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!  

No Room In The Inn for

Obsessive-Compulsives

• Cleaning and grooming, such as washing hands, showering or brushing teeth over and over again
• Checking drawers, door locks and appliances to be sure they are shut, locked or turned off
• Repeating, such as going in and out of a door, sitting down and getting up from a chair, or touching certain objects several times
• Ordering and arranging items in certain ways
• Counting over and over to a certain number
• Saving newspapers, mail or containers when they are no longer needed
• Seeking constant reassurance and approval

     What causes OCD?  There’s no single, proven cause. Some research shows that it may have to do with brain chemicals that carry messages from one nerve cell to another. One of these chemicals, serotonin, helps keep people from repeating the same behaviors over and over again. Someone with OCD may not have enough serotonin. Many people with OCD can function better when they take medicines that increase the amount of serotonin in their brain.

     Are other illnesses associated with OCD?  People who have OCD often have other kinds of anxiety, like phobias (such as fear of spiders or fear of flying) or panic attacks. They may also have depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), an eating disorder, or a learning disorder such as dyslexia. Having one or more of these disorders can make diagnosis and treatment more difficult, so it’s important to talk to a medical doctor about any symptoms present.

Source:  www.FamilyDoctor.org  and

The American Academy of Family Physicians

Are your customers

your personal Guests?

     You wouldn’t have your personal guests sit  in a waiting area for 30, 60, 90 minutes without popping in periodically to say hello, chit-chat, explain the delay, see if they want or need anything. Why would you do that with customers, clients, patients, passengers?

     With so much business ownership and management effort  needing to be diverted to overcoming economic doldrums, and the renewed focus we all share to beef up sales and innovation these days, it’s easy to lose sight of those who wait for us.

     No, this is not an issue that’s slam-dunk resolved  with waiting and reception room stacks of dog-eared magazines, old newspapers, stale coffee, staticky music or a TV channel selector riveted to some ridiculous, insultingly manipulative station like MSNBC or CNN or ABC or CBS or NBC (instead of, for example, something more truthful and less stressful, like Nature, History, Animal, or even Weather Channel).

     Unfortunately,  these token tools used to distract those who wait are not only annoying and stressing up your visitors, they are becoming more pervasive; it’s not just car dealerships and medical offices anymore. Even restaurants have joined the news bombardment parade.

     I can’t think of a less appetizing setting  than to be served lunch while facing an all-news TV station showing live pictures of some bloody tragedy. What can someone possibly be thinking when they put that channel on? [Obviously, they’re not.]

     Oh, yeah, and it’s like a whole  get-ready-for-your-blood-pressure-and-heartbeat-readings deal while waiting for the doctor; if you didn’t have a stress ailment before you got there… 

     If the people waiting were friends or family members,  would you extend them such small insignificant “courtesies,” or make a point of personally visiting (maybe with cold bottled water and fresh warm cookies as one office does routinely) to keep them posted about how much more time you guess it might be? Would you at least send someone out to socialize with them?

     Here’s how I see it.  When people are waiting to spend their hard-earned dollars on your products or services, they deserve to be waited on hand and foot. They are also giving up personal time in their lives (that they’ll never get back) to sit and stand around because they are sold on and believe in what your business or professional practice has to offer.

     These people are your greatest asset.  They love you to start with, or they wouldn”t be there. When you treat them with tokenism and no personal attentiveness, you are essentially letting them know that you and your business are not worthy of their trust and confidence and patronage.

     What’s the answer? Be grateful.  They are giving you the most precious possession they have — their time –which is finite, limited, and irreplaceable. Appreciate what you have.

     If you have customers, clients, patients, passengers  who are willing to wait to spend their money with you, you are truly blessed, and those people need to know how much you value their sacrifice of time.

Perhaps you’ve missed or forgotten that

your best customers are those who wait.

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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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You must be dreaming!

Today’s economy is GREAT!

     Dear business owners and managers:  If you’ve been talking about having some weirdo notion that we are in a never-ending economic tailspin that’s ruining the odds for  success, you may not be speaking with forked tongue, but you are looking through crooked glasses! 

