THICKEN YOUR SKIN!

     Everybody sells or has to sell something

all or some of the time. 

Whew, now that’s a brainful of thoughts! 

     What I’m saying here (and run the risk of offending some by offering an “in other words” interpretation) is that anybody who sells anything, which means YOU (unless you’re a hermit or a castaway with a Wilson soccerball!), odds are great that you need to run an internal (inside your head) crusade to wipe out self-doubt!

     We can discuss what makes the odds “great” some other time; just trust me for now as I share with you “like it is” . . . IF YOU CAN’T shake off (like your dog after a swim) the worryworts about what your concerns are of the impressions and opinions others have of you —by worrying about what you think they think– you are dooming yourself to failure.

     At a time when more people are looking for fewer available jobs and the challenge to compete harder is tougher than ever, you cannot afford to short-change yourself or second-guess your actions or underestimate your abilities.

     You are what you are and worrying about what you are not will not make one iota of difference. 

     If others like, appreciate and respond to you and what you have to offer (regardless of whether it’s product or services for sale or your job qualifications), that’s great!  If they don’t embrace your ideas or what you have to sell, it’s their loss.  Period. 

     Don’t busy your mind with overkill analysis.  Move on to the next opportunity.  There is always a next opportunity that comes from what you make happen, and you can only make things happen when you’re free from dwelling on what didn’t happen! 

     You think maybe this sounds good but isn’t practical?  Wrong.  It sounds good because it IS good.  Making things happen and dropping the things that don’t along the way, are both a matter of choice. 

     Simply recognizing that your behavior is your choice will often turn the tide by itself, and other times will prompt you to free your mind up sooner rather than later.  It feels pretty stupid to be wallowing in disappointment and feelings of failure when you are thinking that you are CHOOSING to wallow and feel sorry for yourself. 

     Okay, and what will make all of this thinking work quicker and more effectively?  Getting in touch with the “here and now” that’s in your face (and that’s passing you by, NEVER to be retrieved if you’re busy wallowing), and the best way to do that is to TAKE A FEW DEEP BREATHS. 

     Circulating more oxygen to your brain makes you more alert and tuned in (kind of the opposite of wallowing).  Deep breathing also circulates more blood flow to your muscles, making your body more relaxed, less tense, more prepared to be going forward. 

     You’ll find four (just 4) VERY simple, detailed steps for making the most of deep breathing elsewhere on this site.  Try the “Magazine Articles” tab above, and click on the second article link (“Are You Breathing?”) in the lefthand column. 

     Oh, and as you thicken your skin, remember to believe in yourself, will you?  You are unique.  There is no one else on Earth exactly like you!   halalpiar   

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 140 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

When did your ego (or favorite

 blog) last get the best of you?

     This morning at breakfast?  In a meeting?  On the telephone?  At lunch?  Over the conference table?  On your way home?  After dinner?  All of the above?  (Oh, ha-ha, not me! Not all of the above. Good heavens, man, I’m not that bad!)

     Well, maybe, maybe not.  If you think something outside your own body got the best of you AT ALL, you may have a problem.  Why?  Your ego can only take over when you CHOOSE for it to take over.  You don’t get angry and no body makes you angry. 

     You choose to feel angry about what you or someone else does or says or something that happens.  You may not be making a conscious choice, but it is nonetheless a choice. 

     Contrary to what the majority of the civilized world’s population seems to believe: Behaviors –ego, guilt, anger, arrogance, or otherwise– don’t fall from the sky and land on your shoulders and make you into an ogre or cause you to do or say anything.     

     So, tuck that little pouch of wisdom in your pocket and let’s go take a look at the blogosphere.  What is it that bloggers seem to be grasping at and pretending they have no choice about these days? 

     Now, I don’t look at hundreds of blogs because I also have a life, but it seems to me that the ones I do check out are inevitably shallow ego-trips aimed at unloading lots of doom and gloom lectures in very authoritative fashion.

