Doctors know where they’ve been

but they don’t know

where they’re going!

Today’s medical professionals are strapped to a rudderless ship at sea that’s being sucked into a raging storm.

Some politicos would have us believe that the scandalous fifteen-thousand-page Obamacare program (and when, by the way, was the last time anyone you know read 15,000 pages of anything?!) need not be such a shocking insult to healthcare consumers because after all, it helps “less fortunate” people to get medical care.

Steamrollered through an inept Congress, Obamacare appears to have little if anything to do with the realities of healthcare. Instead, Obamacare hints at having everything to do with the crippling economic and personal freedom limitations brought on by the relentless White House pursuit of dictating increased government controls on American lives.

The end result? We will definitely end up with fewer competent physicians.

And those who remain will clearly not be providing adequate care –regardless of competency–  because of the restrictions Obamacare piles on top of the restrictions already imposed on them that limit their ability to deliver meaningful health services.

But computerization is what tightens the noose around healthcare necks, some say. Not so. The mismanagement and misappropriation of administrative computerization advances by interfering and uninformed government misfits and ignorant insurance providers is what is at the root of today’s healthcare delivery shortcomings.

The de-humanizing of humanizing services is the characterization that uninformed and manipulative individuals, agencies, and organizations have wrought as they’ve twisted administrative computerization advances into shortcut invasions of patient and physician privacy. Have we lost even having thoughts of human dignity?

When “DOCTOR’S ORDERS” becomes “DOCTORS ORDERS” (as in orders issued to doctors by the White House) to conduct patient gun ownership surveys to build a bigger “Big-Brother-Watching” database universe designed to gain yet more government control, do you think this might possibly get just a bit in the way of doctors performing healthcare services?

Of course EMR (electronic medical records) and EHR (electronic health records) have succeeded at putting patient care over paper care. But are these important advances enough to be really helping doctors to know where they’re going?

And the Internet has fully armed healthcare consumers to be better prepared to understand and manage their own healthcare issues, to be more informed about diagnostics and treatments, and to work more productively with their doctors. But are these advances enough to be able to really help doctors to know where they’re going?

The whole lean organization, lean management fad (where did Quality Circles go?) may be a solution, but is not THE solution. It is simply a band-aid acknowledgement that things have gotten so bad, we can no longer afford for the physician to spare a minute or two extra with each patient and patient family to help heal, and help ensure and reassure a sense of well-being.

More dollars are saved. Care is more efficient. But –at the ultimate point of care– doctors don’t get to spend more time with their patients, so is this increased efficiency really enough to help doctors know where they’re going?

Being preoccupied with efficiency necessitates lower levels of individual healthcare delivery. And last time I looked, healthcare was a profession dedicated to individual care. Perhaps it’s time to redefine the word “care”? The bottom line is that doctors are literally trapped.

Adherence to rules and regulations designed to increase control over their skills and abilities to earn livings commensurate with their training and societal value is squashing the very lifeblood out of healthcare. And Obamacare will surface as the culprit when it’s too late to matter — unless enough small business owners and practice administrators and doctors start to make waves

. . . NOW.

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0911

You will NEVER

have enough money

to start a business!

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this before,” your stubborn venturesome self may say by way of dismissing the ugly truth, but dismissing reality doesn’t make it go away. Your offhandedness will inevitably come back to nip you in the tush. UNLESS! Unless you can get yourself to accept reality unconditionally and plan (that nasty entrepreneur word again) accordingly.

Ah, and one other very important asset you need to bring to your business startup table: PLUCK! [No, not as in fingering a banjo!] Pluck as in backbone, bravery, courage, daring, fortitude, gameness, grit, guts, mettle, moxie, nerve, zest, spunk. This is not to suggest recklessness in talking money. It is rather to suggest being realistically bold and fearless.

“Realistically”?

If you grow your business idea to the point where a major infusion of someone else’s cash or equipment is needed in order to survive and/or continue to grow, you’d better be prepared to give up total control in exchange. This translates to the need for you to be prepared to hedge your bet, and possibly diversify your interests (if your investors allow you to!).

