HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Two simple words, delivered by the boss — with a sincere smile, handshake or back pat, maybe even a balloon or courtesy lunch or coffee break — can work wonders for your business.

     Your people are your most important asset. Your genuine and personal recognition of the single most important day in the life of each employee will come back to you a hundred-fold. Because? Because people talk. And because everyone talks about being appreciated … especially in today’s hard-times existence. 

     It’s become such a rarity to get unsolicited recognition  of any kind, that many people go out of their way to actually ask for it once a year … some boldly, some demurely, some jokingly. “Well, it’s my birthday today,” slips from the lips of total supermarket strangers.

     And what’s the response?  “So what! Who cares?” Not a chance!  Aren’t the next three words always: “Oh, Happy Birthday!”? And except for temper-tantrum toddlers or emotionally-fragile teens, when have you ever seen “Happy Birthday!” not produce smiles?

     For business owners and managers, the bottom line is that the small amount of time and effort required to acknowledge staff and associate birthdays pays big dividends in productivity, loyalty, renewed commitment to company goals, and overall spirit of cooperation. Enthused recipients can foster sales as well.  

     Do you even know the birthdays of everyone who works with you? What about investors, referrers, key suppliers, loyal customers? This isn’t just a local restaurant or chiropractor gimmick to get you back in their doors. This is simply a nice (and smart) thing for every boss to do!

     You’ve been looking for inexpensive high-impact ways to grow your business. This approach is a no-brainer. Do a little birthday homework here. With the right kind of twist, employee birthday news releases and captioned photos can even be newsworthy enough to warrant coverage. (Need help with that angle? Send me an email.)

     Before you decide to shrug off the idea and dismiss it as a frivolous waste of time, question whether it really is, or are you choosing for it to be because you don’t identify with these kinds of values? Fact: As an entrepreneur, you may not need as much recognition as others because you’re more interested in making your ideas work.

     THIS is one idea that will get others interested in helping you make your ideas work. And since all behavior is a choice, this investment in others who work with you is a choice. It’s your choice.

Is it your birthday? Happy Birthday!  

No Room In The Inn for

Obsessive-Compulsives

• Cleaning and grooming, such as washing hands, showering or brushing teeth over and over again
• Checking drawers, door locks and appliances to be sure they are shut, locked or turned off
• Repeating, such as going in and out of a door, sitting down and getting up from a chair, or touching certain objects several times
• Ordering and arranging items in certain ways
• Counting over and over to a certain number
• Saving newspapers, mail or containers when they are no longer needed
• Seeking constant reassurance and approval

     What causes OCD?  There’s no single, proven cause. Some research shows that it may have to do with brain chemicals that carry messages from one nerve cell to another. One of these chemicals, serotonin, helps keep people from repeating the same behaviors over and over again. Someone with OCD may not have enough serotonin. Many people with OCD can function better when they take medicines that increase the amount of serotonin in their brain.

     Are other illnesses associated with OCD?  People who have OCD often have other kinds of anxiety, like phobias (such as fear of spiders or fear of flying) or panic attacks. They may also have depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), an eating disorder, or a learning disorder such as dyslexia. Having one or more of these disorders can make diagnosis and treatment more difficult, so it’s important to talk to a medical doctor about any symptoms present.

Source:  www.FamilyDoctor.org  and

The American Academy of Family Physicians

You must be dreaming!

Today’s economy is GREAT!

     Dear business owners and managers:  If you’ve been talking about having some weirdo notion that we are in a never-ending economic tailspin that’s ruining the odds for  success, you may not be speaking with forked tongue, but you are looking through crooked glasses! 

     If  your business is still afloat,  that means you have done some hard sweeping work getting the cobwebs out of the corners. It means you are down to a bare-bones personnel operation that is probably 50-100% more productive than it was before “bailouts” and “stimulus” became part of the language.

     And you are coming full circle around  to what Tom Peters and Nancy Austin told us a quarter of a century ago in their classic #1 best-selling business book, A Passion for Excellence:

In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observe that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul:

“First, take exceptional care of your customer (for chicken, jet engines, education, healthcare, or baseball) via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it.”

They add that “sound financial controls” and “solid planning” are of course also essential and necessary,” but that the bottom line of achieving success is to manage by wandering around —

• By constantly talking with your people,
• By constantly and attentively listening to their ideas, and
• By motivating through examples of the ways you cater to customers and work nonstop at innovation: always drumming up new creative ideas and strategically taking them all the way through in your thinking to a point of implementation.

