“I’m Sick of Worrying!”

     An important followup note on last night’s blog post topic: “Worry” as noted comes from being too over-focused on the FUTURE, which ignites weapons of self-destruction fuses and pulls the pin out of expectation grenades that inevitably breed disappointment, followed by negativity, depression, stress…

     This is all true, but as I re-read the post, I see that I failed to include being too overly-focused on the PAST as a worry trigger as well. Consider getting caught up in giving either too much attention to future plans and expectations, or in over-and-done-with past events, as “partners in crime.”

     These “bad guy partners” are out to get you, and you can stop them short, before either one ever gets close to delivering harmful effects to you, your family or your business. Success means simply that you need to exercise more of your brain power to deliver increased personal awareness and increased self-control to your SELF! (Considering Einstein reportedly only ever used 10% of his brain power, just imagine what’s possible.)

     Thinking about the past can be productive, relaxing, and instructional, but not once it reaches the point of dwelling on past events. As with allowing future thoughts to become worrisome, our balance and stability as humans is equally threatened by dwelling on the past. 

     The past is over and cannot be changed. Worrying about and dwelling on it is a nonproductive (actually counter-productive) waste of time and energy. Conscious or unconscious, the fact remains that paying over-the-top attention to either the past OR the future—instead of the (much-healthier) present—is a choice.

     To get past the “points of destruction” in your mind, you need to be a detective about yourSELF. Figure out what it is that trips your circuit-breaker, that gets you “lost” in past or future thoughts and issues. Once you know what your “trigger” is, then every time you are aware of it coming to the surface, let it serve as a reminder to pinch yourself or feel your pulse or heartbeat, or take a deep breath…and return yourself to what’s going on right in front of your face.

     Oh, but that’s hard and I don’t know how to do it! It’s hard if you CHOOSE for it to be hard. You can just as easily CHOOSE for it to be easy. As for how to do it, just start paying closer attention to your own behaviors…how you respond and react to others, to situations.

     Keep track of your words and actions. Write your observations down someplace and review your notes every few days. Keep asking yourself what you are learning about yourself right this minute.

     You’ll surprise yourself. And odds are you’ll far exceed your own expectations of what you believed to be possible for your own physical, mental, and emotional health and happiness. Try it. You’ll like it! But don’t wait too long. There’s no time like the present!      

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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You can’t control your ship

while stoking the furnace!

     What IS it that makes business owners and managers so crazy when they’re confronted with the idea of hiring someone to do a task that they know they could do themselves?  Huh? I KNOW I’m not imagining this one. So answer the question.

     Why would someone who runs a business think she or he should set up his or her own website or write her or his own blog or news release, for example? To save money? Surely saving money is not a good answer.

     As we’ve discussed here often, no one makes money by saving money. Businesses only make money by selling. If you own or operate a struggling (or ambitious) business and you decide to do tasks that are not making money by actually disengaging yourself from the sales process, you are wasting money, not saving it.

     I have seen some very bright business owners step aside from the sales function to let the salespeople do the selling, and instead focus their energies on operational productivity or human resource management, or budget management, or manufacturing efficiency, then be astonished to see their ships go down while they are busily rearranging the deck chairs.

     FACT: No one (NO ONE) is better at selling what your business produces or provides than you are! If your business is struggling (or steaming “Full Ahead”), and you are not with one hand at the controls, actively selling, you may want to re-think your investment in survival (or growth) and see the role you’re playing for what it really is: an anchor!

     If you need a new or upgraded website or a punchy blog, or news releases that get printed and broadcast, and you can find a professional website developer you can trust who has a track-record for reliability…or a professional marketing writer who knows how to “storytell” your business messages and who has a track-record for sales results, for heaven’s sake: HIRE THEM and get on with selling!

     So what if you think you could design your own site or write your own content or marketing materials? It’s not worth you taking the time to do those things when you need to be selling because selling is the only way to make money and move your ship forward.

     Pay the professionals to do what they do best. It’s a cost of doing business. Trying to tackle non-sales projects yourself diverts your time, energy and money into non-productive directions and doesn’t make the best use of your knowledge, talents, and enthusiasm. Besides, if you do-it-yourself, and screw it up, it’ll cost you twice as much to get the same professionals to do emergency surgery at sea!

