Archive for the 'Innovation' Category

Dec 14 2011

Shake it up, Baby!

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Calendar,Change,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Family Business,Goals,Good Health,Happiness,Innovation,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Reputation,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics

Today’s the day

                            

to overhaul

                                  

your workspace!

 

 

Changing your daily routine can be just as stress-relieving as taking some time off.

                                                            

I’m not suggesting that you abandon holiday relax time to keep working, but when the rest of your business universe slows down for Christmas and Hanukkah, it’s a great opportunity to clean up, dress up, reorganize, reassess, take inventory, take stock, plan, and set goals.

Rattle your own cage! Start by creating a better workspace. Move furniture and tools. Open drawers and clean out old stuff. File away work that’s done. Sort through magazines and newsletters; sticky-note items you want to read and toss the rest.  Reassess your lighting (and fixture bulb replacement status). Is clutter off your floor?

Can you actually get into storage areas without climbing and sucking in your gut to squeeze through? Are the backs of shelves and closets in easy reach or does access pose the need for Olympic prowess? Are your alarm systems all in good working order? Are window coverings and locks in decent shape?

Are too many door/truck/car keys, or computer codes/user-names/passwords floating around?

Does your waiting area match the level of professionalism you want to project? Dead bugs in ceiling light fixtures and dead or dying plants do not inspire much sense of confidence in professional practices, maintenance or medical supply businesses, florists, landscapers, or any kind of healthcare, food or food service businesses, among others. 

The dead bug/dead plant solutions, by the way, are not to be nurturing live bugs or plastic plants, both of which speak equally negative to your attitude and reputation. Go with no bugs, and if you can’t maintain plants to be permanently healthy, go with no plants as well! And the same goes for beat up outdated magazines!

If you think this is stupidly basic input, start to notice what you see when you visit other businesses. How many restaurants and coffee shops have you left with indigestion after facing mounted TV screens locked onto news channels? When you’re done cleaning up and reorganizing outside your self, step inside for a few overhauls!

You will never get this chance or this day back again.

Make the most of your opportunities.

                                             

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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 13 2011

“GOING INTO” 2012

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Objectives,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Reputation,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Strategies

You are NOT

                              

“going into” 2012!

                                      

You are making it happen!

                                   

You’re an entrepreneur!

                                                            

                                                  

The forecast: stormy, bleak, doom and gloom? I don’t think so. You didn’t start or take over a business to improve your skills at playing the victim role. When you kicked into second and third gear, it was because you saw stars in the sky and you knew you were making your own choices, creating your own destiny. Right?

So, let’s look at the mess we’re in realistically. We have a chance to get out of this year standing upright, and to make happen what has to happen. To jump-start 2012– make the very best possible use of the next two weeks. That means, first and foremost, to do family relax time, pay attention to your SELF, and go with the flow.

In other words, abandon the maniacal pursuit you’ve been on all year in favor of jetting down, assessing yourself and your business. Refocus your day-to-day activities. Relax your brain, and set some meaningful, realistic goals that serve to both challenge and guide your interests and activities.

Did I say “meaningful”? Yes. Scribbling or txtg a nice-sounding statement about what you aim to do in 2012 may make you feel like patting yourself on the back, but it doesn’t mean beans about what’s real and possible and what needs to be flexible and specific and have a deadline attached. Who says? The Chief Goal Keeper.

If what you come up with as a target for yourself and your business fails to accomplish all six (That’s ALL SIX!) of the following criteria, you are simply not serious about wanting to improve your life. People fail at goal-setting because they fail to be flexible, to realize that not reaching a goal means only one thing: Change The Goal!

To be effective, any goal you set must be specific, flexible, realistic, due-dated, written on paper (and adjusted regularly), and carried on your person! Take all six of these steps, and keep your goals to yourself (because too many people who don’t have goals will try to discourage you from achieving your own!). 

If you do exactly what’s suggested here, you will be successful beyond your wildest dreams in 2012 because you will be making it happen… because you are an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs don’t “go into” things; they make things happen. Will you? Are you an entrepreneur or a victim? Creating your own destiny is your choice! 

                                                   

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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 04 2011

Thumbs Up!

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

Thumbs up! Thumbs down!

                                         

 All thumbs! Thumb a ride! 

                                  

Thumb this!

