30 MILLION STORIES.

Does that sound like

the stairway to heaven?

No, the other kind of 

stories, as in tell me a…

It’s been widely reported that there are an estimated 30 million small businesses in the United States. This number includes sole proprietorships (which the government refuses to acknowledge as small businesses, and which therefore account for a smaller small business total in Washington’s eyes, though interestingly, not out of IRS sight!).

Why should this matter to you?

There’s barely an entrepreneur alive who doesn’t know that new small businesses create virtually ALL of the new jobs in this country –and always have– and that job creation is the ONLY solution to reversing this still plummeting economy (which, all the great funeral service and State of the Union campaign-style oratory cannot cover up with political blankets).

Just look at skyrocketing gas prices,

unemployment, and boarded up storefronts 

for proof of the still plummeting economy.

Every business that’s alive and breathing today has avoided shutdown and rollover by owner, manager, and employee guts and gumption.

Discovering and pounding away at a unique product or service differential; consistently thinking and acting beyond creativity into the gravitational pull of innovative orbits; delivering value, integrity, and overkill customer service is what spells s~u~c~c~e~s~s!

This means, among other things, that your business has a story. With 29,999,999 other stories floating around out there (not counting government and corporate media dominance and control), your business story may seem small and insignificant. But it is not. Your small business story is that you are here . . . and how you got here, and where you’re going. And that story is real and valuable.

YOUR story needs to be told. Do it yourself, or get someone to do it for you, but don’t shovel it into obscurity. Part of your value on this planet is to inspire and motivate others by sharing what you’ve learned along the way. If you don’t believe this, you shouldn’t be wasting your time on this site. You need not be Bill Gates or Oprah before giving something back. Teach by telling your story.

In the process of growing your business, what is it that you’ve learned the hard way . . . what do you wish someone had clued you in on before the eve of destruction?

What would have made a difference for you to hear when the going got tough?

How hard is it for you to choose to reach out to others in your family, your company, your industry, your community, and share some of your ups and downs in a way that might help someone else? Have you offered to teach a local high school or college or adult education course? How about initiating a business round-table group or discussion series at your church or community center?

(Practicing such enlightened self-interest, by the way, can only enhance your own business reputation in the process.)

Have you called a local school (or trade or professional show program director) and asked if you could arrange a guest talk, or guest lecture, or guest workshop, or seminar participation? (Some of the world’s best employees are also recruited at such sessions.)

What’s holding up your call? Are you thinking you have nothing important to say? If you are where you are, you have important things to say about the process that got you there. OR that didn’t get you there — What are some NO-NO’s you’ve learned? People DO want to know these things. You did yourself at one time. Remember?

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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! 

Trying to run a small business

amid today’s world turmoils is 

like trying to do your tax return

 at a Chucky Cheese

birthday party!

CIA people will tell you that you really don’t want to know what’s going on in the world 24/7. Global terrorist threats and attacks are literally nonstop across the entire planet, all day and night, every day and night.

We hear from off-the-deep-end-tree-huggers (so described as to separate them from genuine environmentalists) that Al Gore’s “global warming” warnings were not so “warm” and were actually intended to focus more broadly on “climate change.”

Whew!

We should all be relieved to know that the man didn’t have the warming warning thing any more wrong than his claims to have “invented the Internet,” and that he really meant to say “climate change” from the outset.

Oh! Okay.

And we all know about gas prices, and the federal government’s bungling of the economy. [See my 87 gazillion posts about how to turn the economy around with tax incentives for job creation to new entrepreneurs — instead of tax-dollar handouts to incompetent corporate giants, thieving unions, and socialistic reform programs that simply add to the crushing deficit burden.]

Now I know this next statement will send 14,000 PETA members picketing me and no doubt some threats from civil liberties lawyers, but by way of meaningful advice to small business and professional practice owners, operators, partners and managers:

When a horse throws you,

get up, brush yourself off,

punch the horse in the nose

and climb back on!

(Ask any horse trainer)

Right, says you, but how do you concentrate on your own business when all the walls around you come tumbling down? First, all the walls around you are not tumbling down.

