How badly is the

customer bleeding?

                                                                      

triage [Fr. trier, sort out]. The classification of wounded or injured persons in order to insure the efficient use of medical and nursing manpower, equipment, and facilities.

Classification is concerned with the casualties who would live without therapy of any kind, those who would die no matter what treatment is provided, and those who would survive if given adequate care. (Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary)

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

Well, all the doctor stuff in last night’s post got me started. (And many thanks, by the way, for the email responses from doctors, all expressing total agreement!) I started thinking about how often we in business cross the line to borrow ideas and approaches from medicine.

Every day of the week, we take a prospect/customer/employee/job applicant/vendor/supplier history or profile, do a diagnostic work-up, set a treatment plan in motion and issue a prognosis. Sound like the skeleton of a “Business Plan”?

When was the last time you took some Triage Action in your business? In your personal life? (Why should that question startle you? If you own and/or run a business, that IS your life…and to you, business is personal.)

Don’t leading retailers, like Wal-Mart and Lowe’s, initiate a triage-type action right at the front door with their meet-and-greet staffs?

And how about office receptionists?

Okay, so those are customer-service-oriented triage activities, and admittedly have little bearing on the medical emergency variety cited in the lead-off definition above.

Then answer this: when were you last presented with the need to make a quick choice of options that required a rapid sorting-out process to determine most immediate to deal with, second most immediate, etc.?

My best guess answer for many business owners would be that the odds are it was this week, perhaps today. But you probably just did it without thinking much about it, and it’s not likely you considered it in “Triage” terms.

If such an incident was time-consuming and/or stressful for you, you might want to consider the alternative that the following observations represent. 

Was there a defined plan in place for that or did you just wing it? Most small businesses of the hundreds I’ve worked with, wing it.

If you are confronted with these dynamics with any regularity in your business, you may want to entertain the idea of developing a Triage Plan or at least have a designated Triage Person, trained in your decision-making mode, to do your trouble-shooter function.

This should be someone who is a generalist by nature, and who is familiar enough with your organization — capabilities, people, logistics, locations, operations, policies and procedures — to effectively channel problems and challenges into opportunity directions.

It needs to be someone who is a good listener and who has the sense to recognize those situations where the issue involved would, like the medical definition, “die no matter what treatment is provided.”

Many high-tech businesses have the equivalent of triage teams that they dispatch to problem-plagued customer locations. Some attempt (awkwardly, at best) to accommodate these kinds of situations by phone from some broken-English “experts” squirreled away in some mysterious remote mountain range that makes you wonder how they could even have telephone service.

Who in your organization is ready and best-suited to take on a triage approach that will save you time and aggrevation? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~               

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY Nov. 6th, 2012.

Vote to move small business forward…

Support those who endorse free market

competition healthcare and job creation

tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

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!

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!

“Oh, it’s Saturday night

  and I ain’t got nobody. 

I got some money cause

I just got paid…” 

You know that song? Are you singing it right now? Then you know what? Too bad you “ain’t got nobody,” but you’re a lucky boss because it’s not everyone these days who can say they’re getting paid.

If you’re not getting what’s owed you and you own or manage a business, there are other options besides law suits, bankruptcy, or hiring a couple of thugs from you-know-which-State.

This screwed-up economy being what it is, if you haven’t stepped back to re-visit your Accounts Receiveable policies and practices recently, maybe this coming week is a good time to jam an up-dated A/R assessment into your schedule.

You might start with an up-to-the-minute cash flow analysis so you have a sense of the shifting sands.

Next, take a good hard look at what your customer payment and credit arrangements are. Have you adjusted terms to both encourage sales and account for customer needs to avoid major lump-sum payments? Have you done this is a way that also allows you some breathing room? Take some deep breaths

HOW you explore this issue is influenced by the type of business you’re in.

Retail and wholesale operations do not have the same dynamics as manufacturing or B to B. (i.e., what works for a car dealership won’t work for a mattress manufacturer or an IT consultant.) 

Every business, though, has key customers.

