If your marketing has gone 

online-exclusive, your business

 may very well fold in 24-36 months!

Ah, but there’s still a chance to save yourself from killing yourself.

• FIRST: Get rid of the person who talked you into putting all your marketing eggs in one Internet basket. Even if it’s family, begone with him or her . . . as well as his or her ideas, which are costing you money, wasting your time, and depleting your energy!
• SECOND: Recognize that, in spite of whatever sales spiel you were fed by that person (or agency or group or team) that you listened to, the whole world –and your target market specifically (unless it’s 110% techie products or services)– has not (N~O~T) stopped reading newspapers, magazines, and direct mail!
• THIRD: The whole world –and your target market specifically– has not (N~O~T) stopped watching TV and listening to radio, or shut their eyes down while passing billboards. They have not stopped reading brochures, or responding to special sales and promotions, news releases, and coupons. They have not even (Aaargh!) stopped responding to telemarketing.

If you think for one minute that your entire universe of customers and prospects is maniacally text-messaging and spending every living moment on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, you are sorely mistaken.  

And anyone who might have bamboozled you into thinking those things is much too short-sighted (and evidently too immature) to take responsibility for moving your business forward.

DO NOT abandon traditional marketing and think that it will be compensated for by a full-commitment plunge into online vehicles and media efforts.

Your website is important. Depending on the nature of your business, your engagement with social media is important. But anyone with even a little marketing savvy and training knows that these are simply ingredients in the total mix.

If you are not using every possible, affordable opportunity to market your business right now, you might as well open your window and throw the money out that you have been spending!

(Ah, and don’t pretend that online stuff is free . . . dig out that old magnifying glass and start discovering those hidden expenses! Prepare to be surprised!)

While most small and medium size businesses appear to have engaged so-called “Web Editors” or “Community Managers” or “Digital Marketing Managers,” fewer than 30% are reported to have a “Marketing Manager.”

Sadly for those misinformed business owners who dominate the 70%, these numbers should be the exact opposite!

Those who pretend to be business experts because they have some computer expertise will be the downfall of many well-intentioned but pathetically uninformed business owners.

“Web” and “Digital” people tend to know nothing of (and care less about) traditional marketing media, and so automatically discard traditional marketing management approaches they think are limited, but which are not!

                                                                                            

Even the teeny-bopper market that most uses handheld electronic devices (and most text messages one another), continues to watch TV and go ton the movies and visit arcades and read magazines and newspapers and attend sporting events and concerts, and open mail addressed to them.

It may appear to be all about hi-tech and emails and the like, but –even this market– indulges in traditional media. How can you confirm this? Run some quick and cheap focus group studies.

But, oh, your “Web Editor” might not know about how to do a focus group study because that requires traditional marketing experience. Okay, focus group some txtmsgs and see what you get!

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

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

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!

Adapted from an original archived blog post on this site…

WHY DO YOU THINK U.S. MILITARY

WHASSUP, DOC?

Dear Doctor –

When I wrote DOCTOR BUSINESS© (the book, a 5-star Amazon selection), it was six years before the 9/11 that changed the world. It was at a time when medical and surgical skills were measured by case experience and mortality numbers, not “patient volume.”

Having survived the struggle to be allowed to practice medicine gave you what many called a “license to steal.” 

In the mid-90s, and before that, where you did your internship and residency actually mattered. Public outcries for better bedside manners were surfacing more frequently. The extent of your family’s wholesomeness or dysfunctionality was a much-admired or maligned affair. Your vacations were flamboyant.

With whom you played golf on Fridays was a measure of your community prominence.

You stuck up for other doctors even when they were wrong (and even those you didn’t like). Because doctors then were doctors. And while everyone around you watched and listened to you, even when you least knew it, and whether they liked you or not, you were never disobeyed.

In short, you were God. 

But all that has changed. Now there’s computerized rigmarole, electronic record-keeping, patient emails and texting, Google and Bing. There’s supposed to be less, but it seems now there’s more paperwork.

Your liability insurance premiums could choke a horse. Society’s contentious mindset chews up your precious time (you have no inventory, right?) in legal tangles.

And the bumbling federal government hasn’t even a clue about how to run healthcare, or the need for nurturing free-market competition in order for healthcare to survive as a profession.

Your professional practice and what’s left of your personal life are so dictated by know-nothing politicians that there’s not much room to wiggle free, except onto a shrink’s couch or into an early grave.

                                                            

Let’s face reality.

