1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Generation? . . . 

There’s no business

like family business!

~~~~~~~~~

Nothing can compare. Quarrels, in-fighting, misunderstandings and manipulating. Pulling rank and playing of the grandparent or favorite son card. And, oh yes, the hidden card trick, where one never knows which in-law is behind which cousin’s back. Someone almost always does all the work, and someone else does almost none. Teamwork is often  just a facade. And no one dares to “jump ship” even when the engines seize up, the bilge pumps fail, and the deck is ankle-deep in water.

~~~~~

There are 30 million small businesses in America. My best guess is that at least half and probably two-thirds are some form of family business. Please correct me if you think this is way off base.

A husband or wife gets fed up with his or her job and quits (or is downsized out) and recruits full or parttime help from a spouse to venture out into some entrepreneurial venture. They work out of their kitchen or garage, secretly aiming to be the next Bill Gates. (But there’s always a little anger present.)

I’ve seen hundreds of kitchen/garage businesses. Here’s just a handful:

• “Clear Windshield Wiper Blades” that prevent accidents in the rain (Uhhuh!)

• Interlocking Plastic Bottles that allow twice the shipping space (But collapse the truck!)

• A revolutionary new accounting system that questions you daily (Daily?)

• The world’s greatest non-literary cultural magazine (Quite a feat!)

• A never-before, unheard-of approach to leadership training (Maybe “proven” would be more desireable?)

• A no-fail-no-lawyer-needed-do-it-yourself last will and testament (Who cares after they die?)

• An online course: “How to Make a Million Dollars in 24 Hours!” (Right. Rob a bank?)

Or, with some good fortune, there’s an inheritance involved — staring you straight in the face. A business someone in your family launched (or carried over from a prior launcher), and now –voila!– it’s yours. Except you didn’t want it, know nothing about it, and have little choice except to step in and keep it going, at least until you can plan an escape!

Or, you’re simply buried under excess relative tonnage doing a job you don’t care about but that puts food on your table, and with the current lunatics in the White House, you just never know when some real job that actually suits and challenges you might ever surface (probably not until long after November 6, 2012).

Here’s the deal, spiel: If you are in a family business and everything is copacetic and chugging along to your satisfaction, God has been good to you. You are a rarity. Click off this site and go watch TV. Thank you for visiting. If you are struggling with a struggling family in a struggling family business, know, first of all, that you are not alone!

You must decide if you are going to stay with it and take advantage of the guaranteed job opportunity that very few people ever get, and make it work. Or pack it in. If you choose to leave , you owe it to those you leave to make it as easy for all of them as you possibly can. They have tolerated you just as you have them. And they’re family!

If you’re going to stay and make the effort it takes to get things moving, you’ve got to get things moving. You can’t screw around with a family business —any family business– in this economy. Make it go. Or go! Staying the course means reassessing where you are and how realistic your goals are. It means becoming a sensitive leader.

You are not captaining an atomic submarine. There’s no need to push. Relatives move more productively when they’re pulled gently in directions that best suit each individual’s strengths. Charm and personality belong in the customers’ faces. Organization and discipline in operations. Creativity in marketing. Financial skills . . .

You get the picture. Be careful as you start any new exercise to go slowly at first and to listen carefully to other’s suggestions and ideas. Bring in outside experts when necessary and shop carefully for consultants and suppliers who show you that they think like you do and that they understand the sensitivity and trappings of family dynamics.   

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

 Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Welcome, and thank you

for joining me on this

personal milestone of

  1,000 posts at this site.