And special allowances must be made for theses entities whether you’re drilling their teeth, constructing their townhomes, providing their office supplies or maintaining their insurance coverage.

Will your key customers fold or migrate to lower-priced competitors if you don’t extend them better terms? This need not mean lowering your prices, but it might mean extending payment time terms, or offering special incentives for timely payments. Can you go to a “baker’s dozen” with product sell offers, or with service hours? Take a lesson from construction guys.

Can you put more of a burden for collections on third party negotiators — your bank, finance company, credit and collection firms?  It may be less expensive to bite the bullet and pay for outsourcing help than to drag your staff people, who are inexperienced with the finesse needed to succeed at this task, away from the work they do best.

Careful if you opt in this direction . . . 

Insist that contracted people who actually connect by phone or letter or email treat your customers respectfully and courteously. Be sure you are in control of all interface scripts and personnel. Plant a “secret-shopper” or two on the list to gain a firsthand accounting of how your hired guns perform, and make sure they are honoring your sensitivities. They are contacting YOUR customers, not theirs. 

In their zealousness to earn their percentages, many collection organizations “rough-house” targeted debtors or unleash a barrage of annoying calls from (too often) non-English-speaking callers to the point of prompting backlash, instead of gaining cooperation. 

Okay, okay, I know. It IS Saturday night, after all. So go enjoy. But make a mental note for Monday to check out if the policies and practices you’ve been following are working for you or against you. The same can be said, by the way, for evaluating candidates, so:

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY November 6th, 2012.

Vote to move small business forward… Support 

those who endorse free market competition and 

 job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

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!

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST!

•  Gutless, Incompetent, Greedy: The US Postal Service  

•  Having grown up a mailman’s son

•  Not just tech triumphs, the PO is a self-fulfilling sinking

•  Stuff Always Gets Worse Before it Gets Worse

And NEWSMAX reported this week . . . 

          “The U.S. Postal Service is close to maxing out its $15 billion line of credit with the Treasury and could run out of operating cash by the end of the year. But its contract with the postal unions is preventing the USPS from implementing the cost reductions it needs to get its finances under control.

          “Labor accounts for 80 percent of the USPS’s costs— the Service has the second largest civilian workforce in the nation, behind only Wal-Mart — and 85 percent of workers are protected by the collective bargaining agreement. “The unions have become a giant anchor on an already sinking ship,” Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute, wrote in an article appearing on The Daily Caller.

          “Last year the average postal worker received about $79,000 in total compensation, compared to $61,000 for the average private sector employee. But the union contracts “inhibit the flexibility required to efficiently manage the USPS workforce,” according to DeHaven. He cited the “no-layoff” provisions that protect most workers, which forces the USPS to lay off lower-cost part-time and temporary workers before it can fire a full-time employee.

          “Union contracts also make it difficult for the USPS to hire part-time workers, which could result in savings and give managers flexibility in dealing with fluctuations in workload. Only 13 percent of USPS employees are part-time, compared to 53 percent for UPS and 40 percent for FedEx.

          “Despite the USPS’s difficulties, the American Postal Workers Union — which represents more than 200,000 workers — is in contract negotiations with the Service and union chief William Burrus insists a pay increase for his members is an “entitlement.” He said the union wants “more money, better benefits.” DeHaven concludes: “The postal unions are likely betting that in a worst case financial scenario for the USPS, policymakers will tap taxpayers for a bailout. Unfortunately, if recent history is a guide, they’re probably correct.”

You gotta be kidding!

If you own or operate a small business, if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re an entrepreneurship student, if you’re anyone in business with half a brain, your bowels should be in an uproar about the five paragraphs above.

It’s not only over-the-top insulting to all American businesspeople that –in an economy where business survival is more talked about than business profits, where unemployment, bankruptcies and foreclosures continue to plummet– that ANYone could think like this.

Why haven’t the postal unions stepped up to the plate and taken a responsible attitude and a leadership role in fixing the problem instead of trying to launch it into a death spiral, which will inevitably defeat their own existences as well as others?

