Be FEARLESS!

Live, Love, Make it Easy.

 [The Underpinning Theme of FEARLESS! The Golden Love Musical]

Put “Entrepreneur” in this site’s Search window and scroll. You’ll get hundreds of definitive traits and characteristics. Values. Instincts. Behaviors. Ingredients. Challenges. Strategies. Personal/professional and entrepreneurial family issues.

The consistent message in these posts has been that no matter who you are, no matter who you think you are, no matter whether you own and/or operate a small business, or are a corporate muckity-muck or government doo-dah . . . no matter that you’re out-of-work, or in professional practice, a family business, or entrenched in –or on the cusp of– retirement . . . or whether you’re a student, teacher, Walmart Welcomer, laborer, or a stay-at-home Mom or Dad . . . makes no difference. None.

Being FEARLESS is what makes a difference!

Sound too easy? You are of course free to read more here or click on the little “x” and go somewhere less threatening.

You ALWAYS have a choice.

You can choose to think like an entrepreneur even if you’re not one. Why would you want to do that? Because entrepreneurial thinking is one way of putting you in closer touch with the real you — the you that wants to reach out more to help others, the you that’s not afraid to take reasonable risks, the you that craves being able to see problem solutions all the way through to the end . . . the difference between creativity, and innovation.

ANYone can have creative ideas. Making creative ideas work by taking them all the way to completion, is innovation. Innovation breeds entrepreneurial thinking. And there at least 5 ways to breed innovation!

Still with me?

Do you really WANT to be in touch with the real you? Of course you do. It’s what you’re here on Earth for, isn’t it? It’s the path to making a difference with your life. So, HOW  do you “go for it”? (What’s the process? What are the steps?)

Here’s HOW: You make the conscious choice to let go of what’s holding you back. You make the conscious choice to move forward with fueling the fire inside you that’s never been more than glowing embers. You start by taking a reasonable risk or two or three or more that will open that door and lead you through it!

Why?

Because the biggest failure you could ever be in life is to look back at what you wanted most to do but that you never took serious steps to make it happen.

Notice the intentional absence of the word “TRY.” To try is not to do. To try is to offer an excuse for not making something you believe in, actually happen.

You will never feel fulfilled if you don’t live your life as fully as you know deep down that you are capable of, with love and devotion to making the choices you need to make, to make it easy. “To thine own self be true” said Shakespeare’s Polonius in Hamlet. Channeling energy is a choice.

Try asking yourself this in the mirror:

Are you choosing to brighten up and dig yourself out of your rut (I gave you a shovel!) and move in the directions you want most to go, OR are you simply bitching and whining and accepting your circumstances?

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

DEAR BOSS:

What can the matter be?

Gallup Research says odds are that your

employees may be costing you a

lot more than you think.

How so?

Fewer than a third of employees , says Gallup, are “Actively Engaged” with their work! (Does that furrow your brow?)

And more than half are “Disengaged” from their work! One out of five is, in fact, Actively Disengaged! (Does that make you snort?)

If you think it’s not true, maybe it’s because some of your people are just good actors! (Does that make you applaud as the cash falls from your pockets?)

But guess what? YOU are the boss. YOU are responsible. You can delegate authority, but you canNOT delegate responsibility.

Bosses who try to “pass the buck” inevitably fail. Bosses, however, who accept full responsibility and who lead by leading instead of by telling, who make genuine ongoing efforts to create a bond with their employees are the ones who help ensure and foster active employee commitment and –in the process– help ensure and foster black ink on their organizations bottom line!

So where do you start?

You start with the decision to start. This is a typically easy and quick step. You either want to be a better leader or you don’t.

Assuming your screen-tapping fingers are still capable of the task, START with a WRITTEN-ON-PAPER-WITH-A-PEN goal of where you’d like to end up, and if your goal statement is ever to work, it MUST be:

Specific       Realistic      Flexible     Due-Dated

If you stick to working through this in any meaningful way and steer clear of attempting shortcuts, this is a typically hard and slow process. But don’t be discouraged, the harder you work at this, the better your odds for success.

Next, review your goal statement at least daily. Sometimes hourly is necessary. Change it as you open new doors, uncover new problems, discover new directions, meet new people, discover new techniques. Remember, a key criteria is flexibility . . . a sudden storm can quickly disrupt a leisurely canoe trip and force a change in direction. Unexpected removal of a roadblock can shorten and speed up a long drive. When you get this far, check out: HOW to make your goals work.

