You’re boss for the day,

in charge of the zoo.

Whaddaya say?

Whaddaya do?

     Even when you think no one’s around or paying attention, everyone IS. It’s hard to run your own business on stage in the spotlights (especially in some of the larger more public theatres), but “on stage” is where you and every other boss perform every day.

     You may even need to drop the curtain (or close your door) every once in awhile for a few minutes privacy just to sniffle, pick, scratch or gargle without an audience. But–even then–remember you are still the chief muckity-muck and (like it or not) you’re a parental figure to those who work for you.

     You probably don’t think that your employees are anywhere near being neurotic. You may be astounded to learn that many of them (if not all) measure your every move. They all watch TV. So they all know how to observe, scope things out, size things up, and “case the joint.” It’s rare that anything you say isn’t repeated over and again both on the job, and at home, as well as to neighbors, friends, teammates and bar buddies. Your community and industry exposure is as public as a professional athlete’s is to her or his sport.

     Odds are pretty good that your people want to butter you up, or do you in, or simply not make waves. An exclusive small handful are self-actualized enough in the work they do to enjoy doing the work they do with no greater agenda. But this is a very small fraction of the total. None of them will do their jobs with the conviction and commitment that you have. None will do things exactly the same way that you would.

     But this is why you get the big bucks. It’s not your job to get things done. It’s your job to get others to get things done. Bottom line is that bosses who treat employees as underlings produce underlings. Underlings don’t sell. Underlings don’t innovate. Underlings don’t take initiative. Underlings hate their jobs.

     Bosses who treat employees like partners produce partnerships and employee teams that believe in what they are doing. These are the people who will strengthen the organization because they are granted the respect that renders them not afraid to step up to the plate, nor to challenge the status quo.  

     As Boss, the best, most productive and motivating thing you can do is to take the time and trouble to learn a little bit more than you presently know about what makes each employee who works with you “tick”…what kinds of dreams, desires, wants and needs does each have.

     You needn’t be a shrink to do this. Simply open your eyes and ears more. Tune in to the kinds of things people do and say. When you can reward behavior with rewards that really matter to each individual, you are cultivating long-term commitment, ongoing loyalty, and exemplary performance. 

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 Hal@Businessworks.US or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. 

Go for your goals, good night and God bless you!

“I’m Sick of Worrying!”

     An important followup note on last night’s blog post topic: “Worry” as noted comes from being too over-focused on the FUTURE, which ignites weapons of self-destruction fuses and pulls the pin out of expectation grenades that inevitably breed disappointment, followed by negativity, depression, stress…

     This is all true, but as I re-read the post, I see that I failed to include being too overly-focused on the PAST as a worry trigger as well. Consider getting caught up in giving either too much attention to future plans and expectations, or in over-and-done-with past events, as “partners in crime.”

     These “bad guy partners” are out to get you, and you can stop them short, before either one ever gets close to delivering harmful effects to you, your family or your business. Success means simply that you need to exercise more of your brain power to deliver increased personal awareness and increased self-control to your SELF! (Considering Einstein reportedly only ever used 10% of his brain power, just imagine what’s possible.)

     Thinking about the past can be productive, relaxing, and instructional, but not once it reaches the point of dwelling on past events. As with allowing future thoughts to become worrisome, our balance and stability as humans is equally threatened by dwelling on the past. 

     The past is over and cannot be changed. Worrying about and dwelling on it is a nonproductive (actually counter-productive) waste of time and energy. Conscious or unconscious, the fact remains that paying over-the-top attention to either the past OR the future—instead of the (much-healthier) present—is a choice.

     To get past the “points of destruction” in your mind, you need to be a detective about yourSELF. Figure out what it is that trips your circuit-breaker, that gets you “lost” in past or future thoughts and issues. Once you know what your “trigger” is, then every time you are aware of it coming to the surface, let it serve as a reminder to pinch yourself or feel your pulse or heartbeat, or take a deep breath…and return yourself to what’s going on right in front of your face.

