Go back 20, 50, 100 years! Surprise! The names and locations change, but the stories are mostly the same. It will be like missing a week of C-SPAN or THE BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL. Nothing Earth-shatteringly new goes on.

Cold Calls Jolt Business

With FEARLESS! Reality

Love it or hate it, there is nothing like a bunch of cold sales calls to snap a ho-hum corporate or entrepreneurial business attitude into a realm of FEARLESS! reality. (Sorry, had to sneak in the link to my big project!)

It’s the place where the proverbial rubber meets the road, but typically gets dismissed as trivial, or “jittery” or time-wasting (“Other people are paid to do that!”). It’s oh so easy to wave it away with comments like: “I already did that stuff” or “I’m way past that” or “who needs it?”… or some other lame excuse.

But truth is that –something like a cold shower– it’s a great wake-up experience, a terrific way to recharge batteries, and it will definitely flash you back to what’s really important in business: HOW you communicate with a prospect to turn her or him into a grateful and loyal customer.

This does not happen with marketing automation.

It does not happen via email.

It does not happen on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook.

It doesn’t happen with clever advertising or cataclysmic branding lines.

Those may all be contributing factors that lead up to a purchase decision, but –in the end– it happens in the flesh, in person or on the phone, or through a referral from someone who’s been sold in person or on the phone. It often occurs when an online-generated order is easily and pleasantly placed — or bungled. A prospect becomes a customer when perceived value of your product or service rises to the surface.

If your marketing program is not delivering the sales you believe are possible, lead your support team to the sidewalk and make cold calls. Have them all make cold calls. Be reminded of the importance of listening 80% of the time, of addressing energy to the prospect’s concerns, issues, questions, observations, not yours. If your team needs some refresher points or sales training first, do it. Or bite the bullet and recruit some outside help. A fun/challenge attitude helps!

Then talk about the process, about what happened with each encounter, about the time and effort involved, and start to adjust your sales program and approach to reflect what you and your team learn from the experience . . . 2-3 days of pounding the pavement will be well spent, even as it may seem wasteful.

The best time to put this exercise to work is when things aren’t working the way you think they should. Can you and your team spare the time? The next question is the answer: Can you spare the lost or inadequate sales? Remember when you strip away all the decorations, the reason for being in business is to engage and nurture and please your customers. And even when this consciousness is present, there’s a tendency to overlook street smarts learning.

Cold sales call selling is like an electric jolt reminder. And if you stay open-minded and pay hard attention to what you and others learn from the process, your business will grow.

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

Entrepreneurial Leadership?

… Practice “The 5 Freedoms”

World renown family therapist and author Virginia Satir spoke with me once after a workshop she ran at the University of California. She told me that small business growth and strength, and family growth and strength could both be most readily achieved with the acceptance and conscientious practice of what she aptly called “The 5 Freedoms.”

I share these with you here, now, not as some plaque to hang on your wall, or slogan to bang into your head, but as a road to travel. You may want to slow your brain down and digest each, then ask yourself how your family, small business or professional practice might grow stronger, quicker, by following your commitment to pursue this avenue.

The 5 Freedoms

by Virginia Satir

To see and hear

what is here,

instead of what should be,

 was, or will be.

To say what one

feels and thinks,

instead of what one should.

To feel

what one feels,

instead of what one ought.

To ask

for what one wants,

instead of always waiting

for permission.

To take risks

in one’s own behalf,

instead of choosing to be

only “secure” and

not rocking the boat.

How and when and where can you use this road to help guide your business and family development interests? Please be sure to let me know if this message works for you, if it helps you think big, and to share it (together with your own thoughts if you choose) by clicking on your choice of social media buttons shown below.

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US     931.854.0474

What will you do with

your time this year?

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US          931.854.0474

        I just re-discovered a Christmas ornament my 14-year-old grand- daughter Gwyn made . . . five years ago. The brightly painted piece of heart-shaped plywood is the stage for her blobby-marker-printed starstruck words. But where did you get those words? I asked. “I just thought them up in my head,”  she said.

