Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

 “F”…FANTASYLAND

N O W  is

the only time.

The past is over.

It cannot be changed.

The future hasn’t come yet,

and may never arrive anyway.

~~~~~~~

Our “here-and-now” present moments are all we really have to work with, live in, enjoy, control, and make a difference with in our lives and in our businesses. They open the path to creativity . . . to creative personal, professional, and business development!

Using the past productively from our present-moment mindset can be rewarding and –in many cases– necessary. Recalling a pleasant experience, for example, can be physically relaxing, enjoyable, and neurologically soothing in our present moment, especially a present moment filled with extra stress.

Oh, and where would detectives and accountants, historians, scientists and lawyers be without being able to rely heavily on events and records of the past in their present life’s work?

BUT, when thinking about the past gets to a point of dwelling, those thoughts threaten our very well-being, and often impair the well-being of others around us. We can get ourselves (and our businesses) in trouble.

[Examples: the 50-year-old who constantly re-lives his high school championship game touchdown; the 60-year-old woman who recounts her childhood poverty or illnesses to everyone she meets; the family locked into day-to-day sadness over a child’s tragic death 15 years ago.]

Circumstances like those put us at risk; they block the road to mental, emotional, and physical health. We all go through bad times. Being able to be productive and rise above them is a measure of personal strength and courage.

It is always easier to escape to fantasyland,

but –realistically– not always wiser.

The trick is to stay “tuned-in” to where you are and what you’re doing at any given moment, as much as you possibly can, every minute and hour of the day. Your reading of the top of this post, for example, is already in the past!. And be aware that all of this applies equally to future stuff as well.

Just as dwelling unproductively on the past wastes time and energy, so too does worrying about the future. We all need to plan, but when plans turn to worry, we are also headed off to fantasyland. Creative professionals visit fantasyland intentionally for inspiration, but then return to reality to apply the fantasy experience.

Business owners can rarely afford that luxury –and risk– of getting lost in reveries, hopes, dreams, and wishes. Solution: Save up for a vacation and go somewhere that minimizes contact with reality. In other words, it’s a good thing to periodically get it out of your system. Then, when you get back: Get back, really!

Prolonged stays in fantasyland can earn prolonged stays in the loony bin, or the log-term wearing of a straight jacket, not to mention big-time bankruptcy of both your business and your brain. Happy reality!

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hal@businessworks.US

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

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

 “E”…ENERGY

When you check out this blog’s timeless small business input archives with search window keywords, you’ll find a wealth of useful information and creative ideas for boosting sales, the economy, entrepreneurship, employee motivation and productivity, stress and time management, communication skills,  marketing and branding results and customer service, but not a whole lot of attention on the critical business success ingredient of ENERGY, so here goes:

~~~~~~~

ENERGY is mental and emotional

as well as physical.

It is easily spent and

 sometimes hard to muster.

Many of the dynamics and characteristics of energy apply equally to non-human energy sources and resources, but — here, we’re talking about your life in small business. So if you came here expecting some kind of eco-freak dissertation on Mr. Gore’s award-winning global warming hoax, you can delete and surf on!

Small business and professional practices demand never-ending energy management and infusion. So most small business owners and managers and professional practice principals are forever searching for new sources. “Where do you get it?” I’m often asked.

Well, it makes sense to “be,” as Thoreau once urged, “forever on the alert.” Small business energy. It’s not like it comes from cultivating some underground mine, or panning a streambed for nuggets, or plugging yourself into an outlet (yet!), and none of us want to play around with keys and kites in lightning storms. So, where do you get it?

Small business energy is extracted daily from passion for making your small business idea succeed. You don’t suck it out with a turkey baster or hypodermic needle. You simply direct your mind to reach inside of you and pull it up to the surface, or the front burner as some would say. Or let it just sit there and create mold.