     If  your business is still afloat,  that means you have done some hard sweeping work getting the cobwebs out of the corners. It means you are down to a bare-bones personnel operation that is probably 50-100% more productive than it was before “bailouts” and “stimulus” became part of the language.

     And you are coming full circle around  to what Tom Peters and Nancy Austin told us a quarter of a century ago in their classic #1 best-selling business book, A Passion for Excellence:

In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observe that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul:

“First, take exceptional care of your customer (for chicken, jet engines, education, healthcare, or baseball) via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it.”

They add that “sound financial controls” and “solid planning” are of course also essential and necessary,” but that the bottom line of achieving success is to manage by wandering around —

• By constantly talking with your people,
• By constantly and attentively listening to their ideas, and
• By motivating through examples of the ways you cater to customers and work nonstop at innovation: always drumming up new creative ideas and strategically taking them all the way through in your thinking to a point of implementation.

Introducing a new product feature isn’t good enough. Anyone can think of that. Actually working out all of the steps involved with associated costs, benefits,  timelines, and logistics… that’s innovation! 

• By instilling a passion for customer courtesy and innovative thinking in every tiny corner of every department of the business, whether there are three employees involved, or 300,000. 

     Today’s economy sucks if you choose for it to.  If instead you seize the opportunity to be more motivated to deliver a better dollar-value quality product and service, quicker and safer, and that’s longer-lasting than ever before… and you pump all your company’s efforts into making your customers love you… NOW you’ve got something!

     And your leaner, tougher, more customer-conscious business  would never have happened when cash was flowing and you were on cruise control, lunching out and playing golf and taking off early and traveling the world on long vacations, and being so successful you were able to sell ice to Eskimos with one hand behind your back.

     Speaking of your hand:  The lousy economy, being continuously fueled by shortsighted (maybe even blind) government bureaucracy, has essentially forced your hand to act in new ways. And if in fact you do act in new more productive ways, then it’s a GREAT economy!

     Will you rise to the occasion  and make things work, or keep dreaming that they can’t,  throw in the towel, and get out of the way of those who are choosing to meet the challenge? 

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“It’s not MY job!”

     Ever heard this before? Or is it just my imagination? Odds are someone in your business either says something like this, or has the underlying attitude but doesn’t express it openly.

     The person who rejects  awareness, spontaneity and (friendship / partner / spousal) intimacy also rejects the responsibility for shaping her or his own life. She or he is someone who thinks of him or herself as either lucky or unlucky, assuming without question that it’s meant to be and: can’t or shouldn’t be changed, or that only ______ can change it.

 Sound familiar? This is the same individual who

     routinely proclaims (or thinks): “It’s not MY job!”

     By contrast, the autonomous person  is concerned with “being.” He or she allows his/her own capacities to unfold and encourages others to do the same. These are the kinds of individuals who project their own possibilities into the future as realistic goals which give aim and purpose to their lives.

     They sacrifice  only when they are giving up a lesser value for a greater value according to their own personal value systems. They are not concerned with getting more, but with being more. 

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”

— OPRAH WINFREY

     As a business owner or manager, and especially in today’s economy,  you really can’t afford to have people working for you with this attitude. E V E R Y person in your business needs to accept responsibility for doing whatever needs to be done whenever it needs to be done as long as he or she has the ability to do it.

     But this doesn’t mean that you need to be a shrink  with employees who evidence a not-my-job mentality. It DOES suggest that you may want to think hard about keeping this kind of person on payroll.

     If it’s a locked-in situation  and you can’t let go of her or him right now, set a deadline for change, explain it clearly and gently, then teach by example. Do recognize that it takes courage for someone like that to rise to the occasion, and reward any evidence of attempts with “pat-on-the-back” comments and encouragement to keep at it. 

     You’ll always get more of what you genuinely

appreciate, praise and reward.   

With special thanks to human relations/communications consultants Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward for the inspiration and adaptations from their classic book BORN TO WIN: Transactional Analysis with Gestalt Experiments    

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Your Laundry? No.

But Your News? Yes!

     Dear Boss – No, your employees are not entitled to inspect your laundry,  but they do need to be empowered to accept and process your ideas and plans, and be encouraged to contribute according to their experience, skills, and capabilities. 