Before I take you on my quick-read path of lessons learned, which I unabashedly believe includes something of value for everyone, let me offer up my heartfelt appreciation for the first 400 visits I had in April of 2008 when I started, and the millions of visitors who followed over the last 3+ years.

~~~~~~~~~~

Please continue your visits, comments, and free RSS Feed subscriptions.

And please note that this blog will now publish new

posts 5 days a week, every Sunday through Thursday.

But the Search Window is always open, and content is always relevant.

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

Thank you

for your confidence,

trust and loyal support.

Special thanks to Kathy — the wind beneath my wings for 25 years, and to the wonderful dogs we’ve been blessed with, who surrounded my feet as I posted each night — our Black Cocker (“Tuckerton“) who left us last year at 6 years old and our Golden Retriever (“Barnegat“) who lived six months longer than him; she was 13 . . . and our new one-year-old-this-week Cavachon (“Breezy“).

For the endless stream of writing encouragement and feedback (regardless of agreement or disagreement with my representations, and there’s been plenty of both!), please indulge me long enough to use this space for special thanks to my: son, Christopher; daughter Haley; oldest granddaughter, Talley; brother-in-law Tim; mother-in-law, Marian; brother, Rick. And: my Aunt Dorothy and sister-in-law Claire; Melanie Adair, Angela Current, Doyle Slayton, Jonena Realth, Dr. Ian Fries, George Kanuck, Kevin Bousquet, Meredith Bell, Jeff Banning, Danielle-Dixon-Moyle, Peter Leeds, Jim Haines, Dr. Jeffrey Alpern, Michael Infusino, Ken and Sara Kraft, Bruce Burchell, Andrew Jackson; Jim Oliviero, Ken Poppele, Andy Larrimore, Laura Pritchett, Jeff Shactman, Barrie Proctor, Brian Smith, Dennis Forney, my friends, neighbors, Twitter and LinkedIn followers, former students, past and present clients, three special friends lost this past year: Butch Taras, Paul Harp and Ernst Dannemann, and my 150 softball league buddies in Delaware and New Jersey, and their families.

Thank you also to the young men and women of America’s military service whose devotion and courage make the freedom possible that allows me to choose to write, and to be able to write freely.

. . . and thank you, God!

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is some of what I learned that you may find helpful to be reminded of . . . to think about . . . to try, apply, expand, adjust, enjoy, and to just pick up and run with:

1)  Never assume that no one (or that no one who matters) is “out there.”

When you write and post something on the Internet, someone, somewhere, is always reading what you write . . . every thing you write! So make it count.

2)  Be gracious with your insults.

Criticize the behavior –words and actions– not the person! When you feel you must take someone’s behavior to task, take it to task, but try to “sleep on” what you write before you click Publish.

3)  Take lots of deep breaths. 

More frequent deep breathing will channel stress productively, to stay in control, to be focused on the “here-and-now” present as much as possible, to ensure that you respond instead of react. Remember, if you don’t react, you can never over-react!

4)  Be kinder than necessary

 EVERYone you meet and re-meet every day is fighting some kind of battle.

5)  “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

(Thank you Mark Twain) 

6)  “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter–’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”  

(Thank you again Mark Twain)

7)  “Time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.”

 (Thank you B. Olatunji)

8)  Ask yourself the following 4 questions:

 Why?  Why Not?  Why Not Me?  Why Not Now? A few times a day is not a bad idea.

9)  Accept the fact that the news media no longer “reports” anything.

Literally every story breaks down into some stress-filled level of disguised political opinion. If you think that’s exaggeration, try testing your willpower to not watch or listen to or read any news or news-related presentations of any kind for just one week, then see and feel the results. You will be happier, healthier, less-stressed, more productive, and making a bigger difference in the world, especially if you combine this effort with #3 above. (3 weeks of it, by the way, will literally transform your life!)

10)  “To Thine Own Self Be True!”  

                                         (Authenticity + Passion = Success)

(Thank you, Shakespeare)

   11)  “There is a time for everything under heaven.”

(Thank you, God)

   12)  “Open Minds Open Doors.”

(Thank you United Technologies)

   13)  “The journey to discovery consists not in having new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

(Thank you Proust)

    14)  “The only thing that’s permanent is change.”

(Thank you Greek philosopher Hericlitus, 2500 years ago)

    15)  “Happiness is a journey, not a destination.”

(Thank you Alfred Souza)

    16)  Great blog posts only happen because of great blog followers.

If you like what I write, thank your self because I write it only for you, and only with your input. I am grateful for your every visit.