Of course it can be stimulated by “outside” people, events, and circumstances, but it is born and raised inside your self (separated into two words on purpose). The secret is to recognize it, accept it, and nurture it. Hey, that’s great, you may say, but what’s the how-to part? What are the steps to make it work?

Sorry to have to be the messenger, but the only magic formula I’ve ever seen in many years of entrepreneuring work and writing and startups and coaching always comes back to the same reality ingredients: 

• Exercise regularly  

• Eat nutritiously

• Sleep enough

• Moderation in both eating and drinking

• No smoking or drugs

• Listen hard and talk little (take notes)

• Love your family

• Respect everyone you come in contact with every day

• Pray

Small business energy, an life energy of course as well –in fact ANY kind of energy– doesn’t happen or get channeled just because we wish for it. It’s all about nurturing your resources, constantly adjusting your attitude, and recognizing that every day and every night is a new opportunity to do the best that you can do.

Start with the next 86,400 seconds!

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Welcome to the world’s first

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES of blog posts — 

“D”…DELEGATION

 Does it make a big difference if I tell you 

to do something . . . or ask you to do it?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Telling you what to do might work out fine in the military, or aboard a plane or boat, or operating heavy equipment . . . or if you’re a prisoner, a horse, or a Cocker Spaniel.

But, in business, unless you –the owner or manager– need to prompt cooperation with others to get a job done, the results you’ll trigger by giving directives cannot compare with the response you’ll get from making a request, which can be astonishing. And when was the last time you got great results from giving orders?

US President and General Dwight David Eisenhower taught his senior officers how to exercise leadership by pushing a tangle of string across a tabletop vs. taking one end and pulling it, which of course ended with the string in a straight line moving in a single direction, instead of a jumble going nowhere.

Yes, sincerity, genuineness, eye contact, backpats, your posture, tone of voice, and and smiles often make the difference. So does the reputation you carry for having integrity and authenticity — perhaps the two most important qualities an entrepreneur can have on the road to success.

And, interestingly, integrity and authenticity are ever too late to cultivate.

Well, okay, you know all that, but how far must you go with the “please” and “thank you” routine? Truth? You’ll never go far enough, and if it’s actually become “routine,” go back to your cave.

Here are a few treasured learnings I can share:

• Even when we think we know, little do we ever really know about what life circumstances will bring, and where we’ll end up with our businesses in the years ahead.

• I have seen discounted, dismissed, dissed and insulted employees turn up years later being the bosses of those who once humiliated and looked down on them.

• I have seen long-term top customers walk away from businesses in an instant after learning about relatives (a son, in one case) who worked for the provider business, unbeknownst to the boss, who were routinely berated, chastised, scolded, yelled at and wrongly blamed for screw-ups.

• I have personally watched businesses run by owners who were rude, constantly preoccupied, always angry, and routinely barking out orders . . . go down and under.

Do you –like the carpenter and heart surgeon– make a practice of measuring twice and cutting once? Do you think twice before speaking once?

Remember

you can delegate authority,

but you cannot delegate

responsibility.

Responsibility is yours alone.

When you ask peopleto get things done, asking nicely is not manipulation, it’s respect. Use words that inspire and that demonstrate your passion for your business: opportunity, challenge, reward, investment, courage, pride, workmanship, spirit, spunk, gumption (add your own) . . . the right words make your passion contagious.

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0911

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Welcome to the world’s first

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES of blog posts

“C”…

CUSTOMERS/CONSUMERS

CUSTOMERS and CONSUMERS. These are sometimes, but not always, one in the same.

You buy a can of beans; you cook and eat the beans; you are both the customer and the consumer. But, If I am 6-years-old and badger you to buy me Chocolate Tsunami Cookies because “They Make Waves When Dunked in Milk,” and you buy them and I eat them — then you are the customer and I am the consumer.

In that situation, we are very different people indeed, but the bottom line to the Chocolate Tsunami Cookie Company marketing people is that I, the consumer, have influenced your customer purchase.

