Here’s my vote 

for the all-time top

branding theme lines.

     I get asked all the time about branding themes and theme lines because they are the single most important set of words a business can have, and because they are the hardest of all words to write if they are to have great impact.

     The only business writing forms that come close in terms of difficulty and potential power are advertising billboards, website banners, and new venture business plans.

     In fact, the simpler they seem, the harder they are to write. Contrary to popular opinion, no one just goes into a closet for a couple of hours and comes out with these brilliant messages.

     In fact, it can often take weeks of fine-tuning to get to the kinds of branding theme lines represented here.

     The following list of 19 (Will yours be #20?) are all perfect examples of the art and science of marketing word craftsmanship, and I submit them here for your enjoyment, consideration (see if you figure out what they all have in common; answer at end), and most assuredly for inspiration:

• You deserve a break today at MacDonald’s.

• Think outside the bun – Taco Bell

• You’re in good hands with Allstate.

• American Express – Don’t leave home without it.

• AT&T – Reach out and touch someone.

• Greyhound: Leave the driving to us.

• Campbell’s Soup is M’m M’m Good!

• Clairol – Does she or doesn’t she?

• Energizer Batteries – It keeps going, and going, and going…

• General Electric – We bring good things to life.

• Kleenex – Don’t put a cold in your pocket!

• Lay’s Potato Chips – Betcha can’t eat just one!

• Maxwell House – Good to the last drop.

• Morton Salt – When it rains, it pours.

• New York Times – All the news that’s fit to print

• Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee

• Schlitz – The beer that made Milwaukee famous.

• Sun Microsystems – We put the . in dot.com

• Armour Hot Dogs – The dog kids love to bite.

      Besides all of these having a certain positive and proactive message to share that directly relates to or ties to the benefits of the products and services offered, they also each possess a definite word delivery rhythm that is easier felt than explained . . . almost a poetic balance with a direct or directly implied promise attached.

     And what else do you notice?

     Because there are no rules in business, and least of all in marketing, there are always exceptions. In this list, however, as will be found in almost every other comparable list of outstanding branding identities, please also note that each uses seven words or less.

     And those that include the company or brand name within those seven words or less are the true diamonds in the forest of glass!

What are some of YOUR suggestions for this list? Click on “Comments” below and include them in the window! The best will be added to a sequel list!

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!

Been Tweaked? 

     If  you haven’t had a professional examine the words you’re using for your business — to communicate, explain, describe, sell, plan, promote, publicize, print, email, broadcast, and blast across the Internet — you’re missing great potential sales, revenues, and profits.

     And you may be adding untold hidden expenses every day, even every hour.

     You could very well be the best at what you do, but if you’re not trained and experienced as a skilled professional business marketing writer, it won’t matter.

      It takes only one slightly wrong word to UNdo all your years of hard work, to UNdo the strength or promise of your customer or investor bases, to UNdo your employee, supplier, and community relations.

     But here’s the best kept secret of successful businesses and practices in your industry and profession:

They’ve all been tweaked! 

     Every highly profitable revenue-charged business and professional practice is measured by its leadership, reputation, productivity, and the words it uses.

Research proves time and again that what your business says (and the ways that your business says what it says) makes the difference between success and failure

. . . on the Internet; in emails, news releases; promotional, ad, branding and marketing campaigns; mission and vision statements; employee and sales training; supplier, investor, and referrer motivational programs

. . . on the front lines and telephone lines with customers, clients, patients, and prospects.

     How does one get her or his business “tweaked”? Where do you start? You start by submitting rough or revised drafts for professional review and input. The finished product is the revised return of a polished document, ad, release, web page, branding theme line, business plan narrative, layman translation from technical material, ebook, training outline, whatever.

It’s a process that raises your ideas up a notch

and puts you ahead of the competition!

     The good news is you need NOTspend a fortune to get tweaked. Many mid and large size companies that use internal Tweakers, also hire outside firms to tweak and prepare their messages (often at outrageous fees of $10,000 to $20,000 a month!). But this is SMALL business. And no one else can represent your business ideas as well as you.

