“We make a living

by what we get,

but we make a life

by what we give.”

–Winston Churchill

Dedicated to one of my softball league buddies, Jimmy Travers, whose great sense of fun and spirit left us this weekend for his next life…… Thanks for the laughs and the hustle…Hit ’em where they ain’t, Jimmy!

     How you make a living may determine how you live your life, but how you live your life will determine how the rest of the world sees and experiences you and your business.

     What’s unique and exciting about this is that you can change either or both at the drop of a hat!

     Making the change, any change, is a choice…your choice, a decision made on a dime, in a blink, in two shakes of a lamb’s tail, or lickity-split. Reaping the rewards may take a little longer. 

     It might, for example, take a little while to gain acceptance and appreciation and trust and credibility, but the end result is as permanent as your diligence.

     Have you ever quit smoking or started exercise? Neither produces results overnight, but the more you stick to it, the more you see that the change works. And the easier it gets to make that choice every day.

     Not only that, one positive change fosters others…a chain reaction that breeds success and satisfaction. Being in better health attracts others who share your pursuits. It attracts happiness too. Health and happiness attract financial success, business success, family success.

     And that’s when you can really “make” your life by giving back to others what you gained in wisdom from those who came before you, who also came and conquered.

     No, I’m not talking about some of the more popularly-publicized (and extremely naive) notions of socialistic wealth-sharing. That kind of destructive thinking never works.

(Dictating healthcare choices for everyone unfortunately appears headed to be the next proving ground for this point.)

     Donating money is a wonderful thing when it’s affordable and a free choice! I’m speaking here though—beyond money— of treating family, friends, neighbors, customers, clients and patients, employees and suppliers–all–with increased respect. Every day. Persistently. It comes back to you AND your business!

     There’s a small sign hangs over my desk for it seems a hundred years that says  “Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.” Or, as Churchill said, “…make a life by what you give.” That choice made again and again will make your business grow.

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com  (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar # # #   

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“Don’t I recognize you

from my last job?”

(OR, “An employee today could be a customer tomorrow!”)

     There are not many pages that small business owners and managers like ourselves can take from universities or big business owners and managers, but here’s a new one that’s worth paying attention to…we like to think (being small and flexible and aggressive and innovation-driven) that we have a lock on the whole notion of networking.

     I mean when’s the last time you saw campus or corporate executives at Chamber of Commerce mixers or Better Business Bureau networking events? Ah, but they (academic hot-shots and corporate type muckity-mucks) are mainstays in the job search networking arenas. Yes, you might say, but that’s not real networking; that’s just exploitation of another job search tool.

     Who’s to say? After all: whatever you network for is what you network for. Hmm? If, in other words, you attend a networking event cranked up to meet and greet prospective employers, then job search is indeed your purpose. If you bring six pockets full of business cards with the idea of getting everyone you meet to visit your blog, or follow you on Twitter, then your purpose is to build an audience.

     The point is that we all network everyday with associates, employees, vendors, customers, referrers, prospects, even friends and family. Sure, so what’s this big page from big business (and academia, which hasn’t even a clue about business reality) all about?

     Many major corporations, which themselves have stooped to conquer unsavvy academic methodologies are now seeing great sales and business growth opportunities from networking with former employees! Aha! So, it’s not all of academia here that’s lighting fires? Correct.

     The ignition points are lodged in the sacred college and university halls of alumni associations, alumni directors, and development officers. They started it. Corporations are following it. Small business is next and starting to happen! The corporate social networking we’ve all heard about is now beginning to add a new dimension: employee alumni programs.

     A 2009 article by Mary Hall identified a few representative companies that have already entrenched themselves in commitments to build successful alumni programs: Microsoft, McKinsey, KPMG, Booze Allen, BearingPoint, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Bain & Co., Dow, Coca-Cola, Accenture, Agilent.  

     Hall’s article poses the question: Why would a company want to focus its attention on a group of people who are no longer employees? Because, she says, “whatever path former employees choose, they are likely to be expanding their personal networks and getting to know new people. Why wouldn’t a company want to do the same? An employee today could be a customer tomorrow or have in their network a future hire.”

When ALL is said and done, isn’t it true that ALL of business

is ALL about relationships?

Alumni associations are here for small and mid-sized business. Many already recruit employees from them. Many hold annual reunions that produce payloads of workable i9deas because they come from those who understand how the business works to start with.

