A good boss never needs 

 to thrive on emergencies.

Being prepared to respond to instead of react to emergency situations is the mark of a true leader. Just because you know CPR doesn’t entitle you to run around trying to stir up heart attacks. There is much to be said for running a business on passion. The mark of business greatness has more than once sprung forth from enthusiasm and commitment and high energy levels.

Henry Ford. Thomas Edison. Bill Gates. Steven Jobs. Andrew Carnegie. Mary Kay Ash. Frank Perdue. Oprah Winfrey. Walt Disney. Charles Schwab. Meg Whitman. Jeff Bezos. Add your own ___________.  

How many are or were full-time firefighters? Zero. How many could mobilize an effective strike force to handle sudden major upsets? All of them. While I believe it helps, one need not have been a Boy Scout to “Be Prepared.” One simply needs to be able to quickly sort through and prioritize options, mobilize and motivate others, and be willing to step up and take action.

Sometimes, of course, real life physical emergencies require taking action first.

It’s that little extra dose of instinct and clear-minded judgement that frequently makes the difference between –both literally and figuratively speaking– a saved life, a recovered fumble, a thwarted robbery, a prevented assault, or a ducked knockout punch.

Okay, you shrewdly suggest, then let me just work at developing my instincts and ability to judge people and situations clearly. Then I can go smooth sailing, downhill, in cruise control. (Oh, that it should be that simple!) Yes, that is indeed an admirable direction to pursue. And even partly attaining those qualities will take you far in most leadership circles.

But YOU are the key to YOUR success. For you to grow your sense of composure and self-control, which open the doors to instinct and judgement development, you need to become the world’s greatest student of your SELF! You can’t even begin to think in leadership terms –emergencies or otherwise– without first knowing yourself and understanding what makes you tick.

It might help to make a list for yourself of 

all the ways you can learn more about you

. . . and start tackling one item at a time.

From experience with many business and professional practice owners and managers, I can tell you with great certainty that just three weeks of solid commitment to do one thing each day to learn more about yourself will make you a stronger, happier, more effective leader.

Why wouldn’t it? After all, the more you know about you, the easier it is to figure out others. The easier it is to figure out other people, the easier it is to motivate and inspire them. The more you can motivate and inspire others, the greater the leader you become. Over-simplified? Nope. But it’s not easy either, unless you choose for it to be. Leadership is in fact, a choice!

And handling emergencies is a routine function for a strong leader… but it’s always a good idea to keep a fire extinguisher handy, just in case.   

~ ~ ~

 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!

 If your business return policy

is this UNfriendly, you

may want to rethink it!

Now you KNOW that while I frequently beat up on government incompetence (being as how it’s so-well earned), that I hardly ever jump on any business.

But this email came to me today, forwarded a few hundred times. That fact alone made me immediately skeptical, so I checked out the policy link at the bottom, and came away awestruck.

Customer insensitivity is one thing, but the kind of top management stupidity that fostered this ridiculous policy (in this kind of economy no less) deserves to be heavily publicized.

The boxed text speaks for itself. It’s too bad that some businesses, like BEST BUY, see the need to run roughshod over the consumer public like this.   

EVEN if this customer was “wrong,” he was right!

If your business can’t afford bad word-of-mouth, make sure all your policies are user-friendly and easily explained and supported, and that your people know how to handle situations like this better than this.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

Tired of Reality?

Ache for Fake?

Comes a time for every professional practice and business owner or manager to step up into the world of make-believe, and take a brain break from daily work realities and nightly reality TV.

I’m not talking a week in the islands or weekend at Disney World or some quality after-dinner minutes with kids or pets. These are all wonderful brain breaks recommended for every working human.

No, I’m talking about introducing a new ingredient in your daily schedule. You already read, right? But do you read right?

Are you filling your head with world news, industry news, market news, balance sheets, income statements, cash flow analyses, and all those advice articles: “How To Be A Better Leader”; “Saving Your Business From Financial Collapse”; “Why Motivating Customers AND Employees Is Like Juggling Seagulls”?

Ah, and even in the car, and late night TV, is it more business news?

Are you getting like one of those Washington DC-area C-Span junkies?

