Archive for the 'Life Plans' Category

Jan 25 2011

As we sow, so shall we reap.

Do the WAYS

                     

we do business

                                                                  

determine

                        

the results we get?

                                                         

ATTITUDES

Do you and your partners, associates, and advisers ALL demonstrate positive upbeat attitudes in practically everything you say and do? When it’s time to swallow hard, eat crow, and bite the bullet (heck of a name for a restaurant!), do you and those around you own up, face the music, take it on the chin, take some deep breaths, and then step forward, onward, and upward? 

Are high-trust responsive attitudes standard fare in all your business dealings? Do you practice and foster “OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS” attitudes? Are you listening?

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Can you honestly say there are no exceptions ever to: the customer is always right, the customer is always right, the customer is always right? (Even when it’s a customer who has overstepped bounds, or someone you don’t particularly like?) Do you and your people try to make EVERY customer deliriously delighted. Are you invested in cultivating repeat sales with a present moment focus? Are you listening?

EMPLOYEES

Are you taking the time and trouble to get to know your people well enough to make the most of their strengths (or are you constantly trying to shore up their weaknesses)? Have you frequently matched employee need levels against Maslow’s Hierarchy (Google or Bing it if you’ve forgotten it) to most effectively motivate productive performances? Do you practice leadership by teaching by example? Are you listening?

INVESTORS, LENDERS, AND REFERRERS

Is your level of transparency what you would want it to be if you were investing in you, or referring others to your business? Are you keeping these key connections inside your inner loop? Are you tapping them as resources and regularly soliciting their input. Have you recruited them into unpaid Advisory Board positions? Are you listening?

VENDORS AND SUPPLIERS

Do you treat these resource people and companies like partners? Can you extend and generate better terms for exchanging and referring and bartering products and services? Do you keep them competitive with an ongoing bid process, and constantly review their performances while keeping open-minded to other options? Do they know where they stand with you? Are you listening?

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Are you running a U.S.Marine Drill Instructors Academy, or a hospice, or something in between? Is the way you run your business in keeping with the industry or profession you’re part of? Is it too much in keeping that it doesn’t stand out? Do your policies and procedures squelch innovative thinking and doing, or enhance it? How lawyer-crazed tight are your policy interpretations? 

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING

Are you constantly making room for top talent, and cultivating it. Are you providing enough of the right kinds of training. Are you aware of how importantly regarded expanded opportunities and responsibilities are to most people? Did you know that young people are positively more attracted to being praised than they are to sex, drugs, and alcohol? 

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Are you and your business being good citizens in the various (professional, industry, geographic, neighborhood)communities that patronize your business and support your existence?

GOD AND COUNTRY

When you put God and country first on your business agenda, all the other pieces will fit together because both God and your country will know about your allegiance, your commitment, and where your heart is. As we sow, so shall we reap. 

                                                      

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302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

One response so far

Jan 20 2011

HONOR

On my honor, I will

                            

do my best to do my duty

                       

to God and my country

                     

 Honor Guard… Honor

                               

thy Father and Mother…

                                

Military Honors...Honor

                                                                                             

the memory…Yes,Your

                            

Honor…No, Your Honor

                                                                                            

…Honors Student …Oh,

                                      

yes, and:

                            

“Honor among thieves.”

  

 

Barbara Ann Kipfer’s FLIP DICTIONARY (a wonderful Writer’s Digest resource book) shows the following under “HONOR”:  

“Accolade, adore, award, celebrate, character, commendation, courage, credit, decoration, deference, dignify, dignity, distinction, ennoble, esteem. exalt, fame, fete, glorify, glory, homage, honesty, integrity, kudos, laud, laurels, obeisance, praise, recognition, regard, reputation, respect, revere, reverence, tribute, trust, worship.”

WHAT DOES “HONOR” MEAN TO YOU?

Business and personal reputations are made or broken by the treatment of and attention to honoring commitments, delivering what’s promised.

When your leadership can inspire others –employees and suppliers– to go the extra mile, to deliver more than what’s expected, you can count yourself among the truly great captains of industry. 