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Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

U.S. Hospitals and healthcare

proposals waaaaay past 

the point of 1st Aid!

A SHORT STORY THAT’S ANCHORED IN TWO DECADES

OF INDEPENDENT MANAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES

RENDERED TO HOSPITALS AND HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS:

     At some obscure moment in recent history, about 30-40 years ago, it seems to me, someone had the bright idea to start advertising hospital services. And it was contagious. Pretty soon, ripples began to surface amid the vast sea of shallow-mindedness and business incompetency (that many physicians and business professionals still consider a) breeding ground for hospital executives, administrators, and boards of trustees.

     Hey, marketing works for other kinds of services, these do-good-Boy-Scout-type doctor-wannabes were running around proclaiming, why not hospitals?  Sure, agreed the medical professionals who knew even less about business, why not? they said; nothing else you’ve done has worked. And so it came to pass that hospitals then began to compete with hot dogs, beer, cigarettes, cosmetics and car dealers.

     Well, sure, alcohol and tobacco advertising have since taken a big hit (thankfully), but guess what? Hospital marketing has just continued to get worse. With very rare exception, today’s hospital advertising and marketing programs are ineffectual, misdirected, and unnecessarily expensive. The job is simply not getting done, and they keep spending more to make it not work!

     Present federal government administrative healthcare overtures are equally misdirected and will cost taxpayers a fortune, not to mention the staggering losses in professional healthcare skills that will certainly accompany socialized medicine.

     The problem with what the government proposes is the same one that hospitals have struggled with all these years. It’s that the ideas behind it all are being manipulated to appear creative and the public is being sold on the creativity.

    Unfortunately, creativity does not sell. Everyone on Earth can be creative. Very few are innovative. Innovation gets things done. http://halalpiar.com/2009/06/creative-ideas-vs-innovative-ideas/

     The bottom line is that hospitals need to shape up and start to get their messages straight; the public isn’t as stupid as hospital executives think.

     Similarly, the federal government needs to shape up and get its thinking straight, start being innovative, start thinking these empty, ill-suited proposals all the way through in the context of reality, not fantasy.

     The uninformed, incompetent socialistically-manipulative people being relied on may be well-intentioned, but they haven’t a clue about the business of healthcare, or any business for that matter.

     In the end, communities, citizens, healthcare professionals, and taxpayers will suffer. The time to step back and reassess is NOW. Remember that in the end, after all is said and done, it’s YOUR body and your family’s bodies that will be, so to speak, on the line.

     Do you really want hospital business administrators and government representatives with zero or inadequate healthcare knowledge and experience dictating to you what doctor you need to see and when and where? And do you really think socialized medicine will reward you with quality care? Think again. 

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Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. 

Go for your goals, good night and God bless you!

You are your business.

Attitude and behavior

are your brand.

     Small business owners rarely devote enough attention to branding and the importance of branding. It is much more than a logo, name, label, or catchy slogan. Brands reflect the integrity and reputation of both the company and the business owner.

 Your brand and branding messages need to include

 and be wrapped around

ALL aspects of your business.

     Your brand and branding messages need to make a statement about the environment and methods you and your company are engaged with. This “statement” needs to be an integral focal point of ALL of your communications… verbal, visual, written, in-person, and implied!

     Your business exists because of your customer bases: INternal customers (like associates, employees, referrers, strategic alliances and present suppliers) as well as EXternal customers (like past and present buyers, prospective buyers and employees, and prospective suppliers). What it is that you put out to each and all of them every day is what adds up to your brand and branding.

     This translates into how you and your business deal with all of these diverse “customer audiences” on a day-by-day basis, how you treat them, whether you pay your bills on time, if you follow-through with customer service after the sale is made, if your business is a good citizen in the communities that support it, whether your products and services provide true quality benefits and dollar value.

     Keep in mind that one unhappy customer (internal OR external) will tell ten other people about her or his lack of satisfaction, and each of them will tell ten more. In case you weren’t doing the math, that’s a hundred people walking around bad-mouthing a business that may naively dismiss one upset as one upset. But–aaaaaah, the reverse is also true: delight one person and gain a hundred positive referrals!

     Reality is that maintaining positive and productive brand images and branding messages means you need to practice unending vigilence in tending to all levels of (internal AND external) customer service. It is especially important to be and stay tuned in to employee and industry-related issues, and to pounce on problems and deal with them honestly.  