     Oh, but that’s hard and I don’t know how to do it! It’s hard if you CHOOSE for it to be hard. You can just as easily CHOOSE for it to be easy. As for how to do it, just start paying closer attention to your own behaviors…how you respond and react to others, to situations.

     Keep track of your words and actions. Write your observations down someplace and review your notes every few days. Keep asking yourself what you are learning about yourself right this minute.

     You’ll surprise yourself. And odds are you’ll far exceed your own expectations of what you believed to be possible for your own physical, mental, and emotional health and happiness. Try it. You’ll like it! But don’t wait too long. There’s no time like the present!      

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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The Six Ghosts of Fear

In his 1937 classic book (over 15 million copies sold), THINK and GROW RICH, Napoleon Hill set the stage for today’s motivational thinking, and offers specifics on “How to Outwit the Six Ghosts of Fear” that successful leaders in every walk of life continue to use even now as you are reading this.

What ARE the “Six Ghosts”?

1. The Fear of Poverty

2. The Fear of Criticism

3. The Fear of Ill Health

4. The Fear of Loss of Love

5. The Fear of Old Age

6. The Fear of Death

Worry is what unites and strengthens these negative emotions and, left unchecked, will ultimately cause them to materialize. Worry paralyzes reasoning and destroys self-confidence and initiative. It’s easy to say –as the calypso song encourages us–“Don’t worry!” but truth is our minds often work harder at making it a difficult choice instead of a simple  one.

Worry accomplishes NOTHING. It comes from being overly-focused on the future…on events that haven’t come yet and that may never come. It happens when we slip past “planning” and head toward expectations. It starts with disappointment and leads quickly to the most wasteful and harmful thinking that humans engage in.

It evolves from fantasy, not reality. It leads to businesses going under, negative thinking and neurosis taking over. It leads to illness, accidents and depression. It leads all too often to premature death.

The greatest single weapon against worry is to work tenaciously to keep your mind in the present here and now moment as often as you can possibly think of it during every hour of every day. Staying here and now, like a baby, like a puppy dog, like a naturalist in the wilds, like a mountain climber, opens the pathway for you to good health and happiness.

No one can be living in the present moment every single moment. (Just imagine an air traffic controller without a break.) But all of us are capable of maximizing our present moment attentiveness. Deep breathing helps. Regular exercise helps. Taking breaks helps. Eating right and sleeping right as much as possible helps.

You want to think and feel healthier? Have a happier existence? A stronger business? Start paying closer attention to keeping your mind from wandering too far astray from what’s right in front of your face right now at any given moment throughout the day, every day. It’s a choice, you know. Choose to set yourself up to not worry as much and you’ll be well on the way to defeating the six ghosts of fear!

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Input welcome anytime:

Hal@BusinessWorks.US  or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. 

Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! 

What do others say

you’re selling?

     Think of every half-truth you tell (business or otherwise) as throwing a shovel full of dirt up out of the hole you’re digging for yourself! And now that you’re imagining yourself down in that hole, you might want to consider how many more shovels full it will take before the sidewalls start caving in around you. 

     Yes indeed, there are times when the truth hurts, you might say to yourself, as reason to avoid dealing with it. But you know what? NOTHING hurts more than a lie (business or otherwise). This, by the way, is not just one-on-one, person-to-person we’re talking about here. Many businesses lie to the public! (And we know about the track-record of government.)

     “Harrumph! Not me or mine,” you say. Ah, but perhaps some service you engage is lying FOR you –sort of “on your behalf”– and it never really occurred to you to call their hand. After all, they’re professionals (and probably charge professional rates!) and certainly they should know where to draw the line…the ad adgency, the Internet marketing firm, the PR and sales consultants, the lawyers.

     Are your marketing, advertising, promotion, merchandising, packaging, sales training, Internet activities, public and community and industry relations being created, prepared, produced and delivered by “outside” sources?

     Do these people really understand your business and what you need to communicate to the rest of the world? Do they care if they err on the side of exaggeration on what they believe or tell you is on your behalf? When was the last time you gave your advertising messages a lie-detector test?

