Survey this, doubters!

(GRATEFULNESS, LIKE FLATTERY,

WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE) 

I know there’re places in Maine with 9-10 feet of snow. But they know how to deal with it up there. Here, the “near blizzard conditions” that dumped 4-6 inches of immobilizing snow on America’s second biggest peninsula (unless you count Florida as a peninsula, which I suppose…) has given me cabin fever. And when you read the results of some of my phone calls this week, you may think I’ve gone completely off the deep end. But here goes: my unofficial telephone survey shows —

     9 out of 10 business owners from 9 different industries in 6 different states who I’ve spoken with in the last three days (including one with 50 locations, and another with 400 employees, and yet another with three employees) have ALL said the most important thing about the bad economy is that it has made them “grateful” for what they have. 

     All 10? Yup, all 10. They all said the word, “grateful”? Yup, all 10. In fact, in each discussion, gratefulness was underscored as a dominent factor in keeping business growth steady while neighboring businesses were crumbling.

     Hard to believe, right? I thought so too, but the more I probed, the more that I was reassured of the importance of being eternally appreciative on a day-to-day basis as a leading factor in keeping associate, employee, vendor, and customer attitudes positive. And positive attitudes beget positive business!

     “When I look around me at other companies in our industry, I’m really grateful to be where we are right now,” is the kind of comment I heard over and over. “I’m grateful to have such loyal people working for me!” and “We’re grateful to our customers that they trust and support us during these tough times,” and “I can’t tell you how grateful we are to the bankers in this town who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us and are helping us to get through this recession.”

     SO, take a good hard look at yourself. Go ahead. Go to the bathroom mirror if you need to; lock the door if you need to. Look yourself in the eye. Have you been appreciating what you have? Can you act, think and talk more grateful?

     Maybe you can’t relate to the millions of people without food or clothes or a roof or healthcare because they’re not in your neighborhood, or on your street, or in your back yard . . . because the success you’ve had has served to insulate you from the anguish, poverty, hunger, and ill health.

     But it’s out there, and you need to be grateful that you are not. You need to be grateful that you have managed to be in the right places at the right times and have kept your life and your business on track. It didn’t happen by itself. It didn’t happen by chance.

     It happened because you built a reputation for trust and integrity by demonstrating trust and integrity. Be grateful you had the good sense and judgement and abilities to follow that path.          

     Appreciate who you are and what you have. Appreciate your self!                    halalpiar

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“We should enjoy here

while we’re here,

’cause there’s no here there!”

                                                                                      –ZIGGY

     Okay, all you entrepreneurs, don’t start with the excuses that you have no time for time management. That’s a choice. You know as well as I do that you need to MAKE the choice and TAKE the time to do a few things besides business, and that this is as good a day as ever to give it a go!

     Yes, it really is true that you need to take time out to eat. Maybe you thought that candy stash in your desk drawer would get you through the day, or that your idea of good nutrition and getting your daily “greens” meant the pickle on a Big Mac or the fried green pepper with the sausage sandwich, but guess what?

     So that little kick in the butt reminded you to eat something that’s actually good for you. Good. Next, let’s look at how else you spend your business-steamrollering 24 hours (besides the 4-7 hours sleep). No, YOU look. I don’t really want to know. Take 20 seconds out to look at how you’re allocating those 17-20 hours each day. If it’s all work and . . . you know the rest.

     I just want that you should open your mind to open some doors by building in at least two or three of the following seven activities every day to supplement your focus on the thought that you need to take time to WORK because it is the price of success.

     Why should these other seven activities matter? Because too often (besides WORK) ill health and broken families become the price of success. So here . . . seven focused activities that those most successful businesspeople of good health and strong families routinely include in daily existences:

1. Take time to THINK; it is the source of power.
2. Take time to PLAY; it is the secret of perpetual youth.
3. Take time to READ; it is the foundation of wisdom.
4. Take time to WORSHIP; it is the highway to reverence.
5. Take time to BE FRIENDLY; it is the road to happiness.
6. Take time to LAUGH; it is the music of the soul.
7. Take time to DREAM; it is hitching your wagon to a star.

. . . and, the bottom line: CHOOSE to take time to live!  Or as cartoon character Ziggy once said:

“We should enjoy here while we’re here,

’cause there’s no here there!”