There is more to the world and more to your life than that. There is also more to your business than what you absorb from dwelling on business. And what might that be? Try INNOVATION!

Innovation doesn’t happen when you lock yourself up in a closet for a bunch of hours and suddenly come sweeping out with the magical answer (Note this analogy, those of you who retain creative services, which involves the same dynamic).

Innovation, it should be said, ONLY STARTS with a good idea. Ditch-diggers can come up with good ideas. For innovation to set in, you need a brain break!

Innovation means taking an idea

all the way through to fruition.

It requires comprehensive analysis of the product or service, the market, the competition, the creation and production options, the developmental costs and timelines, the human and operational resources needed, and so on and on, up to the point of launch countdown, and projections that go beyond that.

To foster and nurture innovation and innovative thinking requires a different mindset than is typically engaged on any given workday. The kind of free-spirited thinking that you evidenced when you started your business or professional practice or managerial job.

That attitude is not born of trade journals, online and traditional business media sources, or the rest of what you do every day!

Innovation comes about

from a mental shake-up!

It surfaces when you challenge yourself to look somewhere else besides the worlds of reality that cling to your shirtsleeves 5-7 days a week.

Yes, indulge yourself with travel and friend and family visits, and playing with your kids or pets (or the neighbor’s kids or pets). Take more photographs. Paint. Draw. Write. Get out of the rut.

One of the best ways to take this daily journey to increased productivity and innovative thinking is to do more reading — but not business stuff. Stop choosing excuses. Replace some of that reality overload with visits to fantasyland.

Go buy two FICTION books that look interesting to you. You might even find it surprising that you really CAN enjoy a novel. Set aside 20, 30, 60 minutes a day for it!

Anything from comics to Nelson DeMille’s serious humor stories, or Annie Proulx’s probes into America’s heartland, to Harry Potter books (you thought these were just for kids?), Richard Russo’s and Kent Haruf’s mainstream Americana stories, or a good mystery or suspense thriller. Just NOT business. And NOT nonfiction. And shelve the biographies and memoirs.

Your head needs to swim in make-believe. 

Do this conscientiously for just three weeks — your business cannot help but grow quicker and more brilliantly. Dangerous side effects: Your family, friends, and associates will actually enjoy being around you more. And (Aha!) less stress ( !) and new leadership opportunities!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

931.854.0474 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!

Are you and your business

MARCHING or STUMBLING?

You’re a business owner or manager, right? So you rarely know if you’re coming or going, never mind marching or stumbling . . . or jogging for endurance . . . or, for that matter, running scared.

Probability is that these are merely indicators of the degree of rigidity and/or speed you move according to how wildly your entrepreneurial fires are burning. Hmmm, now there’s a thought-provoker.

And it doesn’t help much that we’re living in “The Whiplash Age.” I feel my neck snap back in astonishment almost every day as I hop, skip, and jump through the process of discovering emerging technology methods and products . . . and bamboozling ideas! 

Considering we’ve gone from blackboards and filmstrip projectors to greenboards and overhead projectors to whiteboards and 16mm film projectors to newsprint pads on tripods, video projectors, PowerPoint, virtual meetings, virtual offices, txtmsgs, Twitter, Facebook, and handheld electronic devices (not even to mention the audio metamorphosis of reel-to-reel, then 78rpm/33 1/3 rpm/45rpm vinyl records, to 8-track cassettes, pocket and mini-cassettes, CDs, DVDs, boomboxes, sattelite radio (whew!) . . . and from crank-ups to cell phones . . . WHERE are we going next?

Of course you should answer this for yourself, but you may get some ideas here: http://bit.ly/bDOOVf

What are you doing to keep pace? Is your business keeping up with your market? With your industry or profession? 

Perhaps you’re ahead of yourself? http://bit.ly/bWXxIq

Are you over-spending? Under-spending? Over-communicating? Under-communicating? Are you being taken advantage of by advertising agencies that claim to be Internet experts?

How about Internet specialists who claim to be marketing experts? Just because someone anoints him or herself as an SEO or web design guru, doesn’t automatically qualify as expertise in marketing.