And because of  self-serving greed, we stand on the doorstep of incompetence feeding the incompetent with still more government bailouts using tax dollars to save yet another catastrophic failed government business effort.                                                                      

Please remember    

to vote Tuesday, November 6, 2012 

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!

Walking Through Illusion

A book by Betsy Otter Thompson

An unpaid-for (can you believe it?) book review

As you know if you’ve stopped by here any time over the last few years, I don’t do paid endorsements or reviews of products. services, productions, publications, or ideas.

On very rare occasions, I offer unsolicited recommendations for a product, service, person or organization if I think there’s a real value opportunity connection for small business owners, entrepreneurial leaders or sales professionals.

Even less often than rarely I entertain a review request, though never by a total stranger. But I’ve also always taught that there are no rules in business. So here, dear blog visitor (ta-ta-ta-ta-tah-tah), is a rule breaker for your consideration:  

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

In Walking Through Illusion, her sixth book, author Betsy Otter Thompson www.BetsyThompson.com has written a unique self-help paperback (241 pages; published 2010 by O Books, Winchester, UK, and Washington, USA; $19,95US; ISBN 978-84694-292-1).

I heartily recommend this disarming series of short stories for those seeking an insightful and provocative guide and chapter-by-chapter worksheet approach to introspection, to spiritual self-development and examination.

It’s something to carry in your briefcase

or tote bag and give your business

waiting time –and your life– new meaning.

The author takes readers along a bold new path of thinking, using the fascinating premise of a series of Q&A sessions with Jesus! Yes, yes, I know — as a business owner, entrepreneur or sales professional, you turn your head at the suggestion, right?

Maybe you say something like:“I’m not interested in making time to read a religious treatise when I’m busy trying to help my business survive this economy.”  Or “I’m not even Christian!” or “I go to great lengths to keep religion OUT of my business.” Hmmm? Sound familiar? Or am I just imagining?

Well, I can only offer the suggestion that it is possible that you could be wrong.

This book is–first of all — not a religious tome as much as it is a spiritual hand-holder into the spiritual self of you, the reader, and an opportunity to see a positive new perspective of what your real self is all about.

Now if you’ve seen even a few of my blog posts, you know that I am constantly crusading about the business success importance of perpetually working to know more and understand more about what makes you tick as a prerequisite to dealing more effectively with others — in sales, customer service, operations, and in all forms of leadership.

This book can help you discover,

and take action . . . and think.

Walking Through Illusion can be the vehicle you’ve been seeking to help you explore, better understand, and motivate yourself to adjust and achieve your goals . . . to make a positive difference on this planet.

What have you got to lose? Twenty bucks? Ha! You probably spent that on something dumb this week, right?

Hey, Happy Walking!

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!

Q. What if it walks like a duck

 and quacks like a duck, but 

 looks like a tyrannosaurus rex?

A. You’ve got trouble. . . 

right here in River City!

And if we’re talking about A~N~Y aspect of your business, you can be sure that your customers will have even bigger problems than you, which is not a good thing.

Take it from experience, the last thing you want is for your customers to be confused, because confusion doesn’t just cost you patronage; it costs you your reputation. All the good things you’ve done, and are doing, get flushed away with one jerk of the handle.

Anything that costs your reputation, costs you sales to existing customers, and costs you prospective customers too. Like winning sports teams, businesses that offer consistency succeed. Attitude consistency is paramount.

From McDonald’s to Charles Schwab, from Hershey’s to Microsoft, from Federal Express to Wal-Mart, consistency of products and services (and of innovation, operations, marketing and sales) is what puts businesses like these over the top.

Consistency doesn’t mean having inventories that collect dust or never trying new methods or line extensions, or always doing the exact same things in the exact same ways. Those are investments in maintaining the status quo — a boring and unhealthy practice.

Consistency means carrying integrity and leadership and customer service to the extreme every day of your life that your business exists. It means maintaining and nurturing one strong, simple, single image throughout all the ways you represent yourself to the rest of the world.

It doesn’t matter if some people don’t like your image or your message. What does matter is that your image and message is consistent and delivered consistently across the boards…in your advertising, marketing, promotional and PR efforts, online and off…all of the time, without exception.