 

                          

Did you ever notice how many things you use your thumbs for? Did you ever notice how much you use any part of your body for tasks that you never stop to pay attention to, until that part gets sick or injured or stressed beyond functioning? And you wonder how you could have ever overlooked how critical all of your parts are?

Isn’t it the same with your business? Don’t you have tasks and functions to deal with, approaches to take, routines, habits and checklists to observe every day?  And when something goes wrong, breaks down, or isn’t where you thought you left it… or not performing up to snuff, or communications get muddled, you become an EMT?

Okay, so you’re good in emergencies,

 but you really can’t make a living in

 business functioning as a firefighter.

                                                               

Being able to respond quickly and adapt quickly are genuine entrepreneurial strengths, but too often they become crutches and can readily lead the leaner into business failure and a nonproductive way of life. True leaders wear many hats and know when to trade off one for the other. Thumbs go up! Thumbs go down! Thumbs hitchhike!  

Cute, Hal, but what does that mean? It means that truly successful business owners and managers are those who exercise flexibility in the ways they move, the things they say, the leadership styles they exercise, the assignments and presentations they give and the WAYS they do these things.

Process is what matters most — HOW things get done, the steps involved, can often be more important than what is actually done. Isn’t that a lot like how you say what tou say is at least as important as what you say? Well, the key to process is flexibility… being ready, willing, and able to “turn on a dime,” as the old expression goes.

“Turn on a dime!”

                                

Thumbs are a good example of flexibility. They can turn from up to down in an instant. Think of your thumbs as the gateway to flexibility and spontaneity — flexible fulfillment. Have you ever seen a thumb direction opposite of a facial expression (or an internal feeling?)?  Thumb direction is the harbinger of thought process.

Remember the childhood exercise of putting all your knuckles together as you interlock your fingers and close your palms together so that your fingertips are hidden (reciting “here’s the church!”), then point your two forefinger tips together in the air (reciting “here’s the steeple!”) and then guess what’s next… remember? 

Throwing out your thumbs and wiggling your other six fingertips (reciting “open the doors, and look at all the people!”)? So, even since being a tyke, your thumbs have been the doors that open your vision to what’s going on inside. What happens when you look beyond the thumbs of your day-to-day business?

“The journey to discovery,”

said Proust, “consists not in

having new landscapes,

but in having new eyes.” 

 

When did you last “Thumb Through”some of those pages that describe where your business has been, where it is, and where it’s going? Close your eyes for a minute and think that through before skipping off to your emails, or back to Twitter or Facebook. And remember it’s the process of how you think about it all.

 

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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 30 2011

In Debt? Who’s Not? So What?

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Anger/Conflict,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Economy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Objectives/Strategies/Tactics,Observations,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics,Trust

When business ownership feels claustrophobic…

Debt? Get Used To It!

 

 

DID YOU KNOW THIS?

       [Source: www.cnsnews.com 11/17/11]                          

  • Three weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Dept. reported that the federal government’s debt had exceeded $15 Trillion for the first time in the history of America, hitting $15,033,607,255,920.32 and safe to assume that it’s higher yet as of today.

  •  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just estimated that there were 93,641,000 full-time private sector workers in America in 2010 (and 18,073,000 full-time workers in federal, state, and local government.

  • That means the $15.0336 Trillion federal debt equals approximately $160,545 per full-time private sector worker.

  • Given that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there were approximately 76,089,045 families in America in 2010, the federal debt equals approximately $197,579 for each and every American family. 

                                     

Besides your vote on November 6, 2012, is there no escape? Well, you could close up shop, grab your piggy bank, and head for some remote island, getting sunburn and mosquito bites and drinking piña coladas and coco locos until you can’t walk or talk — not to mention that there’s just so much coconut milk your system can take!

OR, you could –what did Grandpa used to say?– buckle up, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, put your shoulder to the wheel and your nose to the grindstone! Not a pretty picture. 

You COULD simply make productive use of this traditionally slow business time (unless you’re in retailing, in which case you’re not taking time to read anything right now, least of all a blog post) by doing a little introspection and a quick reassessment of your year-end and new-year goals. Are your goals ALL 6 OF THESE? . . .

Realistic? Specific?

Flexible? Due-Dated?

Written on paper?

In your pocket?

                                                                      

If your goals don’t meet ALL of these criteria, they are the stuff of wishlists and fantasyland. Don’t kid yourself into thinking they’ll work if you skip a couple. But if you follow all six, and keep adjusting them as you go (Flexible, remember?), you will have insured yourself of the best possible outcome. Why settle for less? It’s a choice.