In fact, odds are excellent that Internet savvy techies know next to nothing about marketing.

ASK.

Ask what any of these people know about the psychology of selling, about verbal and nonverbal communication, about how to deal with traditional media rate cards and package structures, about branding.

Ask when they last wrote a branding themeline that established a clear market leadership position.

Ask for examples of major sales boosts that could be attributable to their work.

Ask for specifics.

If you can’t get satisfactory answers to these questions, you may have the world’s greatest Internet expert in front of you, but don’t pay a penny for marketing services that do not clearly trigger your market’s emotional buying motives. http://bit.ly/bwkfdr

Look at it this way: If I haven’t a clue about what makes your customer tick, then I also have no clue about how to attract prospects for you, or create interest in what you have to sell, or know how to stimulate desire for your services or wares.

And if I can’t do those things, I certainly have no idea of how to bring about action or how to prompt and promote feelings of exceptional customer satisfaction. http://bit.ly/bMDGcy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TWWsells.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!

VOTE TODAY

FOR YOU, YOUR FAMILY,

AND YOUR BUSINESS!

Support candidates who will 

implement REAL job creation 

tax incentives for America’s

entrepreneurs, who will step

up to override the President

and repeal “Obamacare” to

establish free-market health

care competition, who will

breathe life into the tax-and-

spend suffication of America’s 

small businesses. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY TODAY! Restore sanity to the tax and spend mentality that’s undermining and strangling America’s small businesses. Vote to move small business forward. History proves at every turn that thriving small business is the ONLY road to a thriving economy.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TWWsells.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!

Three kinds of business

   owners. Which one are you? 

STATUS QUOS.

Invested in keeping things unchanged. Filled with hope but no action. Many absentee owners fall under this umbrella. Those who do show up regularly, hide regularly from customers and employees.

A (in more ways than one) dying breed. Motto: “Don’t Make Waves.” You may not even still be in business with this economy, or you may be on the way out the door as we speak!

ENTREPRENEURS.

If you are a serious serial entrepreneur, a serious one-time entrepreneur, or a serious family inheritor of an entrepreneurial business, you are probably too busy to be reading this right now — yes, even on a Sunday (Happy Halloween!) night.

 Entrepreneurs act, take reasonable risks, resist authority, pump passion, ask questions, think they can’t sell but sell better than anyone, have a burning desire to make their ideas work, and are “on it” 24/7. Motto: “Do It Now!”

http://bit.ly/ds34iq

FLOUNDERERS. 

Those in this category account for the vast majority of business owners. Those who “flounder” (like the fish of the same name–and check your ocean fishing friends on this, but that, by the way, is no “fluke”!) flop around on the business beachfront. They create commotion, draw attention, get oohs and aahs.

Business owners in this group make a lot of flip-flop sounds, accumulate a great deal of sand, and occasionally snap their teeth. But –in reality– they get nowhere, and eventually become someone’s dinner.

Here’s a synopsis of what sparked tonight’s blog post. It’s a summary of a feature article from today’s Business Section of The Home News Tribune, which you might not know of unless you lived or worked in the Greater Brunswick/Central New Jersey area.

The story, by Staff Writer Jeff Weber jweber@MyCentralJersey.com, is entitled “AS THE EARTHWORM TURNS…Marlboro man takes all-natural drain cleaner to the top”. (Note: For those geographically-challenged, “Marlboro man”is not the tobacco icon, but a clever double entendre reference to an entrepreneur, Ricky Greer, from the nearby town of Marlboro, NJ!)

Ricky Greer founded and launched the EARTHWORM “All-Natural Cleaner” brand in March 2007.

The article suggests he was laughed at, scoffed at, and told to forget it when he tried to get started.

Did he walk away?

Greer nowhas an entire line of bathroom, mold, mildew, carpet, and floor cleaners sold nationwide in pedigree retail outlets like Bed Bath and Beyond, Harmon Drugstores, Whole Foods, Wegman’s, Stop ‘N’ Shop, and Wal-Mart.

“Conventional drain cleanersare not exactly environmentally friendly,” Greer told Reporter Weber. “I knew green was going to come to fruition, and I thought this would be appropriate to everybody because everyone has drains.” 

