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!

What you target

for your business

may not be healthy!

Think of it this way: You really want a bacon-wrapped sausage smothered in melted cheese on a slice of buttered white bread with side orders of scrapple and syrup, chili cheese fries , Buffalo wings and onion rings with ranch dressing, finished off with deep-fried cream-filled chocolate cookies and a glass of buttermilk . . .

Uh, if that description makes your mouth water and you decide to head out to some nearby junk-food drive-in, make it one that’s very close to the Arizona, Indiana or Pennsylvania Heart Institutes, or the Mayo Clinic, and be sure your health insurance is paid up! “C’mon, Hal,” you say, “nobody is that dumb who would eat like that.” I have 2-words for you: Observe People!

Not only does stupidity find it’s way to the dinner table (or car-hop tray…yes, there are still car-hops!), but it’s also often used as an excuse for not knowing better because the excuse-giver is too preoccupied being a workaholic to worry about stuff like tumors, and fat, and stents, and clots, and cancer. But being smart doesn’t mean being worried. Worry only achieves stress.

Why all of this banter? Because many small business owners and entrepreneurs who do take care of themselves and who at least make an effort to eat and sleep right, fail miserably when it comes to sizing up what’s best for their businesses. Some who do a nice job of being realistic enough to recognize their own mortality seem to think their businesses are invincible.

“Whaddaya mean this is a bad time for a bank loan? Can’t you see that this idea of mine will revolutionize the whole wind-shield wiper blade industry?”

“These services my family and I have been providing have worked like a charm for a hundred small businesses. Now it’s time to go get those corporate giants with the bailout money. Business is business, right? Just because they’re bigger doesn’t mean they can’t benefit as well.”

I spoke recently with restaurant chef/ owner partners who decided to be able to outdo the competition and market “farm to table” freshness, they would get up at 4 am every day and drive around to nearby farms themselves to hand-pick what they would cook for each meal. Considering they weren’t getting to bed until midnight, you can imagine the rest of that story. . .

                                                                     

If any of these examples causes you to think: So what’s wrong with those ideas?, you should maybe consider going back to the opening paragraph and head on out for one of those tasty meals. If you think these are all nut case examples, you should probably join the guy in the last sentence.

If it’s time for you to get with it, and adopt a more realistic attitude toward your business pursuits, then do it! It’s a choice. Behavior is a choice. You need to “stick to your knitting” when business times get tough. Rushing into anything is not generally a productive way to cope with an economy as catastrophic as this.

Use the time and energy instead to plan for when things get better (hopefully after November) and to make the most of what you have right now. Give customers more for their money and bite the bullet. Give employees increased responsibility and recognition instead of pay raises. Give suppliers consolidated orders you put together with other businesses to get better rates and discounts.

Switch your marketing emphasis from high-priced media buys to free social media and news release opportunities and find people who can help you make those work. Dress up and upgrade your website instead of trying to expand or add locations. Stay tuned into your industry, profession and markets on a day-to-day basis. Outsource tasks that take time and attention away from selling. 

 www.TWWsells.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!

Sounds like a plan . . .

There’s something in your mind that you

want to go after and try to make happen?

You’ve been dreaming about it for, it seems, forever. You’ve been careful about not telling too many others, but those you do mention it to give you the same 3-way response: a “that’s nice” smile, an agreeable nod of the head, and a pointed effort to steer the conversation in a different direction. They humor you. They don’t get it.

If you’re in big business or government work, those responses are enough to douse your fire. You get second and third thoughts and then back away and abandon your idea. You’re too invested in your own job security to dabble with ideas that will preoccupy your mind and lead you too far astray from your 401k and pension plan payoffs when you retire in twenty years.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t much care what anybody says, nor with whether they “get it” or not. You’re going to make your idea work regardless of the odds, the opinions, the financial insecurities associated with developing things to a startup stage, and beyond. Retirement and payoffs –even profits from sales– are the farthest thing from your mind.

The corporate executives and government administrators measure their innovative thinking in terms of whether the ideas they come up with fit into the grand scheme of long-term and strategic plans that blanket the organizations they serve. Entrepreneurs innovate without plans. Entrepreneurs have goals. They seek only the “end-result” of making their ideas work.

The odds for reaching a destination point are dramatically increased when goal-setting meets certain requirements and, once acknowledged, the focus is on each step that leads to the goal —- instead of on the goal itself.

                                       

For goals to be meaningful, they must satisfy all four of these criteria:

 they must be realistic, specific, flexible, and have a due date.

                              

Many people give up on goal-setting because they don’t want to feel like failures if a goal is not achieved. If it’s flexible, that won’t happen. Flexible goals can be redefined and be given new dimensions and new due dates. A goal in concrete is not a goal; it’s just a pile of concrete. Those fear-of-failure folks also need to be reminded that fear is a behavior, and behavior . . . is a choice! 