What’s the single most important thing you learned about your SELF in 2011? What’s the single most important thing you learned about your BUSINESS in 2011? How can you combine these two revelations to do a better job of protecting your self and your business in 2012? Roadblocks? What? Detours? Where? Solutions?

Why all the hoopla on goals? Because we’re all in debt up to our ears and there are no miracle prospects on the horizon, so the best solution is to take what you have and work your butt off to make it better, to make it work in spite of what union/government/corporate giant muckity-mucks do or don’t do. It’s all about YOU.

With 30 million small businesses in America, and you as part of that universe, there is untold opportunity for moving forward as a free spirit entrepreneur, and there is untold opportunity for moving forward by working in concert with other like-minded small businesses. Call it collaboration, strategic alliance, whatever works.

In the end, Business Works. Does yours?

 

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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

Nov 22 2011

A Family Break and Happy Thanksgiving!

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Economy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Happiness,Innovation,Lifestyle,Motivation,Observations,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Special People/Special Occasions

Thank YOU for visiting!

 

Like many of you, this is family week in the Alpiar household (starring, of course, our three spectacular grandchildren!), so I’ll be back on Monday, November 27th with a whole new series of DAILY upbeat, provocative posts geared to boosting your year-end and 2012 business and personal development.

Come back November 27th

You’ll get leading edge and first-hand proven insights . . . filled with motivation and how-to techniques for ratcheting your business interests up and out of America’s economic quagmire! 

You’ll learn about a special new strategic alliance guaranteed to help your business grow quicker–more economically–than it is right now!

In the meantime, please scroll any of the A-Z BIZ ALPHABET Series you may have missed, and –above all– put your favorite business and personal development keywords into the Search window at the right. You’ll get results-focused applications YOUR business can use now!

Have a most blessed and joyful Thanksgiving holiday and week. See you back here on the 27th! Best Regards – Hal

                               

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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

Nov 16 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”W”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Choosing Behavior,Contacts/Networking,Decision Making,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Objectives,Objectives/Strategies/Tactics,Observations,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics,Writing

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

“W”…WISHING

 

WISHING may make it so in Peter Pan or The Wizard of Oz, but it’s a death knell in small business. Like hoping and dreaming, wishing accomplishes nothing. As entrepreneurs, the sooner we face reality and anchor ourselves in the present here-and-now moment for as many passing moments of every day as we possibly can, the sooner we will achieve success.

                             

~~~~~~~

No need to take my word for this sweeping rhetoric. It’s been proven endlessly over the ages by every successful, big-name entrepreneur who ever lived — from Thomas Edison, Henry Ford,  and Dale Carnegie, to Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Mary Kay Ashe.

So if this is such common knowledge, why doesn’t every entrepreneur succeed? Part of the answer is in the title of this blog post. We are taught from childhood to wish upon a star, that if we find a container on the beach and rub it, a genie will appear and grant three wishes, and so on.

Why do I bring this to our attention now, as we reach the end of the alphabet? Because besides that tonight, we landed on “W,” we are also on the cusp of the greatest annual “wishfest” in American history.

The whole thing starts the day after Thanksgiving and typically continues until Christmas when the dried out and “wishable” Thanksgiving turkey wishbone is ready to be or has already been snapped, and is likely to be replaced by a fresh new Christmas turkey wishbone.

Besides every greeting card filled with best holiday wishes, the season itself brings with it even more wishing as we see lottery ticket sales zoom and letters to Santa abound with children’s wishlists. And then, there’s New Year’s resolutions and wishes… success, success, success!

We certainly have ample opportunities for legitimatized, formal, and official wishing, but… alas!… WE are entrepreneurs, and we know far better than any corporate counterparts or government flunkies that wishing is a colossal waste of time and energy… not praying, mind you, but wishes! We all need all the prayer we can muster.

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have goals. In fact, if we are truly to succeed, goal-setting needs to be an essential and ongoing activity. And real goals –as opposed to fantasized missions– must adhere to four essential criteria, or they are not real goals, and not likely even achievable.

Ongoing? Yes, since –as you may have just discovered by clicking on the last word link above– one of the four essential goal-setting criteria is flexibility, the idea of ongoing goal-setting should be apparent. They need to be adjusted, re-adjusted, and upgraded to reflect the following truism:

Time and events cause changes in

  purpose, passion, and resources.

(Aspiring political candidates should also take note!)

                                                                                    

Do you write down your goals and write down your revised and upgraded goals and carry a copy of the latest version on your person every day? Do you go to sleep and wake up with them in your face every day? Do you keep them private except from others who:

  • You trust
  • You know have their own goals
  • You know will provide you with positive, reinforcing, encouragement on your pursuits

Stop wishing and start taking positive steps to make things happen. Begin in reality with written goals.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Nov 15 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”V”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Advertising,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Communication,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Delegation,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Marketing,Motivation,Objectives,Observations,Personal Growth,Professional Practices,Public Relations,Reality,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics

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

“V”…VOLUME

 

As in “Turn it up!” or “Turn it down!”?  A book? Number of patient visits? Amount of sales? Number of decibels your message uses? The major dial on the 4-wheeled boombox next to you at the traffic light? Depends. Are you an entrepreneur?       