     You don’t need high-priced outside service firms to tell you what to say. You need a budget-conscious, experienced, professional Tweaker who can take what you’ve done and put it in the right language and context for the market you want to target.

     Some, like having preventive maintenance visits, get a “Tweak Cleaning” twice a year. Some are happy with an annual “Tweak Insurance” Review. Still others want “On-Call Tweakability.” Oh, and if you’ve read this far, you must be interested. So yes, I tweak.

# # #

Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

Make today a GREAT Day for someone!

     The best business consultants, advisors, coaches, trainers, and counselors base their fees on what they’re able to accomplish, not on how great they tell you it’s going to be.

 YOU’RE PAYING TOO MUCH IF:  

1)  You’re paying ongoing fees and can’t see any ongoing results.

2)  You’re paying any kind of “retainer” fee, and you’re not sure of what it is that you’re “retaining.” 

3)  You’re paying for dead-end training, coaching, or counseling support that assures you of new and improved leadership/team-work . . . or communications, or customer relations, or sales . . . but that doesn’t produce noticeable change in 21 days, and that doesn’t then keep it going with meaningful, targeted, personal follow-up long after scheduled sessions are completed.

4)  You’re paying for outside services that continuously blame your inside services for stalling/blocking/obstructing/interfering or foot-dragging and/or lack of commitment.

5)  You’re paying for professional expertise exclusively because of long-term relationships and because that individual or group has maintained all your records for a long time. Would you not go to a medical or legal or financial expert you know has the ability to heal you just because your present advisor was hired by your father (or grandfather) and has your complete history in his files?  

6)  You get billed for every breath taken on your behalf. Outside experts unwilling to invest a little extra time and effort on your behalf as an expression of their customer / client relationship management are not worth the invoice postage or email review time. They are easily (and happily) replaced.

     There are a gazillion qualified groups and individuals out there who will deliver ongoing attention and ongoing results. In case you think you haven’t enough time to go shopping for the kinds of outside experts who breed authenticity, consider how much money you’ve been (or are presently) wasting  by not finding more honorable replacements.

     Even hiring someone else to shop for you – with your criteria of course – will probably still end up being a financially-smarter and more performance-rewarding move than avoiding the issue.

     The hardest thing any of us have to do in life – and consequently the hardest thing any business owner or manager has also to do – is to let go.

     Letting go of anything that we own, command, raise, invent, enhance, fix, inherit, create, design, develop, build, or even just think about, is like giving up a piece of our existence. How big of a piece determines the amount of anguish and reluctance and hesitation and whining and complaining that is sure to surface.

     And you’ve already been around long enough to realize that the total of all the upset added together multiplies according to how much time, money, and effort has been invested. So, the time to act is now. Clean house. Find experts who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work with you, who will act like partners, not leeches.   

# # #

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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!

AIN’T NOBODY

WRITES

NOTHIN’ NO MORE!

     For those of you out there who can still actually write with a pen and paper, consider yourself in possession of a unique skill (even if your handwriting resembles the scrawl of your favorite nearby brain surgeon, or your neighbor’s cocker spaniel . . . probably can’t tell them apart! Uh, the writing).

     And you can be assured your handwriting is a skill that’s underused, especially if you own or manage a business or are in professional sales. I lump those entrepreneurial and sales careers together because if you own 0r manage a business, you sell. And if you’re in sales, you own or manage a business.

     So here’s the thing: AIN’T NOBODY WRITES NOTHIN’ NO MORE.

     Don’t believe me? Just look around and what do you see? PCs, Laptops, Cellphones, BlackBerries, Strawberries (Oh, sorry). You really have to search to find a pencil behind some one’s ear anymore, and fountain pens? That’s like discovering a pygmy tribe living in midtown Manhattan.

     Think about the times in your life when you’ve seen business people step up and do something unique, something different for their business or their customers or their employees or their suppliers, and you think to yourself: Self! That’s an idea I wish I had though of first because no one else is doing it.

