Know someone looking for work?

Send this post along as a 

reminder of HOW to look.

As editor of a 100-page JOB HUNTER Action Guide for outplacement counseling, and a former professor of career development, I have three critical observations to share with today’s desperate job search market:

1. Learn what you have to about yourself, and about how to manage your stress (take some deep breaths) effectively enough to not allow others (anyone, really) to pick up on your desperation feelings.

No one wants to refer or hire a person who’s busy scraping and scrambling to stay alive.

So even if scraping and scrambling is in fact what you’re doing, pack it away when you start each day. Keep your mind on positive thoughts even when you’re staring negativity in the face.

Surround yourself with positive people and positive experiences every chance you get. This includes the TV shows you watch, the music you listen to, the emails you send and FWD, the room(s) you live in, and the things you read.

2) If you’re not on Twitter, figure it out. Do it. It will force you to be concise, think on your feet, and be responsive. It will provide job connections and opportunities you won’t find in your local newspaper or even in key industry publications. If you keep your Twitter account (which is free) and activity focused on getting a job and on being social without over-indulging in chit-chat, there IS payback.

When you go back and forth on Twitter, and gain confidence that somebody out there loves your comments (called Tweets), you will simultaneously be training yourself to think and communicate in resume terms.  Your resume will get tighter and more impressive as it gets Twitter-streamlined.

Twitter’s 140 character per Tweet limitation is like boot camp for your job hunter brain.

Your interviewing process will likewise benefit by the 140-character discipline habit because you will start getting to the point of what you are trying to express quicker, and more simply. Bosses want responsive, uncomplicated job candidates. Long-windedness and fat vocabularies are great if you’re looking to be a politician or librarian, but send out the wrong signals otherwise.

3) No matter what your background or skill set, and no matter what the job you seek is all about, you must recognize that you and you alone are –in the end– the one who has to land the job. No resume writer or career coach or counselor can do that for you. That means one thing: You must learn and practice everything you possibly can about marketing because you are marketing yourself!

Your resume needs to accomplish one task only. And more than one page (unless you’re seeking a professional position requiring a CV) won’t cut it!

It must get your foot in the door. It must land you an interview.

More than one page says you don’t know how to be concise and you don’t know how to prioritize, and you don’t know what’s important. Most interviewers throw these out without a glance.

You need –like a professional marketing program– to play out EVERY contact, THANK every contact, and focus on AIDAS: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction . . .

• ATTRACT ATTENTION (with your demeanor, not flamboyance)
• CREATE INTEREST (by HOW you present yourself –format, as well as WHAT you present –content)
• STIMULATE DESIRE (by demonstrating your own desire for the challenges and opportunities, not the salary and benefits)
• BRING ABOUT ACTION (by asking for follow-up, a test period)
• PROMPT SATISFACTION (by providing follow-up; this can be tricky; consider consulting a professional career coach)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 The “Inner Game”

of Covering Butts

There are three levels of political “game” playing in every business.

LEVEL I.  –WHOLESOME 

Most productive and well-intentioned among these three levels of business politics are what I call the WHOLESOME game players. Their agendas are comprised of earnest pursuits.

They are passionate about their lives and invested in making the most of their roles to nurture, enhance and grow the businesses that support them. They stimulate innovative thinking and healthy competition. They seek to make a difference.

They are leaders and team-players both. These are invigorating people who enjoy the daily challenges and opportunities of their lives and careers, who share and sweat and sacrifice to make a business work.

LEVEL II. –MANIPULATIVE  

On the flip side of business politics are the MANIPULATIVE game players. These are crafty, strategic-minded, self-indulgent “hallway hoverers” and “meeting Marxists.” They carry hidden agendas.

When they’re not busy disrupting or fostering disruption, they lurk in the shadows, watching and listening and figuring out how to fold what they learn into what they can use for themselves. Government and quasi-government agencies are–like tape-edged mattresses to bedbugs–breeding grounds for manipulative games and players

These are insecure people who do everything possible to undermine and inhibit others, who never hesitate to cut quality and value corners, who expend inordinate amounts of time and energy covering their butts, and raising their own flags.