     One last thought: You can control your ship and sell at the same time. You can’t control your ship while you’re stoking the furnace or working below decks. Best wishes for smoothe sailing!  

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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Shut Your Business Down!

     Can the service your business provides be better? Are you in a position to MAKE it better? I would hope so, or you wouldn’t be likely to be visiting this blog for business owners and managers. But perhaps you think you need to live with what you’ve got?

     Maybe you feel like you just shouldn’t rock the boat? Or could it be that you might be stepping on someone else’s toes, or that service improvements wouldn’t work, or may create havoc in your industry or –let’s see– you could never get your dollar value back for the time invested?

     Anything like any of those reasons serve you as a quick answer so now you can move along to some other site? Do yourself a favor. Shut your business down tomorrow. You’re likely to have more success selling off your office or site supplies and equipment than you will staying where you are, doing what you’re doing. You find that insulting? Good! Maybe there’s hope yet.

     If the suggestion to hang up your spikes makes you angry, maybe you need to look in the mirror and shake yourself by the shoulders and breathe some new life into the services you’re providing. Making your services better is more likely, FYI, to INCREASE your business than decrease it.

     Why? Because people talk. People who get better quality services tell others, and this works much quicker and much deeper than any advertising can produce. A couple of years back, some shrewd entrepreneurs even invented the word BUZZ as the modern day equivalent of “Word of Mouth”– except that word of mouth is genuine; BUZZ is contrived.

     The point is that THIS– this economy, this time in history, this year, this month, this week– is in fact the time to start making better what you already have. Don’t let the biased mainstream news media, the zero business-experienced government, the monster union-dominated automakers, the moronic 37 trillion bank VP’s who all know less than one another convince you to sit back and take it on the chin!

     You didn’t start and grow your business to shut it down. Don’t let others lead you down the path of status quo. Now is the time to rise, to innovate, to take a fresh look at what you have, and who you have…associates, employees, customers, vendors, affiliates, neighbors, industry, community.

     How can you make more of all that now? What new ways can you pull your assets together to put yourself and your service business in a leadership position? What’s holding you back? It’s a choice. It’s your choice. 

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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“It Don’t Matter To Me!”

     That song title should be your answer (aside from the ungrammatical “don’t”) to any question about who’s to blame for this economy. All that matters in the end is what you are doing about it for your own business or professional practice.

     Whether you’re a doctor, a retailer, a small-size manufacturer, a distributor, agent, or service provider, it’s time to take a hard look at how you are dealing with your current spending plans. This, for example, is NOT the time to fold up the sales and customer service training rug and store it in the basement. Besides the fact that basement-stored rugs attract mold and mildew, there are better solutions.

     Check in with your local community college or adult education program for an inexpensive training option. Or, do it yourself! Or round-up a team of masters or doctoral students from a nearby university to put a program together for you.

     Many internship programs across the country award academic credits for firsthand real-life experiences. A combination of business and education or psychology majors should be able to package a good motivational training program for your business. Some training is better than no training!

     Just be sure you present such a program in the right light and discourage over-the-top expectations. Help your people to see such an occasion as an opportunity to foster idea exchanges and teamwork, instead of setting up training quality judgements. Point out that what they will get from any program is what they end up putting into it.

     Speaking of motivation, remember that small frequent rewards (like family entertainment arrangements and lunch invitations) are more meaningful in the overall scheme of things than high-priced permanent rewards (like salary/benefit increases).

     Look at ways to promote your business without having to bite the media advertising bullet that will undoubtedly break a tooth if not your wallet. www.BizBrag.com is a terrific free site to register with and post free news releases and newsy photos — every day if you like!

     People are selling everything under the sun on Twitter these days. Also for free. You need tenacious endurance to make Twitter work for you, but it will if you will. Didn’t tenacious endurance get you to where you are anyway? 

     Are you asking people in your family to help you with certain tasks that will help free up your time so you can be more focused on sales, for example? Maybe retired Uncle Harvey wouldn’t mind at all coming in a few times a week to do some light cleaning (in exchange for some sports tickets or a couple of dinners out) to help offset custodial service fees?

