Archive for the 'Management' Category

Jul 18 2009

Economic Recovery? Who’s Kidding Whom?

The Emperor’s New Clothes!

                                                                            

     On the heels of begging Mr. Biden to stop hallucinating with his feebly http://halalpiar.com/2009/07/its-about-small-business-mr-biden/ unfounded economic turnaround braggioso, I turn to yesterday’s summary from U.S. News & World Report, another self-proclaimed mainstream media source of business acumen and salvation, and can only shout HOORAY!

     Now we can finally all stop being nervous and worried (frantic?) about the sick economy that our nation’s financial giants have birthed and nurtured because according to USN&WR, things are in fact getting better, just as Pal Joey would have us believe in his comments earlier this week, telling us to “just look around!” to see all the business rebounds and job creation that’s going on.

     Well, don’t you know, USN&WR has happily substantiated Mr. Biden’s claims with some hard-nosed assessments that all small business owners everywhere must by now be jumping up and down about.

     “We’re seeing some signs of the economy turning the corner” says USN&WR. WOW! I respond, and hungrily devour the article, searching out some hook to hang my hat on. Ah, and what to my wondrous eyes does appear, but six organizations that give me such hope, I had to run to throw up!

     Here, says USN&WR, take this: Positive financial news is surfacing from none other than these six entities that USN&WR no doubt considers representative for all of us:

  • Goldman Sachs
  • JP Morgan Chase
  • CitiGroup
  • Bank of American
  • CIT
  • The Federal Reserve

     Oh, my heavens! Such great news from these six. Can we in small business be far behind?

     Duh. Yes.

     When did the struggling farmer, retailer, transporter, wholesaler, distributor, construction firm, manufacturer, tourism-based business, and all the rest of us who actually work for a living have anything in common with the big business muckity-mucks who own and operate these monster wheeler-dealer corporations?

     When did their revenues and projections ever have anything to do with the reality of making a living based on the price of or market for corn, or shipping, or a decent hotel room?

     Where exactly is small business in this flurry of mixed economic messages? Why is the government sitting on it’s hands? Why is small business, the last remaining hope for economic turnaround through job creation, being disregarded?

     Why is small business seeing nothing more than tokenism fro government?

     Could it possibly be that union purchases of the presidency now need to be repaid in political favors to the exclusion of survival that only small business job creation has the capability of spearheading?

     Have we become so sick a nation that political IOUs have become more important than our hands, our hearts, our minds… our families? Let’s get real, mass media. The government surely isn’t!     

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

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Jul 11 2009

LEADERSHIP REMINDER

“Leaders have to control their

                                                

emotions under pressure.”

                                                         

Rudy Giuliani, Time Magazine’s “Mayor of the world”

                            

     We’re reminded to be kinder than necessary because everyone we meet is fighting some kind of battle. If that reminder is only half true, we’re talking about a lot of pent up stress. Bottled up anxieties = emotions under pressure. Leaders, by virtue of being leaders must rise above that.

     Forcing your brain to functionin ways that are totally opposite of what you are feeling can be a daunting if not overwhelming challenge, but not one that’s impossible. Why? Because you choose your behavior. You choose whether you will reACT or reSPOND to any given situation.

     Being aware that you have that choice and consciously making that choice is a fairly conclusive bit of evidence that you are indeed someone who is in a leadership position. This is not to say that you need to be unfeeling or insensitive about other people and situations. It means you need to control your feelings when you’re in the pressure-cooker!

     The best starting point for this is to follow the 4-step 60-second exercise spelled out at:

http://halalpiar.com/2009/05/4-steps-in-one-minute-zero-stress/

     Next, recognize that not only is the act of leadership a choice, but so too is the designation that empowers the action. Or, as some have more succinctly put it: if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen!

     Remember too that leaders are both born AND made, but that leadership doesn’t fall from the sky! 

     What is this elusive quality all about? TIME magazine (which I don’t think gets very much right in general, but happened to here) had this to say about designating Rudy Giuliani as “Mayor of the World” and as the 2001 “Person of the Year”:

For having more faith in us than we had in ourselves, for being brave when required and rude where appropriate and tender without being trite, for not sleeping and not quitting and not shrinking from the pain all around him.”

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Jul 09 2009

GOT A LEADERSHIP MISSION?