Those who think they have goals, but don’t adhere to all four criteria, have only wishes. And wishes only work for Disney characters!

Reality dictates that what “Sounds like a plan” rarely ever is, and what trys to pose as a goal without being specific, realistic, flexible and due-dated is simply a self-absorbing waste of time and energy, and often of money. Reality calls for disciplined action backed by burning desire. Reality is the stuff entrepreneurs are made of.

Entrepreneurs, some would argue, don’t plan; they just act. This is often true when it comes to describing the ways entrepreneurs appear to function in their business activities, but when it comes to getting started, and their daily pursuits, those who are most successful will inevitably point to having and constantly adjusting genuine goals to make their ideas work! Sounds like a plan, eh?  

 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!

What keeps small business

owners awake at night?

With appreciation for the inspiration for this post to Meredith Bell info@2020insight.net (publisher of a great free weekly self-development newsletter titled GOLDEN EGGS), based on yesterday’s conversation with Meredith about what keeps CEO’s awake at night.

As recently as three years ago this past May, a respectable study identified worrying about the caliber and extent of employee skills to get the jobs done that needed to be done (I’m paraphrasing here) as the number one reason that CEOs were unable to sleep at night.

But the economic impact on business was nowhere near as catastrophic at that time, and consumers were nowhere near as rambunctious.

Today’s business owners and managers are losing sleep over the inability of their business’s marketing efforts to keep up with the break-neck speed of change in the consumer marketplace (and slightly slower-to-respond industrial and professional service marketplaces). Wasn’t it just yesterday that $137 Kindle electronic readers were $400?

Without belaboring what’s prompted all the consumer scrambling for better greener quality with better warranty coverage at lower prices and faster delivery with improved customer service –because everyone is acutely aware of the maddening pace of information access and exchange– suffice it to say that marketing tools, methods, approaches, and people must rise to the occasion.

The place to start is at the point of word creation. If the words you use to market your business don’t work, nothing else can work.

If the words you’re using aren’t doing the job, it doesn’t matter how dramatic your graphic designs are, how friendly your website is, what fantastic salespeople you have, how terrific your operations are, how low your overhead is, how many awards you’ve won, or how spectacularly your products and services perform.

It doesn’t matter.

What does matter are the words you use to get your prospects and customers to be aware of and buy into all of those assets of yours.

Business owners need to be evaluating their market performance daily, not quarterly or monthly, or even weekly.

In this centrifuge of market activity — unless you enjoy being thrown up against a high-speed spinning back wall, anything less than some form of daily analysis will not leave you enough time to adjust today what did or didn’t happen yesterday.

This doesn’t mean you need to get yourself caught up in some kind of delirium and start behaving like The Mad Hatter. It means you need to keep a sharper eye on the changes that are taking place, even as you read this, and be prepared to make adjustments if and when and as they become necessary . . . not a month later. 

Except for branding themes and policies, marketing words can be changed in a day! If your words are not doing what you need them to be doing this morning, change them tonight.

It’s true that one word is worth a thousand pictures. Not convinced? Consider how many images your mind can produce when you see or hear any of the following words:

• AMERICA
• TODDLER
• GORGEOUS
• STRESS
• FREE
• HAPPY
• HOME
• NOW
• HEALTHY
• NEW
• LOVE
• WATERFRONT
• BIRTHDAY
• PUPPY   

 www.TWWsells.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!

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!

Twitter is for extroverts.

Facebook is for introverts.

 Businesses can’t be introverts.

According to Google, there are now well over 500 million Facebook users. According to anyone engaged in social media, Facebook is an IN-bound media vehicle. This means simply that visitors, friends, customers and prospective customers must come to you to visit your profile, your friends, your photos, your comments, your network, your “wall.” All good stuff if that’s what you seek.

Interestingly, Google also reported at the same time, that there have been over 20 billion (with a “b”) Tweets (message postings) on Twitter. Again, according to social media gurus, Twitter is (conversely to Facebook) considered an OUT-bound media vehicle. This means Twitter users are reaching out to the world with their Tweets instead of (like Facebook users) trying to bring the world to them

If you run a small business (unless it’s minuscule, and caters, for example, exclusively to a neighborhood), odds are that Twitter represents a better investment of time for marketing some aspect of your business than Facebook. Yes, Facebook affords an additional personal touch for many businesses, and there’s nothing wrong with using both when you can afford the luxury of time.

But consider this:

If you already have a website, you already have an IN-bound media vehicle, and it’s one over which you have total control… and you can personalize it as much as you choose, including being able to orchestrate ongoing discussions, exchanges and commentary, even in fact as much as Facebook, if not more.