LEVEL III. –MALLEABLE 

The word of choice here is malleable. It means easily taught or managed (also, easily hammered, which is significant). The MALLEABLE game players are really non-gamers, but will go with the wind as it best seems to suit them on any given day.

They aim to please, but not make waves. In a room full of foul language, off-color stories, sexist or racist remarks, they will quietly nod and smile just enough to not stand out. They will also work their tails off when motivated by a WHOLESOME game player. 

These are the people who comprise the majority of America’s workforce.

Like following the motivational applications of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (by rewarding others at the place in time, and at the level of personal needs that they will most respond to), you –as the business owner or manager– must be a detective to be an effective leader. You need to ferret out those whose self-serving behaviors are threatening to flush away your hard-earned business success.

And, by the way, if your business is still alive and kicking through this pathetic economy, it IS a “success”!

How to get started? If you are in the LEVEL I group above, you are already well on the way.

You would do well though to refresh your brain with some Google or Bing searches of Maslow’s Hierarchy and dig into the structure and meaning of it. Measure what you know about each person involved with you, and decide current need levels for each. Reward their efforts accordingly. Often, a news release or car servicing works better than cash! (And remember that need levels can change daily, even hourly!) 

As you stumble into individuals who appear unaffected by your efforts, spend talk time with them to confirm or deny the evidence. If the investment in getting a person on track is worthwhile, go FOR it. If not, let go OF it!

[If you want a little coaching with this, or have a particularly sticky staff issue, give me a call.]

You can save the economy by helping to move small business forward . . . Support those who support free market competition healthcare and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“I’m too busy for you!”

(Translated: “I’ll never be a leader because

I don’t really care about anybody else!”)

Is “I’m too busy for you!” the verbal or nonverbal message you might be putting out to others?

I just read a promotional endorsement written by someone I know who, years ago, I used to respect. He starts out his explanation of why the particular newsletter he raves about is one of a very few that he actually makes time to read. He opens his statement by saying:

“I’m busy — painfully busy, so

I’m stingy with my time…”

Pull-eease! Who cares? The source, though, may want to know that comments like this scream of the kind of personal frustration known to have led many to depression and isolation.

It would be viewed by not a few psychology professionals as the monolithic signature of an individual who has deep fears of experiencing any forms of intimacy with others.

“Intimacy,”defined by ground-breaking Gestalt Psychology authors James and Jongeward, “is free of games and free of exploitation. It occurs in those rare moments of human contact that arouse feelings of tenderness, empathy…genuine caring…and affection.” 

Businesspeople are not immune to these kinds of connections and cannot hide behind “business” as if it were a protective shield. But many don’t know that they’re doing it. It may be going on for so long, that it feels natural to be a “workaholic.”

Some may say, why interrupt my career mission to get close enough to someone who will want me to pat their hand when they have a crisis? Dealing with other people’s crises slows me down and forces me to sidetrack.

Much has been written in the literature of Gestalt and Reality Therapy about those who play the “Harried Executive” game in life and business.

These are people who define themselves as “overwhelmed” and “overloaded” and “swamped” and “up to my ears…”

They make themselves too busy to have to spend any genuine quality time relating to others.

This is not a healthy mindset, but it is often masked by offering token attentions and participating in general socializing. It frequently requires professional counseling and coaching to move this type of behavior beyond the personal relationship barricade the person has set up for her or himself.

That you might be conveying to others that you are too busy for them, means you are close to the edge of the abyss that forecloses on many of life’s most valuable opportunities.

“I’m too busy” type statements can also be taken by many to mean:

“You’re worthless to me;

  get out of my way!” 

(Can there be any more insulting an attitude to communicate?)

Can you, or anyone who works with you, actually afford to practice being too busy, never mind flaunting it as in the above example?

Time is our most precious and cherished commodity. Of course we need air and water and food and clothing and shelter, but time is what drives those needs.