BUT

Believe it or not, don’t share your goals with anyone else who doesn’t also have written goals, or who isn’t working with you on a shared goal. Why? Many people are either consciously or unconsciously invested in seeing others around them who strive to succeed, become failures. Doubt this at your own peril.

Assuming you’ve kept your homework out of the dog’s mouth and actually done what you’ve accepted as necessary, and are getting into the swing of real handwritten-on-paper goals that are flexible, realistic, specific and due-dated, and that you are constantly upgrading them, and carrying them with you all the time and reviewing them as often as you check your wristwatch or smartphone messages, you need to start teaching your people to do the same thing for themselves.

Start them out with a deeeeep breath!

THAT process is a good beginning. But it can only start if YOU start!

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

What will you do with

your time this year?

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Hal@Businessworks.US          931.854.0474

        I just re-discovered a Christmas ornament my 14-year-old grand- daughter Gwyn made . . . five years ago. The brightly painted piece of heart-shaped plywood is the stage for her blobby-marker-printed starstruck words. But where did you get those words? I asked. “I just thought them up in my head,”  she said.

HER WORDS ARE THE BEST WISDOM I CAN SHARE FOR 2016:

Life is a question. No person on earth is your enemy but you. You can’t decide what you’re born with, but you can decide how you end up.

Being happy is beyond a feeling. It’s a way of life.

Questions are endless but the only one answer is YOU.

You can dream without imagination, but you can’t dream without a belief.

You are who you are, and no one can stop you.

— Gwyn, Age 9

As you head into 2016 building your life and your business, do Gwyn’s words have as much “start the new year” clout for you?

Please let me know YOUR thoughts . . .

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God Bless You One And All . . .

and HAPPY NEW YEAR To You!

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Are You Reacting

. . . or Responding?

When you make it a habit to choose to respond to problem people and problem situations instead of choosing to react, guess what happens?

• You eliminate all possibility of ever over-reacting, and that’s a good thing if you own, operate, or manage a business of any kind.
• It’s also a good thing if you are working your way up the career ladder or committed to creating an aura of professionalism, of peace and calm around your personal and work relationships, your friendships, your family.
• It even increases your odds of preventing accidents, in addition to enhancing your personal performance, and overall health.

Unless you’re in an emergency situation, a calm and thoughtful response solves more problems more effectively than a frazzled or angry reaction. And you already know that choosing calm and thoughtful over frazzled and angry also helps ensure better and longer-lasting health.

Stop reading this right now, and close your eyes while you take a deep breath or two, and pay particular attention to the fact that it slows your heartbeat, helps you collect your thoughts, and increase your sense of self-control.

Go ahead. Treat yourself for ten or fifteen or thirty seconds. You might surprise yourself. Go on; I’ll wait.

So now that you’ve jetted your self down a notch, do you feel or think any differently than you did ten sentences ago? Three or four breaths ago? And what does this post make you think about for yourself that you’ve either not been aware of before, or that you have gotten lazy about?

As today’s world swirls, it’s easy to simply forget how important the distinction is between reacting and responding and how rewarding it can be for you to take more deep breaths more often.

The bottom line? Your behavior –your words and actions– is always your choice. Your choice may not always be a conscious one and it could be one that’s the result of a choice you made long ago that’s come full circle to stir up your anxieties. But recognize it for what it is . . . you can choose to make things easy on yourself, or you can choose to make them hard on yourself. Why would you want to choose unproductive upset over productive calm? And, yes, you can choose courage!

More conscious choices come from more conscious awareness. There are many mental and physical tools available to trigger responsive choices. Deep breathing is one of these. Yoga is another. Regular exercise, visualization (imagining/projecting/”seeing yourself” achieve a task or solve a problem before actually responding), are two others. Having goals that are specific, realistic, flexible, due-dated, and in writing can also help you steer yourself in high productivity directions.

Don’t just think about all this. Try it!

Keep your head cool and your feet warm

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

Are You Making A Difference?

‘

Until your life and career purposes are interwoven as one, you’re not

likely to be on the road of making a difference for yourself, or for others.

Making a difference may not always measure up to what others consider as success, but there’s little doubt that making the kind of difference in life that really matters requires determination, dedication, commitment, stick-to-it-ive-ness, and resolve.

Okay, you may say, that all sounds good, but what does it actually mean for me in my life, in my work?

It means that –no matter how or where you live, no matter what kind of work you do or career you are in or aspire to, making a true difference in life demands that you do the best you can possibly do, and then more… and that you never give up your pursuits no matter how many discouraging roadblocks block your path, no matter how many opinions cloud the intersections you come to, no matter how many temptations seem to reach out for you to change your path.