HER WORDS ARE THE BEST WISDOM I CAN SHARE FOR 2016:

Life is a question. No person on earth is your enemy but you. You can’t decide what you’re born with, but you can decide how you end up.

Being happy is beyond a feeling. It’s a way of life.

Questions are endless but the only one answer is YOU.

You can dream without imagination, but you can’t dream without a belief.

You are who you are, and no one can stop you.

— Gwyn, Age 9

As you head into 2016 building your life and your business, do Gwyn’s words have as much “start the new year” clout for you?

Please let me know YOUR thoughts . . .

# # #

God Bless You One And All . . .

and HAPPY NEW YEAR To You!

 # # #

Take a QUICK step back.

Take a DEEP breath. 

 Take stock of your SELF.

If your business is your life, you are obviously not in academia, not a corporate type, and not some government flunky. Only true entrepreneurs make their businesses their lives. And only true entrepreneurs need a crowbar to separate the two. This is good and bad. Good because you increase the odds that your business will succeed. Bad because–in the process–you increase the odds that you, the person, may not  succeed.

You need a “HOW GOES IT?” meeting

with your SELF — now, today, tonight, at

sunset, or tomorrow morning at sunrise!

You need to not make excuses for delaying it. At the rate government continues to ravage America’s 30 million small businesses, you cannot afford to go past this coming weekend. I know, I know, you have a family deal coming . . . you have to charge your iPad . . . your dog pushed you into stepping where you should have scooped . . . it’s your only chance to see  Lady Gaga . . . there’s a Shark Tank special . . . it’s year-end something or other . . .  it’s . . . STOP! Take some deep breaths.

This is not a half-baked suggestion to do some fancy inventory of your customers, branding program or finances, though it’s hard to do too much of that. This is an informal step-back-out-of-the-woods assessment point in time which successful entrepreneurs with healthy businesses make a habit of practicing every couple of months (at least quarterly).

• Start with a quiet place where you will not be interrupted for two hours by cell phones, radio or TV reception, machinery, other people or barking dogs. (Sunrises are great!) Walk on the beach, through the woods or in a quiet park . . . or just sit parked in your car, but –given today’s day and age– remember to not “look suspicious.” 😉 Bring a pen and notepad (NO keyboards or keypads!).

• Write down one single sentence that best describes where your business is right now. Follow that with another sentence that best describes where you are right now — physically, mentally, emotionally. Be honest. It’s just for your brain. No one else need ever see this piece of paper.

• Next , write one single sentence that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your business within the next six months. Follow that sentence with another one that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your SELF (physically, mentally, emotionally) within the next six months.

• Spend the next hour studying these four sentences and diagramming HOW (the process; the steps) you think you need to take to get from one to the other, and HOW you see them coming together or interdependent on one another. Then write down the three action steps you’re willing to take right now (AS you review your diagram) to get started moving from where you are to where you’re headed. Prioritize them.

_________________________

Two hours out of your life that will positively improve your life (and your business) and you just saved all that business consultant and psychotherapy money.

You can be your own best shrink! (Unless you choose to put off having a “HOW GOES IT?” session with yourself —  in which case, the couple a hundred bucks an hour fees will probably be a worthy investment.)

_________________________

P.S. When you get good at this process, start introducing it in your “big picture” work with employees and key customers. Everybody loves having the opportunity to participate in doing positive attitude-focused diagnostic workups and developing treatment plans aimed at improving work options and customer service performance.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

R  E  A  L   C  H  A  N  G  E

DOESN’T TAKE TIME.

IT JUST HAPPENS!

And the reason for such thought diversity between what small business represents and upholds, and the self-aggrandizing departure words of America’s Speaker of The House today has to do with the same reason small business has been under constant blindside attack by the government since 2008.