One of your grandparents no doubt once told you that “Time and tide wait for no man” (a statement that predates modern English and whose authorship is ascribed to St. Marher in 1225) and that “No man is an island” (attributed to the Englishman who was proclaimed the greatest of all metaphysical poets, John Donne, 1572-1631). 

Surely you’ve heard those statements somewhere? Maybe they are worthy of re-considering from time to time.

What kinds of nonverbal “I’m too busy” messages could you be sending out? Arms and/or legs crossed defensively in meetings? Parentally looking over the tops of your glasses at other’s suggestions that seem too time-consuming?

You keep checking your watch, the clock on the wall? You keep checking for text messages? You keep reading emails while someone is speaking with you? Do you walk ahead of others you’re speaking with, or shoulder to shoulder?

Do you pick up the phone and dial when someone approaches you? Do you put off invitations to family gatherings and neighborhood events, or show up to smile and handshake a few people and then slide out the side door when others seem preoccupied?                                                                    

You may want to listen to yourself more…and, hey, check out that great smile of yours in the mirror once in awhile!

 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Feuding Families,

Combative Couples,

Peeved Partners  and

Belligerent Boards

Constant arguing, bitter and mean-spirited discussions, “business infidelity,” resentment, continuous bickering and back-biting, breaking trust and undermining confidences, changing changes.

. . . I want out and it’s time to go!

Or, as the renown Scottish farmer/poet Robert Burns’ prophesied in 1786 with his “Ode To A Wee Mouse” in what may be the world’s most quoted and paraphrased bits of advice: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” (often go awry, or wrong)   

                                                        

How can you continue with the financial problems? The Mission and Vision disagreements? Operational differences? Business expansion and “parenting” plans vs. consolidation?

Do your business and business relationships look increasingly fragile? Are partners distancing themselves? Does collapse seem imminent?

Divorce between married couples is now in the mainstream of American life, and unfortunately serves to set the table for acceptance at a business level. What else is a business partnership besides a marriage? And family business upheavals can be the worst of all because they frequently involve or contaminate marriage relationships that are the very underpinning of a business structure.   

And those who are caught in the middle typically suffer the most. In a couple marriage relationship, it’s the children. In a business partnership it’s the partner families, employees, employee families, investors, suppliers and vendors and last, but not least, the customers! Nor does the damage line always stop there. In many instances, a neighborhood, community, town, region, industry or profession can also be negatively affected.

Ways to patch things up:

Start with giving the other person or people involved the benefit of doubt. You got into this relationship because something was extremely positive. By re-focusing on whatever that was, you may find that existing differences can be easily reconciled. Isn’t it worth a try? Don’t you have a lot invested in each other? Wouldn’t it be easier to move the business forward if differences could be worked out than to simply part ways and have to start all over again?    

So here’s the plan:                             

• If you can get past that first step of thinking, sit down and write out on paper with a pen, a statement of agreement to seek to resolve differences. Each principal involved in the dissension climate must be willing to do this.

• Exchange copies of these statements without commenting or responding.

• Plan a follow-up Q&A clarification discussion the next day (no rebuttals permitted) to review one another’s comments.

• Plan an open discussion of the Q&A clarification discussion a week or so later.                                    

• Next, and again something all involved must be willing to do: write out one sentence on paper that identifies exactly what you identify as the most critical problem.

• Then each needs to write out clear specific improvements desired in the form of a goal statement that is specific, flexible, realistic, and has a due date. 

Or get professional counseling:

An “outside” consultant who is experienced and skilled in both business management and human relations can help each individual involved put her/his differences in writing, channel productive exchanges, and foster committed attitudes aimed toward working through the differences.

A professional can help set up a recovery path with a schedule for renewable  efforts, and a contingency exit plan that can serve to strike a balance and encourage renewed efforts to make things work. Many leadership training-based organizations can provide assistance in identifying and retaining qualified coach/counselors.

This is always a better solution-approach than slamming the door and walking out! And it just might work! 