     A great memorable name and themeline are critically important to brands and branding messages, but not nearly as important as a business with clear-cut genuine values run by people with clear-cut genuine attitudes. 

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Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God bless you!

“Thank you for your

service to our country!”

     It’s so simple. That’s all it takes. Walk up to anyone in a military uniform — or anyone who proudly wears or displays an insignia identifying him or herself as a veteran or active officer or recruit, extend your arm to shake hands, look her or him in the eye and simply say: “Thank you for your service to our country!”

     Not only will you make that person’s day, but (and this may surprise you) you’ll make your own as well. You’ll feel as pleased walking away as the person you took the ten seconds out of your life to stop!

     Remember Memorial Day Weekend is more than beaches, BBQ’s and parties. It’s a time for tribute to those who have lost their lives and those who have served us all in defense of America. What does this have to do with business to warrant attention on a business blog? Your business and mine could not even exist without the courage, vigilence and protection of those who serve our country.

     Thank you to all those who have served in and for the United States Armed Forces. You make and have made it possible for business owners and managers and entrepreneurs to be free to conduct business and grow business and make business work.

     It is, after all, small business that has made this country great, and it will be small business that leads the way to economic recovery. You who have served our nation have kept small business pathways clear. Now it’s the job of small business to step it up and take advantage of those openings to regain the economic stability that government and big business lost along the way.

TRY THIS:

Make “Thank you for your service to our country!”

a statement of appreciation year-round.

     By making it part of your ongoing practice to extend these words with every armed services encounter (not to mention the recognition due our police, fire and EMS personnel too), you will in fact be boosting your own business as well as your reputation for caring about what’s truly important…because it is!

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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You’re boss for the day,

in charge of the zoo.

Whaddaya say?

Whaddaya do?

     Even when you think no one’s around or paying attention, everyone IS. It’s hard to run your own business on stage in the spotlights (especially in some of the larger more public theatres), but “on stage” is where you and every other boss perform every day.

     You may even need to drop the curtain (or close your door) every once in awhile for a few minutes privacy just to sniffle, pick, scratch or gargle without an audience. But–even then–remember you are still the chief muckity-muck and (like it or not) you’re a parental figure to those who work for you.

     You probably don’t think that your employees are anywhere near being neurotic. You may be astounded to learn that many of them (if not all) measure your every move. They all watch TV. So they all know how to observe, scope things out, size things up, and “case the joint.” It’s rare that anything you say isn’t repeated over and again both on the job, and at home, as well as to neighbors, friends, teammates and bar buddies. Your community and industry exposure is as public as a professional athlete’s is to her or his sport.

     Odds are pretty good that your people want to butter you up, or do you in, or simply not make waves. An exclusive small handful are self-actualized enough in the work they do to enjoy doing the work they do with no greater agenda. But this is a very small fraction of the total. None of them will do their jobs with the conviction and commitment that you have. None will do things exactly the same way that you would.

     But this is why you get the big bucks. It’s not your job to get things done. It’s your job to get others to get things done. Bottom line is that bosses who treat employees as underlings produce underlings. Underlings don’t sell. Underlings don’t innovate. Underlings don’t take initiative. Underlings hate their jobs.

     Bosses who treat employees like partners produce partnerships and employee teams that believe in what they are doing. These are the people who will strengthen the organization because they are granted the respect that renders them not afraid to step up to the plate, nor to challenge the status quo.  

     As Boss, the best, most productive and motivating thing you can do is to take the time and trouble to learn a little bit more than you presently know about what makes each employee who works with you “tick”…what kinds of dreams, desires, wants and needs does each have.

     You needn’t be a shrink to do this. Simply open your eyes and ears more. Tune in to the kinds of things people do and say. When you can reward behavior with rewards that really matter to each individual, you are cultivating long-term commitment, ongoing loyalty, and exemplary performance. 

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 Hal@Businessworks.US or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. 

Go for your goals, good night and God bless you!

Shut Your Business Down!

     Can the service your business provides be better? Are you in a position to MAKE it better? I would hope so, or you wouldn’t be likely to be visiting this blog for business owners and managers. But perhaps you think you need to live with what you’ve got?

     Maybe you feel like you just shouldn’t rock the boat? Or could it be that you might be stepping on someone else’s toes, or that service improvements wouldn’t work, or may create havoc in your industry or –let’s see– you could never get your dollar value back for the time invested?