     Why is this important to business owners and managers and entrepreneurs?  Well, here’s the news flash: believe it or not– you are human too! 

     Just because you run around in scuffed shoes and drooling your last meal out of the corner of your mouth because you’re so preoccupied with your cashflow, or the bumbling idiot who’s representing your business interests somewhere, or the next big idea you’re birthing, doesn’t mean you don’t or can’t have feelings!  The bloggers who lecture on current events and industry trends love having you return to their sites because they’ve made you worry or sad or angry or enraged.  They live for that. 

     Alrighty then, you’re rushing through life and are now close to relying completely on the Internet for information and nurturing.  Blogs have become a way of life.  You visit YouTube and Face, then tweet your brains out on Twitter before hitting up your favorite 3, 4, 5 (?) blogs, where you get massive doses of smug, self-serving, know-it-all infusions of negativity. 

     Hey, you might as well be watching that 11 o’clock news crap . . . nothing like seeing babies burned in ovens, terrorist beheadings and a family of 14 jammed into a compact car and crushed by a runaway dumptruck just before you go to bed!  Great food for lovely stressfree dreams!    

     So where’s a serious entrepreneur to turn?  Sideways.  Check out what’s around you instead of the steady diet of what’s on top of you and what’s being pulled out from under you. 

     Many blog writers are just closet psychos.  Their only interest in you is as a site visitor and comment poster.  The more they get, the more the search engines reward them with bumped up rankings.  They don’t care about misleading your tired brain, or about helping you learn or see new ways to help yourself. 

     The Blog Smog is just as useless as network TV news smoke and mirrors acts.  Choose what you want when you want but don’t choose to think that all blogs are worthwhile uses of your time.  They’re not.   halalpiar

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Are you FOR SALE?  Of course!

You’re looking at this because you couldn’t quite figure from the title why you should be included here because you’re not a sales rep!?!?

Guess what?  You’re a sales rep!

Whether you like it or not, whether you agree or not, whether you think you’re above it all or not because you’re an accountant, doctor, lawyer or Indian chief, the sad-but-true news is that you ARE a SALESPERSON!.

Why such an adamant statement?  Because it’s true.  All of us –even if you’re not officially in a sales role or sales function or earning sales commission– are selling something (Our selves?  Our ideas?  Our work?  Our religious beliefs?  Our political persuasions?  Our experience? ) and we do this selling every day, even most of the day for most people . . . some, actually, all day long!

Many folks out there (particularly those who like to categorize themselves as “professionals”) don’t like to think of themselves as being in sales because they consider sales a low-life business function and think it compromises their integrity!  Right?  I know you know who I’m talking about.  You can probably rattle off a list of some of those clueless, self-aggrandizing-types.  (Maybe print out this post to leave anonymously on a qualified desk?!)

So, without further ado, HERE (TA-TA-TA-TA-TA—TA-TA!): 

 IS REALITY!

REALITY IS that people don’t buy THINGS! 

REALITY IS that people don’t buy SERVICES! 

REALITY IS that people buy P E O P L E !

Granted that –at one time or another– all of us have had to be an unhappy customer or prospect when we’ve found ourselves (by choice of course) in a captive situation that really offers little choice.  Remember having to pay $4.50 for one small bottle of water in the middle of the trade show floor at the fancy hotel?

Why?  Because there’s just two of you manning your booth and you were thirsty enough to start chewing perspiration out of your socks (well, yuch, that’s like a little over-the-top thirsty, isn’t it?).

Anyway, the bottom line is that, unless you have no place else to turn and could lose your job for trying to turn, you really do have an easy choice with every purchase for every product and every service.

And the deciding factor for that choice that you have will inevitably be the person representing what you’re looking to buy.  Because (of course you know what’s coming here): People buy people!

You already know this if you are an officially designated sales rep.  Though you may occasionally forget to practice what you know when you overlook a bit of good grooming or good manners or good listening . . . or when you spend too much energy ticking off product or service features instead of benefits.  Sound familiar?