     Well, here you go — a great new, FREE idea for you that I GUARANTEEwill make you stand out from your competition, regardless of whether you’re a farmer, a rocket scientist, a realtor, a proctologist (okay, well maybe not a proctologist), a website designer, an undertaker or wedding planner, an accountant, a lawyer (though I don’t distinguish much between a lawyer and a proctologist), a retailer . . . you get the idea.

     Dig out that old pen you forgot about; find some nice (unlined) notepaper that’s been collecting dust in the back of your desk drawer. Practice a few freehand swirls of ink on your local newspaper, which is not much good for anything else these days, and get ready to fire off some genuinely appreciative notes to present and past customers/clients/patients who have been particularly supportive of you or who are especially interested in you and/or your business products and services.

     You will get more attention and more mileage out of 100 personal handwritten notes, than you will out of 500 emails or 1000 text messages, or 5000 Tweets. I won’t even bother to waste your time with a visit to the dim prospects offered by US Postal Service incompetence no matter how great you think your direct mail campaign is.

     Do I guarantee these numbers? Of course not. But I absolutely guarantee — given the exact same message — a handwritten, personalized, hand-addressed and hand-stamped note will outperform all the solicitation glut that’s pouring out of our computerized lives. All you have to do is think of what to say, then say it in your own scribble. Oh, and Hallmark cards don’t do it either. Their commercials make you cry maybe, but their words are not your words, and they are machine-printed.

     Besides that no one else in your marketplace is doing it, what makes this idea so outstanding? People like real. Spill on the ink and it will smear. If your writing is great, great! If it’s crummy, great: what other messages do your customers actually work at trying to read? Say what you think. Say what you feel. Keep it short and sweet. But DO it. I promise you’ll be amazed at the responses you get!   

 Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

Are you rounding

the turn,

up against the rail,

or (Aaah!)

headed for the

home stretch?

     Have you ever equated owning and managing a business with being in a race? Aren’t most of us in fact so busy galloping over, under, and around the 37 zillion entrepreneurial business obstacles-to-success, that we seldom make the time to assess our own progress? When did we even come to appreciate what market position we’re in, let alone what racetrack we’re on?

     I was reminded yesterday by the simultaneous running of The Preakness (horse race), and The Dover Downs (NASCAR) Race Weekend of how rare the occasions are that we business owners race around and soundly outperform our own and others’ expectations.  How evasive that winner’s circle can be when we just charge forward with our heads down!

     Don’t we ALWAYS outperform ourselves the half-hour before lunch? The hour before closing? The days before vacation? The week before a holiday weekend? The days before a major sales or service event? The days before retirement? The days before the end of the month? The quarter? The year? 

WE EXCEL IN THE HOME STRETCH!

     Who doesn’t run fastest between third base and home plate? Between the 20-yard marker and the goal line? Or in the final lap of a race of any kind? And why is this? Okay. Here’s the place to insert all that profound motivational and psychological reasoning we all carry around on the tips of our tongues:__________________________.

     It seems to me, though, that when all is said and done, each of us protects the need to preserve some level of self-proclaimed legacy. Down deep inside, we want to make a difference! We want others to say “WOW!” and “Whew!” and “HOLY #%&*!” and be impressed and astonished with our performances.

     But why oh why do we have to punish ourselves by limiting our exceptional performances to occur only when we’ve reached some mythical last hurrah, when we’re at a point where every thing’s on the line, or the proverbial eleventh hour is upon us?

     What prevents us from thinking and acting at maximum productivity EVERY day, all year long? Why is some artificial prompt necessary to justify and prompt exemplary performance? Can’t we simply CHOOSE to have this winning attitude NOW? Today? Tomorrow? Everyday? Isn’t it a choice? Of course it is. SO . . . HOW to make it happen is the question.

     Try falsifying our calendars. Let’s put some major event that demands extraordinary production results in the third week of May. Why wait ’til two days before Memorial Day weekend to get cranked up? What about pretending our vacation is a month before it’s actually scheduled? Can we trick yourselves into believing that we have only a week (vs. a month) left until departure day?

     Our kids could do this in a flash. Maybe we can learn something from them about how to loosen up and be flexible and do stuff now that we may have thought we were not ready to do . . .?  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

“Whaddaya, nuts?