The monster corporations out there have monster R&D departments bursting at the seams with monster (3, 6, 9, and 12-month long)  research projects, and are busily preparing monster evaluations, assessments, analyses, executive summaries, and follow-up surveys and studies to support the research findings.

Many of these undertakings are aimed at identifying (in the case of the Chocolate Tsunami brand) which 6-year-olds in which towns are watching which TV shows, and who are most likely to influence their parents (or the most lenient or susceptable parent) to purchase the cookie brand on the next shopping trip.

Oh, and do they have the parent’s email address?

Small business owners know better

than to waste such time and expense.

They make the cookies, sell the cookies, gather feedback from some kids and parents, adjust the manufacturing (or pricing, packaging, promotion) and sell them again. All the while the monsters have no product. They are still doing statistical analysis of adolescent sugar intake.

But too often small business owners direct their marketing messages to the buying customers when actual purchase decisions are being made by the ultimate consumers and/or other influencers. [Women, for example, purchase more wine, but men are almost always the ones who specify what type and brand to buy.]

Small business owners often overlook that different messages need to be directed to different market targets. Parents buying cookies that they are pleaded with to get by their children may require a bit more rationality attached to the emotional appeal that’s focused on persuading the children.

“Making Waves When Dunked in Milk” may be a cute line for something named Chocolate Tsunami Cookies. It could probably attract attention and create interest for any age.

While a child may, however, simply buy into the slogan– Mom or Dad need to know that the chocolate and flour used are organic, or that every purchase comes with free quart of milk or roll of paper towels . . . or that they will be the talk of the neighborhood because their kids are the only ones who can’t “make waves.” 

The bottom line is that by focusing marketing efforts on customers alone risks losing potential business that’s generated by ultimate consumers.

Using the same message in the same ways doesn’t do it. 

KEEP your branding theme and slogan, but address different interests with different language in different media whenever your customers and consumers are different in age or attitude or responsibility or capability.

A handicapped senior may have primary concerns about the safety and ease of use for a stair-lift, while the family making the arrangements may be more focused on price, insurance coverage, and service warranty. The best way to cover all your bases is to ask customers and consumers questions, and keep asking. And Listening!

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Hal@Businessworks.US     302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone

Welcome to the world’s first

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES of blog posts

“A”… AUTHENTICITY

Not to worry. The other “A” subjects have been adequately addressed already. You can put Attitude and Action and Advertising and Addiction into the Search window and find ample applicati0ns. I have dealt with “Authenticity,” but not with such appropriate substance! So, here you go:

AUTHENTICITY is not just acting authentically –genuinely, realistically– but actually BEING authentic. Not just occasionally or periodically, or just with certain people. Being authentic means all the time, with every encounter, every day, from opening your eyes on the pillow, to closing your eyes on your pillow.

BAH! That’s not possible, you might think. Who, after all, can be genuine every waking minute of every day? We’re humans, you might argue. We’re inherently manipulative, devious, off-putting. It’s not like turning a water faucet on and off.

 What’s your AQ?

(Authenticity Quotient . . . is there such a thing?

Who knows? But pretend there is.

Make it what you want to be and keep reading!)

Hey, points well taken. But there ARE opportunities for each of us to do better than what we do. Part of that is attached to visualizing the payoff, and recognizing that increasing our Authenticity Quotient from –for instance– 30% to, say, 50%, has most of all to do with recognizing and accepting that authentic behavior is a choice!

[And, like smiling when you don’t feel like it has been proven to actually make you feel better,behaving in more authentic ways can actually help you BE more authentic.]                                 

Whats the ROI? How about a more fulfilling life, a more productive and rewarding business, strengthened relationships, and a head-over-shoulders reputation for being upstanding? You need a bigger carrot on the stick, a bigger pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Does feeling better about yourself count?

Does  making a difference with your life count?

Ah, getting closer to your inner spirit and the heart of the matter?