For healthy and maximally-productive promotion of your business:

• Focus your energy on developing your own website with your own blog (or have somebody write one for you because the more active your blog is the more activity your site generates and the farther up you move in search engine rankings).

• Realize that your website will never and should never be done. Accept the fact that the best websites are those that continue to change and reflect the changes in the business and industry or profession they target and the marketplaces they cater to.

• Supplement your ongoing site development efforts with ongoing investments of time and creative energy in launching ongoing Twitter Tweets.

• Avoid getting snookered by all the social media and Twitter “experts” out there of which there are probably a hundred trillion or so (and these are probably mostly people who spend all day at it and so proclaim themselves advisors, coaches, consultants, and pros). 

• Learn the best mix the same way you learned your business — trial and error, and maybe enlist some trusted, proven experience businesspeople who are top marketing writers with a creative flair who can help you get started, or re-started.

So, you can just barely find me on Facebook only because I like to keep in touch with family and friends, but not because I have the need to spend hours “socializing” on the Web or because I think Facebook will help my business. It won’t. I look at my page every few months; that’s a clue. 

You can  find me on Twitter every night because I have built a very selective following of people who are interested in business and marketing and leadership and selling and self-development and communications and creative writing. When those people like what I have to say on Twitter, they visit my blog.

When they like my blog, they visit my other sites. When they like what’s on my sites, they call or email me and that’s how I build a prospect and customer base. In other words, use Twitter as your outbound vehicle (combined with emails and ads or whatever you choose) to get visitors to your inbound vehicle, your website. Why shuffle people into Facebook as an extra step to visit your website?

Shuffled visitors often fall by the wayside.

Don’t you?  

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!

Business media coverage

doesn’t start and stop

  with a news release! 

If your business isn’t getting the kind of news coverage you would like, maybe you’re giving too much attention to what your news release says and not enough to those who decide its newsworthiness.

Whether or not your news release prompts media coverage has first to do with how newsworthy (and UN-self-serving) it is. Second, it will only get meaningful placement attention when you (or whomever you designate) give(s) meaningful appreciation attention. This doesn’t mean fawning over or patronizing reporters and editors. It means appreciating their situations and responsibilities.

In the past 90 days, over 30,000 journalists have changed their jobs, their “beats” or their places of work.

 (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com)

So regardless of how stellar and airtight your perfectly worded and formatted presentation may be, this is an industry where writers and editors may have other things on their minds besides your news release.

                                                                             

In most cases, you will not break through the clutter with an email or printed page and a half of sensational news about your company’s products, services, activities, or ideas. It will take more than that. The word here is empathy — putting yourself in other’s shoes. Maybe you think you shouldn’t have to do that as a matter of business practice.

But consider that media people (as much as we may justifiably bash the network TV anchors and often extremist editorial board behaviors) tend to be sensitive beasts. They are caught in the middle of the need to balance legitimate value stories with the illegitimate ones that will sell more newspapers and magazines and more broadcast airtime to keep enough revenues flowing to pay their salaries.

Yes, of course there are always online avenues of news exposure. Some of these — for example, www.PRWeb.com and online granddaddy, www.PRNewsWire.com, charge exorbitant fees by comparison with www.MarketersMedia.com, but they have higher “Reach” capabilities. If you don’t need to connect the world, consider MarketersMedia.

Combined with Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and other less significant players, these news release outlets can be highly productive channels.

In fact, most traditional journalists now use Twitter on a regular basis. (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com) But, still, for really big news coverage, many continue to look to major media coverage as the difference between news and N E W S.

Okay, so do you think a single news release delivered to the Wall Street Journal from any lower level name awareness than Mr. Goldman or Mr. Sachs is going to get your new Whiz Bang Production Facility on the front page? On ANY page?

Public Relations requires Media Relations.

The best business coverage only happens 999,999 times out of a million because relationships are established and nurtured.

Like every other industry and profession, there are “tricks of the trade” you need to know in order to make your efforts pay off.

It cost money to learn and apply these secrets. Many PR firms charge $10,000 to $30,000 a month to play the PR game for you, but a good PR Coach (who will help you play the game yourself) shouldn’t be more than $1,500 to $3,500 a month (including writing a monthly release or two!).

# # #

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“HOT-DOGS”

Belong On Buns

Maybe it’s a friend or relative. Someone who tries too hard to be something she or he is not. A show-off, showboat, hot dog. You like the person, but tire of the boasts, antics, and pretenses. Maybe a Post-it note on his or her monitor with this page URL? You know the type. A small business that represents itself as “full-service,” or a guy (who just walked by) who wants to look like a girl.