 # # #

What ARE you smoking,

Mr. Woodward?

     Yesterday, an Associated Press writer named Calvin Woodward naively proclaimed that “Small businesses don’t create jobs!” What are you smoking, Mr. Woodward?

     In his astonishingly unprofessional, biased, gushing diatribe, he attempted to influence readers to join him in blindly supporting the terribly misdirected, partison-political “stimulus package” that takes direct aim at entrepreneurs…that seeks to cripple America’s small business owners and operators who account for the vast majority of U.S. job creation.

     As if that wasn’t insulting enough, Woodward went on to note that there are twenty million (20,000,000!) small businesses in this country that don’t even have employees. What an utterly ridiculous and misleading statement!

10 QUESTIONS FOR YOU, MR. WOODWARD . . . 

1. What, Mr. Woodward, do you think the twenty million small business owner/operators DO if they are not “employees”?
2. Where do you think new jobs come from?
3. Where do you think new jobs come from?
4. Where do you think new jobs come from?
5. Where do you think new jobs come from?
6. Where do you think new jobs come from?
7. Where do you think new jobs come from?
8. Where do you think new jobs come from?
9. Where do you think new jobs come from?
10. Didn’t Apple and Microsoft, as just two quick examples) come from one-person businesses that started in garages? 

     The United States of America would not even EXIST without entrepreneurs and small business growth to create jobs.

     It’s called Capitalism, Mr. Woodward. It works. It’s been proven. It’s called being careful with spending. It works. It’s been proven. Show us a Socialist agenda that works, Mr. Woodward! Show us that the doomed-to-failure stimulus plan is not a socialist tool to create deepening dependency on government. Of course it is. Every entrepreneur knows that. 

     And don’t you think the coming $13 a week more in every paycheck will be the height of disillusionment when a year down the road the unchanged tax laws will require employees to cough all that money (and more!) back up, plus re-tax small businesses to boot?

     I heard The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore (WSJ Editorial Board and Senior Economics Writer) comment today on WABC New York Radio that “entrepreneurs are capitalists and capitalists cannot exist without capital.”

     He explained for the public what all of us already know who run our own businesses: that entrepreneurs start new businesses and expand existing ones, and need capital investments in order to do those things. While some of these ventures fail, many (like the two examples above) succeed and create jobs as they grow.

     The so-called stimulus package does everything possible to put a chokehold on small business owners and entrepreneurs. Where does that leave us? Isn’t it jobs that ultimately stimulate the economy? Well, maybe not. Maybe jobs are not as important as many of us believe.

     Maybe we who own and run small businesses should all just throw our hands up and quit, and file for unemployment and foodstamps and welfare and other “stimulus” plan handouts. Hey, life would be easier, wouldn’t it?

     Oh, wait, I forgot, we can’t all do that because there wouldn’t be enough businesses around to pay the taxes to support these “spread the wealth” programs. And we surely wouldn’t want to prevent needy folks who choose not to work from having a chunk of change from all that wealth spreading.    Halalpiar

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A smack

alongside the head,

a kick in the butt, or

cash under the table…

are not always

the best motivators!

     Yesterday we resurrected Abraham Maslow’s “Heirarchy of Needs” to explain the compelling backdrop to his definitive theory of motivation, and provide some practical examples. Maslow’s Theory essentially says that effective (i.e., satisfying and productive) motivation occurs only by understanding, measuring and rewarding individuals at the specific need level each represents at any given point in time.

     I suggested the best way to accomplish this is to “be a detective” in order to determine where someone is “coming from” and what it is that best makes her or him “tick.” This, I noted, is particularly important because (except for those with unhealthy emotional burdens) we all tend to change need levels with some regularity, and often instantaneously, depending on circumstances.

For those not connected to Miami CSI or Law & Order, I recognize this detective task can seem daunting to say the least, because you simply may not want to expend the energy or approach the point of intimacy that may be required to determine, for example, a particular employee’s need level.

     So, like many of life’s choices, you must decide how important it really is for you to motivate someone in a manner that is most meaningful and appreciated by that individual, which of course means that it is also most productive for your business.

     If you and your business are in fact heartily invested in a person’s performance and general well-being, you will want to explore the idea of putting Maslow’s Theory to work.