~~~~~~~

As an entrepreneur, you may periodically plunk all or nearly all into your brain’s search window for updates. Sure, the muscle beach teeny-bopper with his car audio base vibrating 3 blocks away can be annoying, especially when you’re on your cell with a major client, a lawyer or your mother (sometimes indistinguishable!).

And keeping the volume turned up isn’t limited to rap stars, hard rockers, QVC, and your grandfather. Did you ever see or hear a soft-spoken, low volume car dealership commercial?

(Okay, maybe –maybe– for something like the 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe, which was sold for $8,700,000 in 1987, where we can figure that anybody with a gazillion dollars to spend on a car probably won’t respond well to shouts, y’think?)  

But it’s important to remind your marketing and/or salesperson or team (and yourself, anytime you give a presentation) that in the same type of “actions speak louder than words” context, w~h~i~s~p~e~r~s can speak louder than SHOUTS!  They serve to seize the moment! Sales stage presentations are famous for this technique.

It’s all about getting prospects, customers, audiences to sit up on the edges of their seats and listen hard.

Applied to packaging, I once discovered that every brand product in a particular section of the supermarket has a red and gold package–every one. I succeeded in talking my smaller, lesser known client into whispering with black and white packaging, which in a sea of red and gold, visually popped off the shelf into big-time POP sales.

Volume, then, is also visual, and it includes appearance when you’re in sales (and who isn’t?). Dressing conservatively helps salespeople keep prospect’s attention on the goods or services. Flamboyant clothing, jewelry, hair and makeup styles distract from the message. Save the Hawaiian shirt for weekends on your yacht.

Now, since doctors are a different breed of entrepreneurial animal altogether, it’s no wonder that their primary business focus is on growing patient volume. After all, doctors have no inventory, no one else (besides perhaps other doctor partners) they can pass patients off to for diagnostics and treatment (except referrals).

So the goal is to keep pushing for increased “volume” (in case you’ve wondered about that sitting in a healthcare waiting room with 20 other people waiting to see one doctor for 12 minutes!). Doctors have gotten better at delegating but there is a magic breaking point where reimbursements don’t cover added staff services.

Oh, and sales volume? A good thing, generally, but not always a good thing. Depends on the nature of your business. Ask your accountant about this. Too much volume can overwhelm ability to deliver the goods, and distract from the focal point of your business or marketing strategy.

Yes, and Volumes have been written about how to reach out and grab a customer, a prospect, but the bottom line is that if your marketing messages fail, your business fails. Take a hard look at the words you’re using. Decide whether your ads grab, win, lurk or suck? Do they just win a lot of meaningless awards, instead of sales?

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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

Nov 14 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”U”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Advertising,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Corporate Management,Creative Thinking,Customer Service (CRM),Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Innovation,Lifestyle,Management,Marketing,Motivation,Observations,Personal Growth,Professional Practices,Public Relations,Reality,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Special People/Special Occasions

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

“U”…UNIQUENESS

 

You already know that you’re different, or you’d be watching TV right now. Isn’t that so? People who enjoy being the same, work for big organizations where they can get lost in the waves instead of having  to make them, and they don’t surf blog posts about being unique because even though they are, they don’t believe they are.

