Archive for the 'Feedback' Category

Jan 04 2012

“DOCTOR BUSINESS”© (1 of 2)

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Advertising,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Decision Making,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Family Business,Feedback,Good Health,INTERNET Marketing,Leadership,Lifestyle,Management,Marketing,Media,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Public Relations,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Social Media,Strategic Planning,Tactics,Trust

Great Medicine is not

                       

always Great Healthcare!

 

[Credibility reference for visiting professionals: Hal is the author of DOCTOR BUSINESS for physicians and DOCTOR SHOPPING for consumers. As a 30-year advocate for both, overlapping his business consulting career, Hal served on national healthcare committees, won national awards and worked with over 1,000 physicians.] 

~~~~~~~

                                                                                  

We in America are headed down an astronomically-expensive healthcare road of no return for small businesses and professional practices. So NOW may be the best time to share some critical business insights with medical and allied health professionals.

And if you’re in any way involved with sales TO doctors,

stay with this post (and tomorrow’s, and be sure

to check out the link in the next sentence).

First, you do not know it all. Second, if you’ll pay attention to this short post (and tomorrow’s), you will know enough to get you through the leading edge of the oncoming mandated healthcare storm. Third, if the storm can in fact be sidetracked or beaten back, you will gain even more by digesting and using this information now.

Like it or not, the key to your survival and growth is rarely the medical training, skills and experience you offer… these great strengths of yours are merely “features” that patients will use to justify choosing you. With mandated healthcare, there will be no real choices to retain your services, but there may be choices to avoid your services.

More often than not, your success as a healthcare professional is tied to that word you may dread: marketing… but NOT “marketing”‘ as you have come to know it: office popcorn, candy and sub deliveries, event tickets, dinners, golf.  (Effective marketing that creates sales is the only way your practice can keep pace and grow right now!)

Most medical marketing is either noncommunicative because it’s too technical for the target audience or it’s too verbally bland, too visually sterile, and utterly meaningless — like virtually ALL hospital advertising messages!

How does this happen? Most medical skill development is rational, logical, analytical, unemotional left-brain activity based. Most effective marketing (which includes advertising, promotion, sales, and public relations) works because it appeals to right-brain emotions.

To achieve improved musculo-skeletal balance, physical therapists tell us a commitment to training, retraining, and ongoing exercise is required. The same kind of commitment is needed to achieve right brain/left brain balance… the root of stress management, self-control, self-esteem, and trust.

Trust is every patient’s

cornerstone of confidence.

                                                                               

No more than a radiologist is a good first choice for surgery, a technical thinker/writer cannot be expected to write marketing content that triggers emotional buying motives. Though I would hardly endorse the specialty, many cosmetic surgeons get it. They market benefits and results instead of features.

Someone seeking results (and in medicine that almost always means reassurance in some form) is not the least bit interested in what technique or instruments will be used. That person will want that information simply to justify the decision, but it is not what will ultimately “make the sale.”  Having a sense of trust makes the sale.

HOW to market your trustworthiness? Tomorrow. Here. The answers.

                                                                       

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Hal@Businessworks.US

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jan 02 2012

Creating Business Team Chemistry

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Corporate Management,Decision Making,Delegation,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Goals,Good Health,Humor/Satire,Leadership,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Stress Management,Teamwork,Trust

 Great leadership

                               

 is not always transparent!

 

Every winning sports and business team has a sparkplug — THE one most enthusiastic, energetic, pumped-up, mover and shaker who ignites her or his teammates and gets them focused on achievement. 