Surely you will never be at a loss for customers, unless you think you’ve inherited and deserve a badge of honor because you’re part of some aristocratic family birthright (in which case, you’re not reading this anyway), honor is in reality something that’s both learned and earned. And it’s never to late for either.

As with all other behaviors that lead to various forms of good and bad and positive and negative recognition, the pathway to receiving honor is to choose to deliver it consistently first.

Those who rise to the occasion to make certain that what they promise others is in fact the minimum of what they deliver, and that they in fact deliver when they say they will deliver, and who follow through on commitments win honorable reputations. Honorable reputations sell. But only when they are continuously evidenced.

In other words, one good deed does not a respectable character make. Put another way, one business owner I know tells employees:

I don’t care that the rest of the world always wants to know the answer to the question: ‘what have you done for me lately?’

I care about what you do consistently –day after day– to demonstrate commitment to yourself, your fellow employees, our customers, and company outsiders.

Because that’s the kind of honorability that makes businesses thrive.”

How prevalent is this thinking and behavior in your organization? What will it take to punch it up?(By the way, if you’re into the “Honor Among Thieves” mindset, consider that the punishment payoff will catch up with you somewhere; do you really always want to be looking back over your shoulder?) 

Thank you, dear visitors; it’s been, well, an honor to have you visit. Please return soon.

                                           

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302.933.0116   Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

One response so far

Jan 19 2011

Conquering Anxiety

Shakin’ in your boots?

 

In business, we often (sometimes even every hour –or minute– or two) find ourselves in a position of needing to deliver something under duress . . . a product, service, idea, proposal, message, estimate, document, presentation, bank balance, operational failure, employee or customer or supplier problem. And delivery is always in Eastern, Central, Rocky Mountain or La-La Land Crunch Time.

Anxiety, says Webster, is the painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind over an impending or anticipated ill, or concern or interest . . . abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by psychological signs (such as sweating, tension, and increased pulse) . . . and by self doubt. Not the stuff of entrepreneurs, you say?  Contraire mon fraire!

Sure entrepreneurs are self-confident and self-motivated and filled with burning desire, but they are also basket cases when it comes time for delivery of the goods — a business plan to investors, a loan app to the bank, a new operating system.

Why is that”?

Entrepreneurs are uniquely suited to have more at stake with every decision than any corporate or government manager.

Period.

Not very unlike the mindsets of our military heroes, entrepreneurs put their very (life, home, and family) existences on the line with virtually every decision every day.

Although no one in our present top level of American government has yet to acknowledge this truth or taken steps to capitalize on it: entrepreneurs are, when all is said and done, the movers and shakers of society.

Entrepreneurs are the catalysts of job market creation and employment opportunities — they are the only viable resource to tap for reversing and strengthening America’s economy. That’s a lot of angst to carry around.

Okay, so the conquering part:

  •  Take some deep breaths.

  • Recognize that anxiousness is a behavior and that behaviors are choices so why choose agita when you can just as easily make up your mind to instead choose calm self-control?

  • Focus on the here-and-now present moment as much as possible because everything else (since it’s not here, now) is pure fantasy!

  • Learn as much as you possibly can about your SELF and the things that make you come together as a person, as a leader, as an innovator.

  • Surround yourself with positive people, positive events, positive pursuits, and a positive environment as often as possible.

  • Don’t be afraid to seek out professional reality or Gestalt therapy or group guidance if you feel yourself drifting too far into the past or future too often. It doesn’t mean you’re losing it; it means you’re smart enough to recognize your shortcomings and to do something about them. It puts you in the top percent of enlightened human beings on this planet (which you clearly are if you’re reading this! Thanks for being here. Come again.).

# # #

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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! 

No responses yet

Jan 16 2011

Hal’s Blog Is Back!

Dear family, friends,

                                    

neighbors, associates,

                                                                     

clients, Twitterers,

                             

and blog visitors:

                                                                    

Thank you one and all for the outpouring of generosity, well wishes and prayers for my wife Kathy, and our family, during this difficult past week.

The bottom line is that Kathy is now -I am happy to report– back home getting some much needed R&R. Both of our work schedules were severely sidetracked, and I have missed connecting with all of you here on my blog for more than a week… our longest posting interruption in four years.