     The most important and effective first step in this process is for you to get better focused on what makes YOU tick! When you are able to figure out your own need level history and movements, you will be putting yourself in a better position to maximize the potential and loyalty of others.

     How to do this: Consider joining a personal and professional development growth group. Many of these cater to business owners and managers who share similar concerns. If you’re not uncomfortably threatened by the idea of it and can afford it, try attending a group therapy session; these can be enormously healthy and helpful experiences if you stay focused on what you can learn about yourself. Or simply take a course in photography or painting or sculpting or creative writing or crafts or pottery. 

     Take advantage of every opportunity to learn more about your SELF . . . who you really are, deep down. Attend self-development conferences and workshops. Read. Try writing a memoir or –an even better (and quicker) exercise that most people find revealing to say the least, write your own obituary.

     See what you can learn about you, about how you respond (or react) to different issues, incentives, people, places, situations. There is no right or wrong here. There is only exploring and learning. Then application. Apply what you find out about what it takes to motivate yourself, and –from that informed perspective– begin to do what it takes to keep the best people on your team.  

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Buyers “A Sea of Skepticism”

     TRUST is what reversing this economy is all about. And we can’t wing it with lip service. Consumers are a sea of skepticism. In fact, by just telling customers and prospects to “Trust Us” we are setting a failure tablecloth out for the picnic!

     We’ve got to earn and demonstrate trust to make it move from low to high by investing time, energy, and dedication to proving the value of the products and services we represent. We need to do this with consistent performance. We need to do this instead of pushing unit and commodity sales.

     One of my all-time great sales motivational heroes, Zig Ziglar, teaches adherence to the acronym T.R.U.S.T:

T~~THINK

R~~RELATE

U~~UNCOVER NEEDS

S~~SELL SOLUTIONS

T~~TAKE ACTION

     You’ll find this and more, by the way, in past SUCCESS magazine stories and Zig Ziglar’s sales-inspiring newsletters as well as new and time-tested thinking from Zig’s son Tom on Twitter, even in recent posts here like: FEARLESS SELLING

     Anyway, one SUCCESS article’s lead-in quote is from Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Sales.

     Gitomer says, “Today’s salespeople better be question-based, value-driven, customer-focused, and be able to prove their product rather than try to sell it. Proof,” he says, “comes from testimonials, not sales presentations.” 

Or, if I could put a little phrase-twist to work:

The proof is in the pudding,

not in the words on the package.  

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

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

DON’T FISH OFF

COMPANY DOCKS!

     This old warning from my first boss about 2,000 years ago is another of those moralistic admonitions that stands as true and tall today as it did then, maybe even more so.  It is virtually (and probably literally) impossible to conduct business as usual, when you’re dating your cubical mate, or “fellow secretary” (hmmm) or the boss’s brother or sister (actually, mother, in one example I heard of)!

     It never seems like it could possibly be a problem (HA! Have you been following this season’s “24”?) until it becomes a problem.  On-the-job sexual relationships threaten everyone on the job.  The ripples (and occasionally shock waves!) can compromise more than just participant integrity.  How about the integrity of a nation, Mr. Clinton?

     Is this advice rightfully proclaimed “sexist” in and of itself?  Well, you know, certain stereotypes, like certain examples of police profiling, exist for a reason.  “Brokeback Mountain” aside, we rarely if ever hear about tough guys getting it on.  I mean, when was the last time you saw two construction workers tongue kissing or holding hands at lunch hour?

     On the other hand (pun intended), the career environments and lifestyles of healthcare and hospitality industry professionals–particularly doctors, nurses, therapists, hotel/motel managers and housekeepers–provide the makings of a breeding ground for on-the-job sex. 

     Where else are workers surrounded by beds, working in close quarters and dealing with physical contact and physical needs?  Where else do workers take breaks in co-ed locker rooms and linen closets.  And aren’t these all people who work exceptionally long hours often under high stress? 

     With The Corporate Communicator ezine (free via www.bonmotcomms.com) telling us that “the demand for transparency is at an all-time high,” don’t we need to step back a minute and see that “TRANSPARENCY” in business means EVERYTHING in business?  

     Transparency is not a limiting concept.  Rather it suggest a notion that is all-encompassing.  Obviously, intimate relationships with people at work is as much a part of that as a business’s ability to deliver the products and services that it says it is delivering  

     Knowing where to look for what and for whom at any given moment on any given job is a wonderous thing.  And of course there are always exceptions, but at a time when jobs are at a premium, it’s not likely to be in anyone’s best interests to be looking for sex in all the wrong places, y’think?     halalpiar  

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Is Trust An Evasive Quality?