It’s cold in lots of places where it was always warm. People riot in the streets and get killed every day of the week in some town or city in some country. That doesn’t make it right, or even alright, but it should be enough to convince you that you need to stay alert while keeping your shoulder to the wheel. Stick-to-it-tive-ness is one of the great entrepreneurial traits.

The economy? The only thing that will turn that around — realistically speaking — is new national leadership that values and understands the contributions of small business, that responds to small business, and that rises to the occasion to nurture entrepreneurship with more than tokenism, empty promises, and babble.

So the bottom line is that you need to send your star rising on your own. There’s no place left to lean. Challenge yourself and your people to innovate, build high trust, exceed customer service expectations, and market the truth.

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“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! 

STEP RIGHT UP . . .

Step-sister, step-brother, step-father, step-mother, step it up, step up, step down, step back, step forward, step across, step into it, step in it, step on it, step over it, step under it, step around it, get in step.

If you have all four of the first four of these, let’s pray you’ve been fortunate enough to also have any or all four care for and love you and tend to your needs. If you do the other 13, you are compliant and evasive. (I know, I should start writing horoscopes!)

And then there’s my magnificent granddaughter who’s engaged in active ice rink competition as a member of the worldclass synchronized skating team named The Capitol Steps, based (where else?) in Washington, DC.

You know what? I love my granddaughter beyond description, and The Capitol Steps performances are remarkable in the team’s applications of  hard work, skill, spirit and discipline (5AM practices!), but I could do without all the other kinds of magical “steps” being pushed down the gagging throats of struggling business owners.

Well, okay that was a rather long way around, but you are still reading, right?

Ah, yes, some will click off here because they think there’s nothing more sensible coming.

Oh, how wrong they may be, like tossing a lottery ticket to the wind because the first number doesn’t match.

“Patience,” my mother always said, “is a virtue.” Of course my father’s credo was “He who hesitates is lost!” (Notice my father spoke with exclamation points.)

I have read The 9 Best Steps to This, and The 9 Best Steps to That; 10 Steps to Success; 3 Steps to Great Wealth; 12 Steps to Happiness; 16 Steps to Great Leadership (I guess it’s harder to be a great leader than to gain great wealth); 20 Steps to Make Your Man Happy (from Cosmo); The 7 Steps to Highly Effective Behavior Stuff, and only heaven knows all the other secret formulas.   

When I was younger, and eager to advance my career, I used to try them all. My legs got tired. Now, they actually have “Step Class” sessions… I guess to limber you up for taking all the mystical steps that promise greatness.

Here’s the point:

You own, or operate, or manage a business or professional practice.

Somehow, you have managed to keep the doors open and stay out of jail.

You already know what steps to take and which ones to avoid. You don’t need anyone else’s hocus-pocus “Steps” to take.

You need only to trust yourself more. You need to trust your own judgment. It’s what got you here and has kept your business breathing.

Sure, you can do better. But you will only do better by being true to yourself and following your heart as well as your mind.

You are on the way to making a difference in this world.

Don’t let anyone or any book or video or orator or feature story or “outside” influence prompt you to step sideways into someone else’s spotlight.

You will be wasting time and energy and money, and moving away from the strengths of your own insights and your own depth of character. Be true to yourself. 

Try new ideas, but stick to what you believe. And keep believing in you.    

  

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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! 

THE JOB INTERVIEW QUESTION THAT ALWAYS WORKS . . .

I’ve seen your resume,

                          

Mr. Dweeb,

                                                

but what I really want

                             

to know is what would

                                     

you do with a million

                                             

dollars cash, right now?”

So what would YOU do with a million dollars cash, right now?

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“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! 

Do the WAYS

we do business

determine

the results we get?

ATTITUDES

Do you and your partners, associates, and advisers ALL demonstrate positive upbeat attitudes in practically everything you say and do? When it’s time to swallow hard, eat crow, and bite the bullet (heck of a name for a restaurant!), do you and those around you own up, face the music, take it on the chin, take some deep breaths, and then step forward, onward, and upward? 

Are high-trust responsive attitudes standard fare in all your business dealings? Do you practice and foster “OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS” attitudes? Are you listening?

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Can you honestly say there are no exceptions ever to: the customer is always right, the customer is always right, the customer is always right? (Even when it’s a customer who has overstepped bounds, or someone you don’t particularly like?) Do you and your people try to make EVERY customer deliriously delighted. Are you invested in cultivating repeat sales with a present moment focus? Are you listening?

