“GIVE ‘EM

 THE SCREW!”

CUSTOMER: “Could I please get an extra screw or two for mounting the brackets that go with the sets of decorator shelves I just bought? One was missing last time and I wasted hours looking for an exact match.”

HARDWARE CLERK: “Sure, Honey, but they come in little six-packs, and it’ll cost you an extra buck and a half.”

OWNER/MANAGER (who overheard the exchange): “Give ’em the screw, Hazel!” (Then whispering to her: “The whole packet only costs us 75-cents and this man just spent $300 here!”).

The happy customer leaves with his free six-pack of screws.

OWNER/MANAGER: “Listen Sweetheart, I appreciate you wanting to charge for all our products, but sometimes it’s best to just give people the little extras they ask for, as a courtesy…like the sample cheese and lunch meat slices at the deli. In this case, y’just give ’em the screw and he’ll remember us longer; he’ll send his friends; and he’ll come back again. And, then, maybe you get a raise.”

     Customer Service 2010 means standing on your head and tap dancing on the ceiling if it makes the customer happy! Does YOUR business sport hand prints on the floor and tread marks on the ceiling? Why not?

     What possesses business owners and managers to add “Handling” fees to shipping costs? Isn’t handling part of the job people are paid for… to get merchandise from inventory, and then wrap and ship it?

     And, by the way, why is this service added to the purchase cost and charged separately? And why’s it always a whacked out amount? A $19.95 item I bought recently had $6.95 added for “S&H” so the under-$20 product ended up a dime short of $27! I sent it back.

     I thought car dealers were struggling. So why do only luxury car dealers pick up and drop off cars to be serviced, and go the extra mile to wash the car before returning it after servicing?

     What right do restaurants have to decide what tipping percentage to charge for parties of six or more? If service is lousy, the percentage is the same as if it’s great? Is it just me or do other people believe you should tip routinely for routine service and exceptional for exceptional service? If the party of 8 or 10 or whatever is going to produce X dollars for a foodservice person regardless of whether she or he rates a 1 or a 10, why should the person care?

     “Slop that food on the table, Mable, and don’t waste time being nice; you’re gonna get paid the same regardless. Spend your energy instead with those four old men trying to impress one another; You’ll get more tips out of them if you kiss up enough!”

Does your business give customers the screw?

Comment below or reply direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US  Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Blog FREE via list-protected RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Great VALENTINE for GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

No, we’re NOT past the worst,

the job creation plan’s a scam

…but yes, you can still thrive!

Here is The State of Small Business Message:

WORK HARDER, NOT SMARTER!

     Let the giant freshly-bailed-out corporations with taxpayer-dollar-supported operating budgets do all the “SMARTER” stuff. They did, after all, manage to get themselves financially stimulated, so they must be smarter than small businesses.

     And let us, the small businesses of America, simply not be stupid. Let us not be duped by grandiose, self-serving pep-talks that don’t walk the talk. We cannot choose to waste time and energy dealing with those down deep, fraudulent attempts to force-feed us bone-crushing defeats while patting us on the hands and telling us how great everything is going to be.

     Oh, sure, government should be rewarded for creating jobs, even though the jobs to be created are government job creations for government-funded projects being paid for with loans borrowed against our tax dollars? Does that sound like an economic recovery plan to you? It sounds like digging a deeper hole to me. Would you do this with your own business?

     But we can’t fight that without giving up our businesses and our lives to do it. We need to cast this misguided naivete aside and just get on with making our businesses work. Yes, that’s hard. And no, we’re NOT out of economic bad times; we have NOT turned the corner; things are NOT getting better. If you think otherwise, just look around you, and listen…

     But the good news is that, YES, we can survive and thrive. It means doing things differently. We need to not worry about rising above our nation’s financial mess and bureaucratic free-spending incompetence, and instead to concentrate all of our energy and attention on making our own businesses work better.

     That means we must accept the fact that to truly make a difference, we must work harder. Here’s one small example:

     If you can get yourself to work just 15 minutes earlier than usual and leave just 15 minutes later than usual everyday, you will be adding as much as 2.5 hours a week, which equals 10 hours a month, which translates to 125 hours a (50-week) year, which equals more than 15.6 extra full 8-hour work-DAYS a year. Uh ~~~ 3 WEEKS!

