After all the hoopla,

comes stark reality.

     You run a business?  You know what I’m talking about.  You’ve been there.  You get your 100th (or 1000th or 1000000th) customer and you pull out all the stops to celebrate.  But in the haze of the next day’s hangover, you realize the ugly truth that you need to confront reality by picking up the pace to double-speed. 

     After pausing to pat yourself on the head, you need to jump back on the ever-accelerating merry-go-round.  You also know that when I say I’m sorry to have to be the one to not pull the wool over your eyes, I mean it.   

     Really.  I know there are many masochistic media-gobbling types out there who actually like being duped and manipulated.  But the truth is that next week’s Presidential Inauguration–which may be historic for some questionable reasons– is not about to mark the turn of anything more monumental than its own celebration venues.    

     Those of us who have inherited or built business enterprises from scratch understand that we are facing a long and difficult road ahead.  In just a few days, we will be seating a new President and a new Vice President who have not only never run a business, but who have zero business experience between them and have never managed any entity of substance . . . not even a National Guard unit!    

     These two politicians haven’t a shred of experience with entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial thinking, attitude, or commitment to pursuits of enlightened self-interest.  While they may acknowledge that entrepreneurs built this country, they don’t have a clue that entrepreneurs are the true catalysts of change.  And yet they talk change.    

     As an owner or manager, your business is on the line.  No matter how recession-proof you think you are, you’re not.  No matter how bullet-proof you think you are, you’re not.    

     The only changes we, as business leaders, need are for government to do better at providing incentives that allow businesses to grow and thrive and create jobs . . . to do better at sealing and protecting our borders, and at preventing terrorist invasions of our homeland and cyberspace.  All the rest is talk.    

     A word to the wise, Messrs. Obama and Biden: BUSINESS is what makes America go, not educator tenures, not employee unions, not unchecked and unenforceable immigration policies, not foodstamps, not welfare rolls, not frivilous deep-pocket taxdollar funding of the arts, and not tax hikes to cover all the give-aways.    

     Failure to support and nurture America’s businesses is at the peril of America’s people. 

halalpiar                               # # # 

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“You see things; and you say

 ‘Why?’  But I dream things that

never were; and I say ‘Why not?’

— GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

     Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Inspirational as can be, right? Terrific motivational stuff, yes?  Easy thinking for any entrepreneur to buy into, isn’t it? 

     Therein lies the problem. 

     From the foundations of innovation springs disaster masquerading as the allures of conquest. 

     Unless you, Mr. and Ms. Entrepreneur, are engaged in the birth of a business, or a new way to do something more effectively and more efficiently, your innovative spirit may be courting notions of self-destruct.  In other words, if you are trying to build a better looking mousetrap when you’ve already got one that works, you may be taking your business enterprise over the falls without a lifejacket or even a barrel. 

     There’s nothing wrong with promulgating the policy of “if it ain’t broke, fit it anyway!”  BUT there’s a lot wrong with innovating just for the sake of innovating.  And knowing how and when and where to draw that thin line is a talent best left to those with genuine frontline experience and a sense of fiscal balance . . . those who understand the difference between self-centered “low trust” and consumer-driven “high trust” performances.  

     Perhaps you don’t agree, but manufacturer presentations by Samsung and Panasonic at this past week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas took on the role of “profitability unconsciousness” one-upmanship in their relentless (and brainless) pursuit of thinner and thinnest TV screens (now measured at cardboard thickness of 6.5 millimeters!). 

     “YYSSW” as many of our kids might text message in response (“Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, whatever”).

     I call this misguided, unrealistic, over-the-top entrepreneurial ambition run amuck.  How can big successful companies possibly think that inspiring and nurturing the kinds of entrepreneurial brainstorms that produce the world’s thinnest TV screens has any relevance in an economy-squeezed marketplace that really doesn’t give a damn?

     It’s hard to call successful businesses like these mismanaged, but the truth is they are fostering fantasy at a point in history where only realism and “high trust” corporate developments count for anything. 

     Oh, I’m wrong?  You can’t wait to run out and buy the latest thin screen TV?  And then there’s the new top of the line Apple laptop for $2,800.  Give me a break, people!  Are you planning to fall in behind the automakers in search of government bailouts for 2009?

     You, dear electronics industry executives, may think that because the general public has now come to view your products more as necessities than luxuries, that it’s okay to commit consumer rape and armed robbery.  If you’re not working on your resumes right now, you’re dumber than any of us non-techies ever imagined. 