You know that repetition sells.

Repetition sells.

Repetition sells.

Repeating what you do and the ways that you do it, over and over, is the best way to build and strengthen a loyal following. Ask any stage performer, producer, or director.

In that sense, you are no different. You are on your business stage every day (and often at night), and your performance (what you have to offer and the ways you offer it) is being judged by others all of the time, even when you’re not aware of having an audience. 

Look at it this way — you want to get in better physical shape, but can’t make that happen by eating ice cream, candy and fried foods,  drinking heavily and smoking cigars only on weekends and justifying it by taking a long walk on Sunday afternoon.

Like building a healthy life, building a healthy business is a full time commitment to consistency.

If your business walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, don’t make it something it’s not. Consistency sells.

# # #

 Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US        or comment below

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!

A Little Applause Please 

for GOIN’ POSTAL

Moving off the beaten path for this post, I’m going (goin’) to comment on a GOOGLE Alert response phone call I received today from GOIN’ POSTAL General Manager James Hall, who oversees 300 franchise operations across the U.S.

First, GM Hall was contacting me to let me know the circumstances involved with my blog post critique last night of one of their signs. http://bit.ly/bZrolF.

I reported that an old franchise sign which emphasized “Your Friendly Neighborhood Shipping Center” as a branding theme line, had been replaced with a new one which emphasized “Our Friendly Neighborhood Shipping Center.”

The single letter difference between “Your” and “Our” is a big one! 

The old sign/new sign references I made suggested that GOIN’ POSTAL had apparently elected to take the spotlight off their customers and put it on themselves.  

While Mr. Hall acknowledged that my observations were undoubtedly correct –and noted that the thrust of my comments about what I had observed were indeed ones he “totally agreed with”–  he convinced me that the company had, in fact, not in any way abandoned its customer-centric business focus.

It turns out that the sign I saw was, Mr. Hall said, “…our typo error. All of our locations use Your.”

Last night’s blog post also pointed out that the old sign included three major corporate logos which were not on the new sign. I raised the question if GOIN’ POSTAL felt it saw no value in being partnered up with the big boys? Mr. Hall owned up quickly that the logos should not have been on the original sign to begin with because they were not legally permitted to be used.

Presumably, this is the issue that prompted a new sign to begin with.

At any rate, General Manager Hall was both the perfect gentleman and the perfect example of leadership diplomacy policy. http://bit.ly/aaNS9u.

He took the time and trouble to respond quickly and professionally. His attitude was conscientious and considerate. He expressed appreciation for bringing the issue to public attention. He owned up to the error. He explained how and why it occurred. He offered assurance that the sign would be promptly corrected. http://bit.ly/ds34iq

What more could anyone ask? A little applause, please, for GOIN’ POSTAL for being a good example of how to deal with a “bad press” issue. James Hall, you’re a credit to your company! 

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!

A stupid sign is a sign 

of a stupid business.

With thinner wallets being a sign of the times, and a business with no sign being a sign of no business, there is something to be said for what other kinds of signs seem to signify. Dirty and dingy may work for a hog farm, but not a restaurant. Slick and expensive might lead you into a bank lobby, but not a nonprofit charity center.

I recently saw a sign for an orthodontist that had broken uprights for over a year. It was big-time crooked. It was big-time duct-taped.

Hmmm, not so sure about my kids going there for braces on their teeth.

Not to be outdone, a few miles up the road, another broken sign, but this one was sistered up with scrap wood which was nailed to the broken section

…for a spine surgeon.  No thanks.

Even with all things being equal in terms of sign construction, illumination, materials and craftsmanship, it’s still just the frame for the message. So what’s the message? Right! Now you’re on target. Like a website or an ad, it’s the WORDS that sell.

Your Sign Checklist. Does it:

• Attract Attention?

• Create Interest?

• Stimulate Desire?

•  Bring About Action?

• Deliver Satisfaction?

However it may do these things, it must do all of these things to be a great sign. 