     Anything like any of those reasons serve you as a quick answer so now you can move along to some other site? Do yourself a favor. Shut your business down tomorrow. You’re likely to have more success selling off your office or site supplies and equipment than you will staying where you are, doing what you’re doing. You find that insulting? Good! Maybe there’s hope yet.

     If the suggestion to hang up your spikes makes you angry, maybe you need to look in the mirror and shake yourself by the shoulders and breathe some new life into the services you’re providing. Making your services better is more likely, FYI, to INCREASE your business than decrease it.

     Why? Because people talk. People who get better quality services tell others, and this works much quicker and much deeper than any advertising can produce. A couple of years back, some shrewd entrepreneurs even invented the word BUZZ as the modern day equivalent of “Word of Mouth”– except that word of mouth is genuine; BUZZ is contrived.

     The point is that THIS– this economy, this time in history, this year, this month, this week– is in fact the time to start making better what you already have. Don’t let the biased mainstream news media, the zero business-experienced government, the monster union-dominated automakers, the moronic 37 trillion bank VP’s who all know less than one another convince you to sit back and take it on the chin!

     You didn’t start and grow your business to shut it down. Don’t let others lead you down the path of status quo. Now is the time to rise, to innovate, to take a fresh look at what you have, and who you have…associates, employees, customers, vendors, affiliates, neighbors, industry, community.

     How can you make more of all that now? What new ways can you pull your assets together to put yourself and your service business in a leadership position? What’s holding you back? It’s a choice. It’s your choice. 

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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Are you on target?

     Everyone likes to help others when they can. Some of us, however, dwell on being do-gooders to the detriment of our own interests. And when we do that, we are not helping others. We can only genuinely help others when we’re coming from a position of strength.

     Some among us like to surround ourselves with people who are less successful (to feel more important), or people who have bigger problems than we do (to minimize the perceptions of our own problems), or people who are just plain lazy or negative (because of a lack of self-esteem or self-confidence…or perhaps backbone)…and if any of these scenerios describe you, and you run a business, you’re in BIG trouble. 

     Draw a three-ring target on a piece of paper. Put the names of the most important person or people in your world in the center circle of the target. In the next-to-the-center-circle ring, put the names of those you spend the most time with in your personal life. Circle those who are most influential.

     In the next ring, put the names of the people you spend the most time with at work. Circle those who are most influential. On the outside ring or edge of the target, write the names of those you would like to spend more time with in your personal life and in your work life. Circle those who are most influential.

     What’s going on here? What do you notice? Are you spending the limited time you have here on Earth with people who are not helping you to get to where you want to go in life? Are you wasting too much time with too many negative people who are influencing your thinking in negative ways?

     Why? What is it exactly that makes you gravitate toward these people? What keeps you from moving on? How hard are you making it on yourself to part ways with those with whom you surround yourself who are bringing you down physically, or mentally or emotionally?

     What keeps your brain from accepting the fact that the negative relationships in your life are preventing you from getting to where you want to go and are –lo and behold– your choice!? What will it take for you to choose a more productive, more positive circle of friends and contacts to surround yourself with?

     Remember, you need not be rude or caustic or uncaring in the process of separating your forward-moving interests from backward-moving friends and associates. You need simply to recognize that it’s time to grow in the ways you have planned to. It’s your choice.

     When you choose to move on with your life, and extract yourself from the clutches of all that have been holding you back, you make yourself and your business stronger, and you strengthen your ability to reach back and help those negative thinkers and doers who matter. 

I am always open to your ideas and suggestions. Please email me anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below.

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HOORAY for the good guys!

     It’s not every day that a consultant like me can nominate a client (like i.g. Burton & Company) for an annual Better Business Bureau award as most outstanding family business in the state…and see them win!

     Even after my project engagement with the company ended, I had the good fortune to see this business be honored (tonight at the DuPont Hotel in downtown Wilmington, Delaware) at a formal reception dinner hosted by the Delaware BBB and Governor Jack Markell.

     Now if you’ve read this far, you may be wondering who is i.g. Burton & Company anyway? And there’s little doubt that if you don’t know, you will most definitely be surprised to learn that we’re talking about –of all things– a car dealership!

     i.g.Burton & Company is 101 years old. The company maintains five locations in Milford and Seaford, Delaware. They are one of the nation’s leading dealerships for Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep,  Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and are the world’s oldest Blue-Bird Bus dealership as well.

     They didn’t stand in line behind the automakers they represent, looking for bailout money. They didn’t pull in their rugs and move out of town when Chevrolet and Chrysler hit the rocks.