Introducing a new product feature isn’t good enough. Anyone can think of that. Actually working out all of the steps involved with associated costs, benefits,  timelines, and logistics… that’s innovation! 

• By instilling a passion for customer courtesy and innovative thinking in every tiny corner of every department of the business, whether there are three employees involved, or 300,000. 

     Today’s economy sucks if you choose for it to.  If instead you seize the opportunity to be more motivated to deliver a better dollar-value quality product and service, quicker and safer, and that’s longer-lasting than ever before… and you pump all your company’s efforts into making your customers love you… NOW you’ve got something!

     And your leaner, tougher, more customer-conscious business  would never have happened when cash was flowing and you were on cruise control, lunching out and playing golf and taking off early and traveling the world on long vacations, and being so successful you were able to sell ice to Eskimos with one hand behind your back.

     Speaking of your hand:  The lousy economy, being continuously fueled by shortsighted (maybe even blind) government bureaucracy, has essentially forced your hand to act in new ways. And if in fact you do act in new more productive ways, then it’s a GREAT economy!

     Will you rise to the occasion  and make things work, or keep dreaming that they can’t,  throw in the towel, and get out of the way of those who are choosing to meet the challenge? 

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“It’s not MY job!”

     Ever heard this before? Or is it just my imagination? Odds are someone in your business either says something like this, or has the underlying attitude but doesn’t express it openly.

     The person who rejects  awareness, spontaneity and (friendship / partner / spousal) intimacy also rejects the responsibility for shaping her or his own life. She or he is someone who thinks of him or herself as either lucky or unlucky, assuming without question that it’s meant to be and: can’t or shouldn’t be changed, or that only ______ can change it.

 Sound familiar? This is the same individual who

     routinely proclaims (or thinks): “It’s not MY job!”

     By contrast, the autonomous person  is concerned with “being.” He or she allows his/her own capacities to unfold and encourages others to do the same. These are the kinds of individuals who project their own possibilities into the future as realistic goals which give aim and purpose to their lives.

     They sacrifice  only when they are giving up a lesser value for a greater value according to their own personal value systems. They are not concerned with getting more, but with being more. 

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”

— OPRAH WINFREY

     As a business owner or manager, and especially in today’s economy,  you really can’t afford to have people working for you with this attitude. E V E R Y person in your business needs to accept responsibility for doing whatever needs to be done whenever it needs to be done as long as he or she has the ability to do it.

     But this doesn’t mean that you need to be a shrink  with employees who evidence a not-my-job mentality. It DOES suggest that you may want to think hard about keeping this kind of person on payroll.

     If it’s a locked-in situation  and you can’t let go of her or him right now, set a deadline for change, explain it clearly and gently, then teach by example. Do recognize that it takes courage for someone like that to rise to the occasion, and reward any evidence of attempts with “pat-on-the-back” comments and encouragement to keep at it. 

     You’ll always get more of what you genuinely

appreciate, praise and reward.   

With special thanks to human relations/communications consultants Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward for the inspiration and adaptations from their classic book BORN TO WIN: Transactional Analysis with Gestalt Experiments    

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Got Good Advice?

     If you’re putting all your business eggs  in one consultant or one consulting group basket, don’t give your business long to live! It may be time to remind yourself that your business is your baby, that you’ve worked hard to get it up and on its feet, and toddling forward. Sure it will fall on its face a few times, but YOU are the only one who can get it back on track.

     When you hire a consultant or consulting firm  and expect her/him/it to get all your ducks in a row, you’re headed for Disneyland! And given the kinds of fees being charged these days, you may also be on your way to the poorhouse.

     It’s an age-old proven fact  that the best solution to ANY organizational problem lies WITHIN the organization. The challenge therefore is HOW to draw it out, not to decide on what consultant to hire to analyze it to death and make recommendations you don’t need!

     Except for highly technical consultants, no consultant (inside OR outside) can waltz in  and pinpoint a management or organizational solution direction for you to follow. My best guess is that that person or “team” will be wrong more than 99% of the time. Why?

IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM,

YOU CAN’T BE PART OF THE SOLUTION

BECAUSE YOU’LL NEVER FULLY GRASP THE PROCESS!

     You own or run or manage the company  and that means YOU are the only one who can understand and guide the unique solution process as it exists in your unique organization. The ball’s in your court. You can get consulting HELP, but in the end it will always have to be your solution and your decision.