. . . our federal government is devotedly invested in management by consensus, where everyone involved must agree at least somewhat with every decision. This approach to problem-solving and getting things done has been religiously adhered to by all U.S. Government agencies. It has infiltrated the management behaviors of many if not most in funding-sponge academia, and in the upper ranks of many if not most failing lethargy-infested corporations.

Consensus-seeking management theory (like other “dead soldiers” e.g., Theory A and Theory Z and group hugs) might have solved problems and gotten things done decades ago in the “Hippy” years of the 1960s and 70s. But they simply do not work any longer in today’s world.

“Entrepreneurialism” and small business innovation –which thrive on maintaining a sense of urgency and taking REASONABLE risks– continue to be the true solution-directions that work. Yet they are consistently undermined by shortsighted government agencies that are relentlessly invested in maintaining the status quo.

Waiting for change instead of making change may have a place in history, but can no longer be tolerated as a modus operandi. There just is no time for such nonsense as waiting. ENTREPRENEURS ARE THE AGENTS OF CHANGE!

We live in a world of impatience.

Forward motion that plods

is backward motion.

When small business and entrepreneurs are punished with over-burdening taxes and unnecessary government rule and regulation intrusions designed to do nothing except further the cause of interventionist government in our lives, it proves itself more inadequate and less representative of the reasons it exists every day . . . in fact, every minute.

As the government continues to prove it’s own inadequacy, misguidance, and misdirection that have led to outright thievery of freedom, to outright undermining of our very economy (and knowing our economy is literally and unarguably dependent on small business growth and development), it is indeed time for change.

But REAL change–the kind that happens now, the kind that makes a difference, the kind that underscores the life/liberty/pursuit of happiness foundation of our country must be encouraged, not squashed, not stepped on, not bidden good riddance. It must be nurtured.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to get their heads out of the sand and stars long enough to realize their sand and stars are being eroded by slow, gradual, plodding change fostered by years of government intrusions and restrictions on small business growth and development.

It’s time to acknowledge that staying immersed in the sand and stars actually serves to allow, actually encourage and reward long-term politicking — politicking intentionally aimed at lining political pockets and underwriting meaningless wasteful programs that create greater business, family, and individual dependency. It does this by not paying attention to what’s swirling around the rest of you while your head is focused on business growth and development.

It’s easy to pick your pocket while you’re

bent over, star-gazing through a telescope.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners can no longer afford to feign ignorance or not take action . . . even if it’s simply speaking up and out more to others. Unless some changes happen quicker, our small business-dependent economy is destined for extinction. If you rent your workspace, there surely comes a time when you need to tell the landlord about a water leak or temperature control. Responsiveness is the entrepreneurial key to success. It’s time to step up to the plate and go to bat for CHANGE.

ADDENDUM EXCERPT FROM THIS BLOG (August, 2011 !):

It means taking just long enough to visit or write a couple of letters or emails to politicians about why you think small business matters. Take just enough time to support those who support your ideas about why small business matters. Why? Because small business does matter. And because it matters that we all step up!

Imagine the impact: 

THIRTY MILLION

(Estimated Total U.S. Small Business Owners)

visits and letters and emails calling attention to the economic recovery role of small business and why government must invest in small business –not with more wasted cash handouts– with tax incentives for innovation and tax incentives for job creation.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

And perhaps you thought “Whew! This is the end of the 30 Days.”

But guess what? It’s just the beginning of The New Economy . . .

Entrepreneurs,

it’s time to get moving!

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

The next 7 steps you need to take now. Now? Now!

Over the last 29 days, we’ve discussed the ways in which yesterday is over, and today’s markets are not the same as they’ll be tomorrow. You need to be ready to pivot.

If you haven’t yet, you must be ready to continually assess and adjust and re-position as conditions change. Success loves speed. That’s because the New Economy is knowledge-based, nimble, and driven by technology—with the Internet as its infrastructure.

Old rules don’t apply.