It means that –no matter how you feel when you wake up every morning, no matter how stressed or tired, you must remember that you are the only one who can carry your own torch, who can take steps every day on your own behalf by doing what you do best for others… family, friends, co-workers, partners, customers, clients, patients, community, church, and –of course– pets!

Is this a diagram to study? No it’s simply a model from which to create your own diagram that fits your own life and career circumstances, but the model does represent the key ingredients most of us need to move forward with and toward on a daily basis to get where we want to go. The circular motion indicated is not to say we should run around in aimless circles; it is to say that this kind of flow awareness is what it takes to make things happen.

As Shakespeare’s Falstaff once said:

“Discretion is the better part of valor.”

In other words, let your daily pursuits be guided by good judgment. And perhaps the most important message to keep in mind — because it literally dictates everything else, every word and every action, is that every behavior is the result of a choice that we make or that we once made. So if everything we say and do today is a choice, then why choose to make things hard on yourself when you can just as easily choose to make them easy, including how and when you deal with others.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm

God Bless You and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!
hal@businessworks.US

WAKE  UP  AMERICA!

Reveillez-vous, les Etats-Unis!

An open letter to Republican presidential hopefuls

[Opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author, Hal Alpiar]

The Bible tells us that there is a time for everything. For America,
with the agony of Paris in our rearview mirror. . . that time is NOW!

As a lifelong small business coach and advocate, my perspective of economic recovery is borne of the fact that small business provides the underpinnings of a strong economy. By over-taxing, over-regulating, intervening and meddling with private enterprise, by discouraging innovation and job creation, by pretending to have entrepreneurship savvy, our government is killing our economy.

Is this a political stance? No. You undoubtedly know I speak reality because each of you has in one way or another already expressed this viewpoint. Clearly, they are indisputable facts.

So what’s the connection? You care about what just happened in Paris, or you wouldn’t have read past the first line. Government failure to grow the economy illustrates the same kind of purposeful ignorance —an inexcusable refusal— to confront the relentless reality of Islamic terrorism.

What, sadly, could be more proof positive than the ISIS violence than just showed its ugly face in Paris? You need to step up in a way that’s meaningful, that makes a difference. Solo speeches don’t cut it! It’s nice to express your feelings, but while speeches and interviews may win votes, they don’t win results.

Beyond any doubt, ISIS poses a real and serious and immediate threat to every American’s life, family, values, and community. So NOW is the time to act!

Here is my proposal for a rallying-cry

Action Plan strategy to imagine and think about:

Imagine that somehow each of you agrees to put aside your personal and campaign differences and your individual egos for the couple of hours it might take to join one another at the front gates of The White House (with only a last-minute tip-off to the media). Then, you request a spontaneous and urgent audience with Messrs. Obama and Biden and Kerry to make your collective points for urging immediate and specific action steps that need to be taken NOW:

1) Steps to preserve and protect America’s families and towns and cities NOW (not after the next election)!

2) Steps to lead promptly to the complete defeat of ISIS NOW (not after some other—closer-to-home—mass slaughter)!

This will require the politically-unthinkable of having to individually rise above the fray and put your personal agendas and commercialized candidacies on hold long enough to join in lockstep with each other – to demonstrate genuine leadership to those you aspire to represent and to the rest of the world.

Real leaders nurture and weigh the input of other leaders. In this case, by physically standing together (as you have on the debate stage) you will serve an important purpose by representing the concerns en masse of all American citizens.

In the possibility that Messrs. Obama, Biden and Kerry cannot or will not be available, that choice makes it clear to the public the inappropriateness and insensitivity of their priorities, and instead you can each deliver your 5-minute (UN-political) position statement to the media people who show up, while standing at The White House gates.

You will individually also benefit personally by keeping your focus on communicating action solutions (each perhaps taking 5 minutes).

Consider the range of positive impressions that can benefit each and all of you in this scenario. Though you shouldn’t need any added incentive, my best guess is that if this is done “correctly,” it will also serve to completely eliminate any Democratic candidacy in the minds of voters. You can then all be free to re-ignite your individual campaign efforts after making such an innovative and unprecedented effort.

And, hopefully, your unified appearance and purpose will produce some concrete actions and rallying-point results.

Just some thoughts I hope you will each consider.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!
hal@businessworks.US

Take a QUICK step back.

Take a DEEP breath. 