Combined with what most of us might designate as leadership qualities… trust, authenticity, integrity, empathy, compassion, active listening, speaking clearly, sense of humor, teaching by example, et al…the single sparkplug ingredient, the piece that brings it all together, comes quietly from inside… and is not always transparent. 

“Sparkpluggyness“  is not tangible, obvious, or even evident in many cases. It is a fire-in-the-belly sense of desire and mission. True leaders exude it, and usually without ever even noticing or acknowledging it. It’s something that “just happens” as many have shared along their career paths.

So how does one begin to cultivate and nurture the characteristics that lead to rewarding practices of inside leadership? Do boosters work? Energy drinks? Coffee? Drugs? Ginseng?

One might best begin with a large dose of self-esteem, let that percolate into self-confidence, add a dash of deep breathing, proper exercise, enough rest, nutritional foods (and obviously eliminate addictive tobacco and alcohol products along the way), and work at mastering the ways of dealing best with your own stress.

Try whatever comes along until you find the one thing that best works for you. Is it jogging? Lifting? Yoga? Massage therapy? Playing with a pet? Pursuing a hobby? Swimming? Gardening? Painting? The answer is different for every single person. But you’ll never discover what’s best for you if you aren’t continually experimenting.   

This is all about getting in touch with your inner self and firing up that furnace. If YOU don’t know what makes you tick, you’ll never be able to know how to best figure out what makes other people tick, and how to best deal with them to get them motivated.

Even Maslow’s Theory of Motivation relies one-hundred percent on a manager’s ability to “size up” others to be able to best reward them at a level that’s most meaningful to THEM. If you give me a plaque when I most want a more impressive title, you’re wasting my interest and sense of teamwork. You will not gain my commitment.

This little piece of leadership need not be for public consumption: The more you know about what makes YOU go, the closer you are to understanding and motivating others, and the more you can succeed at getting others to achieve, the better a leader you become and the more you will accomplish, transparently or otherwise.

                                                                                     

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Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 28 2011

2012 STAFF STAPH INFECTIONS?

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Corporate Management,Customer Service (CRM),Empathy,Experience,Family,Family Business,Feedback,Good Health,Happiness,Leadership,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Mental Health,Motivation,Objectives,People Management,Personal Growth,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Small Business,Special People/Special Occasions,Stress Management,Trust

Stop Business Deaths in 2012!

                                                                                                                                     

WASH YOUR HANDS

                                              

To Kill Staff Infections!

 

By now, all of us know, or have heard (or we believe instinctively) that the majority of hospital deaths are the result of complications compounded or initiated by staph infections. These can be traced back to caregivers and support staff not properly and frequently enough washing their hands.

 

Who woulda thunk it? Such a simple thing.

Well, not only is it true, but I believe it’s even truer (though never researched) in business. After all, it has been widely researched and is no secret that the vast majority of business failures –those that are under-financed, that sell corrupted products and offer ineffective misguided staffs and services– come from poor management.

Management (even when it’s more task than people-oriented) is all about interfacing, interacting, and encountering. It’s about keeping a clear and receptive mindset.

Open Minds Open Doors!

SO WASH YOUR HANDS!

                                                              

Now I’m not talking about hot water, soap, scrubbing and towel drying. I’m talking about:

  1. Closing your eyes for just 10 seconds (perhaps 5 if you’re in a meeting, and not at all if you’re driving!) before and after every encounter with every customer/employee/vendor and investor.

  2. Taking a deep breath (to focus attention and to maintain oxygen supply and blood pressure).

  3. Mentally (imagining yourself) washing your hands, like a doctor between examinations.

                                                 

For many who try or maintain this practice, it helps to go through an actual 2-3 second physical action of briskly rubbing your hands together. The action sends a reinforcing mental message to your brain.

Do it before AND after EVERY meeting, conference, phone call, email, letter, overnight delivery, and text message exchange, for as long as your business status remains “critical.” Hey, you are, after all, being a doctor, aren’t you?