A fictional exchange—–  

• “Listen, Dr. J.M., it was like pulling teeth here to get my manager to get this deal done for you today; we don’t usually…”
• “Trust me, Mr. Ripsuoff, you don’t ever want to pull teeth!”
• “Hey, why should I trust you?  You’re a dentist.  I only trust dentists when I’m in the chair!  Ha!  Ha!”
• “Well, why should I trust you?  You’re a car salesman.  I only trust car salesmen when they’re at home asleep!  Ha!  Ha!”

                                  ___________________________________

     Trust does seem to be an evasive quality these days, but –simply for that reason– it IS what customers, clients and patients want most.  In fact, it’s surprising but true that with most people buying into media exaggerations of economic woes, that more customers are actually in search of trustworthy businesses and sales reps to do business with than they are in saving a few dollars.

The bottom line is that the most desireable commodity a business can offer in today’s low trust-dominated industrial and consumer marketplaces, is high trust!

      Okay, this is not a huge problem for long-established companies, say 50-100 years old.  But because high trust has a lot to do with reputation, high trust pursuit is clearly an issue for young and new companies.

     So you’re young or new, whaddaya do?  [Sorry, the poet surfaces occasionally.]  First, you forget everything you ever knew about bending over backwards for customers, clients and patients because now you need to go one better and virtually stand on your head for them.  It’s possible, but unlikely you could ever over-communicate with them.

     I’m not talking about running your mouth; I’m talking about using frequent website updates, and blogs (because blogs attract increased search engine rankings which attract website visitors and interaction which attract sales), and emails, and telephone follow-ups and “how goes it?” calls.  And, by the way, NOTHING beats a personal handwritten note!

     In its heyday, IBMs motto was that

“The sale begins after the sale is made!” 

     Service.  Good service enhances reputation.  Voila!  Reputation unlocks the high trust treasure chest.  Who cares?  You should.

    “The demand for transparency,” says online publisher Angelique Rewers, “is at an all-time high.”  No longer, she says, do we have the luxury of communicating different messages to different audiences.  The instantaneous mindset of the social media revolution has changed this landscape, probably forever.

     As a young or new business, this means speaking the truth with a single and consistent voice to all customers –internal as well as external– ALL of the time, without exception.

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Hal@Businessworks.US

“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! 

COMPUTER UNDERWARE

I was prompted into a business consciousness stream today by a reference I saw to socio-economic, attitude, and taste divisions between generations having symbolic significance in changes over the years represented by underwear.

I noticed the analogy in Angelique Rewer’s brilliant online publication, The Corporate Communicator www.bonmotcomms.com , and remembered a Time/Newsweek/Sports Illustrated ad I did (over 25 years ago!) for a fledgling computer service company. 

Over an illustrated ghosted assemblage of computer hardware and floppy disks (You DO remember those? They came after carbon paper), the headline said simply:

COMPUTER UNDERWARE

The copy that followed reasoned that “HARDWARE & SOFTWARE CAN GET YOU NOWHERE without COMPUTER UNDERWARE, the ongoing professional training and reliable service support you’ll require to go under your hardware and software . . . “

You’re stunned, huh?  Hey, it was Toms River, NJ, in the early 1980’s.  What did you expect, “I’m Lovin’ it!” or “It’s In You!”?  I could count the personal computer owners I knew on one hand then.  It was strictly an elite IBM and knock-off business market then that was focused on word processors in law offices. 

Take my word for it, for it’s time, my ad was ahead of it’s time.  

Much of what an entrepreneur does in life is ahead of its time. 

I’ve seen (and still have 30 year-old samples of) interlocking plastic bottles that would have revolutionized the shipping and warehousing markets because two cartons worth of bottles could be packed in one carton and cartons could be stacked 2-3 times higher.  Too much, too soon.  Too undercapitalized.   

How about “Clear” windshield wipers?  Spectacular prototypes made everyone oooh-aaah, but not enough funding to break through market monopolies.  3-D motion analysis for physical therapy . . .