     Soooooooooo — why do you want to pay  for one support entity when you can have 5 or 7 (odd number recommended) support entities helping you FOR FREE? Huh? The best consulting help you can engage will be to help you engage an advisory board that can help steer your ship while you sleep or visit the head!

     You will probably also do this task better by yourself,  but — in starting an advisory board — objective, outside input can be valuable. Start with people you trust who you know agree with the general growth directions you plan, and who are willing to commit time and energy. They need not agree with you on the details of how to get there, but that’s okay.

     Reward them  by serving food and snacks at meetings; give them free samples of products and/or allow them “family” discounts on services. Treat them special. Require confidentiality but be 100% honest with them, and cultivate a high trust level with each. Keep them informed of both good and bad news.

     Call them together quarterly, monthly when needed. Don’t ever waste their time. Always have pre-circulated agendas of problem-solution issues and bring key employees in to present the details. Stick to the agendas. Give out assignments. Have goals of leaving meetings with solutions. Work it.

     Yes, it’s work,  but you’ll get better input, free, from people who feel they have a stake in the contributions they make, and whose input wins your respect. They will also end up being your best salespeople!

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Healthcare Dictatorship?

In this week’s Wall Street Journal,  former NY State Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey brought to light some of the small business-impact details buried in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990-page health bill (H.R.3962) that you need to know about:

The government will require

EVERYone to:

     • Enroll in a “QUALIFIED PLAN.”  Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires that if you get your insurance at work, employers will have a “grace period” to switch you to a “QUALIFIED PLAN,” meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there’s no grace period. You’ll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

     • Be legally required to pay  whatever the Secretary of Health and Human Services decides what a “QUALIFIED PLAN” covers and what your fees will be. Sec. 224 (p. 118) provides that you will be told an amount 18 months after the bill becomes law. That,” says Ms. McCaughey, is like a banker telling you to sign the loan agreement now, then filling in the interest rate and repayment terms 18 months later.

On 11/2/09, the Congressional Budget Office estimated an individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses: total $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus $5,300 out-of-pocket: $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income. Individuals and families earning less will be eligible for subsidies paid direct to  insurers.

     • Adhere to a “one-size-fits-all” QUALIFIED PLAN  even though it doesn’t exist. See Sec. 303 (pp. 167-168) The bill claims to offer choice—basic, enhanced and premium levels—but benefits are the same. Only co-pays and deductibles differ. You will have to enroll in the same plan, whether the government is paying for it or you or your employer are.

     • Include proof in your taxes that you are in a QUALIFIED PLAN.  Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) If you don’t, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt.

Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a “QUALIFIED PLAN” for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Smaller payroll businesses are fined less.

     The bill Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) cuts future Medicare funding by $500 Billion, takes away patient rights to choose which doctor to see, permits the government to dictate treatment decisions, and specifies patients may have to accept a nurse practitioner instead of a physician.

     • Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) reduces payments for care and the standard of care for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.

     • Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors) expected to cut back benefits such as vision and dental care.

While the bill will slash Medicare funding, it will also direct Billions of dollars to numerous inner-city social work and diversity programs with vague standards of accountability.

     • Sec. 399V (p. 1422) provides for grants to community “entities” with no required qualifications except having “documented community activity and experience with community healthcare workers” to “educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities” aimed at drug abuse, poor nutrition, smoking and obesity.    

     • Sec. 222 (p. 617) provides reimbursement for training healthcare workers to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their right to an interpreter.

     • Secs. 2521 and 2533 (pp. 1379 and 1437) establishes racial and ethnic preferences in awarding grants for training nurses and creating secondary-school health science programs.     

 And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg! For the text of the bill with page numbers, see www.defendyourhealthcare.us     

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Dear SBA: You’re out of touch! 

     I just read  a meaningless, unintelligible, patronizing, jargon-filled statement by SBAs Delaware District Director which reinforces in spades a conviction I’ve voiced in prior posts that the Small Business Association is utterly useless to small businesses and waaaaay out of touch with reality.

     She headlines her article  “100 Days After the Recovery Act” and starts out by telling readers how great all the new SBA programs are to “help small businesses weather this economic storm, and ultimately continue to grow and create jobs.” Where was SBA when these kinds of comments were being posed as requests over a year ago on this blog and many others?

     She ends with:  “America’s small businesses are the key to our nation’s economic recovery.”  (Duh) “The SBA is using every tool in our toolbox –and creating new ones when necessary– to help small businesses lead us out of these tough economic times.” (Double Duh)So tell us about the tools in your toolbox! In plain English would also be a nice thing to try to do, by the way.