Like professional sports, medicine has become big business. The difference is that professional athletes have agents to handle their business needs. You have you, and you never learned business.

Maybe you’re entrepreneurially-minded, but it’s highly unlikely that you ‘ve developed enough expertise in finance, marketing, human resources, management, and customer service in addition to medical skills to make the final cut as a businessperson. Yet you are a businessperson. You might hate it, but it’s who you have to be in order to survive as a doctor.

This means you need to rely on others who are probably not as reliable as you. (Medicine does, after all, teach reliability.)

Here’s the bottom line:

You can find qualified and proven lawyers and accountants and marketing (practice development) experts (and, no, these are not people who deliver subs and popcorn and ethnic luncheons to referring physician offices!), and you can find a good leadership manager type to be your office manager or practice administrator, but if your grasp of human resources and human relations and customer service isn’t working, none of the other business helper arrangements will work.

Concentrate your business learning on strengthening your communication skills.

You don’t need to run for office. You need to facilitate having others run your office for you.   

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY . . . Support those

who endorse free market competition healthcare 

and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 Award-Winning Bumper Sticker

My Kid Can Beat The Crap

Out Of Your Honor Student!

Such is the assessment that many entrepreneurs are born of. (And don’t end a sentence with a preposition! But there are no rules in business!) Entrepreneurs are misfits. They hate authority, and hate being tested or categorized by others. They love the stimulation of surrounding themselves with responsive, passionate people. 

Rarely though, it seems to me, do entrepreneurs comfortably dismiss the recommendations of others they respect, even when those suggestions fly in the face of what they seek to accomplish.  

If you’ve been suckered in by federal government-partnered teachers unions whose memberships haven’t a clue about what makes business –or the economy– click, and have swallowed the “Gifted and Talented” malarkey hook, line, and sinker, you are thinking like a fool!

First of all, every human being

 on Earth is “gifted and talented.”

Parents who proclaim or pursue having their children anointed with these three words have no sense of reality, and are probably neurotic and insecure to say the least. Business owners who try to sort through job applicants using any form of these three words as a yardstick are just plain shortsighted.

Let’s look at it this way: You own or operate or manage a business. That makes you some form of entrepreneur. You are heavily invested with time, effort, energy and/or money in your business and probably look for prospective employees who seem to be out of your mold. Are you looking for some elite MBA school graduate credentials or someone who will follow your lead and act responsibly?

The bottom line is that the recruitment process shouldn’t hinge on what other people thought of a job prospect, as much as what your impressions are of what you think a particular candidate is capable of, in the context and framework of your thinking and your organization.

In other words,

take the recommendations of others

who are not part of your business

with a grain of salt. Instead,

trust and follow your instincts.

Sure you could be wrong. Everyone makes bad judgments at some point. But odds are better when you use your own sixth sense about some one’s potential than if you trust what others have to say. No, I am not suggesting you discount references, referrals, and recommendations. Certainly, a prospective employee’s job history has evaluative value. But your gut feelings mean more. 

This is not a 100,000 employee organization we’re talking about. There are not 37 spiral-bound pages of job qualifications and requirements sitting ominously on your HR director’s desk awaiting line-by-line comparison with every candidate. It is all about you, your business, what you know needs to take place to grow your venture, and what kind of people you believe can make that happen.  

“Gifted and Talented”? YOU have what it takes to have gotten you this far. YOU are gifted and talented. YOU know what it takes to make your business work. Trust yourself. Judge prospective employees by your own guidelines and impressions.

Looking for some helpful guidance in this direction? Give me a call.

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY November 2nd. Vote to 

move small business front and center…support those

who endorse free market competition healthcare

and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Does YOUR business

fit this definition:

Agility: being marked by ready ability to move with quick, easy grace . . . having a quick, resourceful and adaptable character 

???????????

How does it fit or not fit?

No, this isn’t a quiz. No, you don’t have to turn in any papers. Yes, the two questions represent an important self-inventory that should help you determine the ability of your business to survive the next coming wave of lousy economy.

What? More is coming? Yes, and it will be worse than the last one, and yes (Don’t shoot the messenger!):  It is on the way now! 

Like forcing the captain to own up to his miscalculations, and make a rapid course correction to keep the ship from running straight into the cliffs rising up out of the fog, November 2nd gives America’s small business owners a window of opportunity for a mid-course correction.

It’s a chance to adjust the sails of business ignorance that have led our rudderless tax-and-spend economy deeper (almost to the point of no return) into this unemployment-earmarked deficit since November, 2008. 