 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Nine “Do Not” lessons

learned from 30+ years 

of sales-winning advertising

I know, accenting the negative isn’t always the best thing, but if you know what NOT to do, it’s a lot easier to figure out what you can and should do. I don’t pretend to know what you can and should do, but I sure can tell you what I’ve found out that doesn’t work (and throw in a few hints about stuff I know that works better!).

Here’s the scoop:

1. Do NOT advertise that you have integrity, or even about what wonderful integrity-inspiring things you or your business have done. When you conduct business at all levels with a high-trust approach and attitude, you will gain or boost a reputation for integrity that speaks for itself!

2. (…and this is really #1): Here is the single most difficult marketing, advertising, sales and PR challenge to face for all businesses everywhere (yes, you did indeed read that right: “all businesses everywhere”)– ready for this? — Do NOT promote how great you are to the rest of the world. Nobody cares. Well, maybe your mother cares, but nobody else does.

3. Do NOT get too cutesy. Readability must come before cleverness in font (lettering) use and treatments (Italics, boldfacing, spacing, underlining, shadowing, using a horseshoe for the letter “U” or crossed swords for “X” or an egg for “O”…etc.). And don’t trust a designer to worry about readability; most have no training or experience in how to design with and around text, especially branding lines.

4. Do NOT emphasize product and service features. Nobody buys features. People buy benefits. Make sure your marketing, advertising, sales, promotion and PR efforts focus on benefits — on answering the question, what’s in it for me?

5. Do NOT buy into fancy dog and pony presentations that stress how the work a creative service provider individual or organization or group or team can do for you will put you head and shoulders above the rest of your industry or profession. Get rid of creative service providers who seem more interested in winning awards for themselves than in making sales for you. Use performance incentives.

6. Do NOT ever accept a media rate that’s printed on a “rate card” or “rate sheet.” Think of it as the asking price for a house just put on the market this morning. Media people who aren’t willing to work with your budget aren’t worth your time and consideration. There are always other ways to market your business.

7. Do NOT try to hand-off advertising/marketing/PR responsibilities to someone who works with you because they articulate well or can write a mean email. And don’t try to do it yourself unless it’s what you specialize in. Remember that there are two success keys involved: writing skill and psychology expertise. Persuading customer and prospect brains is what it’s all about. 

8. Do NOT communicate too little or too much. Ask prospects and customers what they think the right amount of information is. Have someone who’s experienced at it run a focus group for you to get these answers, and to test alternative marketing approaches. 7 target market representatives for an hour works for this purpose. Give each a $20-$25 value reward for their participation.

9. Do NOT “settle” for ads, commercials, websites, landing pages, blogs, brochures, news releases, or social media executions or strategies that don’t feel right! If you don’t feel sure about something, remember it’s your business. Your gut instinct is your best decision maker.   

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Window-Shoppers

and Tire-Kickers

Do Not Make For Productivity 

FAR beyond the vast sea of incompetency that floats the government boat, and WAY past the time-wasting frivolity of corporate giant muckity-mucks, America’s 30 million small business owners–together with countless millions of managers and sales professionals–live with the day-to-day reality that TIME is money!

Time (yes, it’s worth repeating) is money!

Why the big lead-in? Because time is not money for the politicians who pretend to be running the business of managing the country (unless it’s electiontime!). And because big business CEOs, CFOs, CITs, CMOs, COOs, and all the other Cs out there are preoccupied with how to justify their 9-5 existences, instead of how to make the most of all available time — including nights and weekends! 

Now that that’s settled, lets’ move to those who invest themselves in wasting other people’s time. Retailers are used to them and happily accommodate them because the tire-kickers and window-shoppers will almost certainly return some time to make an actual purchase if their non-purchase trip is a rewarding enough, pleasant experience.

BUT B to B services can die long, slow, painful deaths by dealing for too prolonged a time with this mentality.