If you’re an entrepreneur in this environment, working alone is no way to navigate this wild frontier.

You need to plan for the unique challenges and issues you will face in all facets of your business – marketing & competitive analysis, sales, finances, vendors & sourcing, labor & management, training & employee development – not to mention how to balance your business drive with your personal life to achieve maximum performance.

If you are just beginning or partway down the path already, make sure you keep these 7 STEPS TO ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS on your mind and in your pocket:

• Define realistic objectives – Besides “realistic, make sure your goals are also specific, flexible, due-dated, and in writing (even if it’s simply on the back of an envelope) . . . keyboarding simply doesn’t cut it if you’re truly serious about pursuing your vision of the picture you mentally paint for your enterprise five or ten years from now.

Write down your realistic/flexible/specific/due-dated goals that will lead you to that vision. If you feel you’re not getting there, simply adjust something about your goals (due date, sales numbers, whatever). Being able to make goal adjustments is exactly why it’s important to keep them flexible. Just put your pen to the back of another envelope!

• Create hands-on strategic plans – have 90-day plans as well as a one-year plan. You can count on delays, screw-ups, people problems, government interventions, market changes, inopportune news events. Don’t trow away your plans. Just keep adjusting them. Let reality dictate.

• Employ winning entrepreneurship tactics – Figure out what’s working, what’s worked in your market. Master the art of permanent beta

• Work with all your critical stakeholders – customers, employees, vendors and investors . . . and especially customers! See problems as opportunities. Demonstrate your trustworthiness daily . . . people trust actions not words.

• Motivate employees to share your enthusiasm – share your vision and work in tandem with your people to help them create team goals.

• Take Care of Your SELF! – without your good health and well-being (including not taking yourself too seriously), even plans etched in stone will do you no good!

• Stay alert to new connections and new opportunities – but don’t “jump” at any of them for the sake of money alone, no matter your financial need. This is hard to understand when someone waves cash at you (and you’re living on peanut butter sandwiches) . . . until you’ve been swindled or until you discover that you’ve underestimated your budgeting. You may never fully understand the need hold back when you’re feeling broke. But it’s more likely than not to happen. If you’re not a world-class underwater combat swimmer, stay away from dreaming about Shark Tank! Reality, remember?

# # #

Watch for 30 More Days to the New Economy where

we look at today’s people and businesses that are crushing it.

In the meantime, come back next week to catch Hal’s newest small business, branding, marketing and entrepreneurship commentary

# # #

SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE . . . Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

EDUCATION and TRAINING

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

Over the last few weeks, we discussed the knowledge worker, the learning organization and human capital. All these concepts are built on this one essential tool which is the basic education and formalized training of yourself and your team.

“Real value” starts with solid foundational learning that begins almost at birth because there is so much to know, and we now finally know so much more about how we learn.

Real physical learning —beyond mother, father, sibling and caregiver learning— usually begins in preschool and is enhanced by formal elementary school or home school teaching of young children. By the time young teens enter high education, their paths are often clear.

In the U.S., as children grow into the teen years, the opportunities begin to splinter into specializations in the forms of publicly-funded magnet and alternative schools –and for those who can afford it, private schools– where education is usually more competitive and tracked toward certain university programs.

Some foundational learning can be had online but most still exists almost entirely in a physical setting or classroom building.

But, aha! Much university learning is moving more online which means that both the entrepreneur and his or her team may have specialized learning opportunities to be shared via a global online university.

Private, for-profit online universities often do not have the rigorous entry requirements of a physical university, but the coursework is comparable.

Ongoing adult learning is facilitated through the workplace, often supported by the workplace (or self-driven) using free, non-degree materials available through organizations online.

Nothing speaks more loudly about the way humans seek fulfillment and self-actualization than the proliferation of for-profit online universities, professionally sponsored educational forums and classes, and private businesses dedicated to providing educational products for personal and professional development.