     The public is not stupid.  And when you ignite entrepreneurial explosives with the goal of taking advantage of the public, that’s when entrepreneurial spirit kills, and that’s when you’d better doubletime it out of town!  halalpiar   

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What better way to boost your

business than to learn how to

write killer copy and content?

     Okay, a slight departure tonight to fit in a couple of news items . . .

     The Delaware Technical & Community College Spring “Business & Professional Development” promotional booklet and the College’s “Personal Development” promotional booklet both arrived today, announcing upcoming course offerings, including two I’m scheduled to teach that a number of you have asked about.  Here are the two course offering descriptions:

     Business & Professional Development

1)  BETTER BUSINESS WORDS WORK!  Learn how to boost your business and professional practice revenues with better writing!  Focus will be on writing business plan narratives, strategic marketing plans, business correspondence, reports, creative marketing and advertising for all traditional and non-traditional media applications (Website, email, print ads, news releases, broadcast commercials, brochures, billboards, direct mail, “elevator speeches”).  For owners, managers, entrepreneurs (15 hours, 1.5 CEUs); 2/4-3/11; Wednesdays; 5:30-8pm; 6 sessions. Georgetown, Delaware Campus.  $195 EYC212 231-2  Registration Info: 302.854.6966  www.dtcc.edu/owens/ccp

     Personal Development

2)  IMAGERY WITH WORDS.  Explore ways to paint fiction and nonfiction pictures with words.  Proven methods for strengthening your creative writing skills will be shared.  Sessions include stress and time management how-to’s for writers.  Tap your inner resources and sharpen your writing wits.  All levels of writing skills are welcome.  Participants will present one-minute weekly reports and bring a work-in-progress for personalized coaching  (10 hours); Wednesdays; 5:30-8pm; 4 sessions. Creative Writing Center of Delaware in Lewes, Delaware.  $119. ENO 289 271-2  Registration Info: 302.854.6966  www.dtcc.edu/owens/ccp

     Please share this information with anyone you think might be interested who lives in Delaware or the Eastern Shore of Maryland, or (especially in the case of the IMAGERY WITH WORDS sessions, anyone who lives in the Cape May, NJ area who might commute via the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.  Thank you for your ongoing support.  Tomorrow night is back to business as usual.  Have a GREAT Tuesday!  halalpiar 

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 124 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

“Panic At The Disco” ROCKS!

(ROFLMBO)

Well, I can tell you from two days of firsthand, frontline experience, that there’s very little in the world that can compare with what’s left of your brain after it’s been overhauled by a thirteen year-old girl.

You know those anti-drug commercials showing fried eggs with some line like, “This is your brain on drugs!”?  Well, a thirteen year-old girl (my spectacularly brilliant and charming granddaughter, to be specific) has the ability to fry your eggs and make you think you’re eating watermelon!

Grandma Kathy and I got indoctrinated to Fallout Boy, Panic at the Disco, and All Time Low among other top new recording sensations. 

(And yes, we do understand that Lady Gaga has “a message”!)

Of course we had our cell phone ringtones programmed to remind us of our our own, out-of-touch, oldtime favorites. 

And, no, it didn’t stop there.  Our granddaughter also connected my ipod to a new docking station Christmas present from her parents.  and promised to help me set up a podcast.  (“A piece of cake, Grandpa!”)  Double-cool! 

It might be awhile before I run out to buy any Panic at the Disco tunes to play, but I certainly enjoyed hearing The Eagles; Joni Mitchell; and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young sounding –if such a thing is possible– better than the original recordings!

Like having a bee in your bonnet, this child (and I do use that term advisedly) keeps a schedule that would embarrass the workplace pace of any CEO.  Oh, right, and the economy is not, like, worth worrying about anymore than whether the awesome sparrows will, like, indeed return this year to Capistrano.

Here’s the point, Dear Bosses of Businesses: It’s an extraordinarily healthy experience for your enterprise –stodgy corporate or edgy entrepreneurial makes no difference– to shake up your awareness levels and get your tired boring self off the treadmill for a day.  Take the chance you can get your mind fast-forward catapulted into reality.

When you gain a fresh perspective,

your business gains fresh customers!

When you can look at things differently, you are prompting others to do the same.  Internal AND external customers will evaluate and re-evaluate your offerings with increased receptivity.