Have a wonderful week ahead, filled with everything you want.

Best regards – Hal

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.     God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone

With America’s ship

sinking, and “Captain”

 Obama busy arranging

 deck chairs, is YOUR

business credit rating

on its tippy-toes?

Would it matter? What would you (or are going to) do about it? What’s in your best interests? Your family’s best interests? Your customer’s and employee’s best interests? Is that concrete or quicksand beneath your feet? What are your personal circumstances that cornerstone (and that undermine) your business?

To what extent should you care about other’s opinions and evaluations? If your answer to that question is that it depends on whose opinions and whose evaluations, can you identify those “influentials” and jot down their names on scrap paper? Can you rank them 1-10 in terms of importance?

Can that list serve as a priority action plan target for you? 

What’s your best guess about how long ’til you can bolster or reverse your current business situation? Do you think this is another “that depends” answer? If so, what exactly does it depend on? Do you truly believe that, or are you just making convenient excuses? 

Is it worth it to answer all these questions? (It is if you’re a real entrepreneur!) Are you a real entrepreneur who has cut out your own path in the world? Or are you a make-believe entrepreneur who’s simply been in the right place at the right time to inherit someone else’s (parents? grandparent’s?) dream? Or are you making that dream reality?

Are you shifting back and forth through the gears, or coasting along in cruise control? How committed are you to your SELF and your ideas and your business . . . really?

What if anything do you need to do right now to shore up your small business or professional practice enterprise to withstand the increasing fragility of marketplace, industry, and national government credit rating downgrades? What do you need in order to get these steps started? How will you get there? 

Are you really paying enough attention to sales? Are your sales efforts as productive as you want them to be? How can you boost these efforts? Are you focusing all your resources on growing sales or on growing debt? Have you considered that your business will never make money by turning off light switches?

Can you increase revenues by courting existing and past customers more often and more attentively? Are you putting too much energy, and time, and money into trying to open new markets and gain a new customer base? Do you know that such efforts are probably ten times less effective than focusing on past and present business?

Are you tired of answering these questions? Did they make you think?

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.     God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone

Today’s News Report . . .

“Economists are now

calculating the odds

that the economy will

  slide back into

another recession”

What? “Another” recession? What happened to the first one? Everybody I know in my business and personal life thinks the first one that was ignited by Mr. Obama never went away! In fact everyone I ask thinks it’s just gotten worse, and is now on track to compete with The Great Depression of the 1930s.

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

So, please, political and media people (assuming a difference), stop pulling our chain! Do you think for one heartbeat  –that because the White House pretends the recession has passed, it’s over and done, and that now we may be looking at a 2nd one–  that such nonsense could be anything but a lie to manipulate voter opinion?

First of all, who on Earth thinks we might “slide back into another recession” besides braindead economists who busy themselves “calculating odds” instead of telling Mr. Obama and the other spendthrifts (like Harry, Joe, Nancy, Chuck and Barney…even sounds like a bad cartoon) that we are still in the same recession that we’ve been in?

…and that the only way out of this mess is to embrace small business instead of continuing to terrorize it. Small business, every economist knows, is the only source of new job creation. Tell the White House to do what should have been done for 3 years: Extend tax-cut incentives to small business to encourage new jobs! Period. 

In truth, that same recession has now escalated into The Great Obama Depression, the likes of which we haven’t experienced since the 193os. The whole debt ceiling fiasco has solved nothing. It’s simply opened floodgates to even higher taxes and yet even more increased spending. Don’t doubt it. We the people have been had!

Just as FDR’s policies unnecessarily prolonged The Great Depression another 5 years, Mr. Obama’s agenda is clearly hellbent on worsening and unnecessarily prolonging The Great Obama Depression — making it a dependency-creating political tool. Jobs? Who cares? Everything’s FREE. Of course I’ll vote for the gift-horse and get more! 

What makes it just or moral for the government to decide who gets what? Share-the-wealth Socialism does not work. Never has. Never will. Check your history books.