     Cover the tax-deductible cost of some business books for your college student son, daughter, neice, nephew, or cousin in exchange for some office, fieldwork or factory floor interns? Combine expenses with neighboring businesses? Shared transportation and shipping costs, even direct mail postage, advertising, clerical and website maintenance sharing are possible.

     Think it out. Tough it out. But stay focused in the process, and stimulate your OWN budget!    

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      . . . I’m open to your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thank you for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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Stop Beating Yourself Up!

     I’ve been hearing an inordinate amount of complaining of late from entrepreneurial types who are facing dried up venture capital sources, shut-down loan opportunities, and the literal disappearance of angel investors up and away into the distant heavens.

     So let’s explore some truths.You are not the reason for the bad economy. You are not the reason for anyone else’s problems. You are only the reason for your own problems and –harsh as you may think this sounds– you are probably the only reason for your business’s problems.

     Your feelings and your behaviors are your choice. Choose to make them good. Choose to make them easy. If your business has problems, think back and think hard and be brutally honest: you are likely the root of your business’s problems. And, yes, that’s also a choice. Ah, but you can just as easily choose to reverse direction.

     Stop making lame excuses for your business not doing as well as it should. Stop having unrealistic expectations for your business performance that are filled with empty hopes and wishes about what you imagine is possible. Stop justifying yourself with the barrage of pitiful media reports about how bad things are.

     Take the bull by the horns. Step up to the plate. Choose to put a positive attitude into your head and then begin to exercise it…consistently. Don’t accept anything less than the active pursuit of your goals as your daily regimen.

     YOU deserve better for yourself and your family and your business than to give it up to media and government know-nothings who haven’t a clue about what it takes to run and grow a successful business.

     Please forgive me for this tongue-lashing, butt-kicking lecture, but if it upsets you: A) Choose instead to see the value in rattling your cage and B) Use it as fuel to initiate positive action now.

     YOU are the smartest person on Earth about what your business needs to do to turn itself around and set the example for others. Now is your chance to make the difference that you set out to make when you started or took over your business. Be true to yourself, and your business will thrive.   

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  Hal@TheWriterWorks.com 

Thank you for visiting. Good night and God bless you!

“I am me. In all the world,

there is no one else

 exactly like me. 

I am OK!”

–Virginia Satir

     Run your own business? Post these 18 words on your dashboard, mirror and refridgerator . . . Why? Because even entrepreneurs need reassurance, and especially when economic uncertainties have a way of making us all feel like too many things–often including our selves–are sometimes NOT okay.

     Have you ever felt like that, or am I just imagining it? Have you felt like that more in recent times than in the past? Do you sometimes think maybe the news media is trying to sink your ship by heaping negative economy stories on your already overburdened shoulders?

     Does it start to feel suffocating? Do you step back every once in a while and start to question your own self-worth? Get out of it! Rattle your cage! Change the channel! Shut down the news!

     Do you really need to take the murders, muggings, accidents, freaky and bizarre incidents and people, and the incessant dwelling on negativity to bed with you every night? Do you really need to wake up with it every morning? 

     What would happen if you shut it all down for a few days and used the time instead to relax your brain and remind yourself how truly special and unique you are? Do you really think you would miss much? If you have doubts, take a quick trip to the library or on Google through past newspaper headlines.

     Go back 20, 50, 100 years! Surprise! The names and locations change, but the stories are mostly the same. It will be like missing a week of All My Children and General Hospital. Nothing new goes on.

     As a sort of sports version of the old expression to do reality checks by pinching yourself, I don’t recommend the method former baseball slugger Bobby Bonilla used to practice, but the idea worked for him; every at-bat, he hit himself on his helmet with his bat just before stepping up to the plate. You can be sure it helped him focus his attention.

     SOMEthing that only you know about can be a “focus trigger” for you. Take a minute and think about that one thing. What snaps your awareness back when your mind starts to drift? Figure it out and use it more. Snap your brain back to the reality that YOU ARE UNIQUE. That awareness, and following the path of reality that it conjures up, is The Ultimate Small Business Stimulus Package.