Starting a business is not a task for the meek. It is not a retirement or corporate escape. It is not a hobby. It is not simply taking advantage of a spur-of-the-moment opportunity. It is not a one-night stand. When you start a business, you marry your idea! Without some grand inheritance, how many marriages start out with enough money?

No matter how carefully you budget and think through where your idea is headed, no matter how much arm-in-arm support stands with and around you, no matter how many promises you get from vendors, suppliers, ancillary services, and government agencies, you can be sure of only one thing: You’ll never have enough money to start a business.

So? So assess yourself first. Don’t dwell on it, but do be honest. Determine exactly how much pluck is inside you, and how realistic your attitude is. See where and who and how to plug the openings. If you don’t, your startup efforts are destined to fall apart and your financial exposure will be crippling.

You need to substitute for being under-capitalized by rallying your strengths and surrounding yourself with the reliable strengths of others whose skills and experience can fill in your gaps! It CAN be done. Many have succeeded. But many more have failed. The difference is pluck and a realistic attitude. How much of each have you?

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Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US

National Award-Winning Author & Brand Marketer – Record Client Sales

Open Minds Open Doors

FAULT AND BLAME

 DON’T MAKE SALES!

Here we sit, small business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs, on the day of the first 2012 Presidential Debate. We are seething with anger, frustration, disappointment, and stress over what has and hasn’t happened since the last 2008 Presidential Debate. We blame it all on the political candidate we least agree with. And the harder we blame, the more we lose.

We have seen our businesses and personal finances go every direction except up.

We have become more outspoken about that, especially as we’ve seen respect for America’s military and America’s job and housing markets collapse . . . and food and gas and transportation prices explode through the roof! Normally free-spending customers have become suddenly frugal and stoic. All of that must, after all, be somebody’s fault.

But let’s be honest with ourselves here. How much real fault sits on our own shoulders for not planning properly, for not adjusting our business and professional practice development strategies appropriately, for not having solid contingency plans in place? It’s true that some circumstances prevent proactive business management. But many do not.

The way I see it, we have indeed had pathetic government leadership, but aren’t we just as much to blame as anyone for not keeping our own businesses fluid as they slid sideways across the top of shifting sands. After all, we chose to stand there in the first place. With that commitment, comes the responsibility to be flexible and stay forever on the alert. Am I alone here?

I’m not suggesting that going with the flow is easy. But, with a small business, it’s essential.

And that means staying tuned in to government screw-ups and broken promises because they will–in the end–affect where, when, and if you grow… or even if you survive! Easy to “Tuesday morning quarterback,” yes, but we’re looking at a lot more shifting sand before we see solid ground no matter who gets or doesn’t get elected.

It took us time to get here; it will take time to get out of here. So, there’s no time like the present to reassess your branding efforts, to initiate an overhaul of priorities and to inject time and expertise (necessary business growth ingredients that no doubt feel unaffordable) into monthly, weekly, and daily schedules.

That investment alone can make the difference for you no matter what happens on November 6th. And hopefully something will happen. The bottom line:

SALES MAKE BUSINESSES GROW.

FAULT AND BLAME AND PROMISES DON’T MAKE SALES!

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HAL ALPIAR Writer/Consultant 302.933.0911 TheWriterWorks.com, LLC

National Award-Winning Author & Brand Marketer – Record Client Sales

Open Minds Open Doors

Consider the worst,

 but assume the best!

There’s no longer any excuse for being surprised in business (or life) when you’re able to discipline yourself to practice the thinking: “What’s the worst that could happen?” in every major decision . . . and then proceed to believe that only the best outcome will actually occur to reward your efforts!

Mind over matter? Perhaps. But, more than that, each worst case scenario situation you consider will better prepare you for the reality of what’s possible while it protects your belief in making happen what’s probable.

In other words, you will move forward most effectively when you’ve weighed the risks involved realistically.

Every leader worth her or his salt will attest to this thinking. The difference between it and a proverbial doomsday attitudes is simply that considering bad outcomes need only be a momentary departure from the positive thrust of making something positive happen.

Dwelling on negativity produces negativity.

Well, you say, making negative thoughts be fleeting ones is easy to SAY, you say. Ah, but it’s also easy to DO. Doesn’t it all come down to a matter of choice, after all? We do, by the way, choose our behaviors, yes?