This runaway tax and spend trainwreck of an Administration doesn’t care that real people with real small businesses are struggling, that real unemployed people and their real families are suffering, that America is starting to look like a nation of bumbling incompetents in our own citizens’ eyes and the eyes of many other nations.

You own or manage a small business or professional practice. So you know the only way to end it all is to end it all: on November 6, 2012. And that means starting NOW, not next week. Mr. Obama –in the midst of every conceivable kind of national calamity– has been busy: he’s already held an all-time-record 37 fund-raising events!

So, yes, our work is cut out for us, but there are 30 MILLION of us . . . 30 MILLION small business owners in America who know what hard work is all about. Is it worth the futures of your children and grandchildren and great- grandchildren for you to put off getting actively involved for even another day? Is it?

The decision you make now to move your business forward and to influence others to support candidates who support small business will bring results on November 6, 2012, that will affect this, plus your next two generations of your family.

It’s really this simple:

More government interference in our lives, or less?

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.     God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone

How can you ever get where

you’re going if you don’t 

know where you’ve been?

You’ve heard me a zillion times about the importance of focusing on the “here-and-now” present moment if you seek success in any form — and it’s a particularly embracable idea if you’re a leader, a small business or professional practice owner or manager, an entrepreneur, a parent, teacher, in military or community service, or unemployed.

I’ve belabored the point that dwelling on or in the past, and worrying about the future, are mentally, emotionally, and physically unhealthy places to be. They are fantasyland locations and are at the core of neurosis.

 BUT when you can make use of the past or future from a present-moment mindset, so that you control past and future thoughts . . .

You Win! Don’t believe it? Follow this:

• Think for a minute, from your present-moment level of awareness, about where you’ve been in life (not  on a map, but where your thought patterns, performance levels, relationships, and business experiences have been). When you think about those things, what value do you give them in the here-and-now? 

• Are these experiences that led you to where you are? So reaching back into them, which ones yield you the greatest value in the present? Which can most dramatically, most effectively, launch you into the future? Where exactly do you want to go in life? What in your past can most help you get there?

• What roadblocks have you chosen to put between past learning experiences and future plans? What are the 3 most important steps you can take right now to start getting over or around those roadblocks? What excuses are you choosing to use to keep yourself from taking the most important of those 3 steps?

• Take some deep breaths and mentally stand back from yourself, in a vacuum, without feeling past guilt or future worry, and describe you as you imagine yourself to be 10 years from today, August 3, 2021. What would you tell you to do NOW to get yourself on a more productive, happier, healthier, more rewarding path?

• Go ahead, tell yourself –maybe in a mirror? Take some more deep breaths. Imagine, see yourself as the person you most want to become. Try to visualize your physical appearance (clothes, jewelry, skin, hair, teeth, brightness of eyes) and your attitude (how you walk, talk, carry yourself).

• You have the ability to choose now, today, tonight, this hour, this minute to start on the path that will take you where you want to be. And this moment in time will be your past when you achieve that new goal for yourself. Will you look back to it then and commend your decision to move forward or wallow in self-misery for not choosing?

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.     God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone

Okay, Politicos, 

now we have

a debt ceiling…

but guess what?

… there’s no FLOOR!

 Is there anyone left in America besides politicians and some really dumb, leftwing extremists who think that having a compromise solution to the debt ceiling crisis will suddenly and miraculously eliminate the economic quicksand beneath our feet?

SOLVING THE ECONOMY IS A BUSINESS PROBLEM THAT HAS BUSINESS (not social-reform) SOLUTIONS.

The economy is not a political football for manipulating votes. It is not a feel-good or politically-correct issue. It is not going to be resolved through compromise. It is not a this or that side of the aisle affair. It is ready to explode on every side of every aisle. And in your wallet! 

I have never been a “sky is falling” Chicken Little alarmist in my life, about ANYthing, but now? Well, it’s become increasingly harder to ignore the warnings. We have reached a point in our nation’s economic history where we need to stop fantasizing and start facing reality.

