing.

• And I do once remember hearing, at age 32, that I was “older than dirt” from a 21-year-old who was quite serious at the time. 

Yet something tugs at my sleeve. Is it per chance that discarded old notion of respect for experience?

Perhaps the tugging is because experience is almost necessarily a product of quiet reflection while “expertise” practically requires a shout from the rooftops to get the attention of others. 

Maybe I live in fantasyland, but it seems to me that –other than some phenom celebrity types: Justin and Hanna? Or the dudes who invented Twitter and Facebook– there’s really no one on that horizon of greatness that once ushered in Bill Gates and Steven Jobs.

Ah, but then this isn’t about comparing generations.

It’s about the fact that expertise means absolutely nothing if you don’t have the experience base to know how to use it productively.

No need to look much beyond the world of professional sports for a few hundred perfect examples.

The Internet? Well, aside from Al Gore’s claims to have once invented it, I believe that the “expertise” involved is in fact not with any single age or experience group, and research –even that which is distorted by Internet industry research leaders– is aptly underpinned with total age diversity in the expertise of blogging to SEO and beyond.

Ah, but then this isn’t about the Internet either, really. It’s all about the fact that regardless of all the wonderful online skills in one’s possession, not having a way to get paid for exercising them –because of lack of experience– also means absolutely nothing.

And there’s no need to look much beyond the artificial unemployment figures being cast about by self-serving politicians, who trickle on down from the White House, to clearly see a few million examples.

_____________________

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Expertise (whatever that means, and from whatever sources declare themselves to possess it) is simply a specialized knowledge base of how things happen or function.

Experience is knowing how to put that knowledge base to work to get results.

It’s pretty silly to be trying to make a case for one at the expense of the other. 

Posts RSS Feed FREE Blog Subscription

# # #

 302.933.0116      Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Kids are

the world’s greatest

salespeople because

they know how to 

paint a verbal picture 

. . . and put you in it!

When’s the last time you took business advice from a single-digit-aged kid? Every small business owner, operator, manager, entrepreneur, and sales professional should have to do this at least once a month, even for a ten-minute long crash course.

Ask someone under ten years old to tell you why she or he likes something. Then listen. Ask questions but only for clarification. Odds are pretty good that you’ll end up inside that child’s verbal description of a thing, a place, or an event. You’ll get there by your own choice and you’ll enjoy the experience.

Those of you who are Mothers (or Mr. Mom’s) know all about the pearls-of-wisdom-from-the-mouths-of-babes thing, but in case you’re not, or don’t, don’t think for a minute that you haven’t time to waste with such foolishness.

Innovative business empires have been built on ideas and messages that have come from listening to children.

Children —and generally the younger the better– are less inhibited, have far fewer fears, and fewer feelings of self-importance. They may fantasize. They may not seem very realistic about things like money or distance or amounts or sizing up people or situations, but they speak the truth.

And they are passionate.

And they know how to

paint a verbal picture.

And they won’t hesitate to tell you

all the things you need to know

that no one else will tell you.

You will gain value from a child’s perspective.

His or her viewpoint, remember is looking up under your chin and your belly, and inside your nose. Put your new product, or a photo or video clip of it on the table in front of the nearest 8-year-old and ask what she or he thinks it is. Ask what it does, how it works, who would use it, why, when, where, how?

It’s a service? Simplify your explanation of it and see what you get back. Offer and ask for examples and comparisons. Does he or she if the product or service would be a good or bad thing . . . and why?

Tou’re looking to save your business money? What better deal can you make than to get an outpouring of honest, unbiased opinions about your business or business ventures for the price of an ice cream or hot dog, or a trip to the circus or a walk on the beach or through the park?

On top of all that, you’ll get a firsthand booster shot of salesmanship. Maybe you forgot about how important energy and enthusiasm are, or the importance of painting a mental picture with words, and walking a customer into it. Hmm?              

Posts RSS Feed FREE Blog Subscription

# # #

302.933.0116     Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone

To and from work, are you

wide-eyed and bushy-tailed

… or in a trance-like state?

DOES IT MATTER? Well, does your job attitude matter? Your family attitude? What goes on with you in that little Twilight Zone commuting-to-and-fro time window? Are you looking and acting like you just stepped out of (or into) some weird, skin-crawling Steven King story? How does your daily commute impact your business? Career? Family?

Or, hey, maybe you’re hop-skip-jumping along in time to your happy whistling? (Hmmm, hard to remember the last time I heard someone whistle. Once it was commonplace, but now suggests serial-killer symptoms.) Or, no, I was, well, I was  going to substitute “humming” but that’s come to signal readiness for being committed, y’think?

I’m asking all these questions because I have been, alternatively: a tiger, a puppy-dog, and a zombie commuting to, from, and through a wide variety of career pursuits.