Authenticity is seldom a birthright quality. It’s something we learn over years of observation, application of our gut instincts, and our interactions with others. So, start boosting your Authenticity Quotient by paying closer attention to saying what you mean and meaning what you say.

Ask those around you who you trust to tell you what animal or creature they associate most with you. And, VERY important to preserving your trust relationship, do not argue or rebuttal their responses. Take it in. Take it on the chin. Smile and thank each person you ask. Then start to process what you learn.

Do you get responses like Saint Bernard (perhaps because you’re always rescuing others?) or Shepard (because you’re always herding people together or team-building?), or how authentic do you think a snake or fox (or worm?) might suggest? Cats of every type and size are generally considered sneaky (and some, vicious).

Elephant could imply steadiness or dependability (or that you’re a Republican frontrunner). A donkey or mule could mean your stubbornness prevails. A new, eager-to-please puppy will be seen as more authentic than a snapping turtle, an alligator, a shark. You can imagine the rest.

Does this prove or disprove authenticity? Of course not, but it will give those who may be unsure about how them come accross to others, some clue about how they are perceived. And perceptions are facts! 

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

You’re thinkin’ maybe

2012 will be better?

If you’re thinking 2012 will be better, and you’ve decided to wait until the new year to kick into gear, you lose! That’s like saying you’re gonna quit smoking (drinking, doing drugs, eating so much) for the new year.

What’s happened to “now”? The “new year”? In case you haven’t noticed, it’s not 2012 yet! Or, perhaps you’re planning to be sick  for Christmas so you can avoid another dysfunctional family gathering?

Maybe you’re a big White House fan and figure –since 2009, 2010, and 2011 have’nt exactly been big economic rebound years– that 2012 will be Obama’s year of small business enlightenment? Don’t hold your breath. He’s proven he prefers union-vote paybacks and government splurging over championing the entrepreneurial spirit that built America.  

He prefers sharing the money you work hard for with those who choose their flat screen TVs and living room sofas over legitimate employment. Hey– free food, free medical care, free education, free cash– who can fault them? Ain’t Socialism wonderful?

So if you’ve worked hard all your life and earn a respectable living, pay your bills, give to charity, and are struggling to make ends meet with your business, don’t expect any sudden shifts in allegiance or respect or support from those in control. You’re just one of 30 million.

Here’s the bottom line:

Your Fairy Godmother

is not on the way.

Yes, the treuth hurts. Sorry about that.

Just in case you were keeping a low profile in your business with the hope and expectations that a more super-sized, more charged-up environment and marketplace is on the way, smack yourself along side the head, take a long hard look in the mirror and measure yourself up against these 5 steps

 . . . 5 things you need to do:

1.  Something instead of nothing. (In business and personal development, some action always beats no action!)

2.  Stop choosing excuses because you’re lazy. Waiting until the new year (or Christmas!) to jumpstart your sluggish enterprise is an excuse. Surprise yourself . . . start tonight or first thing tomorrow morning.

3.  Stop telling all those who work with you (employees, partners, family members, investors, referrers, suppliers, community members) about all the great promise “in store” for next year. Instead step it up now. Now.

4.  Put away the fantasyland thinking that you’ve used to convince yourself that you have time because nthere’s all the rest of October, and all of November and December to plan and get ready for some 2012 launches.

5.  Realize that even with –prayfully– a new administration in Washington to be elected on November 6, 2012, it won’t have any authority until January 2013. And it will likely take another 2-3 years to UN-do the mess Mr. O has put us all in. If your business is hurting now, it won’t survive another year or two, or three, of empty promises.