     Am I trying to make you neurotic? No. Is it important to do periodic reality checks with your outside services? Yes! Why? Because –in the end–YOU are responsible. Sure advertising and public relations firms carry certain liability issues on their shoulders, but frankly, they are much more clever at avoiding trouble, covering up trouble and bailing out of trouble.

     Just as “sales” runs through the blood of your business, walking a thin line is the mantra for many outside agencies and consultants. Many often make their names and reputations on how close they can come to carrying or suggesting off-color, bad-taste, or politically-inappropriate (to your business) campaigns and themes…or making promises you can’t deliver!

     Why? Because being over-the-top can win them awards that they can self-promote to get more higher-paying clients. It’s all part of “the ad game” and “the PR game” and the “Internet and SEO game” and like the tango, it takes two. Periodic reality checks and reviews of vendor integrity can save you money and reputation.

     Odds are 100 out of 100 that your customers buy integrity. Integrity is doing the right thing even when nobody else is looking! Are you? Are those who work for you?       

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 245 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

ARE YOU

BREATHING?

1-Minute private technique kills business stress

This 4-step, on-the-spot stress management technique is being used—right this minute, as you are reading this—by millions of healthcare, business, sports, entertainment, teaching, and homemaker professionals.  It works for every age and level of health.  

It will work for you too!

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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! 

Gonna Chunk It? Then Chew It!

     If your current state of existence fits the last (“Discombobulated?”) post, and you’ve decided to try managing your time in chunks instead of clock ticks, be aware that you can’t just wolf down the chunks like my Golden Retriever. She rarely bothers to chew when she’s excited.

     You however are not a dog. At least, I must assume that you’re not. But just in case you ARE some blog-reading canine phenom, please call me immediately; we’ll make lots of money together. So the bottom line is that your digestive system simply doesn’t work well with chunks.

     Still with me here?We’re talking time management. Chunks. Chunking up time and activities is better than nonstop eating of the same (physical, mental, or emotional) food for eight hours a day. After all, even casino dealers work 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off.

     The guys who clean out the winery vats are basically AA candidates after just 15 minutes of vintage fermentation fumes (although that’s not such a bad way to go) and have to take mandated breaks.

     Imagine for a minute if the chiropractoradjusted every single bone in your body all in one visit. You’d be like Gumby. It’d take you a week simply to get off the table. Ah, then there’s the dentist and doing all the fillings and extractions and crowns and all the other rotten stuff dentists do all at one time. Whew! That one hurts even to think about.

     Start by breaking up your daily “To Do” list…little pieces work better (like outline the Narrative section of the business plan,” which could take a couple of hours). Little pieces are more attainable, and achieving each will motivate you a whole lot more than having “Write Business Plan” on your list, which could take months.

     In other words, after chunking, chew. After chewing, digest. Your body wasn’t made to take a pounding 16 waking hours a day. Neither was your mind, nor your emotions. The more you push and force yourself, the longer you’ll take to complete each task, and the more likely you will be to screw up each task, not to mention the indigestion, heartburn, and ulcers that you’ll be cultivating. 

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now just $1.99 a month after a free trial on your Amazon Kindle. FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 243 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

You can’t control your ship

while stoking the furnace!

     What IS it that makes business owners and managers so crazy when they’re confronted with the idea of hiring someone to do a task that they know they could do themselves?  Huh? I KNOW I’m not imagining this one. So answer the question.

     Why would someone who runs a business think she or he should set up his or her own website or write her or his own blog or news release, for example? To save money? Surely saving money is not a good answer.

     As we’ve discussed here often, no one makes money by saving money. Businesses only make money by selling. If you own or operate a struggling (or ambitious) business and you decide to do tasks that are not making money by actually disengaging yourself from the sales process, you are wasting money, not saving it.

     I have seen some very bright business owners step aside from the sales function to let the salespeople do the selling, and instead focus their energies on operational productivity or human resource management, or budget management, or manufacturing efficiency, then be astonished to see their ships go down while they are busily rearranging the deck chairs.