Now I know you can get some of the same values by getting down on the floor and playing with a baby or a puppy, but you’ll never learn about the hot new music groups or how “txt msgs” literally dominate the communication existences of those between the ages of 10 and 25! 

     Have you any idea, for example what some of these texting acronyms mean?  (Ask any 13 year-old!):

KWIM~~~~SHID~~~~YYSSW~~~~ROFLMBO~~~~?

Ah, just one other point of significant consequence, BTW: neither the baby nor the puppy can get you dynamically ring-toned! 

But don’t get me wrong.  Babies and puppies are good.  And they are better than nothing.  Playing with either and/or both will definitely divert your brain from your daily routines enough to force you to step up to your phone, desk, computer, meeting. or work site with some degree of renewed vigor –at least until the diaper needs changing or the puppy needs to be out the door.

So ANYthing you experience that’ s different 

can produce some ripples,

maybe even a tide change!

But if you’re going for some big-time rattle-your-business-cage kind of stuff, put aside (not literally of course) the baby and puppy in favor of a thirteen year-old girl, an experience that can help you create new ideas for exciting change.  The resultant energy can help you realign your attitude and reconstitute your commitment to move your business forward.

If you’re not already getting a daily dosage, spend a day with your kids or grandkids or a baby or puppy, and open your mind enough to allow them to step (or crawl, or jump!) inside! 

Then see how that experience changes the ways you think about what you’re doing every day to create and build sales, to attract and keep customers, to cultivate best employees and top suppliers.  If your life is all about getting ongoing adrenalin shots from kids already, look deep inside your business with their eyes! 

Go ahead.  What have you got to lose?  A stuck-in-the-mud reputation?  Another stress-filled day?  Opportunities to do more of the same thing you’ve been doing for weeks?  Months?  Years?  Go enjoy yourself!  Give yourself permission to play for a day!  (Or to see what you’ve been overlooking!)  

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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

Owner/Operator/Entrepreneur:

     When did you last think of your business as something abstract?  Let’s try it.  We’re just pretending here for a minute to see what we can learn so let’s –POOF!– make believe your business is a plant.  I know, you’re ready to call for the old white jacket.  But wait! 

     We (you) may shed some exciting new light on your business (maybe even on your SELF) when you might have come to think there is no light left to shed.  But let me urge you forward.  No one’s watching you, right?  Just go with the flow here a minute and see what jumps out at you?

     So, your business — how’s it growin’? 

     Did you grow it from seed?  Buy it as a seedling and nurture it?  Steal it from a neighbor’s yard and transplant it in your’s?  Take it from the woods nearby when nobody was looking?  Salvage it from someone else’s mistreatment?

     Does it get enough sun and water?  Are you constantly removing dead leaves?  Do you fertilize it?  Regularly?  When’s the last time you added topsoil?  Are there too many gardeners hanging around?

     Are the roots exposed?  Is it bearing fruit?  Does it have bugs?  Is it costing too much to maintain?  Have you pruned it lately?  Is the climate it’s in conducive to growth? 

     Are there creatures living in the branches?  Empty nests?  Too much insecticide?  Not enough?  Woodpecker problems? Is this a tree we’re talking about or a shrub?  How big?  How old?  How sturdy or frail?  Mulched?

     This shrub/tree/business of yours . . . is it . . . do you think of it or treat it like your child?  Your foster child?  Your adopted child?  Your surrogate child?  Your parent?  A brother or sister?  A long-lost cousin?  A ball and chain?

     Let’s examine this just one more step that will truly reveal the depths of your thinking and relationship with your business. 

     Ready?  Here’s what you need:  A piece of paper (any size) and a pen (a pencil or marker is fine).  Oh, right, and some self-honesty, okay? (You won’t need to turn this in to anyone but yourself to evaluate).

     Okay, respond to the following . . . If you could represent your business as a circle and yourself in relationship to your business also as a circle, how would you draw the two circles on that piece of paper you have in front of you? 

     Would they touch?  Overlap?  Be concentric?  Fit one inside the other?  By how much?  Be the same size?  Would the two circles be the same color?  Different thicknesses?  Dotted or solid lines?  Don’t you love all these questions?  [Diod you draw the circles yet?  What are you waiting for?  Go ahead; I’ll wait.  Good.) 

     Hey, nobody said entrepreneuring would be easy.  But, you know what?  It can be a whole lot easier than you’ve perhaps thought, simply by having a better handle on what your deep-down-insides truly feel about what your relationship with your business actually is. 