“You’ve got to stand

                                                  

for something, or

                                                 

you’ll fall for anything”

— Aaron Tippin, Country Western Performer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hja0XND8Ms 

     The business world seems to have a mission to have a Mission Statement for everything these days…Sales Mission Statements, Customer Service Mission Statements, Corporate Mission Statements, Financial Mission Statements…

     And many of these, I believe, are merely token lip service public relations-type tongue-twisters with no teeth that hang framed on walls and plastered onto every ad and document and website in bordered shadow boxes, flaunted as if they were flags of honor and integrity!

     First of all, any company that has to be boasting about a Mission Statement (no matter how goody-goody it might sound) is simply indulging itself in mental masturbation.

     If your business is as great as the pursuit of its Mission, the people you want to know it, will know it without you having to strut it across every stage. Your behavior and the behavior of your business is what constitutes your “brand” and people will know you by your brand, your conduct.

     That having been said, there is a need in every organization (even sole proprietorships) for an internal “Leadership Mission Statement” that owners, operators, and managers can rally around and bring into daily practice. “You need to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”

     It needs to address HOW your business leadership will function and communicate with others inside AND outside your organization. Why? Because –no matter what business you’re in, no matter what quality or value of goods and services you offer, no matter how industrious and honorable you may be– 80% of your business is communication!

     If you don’t have a Leadership Mission that focuses attention on the processes and ways you will strive daily to communicate clearly (including, importantly, active listening practices) with associates, staff, customers, prospects, vendors, community, industry and the rest of the world, you are setting your company up for failure.

     I’m not talking about a PR or media or customer service policy  manual, or some empty suit theory. I’m referring to a genuine statement of leadership conduct that calls on human communication best practices at every level… in letters, emails, on the phone, in-person, in presentations, and in all marketing related materials, publishings and broadcasts all of the time. “You need to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”

What’s the guideline to use? Trust and Authenticity.

With special thanks for inspiring tonight’s blog post to a strategic alliance partner of mine, Andrew Jackson, who sent me the link to the music video source of the headline quote above. 

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

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Jul 08 2009

BUSINESS START-UPS

The gun goes off!

                                                                                      

     No, I’m not suggesting some form of warfare is needed for starting a business (though, at times it can feel like being on the edge of a military engagement). I’m talking about a starter’s gun, the kind that’s used to start events, that shoots blanks? Whew! Glad we got that straight.

     Starting a new business, or a new venture spinning out of an existing business–in case it’s been a while and you’ve forgotten–is very much like the beginning of a crew race. Okay, you live in the desert or the mountains and haven’t the foggiest idea about a crew race.

     Maybe you saw one once on TV? Crew races take place in rivers, lagoons, bays, and lakes. Skinny, lightweight 62-foot-long sculls (boats) with 8 rowers (each with a two-handed oar: 4 on the port side and 4 on the starboard side). Yes, there are also 4 and 2 and 1-rower sculls.

     Each oarsman/oarswoman has his or her feet strapped in, and each slides forward and backward on little butt-snuggling seats that actually have each rower precariously perched in such a manner as to practically hang out over the boat edges just inches above the water.

     There’s a “coxswain” (usually a featherweight athlete with  heavyweight vocal cords) in the bow (front) who steers the boat with guide wires and pounds the rhythm into blocks on the sides of the boat. This little person does a lot of yelling through a megaphone. Oh, thatcrew race! Sooo?

     Competing boats get positioned on the starting line, standing still, dead in the water. Oars and rowers ready. Let me try that headline again: The gun goes off! Every rower slams their oars as fast and furiously as they can in and out of the water in order to get some starting momentum and get the boats moving from their dead weight standstill positions.

     Once some forward motion is established (and assuming no capsizings or tangled oars with other crew teams), the coxswain starts in with a quick paced rhythm, calling “in” and “out” for rowers to coordinate oar placements in and out of the water.

     This builds the pace of movement in a smoother, more team-coordinated manner. The coxswain eventually calls out “stroke” as the pace lengthens out into longer harder quicker pulls.

     The coxswain is all the while banging on the boat because rowers cannot always hear the shouted ins and outs because of wind, but they can feel the vibrations of the pounding and respond to that.

     Rowers slide forward and back in time with lifting their oars up out of the water, twisting the handles so the oar blade skims back across the top of the water, then plunging the blade back in for the exhausting pull through the water, then repeating the motion again and again.

     Rowers must concentrate on staying in tandem (from a head-on view, an observer should see but one single rower when the team is in perfect sync). They must also focus on working to not “catch a crab” (getting an oar stuck out of rhythm with the other seven oars, going into or coming out of the water, and creating a splashy puddle).