 Take stock of your SELF.

If your business is your life, you are obviously not in academia, not a corporate type, and not some government flunky. Only true entrepreneurs make their businesses their lives. And only true entrepreneurs need a crowbar to separate the two. This is good and bad. Good because you increase the odds that your business will succeed. Bad because–in the process–you increase the odds that you, the person, may not  succeed.

You need a “HOW GOES IT?” meeting

with your SELF — now, today, tonight, at

sunset, or tomorrow morning at sunrise!

You need to not make excuses for delaying it. At the rate government continues to ravage America’s 30 million small businesses, you cannot afford to go past this coming weekend. I know, I know, you have a family deal coming . . . you have to charge your iPad . . . your dog pushed you into stepping where you should have scooped . . . it’s your only chance to see  Lady Gaga . . . there’s a Shark Tank special . . . it’s year-end something or other . . .  it’s . . . STOP! Take some deep breaths.

This is not a half-baked suggestion to do some fancy inventory of your customers, branding program or finances, though it’s hard to do too much of that. This is an informal step-back-out-of-the-woods assessment point in time which successful entrepreneurs with healthy businesses make a habit of practicing every couple of months (at least quarterly).

• Start with a quiet place where you will not be interrupted for two hours by cell phones, radio or TV reception, machinery, other people or barking dogs. (Sunrises are great!) Walk on the beach, through the woods or in a quiet park . . . or just sit parked in your car, but –given today’s day and age– remember to not “look suspicious.” 😉 Bring a pen and notepad (NO keyboards or keypads!).

• Write down one single sentence that best describes where your business is right now. Follow that with another sentence that best describes where you are right now — physically, mentally, emotionally. Be honest. It’s just for your brain. No one else need ever see this piece of paper.

• Next , write one single sentence that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your business within the next six months. Follow that sentence with another one that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your SELF (physically, mentally, emotionally) within the next six months.

• Spend the next hour studying these four sentences and diagramming HOW (the process; the steps) you think you need to take to get from one to the other, and HOW you see them coming together or interdependent on one another. Then write down the three action steps you’re willing to take right now (AS you review your diagram) to get started moving from where you are to where you’re headed. Prioritize them.

_________________________

Two hours out of your life that will positively improve your life (and your business) and you just saved all that business consultant and psychotherapy money.

You can be your own best shrink! (Unless you choose to put off having a “HOW GOES IT?” session with yourself —  in which case, the couple a hundred bucks an hour fees will probably be a worthy investment.)

_________________________

P.S. When you get good at this process, start introducing it in your “big picture” work with employees and key customers. Everybody loves having the opportunity to participate in doing positive attitude-focused diagnostic workups and developing treatment plans aimed at improving work options and customer service performance.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

R  E  A  L   C  H  A  N  G  E

DOESN’T TAKE TIME.

IT JUST HAPPENS!

And the reason for such thought diversity between what small business represents and upholds, and the self-aggrandizing departure words of America’s Speaker of The House today has to do with the same reason small business has been under constant blindside attack by the government since 2008.

. . . our federal government is devotedly invested in management by consensus, where everyone involved must agree at least somewhat with every decision. This approach to problem-solving and getting things done has been religiously adhered to by all U.S. Government agencies. It has infiltrated the management behaviors of many if not most in funding-sponge academia, and in the upper ranks of many if not most failing lethargy-infested corporations.

Consensus-seeking management theory (like other “dead soldiers” e.g., Theory A and Theory Z and group hugs) might have solved problems and gotten things done decades ago in the “Hippy” years of the 1960s and 70s. But they simply do not work any longer in today’s world.

“Entrepreneurialism” and small business innovation –which thrive on maintaining a sense of urgency and taking REASONABLE risks– continue to be the true solution-directions that work. Yet they are consistently undermined by shortsighted government agencies that are relentlessly invested in maintaining the status quo.

Waiting for change instead of making change may have a place in history, but can no longer be tolerated as a modus operandi. There just is no time for such nonsense as waiting. ENTREPRENEURS ARE THE AGENTS OF CHANGE!

We live in a world of impatience.

Forward motion that plods

is backward motion.

When small business and entrepreneurs are punished with over-burdening taxes and unnecessary government rule and regulation intrusions designed to do nothing except further the cause of interventionist government in our lives, it proves itself more inadequate and less representative of the reasons it exists every day . . . in fact, every minute.