Many private corporations (like the two examples cited below) have been paving the way in recent years with their own in-house proprietary universities:

• In Delaware — parented by BURRIS LOGISTICS the leader in refrigerated trucking services, BURRIS UNIVERSITY — uses community college facilities near its headquarters to teach courses on personal and professional development (including communication and motivation skills) to regular gatherings of managers from BURRIS offices nationwide.
• In New Jersey — 9-State commercial cleaning industry leader HEITS Building Services www.HEITS.com uses it’s own online HEITS UNIVERSITY curriculum to train and certify all employees in subjects like Eco-friendly customer care, bacterial health cleaning, regulation compliance cleaning and maintenance, and equipment and chemical safety . . . and to reinforce franchise owner coaching programs.

In a knowledge-based economy, workers are lifelong learners and achievers.

As an entrepreneur, you will be a lifelong learner absorbing massive amounts of information coming at you. Some of your education will be used just to give yourself and your organization the ability to sort and curate information coming at you in order to more effectively hone in on what’s relevant for driving your own business forward.

Take advantage of being an educated consumer of lifelong learning. That mindset allows you to intelligently filter and absorb the onslaught of information you need to be a true entrepreneurial leader, and to operate effectively in the New Economy.

# # #

C’mon back FRIDAY 10/16 for Day 29  —

ENTREPRENEURIAL HEALTH & WELLNESS. How’s yours?

# # #

SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE . . . Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

COMMUNICATIONS  NETWORK

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Your communications network needs to be at the very

heart of your business model in the New Economy.

A communications plan with your team and your customers is no longer just a “nice to have.” It is absolutely essential to your survival.

It doesn’t matter whether your products are virtual or physical, you need a full-time communications network in place to keep your business stabilized and viable.

Your communications network is based on your Internet provider but only starts there. Communications includes the platform for communicating, the software that you use, the web of relationships that you have, and your people as well as technical communication skills.

Beyond a reliable Internet connection, you need to be running software that is compatible with everyone else. Most of the web-based communications platforms run for everyone, just about everywhere. And they are easy to use. Your communications platforms need to be universal because building and maintaining productive relationships with customers and team members depends on platform functioning in addition to how you “come across” to others.

It’s best to start with a reliable email service. Then add a service that allows you to deliver large files such as Dropbox, or another file transfer protocol provider. Next, add a team-friendly platform where you can gather everyone for face-to-face virtual meetings (e.g., Skype, Go To Meeting, etc.). Finally, you’ll want to  layer any number of software programs that enhance your experience, and set to work honing your personal listening and presentation skills.

In concert with developing your email, messaging and meeting services, social platforms, and personal communication skill platforms, you’ll need to be thinking about how to be–or have someone close to you be–a centralized axis for keeping all those around you in the strategical planning and tactical action steps loop.

Even if you are technically savvy, expect to have a technical support person or three at your disposal. If you have someone whose job it is to manage the technical communications issues upon which your Internet business relies, it frees you to concentrate on the pieces that you can’t replicate which is all the value that your specialty brings to the marketplace.

I am always impressed and amazed at the stories of entrepreneurs who dedicated nights, weekends and months to mastering communications platforms to build their business. But at some point, sooner rather than later as revenue arrives, it is a good idea to liberate yourself from maintaining the networks upon which your business depends and put that into professional hands.

Your ability to communicate with your customers and your staff is the lifeblood of your business in the New Economy.

You cannot afford to jeopardize your customer communications flow and consistency simply to save a few dollars, or because you think that you can do it well enough. “Well enough” isn’t good enough as you become a bigger player, even a marginally bigger player (unless you’re just faking it)!

Put your money into development of an ongoing communications platform as one of your first investments. It is one investment that can make the difference between life and death for your business. Remember: HEARING IS NOT LISTENING!

# # #

C’mon back WEDNESDAY 10/14 for Day 28  —

What’s your plan for keeping sharp and tuned in? You’ll need more than a grinder and a radio.

# # #

SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE . . . Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!