If you are NOT an official sales rep, you might first of all want to try the job for a few days to see for yourself why it’s just as challenging and stressful and professional as any other career (accountants, doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs included).  Okay, you don’t want to do that.  Can’t say I blame you.

Being a professional salesperson is very demanding work because it requires you to be alert and on your toes literally every waking minute . . . with, even, laminated business cards folded into your bathing suit pocket while on vacation!

The point is that no matter who you are, no matter what you do for a living (even if you’re a teacher or government employee), no matter where you live (unless you’re a hermit!), YOU ARE A SALESPERSON!

The sooner you realize and accept this, and get to work learning more about sales so you can be better at it, the more effective you’ll be as a human being and the more productive your business and organizational efforts will be.  The best place to start is with a mentor.  Know any good salesperson willing to train you in return for referrals and leads perhaps?  Are you FOR SALE?  Of course you are!

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 Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US        or comment below

“Screw it!  I’m gonna do

what I’ve always wanted

to do, and make it work!”

     You know what?  I am a businessperson first and foremost.  From my first lemonade-and-comic-books-for-sale stand when I was six years-old, through years of Madison Avenue advertising agency creative and management work for Fortune 500 clients, I’ve been a businessperson. 

     Through a dozen years of fulltime and adjunct business marketing, management and psychology professorships on three different campuses, and through three overlap years of hosting a daily feature radio show, I’ve been a businesperson.

     Through conducting 20,000 students’ worth of management training programs, and coaching nearly 500 new business startups, plus consulting with hundreds more, I’ve been a businessperson.

     Yet, the blanket under it all, the thread that weaves it all together, the place where my heart is while my mind and hands have been busy being a businessperson, is writing.  If first and foremost, I am a businessperson, then always and forever after, I am a writer.

     Knowing this has made me a better businessperson . . . and a better writer!

     What are YOU really all about?  What do you DO for work every day?  What do you DREAM of doing for work every day?  HOW can you combine those.  [I am now primarily a business writer and writing consultant, for example — traditional advertising, Internet websites and blogs, public relations and feature stories.]  

     Am I kidding?  No.  Am I being unrealistic?  No.  What you do for work every day is your choice!  Whether you do for work every day what you dream of or not, is your choice!  If that doesn’t seem possible because it’s simply too hard for you to do what you want and to make a living at it, THAT is a choice.  Choose for it to be easy!

     Too many of us cruise control through life doing jobs we tolerate, rather than those we know we could have more fun with.  With so many people on the transition bubble right now, it may be the perfect time to simply step back, and make yourself happier and healthier and less stressed.  How?

You walk up to the mirror, throw back your shoulders, smile and say “Screw it!  I’m going to do what I’ve always wanted to do.  And I’m going to make it work because it’s my choice, and because I don’t want to dry up and shrivel up by investing myself and my energy and my heart in maintaining the status quo!  I can enlist my family’s support.  I will at least explore this thinking.” 

     Give yourself the opportunity to be a better businessperson AND a better cowboy or dress designer or sailor or artist or restaurant owner or dog trainer or landscaper or W H A T E V E R by applying your business expertise to what makes for FUN in your life.  Consolidate.  Combine.  You can try it.  You can make it work.  You need only to make the choice.  Explore!  Exhale!  Enjoy!  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 “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!

“You can’t build a reputation

on what you’re going to do.”

–HENRY FORD

We’ve talked before about the definition of integrity being doing the right thing even when nobody else is looking.  The dictionary says it’s “the quality of having strong moral principles,” and “the state of being whole, unified and sound, without corruption.” 

I mention it here because integrity is the best kind of reputation to have.  Some customers flock to some businesses because they offer the lowest price.  Some seek only to have quality at any price.  But in today’s volitile marketplace, integrity (“HIGH TRUST”) is what sells most consistently and most profoundly.  It’s what anchors that elusive customer characteristic: loyalty! 

Consumers have been duped and led to slaughter for too many years.  Consumers are tired of hearing about businesses that make empty promises, that fallaciously attach themselves to worthy causes but fail to walk the walk when it comes to the moment of truth.  