     What could you accomplishfor your business with those three additional weeks? How about if everybody in your business agrees to donate just 10 minutes a day of early arrival or stay late time? Hmmm. What else does that make you think about? 

     When you work harder, you lead by example, you attract more sales and referrals, you get more organized, your customers and suppliers will respect you more … and you’ll probably play harder too! You’re already working harder? Keep it up! It WILL pay you back!   

Visit Hal’s Guest Blog Posts

Comment below or Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make Today a GREAT Day for Someone! 

Are You A Cereal Entrepreneur

Or A Serial Entrepreneur?

Special thanks to Doyle Slayton at www.XOOMBI.com for the inspiration   

In case no one’s put their hand on your shoulder and whispered in your ear for awhile: Psssssst! Life (even business life) isn’t about being a serial killer no matter what you do with, for, or to yourself!

     Think you could name a few prominent athletes, a few Hollywood types, a few businesspeople (maybe even a cousin?) who’ve overplayed their killer instincts and thinking they could do whatever they wanted — whenever and wherever they wanted — to the point of crashing their lives into a wall? Daily news reports will help joggle your brain.

     Serial Entrepreneurs are no different. They charge from one venture to another with nothing in the cross-hairs of their sites but dollar signs. And they simply don’t succeed in life. Thankfully, these profiles are not the majority.

     Unfortunately though, when economic times are tough, there’s a mad rush into the marketplace from those who’ve been cut out or cut back at work to think the grass looks greener on the work-from-home side of the fence and they will typically hurry into a venture they’ve convinced themselves looks promising and plunk their savings into a startup.

     Most of these gold-rush fever serial types will end up making their situations worse than when they started. Why? Because growing and running a business is physically, mentally, financially, and emotionally exhausting. It’s a total brain drain (not to mention the slimming of your wallet).

     I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I’ve learned as most do, the hard way.

     Fortunately, most entrepreneurs act instinctively on their burning desires to achieve something of consequence with the ideas they usher into the marketplace. Getting rich on an idea is not the reason for the pursuit. Making a difference is what counts. Making something happen. 

     If you’ve been fortunate to have inherited entrepreneurial traits, or have learned them from experience, a friend or family member, or through a legitimate hands-on training or academic environment, Bless You! Why?

     Because YOU are one of the people destined to make a difference in both the world and in this economy. YOU are one of the people most likely to build your idea to the point of creating new jobs. And YOU are one of the people who will lead your followers to achieve.

     How can you tell if you’re cereal material or serial material? Do you like to taste a little bit of everything? Experience a lot of different business flavors? Are you challenged by that? Do you thrive on taking an idea and seeing it all the way through to the end?

     Or are you just out to make one quick killing after another? If you answered yes to the last question, be honest in asking yourself if you have a track-record of being realistic.   

# # #

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

What Kinds of Answers

Do You Give?

     I once had a boss who answered every question with a question. It became so predictable, I hardly ever asked him something without having all the backup information ready … I guess he was more savvy than I first imagined; and I learned from the annoyance factor alone.

     I had another boss who spouted out “Yes” or “No” (mostly “No”) as a response to everything asked of her. And if you tried to ask an open-ended question, she would tell you to rephrase the inquiry for a “Yes” or “No” response! Except for gaining some insight on the management style of a control freak, I never learned much of anything from her.

    When you answer some one’s question, do you elaborate on your thinking? By sharing your rationale, are you cultivating leadership or teamwork? Does this way of dealing with others take more time and effort? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Only you can say.

     The bottom line though would seem to be that when you have a business-vested or personal interest in the individual asking for your opinions, advice or decisions, you will probably be more interested in sharing the reasons behind your answers.

     So then along comes all the great psychological motivational gurus armed with studies which prove that those with whom time, patience and effort are spent will rise to the occasion and outperform those who are ignored or who are not taken so securely under the wing.

     Aha! Does that then mean if you explain yourself to some and not to others, you are exercising bias and perhaps precluding the potential success of those you simply snap at with your “Yes” or “No” verdicts?