If you thought I might come roaring back, filled with fire, you may be disappointed to learn that I am only —still— filled with fire.

The “roar” part has dulled a little with the awareness that I nearly lost my bride of 24 years,  with the gratefulness I have for her survival, and with the seemingly endless reminders of love and friendship from so many of you, and with what clearly have been God’s blessings.

I will soon (starting tomorrow!) address some spectacular business and personal growth-related enlightenments that charged across my path during this week’s emotional roller coaster. 

Some topics I drafted during down-time waits in the Intensive Care Unit include new perspectives on leadership, customer service, communications, and marketing, among others. You won’t want to miss these. 

I also have a thought-provoking post to share on the music of business that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. It stood half-drafted for the last eight days, so I’ll be delivering that very shortly as well.

You can of course count on my continued irreverence for government, corporate giants, and business naysayers just because, hey, somebody’s gotta do it!.

I’m working my way back to you. Please visit here as the week rolls along, and please urge others to join us. Thank you again for your loyalty, patience and support.

My continued best wishes to each of you for unprecedented great success in 2011. Hal

 

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or 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! 

3 responses so far

Jan 06 2011

Self-Motivation (Part 2 of 2)

Self-Motivation?

                            

I heard you

                                                    

stayed up all night

                        

talking to yourself?

                                                       

Couldn’t wait to see

                                     

Part 2? Here it is:

 

(Oh, and be sure to check out the P.S. at the end!)

                                                                                               

What are some other ways to motivate yourself besides talking to yourself?

When you’re feeling negative and you surround yourself with yourself, you set yourself up to lose. When you surround yourself with positive people, who are productive, achievement-oriented, and generally cheerful, you are setting yourself up to cultivate positive thoughts and positive attitudes.

When you find yourself feeling like you’re drowning in a sea of negativity, or overwhelmed by negative people or circumstances, remember you control your own brain and your own behavior . . . it is a choice, your choice. Choose to “change the station in your brain to best fit the circumstances. Dial in HAPPY-FM because “happy” works. 

Ask yourself what’s the worst thing could happen if you get up to the plate and swing instead of cower in the dugout corner?

You might strike out? Babe Ruth’s record number of hume runs ran in tandem with his record number of strikeouts.

Thomas Edison made 10,000 attempts before succeeding at inventing the lightbulb.

                                                                                                    

All logical rational stuff, you might be thinking, but negative feelings are not always logical or rational. True, but your ability to rise above them can be.

Learn what triggers your “throw in the towel” attitude and the feelings you typically experience just before that happens, then use that trigger instead to remind yourself to take some deep breaths. Use the couple of seconds worth of deep breathing as a focal point that allows you to shut down the upsets, crank up the positive side of what’s happening, and turn the situation around by simply choosing to turn it around.

Here’s what’s worth remembering (besides talking to yourself with conviction, three times a day, for 21 days): Use these tools (deep breathing and self-talk and awareness of choosing behavior) to force yourself to concentrate on the present, here-and-now moments in your life, as each moment passes, as much and as often as you possibly can.

Just in case of some disconnect as to why one would want to do this in the first place: The past is over and cannot be changed. The future has not yet come (and may never). Now is the only time. Or, as the now famous quote goes from B. Olatunji:

“Yesterday is history.

 Tomorrow is mystery.

Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

                                                                 

It may not be possible for us to live in the present moment 100% of the time, but odds are pretty good that most of us aren’t even doing that 20%-30% of the time, so there’s lots of room to grow and improve. And improving just this one single thing about yourself will improve your daily existence measurably. Again, give it 21 days. You will astound yourself with all you can accomplish and enjoy.

You doubt it? Then you’re proving the point that you become what you think about. The choices –happy and healthy or upset and ill– are 100% your choices. Make yourself a happy camper, and watch your business perform as never before. Surely your business is worth a 21-day trial?

Need a boost? Give me a call and we’ll talk. No fee to talk. No sales pitch. Anyone who wants more will ask for it and maybe then, we can discuss some terms, but this post isn’t about money. It’s about helping you to strengthen your SELF, in order to strengthen your business.