As the government continues to prove it’s own inadequacy, misguidance, and misdirection that have led to outright thievery of freedom, to outright undermining of our very economy (and knowing our economy is literally and unarguably dependent on small business growth and development), it is indeed time for change.

But REAL change–the kind that happens now, the kind that makes a difference, the kind that underscores the life/liberty/pursuit of happiness foundation of our country must be encouraged, not squashed, not stepped on, not bidden good riddance. It must be nurtured.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to get their heads out of the sand and stars long enough to realize their sand and stars are being eroded by slow, gradual, plodding change fostered by years of government intrusions and restrictions on small business growth and development.

It’s time to acknowledge that staying immersed in the sand and stars actually serves to allow, actually encourage and reward long-term politicking — politicking intentionally aimed at lining political pockets and underwriting meaningless wasteful programs that create greater business, family, and individual dependency. It does this by not paying attention to what’s swirling around the rest of you while your head is focused on business growth and development.

It’s easy to pick your pocket while you’re

bent over, star-gazing through a telescope.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners can no longer afford to feign ignorance or not take action . . . even if it’s simply speaking up and out more to others. Unless some changes happen quicker, our small business-dependent economy is destined for extinction. If you rent your workspace, there surely comes a time when you need to tell the landlord about a water leak or temperature control. Responsiveness is the entrepreneurial key to success. It’s time to step up to the plate and go to bat for CHANGE.

ADDENDUM EXCERPT FROM THIS BLOG (August, 2011 !):

It means taking just long enough to visit or write a couple of letters or emails to politicians about why you think small business matters. Take just enough time to support those who support your ideas about why small business matters. Why? Because small business does matter. And because it matters that we all step up!

Imagine the impact: 

THIRTY MILLION

(Estimated Total U.S. Small Business Owners)

visits and letters and emails calling attention to the economic recovery role of small business and why government must invest in small business –not with more wasted cash handouts– with tax incentives for innovation and tax incentives for job creation.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

H U M A N   C A P I T A L

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

I’ve heard some people say that they don’t like the term “human capital” because it sounds cold and impersonal. Actually, when I first heard it years ago, I liked it for exactly the opposite reason. Human “capital” describes the value of workers to an enterprise. Whereas labor is typically counted as a cost, capital describes an asset.

Without knowledge workers

in the New Economy,

a business has no valuable assets.

On DAY 23, we discussed the importance of enterprises as learning organizations since knowledge and information are growing exponentially by the minute. In a knowledge-based economy, humans are the most important resource.

The knowledge-based worker turns the idea that machines displace workers on its head. Workers who tend machines or build widgets that can be assembled by robots are underutilized. One study by the Martin School at Oxford predicts that 48% of American jobs alone will be lost to robotics in the next 20 years. This is good news because as the New Economy grows, workers grow in importance and stature. Rather than being displaced by machines, knowledge workers are freed for higher level tasks, tasks that use more of their innate abilities and engage their interests. Higher level tasks in a knowledge economy move workers closer to full actualization of their potential.

A 2015 Gallup Poll

found that 70% of

 Americans hate their jobs.

I am going to guess that statistic can be pretty closely correlated anywhere on the planet. Being freed from loathsome employment is the joy of Internet Joe and the people on his team. As the lowest, ugliest jobs disappear, the entrepreneur and his creative staff can enjoy serving a growing global online market of potential customers who will consume vast amounts of innovative human resources.

Worker displacement by machines has always resulted in raising the living standard of all despite fears of laborers during the period of dislocation. The accelerated process in a rapidly-expanding knowledge economy should be no different.

So, “human capital” it is.

 Hiring Knowledge Workers

Internet Joe is building his online empire on the shoulders of knowledge workers. Deep knowledge workers. Highly specialized people who may be in his employ or may be supplying services as a vendor.

The human capital resources needed by the entrepreneur in the New Economy are the best available in the world, literally in the world, serving the world. Knowledge workers as human capital are always learning because growth is joy.

As an entrepreneur, you will be supporting workers who find fulfillment in what they do. That kind of leadership will require a different brand of guidance than leadership in the past that was focused on motivating workers to perform repetitive or onerous tasks. Entrepreneurial leadership in the New Economy is more about clarifying the vision than motivating your employees.

Knowledge workers on your team will sometimes lead you, and that is a perfectly acceptable turn of events when you are working with highly valuable human capital.

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C’mon back TOMORROW 10/12 for Day 26  —

You got the spunk. You got the ideas. You got the

money. You got the marketing. You got the contacts.

But do you “Got The People”?

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 SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE… Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

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Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

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