     Short of sitting in some corner and chanting “Life is just one big manipulation operation and the chips need to fall where they may!” you might want to consider the following:

A snappy retort that’s not pointedly requested is an insult. It presumes the individual posing the question has no value and is not worthy of your time and energy.

Every question asked of you represents an opportunity to teach, and a chance to demonstrate leadership by example.

The way that you respond to questions is as important as your answer in the lineup of how others measure your leadership value, your trust, and your reputation.

Thoughtful questions and answers form the cornerstone to the building of employee loyalty and exceptional performance. And those qualities are the makings of innovative thinking, increased sales, heightened productivity, and a solid posture in the communities your business serves. 

……….Visit Hal’s Guest Blog Posts………. 

GOT A SICK WEBSITE?> @http://bit.ly/6iYe6g 

WHAT’S YOUR T-SHIRT SAY?> http://bit.ly/7K0s4a

 LEADERSHIP SEARCH?> 12/30 @http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 DOES NO BEAT MAYBE?> 1/6 @http://bit.ly/74qlG5

 # # #               

What Kinds of Questions

Do You Ask?

  [Here are 23 for YOU to answer!]          

Dear Boss: Do you really need some answer you already probably know, or are you seeking some actionable insight about the individual, group, idea, or circumstance you’re questioning?

Did you ever consider that the more disciplined your management approach, the less likely you’ll want to know more than a yes or no answer, and the more likely you are to be a misfit in today’s business world?

Oooh, sorry, are you perhaps one of those exceptions who runs some quasi-military small business? Or you per chance captain a deep-sea fishing boat? Maybe you oversee electrical wiring experts who work on the tops of telephone poles, or workers who paint the top of the Washington or Golden Gate Bridge? You manage a shooting range? [You get the idea?]

Did you realize that the closer you are to the people who are the heart of your organization, and the better you are at exercising leadership by example, the less likely you’ll be to find gratifying results from asking questions that prompt yes or no responses?

Do you think through what you really want to know ahead of time, or simply wing it by firing off rounds of disjointed questions, figuring that  — because you’re the boss — you’ll get answers to everything you ask anyway, and will eventually find out what you want to know?   

Has it occurred to you how much time that wastes? Would you feel aggravated if you were on the receiving end? Do you think others see you this way? Do your family members see you this way?

If you don’t already practice it, did you know that asking open-ended questions will generate much more telling information than yes/no, true/false, and multiple choice questions? What’s a good example?

The best interview question to ask a job applicant is: “If I handed you a million dollars right now, what would you do with it?” Will you learn more from the answer to this question than from 20 questions about what’s on the resume? [Does a bear…?]

Two more examples? “What specific steps would you recommend to solve this problem our business is having?” [Not “WHY did it happen?”] Ask a constantly late employee to drop off a list with you on his/her way home that identifies “what 3 things she/he will do immediately to avoid being late in the future?” [Not WHY the person was late, which only produces excuses.]

Tailor your questions to the situation, the person or group you’re asking, and to generating the kind of answer that will be most productive for you to have. 

……….Visit Hal’s Guest Blog Posts………. 

GOT A SICK WEBSITE? 

WHAT’S YOUR T-SHIRT SAY?  

 LEADERSHIP SEARCH? 

 DOES “NO” BEAT “MAYBE”? 

 # # #               

 The birds and the bees and

the geese and the trees all

communicate better than

you!

At least, that’s what the odds are. They all spend their lives at communicating. You probably spend yours energizing your business, and not giving a whole lot of thought to keeping those around you informed or engaged in dialogue any more than you think you need to, right?

Ah, but energizing your communications is the highest form of energizing your business.

Well, even if this assessment is only partly right, it still means you are completely wrong. Sorry for the hard line here but I don’t imagine you’ll get much tough talk from those who work for you, or from your mother or your dog. And a good swift kick in the butt can sometimes get the head in gear if you know what I mean.

Are you communicating too little to your associates and staff? (Do they tilt their heads and squint a lot?) Or perhaps you tell them too much? (Do they nod politely and look at their watches a lot? Pull up the sidewalks and get outta Dodge if they start listening to their watches!)

Or do you communicate just the right amount? How can you know what the right amount is? (Do your people sit up or lean forward and ask questions? Do they take notes? Do they ask for examples? Do they repeat what you said to make sure they’ve got it right?

HA! Do YOU do these things?

How often do you engage those around you in real heart-to-heart business discussions? Do you directly ask for their opinions, and actually l~i~s~t~e~n to their responses?

Did you realize that MBWA (Management By Walking Around) is still considered the approach of preference for most successful owners, operators, managers, and virtually all entrepreneurial leaders? People like to have you visit their work sites and talk with them about what they’re doing.

When you can do this every day, you are helping ensure greater attention to detail and pride of workmanship. Plus you can leave when you want to, and it’s  good exercise. It will keep you in touch with what’s going on in your business day to day, and will even discourage time-wasting activities.

Have you thought lately about the direct relationship between taking your people into your confidence and the boost it gives their self-esteem to know that you (their surrogate parent) regard them highly enough to confide in them, to ask their opinions?

Did you know that every time you help boost an associate or employee’s self-esteem, you are also helping to build her or his self-confidence, and that — all by itself — can produce increases in both productivity and sales?

Like the most effective rewards, communications are best delivered frequently and in small energetic doses … “bursts,” if you will. Remember you want what you say to be contagious because motivated employees who feel they are making a worthwhile contribution will outperform your expectations (and your competitors!) every time.

 # # #

   Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

  Open Minds Open Doors 

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

“Even if you’re on the right track,

you’ll get run over

if you just sit there.”

–WILL ROGERS 

     Well, isn’t that nice? We just lost all the lawyers who regularly visit this site (probably at least 3!) when they saw that this was going to be an encouragement-to-act presentation.

     Lawyers are, after all, heavily invested in maintaining the status quo, in creating and fostering delay. Trying to get an attorney to read about the need to take action steps is like trying to get a chiropractor with back pain to visit an orthopaedic surgeon (or vice versa!).

     Will Rogers was the right voice for entrepreneurs. Nothing speaks louder than action. And odds are almost universally that when in doubt, some action is always better than no action. The important thing is to stay flexible as you act… whether it’s on the football field, the factory floor, your website or in the middle of a customer sales pitch.

     Taking action — as in business decision making, customer service, sales pipeline pursuits, marketing, value-adding to products and services, opening new revenue channels, strategic planning, stimulating productivity. and designing innovative management approaches — is the true mark of leadership.

     Nothing is gained in business by waiting. Not any more. Not in today’s lightning-paced world of communication, not in this economy.

     Does moving forward before you have all the information you think you need, make you feel nervous and prompt you to worry about outcomes? Okay, truth: You are not alone (A) and as Henry David Thoreau once said, “All we ever have is limited knowledge” (B), so use what you know to determine and update and act.

     Short of a life or death decision (which, thankfully, not many of us are called on to make very often), if your action turns out to be wrong: Stop the train at the next station. Get down onto the platform. Brush yourself off. Collect feedback. Listen. Get your bearings. Get onto the next train. Just keep moving.   

# # #  

 LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP? See Hal’s 12/30 Guest Blog Post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 WONDERING WHEN NO is Better Than MAYBE? See Hal’s 1/6 Guest Blog Post in BonMot Communications’ Angelique Rewer’s FREE HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED e-zine www.thecorporatecommunicator.net 

# # #               

“Leadership is not

just telling people

what you want…it

is getting people to 

do what you need 

them to do.”

– JON ALTERMAN, Senior Fellow,

Center for Strategic & International Studies

     There’s a classic leadership-style story about (pre-US President) General Dwight David (“I Like Ike”) Eisenhower on the battlefield during WWII, when he was addressing his team of officers at a makeshift table with a piece of string.

     He first pushed the string across the table with thumb and forefinger and demonstrated the end result being a tangle. Next he took the end of the string between the same two fingers and shook it a bit before gently pulling it, demonstrating the straight-line formation of the string…and made his point clearly that troops who were pulled by their leader from the front would outperform those whom the leader pushed from behind.