     Try it.  You’ll learn something new about yourself AND your business.  Maybe it’s time for the rake and plastic bag, or the prining shears. . . or the chainsaw!  Every little insight is insight!           halalpiar    

BEAT THE BUSHES (NAW,

NOT GEORGE AND JEB)!

     If this economy is strangling your wallet, step back and take an honest look at what you’re doing to make a living.  A major dinnerware store closed this week.  Duh!  The most expensive special events photography business in the poorest town around just folded.  You gotta be kidding; there must not be many special events!  The local tuxedo store is on its last legs.  REEEAlly?  (When was your last tuxedo?)    

Well, there’s always the cliche path: If the bullet you’re biting is starting to hurt your teeth, it may be time for you to climb down off your high horse (yeah, the one on drugs!), beat the bushes (Naw, not George and Jeb!), and think about pounding the pavement (Ouch! The vibrations!))))) for some new way (with apologies to Porky Pig) to bring home the bacon!

     Serious that the time may have come when it would be smart to take a hard look at whether what you’re doing right now can survive tough (or tougher) times. 

     If you’ve just, for example, finished years of writing your first book that you expect should bring you millions (or even thousands!) and you’re thinking about giving up the day job to find a literary agent to help you sell it to a big-time publishing house (Shazam!  That sounds so easy, doesn’t it?), I hate to be the one to tell you to stay with the crummy day job, but the agent/publisher pursuit could take years also… stay with the crummy day job!     

     If you’re selling the latest in fashionable men’s dress clothes, pay attention to the dwindling supply of fashionably-dressed men.  You might as well be selling CB radios and 8-track cassette players (whatever those are). 

     Consider moving your career path (or business direction if you run your own business), toward a market or industry that is more recession-proof. 

     Now I realize that not all of you will want to leap into the air shouting, “Aha! That’s the suggestion I’ve needed.  Now I can go apply for a job with the funeral home; THEY’LL never run out of customers!”

     No-sir-ee-bob!  This is definitely true.

     But, aaah, I DO know that there are a few folks out there clinging to their liferafts and the seas are getting more turbulent.  It may mean having to adjust your marketing messages to fit a better, more productive, more stabilized niche.  Or it may mean having to scramble and take a second crummy job as a quick-fix solution.  

     Sometimes, it may be simply a matter of switching gears, like the old lemon/lemonade advice.  Or maybe somebody else in the household needs to start tossing a few bucks in the kitty!  Whatever you need to do, do it!  Don’t stand around thinking and talking about it for weeks on end.  Those few weeks of opportunity losses could be enough to sink the liferaft. 

     Oh, and just in case you are that writer I alluded to, you might have to give up your great American novel dreams for now and do some other kind of work, but guess what?  You’ll be gathering experience for your next book!  

     It may not, when all is said and done, actually be the exact right time to find a need and fill it as the headline suggests, but it certainly is time to consider the alternatives.          halalpiar

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Yes, you’ll live. Take two aspirin,

and call me in the morning!

     I read a study that said something like 94% of all doctor and hospital visits, even to emergency rooms, are for (drumroll): reassurance! 

     The extent to which we all need to have our backs, shoulders and tops of our hands and heads patted while being told that we will live after all, and that everything will be okay, seems highly improbable in the face of what the exaggerated tv news coverage and drama series portrayals would have us believe.

     I mean who among us hasn’t cringed at the thought of being thumped onto stainless steel and wheeled like so much beef through the butcher’s back door, into the chaos and hysteria of ER, or Grey’s Anatomy, or House, or Chicago Hope (reruns), or General Hospital, thinking we’re at death’s door but still not be a priority case because others (jumpers, stab and gunshot wounds, drug overdose and heart attacks) are dying quicker? Aaargh!

     Anyway, these thoughts surfaced today in a “BURRIS UNIVERSITY” customer service training session I ran for 25 management team members of BURRIS LOGISTICS http://BurrisLogistics.com on the Delaware Technical & Community College www.dtcc.edu campus in Georgetown, DE. 

     Participants who volunteered feedback comments in the training room, and many who approached me during and after were particularly vocal about the reassurance values of the material and methodologies covered (including stress management, behavioral focus and choices, written communications and listening skills, and the pursuit of increased self-awareness as keys to dealing better with others). 