My business

is shrinking.

What’s to expand?”

In the “Flower Power” 60’s with psychedelic drug influences on music, clothes, and lifestyles of people who’d grown up with the Lone Ranger, there emerged what had to be the greatest name for its time for a music group that I ever heard. I haven’t a clue about anything they recorded, but I always thought they earned the gold medal of rock group names: TONTO’S EXPANDING HEAD BAND.

     I thought of this name today for some reason, and was prompted to address the subject of business expansion in a still-rotten-and-getting-rottener economy where most businesses are tucking in their tails, cutting corners, and consolidating at every opportunity. Withdrawal, though, is not always the most advisable action to take when the competition heats up and pickings are slim.

     “Yeah, but our budget is slim too, and the last thing we can afford is to expand what’s already suffering; it’ll just create more suffering!”

     BRRRAAAAAAAAT! (That’s a basketball court sound.) Time Out! As truth will have it, if indeed you really think you need to be bailing out the boat instead of adding a swim platform, you are probably:

1. working for the government (probably the dead and dying Postal Service; but, then, you wouldn’t be reading this), or 
2. a major corporate executive (probably a hospital administrator type who’s big on efficiency and outcomes; but, then, you wouldn’t be reading this either!), or 
3. a small business owner who’s lost sight of how you got started, and you may have gotten so beat up by the A and B guys above, that your entrepreneurial spirit has risen on up into the Ozone, and left you struggling to survive. Sound familiar? No? Good! But if it does . . .

     Guess what? You still have what it takes, and so does your business. Remember the sports training we got as kids? The best defense is an offense . . . stop blocking punches and start swinging!

     To effectively expand your business in an economic choke-hold, you need first to allow your brain to expand, and you’ve probably been pulling in the reins on your innovative thinking in order to pay the bills. Reality is though that there are plenty of ways to expand while others are shrinking, without murdering your finances!

     You need to look harder at what you’re doing. How can you offer more to customers without spending more? Instead of 9-5, can you stagger work hours and stay open instead from 8-6? Or re-think coverage possibilities for Saturdays and/or Sundays?

     Can you hand out free appetizers to customers who have to wait for dinner? (You don’t run a restaurant? This example applies to EVERY type of business. Consider how some version of it might work for yours!)

     How about expanding your marketing efforts with a service like www.BizBrag.com that allows you free website postings of your news releases and promotional flyers, and then sends them out to your target email list besides (also free!)

     Shall I go on or will you just counter with excuses? Are you choosing to seek new pathways or choosing to simply settle for excuses about why new pathways won’t work? Hard times mean survival of the fittest. Hard times also mean that those who choose to step it up, make waves, and expand their horizons by expanding the the ways they do business, will thrive.

     What can you do better or more of tomorrow morning than you did today? Money need not be a growth issue.

Expand your mind to expand your business.    

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

“Hot Diggity,

dog-diggity,

BOOM, what you

do to me . . .”

–PERRY COMO [Yeah, I know; he was before your time.]

     If you’re not celebrating your customers (clients/patients) regularly, it may be time to question priorities. In case you missed one of my past blog post references, it costs five (5) times as much money to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one!

     And in case you haven’t noticed, or it’s escaped your awareness, existing customers send you new customers. Prospects don’t send prospects.

     Many small businesses and professional practices get to grow up and be big businesses and professional practices by catering to the customers they have. The best source of business is existing and past business.

     Cold-calling is essential to any meaningful sales strategy, but it needs –ALWAYS– to take a back seat to nurturing your existing and past customer base because that’s your bread and butter, and because your customer base will drive many more prospects to your door than you’re going to be able to ferret out for yourself with cold-calls.

     HOW to kick some customer catering and appreciation into gear? Have a party. Host a customer-families-only midnight sale. Email out 72-hour discount special certificates. Send “Thank You” cards out at Thanksgiving and birthday cards on birthdays. Call together a focus group discussion (with appropriate rewards) to review your service pros and cons!