In other words, customer service begins at the front door of a retail business and it really doesn’t matter if the individual coming in, is there to ask for driving directions or is going to be walking out  with a $1,000 purchase. “Kill ’em with kindness and bend-over-backwards service” is the rule.

When you’re selling services to other businesses, however, customer service begins AFTER the sale is made, so the qualifying-of-the-prospect need is to be courteous and expedient. Prospects need to be qualified and then dealt with accordingly. To let someone who sends an email inquiry or who calls in a telephone request for a customized proposal (a particularly common occurrence in consulting) — especially when fees and rates are asked for — jerk you around for an hour or two is a bit masochistic on your part.

People who pull this stunt are usually looking for free . . . free ideas, free outlines, free plans, free approaches, free advice, free services. Many of them will call half a dozen sources and combine responses to set a budget for themselves and use the input for criteria in setting the stage for another competitor to do the job. 

Giving away what you make a living 

 at does not make for productivity

under any circumstances . . . .

except perhaps for charity

— when it’s affordable.

The solution is to quickly qualify prospects to determine the seriousness of their intents by promptly informing them that you will be happy to do as requested the minute you can get an advance of $500 or $1000 to cover your costs, and that that amount will be credited against any work you end up doing for them.  

Your job is to make sure the “inquiring minds that want to know” are serious and committed to doing what they claim to be interested in doing, and that they’re willing to pay for your time to help them figure out how to get started. Without this, you’ll end up with enough ankle bites to drop an elephant (which, in case you never noticed, have really fat ankles!)

And it’s hard for business owners and managers

  and sales pros with bitten ankles to run full speed.

 # # #

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

God Bless America and Our Troops.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

It’s not your consultant’s job

to come up with your budget

unless that’s the assignment.

     Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean that the consultants you hire are going to work for you personally (unless you’re a celebrity or worse, a political candidate!). Their allegiance is to your company or the project you assign, but that doesn’t make them thumbtacks you can press into any passing piece of cork.

     In other words, the reason for going “outside” is to get an informed fresh perspective on whatever your focus is, down the road or at the moment . . . and consultants provide an objective sounding board; they are not part of your company “politics.”

YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.

     Sure, there are “Yes Men” in the ranks. They are as proportionally present in the consulting field as in any other.

     Part of your job is to sort through them, and appreciate the differences in their backgrounds as well as the similarities of strategy they may use to attack your business problems. Once you’ve settled on compatibility and track-record issues, you may want to consider:

First and foremost in every consultant’s mind is the same concern that would be front and center in yours . . . 

How much will this assignment pay and on what basis?

     Consultants charge hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually . . . and project fees. Some allow flexible terms and may accept partial payment with a performance incentive. Others are very cut and dried, or unyielding and regimented about what and how they charge. Lawyers, as most of us know, charge for every hiccup.

     Some charge fees that are all-inclusive. Others may charge additional fees for “Rush” service, “Full” service, “Specialized” service, or “On-Call” service. Some fees may have a timeline attached, or a project benchmark or specific goal defined. All are legitimate. Only you can determine what will work best for your situation.

The worst thing you can ask of a prospective consultant — and it’s done relentlessly — is to come up with a budget before agreeing to any engagement of services.

BUDGETS ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, NOT THE CONSULTANT’S!

If you want to go window shopping, do it on Bing or Google. Don’t make prospects jump through hoops and expect a solid work relationship as a result.

     Most consultants in my experience are happy to do what they can within the framework of your budget, but to ask them to set your budget for you is neither realistic nor fair, and puts an anchor around the neck of your goal pursuits!   

     When you want exceptional input from a consultant, provide an exceptional compensation package. Consultants are not for Scotch-Tape and rubber-banding problems quicker and cheaper than you think your staff is capable of. Consultants are for problem-solving that you and your people cannot afford the time to address, or lack the experience or expertise to bring to the table.

     Consultants are for accelerating business progress at a quicker rate than you and your people are capable of doing on your own, given existing limitations of time, money and know-how. This is not to suggest handling consultants with loose reins. You need to give them — up front — a tight but reasonable timetable, and it behooves you to also itemize specific deliverables you seek.

