Follow, deliver, be urgent

and reckless

hardly sounds like a

success formula, but 

. . . NOTHING in business is more telling about the character and integrity of an individual or organization than the honoring (or not) of commitments.

1. Consistent follow-through and follow-up

2. Delivery of what’s promised when it’s promised

3. An all-pervasive sense of urgency, and 

4. The reckless pursuit of customer delight

. . . are the marks of true business leadership.

Underpinning those magical business attitudes are respect for others, and a mission to maintain quality and value at every turn.

Besides –that all by themselves– those qualities make for explosively productive marketing and branding programs, regardless of the nature of the business or the goods or services offered.

Humans buy benefits first, attitude of the provider or supplier second, and product or service features a distant third.

Who knew? Not most business owners (who continually insist on marketing features first, and who routinely dismiss attitude issues as ones that impact the bottom line, and that they have little or no control over).

In fact, benefits and attitude offered are the engines that drive the bottom line. They are also largely a matter of choice. Attitude is 100% choice. If product or service benefits are limited, it’s because someone at some point didn’t recognize or flex that 100% choice muscle in the process or decision making about what to offer customers. But choosing a corrected attitude can upgrade the benefits.   

The only problem is that I can just barely think of slightly more than a handful of businesses in my lifetime that actually deliver consistent follow-through and follow-up, delivery of what’s promised when it’s promised, an all-pervasive sense of urgency, and the reckless pursuit of customer delight.

You?

What happens when you put these four yardsticks up against the ways you think and the ways your organization is doing business right now? How do you and your business measure up?

Are your weakest-link areas ones you can correct/adjust/improve or boost on your own, or will you do better to enlist outside help? How big of an issue are the expenses associated with getting expert input? What’s your opportunity loss?

You could well be, for example, losing more dollars worth of business opportunities right now because your and your business’s emphasis are on the least productive points (like marketing features?) which could easily be costing you more than to bring in a professional specialist who can help you stop the trickle before it becomes a flood.

If you go this direction, be careful about who you choose to step in. Make sure that that team or group or individual exemplifies the four points identified above. Yes, there are plenty of earnest and capable individuals (especially) out there who can deliver the results you seek. Do due diligence. Ask for references and ask references for references. Use your gut instincts.

~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

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!

P A Y     N O W !

F o o l e d   y o u,  h u h ?

(You thought maybe the two words were: %@~&  *#^! ?)

Well, consider this: The last thing small or medium-size professional practice or business owners or managers want, is a surprise!

Nobody wants a management or staffing surprise. Nor an operational or equipment surprise.  And –in my lifetime, and discounting the futile pursuit of a winning lottery ticket– I’ve never met or even ever heard of anyone in search of a financial surprise! 

News Flash . . .

Unexpected, unplanned-for immediate

payment is due on the spot!  “PAY NOW!” . . . OW!  

Unfortunately, with many (normally till-dipping) hands being forced by sputtering national and global economic crises, financial surprises have become all too common going forward from 2008.

The kinds of trigger fingers that pull off high-pressure instant payment demands are big-time stress creators. 

Listen,” he says into the phone, “your 4pm Friday order requested RUSH delivery; it’s 8am Saturday; if you can’t get here to open your business and pay the $742.37 due, I have no choice but to ship it back and you’ll get it in a week or two!” (AAaaack!) 

                                      

I’m sorry no one told you that the minute you sign this, like you just did, you are guaranteeing immediate cash payment of $27,000.

If you can’t come up with that amount by the end of the day, a warrant will be served requiring payment in full in ten days plus $5,000 in interest, late fees, and attorney costs.

So what’s it gonna be? 27 now or 32 big ones a week from Thursday?” (AAaaack!) 

                                             

The good news is that you have no outstanding delinquencies.

The bad news is that you have only until Friday to produce $38,579.46 in back taxes for the IRS Agents who called to say they’ll be here at 9am sharp.

No, the accountant didn’t know that the prior accountant had been withholding the withholding . . .” (AAaaack!)

                                      

Are you getting ulcers just from reading these? Okay, well, maybe at least a little lump in your throat?

How do you think YOUR customers, clients and patients feel about YOUR collection tactics? Are you leaving them breathing room? Have your policies stretched enough to accommodate today’s hard times?

Are you taking full advantage of the opportunities to strengthen your reputation for being a high-trust, integrity-based, good citizen business by helping out those who’ve been loyal patrons?

People who were there for you when you needed customers, who have returned time and again, who have referred others, who treat you and your staff like members of their community. (To borrow an old slogan from the world’s leading experts in product and service consistency and change just one word: THEY deserve a break today!)

You “OWE” it to them? Absolutely.

And when you SHOW it to them, sit back and enjoy the magic carpet ride it puts you on! Your business will fly over the competition and never slow down because everyone appreciates a business that proves its appreciation for the business it gets!

No need to give the store away. Simply do what you can to make it easier for your customers, clients and patients to pay for the goods and services they purchase from you. . . the same way you’d like suppliers and vendors to treat you.

We all need to lean a bit on one another these days, and surprise financial demands and pronouncements serve only to short-circuit those opportunities to cultivate and build a loyal following on human values.

Dignity and respect and helping others go the extra mile accomplishes more than shouts, pouts, threats, and late charges. Idealistic and naive? No, realistic and experienced.  

~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

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!