So can we not simply choose to make  negative thoughts be benchmarks with a caution flag?

Who’s to say that considering the worst possible outcome has to be a long, drawn-out, analytical affair? It’s as quick as saying, “If I take this deal, I could lose the farm” and then realize the risk is not a reasonable one. (Contrary to popular opinion, by the way, Entrepreneurs take only reasonable risks.)

If you have trouble stopping your own runaway train when decisions come to the surface, force yourself to close your mouth and take a deep breath through your nose. Get more oxygen into your brain and more blood-flow into your muscles. Then exhale the stress slowly through your mouth.

Every choice you make is a better choice when you have better control of yourself. More deep breathing more often will put you in better control of your self. Is that a no-brainer, or what? All from making the choice to consider the worst that could happen before moving forward? Whew! Look at what you just taught yourself. The lesson is worth repeating:

Make the choice to consider the worst

that could happen before moving forward.

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HAL ALPIAR Writer/Consultant 302.933.0911 TheWriterWorks.com, LLC

National Award-Winning Author & Brand Marketer – Record Client Sales

Does Your Mission Statement Have Vision?

Just because the media and politicians tell us the economy is getting better? Just because we’re looking at a healthcare reform that has absolutely nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with costing business more money? Just because enemy combatant terrorist situations surface from those we’re told are not really terrorists, and from circumstances that we’re assured do not exist? Just because global-warming hoaxers have us running to refrigeration investments?

~~~~~~~

We’re probably feeling like confusion is nothing new, right? So why not live with a little more?

Well, here’s why: The business you own or manage doesn’t need to be as misguided and convoluted as politicians and the media. Remember they get paid for creating confusion. Your success depends on keeping things simple.

Keeping things simple starts with a foundation of mutual trust, an integrity attitude, tenacious awareness, and consistent hard work.

First off, don’t let anyone tell you to work smarter and not harder. That’s baloney! Every business success comes from hard work. Next, don’t let people confuse you about the characteristics and values of Mission and Vision Statements. [No, they are NOT the same!]

A Mission statement is essentially a declaration of intent, challenge and pursuit. It is your goal statement that clearly and succinctly explains what you plan to accomplish over what specific period of time and by what means. It is action-focused. Its ultimate success will be determined by the extent to which you cultivate mutual Trust among those you work with and oversee.

And, like every meaningful goal, your Mission Statement needs t0 be specific, flexible, realistic, have a due date, and be in writing. [Without all five criteria, you’ve nothing more than a fantasyland wishlist!]

A Vision statement is a heart-and-soul summation of where you see your business in 5-10 years. It is a picture you paint in your mind and share with others. It answers the question: If you succeed in your mission, where will you be? Its success is determined by your practice of —and ultimately your reputation for— high Integrity on a consistent day-to-day basis.

Your Vision Statement is a set of words that best describes what you imagine your future state of existence to be, and how you expect (hope) to be viewed by others: your employees, associates, vendors, customers, markets, industry or profession, and community. It is dream-focused. Its primary value is to inspire pursuit of your Mission.

What’s your Mission for next year? What’s your Vision for  five years out? For beyond 2020?

Oh, and in the same fashion that it helps to start ANY mission with 20/20 vision, it is often most useful to put your 2020 Vision on the table (to keep focused on it) while you develop your present Mission (or while you think up the ways to get where you want to end up).

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Hal@BusinessWorks.US

National Award-Winning Author & Brand Marketer – Record Client Sales

You’re an entrepreneur, right? 

You own or operate a small business or professional practice. You’re in the hot seat 24/7. You’re worried about sales, overhead expenses, taxes, insurance, legal issues, and making the most of social media opportunities. You are constantly trying to be two places at once. You need a break. Just thinking about priorities gives you a headache. You’re talking to yourself?

So maybe it’s time to stop worrying and stop thinking. Keep your goals, but get rid of the “overkill” and simply get on with it. Let it go. Do it. Follow your instincts. Go with the flow. You think perhaps those are crazy unprofessional notions?

I have some news to share:

You got where you are not because you followed some carefully-crafted strategic plan.

Nor did you get to be captain of your ship by dutifully following orders, or a master plan outline, or some naive business school professor’s idea of business development rules, or some archaic family inheritance guidelines.