You, on the other hand, are unique and know it. At various times in your life, you’ve been called weird, odd, a know-it-all, an opportunist, a hustler, a misfit, a trouble-maker, an instigator, an oddball, and one who marches to his or her own drum. You’re an entrepreneur. You own and/or run a business. You live for your idea to succeed. 

Now, what about your business? Do you think your business must be unique too? Odds are it’s not. In fact, the more unique your products or services are, the less likely your business is to survive. Investors and lenders like substantial, tangible businesses run by people with substantial, tangible, directly-related experience.

Customers are gun-shy about trying new products and services. They are also deathly afraid of buying technology that will be obsolete before they finish making payments. What does that leave? Pizza? Chickens? Cardboard? Dishwasher maintenance contracts? Delivery services?  Toothpaste? Cemetery Recycling?

Ah, so the trick isn’t necessarily (or even often) having a unique business. What then? Isn’t it more like being able to use your personal and instinctive uniqueness to design or develop or produce a unique perspective of what you have to sell? A competitive advantage? A single differential? Maybe. Maybe it’s just something that seems unique. 

It’s true, isn’t it, that uniqueness can be created with the stroke of a pen or keypad? Nike’s SWOOSH for example? And how about the 1, 2, and 3-word brandings that stick in our minds… the ones that sell?

  • 1-word example:  UNcola (for 7-Up when Coke and Pepsi were under the dark caffeine drink health destruction PR axe)
  • 2-word example:  “Got Milk?” (hard to top that message)
  • 3-word example:  “I’m Lovin’ It!” (even if you hate burgers and fries!)

In other words, BRANDING is what is responsible (my guess: 99% of the time) for UNIQUENESS. What we perceive, remember, is what we believe. Stated another way: Perceptions are facts! Does this imply that anything cute, different, or smashing, will create uniqueness which will create sales. Not a chance. Only substance succeeds.

BRANDING, then is about using unique ways to paint a picture of a business that delivers substance. And not unlike the old Marshall Mcluhan enlightenment that “The medium is the message,” could it also be that “Uniqueness is the message”? So it’s HOW we market that’s more important than what it is that we actually take to market?

Well, if these thoughts are even only partly correct, YOU have a distinct advantage in being able to present your business venture and offerings as unique, because you already are to start with. (We established that in the first sentence of this post.) And that which is unique rarely breeds that which is routine. Ask any spotted owl. 

 

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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

Nov 13 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”T”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Contacts/Networking,Corporate Management,Decision Making,Economy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Small Business,Strategies,Tactics,Trust

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

“T”…TRUST

 

If you’re reading this, you already know–in spite of claims by mainstream media talking heads, corporate moguls, misguided unionists, and political loudmouths– that entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurs are the catalysts of society. When small business innovates, it creates jobs. When it creates jobs, the economy flourishes.

Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to you, but the backbone of entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurship, small business ownership and management, and all of what it is that each of us does every day to move our business interests and pursuits forward, is TRUST.  

 

SMALL BUSINESS RUNS ON HANDSHAKES!

                                              

We thrive on handshakes, assurances, nods of the head, genuine smiles, pats on the back, and words like , “Okay, let’s go!” and “I’ll try it.” Sure, there are times when we trust that we get stung, bitten, cut off at the knees, ripped off, swindled, clobbered and killed. Yet we feistily avoid contracts, and live to avoid lawyers.

When we accept partial commitments, and move forward, we do it in good faith, but may cringe a little depending on age, and by how much we’ve been beaten up by dishonorable associates, employees, investors, and customers.  Even when the bad outnumbers the good, we still tend to “chalk it up to experience.”

We keep going, sometimes reluctantly. Sometimes we get up from the canvas too slowly for our own good, and get hit again before we’ve regained balance. Sometimes we’re preoccupied with damage reports instead of with boosting sales.

Sometimes we forget that income doesn’t come from turning out lights and cutting corners or wallowing in self-pity over having been taken advantage of. It’s an easy trap to fall into. It’s the M.O. for corporate executives and government, which goes something like this:

  • Cover your butt.

  • Justify.

  • Analyze.

  • Don’t make waves.

  • Be P.C.

  • Don’t risk.

  • Be Green.

  • Think small.

                                                                                      

But maybe that’s because big business and government simply don’t trust handshakes and authenticity. And they are quick to point to the losses from failed relationships. Maybe it’s because they are so heavily invested in protecting the status quo. Maybe it’s because they are controlled by disproportionate numbers of attorneys.