     In fact, they actually INCREASED their charitable contributions to needy organizations. They INCREASED their customer service training programs. And they went ahead and completed a 6 year-old monster construction project that helped keep hundreds of employees on payroll.

     Of course they have strong financial backing. But why? How did their backing become so commited? BECAUSE i.g. Burton demonstrated commitment to their customers, their employees and their community.

     They didn’t get to be 101 and win an Outstanding Family Business award in a faltering economy by being the stereotypical car dealers. They are fifth generation owned and operated. A great many of their employees have worked there for 15, 20, 25, 30, and more years! (This, in a day when most car dealers seem to keep employees just for those numbers of DAYS!)

     What’s the secret? i.g. Burton & Company has built a long-standing reputation for overkill customer service and for contributing to and supporting wholeheartedly the Delmarva Peninsula communities they serve. The have earned the BBB award, and statewide respect as business leaders.

     They will earn your respect too anytime you’re driving through Delmarva Peninsula (The 2nd biggest peninsula in the U.S., thank you, if you’re not counting Florida). Stop in. Say Hi. Congratulate them on their award. They’ll make you feel proud of it just for having visited. Well done, Burton Family. And well done, Burton Family of Employees!  

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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“You Get Incompetence

In A Dirty Facility!”

     Just because you own or run a professional (medical, legal, accounting, mental health, etc.) practice doesn’t exempt you from the need to establish and consistently promote a branding theme line.

     That single statement that others will identify with you needs to fully describe everything important about your service in seven words or less.

If you’ve been thinking that you and your profession are above the clutter of fastfood/hi-tech/toilet paper/auto dealer hype, you are correct! 

But you are NOT above developing and publicizing a meaningful message and putting it out to the universe for consideration and, hopefully, acceptance.

     Why is that? Because our emerging societal norms are to expect every entity–professional or trash–to put a billboard in our collective faces, all day, every day!

     Seriously, we live in a competitive, consumer-driven world (despite existing economics), with the 9 or 10 million Twitter users rapidly adapting to 140-character length messages and any business worth anything (plus some that aren’t) relying on 7-word branding slogans, you and your professional practice need to be maximally represented in the hunt in order to survive.

     Your brand is not simply your name or catchy logo or label, though some involve one or both of these. In reality, your brand encompasses all aspects of your professional practice, and how you represent yourself to patients and clients, prospective patients and clients, and the circles you and your practice operate in.

     These operating circles widen every day with every new hi-tech communications development, with every encounter . . . between yourself and other staff and associates connected with your practice as well as between each of you and the rest of the world: families, friends, patients/clients, prospects, affiliate agencies and institutions, sales reps and vendors, professional and public communities, et al.  

     As a rule of thumb, your brand should be represented by a theme line of 7 words or less that says who you are, what you do, what the unique benefit is of your service, and ideally includes your name or location or other sales point . . . and accomplishes all that persuasively.

Actually, great branding lines are engaging, convincing 7-word stories — often with a double entendre included, and occasionally rhyming if you’re lucky.                                        

(“For The Best Of Your Life…” for LIFE Health & Fitness Centers; “Growing Internet Businesses With Real World Experience”for eHealthcare Ventures; “You Deserve A Break Today…at McDonald’s”; “Orthopedic Patient Partnerships – Adding Life To Years” for Medical Center of Ocean County, NJ; “”You Can Be Certain With I.G. Burton” car dealerships; “Backpackers Spine Health & Strength Training Program” for Dr. Ian Fries; “The Dog Kids Love To Bite” for Armour Hot Dogs; “Enhancing Life, Work & Sports Performance”for BioMotion 3-D Imaging and Physical Therapy; “The Medical Mark of Excellence” for board-certified neurologist Dr. Michael Mark, are just a few that come to mind)

_________________________

     There are plenty more, including some I’m sure for those typically even less-creative professionals in law and accounting. But what you need to know is that it IS important to have a strong branding identity and that it IS best done by a professional, not by whimsy, chance or a creative cousin. Remember there is no second first impression. What you say you’re all about the first time around is what sticks. 

     Oh, and even after all of this is done, it’s the consistent reinforcing positive and pleasant attitude that you and your staff project to the rest of the world –all day– every day– day after day– because you believe in the value of the services you provide, that counts!

In other words, the phrase you use must be the guide you follow and must reinforce the actions you take.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!