EMPLOYEES

Are you taking the time and trouble to get to know your people well enough to make the most of their strengths (or are you constantly trying to shore up their weaknesses)? Have you frequently matched employee need levels against Maslow’s Hierarchy (Google or Bing it if you’ve forgotten it) to most effectively motivate productive performances? Do you practice leadership by teaching by example? Are you listening?

INVESTORS, LENDERS, AND REFERRERS

Is your level of transparency what you would want it to be if you were investing in you, or referring others to your business? Are you keeping these key connections inside your inner loop? Are you tapping them as resources and regularly soliciting their input. Have you recruited them into unpaid Advisory Board positions? Are you listening?

VENDORS AND SUPPLIERS

Do you treat these resource people and companies like partners? Can you extend and generate better terms for exchanging and referring and bartering products and services? Do you keep them competitive with an ongoing bid process, and constantly review their performances while keeping open-minded to other options? Do they know where they stand with you? Are you listening?

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Are you running a U.S.Marine Drill Instructors Academy, or a hospice, or something in between? Is the way you run your business in keeping with the industry or profession you’re part of? Is it too much in keeping that it doesn’t stand out? Do your policies and procedures squelch innovative thinking and doing, or enhance it? How lawyer-crazed tight are your policy interpretations? 

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING

Are you constantly making room for top talent, and cultivating it. Are you providing enough of the right kinds of training. Are you aware of how importantly regarded expanded opportunities and responsibilities are to most people? Did you know that young people are positively more attracted to being praised than they are to sex, drugs, and alcohol? 

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Are you and your business being good citizens in the various (professional, industry, geographic, neighborhood)communities that patronize your business and support your existence?

GOD AND COUNTRY

When you put God and country first on your business agenda, all the other pieces will fit together because both God and your country will know about your allegiance, your commitment, and where your heart is. As we sow, so shall we reap. 

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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! 

Do-dah’s practice

the three Dah’s:

“Shouldah”  “Couldah”

and “Wouldah”

When did you last embark on a Dah Mission? First off it’s been said by far better men than I that the Shouldahs run together in the woods with the Couldas and the Wouldas.

All three of those Dah’s pump themselves up with regret over their conscious and unconscious choices they’ve made to reject the Dones. There’s I Shoulda Done, YOU Shoulda Done and WE Shoulda Done (whatever the stuff is that never got done!).

And, yes, there is of course the I/YOU/WE applications to Coulda Done and Wouldah Done as well.

Everyone passes this way at one time or another. Those who get themselves stuck in thinking about past events and situations that they or others mishandled (or never handled) are the ones who traditionally become and create problems for others.

Dwelling on the past is as emotionally and mentally (and frequently physically) unhealthy, as worrying about the future (which hasn’t yet come and maybe never will!).

Focusing on what might have been, on what should have been done or could have been done or would have been done, is as nonproductive a waste of time and energy (and often, money) as the underpinnings of those notions advanced by naive leaders that “HOPE” will solve all problems.

Wishing whets appetites for failure.

ACTION, not hope, is what makes things happen.

When you hear one of the three “Dah’s” worm it’s way into a discussion, treat it like a yellow caution light. Slow things down and bring attention back to the reality of the moment.

Emphasize specific steps or suggestions or directions that can be addressed. You drive through a yellow light at your peril.

And, by the way, it’s pretty hard to get where you want to go by driving in reverse, by leaving no stone unturned in assessing and evaluating and analyzing what happened that shouldn’t have, what didn’t happen, or what went wrong.

If it’s not life or death, get on with it. Take a minute to learn from experience instead of burying it under reasons and excuses, then move on. Who did what to whom doesn’t matter when forward motion is what’s called for.

We are a nation of sportaholics and we have brainwashed ourselves into analyzing things to death. We literally live for instant replays.

And just think about how much more detail we can pull out of a replay that we’ve seen three or four times. Sports talk radio stations regularly hear from callers who want to debate a game play that they’ve replayed 12, 15, even 20 times! Now THAT’s Do-Dah material. 

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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! 

Too Much Spice In

Your Business

Can Cause It

To Drown.