At least one leading economy guru is warning that 2012 can begin to bring 50% unemployment, a 90% drop in the stock market, and 3 successive years of 100% annual inflation. This is not a “loose lips” guy. The voice belongs to Robert Wiedemer. Dow Jones calls his work a “bible.” Standard & Poor says his “track-record…demands attention.”

Yeah, well, so what? you might say because you’re an entrepreneur and you don’t own any big deal stock market stock anyway, and your business has made it this far so you know you won’t be unemployed. Besides look at the talent pool you’ll have to draw from. Okay. Maybe. But how about the good odds of getting to $28 a gallon for gas?

You fill up your 18.5 gallon gastank sedan

at the pump… Cha-ching! Okay, let’s see,

that’ll be $560… uh, cash or credit card?

No, huh? Do the math.

And hope you don’t own anything bigger than a mid-size sedan.

The point here is that Mr. Obama inherited a mole hill and has made it into a mountain. In the process, he has done everything humanly possible to avoid solving this business problem economy with business solutions. The Congress hasn’t done a whole lot better but at least they’re trying to cut spending and taxes. That’s a beginning.

As small business owners and operators, we need to accept that the range of the survival options continues to shrink, we must rise to the occasion, face reality, and –in the same entrepreneurial spirit that launched our businesses– begin to fend for ourselves.

This government is 100% unreliable, 100% incompetent, and 100% committed to the destruction of our free enterprise system. We can’t change the fact that we’ve been stupid in the voter booths, or that we’ve failed to play more active roles in influencing others. But we can choose to change that right now. Right this minute.

And the more of us who are willing to step out of our hectic lifestyles to help others see the oppression that’s driving record unemployment and record inflation, that threatens to continue undermining and ultimately destroy the cornerstones of our business and family existences, the better our chances of averting impending disaster.   

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.   God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

35 years ago,

a doctor told me my back 

was so bad, I’d never

walk again. 

  _____________________________

I bought a horse

and a jet ski!

(and my back has been better ever since!) 

Stubbornness or determination? Probably both. [And Thank God, I walk just fine.]

Stubbornness and determination represent attitudes that would get corporate muckity-mucks fired, but they’re not such terrible traits to have as an entrepreneur. Ive’ heard a lot of definitions of entrepreneurship over my years of teaching, consulting and doing it, but none sum it up as succinctly as stubbornness and determination’

We always hear that entrepreneurs have to have “fire in the belly” to pursue their ideas and make them work.

That they continue to move forward when everything around them is moving backward.

That they see the light at the end of the tunnel that others can’t even find the entrance to, or once they’re in it, slam their gearshifts into reverse.

Yet we also know that entrepreneurs historically take only reasonable risks. So the point of distinction occurs a few hundred feet into the tunnel when the light from the entrance is just about to dissolve away.

It is that moment in time that separates the courageous pursuit of free enterprise from the gutless wonders of government agency security and handout-dependent careers, and from corporate analysis paralysis treadmill careers. Entrepreneurs plod fearlessly forward as others turn and run. Sound like a military invasion? Well, isn’t it?

The enemy of entrepreneurs is lethargy and complacency. You remember that pair from your C-Span Current Affairs course? They are the two culprits that have gripped our economy since the present White House occupants took control. They are what must be overthrown if America is ever to survive and thrive again as a nation. 

The only difference in fighting this war of entrepreneurial enlightenment (vs. other, older ones) is that small business owners can no longer charge forward with their heads down. This time, we’re up against liberal fanatics who are not simply putting up roadblocks; they are actively fighting in the name of progressiveness to stop progress!

Go figure.

America’s present Administration refuses to stop short of literally pulverizing small business.

Over-taxing, over-regulating, over-burdening the very entity in society that has been solely responsible for new job creation, for economic stimulation, for boosting America’s reputation and strength worldwide . . . to what end? 

It’s not a puzzle; it’s a plan.

There are 30 million small business owners  in the United States. We have no ability to “certa bonum certamen” (fight the good fight) on our own, acting as individual small businesses. We all need to accept that the strength in numbers we are capable of can accomplish more than individual efforts.