You really CAN walk the talk, you know. You’ve done it to get this far. It’s all a matter of choice. If you think it’s too hard, it will be. THAT is a choice as well. Choose to make it easy. Choose to make your business work NOW, and imagine how great it will be when we have national leadership that appreciates and respects small business!

~~~~~~~

Footnote: If you think this is a “lecture,” you are either too far gone to see the value of what’s represented, and probably shouldn’t be surfing blogs looking for inspiration that you won’t follow through with anyway, OR you have needed a good swift kick in the butt . . . I hope this served the purpose. Remember what your grandpa (and Thomas Jefferson) said about not putting off ’til tomorrow what you can do today?                               

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

If you’re not rattling cages,

reserve your business

headstone now!

                 ~ ~ ~                  

C’mon, Hal, the Halloween season gettin’ to you?

Waiting with tricks instead of treats?

Not me. I rattle cages.

But what about you? Are you depending on others to scare up some new business? Maybe you’ve seen too many stun-gunned tongues (say that five times fast!) and zombie axe murderers on late night TV? Too many ghoulish retail displays? Maybe you almost died?

If every chainsaw you see reminds you of a massacre, maybe you’re running on (or from?) fear? No? Well if you’re not shaking up your business every week, it may be that you’re running on ambivalence and, in turn, leading the county coroner to your business doorstep.

Investing in the status quo with your business is a no-action action that –depending on how secure your finances are– will either provoke a knife plunge into the heart of your enterprise or cause business death by potato peeler. If 2015 means continued business life, it must also mean continuing dramatic action at every level.

If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway.

Stop being afraid of stirring up the competition. The most successful retail businesses are those located in the same geographical areas as their competitors. Competition stimulates consume traffic. Your website’s not up to snuff? Bite the bullet; get some cash out from under the mattress, and pay a professional to polish up your act!

Can’t afford the advertising you want? Stop advertising. Go to (free) Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn instead. Start doing (free) public relations instead — newsworthy news releases, captioned newsworthy photos, special events (e.g., charity-based, combined with other businesses, educational programs).

Are your employees, suppliers, referrers, investors, community supporters challenged enough? Are you putting out strong motivational incentives to get the (free) word-of-mouth going? Are you running contests that provoke fun and prompt action? (Hint: No need for elaborate or expensive prizes if enough imagination is exercised).

Shake it up!

Have you given presentations at local colleges, high schools, community centers, and then promoted them and followed up with news releases and unusual photos? Have you compiled a media “hit list” of appropriate editors and writers and publishers who would have a natural interest in your business and business pursuits?

Do you have an “elevator speech”? Do you carry business cards and a notepad with you at all times? Do you ask questions 20% of the time and listen to answers (and jot them in your notebook) 80% of the time? Have you collected email addresses everyplace you go? Are you using them to send worthwhile info out?

“Business As Usual” means inactivity, nothing changing, no excitement, no hustle. It will take you straight to the business burial grounds up in the sky (or somewhere?) and you might want to stop off at your lawyer and accountants’ offices on the way to fill out bankruptcy papers. This economy has no mercy.

If you’ve got guts and gumption, nurture them. Stimulate them. Ignite them. Explode them. Make them work for you.

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Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Small Businesses Once Again Ignored . . .

Financial Expert Reports 

of “Economic Rebound”

Grossly Exaggerated

 I had occasion yesterday to hear parts of a Baltimore radio broadcast that featured an on-air personality we will call Mr. Advisor, a man who proclaims himself a seminar presenter, radio and TV host, book author, and one of America’s top-ranked financial advisors.

I like this station’s programming. Most of the hosts are challenging, provocative, and informative. I try to tune in whenever I can.

I liked the overall theme of Mr. Advisor’s message which suggested that worrying about money gets us nowhere. As you know if you’ve visited here before, I have taught for more than 40 years that worry about ANYthing accomplishes nothing. Neither does dwelling on the past.

The past and future are fantasyland,

and generally not good places for

nurturing entrepreneurial minds.