Oh, excuse me, The Washington Post –alongside it’s recent full page’s worth of attention to Tiger Woods visiting the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School Learning Center he just donated (Imagine that!) and another full page’s worth of photos devoted to a new Supreme Court portrait (Say “Cheese!”)–continues to overtly underplay our near-catestrophic economy.

Juxtaposed with all their Tiger and The Supreme Court (sounds like a hip-hop group)fanfare, the paper devoted only small insignificant attention to “The U.S. shedded 95,000 jobs in September”  (“Shedded”?) and that “Foreclosed properties now comprise 1 in 4 homes sold in the U.S.”

But then, who could expect anything else from such an accomplished, erudite, award-winning editorial staff? Yet, priorities do seem a bit confused, you think?

The point is that the only way to fix the economy is with new jobs created by new entrepreneurial enterprises that have genuine tax incentives (not more meaningless, token, convoluted, SBA-channeled government gobbidly-gook “programs”).

Neither do we need any more bailout billions to be poured into giant self-serving, top-heavy corporations that create near-zero new jobs. 

Ah, and there’s all those wonderful government agencies sucking up taxpayer dollars for politically-inspired nonsense “jobs” that simply serve to compound and expand the deficit even more. Nothing productive is achieved, and none of it helps small business to help the economy.

So the worst case scenario is that November 2nd brings in RE-election of a Congress and Senate and State Governorships, and we suffer through another two years of record unemployment, hardship, bankruptcies, bad credit, and steadily declining dollar value.

Best case scenario for November 2nd, brings in a new wave of government (which will reverse the small-business-destructive Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda that advances ill-conceived initiatives for healthcare, cap and trade, immigration and more, which will literally cripple small business growth and job creation nationwide) . . . to restore balance to both our economy and our lives.

Even with that, it will be two more years of financial struggle to dig back out.

So hunker down. Foster and nurture agility! Exercise inspired leadership that promotes trust and takes action. Innovate. Innovate. Innovate. And focus every business breath on your customers. 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Tough or Tender?

You know what 100% of meat-eaters prefer, and what most lovers prefer, but when it comes to running a successful business in a near catastrophic economy, there’s little room for being tender. Is it like reaching the point with a drug addict to abandon “Tough Love” tactics?

Killer economy business owners have to be tough to hold on.

They also have to be tough to let go.

Either way–unlike government and corporate life or professional sports– there’s no one else to blame.

There’s no one else to step in and take over, and nobody else to pick you up.

Gloomy, huh?

Sure, there’s always the lottery, but real entrepreneurs don’t gamble because the risk is not reasonable. So what’s a struggling business owner to do, fire yourself? Maybe. Maybe not.

You probably won’t accomplish much by firing yourself, but you might accomplish a great deal by –instead– taking stock in yourself. Start with the assumption that you have what it takes to make things work. After all, you’ve already gotten this far, right?

1. Take back that attitude you had when you first started your business. Remember, that one where you relied on your SELF? You did whatever it took to nurture your ingenuity, persistence, gumption, stick-to-itiveness, determination…and all those other qualities?
2. Realize and accept that you can only rely on your SELF when you keep yourself in touch, day-to-day, with your own personal strengths and weaknesses. Be constantly on the alert to what they are and how they change. Adjust them and your SELF to fit changing times and situations, and to prompt opportunities to rise to the surface.
3. Remember that you have an important responsibility on Election Day to vote — and before that, to promote others to vote — for the kinds of sweeping changes nationwide that are clearly required and called for to recognize small business as the key to economic survival.

The current Congress and Administration most assuredly do not have your best interests or those of our national economy at heart. It does not require brain surgery expertise to see that small business creates probably close to 90% of all new jobs in the U.S.

Collectively, however, our political leaders lack business experience at every level, and have recklessly misspent and misappropriated billions of tax dollars in attempting to shore up misguided corporate entities, and bolster a social agenda that’s frivolous at best considering the continued plunge of unemployment, bankruptcy and foreclosure rates.

These destructive measures have been at the expense of a balanced budget, at the expense of the vast majority of Americans, and in the face of small business owners’ attempts to make things work. We need to get back on track –swiftly– with REAL tax incentives to small business for job creation (not SBA tokenism buried under reams of complex paperwork).

Your role in this is much more important than you may have thought.

Exert your influence to bring people into office –regardless of party affiliation– who will stop the tax and spend mentality in its tracks.