     If you’re playing this  (seemingly never-ending) ongoing small business economic disaster news close to the vest, and not sharing what’s happening with those around you,  you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face . . . you may be missing a unique opportunity to take advantage of free, life-saving input from those with invested time and energy. 

     If you’re keeping to yourself  where you see things going, and not discussing your ideas for how you’re going to get there, you are shooting yourself in the foot. (And, psssssst: no nose and no foot can make things even tougher than they already are.)

“As the economy continues to shift, keeping employees up-to-date on how the company is responding, and how they are affected, will help insure against their becoming demoralized and disconnected.

“Effective communication helps engage employees, and that has positive implications for productivity and the bottom line.” 

–Kathryn Yates, global leader of communication consulting at Watson Wyatt

     You have chosen to own and/or manage a business or part of one.  Along with that choice comes significant leadership responsibility. Along with leadership responsibility comes the obligation to maintain and encourage 2-way communications with all those who report to you. 

     This is not a responsibility to take lightly.  Keeping those around you informed of what’s going on, spelling out for them how you see what’s going on, and where you aim to take things is the kind of stuff that makes or breaks the backbone of a business.

     Notice I said “2-way”  which means listening as intently as telling. It means weighing, assessing, and actively considering the suggestions of those around you. They are, remember, around you because you chose for them to be around you and you did that because you respect and trust them.

     So? So respect and trust them!  Accept that your people are as invested in keeping their jobs and growing the business as you are. They may not match your personal commitment level, but give them the benefit of doubt when they have ideas and suggestions. You might even learn something that makes a difference! 

# # #

Size up the eyeballs and

handshakes, or split!

     It doesn’t matter  whether you’re talking about a distributorship, franchise, equity partnership, or strategic alliance, a commission plan, or a creative property royalty arrangement. If you’re considering any kind of business partnership, go the reality route. Nothing else will do.

Life is not long enough for you to waste any of it on people who don’t walk their talk.

You don’t have to love someone  to do business with him or her. You don’t have to agree with some one’s religious, political or sexual persuasion if there’s no bearing on your business. But you owe it to yourself, and your family (who will suffer from a bad partnership decision) to do some due diligence.

     Take advantage of every opportunity  (including the more obvious — but surprisingly seldom invoked — Google) to check out who and whom you’re thinking about dealing with. No, you probably don’t need a CIA or FBI report.

     And some one’s credit history  should have nothing to do with the creative services you may be looking for, anymore than wanting to know what high school that a board-certified physician may have graduated from, or the disorderly conduct charges filed against some one’s college student son on homecoming weekend.

     In other words, decide what’s really relevant  to the relationship you’re weighing before you start digging into directions that waste time and effort and money and are not truly important in the grand scheme of things. “Chemistry” for example, always counts! 

     Meeting someone face-to-face,  belly-to-belly, eyeball-to-eyeball, one-on-one –and physically shaking hands– is the only way to enter a partnership agreement with any reasonable degree of confidence. Think of it as a chance to enhance your professional judgment. 

     It’s not a 100% lock,  but it will certainly serve to eliminate at least 50% of the quacks and maniacs (yes, both exist; and yes, both can be very convincing on the phone and via email; and yes, the more talented you are, the more likely those types are to turn up in your backyard)!

     If you’ve reached a point of initiating serious business pursuits with another person or group you’ve never actually met, work out a way to get together personally before making any written or verbal contractual-type commitments. Be willing to hop a car or plane and get a firsthand impression of what your prospective partner is all about.

     Restaurant settings can be particularly revealing.  Eating habits, preferences, pace, and posture paint one picture. How the other person or persons deal with the restaurant staff paints another. Be careful of anyone who orders more than one alcoholic drink in this setting.

     Be skeptical until proven otherwise.  In the end, you’ll be glad you were careful and insisted on a reality meeting with your virtual partner.   

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116 

  Open minds open doors. 

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you. 

   Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Get on the road to recovery!

“I hate sales! I’m no good at sales!”

     In just a couple of weeks,  I’ve heard “sales hater” exclamations like these  from a doctor, a new college grad looking for a job, a retailer, an accountant, a business owner, and (of course) a shrink! Each really believed in achieving success without ever having to sell!