We must vote AND prompt votes for any candidate who appreciates and respects small business owners and operators, our nation’s military people . . . and stubbornness and determination. November 6, 2012. Be there. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.   God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Economy-crunched small businesses, stampeding to reduce payroll, need first to pull back the bells and whistles.

S C A L E   I T   B A C K.

Ideas, Proposals, Recommendations, Products, Services

Stop to think about it: If YOU are having trouble affording employee costs, your CUSTOMERS may be having trouble affording your product and service “extras.” [Restaurants have been scaling back since 2008 by offering better quality in smaller portions on slightly smaller plates!]

Let’s say you’re a consultant, and know in your heart of hearts that a client organization you work with needs to develop three new levels of consumer goods and services to stay competitive, but you also know that their naive management has failed to get its arms around the budget stranglehold that White House pressure has put on them.

You can lay it all out for them , knowing they will never pay your fee, and go down with the ship . . . or chunk up your recommended action plan to address just one new level, leaving the other two to simmer until the first of these can produce enough revenues to cover the investment and your fee, setting the stage for a level two proposal.

It’s worth the reminder that, as my father was known to exclaim and as Giovanni Torriano was first credited with recording the phrase in his Second Alphabet in 1662, “You can’t get blood out of a stone.”  And while we’re on the subject of hard subjects and difficult feats, you may want to accept the inevitable and just agree to “bite the bullet.”

In other words, when you can see that your proposal carries with it the hand-wrenching anguish that forces your client to back away from the table, scale it back. What can be accomplished by eliminating the bells and whistles and still manage to develop a new first level that’s acceptable, that can be expected to perform adequately?

Does this put a burden on you? Of course. When you may have been thinking you could do a $15,000 fee project, you find yourself settling for a smaller $4,995 fee project. What’s the answer? Do it with a $15,000 fee attitude, and use the extra time to get out and sell another client or two on projects that total $10,000.

So, now what? You lose $5? Ah, but now you have three clients and can more safely hedge your bet. If you work at it you may also generate $45,000 total a short way down the road, instead of just the opening effort for $15,000.

You can do this. The point is that everyone in business has reached a point of struggle (or at least substantial concern). How much further can this go? Will we have to go belly up? How can we pay the bills? 

Bottom Line: WE HAVE TO RISE ABOVE THESE KINDS OF THOUGHTS AND FOCUS ON HOW TO GET INCREASED SALES NOW BY OFFERING DECREASED FRILLS.

Force yourself to take a good hard look at what you’re selling and to whom. Can it be streamlined and priced lower without losing value or impact or safety? Can the excess packaging be eliminated or relaced less expensively without risking damage? Can you use 2-day Priority Mail instead of more expensive overnight shipping? 

Can you make arrangements to package the cars you sell with a gas or routine servicing giftcard? Some lawyers are doing reduced price packaging of basic family and couple’s wills. Some chiropractors will do basic 2 for 1 adjustment visits. The travel and hospitality industries constantly offer discount incentives that strip away luxury cost extras.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.   God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Guess what today is?

It’s Wedsssdaaaaay!

Wednesday is business panic day.

The orders, checks, and promises that haven’t yet appeared need to be nudged to get them in before the weekend and the house will be crawling with friends, neighbors, and in-laws all weekend so Friday is dead-in-the-water day on the job, which means –YIKES! –the orders, checks, and promises have to be in by tomorrow.

Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!

So what’s the short story version? If you’re the typical entrepreneur (I know, there ain’t no such thing, but there are typical entrepreneurial behaviors), you have been running by the seat of your pants (or skirt) so long that you get yourself under water without a snorkel because you simply skip over that ugly time-consuming task of planning.

Then midweek brings crisis . . . brainfreeze without a Slurpee . . . om top of the usual Wednesday collision course, there’s also that REALLY important project you’ve been putting off that needs desperately to get done, and now it has to stay on the back burner for another week. Will there ever be enough time?

Truth? No. There’ll never be enough time. 

And my best educated guess is that most small business owners and operators would almost rather have a tooth pulled than have to sit still for more than 10 minutes to map out a plan for the week every week. But, y’know what? Y’gotta!  Those who take a deep breath, settle into a comfortable chair and plan the week . . . win.