America needs representatives who will appreciate the sacrifices and values of small business ownership, and use that appreciation to see that jobs are created  . . . to begin to own up to the realities of what needs to be done to turn the tide of this devastating economy.

# # #

 931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

ARE YOU ALL YOU HAVE?

You can hire (even borrow) others

 but you can only bank on your self!

Whether you function out of a home closet, garage, kitchen table, 100,000 sq. ft. factory or warehouse, a fancy corporate center, a retail storefront, or a truck, it’s one thing to find people or a person you can trust to help you with your business, and quite another to translate that find into responsibility you can bank on.

Reality check: No matter how much you love someone who works for you, no matter how conscientious an employee may be, you are ultimately the one who has everything on the line, and you are the only one who has to answer to investors, lenders, suppliers, and — in the end — customers.  

Short of turning to your family (and even that rarely works), it’s probably close to 100% true that people only accept responsibility commensurate with what they think is merited by their compensation. In other words, only business owners and partners practice an ownership sense of responsibility. This goes beyond turning off lights and taking out the garbage.

If you’re not ready to make your support team owners/partners, then consider these options:

• Teaching others to have ownership attitudes and sense of responsibility is not the same as cultivating it or making it happen.
  • Leadership by example is one way.
  • Small frequent rewards is another.
  • Reliance on Maslow’s Hierarchy as a guide for rewarding people at their need level is yet another.

# # #

 302.933.0116          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!

Stop trying to cut

the wrong corners! 

If you’re like many others who run a business these days, you are being extremely careful with operating expenses and have turned a deaf ear to literally any kind of investments. With respect to that attitude, I’ve heard that if something can go without saying, don’t say it, but I’ll say it anyway:

It’s great to be careful with your money for however much longer it takes government to figure out that small businesses, not monster corporations, are the ones that create jobs, and the ones that will turn the economy around (a year or two or three?).

But it’s not great to turn yourself into Scrooge McSkinflint with every cost that comes your way, especially professional outsourcing fees!. 

When you turn outside your enterprise to hire an expert consultant or performer — writer, designer, accountant, lawyer, staff trainer, turn-around specialist, management coach, programmer, architect, engineer, marketing whiz all come to mind — it’s because you’ve come to realize you can’t do it all yourself, that nobody is really qualified “in house,” and that you need some proven experience.

So there should be little question of value here, unless you haven’t done your homework screening prospects. Remember these are people whose entire lives are devoted to practicing the specialty you need help with. Professionals.

Bringing professional help to bear on your business needs, or to accelerate performance faster than it’s possible to do on your own, is not a decision that should be made lightly, but — once it’s made:

1)  Don’t expect outside providers to tell you how they’ll meet your needs or solve your problems as part of your selection process in order to have their services considered for meeting your needs or solving your problem (unless you pay them for that time and effort).

Do you give away time, talent, products and services to someone who says she or he might be interested in dealing with you

Professionals who are treated

professionally respond professionally.

2)  Don’t try to cut corners on fees because you’ll only be cheating yourself. Outsource consultants and performers deliver what they’re paid to deliver.

The old adage is true that you get what you pay for. If you truly can’t afford the expertise, don’t pretend you can and then haggle on price…unless you want to haggle on the results!

Outside professionals will not be upset with you wanting to cut a deal, as long as it’s a reasonable win-win arrangement.

When instead of $1,000 fee for a task, you try to nickel-and-dime it down to $500, even if you win, you lose; you’ll get $100 worth of effort. 

On the other hand, offering to pay $500 instead of $1000 with a measurable performance incentive of an additional $1000 is the kind of deal that will usually merit some good faith consideration. And isn’t it always worth paying one-X extra when someone’s efforts produce two-X extra? 

There are many places where it’s in your best interests to be a tightwad when reviewing your overhead and operations expenditures, but hiring proven, experienced, professional expertise is not one of them. I’ve been on both sides of the fence hundreds of times. People who reward performance well get exceptional performance.

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!

Once, the rule.

Now, the exception.

 

Best Business Policy, eh?

You expected maybe some cataclysmic statement from the dregs of academia?

You thought maybe some esoteric pronouncement of apocalyptic proportions was about to come crashing down on the world of business owners and cause you to shift into fourth gear to keep up with the corporate bailout recipients?

Or, ah, a new way of thinking for 9AM tomorrow?

Sorry to disappoint you, but tonight’s message is a simple reminder of what you already know, but are perhaps occasionally tempted to forget about once in awhile. When, praytell, might you forget something as important as the Best Business Policy?