     In other words, get yourself cranked up, and keep yourself cranked up. It’s catching, and others –internal customers (like associates, employees and vendors) as well as external customers will respond in ways that bring you more business. Remember that what you love doing best is what you do best, and appreciating your self more will help you succeed at doing what you do best. Now THAT’s a stimulus package!       Good Night and God Bless You – halalpiar

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HAPPY FIRST BLOGBIRTHDAY!

For those of you who have been with this from the beginning (April 24, 2008), and those who have joined and visited along the way, thank you so very much! I hope you will continue to visit and comment and subscribe, and urge your business, personal, and professional growth-minded friends and associates to stop by. I am always open to your ideas and suggestions. Please comment or email me anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (“Businessworks” in the subject line).

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HOORAY for the good guys!

     It’s not every day that a consultant like me can nominate a client (like i.g. Burton & Company) for an annual Better Business Bureau award as most outstanding family business in the state…and see them win!

     Even after my project engagement with the company ended, I had the good fortune to see this business be honored (tonight at the DuPont Hotel in downtown Wilmington, Delaware) at a formal reception dinner hosted by the Delaware BBB and Governor Jack Markell.

     Now if you’ve read this far, you may be wondering who is i.g. Burton & Company anyway? And there’s little doubt that if you don’t know, you will most definitely be surprised to learn that we’re talking about –of all things– a car dealership!

     i.g.Burton & Company is 101 years old. The company maintains five locations in Milford and Seaford, Delaware. They are one of the nation’s leading dealerships for Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep,  Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and are the world’s oldest Blue-Bird Bus dealership as well.

     They didn’t stand in line behind the automakers they represent, looking for bailout money. They didn’t pull in their rugs and move out of town when Chevrolet and Chrysler hit the rocks.

     In fact, they actually INCREASED their charitable contributions to needy organizations. They INCREASED their customer service training programs. And they went ahead and completed a 6 year-old monster construction project that helped keep hundreds of employees on payroll.

     Of course they have strong financial backing. But why? How did their backing become so commited? BECAUSE i.g. Burton demonstrated commitment to their customers, their employees and their community.

     They didn’t get to be 101 and win an Outstanding Family Business award in a faltering economy by being the stereotypical car dealers. They are fifth generation owned and operated. A great many of their employees have worked there for 15, 20, 25, 30, and more years! (This, in a day when most car dealers seem to keep employees just for those numbers of DAYS!)

     What’s the secret? i.g. Burton & Company has built a long-standing reputation for overkill customer service and for contributing to and supporting wholeheartedly the Delmarva Peninsula communities they serve. The have earned the BBB award, and statewide respect as business leaders.

     They will earn your respect too anytime you’re driving through Delmarva Peninsula (The 2nd biggest peninsula in the U.S., thank you, if you’re not counting Florida). Stop in. Say Hi. Congratulate them on their award. They’ll make you feel proud of it just for having visited. Well done, Burton Family. And well done, Burton Family of Employees!  

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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Sorry, political types,

“hope” STILL is not the answer!

     I’ve had some flack lately about my “Hope is not the answer” messages. It seems a certain leftcoast-leaning political influence has gotten it’s ignorant, indignant, screaming self in an uproar over my having committed blasphamy because “HOPE” (combined with “CHANGE”) apparently continues to entrench itself as the rally cry of our profoundly inexperienced and badly misdirected federal government.

     I find this odd since never–in the history of the world–has HOPE created CHANGE.

     Hope SOUNDS good if you’re a politician (it just won a campaign!) or if you’re an out-of-touch religious leader (or a professional athlete; I hear lots of them respond to interview questions with “Hopefully…”). But as truth will have it, this line of thinking, dear business owners, operators, managers, and entrepreneurs, is a crock!

     It is unrealistic to the core. Nothing creates change except action!

     Nothing that’s “hoped for” happens without action. A “hope” is a wish. “When you wish upon a star…” is great stuff for kids, but it isn’t going to pull America out of the economic tailspin. Hope and wishing are NOT believing.