     The period of engagement and renewable options need to be established and clearly defined, and a meaningful communication and reporting system needs to be in place from the outset. 

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and America’s Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

A job half done

is half UN-done

     Like the proverbial half-full or half-empty glass debate, businesses and business projects are often left UN-done. When this happens, the entities can usually be expected to unravel completely or take a giant step toward miserable failure.

     Seldom do we see an enterprise or project be abandoned before maturity (except for examples in, for instance, the new home construction market and associated trades, where government incompetencies ushered in a full housing market collapse), and still make a difference at any personal, industry, or market level.

Q.

     What can you do to instill a stronger sense of stick-to-it-iveness in yourself and in your people, or your outsourced project managers?

A.

     Start with yourself! What you do others will follow. The best way to ensure that you finish what you start is to plan your approach and monitor your progress. Something as simple as keeping a nightly, just-before-you-leave-work Attack List (Hint: chunks of tasks work light years better than itemizing full-scale tasks) of things you need to do the next morning.

     When the list is done (and whatever doesn’t make it to the paper or task program screen before 3 minutes is up, isn’t generally worth remembering!), prioritize items with number rankings or multiple asterisks, and proceed in that order, making notations of other unexpected items that surface and perhaps even renumbering everything.

     Take that task list to task with a see-through marker every time a listed item gets done; that allows you to review what’s been accomplished, what’s been interrupted, and what needs more attention. 

     This is not as trying experience as you might imagine if you accept the likelihood that you will be interrupted and disrupted, and account for that inevitability by keeping your mind flexible enough to accept alternative routes and options on the fly.

     Yes, this is an entrepreneurial instinct, but anyone can make it work. It requires only that you keep open-minded. Easy? Yes, but for that to happen, you need to agree with yourself to suspend all judgments.

     Suspending judgments, prejudices, biases, is essential because these will otherwise get in the way of your progress. And of course if you don’t finish projects and communications and tasks, how can you expect those who report to you to do that?

     LBE (Leadership By Example) counts even more than transparency if there must be a choice for where to apply your energy. Transparency keeps your team bolstered, motivated, and challenged under all circumstances, but without you setting daily examples, it will be difficult at best to even approach the point of operating your business with complete openness.

     So, it’s . . . 

1. Open your mind
2. Set examples for others to follow
3. As more work gets done, completed and on schedule, begin moving your business to be more transparent. Note the implication of the words, “begin moving” which means taking it step at a time (instead of all at once), which is usually the best way to approach any business situation.

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and our troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

When it looks, tastes,

smells, feels, and 

sounds like garbage

 . . . guess what?

     Many people think advertising is the root of all evil. You’ve heard the complaints. They think advertising is at fault for fostering and nurturing societal problems. They wag their fingers at the TV and scold the announcers for having such low-life values. They bang their fists on desktops when they’re overrun with email spam. They poke their pens through newspaper ads that they find offensive.

     Sound at all familiar?

     But advertising is merely a reflection of society. Think of advertising as a mirror. That’s all it is. That’s all it’s ever been.

     The truly talented advertising creative and strategic planning people in this world all know that this is true. They don’t pretend to control anything. They don’t see themselves in the “agent of change ” roles that entrepreneurs play.

     They merely imagine ways to playback to society what’s going on in society.  

And we are living in angry times.

Not for the first time, and not for the last, but we are clearly not a nation of happy wall-to-wall campers right now!

     Our economy sucks and even as we continue to hear daily claims of recovery and promises of improvement, it continues to get worse.

     We have a catastrophic oil spill in our backyard that any halfwit entrepreneur or small business owner would have pounced on and resolved by now, but delays piled on top of delays and indecision added to incompetency and inexperience have pushed us into a corner. These accumulated screw-ups — like the floundering economy and accompanying empty promises — offer us no end in sight.

    Instead of solutions, we have brinkmanship, excuses, and rhetoric.

     Instead of action, we have talk.