     Get this, business owners:  You think the SBA is relevant so you read this gobbledygook (or gobbledegook if you prefer… a word that’s really worth looking up!) and imagine you might get an idea or two about how to help your business recover, right?

     Wrong.  Unless of course you happen to be well versed in “loan programs–7(a) and 504” because then you undoubtedly understand about “eliminated fees for borrowers” on 7(a) “and for both borrowers and lenders on 504” and that they’ve “temporarily raised the guarantee.”

     Oh, yes, and we should be thrilled  to know that “there’s been a 30 percent increase in average weekly loan dollar volume” and –on top of that– the new SBA launched ARC loan “program provides loans up to $35,000 to viable but struggling small businesses,” and that “SBA has now put in place programs implementing 88 percent of the $730 million provided.”  

You must be kidding, SBA!

• What is “7(a)”? Who should be expected to know this?

• What is “504”? Who should be expected to know this?

• What “eliminated fees”? Why? When? For how long? So what?

• Why eliminated for just borrowers on one loan and for borrowers and lenders both on another, and who cares?

• What exactly does “temporarily” mean?

• What “guarantee”? Whose? For what? For how long? What are the terms?

• 30% increase? This has something to do with my small business?

• So what? What does this have to do with me and my small business?

• What exactly is “viable”? Is it not defined because not many will qualify?

• What exactly is “struggling”? And again, how is this determined?

• What difference does it make to ANYone that 88% of $730 million has been “implemented”? I’m trying to put food on the table. Who are you trying to impress?

• What does “implemented” mean, exactly? Why can SBA language never be straightforward? Likely because no small businesspeople are speaking.

     Find me ONE “struggling” small business owner who understands all this crap. Just one. The problem here is that the SBA is simply another BIG-business-run federal government agency that hasn’t a single clue about owning and operating a small business … and that is more concerned with covering its butt and looking good to political administrators than with helping small businesses create jobs. It is tokenism run amuck.    

I served two consecutive 2-year federal appointment terms on what’s been called the country’s most important SBA regional advisory council (NY/NJ/CT and the USVI. I  resigned  because 31 of the 33 membership seats were filled with major corporate executives. I and one other member were the only ones who owned and operated small businesses. The job of representing and cultivating small business interests was not getting done, and it’s still not.

# # #

Banking on your bank?

Don’t waste your time!

     The economy continues to hemorrhage.  Oh no, that’s just not true, I heard that it’s not true on the news today:  The federal government says “we’re seeing many signs of things turning around.”

     I can’t imagine  what’s in some one’s line of sight that would prompt THAT statement. Also in today’s news, Microsoft just laid off another 800 employees. You connect the dots.

     The point is that when the going gets tough,  the average hard-working business leader thinks: The BANK. The BANK will bail us out. The BANK will lend us what we need. The BANK is the answer.

     One leading national bank  says they’ll even give loans to illegal aliens. Another says it will help customers who need help. Don’t you believe either one of them, or any of the other sleazy branding line enticements being offered out there in medialand. 

     You cannot depend on The BANK.  Period. Banks are tripping over themselves trying to outdo hospitals and the US Postal Service in the stupidity and low trust departments.

     Banks are at least 50 years behind reality  and –just like the hospitals and US Postal Service– think that slick, clever slogans, spiels, and marketing devices coming from empty suits and empty heads are going to make up the difference, the decades of incompetence.

     Credit unions offer a bit more comfort,  because they answer to their “members” not a board of directors and stockholders (but can also be a bit more risky for businesses because loan percentages, for example, can end up being higher than credit card rates if you’re not careful and alert).

     You think BANK  because the BANK has convinced you that it is your good neighbor, that because it’s been doing business in your town for a zillion generations, that it’s honorable and will loan you the money you need when you need it for a ridiculously low rate because they’re your neighbor.

     Good Luck!  A lot of businesses are failing because they naively trusted The BANK would support them in hard times. Reality Check: The BANK supports itself in hard times.

     What else is there?  Investors. Great, but guess what? Today’s investors want immediate gratification ROI and enough proof and collateral to guarantee it. Not much help if you don’t already have the money you need! 

     “Angel” investors  are getting tainted with skepticism, and are also requiring more than you probably have cause if you had it you wouldn’t be looking for it! Hmmmm. Barter. Right. Well, barter is great up to a point, but it rarely if ever produces money. Stockpiled merchandise and services have increasingly marginal value. 