As proverbially expressed, deeds and action speak louder than words.  

Consumers are demonstrating, across the boards, that they do not any longer want to deal with “low-trust” talk-the-talk businesses. 

     What separates “HIGH” from “LOW” trust?  Integrity. 

     How does a business gain integrity?  By gaining respect. 

     How does a business win respect?  By establishing a reputation. 

     How does one build a reputation? 

• By consistent demonstration of honesty and fairness with both internal and external customers, and appreciation that the two need to be viewed as interchangeable. 

• By recognition that the customer is always right and that there are never any exceptions to that short of legal violations or physical violence. 

• By (back to the proverbs) practicing what you preach! 

Being partly honest in business is like being partly pregnant in life. 

If your assessments of your business and the spin you’ve been putting out to the public (or, more correctly,  to your marketplace) are filled with um’s and er’s and maybe’s and sometimes’ and occasionally’s, you’re not kidding anyone but yourself! 

Are you and your business, for example, making token donations to charities, or are you and your employees getting into the trenches and helping charitable organizations to raise money and move forward?

It may be time to step back and revisit your mission as well as the services you perform and that you provide both inside your doors and out.  Today’s a good day for that.  Think about it. 

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Aerodynamically, the bumble 

bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but 

the bumble bee doesn’t know it 

so it keeps on flying.

–MARY KAY ASH (Founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics)

     A class exercise I’ve done in many management training programs, including a week ago with a diverse team of BURRIS LOGISTICS company leaders has participants stand arms distance from others and follow three simple 1-minute sets of instructions.  It is worth 3 minutes to be Mary Kay’s bumble bee!

(Not for use while driving or operating heavy equipment or on a rooftop or edge of a cliff, or if drunk or with 2 broken arms, or if you’re standing in the path of a buffalo stampede 😉

     I also suggest you get someone (preferably with a soothing voice) to read these 3 steps to you and that you step back from the computer and simply do as asked.  I promise these next 3 minutes can change your life for the better, immediately!

1)  Stand relaxed, feet apart, hands at your sides. Take a couple of deep breaths. Go ahead. Breathe… good.  Now, slowly let your arm (either one) rise slowly from your side until it’s out in front of you and parallel to the ground.  Next, without lowering your arm, bring your arm slowly to the side, and keep moving it back still parallel to the floor to a point where it starts to feel uncomfortable, then stop. 

Good, now take inventory of where your arm ended up.  Next, bring your arm slowly back until it’s out in front again, then slowly back down to your side.  Good.  Challenging stuff here, huh?

2)  Now imagine that you are going to do the exact same thing again, but this time with your eyes closed . . . and just pretending to do it.  Take a couple of deep breaths and close your eyes.  Eyes closed now, imagine that you slowly let the same arm raise itself from your side until it’s out in front of you and parallel to the ground.  Good. 

Next, imagine that your arm is again moving slowly to the side, still parallel to the floor and imagine you are still slowly moving it back, and back some more and that you go right through that point where you’d stopped before and you just keep going, very easily and with no discomfort — to a new point that’s far past where you stopped the first time, and you keep going until that new spot starts to feel a little bit uncomfortable, and you stop there.  Good. 

Now, eyes still closed, pretend you are taking inventory again of where this new stopping place is and then imagine that you slowly return your arm back to that spot in front of you, and slowly lower it back down to your side.  Okay open your eyes again, now.  Wow!  Good job!  We’re two-thirds done!

3)  Okay, now, here’s the last step.  Just as we’ve already done, take a couple of deep breaths.  Good.  Now, eyes open, slowly let the same arm raise itself from your side until it’s out in front of you and parallel to the ground.  Good. 

Next, let your arm move slowly to the side as you did before, still parallel to the floor and that you are still slowly moving it back, and back some more and then just like you did with your eyes closed, that you go right through that point where you’d stopped before and you just keep going, very easily and with no discomfort — to a new point that’s far past where you stopped the first time, and you keep going until that new spot starts to feel a little bit uncomfortable, and you stop there.  Good.