For some, the message is clever. I saw this great sleuth-outfitted cartoon character on a truck today. The Sherlock-Holmes-plaid-hat-and-coat-looking guy held stuff like a magnifying glass, handsaw, marker, blueprint, and might have had a tape measure in his teeth…Take a guess???????

A genius business name:

COUNTER INTELLIGENCE

Custom Kitchen Counter Installations.

For others, stupidity rules. A smart red, white, and blue sign GOIN’ POSTAL – Your Neighborhood Shipping Center (sporting small logos for Fed Ex, UPS, and USPS to the right of the name) was leaning against the building, having just been replaced by the same red, white, and blue color sign, but THIS one in bigger letters said GOIN’ POSTAL – Our Neighborhood Shipping Center (with no logos).

They took over the neighborhood? It used to be Your Neighborhood, you the customer. Now it’s Our Neighborhood, we the franchise. From customer-centric to self-centric (Oh sure, that’s a different way to sell these days).

To top it off, must be that the big-name logos had no value to justify keeping attached to them!

If you’re going to upgrade or repaint or revise or re-word your sign, don’t wing it! It is more important than you might think. Your sign is your business 24/7. It must communicate the exact right message in the exact right way. There’s no room for error.

This is not a task to leave up to the sign company; they are all about frames and appearances; they know nothing of words. When you want a true medical evaluation of your eyes, you go to an ophthalmologist (a medical doctor), not an optician who is all about frames and appearances.

Get yourself a professional marketing writer to come up with the exact right words. You’ll have to live with them for a long time. Get them right, right from the get go.

The best signs you ever saw never came from any sign business. Guaranteed. They came from professional marketing know-how and experience. How can you be sure? Because they work! 

Does yours?   

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!

Inspiration can run deep,

but it’s what you make 

of it that counts!

Another Milestone. Another Published Book. This one a 300-page commissioned memoir that took me ten months to write and four months to edit and prepare for printing.

The first copy arrived today, and I am pleased. It is not for sale. It was done for a man with a heroic and inspiring life leadership story who wanted it for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He hired me (from a phonebook listing, no less!) to write his life story for him because he was 89-years-old and in punishingly failing health and because he worried his history on Earth would never get recorded while he was still alive.

The title of his authorized memoir is “GOOD LUCK!” Wisdom from a Life of Leadership in Turbulent Times. He died four days after giving the final text a rave revue.

I mention this here for a number of reasons, besides that I am proud to have known him and to have done him justice.

His final words to me were the highest compliment a writer could have:                                                       

“I always thought I had an interesting life, but I never knew it for sure until I read what you wrote about me; thank you for making my life so special for the children who could never know me otherwise.”

GOOD LUCK! is the story of a 15-year-old child who arrived alone in New York Harbor, speaking no English, aboard a ship from Germany, on the good fortune forefront of time, out from under Hitler.

A door-to-door salesman, egg farmer, opera lover, decorated U.S. Army Sergeant, U.S. citizen, multi-millionaire small business success, and trusted advisor to six governors (half GOP and half DEM) . . . yet a low media profile, even with walls-full of awards.                                                                       

He was a prominent yet quiet leader in government, military, business, academia, civil rights, and in service to his family, church, community, state, and his country.

He didn’t have to be any of these things.

He chose them.

I also bring this story to light because the successes this man achieved evolved from his commitments to himself, to live a life of rigid discipline interwoven at every corner with humor, a passion for excellence, and profound caring for and service to others. Enigmatic maybe but it worked.

Consider for a minute what might be written of YOU and the differences you will have made during your short stay on Earth.

Will your accomplishments be limited to small, confining wins because you’ve always been easily satisfied and quick to say, “Oh, I couldn’t do that!”? Or will they warrant a memoir for future generations to appreciate your life of rising to the occasion, and making your time really count for something important?                                                            

Is what you are doing right now

leading you to where YOU want to go?

Are you trusting and believing in yourself enough to stand strong in troubled waters? Have you ever thought about your legacy before? Are you moving in the direction you truly want to be moving? Can you make some positive mid-stream adjustments? How can you start doing that today? Tomorrow morning? It is, after all, your choice!   

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!