Think of it this way: If your competitors do weekly action plans, and you don’t, they win. If you both do them, you keep the playing field level. If you do them and they don’t, you take the lead. If neither of you do the,, someone else at your heels  surely will, and will surely win.

Ah, but where to start? Start with the old stuff that’s already in the hopper. Hit on it hard as you come out of the box on Monday morning. Make the calls, write the emails, motivate and inspire. Once the old stuff is moving, jump to the new tasks, contacts, ideas that are presently in the works and that need to get pushed into the spotlight.

Save the unexplored concept stuff for last. Yes, you may never get to that last category, but, hey, y;gotta eat, right? As the current Administration in Washington has conclusively proven, hopes and dreams don’t put food on the table. Let the experimental new ideas simmer. This is not the time to back away from what’s in your face.

Keep focused on the here and now as much as possible. List and combine (but chunk up) “to do” items, then prioritize them in order of immediacy. Cross them off with a highlighter (so you can return to see what was completed) as each task gets done. These pages (dated) are worth saving (like a journal), even for tax records.

Fast-paced status report review meetings are best held (with agendas distributed Friday afternoon) as early as possible on Mondays to help map out the week. (Friday is the worst day for this for a hundred reasons). Oh, and if you’re not both feet into the tech business, do it all in writing on pads. Laptops and handhelds distract attention. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors

 Thanks for visiting.    God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

I grew up with unreasonable demands being made on me and my brother and my mother by my alcoholic father. I began thinking that that was life, and all the other stuff that came my way from teachers and coaches and bigger older kids was just more of the same. So were the demands of college, grad school, and parttime jobs. Or so at least it all seemed.

The more I kept inside, the

tighter, more withdrawn

and resentful I became.

Ever feel that way yourself, or am I just imagining? Don’t we all hold onto some kind of resentment? If it has to do with responsibility, maybe it knots up our shoulders. If it’s a love relationship, it may give us chest pains or heartburn, sadly sometimes heart attacks and heart disease.

Some experience “butterflies” in their stomachs, pains in their lower backs, or legs. We get headaches when oxygen and blood flow get sidetracked from traveling freely through our necks and end up like crimped garden hoses. We run to surgeons and chiropractors and massage therapists and drugstores and liquor cabinets for relief.

Did you ever have such an explosive feeling inside that you wanted to scream, but you ended up instead making some feeble guttural sounds, swallowing the wrong way, coughing or choking, or perhaps you simply stuffed food down your throat because it’s hard to express how you feel when your ability to speak is blocked with food?

All of these symptoms and often not-such-good solutions are magnified for small business owners and managers. Besides all the everyday life stresses of family and friends, small business owners and managers cannot leave their workday traumas at their workday worksites. Doing business 24/7 is what life is about. Entrepreneuring takes guts!

When you own or run a business,

you even dream about it!

If someone insults a corporate or government guy at work–and hopefully this is a rare or never occurrence–he may feel resentful and carry it around, or dismiss it, or confront it. Insults are standard daily fare, however, for many if not most small businesses, and the pressure is enormous to not dismiss it or confront it reactively. 

“Trading insults” leaves us with more insults than we started with!

By reacting insread of responding, it will surely come back to haunt

because only reacting opens the floodgate to OVER-reacting! 

So if all of that is the valley of darkness,

how do we rise up into the light?

Well, here’s how I did it. Try this little recipe.

You might pleasantly surprise your SELF! 

First is to acknowledge that we harbor resentment and identify what circumstances or to whom we attach the ill feelings. Next is to take some deep breaths to better circulate that oxygen and blood flow. Then ask ourselves if it’s really worth hanging onto the upset feelings and to what ends or purpose?

Is it worth “hanging on” in exchange for the bitterness to take its toll on our one and only bodies that we want to have usher us into long happy and healthy lives? Take some more deep breaths. Are you so stubborn that you’re willing to give up years of life in exchange for not being a big enough person to forgive? Isn’t it time to move on?

Watch how good your body starts to feel when you finally agree to answer those questions honestly and let go of that resentment you’ve been harboring all these many days, weeks, months, years.   

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting.  God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone!