Should You

Be Paralyzed? 

     Today’s news ushered in a bombardment of reliably-sourced economic reports that 2011 will bring complete economic collapse to the US and other nations. Why? Reports suggest the cause is  Obama administration insistence on tax increases being put in place to cover the costs of the federal government’s rampantly out-of-control spending policies.

     Who knows? I don’t pretend to be an economist. I hear the same things that you do. The talk is about major corporations jamming up their income and packing it into 2010 so that increased taxes can be sidestepped in 2011.

     Without getting into the details of how this triggers other tax-rate-related events, and what this represents, the results are expected to be a fully collapsed economy with unemployment possibly reaching even 2-3 times the present level, which as all of us know is already unacceptable. 

     If you’re looking for answers (beyond taking a correction course in the next two major elections), you might as well click off to another blog; I have nothing to offer as a quick-fix. If you’re feeling panicky about all these rumblings, I am here to tell you that you will produce what you breed.

     Freezing in your path, becoming catatonic, and paralyzing your business are not choices that are going to get you anywhere, and will in fact foreclose even the remotest possibility of survival. Recognizing that the future is fantasy; it is not here now, and it may never actually come (or may certainly never come as you expect it to) is an awareness that can carry your business successfully through the projected storm.

     Start out with the conviction that you can in fact make some things happen with your own business that will help protect it should times, in fact, get even tougher than they are right now. And begin taking steps now.

     People in the 50’s were ridiculed for building bomb shelters, but the peace of mind that these fortifications produced served to provide a level of renewed vigor and confidence for moving forward.

     This is not to suggest you run out and start constructing bunkers. It IS to suggest that you begin taking careful inventory of what’s essential to making your business run — what can you do without? How can you consolidate and collaborate and combine efforts to save expenses and maximize productivity. You already went through this exercise a year or two ago. Do it again.

     9/11 changed the world. In the same fashion that carry-on luggage regulations and examinations have correspondingly changed, you may need to once again reassess, downsize, adjust, compress, consolidate, and tighten your business controls. You cannot afford to wait until a bomb hits before building a bomb shelter. Prepare your business now. 

     You cannot continue day-to-day business operations without contingency plans. Set your goals. Adjust your goals, Go for your goals. But don’t focus on the finish line. Stay with the journey! And don’t choose for worry to get in your way!  

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

When the going

gets tough,

many Realtors grasp

at straws!

     A post on yesterday’s edition of the vibrant and proactive leading newsletter for Realtor professionals, the ActiveRain Daily Drop was entitled “How To Brand Yourself an Expert and Build a Six-Figure Real Estate Business.” The heading alone represents much of what is  wrong with many Realtors today who seek to quick-fix instead of innovate.

     And the guts of the article drag us deeper into a state of malaise.

     First of all, the posted article was nothing more than a thinly-veiled sales pitch to urge our nation’s poor beaten-upon real estate agents and brokers to rise from the rubble of a collapsed housing market by signing up for and attending a “virtual class” starring a TV “Apprentice show winner.”

    Though favored by Donald Trump himself, this winner may indeed have the “commanding knowledge of investment real estate” that the article proclaims, but my best guess is that this individual doesn’t know any more than anyone else who has ever bought, sold, or brokered real estate.

     Clearly, the enrollment spiel is clueless about branding. Those who understand branding know that you can’t “brand yourself an expert.”

     Branding is all about earning a reputation for authenticity. Self-aggrandizement hardly captures that flavor of genuineness.

     Being viewed and respected as an “expert” is something that comes from others, not from yourself.

     Granted that real estate as a business may host a fair share of egocentric types, but offering self-declarations of expertise is not a practice that most people find to be particularly endearing . . . certainly not property buyers and sellers who I’m quite sure prefer humility and low-profile sales attitudes. Assertiveness does not require aggressiveness. 

     Oh, the fantasy TV show winner also apparently has a book for sale (tell me you’re surprised!) which would seem likely to be implausibly unrealistic if it cornerstones the thinking that what sells best — and makes the most money — is for Realtors to (as my father used to warn against) “toot their own horns.”

     If you’re in real estate sales, and you’ve been fighting to survive this sucky economy, the last thing you need to do is follow some self-serving, self-proclaimed expert into the arena of thinking that you can do the same thing and make untold fortunes. All you’ll make are enemies, and enemies don’t help you make sales.  

     Those who succeed at making a living in real estate sales are those who recognize and appreciate the opportunities they hold in their hands to make a difference in this life by nurturing their matchmaking abilities. They are catalysts of change. Realtors are the entrepreneurial leaders of American small business precisely because they DON’T run around telling everyone how great they are.

     They let their people talents, and their communication and organizational skills speak for themselves. Satisfied clients who brand these real estate pros as experts will advance their reputations light years beyond the kinds of competitors who beat their chests, shout their names from the rooftops, and sign up for quick-fix seminars run by questionably-qualified people seeking to sell books!

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

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

 YOU’RE PAYING TOO MUCH IF:  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

People today only buy

what makes sense.

 Don’t believe it!

Excerpted from comments by Hal Alpiar published in today’s issue of  COMMUNICATION EXPRESSWAY ISSN: 1544-8312 Better Business Communication Judy Vorfeld – www.ossweb.com March-April-May 2010 – Issue # 74

     Assessments surfacing about today’s consumers being more savvy, more rational-minded, more interested in authenticity, and less susceptible to some of the more trite expressions that have long passed their days of influence is – in most entrepreneurial minds — 100% correct.

     Where business owners and managers need to depart though from what is being said is that these kinds of comments tend to lead owners and managers down the path of focusing their business marketing messages on rational, logical, unemotional, product and service features alone (i.e., ingredients, warranties, greenness, discounts, etc.) when — in fact — every consumer purchase has been repeatedly proven to be emotionally-triggered.

     That is not to say that price is not important or that features and rational chunks of sales pitches and marketing pieces should be abandoned or sidetracked. This kind of information is required by consumers as justification for their purchases — and more so today than ever before because of speed-of-light information access, and an economy that demands closer dollar-value scrutiny.

      Case in point (which, in concept, applies equally to every conceivable product or service purchase) . . .

      You probably tell everyone all the reasons that you buy a particular vehicle: it gets great mileage; it is ranked among the top in safety tests; the manufacturer is reliable; the warranties are among the best available; parts are easily and inexpensively replaced and service is readily available. And monthly payments? They’re at an all-time low. Sounds great, right? Kind of makes rational, unemotional, authentic mouths water? (Or at least drool a little?)

     The truth is (which you would never own up to in public) that the real deep-down reasons you bought the vehicle are that you think you look good driving it, and that the salesperson wasn’t pushy.

     These dynamics, by the way, are the same for seemingly rational purchases like insurance policies, accounting services, a can of beans, or the daily newspaper.

     So, the bottom line is that while rational, logical information needs to be presented as a marketing cornerstone, it’s always going to be an emotional trigger that makes the sale. But we shouldn’t abandon one approach for the other. They need to work in tandem. It’s what makes great marketing so challenging, and why so few really understand how to do it effectively.

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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!

Sounding Important

Counts For Nothing!

     Yes, even in this “knee-deep-in-muck” economy, when smart people are being more innovative and more customer conscious, there are still pompous idiots floating around the business world with no backs to pat except their own. One would think that at least a sliver of reality might have set in, but there they go, parading by in all their ornamental pomp and ceremonial circumstance: The EGOpreneurs.

     Know any?

     Maybe I’m just imagining things when I check out an online business profile and read about how many years of great experience will come to play when a needy (and the suggestion is, incompetent) business owner is smart enough to engage this person’s consulting services instead of (the only suggested alternative) floundering around on her or his own.

     The consultant of course chooses to completely disregard that Mr. or Ms. Business Owner just happened to have succeeded at bringing his or her business this far to start with. But that’s not important if you’re smart enough to hire this guy because Mr. Egopreneur Consultant here has worked with some of the biggest name companies in existence. Aren’t you impressed?

     Hey, “20+ years” of being a “revenue generation strategist”  is nothing to sneeze at. (He figures out ways to make money; it’s not likely he knows anything about how to implement the strategies but, well, he figures that’s what you’re good for.) Besides, you might want to give Wonder Boy some slack because he’s so highly trained to fit your needs.

     The exampleI cite boasts of degrees in religion and political science (oh, and a minor in anthropology). Hard to imagine anyone not succeeding with that combination. I mean first you can rip people off, and then pray for them when you dig up their bones in a few years. C’mon, relevance and track-record are what count. As the old sports agent movie made famous: “Show me the money!”

     Yes, I have preached long and hard to business owners and sales professionals that you only get one chance at a first impression. The point though is that the best impression anyone can make is the one that doesn’t TRY to make an impression. Proven performance speaks louder than words.

     AUTHENTICITY is the word that comes to mind . . . along with: GENUINENESS (skipping the BS). TRANSPARENCY (no hidden agendas; you see what you get). EMPATHY (putting oneself in another’s shoes). REALITY (not living in or talking incessantly about past or future fantasylands). FLEXIBILITY (being ready and able to avoid expectations and go with the flow).

     These six important qualities are the intangibles that define the difference between success and failure, and that point up the separation between people you choose to do business with over people you choose not to do business with. Use all six to weigh the conviction of your involvement with others.

     If you want to make a difference with your business, in other’s lives and your own, steer clear of EGOpreneurs. They give entrepreneurs a bad name, and all their talking counts for nothing.

Comment below 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!

Entrepreneurs are alive

and well (but fading)

in corporations. 

Many of today’s more progressive corporate entities still house an exuberant universe of entrepreneurial movers and shakers (Corporate Entrepreneurs © I call them), but the numbers are fading.

This is not a good signal to the business world because the giant companies that are hunkering down and cutting corners and holding desperately to their belongings are the same ones that were thriving with these freewheeling innovators just a couple of years back.

It’s as if these small-business-minded agents of change have had their rugs pulled out from under them. Our inept federal government has seen fit to replace the entrepreneurial energy they couldn’t harness — and surely could never understand — with government bailout dollars attached to CEO promises to toe the line and tighten the belts.

Like one big ugly Harry Potter fantasy trip, shareholders have responded by retreating into the evil “Do Nothing Abyss” of Status Quo Land. Too bad. A lot of the nation’s more spirited corporate enterprises have been reduced to rubble in the process.

The transition has served to move the center of the business world into the cyberspace pursuits of high technology because that’s proven to be one of the last remaining protective and nurturing bastions of corporate entrepreneurial fallout.

Entrepreneurs and Corporate Entrepreneurs must join together and rise to the occasion of voting out those who think that running a lemonade stand business means giving free lemonade to everyone who passes by, whether they want it or not, and then charging only those who are thirsty and rich enough to afford the unannounced mark-ups to $20 a cup . . . so that those revenues can pay the bills and keep the “free faucet” running.

Then, when the tank runs dry, give ’em more cash and make ’em raise their rates to pay it back.”

What’s next? The torch of innovative thinking and doing is getting passed back to it’s rightful owners: small business. A great deal needs yet to happen for small business owners, operators, and managers  in order to ensure clear passage to economic resurgence. The burden of righting the ship rests squarely on the shoulders of government.

Only government has the wherewithal to clear the path, provide meaningful (meaningful) incentives to small business to create real jobs and attract innovative leadership to their ranks.

No! . . . creating make-believe jobs inside government, and with and for government contractors, is not the answer. It never has been. Those jobs are a long-term drain on taxpayers. They are neither real nor meaningful and simply cannot have a positive influence on the economy.

Entrepreneurial business leaders need to step up. Our existing government leadership needs to step down. The first of these challenges is ready to happen. The second of these will never happen voluntarily because politics runs thicker than blood.

Entrepreneurs and Corporate Entrepreneurs must join together and rise to the occasion of voting out those who think that running a lemonade stand business means giving free lemonade to everyone who passes by, whether they want it or not, and then charging only those who are thirsty and rich enough to afford the unannounced mark-ups to $20 a cup . . . so that those revenues can pay the bills and keep the “free faucet” running.

Then, when the tank runs dry, give ’em more cash and make ’em raise their rates to pay it back. That mentality will not restore our economy. Competitive marketplaces will. Competitive marketplaces turn on innovative entrepreneurial spirit, not handouts. Corporate Entrepreneurs have the car keys. It’s time to get behind the steering wheel!

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Hal@Businessworks.US  931.854.0474

Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Could Your Family

Or Business 

Get To 2011 Without

A Budget?

So what makes Congress think America doesn’t need one?

     We The People — the business owners and operators and managers and entrepreneurs and sales professionals — of the United States of America need to vent!

     We would like to understand how it could be possible that you, the Congressional Representatives of the geographic districts that our business interests occupy, are at the doorstep of foregoing a national budget this year. PLEASE explain.

     For the benefit of those not yet up to speed on this issue because you’ve been struggling with your own budgets, The Hill newspaper has just proclaimed that Congress may fail to even try to pass a budget this year because the Congressional majority claims that “they’ve pushed too many tough votes through the House to force another one before Election Day.”

     Rarely do I have much good to report coming out of organizations like the SBA, the BBB, the NFIB, or the C of C, but I just saw a copy of a letter from US Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Bill Miller that deserves three cheers from all of us. He challenges that feeble excuse quoted in The Hill with the following:

Tough votes? You mean like bending the rules and twisting arms to pass a flawed healthcare bill that America doesn’t want and can’t afford?

Or like rushing a vote on a financial overhaul bill that would create one of the largest bureaucracies in American history?

Giving up the budget process is their choice. It’s politics, plain and simple. And we deserve better… if Congress fails to pass a budget, it will show that it is simply unable to govern

… No budget equals failure. And right now, that’s something our country, our workers, and our employers cannot afford.” 

     How is it even possible that ANYone, even a politician, could imagine a budget-less organization — let alone a national government– being able to arrogantly continue charging forward while sinking deeper into the depths of economic quicksand?

     With continuing misplaced priorities and increases in frivolous federal spending, we — the business owners and operators and managers and entrepreneurs and sales professionals — are being driven aimlessly into the face of an all-powerful global economic storm… and not even a budget on the horizon?

     How would our own businesses do with no sense of financial direction or planning? One need not be a rocket scientist to see that our national and state economies are on shaky (to say the least!) ground in the midst of turbulent times.

     Yet we have elected politicians who have no business skills,  knowledge or experience, no sense of how to turn this mess around. All of us with small businesses already know that more spending of more money we don’t have, with no plan, is not going to do it!

     The only answer is:  A) To push members of Congress (with emails, letters and calls) to do the jobs our tax dollars are paying them to do and pass a budget we can afford, then B) VOTE THEM OUT IN NOVEMBER before they destroy all of our businesses.  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

“Hot Diggity,

dog-diggity,

BOOM, what you

do to me . . .”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whatever you do, do something. Try AAA:

Customers like being Appreciated, Acknowledged and Asked!  

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Call me at 302.933.0911 or comment below

or email Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

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

When you undertake

to organize, manage,

and assume the risks

of owning and running

a business…

. . . you are not just taking a leap of faith.

You are taking the leap with a full plate in hand.

Imagine a waiter balancing a tray full of dinners on one hand and carrying a “table jack” with the other, while deftly jumping across a six-foot moat into a flame-edge-bordered room packed with ravenously hungry people, and no idea of who ordered what.

     Whew!

     Well, if the guy is the owner of the restaurant, odds are the right people will get the right food, others will get some complimentary food with appreciative remarks and everyone will end up coming back.

     If it’s a giant chain restaurant, the wrong people will get the wrong meals, nobody else will be acknowledged and the only ones who return will be coming back for the cheap prices only. 

     It seems appropriate on National Prayer Day (yes, that’s today in case you forgot to say some) to be addressing leaps of faith, even if it is in conjunction with a business focus. Entrepreneurial enterprises are, after all, among some of the world’s greatest benefactors of prayer and leadership faith.

     Most small business owners do most everything that needs to be done by themselves. They sell; they finance; they organize; they manage; they innovate; they manage and serve customers and clients; they market, promote, and publicize. Entrepreneurial “personalities” rarely if ever match corporate counterparts (and most would agree there really are no direct counterparts anyway).