Now, eyes still open, take inventory again of where this new stopping place is . . . got it? . . . and then slowly return your arm back to that spot in front of you, and slowly lower it back down to your side.

     You did what?  You surpassed yourself!  You exceeded the point you went to the first time by simply imagining that you could in fact perform much better.  You didn’t need me.  I was just your coach.

     The bottom line here is that you can surpass yourself and your own expectations of what you are capable of doing simply by relaxing your mind and your muscles (with deep breathing in this case) by imagining yourself accomplishing what you want, by visualizing yourself as succeeding.

     Try this with someone who needs a little lift (or an entire class if you’re a teacher or trainer).  If you practice it and take your time with it and sound encouraging, you will be astonished with the kinds of results this exercise produces for others as well as yourself.  Try it.  It works.  Call me if it doesn’t, or if you want more info (931.854.0474) or leave a comment below.  Happy arm exercise!

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Hal@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

“My assistant’s love life? 

…more than I wanna know.” 

(And I’m actually afraid of her finding out about mine, so I keep a distance!) 

“And what’s so bad about that?  After all, I’m not running a social service organization here; this here’s a business.  There’s no room for touchy-feely, warm/fuzzy, cuddly-wuddly (“cuddly-wuddly”?) stuff — least of all between me and the people who work for me.  If we don’t keep a respectful distance, the work will never get done, and my granddaddy always said: “Don’t fish off company docks!”

WOW!  Some good arguments there, Mr. Hardass, and I’m sure that strategy has worked well for you because you’re still in business while others around you keep tumbling.  But, you know what?  Odds are for sure that you’re not getting the productivity levels you deserve out of those you employ.  Here’s why:

KEEPING THE BEST PEOPLE means treating them like they are the best, all the time, no exceptions, even when they screw up and you choose to feel angry about it. 

You might try, instead of anger, to choose (yes, anger is your choice!) the path of a constructive guide by:

1) Taking some deep breaths to calm down your neurological system, relax your muscles and stimulate more oxygen to your brain to become more alert.  You may have to quietly walk away or gently close your door to force yourself to concentrate on your breathing for a minute or two, then

2) Chalking it off to a learning experience for the employee (AND for your self for not having forewarned or kept on top of the issues involved) and taking some solice that the employee probably feels badly enough without being chastized.  Try instead asking for (in writing by the end of the day!) three ways to specifically prevent that kind of screw-up in the future, which puts a positive focus on problem prevention (vs. negative nonproductive scolding).

3) Remembering that Maslow’s Heirarchy still rules HR’s motivational universe of successful companies.  Small frequent rewards that specifically address the personal needs of each individual always motivate best, and can usually be more economical.  A recognition seeker will prefer a plaque to cash.  The parent of a crooked-toothed teenager will prefer one-time orthodontist bill payments over a permanent salary raise. 

The point here is that you will never be able to know what makes your people “tick” –and each marches to a different drummer– UNLESS you make more of an effort toward intimacy!  How will you ever know about the teenager’s teeth, for example, unless you’ve had some kind of informal small talk discussion with the parent over lunch or coffee?  Would you even know that person has a teenage child?

And it doesn’t stop with that.  We often change our wants and needs literally overnight.  A local TV interview, for instance, with the regognition-seeker may satisfy that need to the point where a plaque has no meaning. 

The teenager’s grandmother may have just come up with the cash for the braces, prompting the parent to be more interested in ressurecting pursuit of new tires for the family car.  (Again, a much cheaper and more appreciated one-time-expense reward for good work motivates more than a permanent ongoing salary raise!)  The trade-off to taking the time and trouble to know your employees better is that it will –in the end– cost you less and increase your business productivity levels.  