     So, that leaves (ta-ta-ta-ta-tah-tah!):  SALES. Innovative, value-added products and services = SALES. SALES ALWAYS BEAT The BANK. How to boost sales now must be your number one (and perhaps only) priority. There is no greater or more important issue for you or your business to be dealing with right now, unless of course you own or run The BANK. 

# # #               

Getting Even

Is Getting Nowhere!

     “Don’t Get Mad. Get Even!”  says the T-shirt. “Those guys in that company misrepresented themselves to us, and we’re going to make sure they pay for it; we’ll make them look like chopped liver to the rest of the industry,” says the disgruntled company owner.

      “I put that business in business, and what do they do?  They turn around and try to stick it to me; I’ll fix their butts good; just wait ’til they try to raise some investor money,” says the ego-injured entrepreneur.

     It won’t work. None of it.  The more you pay attention to trying to get even with someone or some entity that did you in, the closer you come to doing yourself in. If you’re crazed about delivering justice, join a band of vigilantes … or start over again and become a lawyer.

     But stop with the need to extract revenge.

     Vengefulness is a waste of time and energy  that diverts attention and costs opportunity loss. It prevents you from doing what you really need to be doing, which is making sales and growing your own business. The more you worry about what others are doing or not doing, the closer you get to self-destruct mode! 

     Not only are these kinds of evil thoughts and misdeeds  harmful to the growth missions you need to rally behind, but the ill intents get talked about and emailed about and txtmsgd about … and it seldom takes more than a day for others connected with your industry (including customers and suppliers and investors and referrers) to find out what you’re up to.

    Plus, the more you try to cover, hide, and disown it, the quicker everyone finds out. In the end, you’ll hang for it because your reputation, trust, and integrity will be flushed away in one quick jerk of the handle!

     It’s just plain not worth it to take your focus off of making sales  and put it instead on paybacks for upsets you have with another business. The best way to beat up another business is to stay away from it, and not bad-mouth it, just — plain and simple — outperform it.

     The best way to outperform another business  is to earn greater customer trust by delivering what you promise and by bending over backwards consistently, 100% of the time!

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Stop with picking your

yellow leaves, already!

     How many times a day, a week,  do you leave your desk to pick yellow leaves from the office plants, abandon your construction site for the nearest donut shop, surf the web while waiting for a conference or call, watch some horrendous network news on a waiting room TV, burst your energy balloon trying to think of who the person across from you reminds you of?

     Have you really nothing better to do?  Of course you do. So HOW do you choose to while away time that you have so much less of than you could possibly imagine, in even your wildest dreams? Notice I’m asking you to deal with PROCESS. What are the steps you go through to arrive at the point of workday lingering, daydreaming, hanging, dawdling, puttering, lazing?

     If you do this a lot, btw,  you are surely a government or corporate employee. [Don’t be offended; mindset-wise, there really is very little difference, you know, except that corporate folks actually have to turn a profit to earn a living.] Hopefully, you simply drift off occasionally and that’s it. If it’s more than once or twice a week, though, you may be part of the problem!

     Here’s a bright spot or two on this subject…

     As motivational guru Earl Nightingale  has often reminded us: YOU BECOME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT! http://halalpiar.com/2009/10/what-are-you-thinking/ and my sign for the wall for you, the boss, to help keep you focused http://halalpiar.com/2009/10/message-for-the-bosss-wall/ These two links will provide all the support you’ll ever need to change your fuzzy ways and be more productive.

     BUT, maybe you care not,  and can’t even concentrate enough to find a towel to throw in. Well, if THAT’s the case, think quick and hard about the last person who surprised you by dying. Is that where your lackadaisical, ambivalent, noncommittal, ass-dragging, not-give-a-damn attitude is taking you? Hmmmm. Getting a little heavy-handed there, huh? Well, no, not really…not if this message arrives in time to be a wake up call.

     The point is  that we need to be –as Henry David Thoreau once urged– forever on the alert! It’s VERY easy to slip into nonproductive, time-wasting tasks of avoidance that become hard to account for when we’re not getting where we want to go.

     I don’t know about getting your nose to the grindstone  (which I would think is a painful maneuver), pulling yourself up by the bootstraps (a difficult task for those wearing sneakers), and putting your head down and charging (which could no doubt be REALLY painful). All at the same time? Sounds messy to me.

     But keeping tuned in to the present moment  each passing moment as much as possible will sure go a long way toward keeping your life and work in a happy balance.

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