     Offer discounts or credits for referrals. Send in that charitable donation you make every year in the names of your customers. Feature your customers in your newsletter and/or in a series of news releases. Post the releases free on www.BizBrag.com and have BizBrag email them out for you to whatever list you provide — also free!

     Make “How goes it?” followup calls. Imagine actually getting a phone call from a restaurant, accounting firm, or construction contractor just to ask if your last visit was a good one, and what could you suggest to make the next visit even better? (How would YOU feel? Who would YOU tell?) And do this REGULARLY with existing clients.

     Parties and all that stuff too expensive right now? Make it a bagels and coffee breakfast stop-by reception for customers only. Combine forces and split up costs with neighboring businesses; you’ll even gain customers from one another in the process.

     No time? Hand the idea or the event off (with $25 cash or credit, or sports or concert  tickets, or dinner for two, or a limo trip?) to a relative or student intern or employee to organize and promote.

Whatever you do, do something. Try AAA:

Customers like being Appreciated, Acknowledged and Asked!  

# # #    

Call me at 302.933.0911 or comment below

or email Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

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

“I see your true colors

 shining through . . .”

                                                                                                                                                          — CYNDI LAUPER

      Is your workspace the drab morning dove gray of a typical stock brokerage or mortuary? (This two-pronged question is, of course, not to suggest any business commonalities.)

     Perhaps, on the other hand, your business screams the vibrant emotional red of casinos and fast food restaurants, or the deep green (“GO” and “MONEY” subconscious associations) of endless bank office and lobby carpets?

     Then there’s always the Caribbean blue that many travel agencies splash around as wall coverings or carpeting or (Awk!) both. How about that maroon and gray at your doctor’s office (presumably because someone thought doctors who are always gray and dealing in blood couldn’t be more appropriately coordinated)?

     Oh, and right . . . we won’t even bother to address the hidden meanings in black and brown law offices.

     Is there some kind of color scheme logic to your workspace or is everything just random?

     How about your product and service “packaging”? The baby stuff? Right, we got that with oinky pink for baby girls and powder blue for baby boys and yellow for unknown and neuter babies!

     You do know of course that even after all that’s happened in recent years, and in spite of political overthrow attempts: red, white, and blue are still the best selling colors in America?

     Did you think there was no method to the madness of TV scene backgrounds, website pop-up colors, ad and brochure uses of color? Has it occurred to you that wardrobe and make-up people on film and video broadcast sets choose certain colors and fabrics and shading and backdrops and patterns and designs for a reason?

     Do you choose what you wear and what you put on your skin everyday according to your schedule? “Dress down Fridays” have become “Dress Down Everydays” in many businesses. What colors do you “Dress Down” to? Why? Are you arware that pinstripes are supposed to communicate sincerity, that Navy blue is seen as authority, tan as neutral.

     You may dismiss all this as nonsense, but if you’re trying to make a major sale or sail through a job interview, wouldn’t it be foolish to not taske advantage of every possible tool at your disposal?

     Why would you want to dress or present your products and services in overpowering colors when you’re trying to schmooze powerful prospects? An over-the-top flashy power dresser is not likely to sell many premium luxury cars because prospect profiles are of well-to-do, powerful people who want to control their shopping excursions. [They’re looking for tan pinstripes.]

     Get employees and customers and suppliers to tell you what color they most associate with your business, and why. No rebuttals or defensiveness; just take it in, write it down, and summarize what you learn.

     Then do some online and/or library research on the one or two colors that you hear most. Are you on the right color path for the image you seek for your business? What can you improve? How? What minute can you start?

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day! 

WHAT SPORT IS

YOUR BUSINESS?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

When was the last time you dribbled across the infield and took a jump shot from 2nd base? Or slam-dunked a hockey puck over the goalpost? You went curling and used a nine-iron instead of a broom?

I once heard a corporate executive describe his company as roller derby because “all we ever do is race around in circles, bashing each other in the teeth, putting on a good show for our public, but nothing ever seems to get done or go anywhere.”    

