HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Two simple words, delivered by the boss — with a sincere smile, handshake or back pat, maybe even a balloon or courtesy lunch or coffee break — can work wonders for your business.

     Your people are your most important asset. Your genuine and personal recognition of the single most important day in the life of each employee will come back to you a hundred-fold. Because? Because people talk. And because everyone talks about being appreciated … especially in today’s hard-times existence. 

     It’s become such a rarity to get unsolicited recognition  of any kind, that many people go out of their way to actually ask for it once a year … some boldly, some demurely, some jokingly. “Well, it’s my birthday today,” slips from the lips of total supermarket strangers.

     And what’s the response?  “So what! Who cares?” Not a chance!  Aren’t the next three words always: “Oh, Happy Birthday!”? And except for temper-tantrum toddlers or emotionally-fragile teens, when have you ever seen “Happy Birthday!” not produce smiles?

     For business owners and managers, the bottom line is that the small amount of time and effort required to acknowledge staff and associate birthdays pays big dividends in productivity, loyalty, renewed commitment to company goals, and overall spirit of cooperation. Enthused recipients can foster sales as well.  

     Do you even know the birthdays of everyone who works with you? What about investors, referrers, key suppliers, loyal customers? This isn’t just a local restaurant or chiropractor gimmick to get you back in their doors. This is simply a nice (and smart) thing for every boss to do!

     You’ve been looking for inexpensive high-impact ways to grow your business. This approach is a no-brainer. Do a little birthday homework here. With the right kind of twist, employee birthday news releases and captioned photos can even be newsworthy enough to warrant coverage. (Need help with that angle? Send me an email.)

     Before you decide to shrug off the idea and dismiss it as a frivolous waste of time, question whether it really is, or are you choosing for it to be because you don’t identify with these kinds of values? Fact: As an entrepreneur, you may not need as much recognition as others because you’re more interested in making your ideas work.

     THIS is one idea that will get others interested in helping you make your ideas work. And since all behavior is a choice, this investment in others who work with you is a choice. It’s your choice.

Is it your birthday? Happy Birthday!  

Everyone else is slowing down,

so now’s the time to speed up!

The holiday buzz is here.  In fact, EPRs (Economically-Panicked Retailers) have been buzzing with Christmas since before Halloween. Rumor has it that 2010 Christmas sales and decorations may start the day after Labor Day. For 2011, write your greeting cards on the 5th of July. Who knows? We may eventually lap the entire process and start Christmas sales and decorations for 2020 (with hindsight of course!) on December 26th of 2019! Maybe we can just give one present good for two years?

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     The point is that once the buzz that’s started gets started,  America’s business enterprises all begin shifting into low gear. Some businesses close earlier. Many employees (especially corporate giant, federal government and academic types who have no clue about business anyway) start to s~~l~~o~~w  down and skip out early more often, and take longer lunches, and drink more … and be of good cheer.

     SO: AHA! NOW’S THE TIME TO STEP ON THE GAS,  to work 10 times harder cultivating and keeping customers … to strike out into the marketplace with your heavy artillery.

     Now, while all the big-time competitors (especially B to B services) are rolling in their carpets  and the media is hard up for news, is the time to unleash a big-time public relations campaign and sales push.

     If you’re a serious entrepreneur and have been looking for a break:  you’ve got it! Take it and run! So what if your corporate muckity-muck brother-in-law is headed off on a pre-Christmas cruise and can’t think about much beyond which golf shirts to pack?

     So what if the business on your left has closed for the holidays  and the one on your right is preoccupied with window decorations, office parties and cracking open bottles of booze at 2:30 in the afternoon?

     YOU are an independent, never-say-die, innovative, dedicated-to-the-action  entrepreneur and you have a chance to get your business to that inside lane along the rail and pull up even to some of the industry big-boys.

     Do it. Make it happen.  It is a choice. It is YOUR choice. You can do three unplanned-for sales and promotion-focused things every day between now and Christmas that will set you into a pack leader position when the 2010 gate opens on January 1. What are they? You know what they are. Can you do the first of these tomorrow morning?  

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When you quote a price,

do you quote a schedule?

     When you tell a story,  do you use a timeline?

     You’re in sales, right?  Of course you are! You own or run a business or professional practice or company department? Then you’re in sales. You work at the top crossbeam of a new skyscraper construction site? You’re in sales.

     You work inside an underground  storage container or facility? You’re in sales? You don’t work at all? You’re in sales. And since now that you’ve found out that you are in fact in sales, it’s important to know how important it is for you to make maximum use of a timeline.

     Why? Funny you should ask. You knew I had the answer, right?  Okay, here it comes. Because a timeline helps make your sales points quicker and simpler. It helps your prospects, customers, bosses, parents (and anyone you need to influence) to understand your frame of reference more clearly and more readily.

     When you propose a fee for providing a service,  for example, you must be prepared to give a target date for completion. In some cases, you can hedge it a bit by estimating 60-90 days or 1-2 hours or 9-10 months, but be quick to support the reason for not being more specific. Specific is best. Always.