On the surface, lack of money to make ahead-of-their-times products and services go, but underneath –the UNDERWEAR—is always lousy, self-centered, self-absorbed, fantasyland day-dreaming management that has great ideas, great intentions, great persistence, and no realistic sense of what it takes to bring their babies into the world and nurture them to maturity. 

Bottom line: Entrepreneurial inventing, innovating, and selling rarely come equipped with savvy management skills – money management, people management, task management. 

If you are an entrepreneur, study management or find management you can trust to work with you.  But don’t keep wasting your time and money and energy banging your head against the wall trying to move forward.  The wall won’t move.          halalpiar 

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No, this isn’t about donuts!

Here are a dozen leadership arenas:

• Corporate
• Military
• Political
• Industry
• Community
• Organizational
• Family
• Neighborhood
• Religious
• Sports
• Classroom
• Worksite

Where do entrepreneurial leaders fit?  Everywhere!  What about other leaders –those who are not entrepreneurs– are they locked into the individual arenas where they perform?  Not to suggest this is a bad thing; it’s just limiting. 

It’s part of the great appeal of entrepreneurial life that there are no limits.  Yes, there are laws, but no: there are no rules. 

Neither are there any theories to dictate performance because there are no theories of any value because (beyond some common character traits like poor school performances, engagement in childhood enterprises, rejection of authority, and childhood exposure to family business) entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial behaviors cannot be quantified or categorized. 

Yes, entrepreneurs take reasonable risks, but –no– there’s no traditional action plan approach to follow.     

Entrepreneurial leaders pop up in each of the arenas noted above (and many more as well) because in every arena on Earth there is always room for improvement.  Entrepreneurs are the agents of change who step up to the plate, who bring improvements to the table, who have the foresight and resilience to attack a problem over and over to produce the answers they believe in.

Alexander the Great was an historic entrepreneurial leader who proved that innovative strategies and tactics can defeat even the most overwhelming of military odds. 

“America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani was a great entrepreneurial political leader for his time and place, and the circumstances that changed our world. 

Cal Ripkin, Jr. was a dedicated entrepreneurial leader with his never-say-die attitude that re-invented value systems in the world of baseball – and all of sports. 

Mother Teresa, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Ghandi, and so many more you could surely name . . . people whose entrepreneurial spirits have in some way made a difference to us all.  Though each of the kinds of leaders we’re talking about here made their mark in one arena, none ever limited themselves in the lives they live or did live.  Who would be on YOUR list?

What do those noted above (plus those you can think of) share?  What qualities would you list?  Here are a few for starters: Persuasiveness, Assertiveness, Communication, Self-Reliance, Self-Confidence, Insight, Recognition that behavior is a choice, a strong focus on the present, the ability to cultivate (cross-pollinate?) leadership in others.  What would YOU add to this list?   halalpiar

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” Entrepreneurs are agents

of change BECAUSE they

reject traditional approaches.”

     I just read a blog post that goes into the depths of theoretical discussion about what is attracting entrepreneurial innovation and it suggests that entrepreneurs care about this slop. 

     The author goes so far as to toss out my 30 year-old “Entrepreneurs are the agents of change” quote that I picked up from Entrepreneurial guru Bob Schwartz when I attended his New School for Entrepreneurs in Tarrytown, New York, back in another lifetime, and this Disneyland bloggette uses it as justification for further suggestions that entrepreneurs run on theoretical fuel.

     Please people.  Entrepreneurship is a state of existence brought on by those with independent business streaks running through their blood that are far beyond being able to be classified in any kind of theoretical dissertation.  Entrepreneurs are agents of change BECAUSE they reject traditional approaches to doing things.  And certainly, they have no regard for theory under any circumstances.

     Let’s put away all the B.S. rationalizations and just accept the fact that entrepreneurs cannot be quantified or categorized by any standard or traditional measure.  And you know what?  Thank God!  Entrepreneurship is what’s made this country great.  It’s the reason there is even a shred of optimistic existence in today’s economic suckiness. 

     Leave entrepreneurs alone.  Be grateful they exist.  Nurture them.  But stop trying to figure them out, and PLEASE don’t pretend they care about your theories.  They care only about pursuing their ideas and convictions.  They care only about making things happen.  If you’re going to analyze them, be one first.  You’ll realize how foolhardy your psychoanalysis ambitions can actually be.    halalpiar   

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