You ARE examining, aren’t you?

You ARE listening, exploring, considering, assessing, recommending, deciding, weighing, evaluating, checking and re-checking, sizing up, assuring and reassuring, projecting, planning, strategizing, and predicting, aren’t you?

And what happens to your brain when you’re on the fly and go straight from one encounter to another without  (it sometimes seems) even breathing? Go on, answer this last question. I’ll wait. Okay, and how does that stress translate to your body?

You’re not sure? Well, where do you think these come from?: Headaches, backaches, toothaches, stiff neck, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhea, short temper, edginess, leg cramps, burning eyes, skin rash, urinary infection, or worse — cancer, heart problems? Bottom line: is it worth it?

TRY THIS 10-SECOND

Make-Believe Brisk Hand-Scrubbing APPROACH

for just one week –January 2012 is a perfect test period.

Watch what happens.

                                                                         

Put “WASH YOUR HANDS” reminder notes on a sign over your desk, stuck to your phone and computer screen. Ask your spouse, partner, co-worker, friend or associate to ask you: “Did you wash your hands?” before and after you turn a doorknob, before and after you lift and replace your phone, start or end your meeting . . . improvise here; just keep making the effort.

Here’s what you’ll get: IF you’re honest with yourself and IF you actually follow the prescription, you will be more tuned in to each person you communicate with; you will be noticeably more productive; you will– GUARANTEED–  feel better – mentally, physically, and emotionally; you will more positively affect others around you.

You will, I promise, astound yourself!

                                                    

More on 2012 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site: LEADERSHIP TRANSPARENCY and “I” IS FOR INTEGRITY and “T” IS FOR TRUST.

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 27 2011

The BEST 10 STEPS for 2012

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Anger/Conflict,Attitude,Business Life,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Corporate Management,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Delegation,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Family,Family Business,Feedback,Gestalt Therapy,Goals,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Listening,Mental Health,Motivation,Objectives,Objectives/Strategies/Tactics,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Relationships,Small Business,Tactics,Teamwork,Trust

The best New Year’s

                               

 message I can share

                                

  with you comes…

                                                                          

 . . . from one of my life’s heroes, Dr. Wayne Dyer.

                                          

It’s a 10-Point Pursuit Plan that I’ve dressed up a bit for the occasion, for your business, for your SELF, and to share with your family. If you succeed at making only HALF of these actually work consistently, I GUARANTEE that this coming year will be as happy, healthy and prosperous for you as humanly possible.

                                    

DO YOUR SELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR BUSINESS A FAVOR and read these ten points aloud to yourself. Write them down. Carry them in your wallet/pocketbook/briefcase. Tape a copy to your bathroom mirror, your dashboard, your computer workstation, inside your desk drawer, your workout bag, your refridgerator, the closet bar that holds your hangers.

READ AND RECITE before you go to bed, when you wake up, and any other time you can squeeze it into your day. You will positively amaze yourself with the results after just 21 days, and it’s FREE!! Go for it!

1. Want more for others than you do for yourself.

2. See yourself already having what you seek.

3. Be an appreciator of everything in your life as much as you can throughout each day, every day.

4. Stay in touch with your own and other positive human energy sources, and laugh as hard and often as you can.

5. Understand resistence, and help yourself and others to go with the flow.

6. Imagine yourself surrounded by the conditions you want to produce.

7. Understand the path of least resistence.

8. Practice radical humility.

9. Be in a constant state of gratitude.

10. You can never resolve a problem by condemning it.

 

If you think you’re going to give up on this, don’t start it. A little bite will only leave a bad taste.

BUT if you think you have what it takes to get your act together and take it on the road, if you think you have enough self-discipline to follow and practice the behaviors these 10 points suggest, you will positively succeed — even against all odds. Remember these 10 points are all about behavior. Behavior is a choice!