     Based on this writer’s firsthand experience facilitating over 500 management training programs, the participation and energy levels of this particular cross-section-of-management group from 15 different Connecticut-to-Florida BURRIS locations, was exceptional.

     And it was a genuine pleasure to be the designated deliveryman of reassurance. 

     Reassurance increases self-confidence. Increased self-confidence boosts feelings of self-esteem. The combination serves to eliminate or minimize feelings of self-doubt, inadequacy and skepticism that hold us back from making progress . . . even hard-charging entrepreneurs need reassurance. Reassurance triggers sales and builds customer loyalty.

     Don’t you as a parent evoke the same confident behaviors and obvious feelings of self-worth from a small child when you pat him or her on the head for “a job well done”? Doesn’t this patting business work wonders on the family dog? Don’t you like it when a spouse or partner or boss or customer pats YOU on the back, even if it’s just a verbal pat? And don’t you perform better?

     Reassurance works wonders. Try some today. See how many backpats you can give out in one week! A dozen? More? I’m sure you’ve got what it takes to be that generous with your (deserving of course) compliments!    halalpiar  

Special thanks for inspiring tonight’s post to Kirk Hoover, Atlanta, GA, Vice President of Business Development, and Wendy Singer-Lowry, Philadelphia, PA, Director of Purchasing for BURRIS LOGISTICS

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Have we boxed ourselves

into an Internet corner?

News stories posted yesterday and today recount the equivalent of a meteorologist “Storm Watch” from an FBI Assistant Director who has issued warning statements that there is strong reason to believe the United States may be moving closer to the next 9/11, in the form of a massive terrorist attack on government, business and personal computer systems.  

     Alarmist tendancies aside (and doubtless, we all cringe at the thought), it is probably needless to say that the impact of such an event could be total devastation, and horribly crippling at the least, to life as we know it.  Or would it? 

     Would a “Cybergeddon” destroy our nation?  Hardly.  If anything, such an event would instead steel our commitment to root out and punish these evil impersonators of human beings.

     Surely, Americans are–and have always been–first and foremost, fighters and survivors.  It is in our blood to serve as defenders of freedom, and protectors of the free world. 

     This will not change no matter how sick and ruthless our nation’s enemies become.  This will not change no matter what President and Congress are captaining our ship.  This will not change no matter what loss of power nor amount of suffering borne.

     We need look no further than the freedom we enjoy from the vigilence of our brave young men and women of our armed forces to know the spirit of our country and all of what’s right about our citizens. 

     If indeed an attempt at Cybergeddon is imminent, so is the resistence of Americans everywhere, so is the spunk and gumption and resilience and resolve that runs through our veins, so is our faith in God and country and in friends and neighbors, faith that will –in the end as in the past– win out.

     We are a people of determination as fierce as our compassion. 

     Our ingenuity is as pervasive as our vast entrepreneurial resources.  

     Let those who would seek to undermine and murder and be mindless, also be served the same fair warning that was once before unfurled as the rally cry for The American Revolution:

Don’t Tread On Me!            

halalpiar

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WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?

     Do you know how, when, where, and why you choose to feel angry?  

     Are you aware of some of the things you choose to do to distance yourself from others when you feel threatened or bored or anxious or intimidated? 

     Do you know the difference between your thoughts and your feelings?  Can you separate fact from opinion?  Are you choosing to not like these questions?  Good!  You’re on your way to being a better salesperson.

     Every day, in every way, we sell ourselves to others: to friends, family, neighbors, classmates, bosses, associates, co-workers, existing and prospective customers/patients/clients, to entire communities. 

     We sell ourselves to make a living, to make love, to make enemies, to make opportunities.  

     Sometimes we’re successful and sometimes not.  We can increase the number and frequency of successful sales simply by choosing to dig into and explore more of our insides. 

     The more we choose to learn about what motivates us, what we choose to feel aggrevated about, what we choose to stimulate us, antagonize us, energize us . . . what makes us tick . . . the more we strengthen our abilities to be effective in dealing with (and selling) others.

     There are many steps in the sales process.  Some of these include: 

• Sizing up the prospect (this is a difficult task if you cannot first size up your SELF!)
• Being able to listen (not “hear” – listen) 80% of the time and speak 20% of the time (a challenge for those who like to talk and don’t know enough about themselves to know how to turn off the chatter)
• Understanding and appreciating the customer/prospect’s circumstances (which requires a major dose of empathy – being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes – a quality rarely found in salespeople who haven’t been willing to choose to step or even look outside their own shoes!)
• Overcoming objections (something that only comes naturally to those who have learned enough about themselves to rise above their own feelings of inadequacy and chosen to put aside excuses)
• Closing the sale (the final critical step that makes all others inconsequential if it’s not achieved and which is more likely to be the case when a salesperson is thinking about anything besides trying to help the customer or prospect in front of her or him to make a good buying decision that will truly satisfy a need or want, and that is honest and makes sense for that person. 