By the way, the very short video at the “P.S.” link below should give you a jump start, maybe even launch your rocket!

P.S. Click HERE: Could you possibly have

a bad day after starting off like this?

 

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Jan 05 2011

Self-Motivation (Part 1 of 2)

Giddy-up Gone?

                                                

Talking to yourself

                        

too little too late?

 

 

Have you been secretly worried about talking to (and even with) yourself? Has it crossed your mind that you were becoming one of those “men-with-the-white-jacket-are-coming” basket cases? Take heart! Yes-sir-reebob!

You are, instead, probably (notice I leave a little squeeze room for those of you on the cusp) about as normal as blueberry pie. Actually, the worrying part is what hangs your mind in the balance. In other words, if you have to worry, worry about your worrying!

Bottom line is that all of us talk to and with ourselves (no,I am not referring to those who spend hours a day at it). We do this because verbal expression (like a pilot reciting her or his checklist out loud before taxiing onto the runway) serves to clarify and enhance, and prompt focus. I never knew a good writer who didn’t speak out loud what she or he had written before calling it “a wrap.”

“So, self, here we go. It’s time to share one of life’s great secrets.”

“Okay, I’m game. Let’s hear what your J.K.Rawling/Dan Brown tangled web of mysticism can reveal for all us normal folk who chatter away at ourselves in cars, closets, beds, and walking down the street.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Hey, I don’t know much about

Harry Potter’s chambers or DiVinci’s codes,

but I discovered 35 years ago that “self-talk

motivates, heals, humors, and strengthens.

Not sure? I’ll give you a quickie to try –improvise as you see fit to adapt it for yourself. I’ll also offer you a pack-on promise that if you say and repeat what’s below (or your own version) out loud, to yourself, like you truly mean it (even when you don’t feel up to it) three times a day, every day, for 21 days, you will be happier, healthier and more productive.

You will feel better!

( . . .and it’s free; in fact, you’ve nothing to lose but stress and upsets; how hard is that to argue with?)

Recite/Chant it exercising, or laying down, or standing on your head while spitting wooden nickles. Do it any time or place (except driving or operating heavy equipment, or with drugs or alcohol in your system). Concentrate on each word as you say it. It works. Period. Free. No charge. Me to you. Make it happen:

Healing energy into my body.

Healing energy into my body.

Stress and pain and tension out of my body.

Stress and pain and tension out of my body.

I am my body — left, right, center. (and think it!)

I am my body — left, right, center. (and think it!)

I am relaxed, happy, alert, and weigh the weight I want to weigh.

I am healthy, wealthy, painfree, safe and sound, and physically fit.

Today (“Tomorrow” when reciting at night) is the first day of my new life and I’m going to make (“am making” when reciting midday) it count.

I will make today (tomorrow) special for someone!   

All the great motivational and self-development gurus who ever lived share and practice similar methods. . . from Brian Tracy to Napoleon Hill and Wayne Dyer.

Try Zig Ziglar’s prescribed daily morning ritual recitation which starts with two hand claps as soon as you open your eyes in the morning:

(Clap, Clap) “Oh, boy, what a GREAT day to wake up and get going! I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today!” 

Saying it like you mean it, from your heart, and concentrating on each word is –again– the key to success. Doing it consistently even when you would rather sleep or eat or play games on your computer, is your insurance policy that it will indeed produce results.

I am assuming of course that you ARE interested in producing results?

TOMORROW: Self-Motivation (Part 2 of 2)

– Same time, same channel.

# # # 

931.854.0474 or 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! 

4 responses so far

Dec 22 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ONE AND ALL!

 

Not A Cursor Is Stirring . . .

                                                          

A couple of nights ago, I started to write a post of some emotional recollections of Christmas’s past. I unconsciously chose to make it hard for myself to not be thinking too unhealthily-much about those people and pets who can only be here in spirit this year:

(God Bless You All Jimmy, Butch, Ernst and Paul, and especially missed in our lives and our Christmas household: our cherished dogs, “Tuckerton Boy” and “Barnegat Girl” —– all six of you left us this year, just weeks apart!)