“Catching a crab” can be serious enough to “catch” an oar blade and take the oar that’s fastened into the oarlock beyond the point of recovery. This will likely turn the entire boat over, which –aside from losing the race and likely damage to the expensive fragile boat– is not a fun thing in 50-degree water with a hooded sweatsuit!  

Are you beginning to see why this athletic ordeal reminds me of starting a business? Are you paddling fast and furiously to get some forward motion? Are you trying to row and steer your fragile, expensive boat at the same time? Are you missing hearing the steps you have to take but feeling the vibrations? Have you “caught a crab”? Are you lengthening out? Capsized?

Hey, there’s always another race!

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

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WATCH FOR ONE OF HAL’S SHORT STORIES COMING this September in the new book from Nightengale Press, THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…ON SALE HERE! 

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Jul 07 2009

UNDERMINING LEADERSHIP

Get your hidden agenda

                                               

out of the closet!

                                        
  • CLIENT or BOSS or PROSPECT: Here’s a project we’d like you to do. Please tell us how you would do it, how long it would take and what kind of budget you’d recommend.
  • CONSULTANT or MANAGER: Who’s the project for? What’s the purpose? Who or what’s being targeted? When do you need it done? What’s the budget you have to work with?
  • CLIENT or BOSS or PROSPECT: Don’t worry about that stuff. We’re not sure of the target and we have no due date or budget; you tell us what you think.
  • A WEEK LATER: “We’ve reviewed your proposal and we don’t like the target you selected, we think it should be done quicker and it’s too expensive.”

                                                                                

Whaaaaaaaaat?

     Every business or organizational group works on two levels: The level of the task represented on the surface, and the level of the “hidden agenda” — the undisclosed needs and motives of individual group members.

     Personal goals, values, attitudes, and fears impact the ways that individuals react to or respond to the group’s surface task. Hidden agendas siphon off valuable energy that can be used to accomplish the task at hand.

     People play power games by withholding information. By not telling the person(s) on the receiving end of an assignment, what the parameters are for a particular project, the CLIENT or BOSS or PROSPECT undermines prospects for success. By assuring him or herself of increased personal control, she or he is simultaneously dooming the project to failure.

     Hidden under the surface, you’re likely to find many individual conflicting pushes and pulls. Group members (according to a University Associates Handbook for Group Facilitators) have personal and subjective needs for belonging, acceptance, recognition, self-worth, self-expression, and productivity.

     The needs of one disgruntled or over-zealous or manipulative or misdirected individual can block the needs of another, or of the entire group, or the entire project. These blockages can be resolved in a minute, or drag on for years…in some rare instances, a lifetime.

     The Pfeiffer & Jones Group Facilitator Handbook suggests:

I wonder if we have said all that we feel about the issue. Maybe we should go around the table and ask for individual comments so that we can open up any further thoughts”

…as being the kind of statement a leader might ask anytime that hidden agendas appear to be threatening progress. 

     When you detect a hidden agenda, get it out of the closet!

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

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial.

FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the end of the 287 POSTS:  Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)

WATCH FOR ONE OF HAL’S SHORT STORIES COMING this September in the new Nightengale Press book, THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…ON SALE HERE! 

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Jul 04 2009

Today May Be Your Last Independence Day!

Is your independence

                                             

going down the toilet?

                                                                        

     What better subject on Independence Day than our right to independent choice of healthcare coverage? But, STOP! Don’t click off! This concerns YOU, Dear Mr. or Ms. Entrepreneurially-Minded Business Leader!

     Mr. Obama (He’s only “Mr.” until he proves his citizenship) wants YOU and every other American to be required to buy a health insurance policy… regardless of whether you want it, whether you need it, or whether you can afford it. [Just imagine, if you can, what’s coming next if he gets his way with this. NON-Union Business survival? Right. Good luck!]

     Now get this reasoning: He says it’s the same thing as motorists being required to buy auto insurance.

BUT ISN’T DRIVING A PRIVILEGE?

ISN’T LIFE AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (INCLUDING HEALTHCARE COVERAGE CHOICE) A RIGHT?

     You want to argue this? Go find me the place in our Constitution or our Bill of Rights that says the Federal Government has the authority to require the purchase of a health insurance policy as a condition of having been born!

     You think that’s a ridiculous exaggeration? Then tell me: WHERE IS FREEDOM when the Federal Government has the power to tell you how to spend after-tax dollars? What distinguishes disposable income from taxes?

     As for the proposal that the IRS be charged with fining citizens who do not purchase a health insurance policy, since the Federal Government just prints more paper money to pay debt, why is taxation or the IRS even necessary? Just shut down the IRS and transfer its budget to indigent care! [And won’t that satisfy all the screaming liberals?]