     FACT: No one (NO ONE) is better at selling what your business produces or provides than you are! If your business is struggling (or steaming “Full Ahead”), and you are not with one hand at the controls, actively selling, you may want to re-think your investment in survival (or growth) and see the role you’re playing for what it really is: an anchor!

     If you need a new or upgraded website or a punchy blog, or news releases that get printed and broadcast, and you can find a professional website developer you can trust who has a track-record for reliability…or a professional marketing writer who knows how to “storytell” your business messages and who has a track-record for sales results, for heaven’s sake: HIRE THEM and get on with selling!

     So what if you think you could design your own site or write your own content or marketing materials? It’s not worth you taking the time to do those things when you need to be selling because selling is the only way to make money and move your ship forward.

     Pay the professionals to do what they do best. It’s a cost of doing business. Trying to tackle non-sales projects yourself diverts your time, energy and money into non-productive directions and doesn’t make the best use of your knowledge, talents, and enthusiasm. Besides, if you do-it-yourself, and screw it up, it’ll cost you twice as much to get the same professionals to do emergency surgery at sea!

     One last thought: You can control your ship and sell at the same time. You can’t control your ship while you’re stoking the furnace or working below decks. Best wishes for smoothe sailing!  

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column). FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 241 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

Train. Ask. Listen. Bend.

     First of all, there’s no reason in the world a small business needs a customer service department or customer service representatives. EVERY manager and every employee is or should be able to handle any customer complaint, concern, question or transaction. If they’re not, TRAIN them. Spend a few dollars to bring in a professional trainer (it’s cheaper than paying a rep salary or a department full of salaries).

     Periodically send a friend or relative in (physically, or by phone or email) as a “mystery shopper” to keep everyone fresh and on their toes. Tell your people of course that this will happen from time to time. You can even make a game of it with mystery shopper points for outstanding ratings, adding up to dinner for two or some inexpensive but fun reward (again, still less expensive than permanent salary or benefit increases or bonuses).

What should the training be focused on?

ASKING customers’ questions. (Not “What can I interest you in today?” or “How’s the weather outside?” or “Why don’t you want this product?”) Ask how they are or were using, or plan to use, the product? Ask what three things can you do for them right now that will help restore their confidence in your company, or how can you help them to have a positive shopping experience with your business, or what will it take to get them to return…to send their friends and relatives?

LISTENING to customers’ answers. (Not token “hearing,” but deeply listening, and understanding, and processing the comments, and paraphrasing them to make sure your understanding is correct.) The customer should do 80% of the talking. You should do 80% of the listening. Oh, and take notes. Always take notes. Nod your head. Smile. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes (empathy). Avoid crossing your arms, legs or hands. Be engaging. Use eye contact (not staring) and avoid looking past or over the person in front of you. 

BENDING to customers’ requests.This means really and truly bending over backwards to accomodate what’s asked of you. This does NOT mean you should give away the store or the farm or your sister. Don’t roll over and play dead to every request (assertive refusals can be delivered very pleasantly), but offer SOMEthing. Most people are happy with being acknowledged and listened to. Those who want more are usually happy with some token of appreciation for their forthrightness. Remember your goal needs to be to deliver exceptional attention to each customer with no exceptions. Send each one off to sell your business to others.

     If you have a small operation, with a dozen or fewer people, and want to save money, do the training yourself…but do your homework first, ask everyone to contribute a segment, and remember to practice what you preach!

     The bottom line is the old “Golden Rule” of do unto others as you would have others do unto you! There is no better approach to customer service in ANY economy. And when business is slow, there is no better approach to speeding it up! Try it! You’ll like it!     

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column). FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 240 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

Shut Your Business Down!

     Can the service your business provides be better? Are you in a position to MAKE it better? I would hope so, or you wouldn’t be likely to be visiting this blog for business owners and managers. But perhaps you think you need to live with what you’ve got?

     Maybe you feel like you just shouldn’t rock the boat? Or could it be that you might be stepping on someone else’s toes, or that service improvements wouldn’t work, or may create havoc in your industry or –let’s see– you could never get your dollar value back for the time invested?