Greer, according to Weber, “chose Earthworm for the name of his brand because ‘what earthworms do is bore their way through the dirt to allow roots to grow. What this product does is bore its way through the drain to let water flow.'” http://bit.ly/baxYDK

Boosted by feature coveragein a special National Geographic “Green Guide,” and on NBCs TODAY Show, CBSs Early Show and “But I’ve Proven I Can Do It,” Greer expects to sell 20,000 cases this year, after 13,000 in 2009. His product ranks 12th on the U.S. top 20 list, ahead of “Mr. Plumber.”

What business owner category above would you put Mr. Greer in? Relative to that inspiring story, where do you put yourself? Uh, where do you put your SELF?

Remember that whatever you’ve done, or are doing, or plan to do . . . is a choice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY November 2nd. Vote to move small business forward . . . Support those who endorse free market competition healthcare and REAL job creation tax incentives for America’s entrepreneurs! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TWWsells.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!

Big sales volume begins

 with courageous owners!

Company management that fails to deliver wholehearted commitment

to sales and marketing efforts to win new business

fails to win new business.

In my experience (with many hundreds of all-size businesses), the problem originates not with inferior marketing or sales. It is the product of the top people in the organization who have personal or leadership defects best characterized as ignorance, incompetence, or naivety.

What else could make people so threatened to justify keeping themselves at arms-distance?

Look at it this way: The marketing people develop a new creative approach for attracting  sales prospects that represents a new, possibly “outrageous,” departure from industry norms.

What they’ve come up with may seem a bit too risque or intrusive to top management, but it is well-supported by both primary (focus group study) and secondary (database evaluation) research that clearly reinforces the potential and appropriateness of the message and format.

Sales management loves it and can easily see the prospects of high impact. Yet something about the new approach makes the boss(es) nervous, and prompts a “Get back to the drawing board!” response.

The daring approach is inevitably scuttled in favor of something more tame and more in line with the boss’s(es’) gray-flannel-suits-with-white-shirt-and-dark-tie mentality.

This new toned-down approach fails. The marketing people are fired and the sales leader(s) –now shrouded in skepticism– are being kept around until less-rebellious replacements can be found.

Does any of this sound familiar? Of course it does. I can name a hundred companies off the top of my head that have failed or are presently failing solely because they have had indecisive, unimaginative, non-visionary, chicken-livered wimps in the driver’s seats . . . start with those that were innundated with bailout tax-dollars!

Weak-kneed, do-nothing, glad-handing, back-patting politicians are running this country at every level of government. Why should private business owners and managers be expected to simply not follow suit?

Isn’t it, after all, a whole lot easier to just not make waves? Isn’t it simpler to merely buy into the “blame game” instead of a “roll-up-your-sleeves-and-make-things-happen” leadership role?

You know what? Beside that we have a federal government with no business abilities or experience, it takes genuine courage to take reasonable risks in business. It takes genuine courage to act out beliefs that are based on facts and deductive reasoning and experience.

It’s a whole lot less work and aggravation to take the low road, to be a wussy spewing out meaningless messages of hope and change, to make mediocre decisions that produce mediocre marketing, which results in mediocre sales.

If you work for someone like this, get your resume updated. (Try www.classicresumes.com)

If you ARE someone like this, get yourself inspired. It’s a choice. Give yourself a day off, dress down, and visit some crowded places where you think your target-types of customers spend time (College or university campus? Hospital lobby? Grand Central Station? A boatyard? A racetrack? A stadium? A nursing home? A church or community event?)

Observe. Listen. Ask questions. Take notes. See what you can learn about the kinds of people you need most to reach with your sales message. Decide what you can do differently. Go back to work and dare to be different. You might surprise yourself!

 Support those who endorse free market competition healthcare and REAL job creation tax incentives for America’s entrepreneurs! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 931.854.0474         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!

Tense situations with

unpredictable outcomes

not just in sports and politics!

“Coming down to the wire” (an expression that originated, with apologies to Neil Young’s song, in horse-racing) in the completion of a major event or decision to be made, is clearly a hate/love situation.