So, bedroom habits?  No.  Getting a fix and keeping tabs on each individual employee’s changing wants and needs?  Yes.  Listening carefully?  Yes.  Caring enough to provide the kinds of support –within reason of course– that those who work for you really need?  Yes.  Take the time; it pays!   

halalpiar

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The Problems Start Tuesday!  

If you own or manage a business, you’d better sit up and take notice at the plans being made for the week ahead.  [And what I am about to say here is not out of bitterness or sour grapes.  It is out of common sense.  It is out of respect for those Americans whose vigilence and acts of bravery have given us the freedom to be able to speak out and challenge abusive leadership no matter its source.]

     So, Is it just my imagination (isn’t that a song?) or doesn’t it seem inappropriate (like taking poverty-stricken people to a casino) and inauspicious (not conducive to success) AT THIS PARTICULAR STRESSED-OUT TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY to be spending so frivilously and lavishly for Presidential Inaugural celebrations? 

     Okay, maybe it’s just me.

     Am I dreaming that Joe-the-plumber Americans have been rocked back on their heels with worries about how to take a more fiscally responsible personal and business spending path right now?  Am I alone seeing that most Americans appear to be clutching their pocketbooks like never before?  Or am I just fantasizing all this?

Why would ANYone with a conscience (hmmm) who is about to take control of the planet’s most powerful country, including all the ingredients that determine our nation’s economic well-being –or state of dissipation as the case may be– think for even two (2) seconds that over-spending for such self-aggrandizement and self-serving ends is an okay thing to do? 

     Do you think it’s okay?  I certainly don’t.  I don’t believe your’re “entitled” to a honeymoon when your family is starving just because you ran a successful political campaign.  And I believe we are obliged to question the man’s judgement. 

     What would ever make the new president think he is endearing himself to those he’s been chosen to represent by pissing away (pardon the term; it’s the most accurate I could muster) their hard-earned taxpayer dollars? 

What makes it okay to lend mere lip-service and tacit approval-by-avoidance to skyrocketing forclosure and bankruptcy levels then turn around to hold an extravagant party to celebrate oneself with cash wrenched from our wallets and our children’s piggybanks and our aging parent’s fixed incomes? 

     You don’t believe it?  Here’s a perfect example (and you won’t hear much about this from the idolizing, fawning, he-can-do-no-wrong mainstream media): Teetering on the precipice of financial collapse, the State of Maryland is reported to be coughing up ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS for inaugural expenses. 

     The list of how many millions of dollars are about to be wasted is exceeded in shamefulness only by the list of dire financial circumstances surrounding the States that are being arm-bent into donating. 

Here’s a question:  Given the sorry state of America’s economy, if it was YOUR inauguration, do you think YOU might forego some of the megamillions of dollars worthy of pomp and circumstance and direct some (or heaven forbid, all) of the funds earmarked for partying into some high need areas? 

     Small business incentives, for example, could serve to create jobs.  Many self-sacrificing, battered, struggling military families could use their own “bailouts” — cash for food, transportantion and heating fuel (with apologies to Internet inventor Al Gore whose global warming theories . . . well, you can finish the rest of that sentence) would take America a great deal further than a week-long bash!

     On top of the points I made in a recent post here. . . that we are now faced with the two top leaders of our country possessing zero (0) business experience between them and, correspondingly, no appreciation for entrepreneurs being the ultimate catalysts of change . . . we are also forced to stand by helplessly watching Tuesday’s shameless splurge of outrageous expenses that could be better used to save lives and buysinesses.

     You own or manage a business?  Beware!  Stay alert!  Don’t get hurt!  We are on our own more than ever before.  Let’s keep our shoulders together and move forward as a unit of influence.  We are, after all, here to leave our marks on the world, aren’t we?  We have to make opportunities from the problems we face, the REAL problems , , , the ones that start on Tuesday.   halalpiar

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 128 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

After all the hoopla,

comes stark reality.

     You run a business?  You know what I’m talking about.  You’ve been there.  You get your 100th (or 1000th or 1000000th) customer and you pull out all the stops to celebrate.  But in the haze of the next day’s hangover, you realize the ugly truth that you need to confront reality by picking up the pace to double-speed. 