I’ve run the proverbial gamut of commuter vehicle experiences from choppers to car pools, and here’s some of what I found . . .

Years of Fortune 500 corporate client travels and commuter trains so jam-packed and smoke-filled, I often gave up a seat to stand, freezing, between the deafening, open-air train car connection spaces (an hour each way on those rare occasions when schedules were actually met), hanging on for dear life. And I won’t even mention the rain.

Ah, yes, and there was always at least one time when briefcase snaps failed or a coffee lid wasn’t secured!

Those enlightening death-defying train rides definitely fed appreciation like no other for the plastic suburbs and phony weekend-warrior neighbors.

I mean imagine racing home from the railroad station to screaming kids, barking dogs, complaints about dinner being cold and a mountain of bills. 

But, alas, those late arrival, go-getter young executives –after working long past punch-out time, in efforts to excel and earn more– often found that state of pandemonium a welcome greeting!

                                                       

In fact, it was almost a treat compared to straddling the clanking, jerking, bucklings that connected the stinking (slippery when wet) rail-cars after a stressful workday.

Then there were years of driving (and standing still on “expressways”) and tolls, bridges, bus fumes, and broken windshield wipers. I wonder how many hours wasted away waiting in lines and at traffic lights and in (cough!cough!cough!) claustrophobic tunnels. No, never mind, I really don’t want to know. It would make me crazier than I am.

So, take a taxi! Yeah, right! Talk about crazy. Besides that drivers must have to pass a taxi test that proves they can’t speak English, they all have their little trade secrets about longer routes to take passengers who are in a hurry, more dangerous routes to take passengers who look nervous, etc. Taxi? No thanks! 

____________________

Besides, I ditched all that nonsense years ago when I took the big leap off of payrolls and benefit plans and came crashing to Earth as (Ta-ta-ta-ta-tah-tah!) . . . poorer than a ragged beggar, more headstrong than the bull in front of the Stock Exchange, able to leap onto prospective clients in a single bound . . . Look! . . . Up in the air! . . . It’s . . . It’s a corporate mogul . . . it’s a pocket-padding politician . . . NO! IT’S ENTREPRENEURMAN!

Yup, that’s me! Shucks! You’d never recognize that frazzled commuter anymore. Now I just run up and down the stairs to my basement office, bathrobe aflutter, with an armful of pantry snacks, writing fool that I am, remembering the good old commuter days, and being soooo thankful to be struggling in small business with big happiness!

# # #

Your FREE subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Are You Making a Difference in 

Someone’s Life Right Now?

. . . Is Your Business?

Most people, it seems to me, share a whole myriad of negative goals. Things like: Stay away from jails, surgical procedures, lawyers, courtrooms, politicians, ER’s, dentist drills,and food poisoning.

There is, though, at least one positive goal that most all of us appear to share –at least in conscience if not in deed:

To make a difference.

It’s something like the moral of the story deal. You know, as in: “Hey! You’ve taken me through all this, so now what’s the lesson I’m supposed to have learned?”

No one wants to get to her or his deathbed without feeling like life has been worthwhile, or that he or she has helped make life worthwhile for someone else — that the Earth has been left a slightly better place than it was to enter.

It does sometimes feel like technology has taken over, like privacy has been violated and values have been led astray. Yet those who care about those they live with and near, about those they work for and with, about those they celebrate and mourn, persevere in their pursuit of happiness. Because the pursuit alone IS happiness.

Entrepreneurs get it. I’ve always thought the “P” in “Entrepreneurs” stands for “Pursuit,” and that the “s” stands for “seek.”  

We seek to make a difference in life, in our businesses, in the industry or profession each of us is involved with. We seek to make a difference in the lives of our parents and children, and grandchildren (and, yes, our pets!). . . in the lives of our associates and employees, in our communities and neighborhoods . . . and on our fragile planet. 

We like to think that others do, or can, or will benefit by the examples we set, the charitable deeds we do, and the authenticity and good cheer with which we approach our work and day-to-day existences.

The intensity of purpose that embraces these kinds of positive pursuits inevitably grows as we grow older and more aware of who we are and where we are and what we’re doing.

Growing older moves us ever closer to the fabled moments in time that “dwindle down to those precious few.”

And the calendar pages turn and the clock ticks on relentlessly.

What’s that about “time and tide”?

Is it too late?

Is it ever too late for anything, except perhaps enjoying ice cream once it’s melted?

Thinking and acting like it’s too late to change course, to make a difference for yourself, for others, is a choice. If you’re still alive, you still have a choice.

Is your business still alive? If you are, it is. 

# # #

YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG, CLICK: Posts RSS Feed

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Hey!

Did j’hear the one about…? 

# # #

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!