Monster corporations, it seems, have caught themselves up in the transgender craze, pretending (not unlike the federal government) to be small business experts (you know which ones). Being “small business experts” simply means they want small business owners’ money. They haven’t even a lick of an idea  about how to run or grow a small business. They’re hot dogs!

How many website designers claim to be marketing experts? How many marketing experts are self-anointed copywriters? Optometrists (eyeglass lens and frame specialists) who pretend to be eye surgeons — ophthalmologists — who are medical doctors? How about chiropractors (trying to be specially-trained orthopedic surgeons) who claim to be “sports physicians”? Hot dogs!

Oh, right, while on this subject, there is of course the all-time worst impostor: the dentist who says “Well, I can do that tooth extraction for you.” Uh, sorry, I think if I have to suffer through this event, I’d prefer an oral surgeon. No, this isn’t a disease limited to healthcare. Had any CPAs tell you they could handle your tax attorney chores for you? Or wannabe CPA bookkeepers? Hot dogs! 

“This showroom car is nice, but I wanted a forest green model, not a black one,” says the customer. “Hey Harry,” whispers the salesman behind the customer’s back, “turn on the forest green lights, quick!”   

Americans appear to have an insatiable appetite for getting ripped off. It’s true that green consciousness, quicker/easier access to information through hi-tech tools, and a continuously miserable economy with no end in sight have fed us all bigger portions of more value-careful, more fully-informed, more dollar-conscious consumerism purchasing decision making . . . but nowhere near enough! 

And so there still are legions of businesses out there masquerading as bigger and better than they really are. And professional services are on top of the phony baloney heap! SAVE IT FOR HALLOWEEN! It really doesn’t matter what you’re selling (and EVERY one is selling SOME thing!):

Credibility is king!

Credibility comes from reputation.

Reputation is built on authenticity.

“Hot dogs” belong in buns, not in the office on on

the work site, except maybe at lunch, with mustard.

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

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

“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!

“Even though

we ain’t got money,

I’m so in love

with you, Honey…”

WHAT MUSIC IS YOUR BUSINESS?

Is your business: Classic Rock, Smooth Jazz, Hip-Hop, Easy Listening, Country, Operatic, Heavy Metal, Rhythm and Blues, Punk, Big Band, Classical, March, Reggae, Folk, Broadway, Acid Rock, Acoustic, Ballroom, Boogie-Woogie, Choral, Dixieland, Doo-Wop, Grunge, Latin, Spiritual, Scat, Gospel, Honky-Tonk, Salsa, Soul, Pop, Rap, Bluegrass, Calypso, Fusion, Disco . . . or what?

Not sure? Ask around. See what employees say. Suppliers? Customers? Your family? You might be surprised at the answers you get.

Once you narrow down your field of sounds, ask yourself if you really want your business associated with McCartney’s “Money Machine” or Jimmy Buffet’s “Wastin’ Away Again In Margaritaville” . . . or whatever image seems to rise to the surface.

People are much more

                                  

receptive to abstract

                                   

questions than serious

                                

ones, and their answers

                                

are likely to be truer.

The value of this exercise is that people are much more receptive to abstract questions than serious ones, and their answers are likely to be truer. In the end, if you’re intent on making your business succeed, or continuing to succeed, then you need also to be alert to the values of taking ongoing inventory of the impressions people have of what you do. Remember it changes.

Like everything else, the only permanency in business and life is change. Perspectives change daily (hourly in many cases) and the entrepreneurs who are most successful are those who constantly keep tabs on the impressions others have of their business enterprises . . . and make adjustments accordingly.

Business is, after all, about serving the customer. When your market perceives (correctly or not) that what your business has to offer no longer satisfies the benefits your customers seek, it doesn’t matter what you think. It matters only how you adjust to provide what’s being sought. It doesn’t matter how great your music is, it’s whether it’s appropriate or not. Is it in sync with your customers?

Baseball’s greatest hitters are those who continuously (in the middle of the game and even, and especially, in the middle of an at-bat) adjust their attitudes, stance, and plans they bring with them to the plate as they see how the pitcher they face is faring. The world’s greatest entrepreneurs have the same kind of track-record and approach. They are continually assessing the market, and their role.

If you are playing rock and roll in your head and your business is playing elevator music, it’s like swinging for a fastball and getting a change up — you are way out in front. And you’re undoubtedly feeling frustrated at every turn with your organization’s snail pace. If you are trying to dance the waltz to a limbo, you are bound to trip yourself up.

So get out your old kazoo and hum your way back into reality. Start checking other peoples’ perspectives about something that has to do with your business as a matter of daily routine. It’s the only way to keep on top of the reason you’re in business in the first place . . . and that ain’t to be singin’ no lullabies (unless of course you’re in the baby products business!)

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] 

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