     Why? (You knew that was coming, right?)  Here’s why:  For a goal to be a goal instead of just a meaningless “wish,” it needs to be specific, realistic, flexible and have a due date. (And, yes, it must be all four of those things or it is fantasy and fantasy doesn’t get things done!)

     To promise something by a specific date  gives you credibility and a certain amount of accompanying trust, which of course you need to fulfill on or notify the payer as far in advance as possible of the need to extend the time period… and why.

     You would be amazed  at how many people don’t automatically build a timeline into their planning, sales pitch, agenda, project, program, meeting, advertisement, work schedule, new product or service launch, construction or revitalization effort, financial review, or story.

     As a writer,  I find the inclusion of a timeline related to job completion to be essential, but I also find that including a timeline reference inside the actual writing –whether it’s a commissioned book or a brochure, advertisement or website– has value in and of itself.

     Part of the credibility and fascination  of the “story” or “sales pitch” will often actually evolve directly from an integrated timeline. Juxtaposing historic events alongside a biographical story, for example, or as part of “what happened when” in the “About Us” webpage, or as a schedule of events in an ad or brochure can give your presentation the teeth it needs to attract attention and create interest! 

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Are You Ahead Of Your Time?

     As a fledgling  and occasionally sarcastic business professor in 1974, I made two predictions to my marketing students:

1)  The day will come when  some opportunistic HBA (Health & Beauty Aids) company (aren’t they all?) posing as a pharmaceutical firm (don’t they all?) will launch a big new product splash into the marketplace, announcing the revolutionary new “BEHIND THE KNEES DEODORANT AND ANTI-PERSPIRANT” for those embarrassing odors associated with leg draping over the edge of a seat while sitting (imagine the booming market for drivers!). Okay, hasn’t happened yet, but — as they say at the NY Lottery — “Hey! Ya’Neva know!”

2)  The day will also come when  we will all have microchips  (which only barely existed then and, those that did, probably held 10 pages worth and were maybe the size of a half-dollar) embedded in our foreheads  that will allow us to tune-in to any TV or radio station, play any album (33’s and 8-tracks at that time) and call or answer any call — without a phone — by simply thinking of the person or organization we wanted contact with. Uh, this too hasn’t yet happened … yet … but …

     Truth is  that if you’re thinking about stuff like this, I hope you are either an independently wealthy entrepreneur, a scientist being paid to drum up challenges for some corporate R&D department, or a sicko mental case.

     Being ahead of your time  is a waste of time. It is also like a tip-toe through Disneyland because it is mega-fantasy … because it is not here, now; so it is not reality.

     Excursions into fantasyland  can occasionally be helpful — as in underscoring a point with a class full of marketing students. But if you’re running a business, run the business!

     The farther you drift  away from what’s right in front of your face on a day-to-day basis, the farther your bottom line will drift away. And with today’s econ… got the drift?

     Pay attention to  the customer, the employee, the referrer, the supplier who is looking at you, speaking with you, emailing you, Twittering you right this minute! Success is the journey, not the destination! 

     Don’t stop dreaming,  just save it for when you go to bed!

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Are YOU on my desk?

     As I look around me,  I see notes and slips of paper with phone numbers and phone messages and email addresses and reminders… all people who have said they are definitely interested in moving forward with business consulting and/or writing services… all people who have not followed through even though I have offered gentle reminders.

     If you commit to someone  that you intend to do business with at some level, and especially when you set a target date, either do it… or call that person immediately to let him or her know that you have second thoughts, other thoughts, no thoughts… whatever! But communicate!

     In street lingo,  it’s referred to as “S*@& or get off the pot!” and it means exactly that!

     How can you expect  to build or maintain any kind of reputation for integrity when you tell people one thing, and do another?

     How can you expect  people to think respectfully of you and your business when you don’t treat them respectfully?

     Does this mean  sending out an RFP to “outside” services and then not communicating about it once the proposal is submitted? Of course! Doesn’t every proposal require some explanation? 

     Does this mean  agreeing to have the information a product or service provider needs in order to complete an order into her or his hands by a certain date, and then honoring that agreement (or immediately notifying the other party of the need for a delay)? Of course!

     Does this mean  honoring a customer discount offer that’s presented 24 hours after the expiration date (regardless of reason offered)? Of course! 

     If you are on the receiving end  (or actually, non-receiving end might be more appropriate) of any of these kinds of situations, you may need to re-negotiate your relationship to the point of having to ask point blank:

“Are you interested in moving forward with this as we’ve agreed, or not?”

(If YES,  “Let’s set a deadline of _____ for getting _____ done. Okay with you?”)

(If NO,  “What specific things can I do right now to get us back on track?”) 

Putting things off , like services you contract for, or not providing essential input for those services to do what you’re paying them to do, is a losing proposition for all involved. And the cost of not communicating is lost integrity. Neither is a healthy business practice!

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