     Anything like any of those reasons serve you as a quick answer so now you can move along to some other site? Do yourself a favor. Shut your business down tomorrow. You’re likely to have more success selling off your office or site supplies and equipment than you will staying where you are, doing what you’re doing. You find that insulting? Good! Maybe there’s hope yet.

     If the suggestion to hang up your spikes makes you angry, maybe you need to look in the mirror and shake yourself by the shoulders and breathe some new life into the services you’re providing. Making your services better is more likely, FYI, to INCREASE your business than decrease it.

     Why? Because people talk. People who get better quality services tell others, and this works much quicker and much deeper than any advertising can produce. A couple of years back, some shrewd entrepreneurs even invented the word BUZZ as the modern day equivalent of “Word of Mouth”– except that word of mouth is genuine; BUZZ is contrived.

     The point is that THIS– this economy, this time in history, this year, this month, this week– is in fact the time to start making better what you already have. Don’t let the biased mainstream news media, the zero business-experienced government, the monster union-dominated automakers, the moronic 37 trillion bank VP’s who all know less than one another convince you to sit back and take it on the chin!

     You didn’t start and grow your business to shut it down. Don’t let others lead you down the path of status quo. Now is the time to rise, to innovate, to take a fresh look at what you have, and who you have…associates, employees, customers, vendors, affiliates, neighbors, industry, community.

     How can you make more of all that now? What new ways can you pull your assets together to put yourself and your service business in a leadership position? What’s holding you back? It’s a choice. It’s your choice. 

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column). FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 239 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

Forget The 5 W’s!

     Asking and answering: Who? What? When? Where? and Why? is the stuff that reporters and PR people feed on…it’s the cornerstone of a weak corporate management mentality, and of (even weaker) government managers and directors.

     Constant attention to answering these five questions makes for useless, time-wasting pursuit for business owners, managers and entrepreneurs. Any entrepreneur worth her or his salt will typically respond “So What!” to those who exert themselves trying to provide the answers to them.

     Asking associates, employees, customers and vendors to give you the answers to Who? What? When? Where? and Why? is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to uncover the person and circumstances to place blame on when something doesn’t go right…usually as a way to cover one’s own butt! 

     And besides the fact that absolutely no one cares except those engaged in the game, it’s a complete waste of time, money and energy (and I’ll be happy to prove it; send me an email with your phone number and I’ll spell out the details in a 3-minute call!), it’s also the wrong attitude if you’re serious about growing your business.

It’s one of the most basic differences between entrepreneurial and corporate on-the-job actions, and between entrepreneurial and corporate off-the-job lifestyles.

     Which of these behavioral choices (dogged pursuit of answers to the 5 W’s, OR overlooking the 5 W’s to concentrate on the HOW?) do you think is most productive for the business? For living life? For the personal and professional growth and development of the people involved?

[If you’re not with me here,you’re a 9 to 5 guy and should just stay there, and must have gotten to this blog by mistake, and you should probably “X” out now and go get your rocks off by visiting Facebook or Disney or ESPN or something not so threatening to your mindset.]

     Is PLACING BLAME the answer in your organization? Does it seem to be an S.O.P goal? Maybe it’s time to hit the road and find a place that respects your efforts? Many of the world’s most successful and fastest-growing organizations actually REWARD what most corporate executives would certainly regard as “FAILURE.”

     Not succeeding at reaching a legitimate goal is not failure. It is instead a positive step in the direction of achieving success because it eliminates one pathway that doesn’t take you to where you want to go. So it serves to narrow down your pursuits more meaningfully.

     Still doubtful? Think about the answers you get from any human on Earth when you ask the question “WHY?” Go ahead; think about it! You get excuses, right? “WHY?” is a breeding ground for excuses.

     Try instead asking “HOW?” as in “HOW” can we perform this task more effectively next time (vs. “Why did this happen?”). HOW? “What three steps can you recommend to prevent this problem in the future?” will provide much more actionable information than a long, time-wasting autopsy which will only show what happened and who did what to whom. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!