Those who use lots of salt get thirsty. The solution of course is water. A glass or two is fine, but a tsunami inside your body or your business can be even worse that one that ravages the outside.

At least crashing waves and a flood outside your body or business allows the remote possibility of escape by swimming or clinging to a floatation device. Other than the limits of an Intensive Care Unit, there is no controlling an implosion! 

Every day, small businesses and entrepreneurial business leaders across America struggle to keep afloat — victims of government indifference, government interference, corporate giant market dominance, and aggressive competition– external tsunamis.

Internal storms are marked by under-capitalization, poor management, unproductive marketing, and over-stress. As insurmountable as these may seem to some, reality is that these at least offer the consolation that they can be controlled by choice.

Business failures

are often the result

of poor decisions

to add too much salt

Spicing up a product or service message or method of presentation instead of adding genuine value spawns ineffective, low-trust levels of reception.

The addition of meaningless razzmatazz threatens existing employee, customer, supplier, referrer and investor relations at a point where increased levels of high-trust transparency are what the marketplace is calling for.

Successful businesses and entrepreneurial leaders never sacrifice integrity for a spice rack full of new flavors and meaningless window dressing.

“Instant” hair care products that are simply water-added (and incrementally-more-expensive) versions of the original basic product, don’t even deserve retail store shelf facings. They are packaged lies aimed at prompting naive young women to spend money!

Oh, and how many fewer screaming automotive dealerships can we do without? Surely, you have many examples of your own you can add. Hopefully, your business is not one of them. 

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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! 

On my honor, I will

do my best to do my duty

to God and my country

… Honor Guard… Honor

thy Father and Mother…

Military Honors...Honor

the memory…Yes,Your

Honor…No, Your Honor

…Honors Student …Oh,

yes, and:

“Honor among thieves.”

Barbara Ann Kipfer’s FLIP DICTIONARY (a wonderful Writer’s Digest resource book) shows the following under “HONOR”:  

“Accolade, adore, award, celebrate, character, commendation, courage, credit, decoration, deference, dignify, dignity, distinction, ennoble, esteem. exalt, fame, fete, glorify, glory, homage, honesty, integrity, kudos, laud, laurels, obeisance, praise, recognition, regard, reputation, respect, revere, reverence, tribute, trust, worship.”

WHAT DOES “HONOR” MEAN TO YOU?

Business and personal reputations are made or broken by the treatment of and attention to honoring commitments, delivering what’s promised.

When your leadership can inspire others –employees and suppliers– to go the extra mile, to deliver more than what’s expected, you can count yourself among the truly great captains of industry. 

Surely you will never be at a loss for customers, unless you think you’ve inherited and deserve a badge of honor because you’re part of some aristocratic family birthright (in which case, you’re not reading this anyway), honor is in reality something that’s both learned and earned. And it’s never to late for either.

As with all other behaviors that lead to various forms of good and bad and positive and negative recognition, the pathway to receiving honor is to choose to deliver it consistently first.

Those who rise to the occasion to make certain that what they promise others is in fact the minimum of what they deliver, and that they in fact deliver when they say they will deliver, and who follow through on commitments win honorable reputations. Honorable reputations sell. But only when they are continuously evidenced.

In other words, one good deed does not a respectable character make. Put another way, one business owner I know tells employees:

I don’t care that the rest of the world always wants to know the answer to the question: ‘what have you done for me lately?’

I care about what you do consistently –day after day– to demonstrate commitment to yourself, your fellow employees, our customers, and company outsiders.

Because that’s the kind of honorability that makes businesses thrive.”

How prevalent is this thinking and behavior in your organization? What will it take to punch it up?(By the way, if you’re into the “Honor Among Thieves” mindset, consider that the punishment payoff will catch up with you somewhere; do you really always want to be looking back over your shoulder?) 

Thank you, dear visitors; it’s been, well, an honor to have you visit. Please return soon.

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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! 

Shakin’ in your boots?

In business, we often (sometimes even every hour –or minute– or two) find ourselves in a position of needing to deliver something under duress . . . a product, service, idea, proposal, message, estimate, document, presentation, bank balance, operational failure, employee or customer or supplier problem. And delivery is always in Eastern, Central, Rocky Mountain or La-La Land Crunch Time.