It can often be so stressful that we tend to become consumed with the impending results and implications, to the point of ignoring the present moment… in business, as well as sports and politics.

It’s understandable if you’ve run a marathon –mental or physical– that thoughts of the finish line might flood your consciousness in the last mile or two. A winning run, goal, set, knockout punch, or touchdown being within reach can likewise dominate one’s mind to the exclusion of other awareness’s… in business, as well as sports and politics. 

Yet, it is in these final days, hours, minutes, and ticks of the clock, that most victories are lost to the shifting sands of one’s mind . . .

The doctor’s report. A sales closing? Membership acceptance. The monthly cash flow analysis? The stock market bell. The punchline of your presentation? Test results. A loan application? The required signature. News coverage? The merger. Union demands? Graduation. An industry award? Tough new customer specs. Add your own here _____. You get the idea.  

HOW to avoid last-minute meltdowns, and rise above the temptations to think too far ahead (which may be less than one minute’s worth of time!) at the exact point when we need most to pay close attention?

# # #

BREATHE IN THE PRESENT. You’ve heard this from me incessantly–because it works! I’ll spare you the details if you’re an elite athlete or are taking yoga. But, for everyone else, please follow this link and please take some deep breaths. 

Many hundreds of former college and university students and management training program participants have reported (voluntarily) that this was the single most valuable skill they ever learned in their lives!

It’s free and it will take only one minute of your time to put it to work. It will soothe your neurological system, enhance your performance, increase your self-control, and make you feel better. You could ask for anything more?

# # #

FOCUS ON THE PRESENT. Pinch yourself! Quietly reach for your heart or check your pulse as a reminder of the most immediate thing happening in your life right this very minute (in addition to breathing, of course).

Have you a watch or mobile device you can set to chime at appropriate reminder times when you might ordinarily drift off? If you turn your wristwatch inward, you’ll need to make more of a conscious effort to check the time. Devise your own ways to trick yourself. A miniature reminder sticker on your watch or mobile device can be a mental face slap.

# # #

SELF-TALK THE PRESENT. Send messages from your brain to your body to keep your hands flat on the table and your feet from jittering. Remind yourself to stop playing with hair, moustache, paperclips, pens, pencils, cellphone, rubber bands …remind yourself to smile and be attentive, to listen more and talk less, to take notes even though you don’t think you need them. The act alone of taking notes will keep you tuned in.

             ~~~~~~~~~~~~               

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY. . . Support those who endorse free market competition healthcare and REAL job creation tax incentives for America’s entrepreneurs! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM ECHOES…

“LAY-D-DEES AND

GENTLEMEN-MEN:

WELCOME TO THE

TWO-THOUSAND

AND-TEN-EN-N

WORLD-D-D SERIES

OF

BIZZZZ-NESS-ESS-ES-S!”

Imagine your staff and coaches (lawyer, accountant, banker, etc) lined up along the first base foul line as you’re introduced to a stadium filled with business professionals.

You salute to the crowd’s cheers as you jog out to homeplate, shake hands with the big-name muckity-mucks, then high-five each of your employees as you work your way along the line.

The Star-Spangled Banner. Back to the dugouts to get ready for the action. Then, it’s “PLAY BALL!” and off you go. 

So maybe you don’t think like that, and maybe you scowl and snigger, or shrug your shoulders in dismay or indifference at such fantasy. http://bit.ly/cX77gB

Because…you know in your heart that even if there was a Business World Series, your little company or home-based business wouldn’t get any closer to it than the ticket scalpers out front.

Well, first of all, don’t be so sure! Perhaps you and your staff are no match for the Texas Rangers or the San Francisco Giants, but the fact that you’ve even read this blog post this far speaks to more than your fortitude. It says things about you. It proclaims your commitment to your business. (Why else would you be here, now, dreaming about your business “team” playing it’s heart out on FOX, worldwide?) http://bit.ly/cCSo0V

Whether your business has already made it to “The Bigs” or is still on the way — or has lost its way — there is little difference in the amount of pride you must have for having accomplished what you’ve accomplished so far (yes, even if you’ve lost your way, which simply means you need a new map!).