     It’s coming from our President, from our Vice President, from our governors, from our U.S. and state senators, from our congressional representatives and state representatives. Nonaction and ineffective do-nothing conduct festers wherever politics lives.

     It is taking it seems forever, but we’re finally starting to see media people becoming disconcerted. They’re starting to realize that they are rapidly turning into the vocal minority . . . and that posture doesn’t sell newspapers, or generate paid advertising revenues.

     So the next time you hear someone complain that advertising that’s filled with innuendos of sex and violence and racism is causing the murders, drug deals, rapes and disrespect of others, tell that person to just look around at what’s going on between friends and neighbors and regions and nations and to think about not adding fuel to the fire.

     Society creates society’s problems — not advertising. When times get better, so will the advertising.

     And guess what? There are actually three things you can do about it:

1)  Don’t endorse, buy or encourage others to buy products or services that are promoted with questionable and bad-taste advertising. This includes tasteless Hollywood and video game productions.

2)  Clean up your own act. Get someone with extensive business experience, who truly understands the impact of words, to put an eagle eye to your marketing themes and messages –all of it — sales presentations, news releases, website pages, email promotions, ads, commercials, business plans, mission statements. Get that person to tweak what you’re using to make sure you’re representing to your market and customers and employees and communities what you want to be representing.

3)  Do something to help see that new leadership is given rise to better representation of small business interests. There are 30 million of us! If every small business does SOMEthing, anything, it will make a difference. America was built on and by small business, and will only right itself by relying on the innovative pursuits of small business. Step up to the plate before November.  

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and our troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

Are you driven,

or just driving?

     Next time you slide in behind the wheel, think about how many similarities there are between operating a motor vehicle and running your business. Why? Because it will give you a new or renewed perspective on many if not most of the things you do every day, and shed some new light on old issues that may be clogging up your business works.

     Most of us tend most of the time to ignore business clog-ups, thinking they’ll just go away (or not thinking about them at all), but — like any plumbing problem — things unfortunately have a way of coming to the surface at the least inopportune moments.

     This is not to suggest that your business should be preventive maintenance-driven (unless you’re a doctor, lawyer, accountant or mechanic) because giving that kind of mindset your priority wouldn’t leave much room for fueling up on innovative thinking. But, much like a periodic tune-up for your car, you may want to do a little service work on your business. So, try this . . .

     What does your car have in common with your business when it comes to you exercising control? How much do you really have? What’s controlled by others? Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Does that work for you? Does it work for your business?

     What is and isn’t safe about operating your car as opposed to operating your business? What is and isn’t productive? Economical? What is and isn’t a good direction for you to take? What laws and circumstances confound, delay and punish you? How often do you need to fuel up? Do you use economy or high-performance ingredients? Attitudes?

     How much baggage and how many passengers can you comfortably carry over what distances? How frequently do you need to detour from the routes you planned? In getting your driving and business missions accomplished, how dependent are you on mechanical and computerized functions? How adept are you at handling inevitable glitches? Are you dependent on others for this? How so?

     How dependent are you — driving your car and driving your business — on your instincts, intuition, experience, training, knowledge, observations, communication skills? How easily distracted are you –driving your car and driving your business — by outside influences (everything from sirens, cell phones, traffic patterns, B to B services, social media, industry trade and community activities, to weather reports, headline news, sports scores and issues, and tire rotations)?

     How much are you willing to pay to be able to pursue certain directions in the driver’s seat of both your business and your car?

     If you just scan these questions and answer only a couple, odds are pretty good that prompting some quick assessment thinking on your part will pay back your periodic time investments for giving yourself check-ups and arranging occasional servicing.

     Bottom line: Your car? Change the oil every couple of thousand miles; drop it off for regular servicing and keep aware of performance and tire pressure issues. Your business? Change the routine every couple of months; hold regular weekly “how goes it?” status meetings (Mondays better than Fridays); hire occasional consultants to bring fresh perspectives to your doorstep a few times a year. Keep aware of performance and pressure issues.    

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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