Anxiety, says Webster, is the painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind over an impending or anticipated ill, or concern or interest . . . abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by psychological signs (such as sweating, tension, and increased pulse) . . . and by self doubt. Not the stuff of entrepreneurs, you say?  Contraire mon fraire!

Sure entrepreneurs are self-confident and self-motivated and filled with burning desire, but they are also basket cases when it comes time for delivery of the goods — a business plan to investors, a loan app to the bank, a new operating system.

Why is that”?

Entrepreneurs are uniquely suited to have more at stake with every decision than any corporate or government manager.

Period.

Not very unlike the mindsets of our military heroes, entrepreneurs put their very (life, home, and family) existences on the line with virtually every decision every day.

Although no one in our present top level of American government has yet to acknowledge this truth or taken steps to capitalize on it: entrepreneurs are, when all is said and done, the movers and shakers of society.

Entrepreneurs are the catalysts of job market creation and employment opportunities — they are the only viable resource to tap for reversing and strengthening America’s economy. That’s a lot of angst to carry around.

Okay, so the conquering part:

•  Take some deep breaths.

• Recognize that anxiousness is a behavior and that behaviors are choices so why choose agita when you can just as easily make up your mind to instead choose calm self-control?

• Focus on the here-and-now present moment as much as possible because everything else (since it’s not here, now) is pure fantasy!

• Learn as much as you possibly can about your SELF and the things that make you come together as a person, as a leader, as an innovator.

• Surround yourself with positive people, positive events, positive pursuits, and a positive environment as often as possible.

• Don’t be afraid to seek out professional reality or Gestalt therapy or group guidance if you feel yourself drifting too far into the past or future too often. It doesn’t mean you’re losing it; it means you’re smart enough to recognize your shortcomings and to do something about them. It puts you in the top percent of enlightened human beings on this planet (which you clearly are if you’re reading this! Thanks for being here. Come again.).

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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! 

When what goes on day to day

brings to mind a certain

old song or two . . .

I know, I know, you’re not the first one to tell me I’m crazy. Just because I think of different business people and situations whenever I hear certain old tunes doesn’t mean I’m ready for that big nuthouse in the sky.

But it IS interesting to think about how parallel some favorite lyrics can run to the good and bad fortunes of your business. No, not “The Eve of Destruction.”

Consider, just as an example, the three plays in a row I heard recently on Sirius 33:

James Taylor:

“I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain…sunny days that I thought would never end…lonely times that I could not find a friend…” 

Bob Seger:

“Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then…I’m older now, but still running against the wind…”

and Jackson Browne:

“Running on empty.”

All three of those sets of words have applied to my business and many clients’ businesses many times over the years. Some, in fact, hold varying amounts of truth today. (You think Jackson Browne had some premonition about gas prices?)

Then, how about that great old inspirational song from that great old group, AMERICA:

This is for all the lonely people, thinking that life has passed them by . . . don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup and ride that highway in the sky!” 

 

Music, it seems to me –considering it in both a business context and the reality of life– has a funny way of opening up some of the wounds it heals and healing some of the wounds it opens. Does that make sense? You don’t have to be a shrink to see the truth of that. 

This observation is not limited to pop music, by the way. I think the dynamic of stirring up old emotions and creating new ones applies equally to classical music as it does to rap or jazz or any other style of creative musical expression.

Why else do we tap our feet and fingers, hum along, and sometimes just drift off into the mental or emotional space that music suggests?

Certainly, advertising jingle and commercial background music producers plus cinematic music specialists  know the heartstrings-tugging value of an oboe, a violin, or a wailing tenor sax, and how to make it play to trigger emotions.

These people are also acutely aware of the importance of maintaining some denomination of 80 beats per minute to best coincide with the average human heartbeat, and use that tool to help reach the unconscious mind through the ears and absorbed vibrations. 

Is there music in your workspace? Does it help or hinder productivity? Inspire creativity? Innovation? Is it the same music you listen to when you’re not on the job? (HA! Are you ever not on the job? Hey, YOU chose to be an entrepreneur.)

Anyway, dredge up some happy stuff (there actually is a little of it out there!) and sing away. That action alone is a terrific stress reducer, and we can’t have enough of that as we plunge onward into 2011.  

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 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!