                                                   

But then, as I felt the tears coming, I shook myself into some here-and-now reality and got my mind caught into a second-wind rush of business thinking again for the last two nights’ posts. 

Is that kind of like going on a hard-earned vacation and then taking half a week to unwind and realize you’re on vacation? Hmmm. There’s a question that’s certainly no less troubling than the mixed emotions that come for many of us with the holiday-slow-down territory.

Anyway, I hope you will take a look at this and some of the other posts in this column (and of course the word links!) in addition to tomorrow’s special: CHRISTMAS IN IRELAND.  They certainly touch on some of my writing extremes.  You may like all or none, but if you prefer one direction over the other, please call or write me and let me know. 

You who are regular visitors (Thank You!) know that I continue to straddle the line between literary interests and hard-nosed, but light-hearted (if one could possibly have both a hard nose and a light heart?) business teachings. 

                                                                       

Having been a businessperson, business professor, business consultant, and business author makes it hard to get business out of my system, but I love writing fiction too, and often find myself writing blog posts on a coin toss!. 

As for this blog site, I have all kinds of analytical stuff to digest, but it rarely helps me know how to most effectively divide my writing pursuits because YOU –you who actually return here without threat of punishment– are really the only ones who can help me do that. 

So please do pass along your thoughts on what you’re more or less interested in.  You can be sure I will pay close attention to anything you say, and I’ll love you for it!  Seriously, I will greatly value your input. 

I figure if you’ve read all this, and gotten this far, you either relate to something I’ve written, or you wish me off the planet, or you’re stealing my ideas to start up a new government in Bongo-Bongo (I DO get a lot of regular visits from many foreign countries!).

Or . . . perhaps your tv is broken and you’re ready to join Matchmakers, or you’ve got 16 kids with stockings to fill and toys to assemble and you’re doing tasks of avoidance right now by pretending to be engaged in important research as you hover over your screen . . . or maybe you’re just a really sick puppy?! (It’s okay; I love all puppies!)  

SO:  ‘Tis the night before Christmas, and all through your mouse, not a cursor is stirring, not even the souse who lives next door and pounds on your door when you stomp on the floor and call him a louse

. . . whew!  Can you tell I had a glass of Christmas wine? 

                                                                             

Really, all you dear visitors, I wish for each of you the happiest, healthiest, and Merriest Christmas of all time. 

Stay close. 

Stay Safe. 

Stay warm. 

Love Those You’re With and Miss Those You’re Not With. 

Relax. 

Smile. 

Laugh. 

______________

See you sometime tomorrow (with some special nostalgic comments about one very memorable CHRISTMAS IN IRELAND!). In the meantime, have a great sleep (unless you’re in Bongo-Bongo and just woke up!) and have a great day tomorrow!  

 # # # 

www.TheWriterWorks.com

302.933.0116 or 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!

No responses yet

Dec 21 2010

DEFRAGMENT YOURSELF!

When you finally slow down for

                                          

(or from) the weekend,

                                      

DEFRAGMENT!

 

 

No need to explain why. You already know all the economy, industry or profession, marketplace and competition reasons.

So let’s get to the heart of it. Use this slow-down-time period to step back, adjust your glasses, put your hands on your hips, stretch, yawn, take some deep breaths, and defragment — put all the pieces out on the table.

                                          

Start with your business . . .

What’s been going on these past few months? Weeks? Where’s your business now, and where’s it headed?

~~FINANCES?

Management? Strategies?  Communications? Budgets? Investors? A/R? A/P? Cash flow? Payroll? Other overhead? Reimbursements? Taxes? Revenues? Charitable donations? Profits? Accounting systems? Bookkeeping services? Add your own here: _____________________  

~~OPERATIONS?

Management? Strategies? Communications? Equipment? Supplies? Storage? Shipping? Inventory? Warehousing? Operating systems? Work flow? Scheduling? Purchasing? Leases? Legal actions? IT? Add your own here: _______  _________________________________   

~~MARKETING?