     After pausing to pat yourself on the head, you need to jump back on the ever-accelerating merry-go-round.  You also know that when I say I’m sorry to have to be the one to not pull the wool over your eyes, I mean it.   

     Really.  I know there are many masochistic media-gobbling types out there who actually like being duped and manipulated.  But the truth is that next week’s Presidential Inauguration–which may be historic for some questionable reasons– is not about to mark the turn of anything more monumental than its own celebration venues.    

     Those of us who have inherited or built business enterprises from scratch understand that we are facing a long and difficult road ahead.  In just a few days, we will be seating a new President and a new Vice President who have not only never run a business, but who have zero business experience between them and have never managed any entity of substance . . . not even a National Guard unit!    

     These two politicians haven’t a shred of experience with entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial thinking, attitude, or commitment to pursuits of enlightened self-interest.  While they may acknowledge that entrepreneurs built this country, they don’t have a clue that entrepreneurs are the true catalysts of change.  And yet they talk change.    

     As an owner or manager, your business is on the line.  No matter how recession-proof you think you are, you’re not.  No matter how bullet-proof you think you are, you’re not.    

     The only changes we, as business leaders, need are for government to do better at providing incentives that allow businesses to grow and thrive and create jobs . . . to do better at sealing and protecting our borders, and at preventing terrorist invasions of our homeland and cyberspace.  All the rest is talk.    

     A word to the wise, Messrs. Obama and Biden: BUSINESS is what makes America go, not educator tenures, not employee unions, not unchecked and unenforceable immigration policies, not foodstamps, not welfare rolls, not frivilous deep-pocket taxdollar funding of the arts, and not tax hikes to cover all the give-aways.    

     Failure to support and nurture America’s businesses is at the peril of America’s people. 

halalpiar                               # # # 

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 126 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.   

What better way to boost your

business than to learn how to

write killer copy and content?

     Okay, a slight departure tonight to fit in a couple of news items . . .

     The Delaware Technical & Community College Spring “Business & Professional Development” promotional booklet and the College’s “Personal Development” promotional booklet both arrived today, announcing upcoming course offerings, including two I’m scheduled to teach that a number of you have asked about.  Here are the two course offering descriptions:

     Business & Professional Development

1)  BETTER BUSINESS WORDS WORK!  Learn how to boost your business and professional practice revenues with better writing!  Focus will be on writing business plan narratives, strategic marketing plans, business correspondence, reports, creative marketing and advertising for all traditional and non-traditional media applications (Website, email, print ads, news releases, broadcast commercials, brochures, billboards, direct mail, “elevator speeches”).  For owners, managers, entrepreneurs (15 hours, 1.5 CEUs); 2/4-3/11; Wednesdays; 5:30-8pm; 6 sessions. Georgetown, Delaware Campus.  $195 EYC212 231-2  Registration Info: 302.854.6966  www.dtcc.edu/owens/ccp

     Personal Development

2)  IMAGERY WITH WORDS.  Explore ways to paint fiction and nonfiction pictures with words.  Proven methods for strengthening your creative writing skills will be shared.  Sessions include stress and time management how-to’s for writers.  Tap your inner resources and sharpen your writing wits.  All levels of writing skills are welcome.  Participants will present one-minute weekly reports and bring a work-in-progress for personalized coaching  (10 hours); Wednesdays; 5:30-8pm; 4 sessions. Creative Writing Center of Delaware in Lewes, Delaware.  $119. ENO 289 271-2  Registration Info: 302.854.6966  www.dtcc.edu/owens/ccp

     Please share this information with anyone you think might be interested who lives in Delaware or the Eastern Shore of Maryland, or (especially in the case of the IMAGERY WITH WORDS sessions, anyone who lives in the Cape May, NJ area who might commute via the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.  Thank you for your ongoing support.  Tomorrow night is back to business as usual.  Have a GREAT Tuesday!  halalpiar 

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