     Well, I suppose anything’s possible,  especially with a little help from Tinker Bell!

     Consider this  (Yes it’s based on years of communications research, but it IS just my opinion):

EVERY TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH

(AND MOST TIMES WHEN YOU DON’T),

YOU ARE ENGAGED IN THE ACT OF SELLING! 

     Okay, you’re running for the phone to call that shrink  I mentioned. Well, before you dial 911, think about this statement…

Sorry to disrupt the fantasyland balance of your life in denial,  but reality is that we wouldn’t be able to survive as human beings very long if we weren’t actively PERSUADING or trying to PERSUADE others, or someone… or some creature.

     What’s all this persuasion about?  It’s called living life. We do it every minute of every day in one form or another. How many times today would you guess you already persuaded someone to do something (including watching, listening, touching, tasting, smelling)?

     Did you convince someone else  to say something today (including verbally, nonverbally, with music… ah, or flowers!)? 

     Because of you, was someone today persuaded to believe, think, consider, evaluate, choose, or respond to something? Of course the answer is “YES” to all of these questions. If it’s not, re-think this, and be honest with yourself. I mean no one would serve you or even sell you food if you were one of Steven King’s zombies.

     So we are constantly engaged in sales  all day every day whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, whether we think we’re good at it or not. It’s here. It’s now. And we’re doing it.

     Sooooo… how about  accepting it and accepting the value of actively choosing to make ourselves better at it? If we have to live with it, maybe it would make life easier if we strive to master it?

     You know the best part?  It IS a choice, and it’s really a lot of fun to figure out what others want and help them to get it (a key attitude of successful selling that spins around “listening to the customer”!). Sales professionals listen 80% of the time and talk 20%. Do you?                                                                                                                                   

# # #               

“Oh, My! You’ve Gotten So Big!”

     Remember hearing this every Thanksgiving  while you were growing up? The proclamation was typically accompanied by a hand on top of your head or shoulder?

     Ah, yes, and it usually came from some ignorant,  but maybe well-intentioned adult member of your dysfunctional family? Some aunt or uncle you only ever saw once a year gorging herself or himself on the annual turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce banquet?

     Well, that was good training. Now you own and run or manage a business.  The likelihood is great indeed that you still see signs of ignorance in your family, and that it has — VOILA! — remained a dysfunctional entity!

     But odds are those growing-up days  dished out more suffering than you recall. Insecurity. Anxiety. Disproportionate thrusts of physical and emotional change. Hatred of all people older than 23.

     When did you last travel with a fourteen year-old?  You look at one a little crooked, and odds are you’ll be rewarded with a convulsive shudder followed by a flood of tears. He or she’s worried about which sweater to wear or iPod tune to buy and you’re trying to resolve travel delays. It’s a communications lock-down and some one’s going to end up angry.

     How did you handle it then?  Somehow you got through it all because here you are reading this post. What about now? Has your business reached puberty? Is it still in adolescence? Is it caught in the middle somewhere?

     Do you find yourself gulping, clenching your teeth and scratching  your head more that the startup years when there wasn’t even time to eat, never-mind scratch? Do you hate when people talk about how much your business has grown when in your heart you know you’re stuck in mud and hoping it’s not quicksand?

     Well, then, give your business a shot of “Adult.”  Stop thinking small and defeated. Stop acting small and defeated. Stop resenting outsiders sizing up your venture. Stop choosing to accept your circumstances. START choosing to change your circumstances. 

YOU DO NOT NEED TO CHOOSE TO SETTLE FOR ANYTHING.

     Some after-hours places to start:

• Run your disk defragment and anti-virus programs (uh, not at the same time)!
• Clean out your old email files, old databases, old business card collections!
• Clean out your supply cabinet (and discover what’s been over and under ordered)!
• Develop 3 new challenges for each employee and plan a group briefing!
• Explain your business to a five year-old and to an 80 year-old, then listen!   
• Check out work spaces – are they getting cluttered? Sloppy? Dirty? Lighting?

     Add your own. A quick monthly take on these “inventory” items will help your business grow up faster and with less damage than most humans experience! What have you got to lose? What have you got to lose if you stay stuck in mud another few years?

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