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

     If you own or manage a business, you sell! If you’re in sales, you undoubtedly equate the sales field with the football field, and see youself running around right end, punting, passing, tackling, huddling, and occasionally at the 11th hour and the 50-yard line “Hail Marying” your way to a sale/no sale decision.

     Football legend Vice Lombardi spent years making motivational training films for salespeople because he saw how direct the sales and football analogy was. A full court press may force a basketball turnover, but cost game-losing vulnerability in many other sports. Are you playing the same sport as your customers? Your competitors? Your vendors?

     So, what sport is YOUR business? ASK AROUND. Other’s answers may surprise you.

     Your honest answer gives important clues about your business strengths and weaknesses, as well as about your business image, reputation, and uniqueness. And those clues establish business patterns which point to professional and financial growth and development opportunities.

     Many family businesses fail to row the same boat in the same direction, or are busy ducking one another while playing ping-pong with golf balls. (Ouch!) 

     Is the sport you choose to best represent your business a team sport? Do people act like teammates? Any team spirit? Cheerleaders? Playmaker? Coach? Go-to guy?

    OR is the sport you most identify with a superstar sport? One person makes all the decisions all the time about everything, from trash disposal methods to sales and marketing and financial management and customer service and answering every phone inquiry?

     In the boxing ring there is but one fighter doing battle with another. The rest are support people. Very high competitive risks for very high potential payback, with the possibility of being rich and brain dead. Well, you could always be a politician . . .

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops (“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”- Thomas Jefferson)  Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Happy Mother’s Day,

Mother of

Invention!

That’s YOU, Boss…

     If you work anywhere in that vast SEA OF (government or corporate giant) INCOMPETENCE, click off here and visit some other website. If you’re running or managing your own business –real parent or not– read on: YOU are the “Mother of Invention.”

     Now, Peter Drucker, who’s referred to as the “Father of Management” may not like that idea, but–I would challenge him–when did “Mother” ever lose to “Father”?

     Today, in other words, is also a day to celebrate being your business’s parent.

     First off, anyone who works for you sees you in a parental light. You are looked up to for guidance and leadership. You are a role model. You may not like providing inspiration or being thought of as something special, but you ARE.

     Face up to it and make the most of it. You’ll be helping your staff, your self and your business to grow.

     Don’t just provide leadership. Provide leadership by example; people want to learn by watching and trying and doing.

     Don’t just provide leadership. Provide leadership that’s transparent. Keep all your business dealings clearly defined and out in the open. Forget you have a Bcc setting on your emails. Stop closing doors. Share information freely.

     If you’ve hired good people to start with, you’re only toying with risk levels that are reasonable. If you’ve got a bad apple or two, your open-and-above-boardness will flush them out.

     In other words:

Give everyone a chance to give you a chance for your business to have a chance to succeed.

     Now, Mothers and Fathers, let’s look at that “Invention” word that you’re parenting. If you’re not CONSTANTLY creating and inventing and innovating . . . coming up with new ideas, ways, methods, designs, plans, steps, contacts, messages . . . EVERY DAY, then you are investing in the status quo.

     Keeping things the same, not rocking the boat, and “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” are the prevalent notions anchoring most stagnant corporate giants, every government agency, and all unsuccessful small businesses. 

     Business owner Job One is to stay out of that trap. Don’t let anything interfere with your daily birthing of inventive thinking. It’s how you started your business. It’s what’s carried your business. It’s what will will make the difference between your business surviving and your business thriving in the months and years ahead. 

     This doesn’t mean every lightbulb that goes on over your head needs to light up the world, or even that little dark corner of your workspace, but it does mean that you and your business cannot afford to pull the plug on that open socket; keep trying out new bulbs; follow up with some and discard others. [Edison made 10,000 tries before inventing the lightbulb!]

     Innovation, remember, is taking the rarest of those good ideas and seeing them all the way through, every specific step of the way, to their final destination markets — even if only on paper or the computer screen. Together with your business itself, it’s those parented ideas that become the inventions that you mother and nurture into adulthood. Happy Mother’s Day!     

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops (“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”- Thomas Jefferson)  Make today a GREAT day for someone!