So, if I am as I say, a present-moment, here-and-now thinker, who’s taught this mindset as the key to life success in management training sessions, college classrooms, books I’ve written, and this blog — what’s my issue? Part of my issue is with Mr. Advisor’s use of this awareness to quell economy fears as a bridge to selling his services.

I have no quarrel, in other words, with any effort to get people to focus more energy on the here and now because that is what life is really all about. I take exception with Mr. Advisor because after laying this groundwork, he proceeded to rattle off bogus interpretations of government and corporate statistics to make his points.

New housing startups and manufacturing indicators, he says, signal a rebounding economy . . . major corporate proclamations of sales and revenue increases and expansion plans add up to additional support, he says. Actual statements made were either misleading or naive. Considering his credentials, naivety is doubtful.

He tells his audience to not worry so much because things are looking up and that we can’t let fear of the unknown get in our way of making prudent investments. So do advisors who misrepresent reality.

Certainly, we as human beings do ourselves great injustice by fear of any unknown, but reality here has nothing to do with Mr. Advisor’s careful layering of reason to support his sales pitch.

The bottom line is that:

A)  The economy positively cannot rebound –no matter what government and mega-corporations do– until new small businesses begin to create new jobs.

B)  This is simply not going to happen with Mr. Obama in the White House because Mr. Obama has proven he is NOT a Democrat. He has proven, in fact, to be a Socialist who doesn’t believe in or accept the world of small business and free enterprise competition that built America (and the Democratic Party, I might add) to begin with. 

C)  It really makes no difference what big business and government try to accomplish if it’s without the support of small business.

(And, it’s here that Mr. Advisor goes astray. He seems –not unlike Messrs Obama and Biden– to forget and discount that there are 30 MILLION small business owners in the United States! But perhaps these are not prospective investors for Mr. Advisor?)

My point here is that Mr. Advisor is correct about the need for Americans to stay focused on the here and now, and not worry about what hasn’t come yet and may never come, and the unhealthiness of dwelling on the past that’s over and cannot be changed anyway.

These are mentally and emotionally sound ways to be thinking, but they are not portals to prudent investing. Neither are they any cause for a rebounding economy.

The economy is NOT turning around. Ask any of the 30 million small business owners out there. The economy is NOT rebounding because small business owners have no reason to trust a government that seeks to undermine, over-regulate and over-tax at every turn.

The issue, Mr. Advisor, is TRUST, and the fact is that this White House has failed to inspire any confidence or reason to believe. And as you surely know, Mr. Advisor, credibility is what drives market growth.

Why should small businesses create new jobs and then get slammed with major new taxes and regulations that end up costing them even more than a no-new-jobs economy is costing? Because Obama says that that won’t happen? HA! November 6, 2012. Be there.    

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, 

and Clients and Patients

and Customers Too!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! As different as each creature may be from one another, all are considered equally dangerous, equally entrancing to watch, equally exciting to find in one’s camera lens, equally cuddly, equally threatening, equally enthralling. In other words, sometimes they can all fit the same category.

As marketing targets, it’s often all for one and one for all. Professional practices (doctors, lawyers, accountants, management consultants and trainers) are small businesses with special skills and special interests. They have clients and patients. But clients and patients are customers too. They just have special needs.

All this specialization stuff, however, makes little if any difference in marketing plans, targets, approaches, strategies, or branding programs. Perceived differences matter only to professional practice principals. No one else cares. The bottom line is that we each spend our money to get a product or service.

And each of us wants to know:

“What’s in it for me?”

Whether a product or service is life-saving or life-threatening has nothing to do with whether a client or patient is considered a client or patient — or customer. All that matters is product or service performance, and the integrity and authenticity of the person(s) representing or standing behind the product or services purchased.

The issue, say some, revolves around the concept and delivery of “high trust” vs. “low-trust.” Marketing people will be quick to recite the five criteria of effective programs, campaigns, and messages. Regardless of what name is used to define a target market (customers, clients, or patients), marketing must:

1)  Attract Attention

2)  Create Interest

3)  Stimulate Desire

4)  Bring About Action

5)  Provide Satisfaction