[With special appreciation for the inspiration and some of the wording to  “BenDoubleCrossed” editorial contributor to the June 26th Larchmont (NY) Gazette www.larchmontgazette.com]
                                                                     

    Before you jump to defend Mr. Obama on this issue, you should know that I speak from more years of healthcare business experience (including five years of National Committee of Quality Health Care membership, authorship of hundreds of healthcare-related articles, and two major books for and about doctors) than he has spent in a lifetime government career.

     His proposals are barking up the wrong tree. And he is continuing to alienate business and industry leaders, in whose hands rest the nation’s only hope for economic recovery! 

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

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Jul 01 2009

Is your business urgency an emergency?

Ready to roll your gasping,

                                                     

bleeding business into the ER?

                                                                                                                            

     At a  9AM meeting you asked for a copy of an old 12-page report by the end of the day. That didn’t seem unreasonable, did it?  

     Probability is that your headache only came on when you realized that not only was your request ignored, but that the employee who smilingly agreed to provide the copy actually took a two-hour lunch and then left for home early.

     Of course you needed some icing on the headache cake, so your eager-to-please employee obliged you while you were on a conference call by dropping a “Sorry, the copy machine’s been down all day” note on your desk for you on the way out!

     How many times have you asked someone who works for you to get something done quickly and then discovered that the task ended up in the “SLOW” pile? Okay, every one’s not “Charlie Hustle,” but assuming that you’re making your “RUSH” requests in a reasonable and courteous manner, maybe the person on the receiving end simply doesn’t share your sense of urgency?

     Do you find more evidence of this in your observations of employee dealings with customers and clients? Perhaps it’s time to recruit your people into developing or up-dating your business mission statement and –in the process– to make sure that some key reference is made to “responsiveness.”

     Why not just repremand and push everyone to move quicker? Because you need your people to buy into the way of thinking you want the business to have if you’re interested in having them behave more responsibly than hired temporaries. After all, doesn’t the government aspire to be in a position of simply dictating change?

     Ah, but the government knows nothing about running a business. In fact, the government seems unfortunately destined to experience that rude awakening soon… the reality that change cannot be dictated anywhere with any degree of success by anyone, except perhaps at gunpoint in a dictatorial regime, is not far from discovery.

     People accept change more quickly and more wholeheartedly when they have a hand in designing the ingredients and/or the parameters of what behavior is expected of them. Giving them at least the opportunity to suggest recommendations for inclusion in the revitalized guidelines for conducting day-to-day affairs makes them part-owners.

     People who are business owners and those who have risen to the occasion and accepted at least the conduct–if not the roles of part-owners–are the same people who accept an ownership mindset. These are the people who you can count on to be responsible, to have a sense of urgency about them in all that they do. And businesses with a sense of urgency succeed.    

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

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Jun 30 2009

NUMBER ONE BUSINESS FAILURE…

  Is Your Business   

                                                             

Half-Pregnant?

                                                               

     I am convinced that the number one reason for business failure is not the economy, not insufficient capital, not poor management, and not over-regulation by government, though all are symptomatic.

     Government interference is of course particularly irksome because it’s being crafted, dictated, and delivered by an arrogant socialist stampede of naive, incompetent leaders whose total business experience equals zero.

     So, what IS the number one reason for business failure?

     Dig deeper.  

     In the past few years, I personally experienced or had first-hand reported more than two dozen incidents involving owners, operators, and managers of sizeable, established businesses hurtling their business interests the wrong way down one-way streets with reckless abandon.

     All have either since collided or failed or are on their way

All have or had the following characteristics in common:

  • Lack of follow-through and a vested interest in maintaining the status quo (amazingly, even after hiring outside consultants to ignite, stimulate, and motivate!) 
  • Disregard for and disrespect of their employees, with tokenism providing the prevailing wind 
  • Disregard of the very talents and solutions they were outsourcing to shore up their own shortcomings (hard to believe, especially after paying for services, but true!) 
  • Complete resistance to initiate two-way “partnership style” communicating
  • Not having a sense of urgency.    

     I reduce all of these weaknesses to driving a business the wrong way on a one-way street. It’s noteworthy that many of them talk(ed) the good talk…but to themselves: Mission Statements with no teeth!

     Without keeping open to and encouraging two-way communication by exercising strong listening and feedback skills, by making assumptions instead of addressing differences, and by disregarding the very consulting input they were paying for (and then not providing feedback), they were/are setting themselves up for failure. 