Management? Strategies? Communications? Branding? Sales? (Yes, sales is a function of marketing.) Public and community and investor and industry relations (Also all marketing functions, including news releases, special events, blogs, BUZZ)? Advertising (another function of marketing, including online, traditional and direct media . . . as well as the creation and production of all of it) Pricing? Packaging? Promotion? Merchandising? Social media? Add your own here: _____________________________  

~~HUMAN RESOURCES?

Management? Strategies? Communications? Benefit programs? Customer Service? Referral values? Recruitment? Hiring and firing? leadership, teamwork and skills development training? Performance incentives? Motivational programs? Add your own here: _____________________________

                                                  

[So you noticed those 3 primary targets for each category, huh? Well, in my experience, poor management, poor (or no) strategies, and poor communications have consistently been the primary reasons for business failure!]

                           

That should give you a place to start. When you’ve exhausted your business thinking, switch gears to your SELF.

 

What’s been going on these past few months/weeks  with YOU? Where are you now, and where are you headed?

                                                       

~~HEALTH & FITNESS?

Are you squeezing in enough exercise every week to keep yourself in decent shape? You need not lift or jog for three hours a day and eat powered protein shakes with 37 raw eggs for breakfast in order to stay physically fit.

Many experts say 3 hours a week of brisk walking and avoiding overdoses of red meat and fatty foods will suffice for most people with busy schedules. Are you getting routine medical and dental health checkups as recommended? What do you need to do to motivate yourself in these directions?  

~~FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS

Are you spending enough quality time with children, parents, spouse or significant other and (get your finger out of your throat!) your in-laws? How can you combine some time-consumers more productively? Walk with family members or friends. Partner up for health tests (easier to deal with when you have company).

Get serious about sharing healthy food preparation ideas, recipes, and meals. Small specialty of handmade gifts and handwritten thank you notes work wonders as relationship cement. Add your own ideas here: ____________________

~~SELF-EXPRESSION, SELF-AWARENESS & SELF-DEVELOPMENT

Surely you know what you need to do in these categories to defragment yourselfand move forward with the adventures in creative expression and self and academic learning that you’ve always wanted to fit into your life, but never chose to make the room for. Now’s your chance to choose, and blame it on me!

The more you can learn about yourself, the better you’ll be as a leader and coach and role model . . . the better prepared you’ll be to inspire and motivate others to productivity and peak performances. Choose to make yourself make room for this. 

                                            

Weekend time slow-down periods are the perfect times to reevaluate and make commitments to yourself.

No, not token promises that never happen. Get serious here for a minute.

You have only one life, and the rest of it starts the minute you leave this blog post, so how about making the rest of your life make the kind of difference you’ve only ever dreamed of?

Hey, what’s to lose by trying?

 

 # # # 

www.TheWriterWorks.com

302.933.0116 or 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!

No responses yet

Dec 20 2010

Business as usual? Not tomorrow!

Tomorrow

                        

is the 2nd day

                      

 of the rest

                            

   of your life!  

                                                           

So, “business as usual” is an expression left over from the days of yore. Get rid of it! Click on Delete! There is no such thing anymore. No business that’s managed to survive this long into this dying quail economy has a “usual” anywhere on its plate.

This is especially true given The Great Global Warming reports whose noteriety earned an infamous Nobel Prize on the cusp of all the extreme cold temperature onsets. 

I mean, consider that business climate (as we used to know it) has been under crippling storm interferences from the Nation’s capitol, and from deadly mass media manipulations blowing out of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

If we look over here, at this gathering high pressure system in the Midwest we can probably trace back its origins to corruption in the Chicago area which was stirred up by former community organizers and regularly energized by “Hollywood’s finest” over on the left coast.

Ah, but you only (and rightfully, I might add) want the bottom line: Will it rain or snow?  

Yes. Depending on where you are, at least one and maybe both!

                                                                                  

Whatever you’ve suffered to date in trying to keep arms distance from the incompetent government’s meddling hands and from the pathetic examples set by America’s corporate giants, is bound to get worse before it gets better. But it need not get worse for YOU! That’s your choice. You have the ability to stay in control of your ship and steer it through the coming storms. 

It will take some preparation and a vigilant sense of readiness, but you know what? You’re a pro at that! You’ve proven it by getting this far. Take time this week and next to enjoy your family and rest your business brain. But don’t hang up the phone. This is the most ideal period of the year to think about direction instead of survival.