Well, it’s entirely possible that you may have overlooked it one recent night when the moon was full enough to see that business just isn’t happening like it was before the recession (which we’re now being told ended in June! What a wonderful thing! Must be that a new one started in July).

Anyway, it could have been that night when the bill-collector werewolves were howling on your doorstep.

Now, I’m not accusing anyone here. I’m just saying. Maybe your empty wallet had some off-stage role in the production? Or maybe –like that courageous town meeting questioner of White House “hope and change” promises earlier this week made note of– you and yours are doing franks and beans these days instead of Saturday night out on the town dinners?

There are many reasons, including of course the economy, that might have prompted you to forget that Best Business Policy and stray per chance for a brief, uncomfortable moment or two. THE “Policy”? Oh, right! It’s the same one you learned from a grandparent, or a religious leader, or a parent or friend or boss, or Uncle Abe. It’s called Honesty. 

But that, you might say, isn’t a BUSINESS policy. And you could no doubt produce a laundry list of other “Policies” that you think deserve to come far ahead on the “Best” list. Things like “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Money-Back” and “Giving priority to customer and employee relationships.”

Hey, you know what? Those things are all great; they’re fine policies to practice, but  n~o~t~h~i~n~g  builds trust like honesty. And, in business, TRUST wins every time! More so with today’s informed and value-and-green-conscious consumer than ever before.

Everyone (except maybe Mother Teresa) tells lies sometime. And some very few of those –measured by most moral standards– might be acceptable in special circumstances. But never in business. A real business leader doesn’t tell lies. A real sales professional doesn’t tell lies. A real entrepreneur who is focused on making her idea work doesn’t tell lies.

Business lies always come back to bite your butt.

People judge you by the truth you tell, in your personal exchanges and the ways your business treats everyone who comes in contact with it — inside as well as outside! Honesty, STILL, is the Best Business Policy. And practice makes perfect!    

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!

Write that book!

Sing that song!

Change that battery!

Txt that msg!

There is no such thing as the right or wrong

time to take a step on your own behalf.

You are after all, the only one who will take a step on your own behalf. Oh, you no doubt have others who will get up to bat for you, and fill in when you’re preoccupied or not around. But –in the end– you are the only one who understands you (or has the potential to) and the only one with a clear vision of your business pursuits.

That translates to you needing to cultivate, practice, and boost your Action Attitude daily. Having a bias toward action doesn’t mean you need to adhere to some maniacal schedule of rushing from one thing to another 25 hours a day (and the clue to whether you fit this madman-paced lifestyle is wishing that you had 25 hours in a day!).

Making an Action Attitude be as important an ingredient in your life and your business pursuits doesn’t mean always being on your toes; it means always thinking on your toes.

Except perhaps during a ceremony, a religious service, or on the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped, some action is always better than no action! 

Having a bias toward action means always thinking and deciding in favor of forward motion regardless of delays or disarming or frustrating circumstances. It means never being lazy, except maybe on vacation. Action combined with trust is the foundation for leadership that makes a difference. 

No one travels to happiness or success by standing still. Why? Well, besides the obvious, it’s worth remembering the basic tenet of Gestalt-based teachings, that happiness IS the journey and success IS the journey. It is not a place to end. It is the process of getting there. We make that process happy and successful by having an Action Attitude.

I recently read someone’s business mission which stated in part, “Success starts with education followed by motivation.”

Not in this lifetime. Not in this country. And certainly not in the business world.

Success starts with an Action Attitude.

And as we all know from stories of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs, that their accomplishments had very little –if anything– to do with education.

Now, don’t all you teacher-types go getting your bowels in an uproar. I consider myself an educator as well as a writer and business coach. I taught part and full time college for 13 years. I designed and delivered management training workshops for 20 years. Educational achievements have little to do with life or business success.

My happiest and most successful students were typically lousy test performers with great drive, ambition, and a burning desire to make their ideas succeed. Most dropped out of formal classes and worked their way into experience levels that they parlayed into building and growing their own enterprises. Most have made a real difference in business, and with charitable contributions.

Winners don’t dwell on either the starting line OR the finish line. They pay attention to concentrating on each step they take. So having an Action Attitude means first and foremost being tuned in to “the here and now” present moment, every passing moment, as much as possible, throughout as many waking hours as possible, each day.

It is an Action Attitude focus that produces meaningful

and satisfying lives and productive, rewarding businesses.

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!