The economy, under-capitalization, poor management, and over-regulation are excuses. Businesses succeed–even with all of these factors working against them–by communicating openly at all levels all of the time. Communicating openly at all levels all of the time is the ultimate trigger for business transparency.

Transparency, like pregnancy, cannot be half-way.

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 Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below. Thanks for visiting. 

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

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Jun 28 2009

REAL entrepreneurs go the extra mile!

Do you have a Wimp Complex?

More businesses these days seem to be functioning like wussies!

                                                                  

     A (farmland) truck dealer is giving away a free tractor with every truck purchase. What a great idea, especially given an uncertain overloaded inventory of vehicles manufactured by what has become an uncertain source. But the dealer has stopped short of making the tractor deal a slam-bam promotion, and will no doubt write it off as a loss. (Lots of examples of how to make trucks fly off the lot with this idea : call me!)

     A small handmade product retailer says she’s closing (to become an Internet business and work from home) because the mortgage payments are too high, and there’s not enough store traffic. There was no mention made of the sparse high-priced inventory or the two large dogs that came bounding from behind the counter, jumping on (literally) six panicked customers in four minutes.

     The owner of a new Chinese restaurant (with better quality food and lower prices than any of the dozens of others within 20-30 minutes) reports he cannot attract enough business because two of his customers who run their own companies told him that business everywhere is suffering and that it might take him a couple of years to break even. (Y’think he’s heard about The Emperor’s New Clothes?)  

     The Post Office cuts services and raises prices. (Now there’s a great solution vs. maybe being more competitive with UPS and Fed Ex?)

     One state government is talking about financial crisis tactics that would close down the government one day a week along with their (greatest natural resource) parks operations which are the primary tourism industry attraction and income source… while approving a gazillion-dollar casino and racetrack complex (no doubt to cater to the gambling unemployed). 

     Financially-strapped ferry operations aren’t far behind. They’ve lowered foodservice quality and raised their vehicle and foot passenger rates through the roof, and can’t figure out why they’re continuing to lose money. (Must be products of the same graduate school that cranked out the Postal Service and government muckity-mucks!)

     This list could go on for thousands of pages, but the point of it all is that entrepreneurs–true entrepreneurs–have more gumption than these examples. They have more spunk. They rise to the occasion, and make things happen by sinking their teeth into the situations that are throwing knockout punches to people in the business examples noted.

     Entrepreneurs are the catalysts of change. They represent both the past and the future of this country. They don’t get discouraged over news from other business owners, or economy woes… and certainly not from government “leaders” who have no business sense or experience whatsoever. 

     Entrepreneurs take promotional ideas all the way through to completion and, in the face of hard times: work harder, stay open more hours, increase services and market competition, and lower prices as necessary.  When times are tough, it’s time to go the extra mile! 

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

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Jun 23 2009

Continental Airlines. United Technologies. Lessons for Small Business.

WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.

–Continental Airlines

                                                                                                                                             

OPEN MINDS.

                        

OPEN DOORS.

–United Technologies

                                                                      

     I’ve never been a big fan of Continental since they lost my business presentation luggage 14 years ago (note, by the way, how long we harbor ill feelings about a bad customer experience!).

     In all fairness, though, I must confess that Continental’s branding line stands head and shoulders above all others in the airline industry.

     In fact, “WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” actually serves to set a best practices philosophical mark for small business to emulate. Doubts? What small business have you ever heard of that couldn’t stand to improve itself by working hard and flying right?

     How about ANY business for that matter? And, while we’re at it, might we also want to consider application of “WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” to any PERSON? Just imagine what a pleasant and productive world this would be if we could all live by these four words.

     Not good enough to get you cranked up?

     Okay, how about adding four more words that come from a great corporate campaign of old for United Technologies: “OPEN MINDS. OPEN DOORS.”

     So there you have it. Put ’em together and what have you got? 8 words that can literally reverse global economic woes, change the world’s governments and politics for the better, and produce increased, ongoing opportunities for cooperation, growth, success, and universally happier existences.

     Sounds great but how do you start? By getting started. At home. In your own office. On your own work site. With your SELF:

“OPEN MINDS. OPEN DOORS.

  WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” 

                                                              

     Start now. Tonight. Tomorrow morning. 8 Words. Write them on paper and tape them to your computer screen, cellphone. desk drawer, briefcase, rear-view mirror, medicine cabinet, ceiling fan, wristwatch, your son’s forehead! Watch what happens. You will astonish yourself. I guarantee it!  

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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