. . . and it really must do ALL of these to be effective.

On top of that, the rule of thumb applies to ALL FORMS of marketing — print, broadcast and outdoor advertising; sales; public (industrial, professional and community) relations; promotion; merchandising; pricing; packaging; labeling; website content; social media content ; business and appointment cards; stationery and invoices.

It applies as well to direct mail, bumper stickers and building signage, plus a hundred other uses. It applies to branding themes, logos, and jingles as well as trade and professional show banners and exhibits.

When you want to know how your business or practice is coming across to others, ask. Measure people’s responses and each marketing implementation against the five criteria.

If you’re looking for prime examples of marketing that fails because it fails to deliver all five criteria, you need go no farther than your local hospital. Hospitals breed marketing mediocrity because they refuse to spend money on outsourced creative services and convince themselves they can handle it all in-house!

Most professional practices seem to think in similar terms. The problem is that their products and services are justifiably more expensive than the local coffee shop and must carry messages that appeal to a higher level of audience needs, but that doesn’t eliminate the need to trigger emotional buying motives.

Sophisticated products and services are not sold with dumb slogans or rational, logical appeals that push features instead of benefits. Humans are humans are humans. Market from the heart. Market benefits! Pay attention to corporate advertising for Mercedes Benz.

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Hal@Businessworks.US     931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Success seldom surfaces

when creative service

providers are squashed

. . . or does it? 

Show me a writer or designer who thrives on being torturously pushed and prodded to stressful deadlines, and I’ll show you someone who is likely to be a do-nothing PR agent or brain-dead news media person, but don’t expect to find great advertisers, marketers or creative service people thrive in angst-ridden  pandemonium.

With rare exception, creative development work that’s “rushed” breeds mediocrity (and costs more, which makes the engager a double loser!). Truly remarkable talent, it is said by many, is born of free spirit, and ample time.

Do I know exceptions? Plenty. But exceptional creativity is the product of unconstrained imagination and self-discipline. The exceptions I know –ah, including myself (!)– coulda/shoulda/woulda produced more outstanding creations if they’d (we’d) not been pushed, prodded, intimidated, threatened, and time-pressured.

My best writing has surfaced during both

great duress and great relaxation. So

maybe the rule is an exception?

My national boo0k award effort was done at my leisure. Its underperforming predecessor took two years under pressing deadlines. My worst book was written under crushing due dates. My best book –now almost ready to market– was ten years on the drawing board. My best award-winning jingle was done in one all-nighter.

My worst ad campaign took six months to research and justify and another six months to finalize and launch. My national award-winning, record-sales marketing program took three months start to finish. I have a future award-winning children’s book series ready to launch after 40 years in hiding.

And only heaven knows how many hundreds of new business startups have benefited by my rushing attacks on their website content, news releases, packaging, media positioning, and strategic planning. Yet the most successful, sales-productive efforts I have made have come only with major investments of time.

The trouble is that upstart business owners want what they want when they want it and time is not a worthy commodity to offer when they’re sitting on a hot idea and investor dollars.

Neither patience nor perfectionism has ever been a trait of entrepreneurs.

Neither has analysis, which is typically the province of corporate muckity-mucks. 

Okay, so knocking this subject all over doesn’t settle the issue of business time pressures and the creative product. That, however, is the issue. Pushing and prodding and time-pressuring creative people may not always produce the best or most productive work, but it gets the job done.

Depending on circumstances and the marketplace and the economy (and who can depend on the economy?), a judgement must be made about whether you want to win awards or customers. Without a lot of room for awards on the walls of a crushing economy, the bottom line should be to insist on results, not pretty words and pictures.

Design awards only produce sales for designers. Copywriting awards only produce sales for copywriters. You can stop paying for your creative service providers to get more sales by putting some heat on their abilities to perform for you, the client.

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Hal@Businessworks.US     302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

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