You are a maverick. But maybe you forgot? Did you forget that you have achieved what you have achieved by taking action and making adjustments and taking action again, and making more adjustments and taking more action?

Trial and error? Sure. So what? Something wrong with that? It worked for Henry Ford and Thomas Edison and Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey and Mary Kay Ashe and Walt Disney any other success you can name.

But, you might say, you’ve been chasing your tail to survive the economic quagmire (the one that started as a mud puddle in 2007, and has since become the recipient of relentless dumping of mismanaged government quicksand).

Or has your entrepreneurial spirit been dashed by industry or professional incompetence, corporate or union greed, misunderstanding friends or family, or by government interference, and you’ve settled into an acceptance mode.

You need to re-discover yourself! Realize –first and foremost– you are you and you are unique and no one else is exactly like you and you already have the ability and the power to reverse or redirect your engines to get where you want to go without dragging along the burdens that outside influences try to impose.

How? How does one do that? By making the choice. All behavior is a choice. If it’s not an active choice, it’s an inactive choice or the result of something you may have chosen long ago. But you don’t need to choose to keep living with it. You can stop choosing to settle for inferior quality, unproductive activities, incompetent outside influences.

Okay, so you have to pay taxes. But you don’t have to choose to worry about them.

Choose instead to move on.

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

“The entrepreneur is

essentially a visualizer

and an actualizer.

He sees exactly

how to make it happen.”

 — ROBERT L. SCHWARTZ, Founder, The New School for Entrepreneurs

When I “graduated” from what was once The New School for Entrepreneurs in Tarrytown, New York, it was with my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds. I had the entrepreneurial success idea of all time percolating in my professorial brain all during the program’s intensive retreat-style weekends, but could bring only a Fortune 500 corporate background to the table.

I came away from the Entrepreneurs program experience with lots of material to weave into the college classes I was teaching. I came away with a better understanding of who I was and what I was all about, and that I was “an entrepreneur” of sorts for being so hellbent on making ideas work (and not the weirdo I was sometimes accused of being).

I ended up creating and copyrighting “Corporate Entrepreneurs” and “Doctorpreneurs.” I used what I learned to help start hundreds of successful businesses.

I learned that the Entrepreneur does not fit any definition. But being one usually means you share a number of characteristics and traits evidenced by other entrepreneurs.

• You are first and foremost a catalyst of society.
• In your own–usually underestimated–way, you are a “mover and shaker.”
• You possess the unique combination of vision and follow-through.
• You take reasonable risks.

You are the key —the secret— ingredient that’s missing in corporate think-tanks, and in every level of government.

A true entrepreneur running the U.S. Postal Service, for example, would be competing head-to-head with FedEx and UPS instead of folding up sidewalk mailboxes, cutting back offices, hours, and work schedules and raising prices. You would know that you have the world’s greatest address delivery database and network, and you’d figure out how to take over the world of email.

But what entrepreneur in her or his right mind would want to spend a lifetime untangling a 237-year-old pile of knots?

Entrepreneurship is not dead. It is lurking.

Entrepreneurs are sitting quietly in the shadows watching and waiting for the ever-dwindling opportunities that earmark today’s economic quagmire to show some signs of life. Entrepreneurship-driven activities are on hold waiting for revitalized and more encouraging government responses. Entrepreneurs are waiting for renewed trust in government representation.

• Who, after all, wants to initiate (or pay for) an innovative new business venture that gets over-taxed and over-regulated before it even gets its startup feet wet?

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial spirit will rise again. And when they do, they will usher in a new “Age of Enterprise” unlike any we have ever known. And besides revolutionizing the Internet and smart-phone worlds, part of the fallout will be that the U.S. Postal Service will no longer exist. Another part will be a new sense of self-enlightenment!

What are YOU doing now

to ensure that your business survives and thrives?

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Hal@Businessworks.US

Don’t try to be

something you’re not!

A good many over-zealous entrepreneurs (are there any other kind?) seem to think that the solution to their financial woes is to try to be all things to everyone…”Whaddever ya need, we got it!” I heard a small business owner say recently, and he wasn’t talking about one type or category of products or services. He meant, literally, that he could provide ANYthing.