I’ve worked on all sides of these fences and prefer conducting business backed by the unspoken “In God We Trust” that blankets what I believe to be most entrepreneurial deals, vs. the government and big business spouting of our nation’s motto, but adhering to “In Contracts and Lawyers We Trust” as the mission that they practice.

I’ll take my lumps with God on my side rather than suffocate in legalities and paperwork required of those whose trustworthiness seems questionable. Like “The lady doth protest too much,” when I’m swarmed on by insistence for contracts, I back off. I honor my commitments and expect others to honor theirs.

Naive? I believe it’s naive to think that contracts seal a deal. I’ve lost more money and opportunities and productive relationships by having a signed contract than I have —ever— with a handshake.

So, what’s the suggestion? Blind trust? Hardly. Due Diligence must always precede a handshake. And don’t rely on some one’s social media profile or website bio. Talk with people who know or worked with the individual(s) you’re planning to work with. Talk with -people who know or worked with those people. Be a detective.

When you’re satisfied with what you learn, trust your judgement, trust in God, and pay –or get paid– in chunks.

                                                                 

The bottom line? Take heart. Believe in yourself. Remember you are not in business to be in court, to waste time and energy dwelling on losses, nor to make lawyers rich. If you can’t trust a handshake and recognize it will sometimes cost you, you might want to look at that cone placement job with the Roads Department.

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US

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 09 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”R”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Age & Aging,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Communication,Contacts/Networking,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Economy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Objectives,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Politics/Gov't,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics,Trust

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

“R”…REVITALIZATION

 

There is a BUSINESS “Fountain of Youth.” Yes, there is. And in my humble judgement, at least half if not three quarters of America’s 30 million small businesses could stand a splash or two, or a cupful to drink (Uh, from the Fountain of Youth!)… right now, today, before or over this weekend at the latest. But quickly. 

                                                         

Why?

  • Because our economic quagmire has been made worse, relentlessly fueled by our wildly out-of-step-with-reality White House. And now is the time to act.

  • Because the White House is in cahoots with brainless, greedy union leadership, and a sea of corporate incompetence. And now is the time to act.

  • The combined political pursuits have succeeded in choking off America’s entrepreneurial spirit and –with it, the nation’s only real hope for new job creation– small business innovation and success. And now is the time to act.

                                                        

So where else is there left to turn? The Business Fountain of Youth! It can nourish, renew, reinvent, refresh, and revitalize. Even as you dip just one toe into it, the youth of your past will rise again.

Okay, says you, where is this place, this fountain? How do I make it work for me? The answers after this. (Sound like a TV news lead-in to a commercial break?) Well, before I reveal the Business Fountain of Youth secrets, I need to ask you to step away from your business long enough to take stock in where you and your business stand.

Where are you, mindset-wise, at this moment? Inventory your goods and services, your staff if you have one, your supporters, your suppliers (everyone from sales reps to maintenance and delivery services). Go ahead and mull this over for a few minutes. I’ll wait.

Good. Now, to move forward with what you have –your existing resources– what’s the next step you need to take for yourself? With your business? Can you be more specific? Go ahead and be specific. I’ll wait again. Go on. There now, I see you crossed some T’s and dotted some i’s… nice work!

Next, ask yourself how flexible you can be with your specific mission? Can you feel okay about redefining the details? About changing the timing, context, parameters? What IS the timing? Put a deadline on this. Put one on yourself.

(But, aha, for purposes of protecting your sanity, make sure you can live with needing to change your self-assigned due date if you feel that need arise at some point.)

Great! Now do a reality check. Is what you’re thinking about right this minute as the road you need to travel, a realistic objective? How realistic?

Oh, right, I was going to give you the scoop on The Business Fountain of Youth — where it is, how to access it, and what to expect. Well, here’s what you need to know:

A) The Business Fountain of Youth is inside you. It is what you make of what you already have.

B) You have just completed a revitalization process by awakening yourself and by answering the questions posed in the format prescribed. You have, in essence, redefined your goals by following the proven trail for addressing and structuring (or re-structuring) necessary goal criteria:

Realistic – Specific – Flexible – Due-dated

 

Without goals that use those four criteria, you are merely wishing and hoping, and that will get you nowhere. Forward motion means getting started, and getting started means looking carefully within your SELF. In other words, REVITALIZATION Starts At Home!                                                                                  

 

# # #

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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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