     Only salespeople who possess a helping professions mindset and attitude that they’ve learned or instinctively nurtured for themselves will succeed consistently at closing sales because they are not thinking about closing sales as much as thinking about helping someone make a right decision.

     None of the sales process steps above (or any of the dozens of others) can be readily implemented by an individual who has not fully explored the inner recesses of his or her mind, and the emotional triggers to feelings that come from different responses. 

     Consistent success in sales does not come to those who fail to fully appreciate their own unique qualities, strengths and weaknesses.  

     Take advantage of every opportunity to learn more about your SELF and what goes on inside you.  Treat your mind and emotions as uncharted territory and be an explorer.  Remember how much of life you choose for yourself, and that once you’ve learned a road, it’s easier traveling on your next journey.

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When did the plumber

and the weatherman 

get their operations? 

     Am I living on another planet, or what?  When did the plumber become a mechanical contractor?  When did the weatherman become a meteorologist?  (Don’t get me wrong.  Meteors are interesting phenomena, but I only care about temperatures, rain and snow.  For meteors, I have the Science Channel.) 

     Oh, and please, when did an “operation” become softened to a procedure?  (Probably when numerous hospitals became medical centers, chiropractors became sports physicians, and cardiothoracic surgeons became heart specialists).  Ah, yes, and of course 99% of procedures are also routine procedures! 

     Speech therapists, who specialize in helping people speak and swallow better, no longer want to be called speech therapists; now they’re speech pathologists.  (Don’t pathologists specialize in dead people?)  

     Many salesmen and saleswomen who became “salespeople” during the sexual revolution are now (more PC) sales associates.  Like the trouble with mailmen and female mailmen finally settling into a state of  androgenous mush to become universally known as postal workers.  Oh, and have you noticed how few companies have employees anymore?  How about Members as in “going to work at the clubhouse.” 

     When I was in school, we had a janitor to clean the building.  Then the janitor became a custodian which no doubt upset many legal custodians (and, correspondingly, numerous lawyers and attorneys and attorneys at law — all of whom, in my judgement, deserve to experience upsets!).  Ah, but take heart, now the old guy is called a maintenance facilitator, leaving little doubt as to custodianship! 

     I hope we don’t all begin confusing the MVB with the DVM and start getting our cars in for flea and tick treatments, and tail light inspections for our dogs!  By the way, in this age of specialization, a canine ophthalmologist?  This is for those near-sighted pitbulls? 

     So what does all this mean? 

     For small businesses (especially startups) and big business HR departments and others who make these decisions: Don’t parade yourself around on stationery and business cards and websites as “CEO” when you’re a one or two-person firm, or as a large company “Director” of something that no one else is involved with (So how can you be directing?). 

     That kind of inflated title stuff worked in olden times, before every bank in town had 14,000 vice presidents, but not today. 

     “Founder,” by the way, is equally unimportant unless you started Dreamworks or Microsoft or Google.  If it’s that important to your ego, put it on a sticky note on your bathroom mirror to remind yourself of your genius talents.

     Bottom line:  Call yourself what you are!  Say what you do!  Stay away from fancy and misleading language.  Make-believe titles, overblown and over-inflated job descriptions do disservice to your organization, regardless of whether you’re a Mom & Pop operation or a Fortune 500 mega-corporation.  

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FOR ONE-MAN-BANDS AND MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS AS WELL, ONGOING SALES SUCCESS IN TODAY’S BUSINESS WORLD IS ALL ABOUT BUILDING AND CULTIVATING “HIGH TRUST” LEVELS. 

THIS IS ACCOMPLISHED BY CONSISTENTLY  DEMONSTRATING STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS, A COMMITMENT TO AUTHENTICITY AND SOCIAL CONCIOUSNESS LEADERSHIP . . . AND –REGARDLESS OF INDUSTRY– TO BEING FULLTIME DEDICATED TO THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL WELL-BEING.

 ATTITUDE IS THE CORNERSTONE.

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