Are YOU 

p~u~l~l~i~n~g  

or   P U S H I N G ?

     Because you own or manage a business or part of one, you are responsible for motivating your troops. You set the example. If you are pushing people, others below you are pushing people. Pushed people get resentful, uncooperative and disruptive.

     People who exhibit these attitudes will cost you untold amounts of money, time and effort. In fact, such behaviors have been known to cause and lose wars. Surely, they will lose your customers.

     If you are always the first to step up to the frontlines and then pull others along, you will inevitably gain and retain the respect and loyalty of those below you. They will believe in you, trust you and follow you. They will be more productive more often.

     This thinking and approach is as critical for government as it is for multinational and Fortune 100 corporations, even Mom & Pop stores and your own family! Every organization can gain from Eisenhower-style leadership.

     In fact, small and mid-sized companies are places to ignite the kinds of larger, global applications that will eventually revitalize and bolster world economy. Managers in giant corporations who lead by pulling, succeed at cultivating more entrepreneurial, innovative solutions to chronic problems. 

     It matters not that you sell pizza, luxury automobiles, chickens, well-drilling, website designs, media advertising, crabs, healthcare services, insurance, pickles, legal services, clothing, real estate, or microchips…you will be more successful “getting people to do what you need them to do” by pulling instead of pushing.

     What does matter is that you keep working every single day at making your leadership style better because the solidity of your customer base is only as good as the day-to-day performance of those who work for, with and around you.

     Your people’s performance is only as good as the constant attention you give to the kind of leadership you provide. We are living in a low-trust business climate. Raise the bar!

     Remember that “integrity” is doing the right thing even when no one else is looking. Your integrity is your brand and people buy the benefits they believe are attached to your brand. It all starts and ends with how effectively you motivate others…

# # #  

THINK OUTSIDE

YOUR BRAIN!

     Okay, you own and/or operate or manage a small business (or piece of a big one), or you’re a salesperson or an entrepreneur. That makes you a schizoid, right? I mean you have so much going on that even reading this is a sacrifice … but take heart!

     If you’re really serious about what you’re doing, you are also serious about exploring innovative approaches to today’s basic essentials: productivity, customer service, value-adding, and marketing efficiency. Whoa, there’s a couple of new ones there!

     Yup! Those last two essentials that snuck onto that list are the fruits of our egg-sucking economy. Until the going got tough, we never paid no never-mind to ideas like adding product and services value or to pulling out all the stops to maintain marketing impact while cutting marketing costs. They were token pursuits.

     But now we care. Now we’re here. And here means taking a fresh look at what you’re doing. Here’s just one example:

     Do you have any interns working for you? No, not the White House kind … BUSINESS interns. Why not? Have you actually approached your nearby community college or university campus (or even high schools for some situations) and pointblank asked how such an arrangement could be made? Why not?

     Perhaps you think there’s no room in your organization for a wet-behind-the-pierced-ears-tattooed dude? You may want to revisit that thinking. Interns in much of academia will work for free or minimum wage because they can earn course credits for on-the-job experience.

     Interns who perform well often turn out to be loyal, long-term, full time employees.

     Interns need a definitive plan and can sometimes require some extra hand-holding, but they are also typically eager to learn and anxious to please (especially when performance is grade-related!)

     Spare yourself the worry of excessive planning and what-ifs, and make some exploratory calls. If and when you uncover access to an internship program, THEN decide how, when, and where you can use some free or inexpensive project help. Many short-term projects, by the way, can turn into mutually-beneficial long-term assignments.

     The trade-off? Well, you or someone you can trust to provide role-model leadership will need to expend energy (and patience) with any intern(s) you take on, and the intern(s) may not provide what’s needed.

     But, then again, you could end up a major winner and that depends a great deal on your screening skills to start with. Formal programs offer the advantage of giving you recourse to the school if there’s any problem, and you’d probably only be required to provide periodic performance evaluations.

     The bottom line is to think outside your computer, outside your workspace, outside your organization — outside your brain — and start making better use of resources you may have been overlooking, whatever and whomever they are.

# # #

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

The best “CHANGE” message