     Believing instills action. And only ACTION by small businesses can straighten our crooked path. Small businesses, entrepreneurial ventures and entrepreneurial spirit with ACTION platforms and agendas these leaders, these catalysts of change, can believe in, are what hold the key to financial recovery and growth.

     If we can get government to stop mollycoddling equally-incompetent corporate giants and start providing real, tangible job creation incentives to small business, we will actually have a chance to survive and thrive. Are you truly a leader or truly a follower?

     Will you pick up your phone and leave a message for your government representative that you favor REAL small business job creation incentives over corporate bailouts? Or will you just mosey along to another website, another blog, another email? Hmmm?     

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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Yes, you do need

to love your spouse!

     When you think your business is buckling under from economic strains and from government’s abject failure to provide meaningful job creation incentives for small business, there are still steps you can take now to get your business back on top. Yes, steps you can take, not HOPE. HOPE is not the answer. ACTION is the answer.

     What does it take? You need simply to get your head up out of the sand and turn around. Look at the other businesses around you…in the same building, on the same block, in the same town. in the same county, in the same state, in a neighboring state, or even in another country. Find businesses that are compatible with yours, whose services or products are complementary to yours.

     Accountants and bookkeeping services, computer hardware and software services, animal and produce farming, office supplies and office furniture, painters and sculptures, publications and Internet marketers, ad agencies and photographers, furniture and bedding companies, candy stores and dentists (just kidding there; wanted to make sure you’re still reading BECAUSE striking up strategic alliances with other businesses offers opportunities you don’t have now by yourself!)

     With another complementary business, you may be able to share marketing costs (even utilities if you’re in the same building), public relations impact (with joint news releases and co-sponsored events), customer service (by offering an extended array of products or services), databases (shared email addresses for promotional emails, for example), even staff (centralized reception or sales reps that may be too costly for one business to carry alone. And so it goes, on and on.

     The point is that the opportunities are only limited by your thinking and your attitude. If you think it’s better to go down with your ship than to step back to a co-captain position with part of your business, help yourself. The thing that’s important to remember is that strategic alliances are strategic alliances because they are not formal legal entities. They are simply ways of working together that have mutual benefits.

     Oh, and yes, you do need to love your spouse, but you need not love a strategic partner. You need only to have two businesses that recognize there’s strength in numbers that just does not exist for either business functioning independently. What have you got to lose by talking and trying? You might even come up with a situation that lifts both businesses off the map! You never know ’til you try. Nothing happens ’til you act!

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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!

News curiousity pumps media

to suck more business dollars 

    You make a living by providing products and services to customers or to other businesses. You see this period of time as appropriate to cut back on expenses and so, wherever possible, you opt for standard cookie-cutter representations in your promotional efforts because they’re less expensive. BIG mistake!

     FIRST of all, you will NEVER make money by cutting costs. You can ONLY make money by making sales!

     SECOND, stop believing all the mainstream media reports that nothing is selling and that the sky is falling. These news stories, designed to sell advertising space and time, are simply not true! They are exaggerated and over-emphasized on purpose.

Here’s the real-deal truth:

Struggling economy reports attract curiousity. Who’s struggling? Where? How much? Curiousity sells newspapers and news magazines and builds broadcast news audiences. Increased print and broadcast sales figures are used to pump up rate cards to suck more advertising dollars out of naive businesses that are already financially beleagured. 

     Contrary to most network TV news slants, for example, many products and services ARE in fact selling, and selling well! You need only look around you at what the most successful companies are doing to make that happen. Promotional programs that look and feel like everybody elses’ don’t make sales.

     Customized marketing tools and messages do make sales! People are buying from businesses that cater to them, that take a personalized approach, that interact, that educate, that prove and demonstrate performance of benefits, that back up features with meaningful warrantees and guarantees, and that lean to the green whenever possible!  

     The bottom line is that savvy companies are shortening up on their long over-priced traditional media budgets, and lengthening out on their customization approaches to low-priced Internet marketing. If your business hasn’t fully explored this thinking, consider the 4th and 5th Blogroll recommendations on the bottom right of this page. Both are excellent resources for customized Internet marketing services.

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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!