~~~~~~~

More FREE insights on

 2012 “LEADERSHIP”?

Come visit me at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site and comment on my Guest Blog posts:

LEADERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

“I” IS FOR INTEGRITY

and  “T” IS FOR TRUST.  

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Dec 26 2011

2012 Mission or 20/20 Vision??

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Calendar,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Corporate Management,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Economy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Politics/Gov't,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Public Relations,Reality,Relationships,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics,Teamwork,Time Management,Trust

Is Your Vision Statement

                         

A Mission?

 

Does Your

                    

Mission Statement

 

Have Vision?

                                              

You’re getting ready for 2012 and you’re confused? Gee, hard to imagine . . .

                                                    

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 small business more? 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 hoaxsters had us running to refrigeration investments?

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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 attitude, awareness, and 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.

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

A Vision statement is a 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?

It’s a set of words that best describes what you imagine to be your future state of existence, 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. It’s primary value is to inspire pursuit of your Mission.

What’s your Mission for 2012? What’s your Vision for 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 2012 Mission (or while you think up the ways to get where you want to end up).

~~~~~~~

More FREE insights on

 2012 “LEADERSHIP”?

Come visit me at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site and comment on my Guest Blog posts:

LEADERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

“I” IS FOR INTEGRITY

and “T” IS FOR TRUST.  

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 19 2011

Business on the cusp of Christmas! (1 of 4)

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Calendar,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Family Business,Feedback,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Listening,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Small Business,Special People/Special Occasions,Trust

Updated From the Best of Hal’s Christmastime Business Posts . . .

                                                             

The quickest fix for

                             

“Nuttin’s Happenin’”

                     

. . . is to ACT NOW!

                                 

NOW, while we’re on the cusp of

The Great American Work Slowdown.

 

Christmas is Sunday. Everyone (except for rambunctious entrepreneurs–there’s some other kind?) is moving more slowly at work. The rank and file are increasingly preoccupied with office and neighborhood parties.

Could this be true? Is it just my imagination? Are you grinning nervously at that thought or at what I might be tossing your way in the next couple of paragraphs?

 

Well, if you’re in that “rambunctious” crowd I mentioned, you probably wait ’til the last minute to shop, hate to waste time making the festive rounds but find that a couple of stiff drinks help make those swashbuckling business status-climbers and oozy neighbors a little more tolerable . . . and it’s all good practice leading up to that big week of dysfunctional family gift-giving gatherings!

Put your mouse down for a nap.

                                            

Get up from your desk or work station or laptop, and stop reading this blog (I trust you that you’ll come back). Now, DO SOME thing. ANY thing! It doesn’t matter what you do. What matters is that you do SOMEthing.

Take a walk around the block. Eat a cookie. Take a bathroom break. Turn the music on or up. Draw a picture. Get away from the monitor and keyboard and take some deep breaths. Shake your head like a wet dog. Clap or briskly rub your hands together. Take a slug of cold water.

Appreciate that by breaking your concentration, you are also breaking some element or accumulation of stress.

Don’t quit yet. Don’t rush back to the screen. Gently close your eyes and take ten seconds to massage your temples or the back of your neck (counter-clockwise stimulates more blood flow).

Pick up a pen or pencil (you DO still have one?) and a piece of scrap paper. Write or draw or diagram the first thing that comes into your mind . . . like a creative branding theme exercise!

It absolutely doesn’t matter what you record (and no one but you will ever see it anyway).

Go ahead. I’ll wait. ………. Good!

Next, draw or write or diagram the first thought you have about something you can do at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning to pump up or booster-shot some part of your business into action right away.

Maybe it’s a new direction. Maybe it’s solving a nagging problem. Or it’s reviewing reports or articles you’ve been shoveling around, or checking websites you’ve been intending to visit, or having coffee with the new (or oldest) employee (or supplier/vendor/sales rep) and listening?

Perhaps you haven’t made enough time lately to initiate collection of customer feedback?

No matter how small a step, just make it an ACTION step. SOME action always beats NO action! I hear from blog visitors all the time that success comes from having a bias to action. Do you?

# # #

302.933.0116    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!

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Dec 07 2011

Swimming Upstream?

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Customer Service (CRM),Delegation,Economy,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Small Business,Strategies,Tactics,Teamwork,Trust

The question that haunts business owners in desperate times–

                                                                

Are you making the sale

                   

. . . or making a customer?

 

Cultivating relationships among others with whom you have no shared interests –especially in this day of technology-induced dwindling relationships and global economic demise– is harder, takes more time, and is often distasteful. But does swimming upstream pay?

                                                            

The more needy you are financially, the greater the temptation to make the sale and run, regardless of the prospects that holding out now can prompt a repeat (sometimes bigger) performance further down the road. “There is no road,” you might say, “It’s now or never! I have bills to pay. I need the money now!” 