Consider that you’ve taken your business through turbulent times, a string of humiliating losses perhaps, to arch rivals. The inability to make clutch hits and get those RISPs across the plate. Turmoil in the locker-room? Public scandal? Yet you’ve somehow survived it all, including cash crunch issues that devastated other teams.

You are still, even if barely, in one piece, doing business. By itself, that’s cause to celebrate. (Ginger ale instead of champagne?)

More important, though, is where you go from here, the paths you take, and how you work your way around stadium traffic-snarled detours to get to the next set of division and league playoffs en route to the next world series. Will you recruit from within your own farm system or go out and pay top dollar to get that hot-shot superstar you’ve always wanted on your team?

Will this be the year for new uniforms? Will you hold the line on ticket sales or offer more discounts to keep your customer-fan base? How much more charity can you afford? What to do with vendor union efforts to drive prices higher and unreasonable demands by player agents?

The more you think of your business as a serious championship contender, the more likely it is that it will be. 

What are some of the slogans? “Ya Gotta Believe!” and “We’ve Got No Place To Go But Up!” and “See You At The Top!” 

But the bottom line in sports and life and business is always the same:

SUCCESS IS THE JOURNEY

     . . . NOT THE DESTINATION!      

             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~               

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY November 2nd. Vote  

to move small business forward . . . Support those

who endorse free market competition healthcare 

and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TWWsells.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!

How badly is the

customer bleeding?

                                                                      

triage [Fr. trier, sort out]. The classification of wounded or injured persons in order to insure the efficient use of medical and nursing manpower, equipment, and facilities.

Classification is concerned with the casualties who would live without therapy of any kind, those who would die no matter what treatment is provided, and those who would survive if given adequate care. (Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, all the doctor stuff in last night’s post got me started. (And many thanks, by the way, for the email responses from doctors, all expressing total agreement!) I started thinking about how often we in business cross the line to borrow ideas and approaches from medicine.

Every day of the week, we take a prospect/customer/employee/job applicant/vendor/supplier history or profile, do a diagnostic work-up, set a treatment plan in motion and issue a prognosis. Sound like the skeleton of a “Business Plan”?

When was the last time you took some Triage Action in your business? In your personal life? (Why should that question startle you? If you own and/or run a business, that IS your life…and to you, business is personal.)

Don’t leading retailers, like Wal-Mart and Lowe’s, initiate a triage-type action right at the front door with their meet-and-greet staffs?

And how about office receptionists?

Okay, so those are customer-service-oriented triage activities, and admittedly have little bearing on the medical emergency variety cited in the lead-off definition above.

Then answer this: when were you last presented with the need to make a quick choice of options that required a rapid sorting-out process to determine most immediate to deal with, second most immediate, etc.?

My best guess answer for many business owners would be that the odds are it was this week, perhaps today. But you probably just did it without thinking much about it, and it’s not likely you considered it in “Triage” terms.

If such an incident was time-consuming and/or stressful for you, you might want to consider the alternative that the following observations represent. 

Was there a defined plan in place for that or did you just wing it? Most small businesses of the hundreds I’ve worked with, wing it.

If you are confronted with these dynamics with any regularity in your business, you may want to entertain the idea of developing a Triage Plan or at least have a designated Triage Person, trained in your decision-making mode, to do your trouble-shooter function.

This should be someone who is a generalist by nature, and who is familiar enough with your organization — capabilities, people, logistics, locations, operations, policies and procedures — to effectively channel problems and challenges into opportunity directions.

It needs to be someone who is a good listener and who has the sense to recognize those situations where the issue involved would, like the medical definition, “die no matter what treatment is provided.”

Many high-tech businesses have the equivalent of triage teams that they dispatch to problem-plagued customer locations. Some attempt (awkwardly, at best) to accommodate these kinds of situations by phone from some broken-English “experts” squirreled away in some mysterious remote mountain range that makes you wonder how they could even have telephone service.

Who in your organization is ready and best-suited to take on a triage approach that will save you time and aggrevation? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~               

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY Nov. 6th, 2012.

Vote to move small business forward…

Support those who endorse free market

competition healthcare and job creation

tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

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!