     Entrepreneurs tend to be entrepreneurs because they simply don’t fit the orderly, entrenched, established, procedural, authoritative and controlling mindset that corporate muckity-mucks seem to thrive on. Corporate guys are invested in the status quo. Whoa! Don’t make waves!

     Senior executive vice presidents and directors of anything are up to their you-know-whats in burdensome and tedious reliance on planning and analyzing . . . activities that are viewed by upstart business venture principals as paralyzing behavior.

     By contrast, entrepreneurs thrive on innovation, action, and high enthusiasm. When a small business owner consults with her market research department, she is talking to herself as she cruises through Bing and Google.

     Okay, so right about now, I know there are a smattering of grumbling corporate people (mostly, it seems, brothers-in-law of entrepreneurs!) who are punching their monitors and yelling that times have changed and big business is now leading the way in innovation and brand loyalty and new market development and communications and high-level training. Bull.

     Automakers? Banks? Pharmaceutical giants? Oil companies? Mainstream media? Consumer product manufacturers? Need we go further? How many of these do you see taking leaps of faith?

     The monster donut-maker guys may think America runson their junk food, but they’re dreaming (their coffee’s not even good!).

     America runs on small business and entrepreneurial spirit, on Mom and Pop Stores, basement and kitchen table and garage businesses, one-man-band services, farm families, commercial and residential contractors, and techies in bathrobes working out of their bedroom closets. 

     That’s what we’re all about. That’s what will turn this economy around. That’s who we need to be remembering in our prayers today and every day. Small business and entrepreneurial pursuits are the foundation of America’s past and the keys to America’s future.

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

Why pay fees

if you have time

to nurture the

media and the

ability to sound

newsworthy?

     Here are some of the unwritten rules of the game that can help you gain media exposure.

     Right off the bat, realize that because news coverage is free, whatever you submit is subject to the trade-off of arbitrarily being discarded, deleted, completely re-written, misquoted, even twisted to set up a favorable impression of your biggest competitor!

     Be aware that many trade, professional, and small-time community publications will demand advertising space purchase before they’ll consider printing your release (or before they’ll consider mentioning you or your company, or noting key points from your release in another separate story).

     Start out by mentally putting yourself in the shoes of those who are likely to receive your news release: writers, editors, and publishers. None of these people are likely to be getting paid commeasurate with their training and experience. It is also 100% at their discretion as to whether anything you submit gets accepted.

     So they are interested in placing news releases that require minimal rewriting; the more time they have to devote to your release, the less likely it will get coverage. Each of the news channels these folks represent is probably stretched tight, highly budget-conscious, and perhaps even on the verge of shut-down.

     More than ever, media writers and editors need to justify giving up online attention, or print space, or broadcast time to news release coverage, and that translates to the fact that the news must be worthy. Thinly-disguised sales pitches get tossed.

     Besides being newsworthy, being professionally written with minimal editing needs, your release cannot be a one-time, stand-alone document. You need to establish an ongoing relationship and have media professionals recognize that your releases are part of a commitment to an ongoing series of releases — two or three a month usually accomplish that.

     Don’t expect any response to your first or second release. If you get some, great; you’re ahead of the game, but many editors and writers want to make sure you’re serious enough to stay around; they don’t like one-night-stand PR efforts.

     Your news doesn’t have to be earth-shattering. Try: community fund-raising participation or activity sponsorship; a new product or service offering or new application of an existing product or service; an employee promotion or accomplishment; a professional or industry association membership, stance, recognition or certification; an expansion, consolidation, partnership, alliance or affiliation; etc. 

     Personalize your cover note with every release you send out as much as possible: “I saw your story about local entrepreneurs last week in The Cape Gazette and thought you might be interested in the attached release about two area teachers who started a new educational services business just six miles from your office. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

     Include at the end of the 1.5 page double-spaced release mailed or hand-delivered to print and broadcast media, or your .75 page single-spaced release and photo emailed, a name and phone number and email address preceded by a small “Contact:” at the end of each release so the recipient knows how to follow up if there’s interest in knowing more. 

     Do not expect copies of anything that does manage to get coverage; it’s your responsibility to find it!

TOMORROW: How to write it and where to send it!

Click Here to work with Hal!

                Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!