If it’s a matter of food on the table for your family tonight, you’d better go for the sale, and should probably be looking for some other work as well. But small business survival tactics really must revolve around the customer, prospective customer, and employees.

I stopped in a small hardware store looking for a kitchen faucet wand, and hoping to get a plumber referral at the same time. The store was busy, but I was greeted by a young man with a genuine smile and eye contact at the front door who asked if there was anything specific I was looking for.

I waved my broken wand. He laughed and said, “I’m sorry we can’t help you with that, but I’m sure you can find one at the big home center up the road. Ask for Joe in plumbing. Is there anything else you need today?” I said that once I found the part, I’d be looking for a local plumber to install it.”

He called the owner over and paraphrased what I’d said. The owner asked if I’d be okay with a very competent older man, a retired plumber who likes to keep active doing small projects like this, and would be very inexpensive.

Who could say no? He went to his contractor book, then the phone book, looked up the name, wrote it on a piece of paper with the man’s number and told me when might be the best times to call. “He’s been coming in here for years, but he never left a number. Anything else we can do for you today?”

I went to the big home center, got the part, found another plumber in the meantime, but returned to the little hardware store with the proceeds of a broken piggy bank. I spent a lot of money on products I needed that would have been 15% cheaper at the big home center up the road.  

When you train your people personally and teach them how important every customer and prospect encounter is every day, how customer relationships pay the bills (including their salaries) and all it takes is knowing that everyone has something in common with everyone else, and finding that something is the challenge.

It’s both the challenge and the opportunity.

                                                                                            

And all it takes to make it work is to invest something of your self. Is this true of marriage? Family life? Teams? Hobbies? Friendships? Community organizations? Neighborhoods? Certainly it’s true in every work setting — office, truck, computer station, basement, showroom, hospital, or factory floor.

Return On Investment odds increase proportionately with the quality and amount of effort you’re willing to put in.

Every prospect stands before you wanting to become a customer. Why else would she or he be there? Every customer wants to be a loyal return customer because having a sense of security and reassurance (TRUST in the seller) is half the sale.

                                                       

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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!

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Dec 05 2011

Mr. Obama: You’re Wrong!

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Anger/Conflict,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Community Support,Contacts/Networking,Decision Making,Economy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Leadership,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Politics/Gov't,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Strategies,Tactics,Trust

Still stuck in your 4-week-old delusion? You said: “America has lost ambition and imagination.” Remember? You prodded businesses to “Do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam. Unleash all the potential in this country!”  

 

Well, you’re wrong,

 

Mr.Obama. The only thing

 

America has lost is

 

leadership. And the only

 

thing lacking in America’s

 

30 million small businesses

 

is trust in YOU!

 

 

I hear every single day from clients, associates, business friends and neighbors that YOU, Mr. Obama, are what’s wrong with this country! You have continuously chosen to ignore small business in America, when even those who surround you admit that only small business can reverse your dying economy!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that job creation is what will turn us around, and it shouldn’t take much more than the feeble skills of a community organizer to see that new job creation comes exclusively from small business. That means genuine (real and guaranteed) innovation and job creation tax incentives for small business.

It is YOU, Mr. Obama, who have seen fit to wipe out the financial and free choice futures of our children and grandchildren with your foolish and misguided healthcare plan. It is YOU who have single-handedly dismantled our peace through preparedness military, rendering us more vulnerable to terrorism than ever before in history.

Not only that, you have literally made America the laughing stock of other emerging nations on the planet. Your programs for social reform have created nothing but dependencies and joblessness. You have made our economic future a bleak one. Your political priorities have always taken a front seat to our nation’s well-being.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where “30 million” came from when your administration counts only 20 million? Talk with your statiticians who –obviously following your lead– chose to simply not legitimize sole work-at-home proprietors as “real” small businesses. I, for one, am one, and make a living at it, and pay taxes for the privilege.

You have misled this country and the small business universe that makes it go. You appear to all the world as a clown, “The Emperor With No Clothes,” who chooses self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement over the needs of those who elected him. You have done injustice to those who trusted and believed in your empty promises.

Small business owners are sickened by your failures, but we DO have a choice: November 6, 2012! 

                                                    

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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!

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Nov 21 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”Z”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Community Support,Contacts/Networking,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Leadership,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Public Relations,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Strategies,Tactics,Teamwork,Trust

The final subject of this, the world’s first BIZ ALPHABET Series of blog posts! (Check out “A” – “Y”)

                                            

“Z”…ZEST

                              

ZEST (not the soap) refers to you and your business . . . ardor, élan, gusto, joie de vivre, lust, oomph, passion, pep, pizzazz, tang, vitality, energy, zing,  zoom, zip,  zap . . . either you’ve got it or you don’t.

If you’ve got it, you can make it better. Start here now. If you don’t have it, you can get it ignited here, now. Free. No strings attached. No gimmicks! Just you and your business, and me.