Well, of course he couldn’t really do that, but he was ready to pounce on any opportunity to make a buck — willing to stand on his head and spit wooden nickles if he thought it would part you with the money in your pocket. A huckster? Not really. He was simply misunderstanding that those who purport to be jacks of all trades are no longer credible or desirable in today’s world.

When economic times get tough,

dig in, don’t spread out!

People want knowledgeable, reputable, professional specialists –doctors, plumbers, teachers, builders, most retailers, consultants, lawyers, manufacturers, online businesses, et al. Most of us save up to deal with fly-by-night generalist businesses for when we’re on vacation and expect to get “taken” by those who cater to tourists . . . but not the rest of the year!

It’s easy and tempting to jump on a customer request when it’s not something that’s really up your alley if you’re expenses are dragging you closer to the brink of desperation than your income can comfortably offset. It’s easy and tempting, but it’s also stupid! In the end, trying to be all things to all people will turn around and slap you in the face . . . or kick your butt!

Force yourself to stop and think about what YOU want when YOU are on the buying end. If that’s not enough to turn your brain around, remember the old  Miracle On 34th Street Christmas movie storyline about how much the Macy’s Santa does for Macy’s by sending customers that Macy’s had no ability to serve to Macy’s competitor, Gimbels.

That’s not just some fantasy Christmas movie. There are millions of similar dynamic incidents that drive successful entrepreneurial enterprises today. What people want from you is trust. They want honesty. They want you to help them solve a problem, not try to sell them something they don’t need or want. Should you send everyone to your competitor? Of course not.

But customers don’t want to deal with a business that pretends to have the answer to their dreams because it represents a “quick buck” opportunity. Professional salespeople know this. Many entrepreneurs do not, and continue to try being something they’re not. Bottom line? People are not stupid. They know when a business owner is pretending.

The best solution is authenticity. It wins more business in a minute than years of make-believe.

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Hal@Businessworks.US

If the past sits in judgment

of the present,

will  the future be lost?

I heard a twist of this (the headline above) on the radio recently. I can’t tell you when or where or who, but it rang a bell. Is it just my imagination or do we too often –in life and in business– get ourselves caught up in over-analyzing what went wrong and what went right in order to decide what we should be doing today? Some of my earlier posts called it ANALYSIS PARALYSIS.

Contrary to many popular beliefs, over-analyzing is not a symptom of entrepreneurship.

We live (men especially) in an analytical world. We watch instant TV sports replays in slow motion and stop action in order to know down deep in our souls whether the ball actually touched the ground before it was caught, or while it was caught, or after it was caught. I mean, like who could possibly sleep without a satisfying answer to that nagging question?

Probably, an entrepreneur. Okay, well, there are entrepreneurs and there are psychopreneurs!

Those who are unfortunate enough to have to make a living working for the government or some mega corporation probably spend half their careers taking apart research reports and study findings looking for clues about what happened or didn’t happen last month, last quarter, last year, last decade . . . in order to adjust a present course of action.

Entrepreneurs make adjustments on the fly. If they’re wrong, they adjust the adjustment and try again.

Most corporate and government managers, for instance, weigh risks then use analytics to justify not taking them. Who in their right mind, for example, would want to make waves that could topple the corporate ladder she or he is climbing?

Entrepreneurs take reasonable risks (which rarely if ever includes climbing political ladders). Entrepreneurs will bet their profits, but they won’t bet their farms. They will start a new side business, but they won’t visit casinos or stuff their pockets with lottery tickets — those are not reasonable risks.

The problem of course is that the more we tend to assess who did what to whom and what broke when and why the horse we led to water didn’t drink, the farther away we get from moving forward, from innovating, from controlling our own destinies, from making the differences each of us wants to make in this world.

Entrepreneurs, by virtue of how they think and act, and choose to believe, represent society’s real catalysts for change. Maybe they do work harder and not smarter, but they get things done. They alone drive the economy. They alone represent the opportunities that government and corporate giant environments fail to breed.

Entrepreneurs move constantly forward into the future while focusing on the present.

When you find product or service you like, that works the way it’s supposed to and is economical to boot, know that it was likely created and cultivated without excessive analysis . . . and thank an entrepreneur.

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hal@businessworks.US

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