Map out where you’re headed. Check the long-range weather reports and plan course corrections accordingly. Start to look at the prospects for added revenue streams that do not stray too far from your basic business. Begin piecing together a branding strategy and approach that can take you one step up on the competition.

Look a little harder for the opportunities that are there in the corners, the ones you might have passed over before you restructured or streamlined operations. You may have to “knuckle under”! That’s an expression that does still apply. Here’s another:

Open minds open doors.

                                                               

Pay attention to proper, productive goal-setting. Pay attention to your SELF and your stress levels and your health (because the best open minds and open doors in business mean nothing if your body locked up and shuts down!) Stress, today, may not be greater than in other generations, but it’s certainly quicker, so you need keep pace –and set the pace– are you ready? Set? Go!

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302.933.0116   Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

2 responses so far

Dec 19 2010

GOT GUTS?

Headed to 2012–and

                               

your business

                             

is still breathing?

                       

You got guts!

        

It takes more, much more, than an MBA, family inheritence, or good luck to have a living, breathing business survive this still-spiraling economy. It takes guts.

Guts? Right. You must have ’em, or you wouldn’t be reading this. Okay, enough with the backpats, where do you go from here? Yeah, into January, right. I know. But beyond that, what?

Since you’re an entrepreneur preoccupied with making your idea work, you’ll probably be doing all your gift shopping online, or running around at the 11th hour grabbing stuff off what’s left on nearby retail shelves.

If that’s not the case, and you’re a true romantic who has planned every inch, and had a thousand hours to plan and organize and wrap, you’re probably a corporate type who did all your Christmas shopping in July, and not reading this anyway.

So, here’s a thought: What about taking yourself through a group brainstorming experience —  by yourself?

                                                                                  

Is that like suggesting that you do a multiple-personalities thing? Yes, but not so close to the edge that you’ll need a shrink by New Year’s.

I’m suggesting you start with a pad and pen or pencil (if any of those tools are still within your reach). Laptops and all those other hand-heold devices just don’t cut it! They don’t give you enough time to think.

Besides a little practice with that lost art called handwriting, the experience alone could be a good stimulous (speaking of which, Red Bull isn’t a necessary accompaniment, but you may want a cup of coffee?). 

Next, turn off your cell phone; I promise the world won’t end. Then find a place where you won’t be interrupted. (HA! Talk about challenge!) Maybe it has to be a locked car in your driveway?

At the top of your page, write the one business issue that is most important for you to address in 2012.

Be realistic.

Draw a vertical line down the middle of the page.

                                                                

Put a + (plus) sign on the left and a – (minus) sign on the right. Start to write down everything you can think of (in the left-hand column) that could be a positive outcome of resolving this issue. Everything you imagine as negative on the right. Think freely.

Don’t criticize or second-guess yourself. Instead, go back over your list from the perspective of what you imagine to be your most trusted advisor or most valuable employee. How would it change?

When you’ve given these two columns about 10-12 minutes for each of your split personalities, STOP! Take a swig of coffee. Take some deep breaths. Rub your hands together briskly.

Next page: Write down the three steps you can take on Tuesday, January 3rd, to make some of that left-hand column stuff on your first page start to happen. Rank order the priority of steps.

Make some specific notes about the who, what, when, where, and how each of those three steps can/should/will occur.

Give them a timeline.

Be realistic.

                                                                           

Keep it all flexible: your rankings, your steps, your timeline, and what you expect for results (yes, without this, it’s hard to know why you’re pursuing anything) . . . flexible.

If you get close to the date and it’s not going to happen, don’t whip yourself (that’s hard to do anyway), just move the date. If the steps involve money or other people, leave them flexible enough to adjust in case things don’t go swimmingly (which as you know, they rarely do!)  

Fold up the pages. Put them in your pocket. Type them into your computer tomorrow (not today) and edit them in the process. Share the information as appropriate.

Congratulate yourself for doing goal-setting the right (most productive) way. Now make it happen! And stop worrying. Remember, you got guts!

 # # # 

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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