~~~~~~~ 

Sounds good, you say, but who cares? Uh, your customers, your employees, your suppliers, your investors, your lenders, your community . . . and your family. Does that work for an answer? This is not just another lecture on motivation. It’s about operating your business with a competitive edge.

Let’s get to it: When did you last ask a few customers why they do business with you instead of with __________ (fill in the name of a leading competitor)? Oh, you did a survey? Well, that’s great, but there’s nothin’ like the real thing, Baby, goes the old song, and there’s nothing like straight eyeball-to-eyeball answers.

Whatever you hear back, by the way, accept and be appreciative. Do not criticize. Do not “Yes, But.” Do not argue or dismiss. There’s a reason for everything. Take it in. Write it down. Smile and say thank you. Go off and think. Odds are pretty good that the answers you’ll get will have something to do with your attitude and approach.

In other words, HOW you deal with customers, employees, and others around you is what determines more than anything else why your customers are your customers. And it’s that reputation that attracts other customers. So, if these assumption about how you deal with others is even just half right, you already have a competitive edge.

It may simply need –like the holiday carving knife– a little sharpening. Start by asking yourself if you and/or someone else who works with you have been partly or largely responsible for positive customer feedback. Do you appropriately reward that behavior when it comes from others. Rewarding positives breeds more positives.

If you get feedback that attributes your business strength to other factors –price, quality, convenience, etc.–you need to giddy-yap over to your customer service counter/person/policy/strategy/whatever, to fix it or make it better.

Why? Because in this lousy economy, it is frankly not a good sign that anything other than your outstanding service should be the #1 factor quoted by customers. You cannot any longer compete on price or packaging or quality or convenience or sustainability. Anyone with the know-how and gumption can beat you on those points. 

But no one else can be you!

                                                                       

No one else can treat people exactly the same as you, and therein lies your single greatest and unique competitive edge — it’s the differential that you, exclusively, can offer. Have you ever by-passed others and gone out of your way to deal with a particular business because you relate better to the source? Of course you have.

We all seek individuals and entities we feel offer more integrity, more authenticity, a better reputation, provide more extras. So your customers are different? What’s keeping you from adjusting, over-hauling, boosting or perking up your business approaches and attitude NOW? Aren’t roadblocks, after all, a matter of choice?

Choose more of what works. Put a little spice in your spirit! And remember what you put out and how you come across — your spirit — is yours alone. No one else has or can use your strengths. 

                                                       

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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!

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Nov 17 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES… “X”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Contacts/Networking,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Leadership,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Marketing,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Trust

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

“X”…XYLOPHONE

 

If corporate types might be best equated with a musical instrument, it would likely be a bass drum. Big companies march to a loud, dull, steady, monotonous, unimaginative beat. They thrive on maintaining status quo.

And if government employees might be best equated with a musical instrument, it would probably be a kazoo because it requires no skill to use, except to be able to hum (and even politicians can hum!).

If you accept all or part of the above instrument assignments and accompanying rationales, then entrepreneurs might best be equated with a Xylophone. Like the other two match-ups, this instrument is self-energized, but unlike the other two, the xylophone requires both: musical skill and a sense of rhythm.

[Besides, there’s hardly an army of small business related words that start with the letter “X.” In fact, my dictionary displays only a few dozen words of any kind that start with the letter “X,” and so, as a matter of practicality –and my need to deliver what I started–  “Xylophone” seemed better than “x-ray”!]

The music that a xylophone actually does produce, by the way, is best characterized as bright, lively, cheerful, and allowing for great diversity, imagination, and –to be able to produce any music– self-discipline.

So there you are. If you’re the entrepreneurial spirit personified, Xylophones are in! If you’re not a true DNA entrepreneur, go hum or beat a drum. 

When did you last step back from what you’re doing, step back from your business, and what your business is doing? When did you last –like a doctor–perform a diagnostic workup on your SELF? On your business? Do you really want to know more about what others think? You should!

It is, after all, what others think –your reputation– that ultimately confirms your message, and determines your sales success. 

First of all, diagnostics always start with a patient history. So make a bullet list of high spots that you and your business have experienced in your lives. (Limit yourself to 3 minutes for each list.)

Next, start testing that history against things you know… abstract categories work best: musical instruments, animals, plants, sports, birds, song titles, cities… ask others what  (animal, plant, instrument, sport, etc.) they think you and/or your business are most closely associated with in their minds: a lion, fox, snake, turkey, hog, poison ivy, thorny vines, a mighty oak, MMA, hockey, fly fishing?

The most useful input on these assessments —IF you can avoid rebuttal, and just quietly take in and process what you learn– comes from asking others how they would equate and match you and your business. (Remember to sincerely thank each person you ask, for each input, even when it may seem insulting to you!)

Now. take what you get, and sift through what you think are the meanings attached to each. Decide what fits best, and what directions that the equations others draw may best send you.

Then go!

Play your Xylophone!  

                                                  

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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!

No responses yet

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