Here you are, set to your own music, on a blog platter:

THE GREAT

SPUNK & GUMPTION

RECOVERY INITIATIVE

Looking back into this site’s archives, I ran across a couple of posts I wrote titled, “What Sport Is Your Business?“ and “What’s Your T-Shirt Say?” Both are still timely and both are worthy of your quick review — if you actually get through this post!

An hour later (after looking back on those earlier posts), I found myself sitting in a parking lot playing with my new satellite car radio, and noticed a string of song titles that seemed to accurately (and often humorously) describe many past, present, and future business situations.

Here’s a sampler to kick your brain into gear enough for you to come up with your own songs that best represent your past, present, and future business (and yes, believe it or not, all of these were once big hits!):

• Spooky

• Those Were The Days

• These Are The Days

• Let It Snow

• Let It Rock

• Let The Sunshine In

• Just A Dream

• Dreams

• Dreamin’

• Trouble

• Rescue Me

• Slow ‘n Easy

• Thin Air

• Over My Head

• Sailin’

• Step Right Up

• Animal Rights

• Comin’ Under Fire

• Up Against The Wall

• Gone

• It’s A Grand Night For Singing

• Bad Luck

• Hey Hey Hey

     . . . Add your own here:___________

Good job! Next, let’s start to explore if where your business is right now is where you want it to be. How did it get to this point? When you started it or picked it up or inherited it, did you infuse piles of energy and time and money into it? Are you still doing that? If you stopped somewhere along the way, when? Where? How?

Are you still “stopped”? (or pretending not to be, even though you know you are?) 

HOW are you choosing to stay there— stagnant, dormant, status quo? (In other words, what specific steps have you chosen to take, or are continuing to take every day, that have left your competitors little choice but to pass you by? What are you willing to do about that right NOW? What CAN you do right NOW?)

Where’s that spunk and gumption

that you started with?

It doesn’t take a fat bank account or 20-hour workdays or “breakthrough technology” to be able to pick up most businesses that have grown lethargic or have quietly given in to our stress-breeding economy in order to turn things around and/or get re-focused.

It takes acceptance of where things are, determination to get things moving again, recognition that it’s all a matter of choice and leadership (employee leadership, industry and market leadership, customer service and community leadership), and re-ignition of that burning desire to succeed to make it all work.

Can you? Of course you can. You got this far didn’t you? You’re reading this blog post, aren’t you? You want to, don’t you? Then, do it! Stop listening to negative, woe-is-me songs in your head (and on the radio!), and replace them with positive, upbeat tunes.

HOW?

Just CHOOSE to change the channel!

Disney wasn’t far off base when he had

The Seven Dwarfs sing “Whistle While You Work!” 

~~~~~~~~~

302.933.0116   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!

Robbing Peter to pay Paul is

not a long-term survival policy!

And here we have the government, forcibly seeking control and injecting its uninformed, inexperienced naivete into private industries.

Here we have federal “leadership” essentially robbing businesses that should instead be receiving tax incentive support to bail out the government’s reckless spending sprees that have accomplished literally nothing except pile up additional deficit burdens.

Once again (or more accurately, “still”), SMEs (Small and Medium size Enterprises) stand quivering on the cusp of business-survival-threatening, ill-conceived, politically-motivated federal healthcare legislation.

This impending healthcare doom affords business owners and managers one of the greatest opportunities for self-destruct since before the Industrial Revolution. But before you jump from the roof, consider how to avoid last-minute meltdowns.

BESIDES the fact that major Medicare funding will be redirected to Medicaid coffers because . . .

(it has been strongly suggested — but not dared to be openly acknowledged — that “Medicare recipients are mostly seniors who will die anyway”)  

. . . the bulk of the program will be supported by contributions from businesses, which will be forced to provide coverage for those who don’t earn it! 

A seven-year-old recently confided that “it doesn’t sound like there’s much care in the healthcare thing!”

Well, there’s most certainly not any “care” for the world of small and medium-size business. Let’s remember, and not incidentally, that entrepreneurial venture job creation is repeatedly pushed to the forefront of economist agendas as the most important key to economic recovery. So why the government’s deaf ear? Politics.

Tax and spend, and more government control, apparently beats life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

So what’s a small business owner to do?

• First, fight back! Work with other businesses and local organizations to promote the need for government to support meaningful job creation tax incentives for small business.
• Do everything you can to influence government representatives to repeal the mandated national healthcare plan and to override any veto of that repeal. Support free-market competition healthcare. It’s the only way to choose your own physician and treatment plan. It’s the only way to keep talented physicians working as physicians.

(A 5-star heart surgeon I know is considering being a horse trainer because he can no longer afford skyrocketing malpractice premiums!)

You need a consequence?  You will pay for it

 many times over in the coming years! 

It offers you no benefits.  Is that enough?

• Second, do NOT rob Peter to pay Paul. Just because Washington is trying to get you to think that way, it is not healthy business. It’s like taking loans to pay back loans.
• You are playing with fire if you decide, for example, to ante up the no-chance-of-winning healthcare dollars you don’t have by cutting back, for example, on your marketing budget. Marketing is (or should be if it’s not) a bottom line accountable expense.

Marketing is your only chance to drive the business in the front door that the government is pickpocketing the revenues of from you and taking out the back door. At this point, economic survival is all about cash flow. Bring it in faster than it goes out!

If you’re forced to cut, take your scalpel elsewhere! Simple, huh?      

~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

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!

 Merger, Acquisition,

Bankruptcy…

Loan, Record Sales,

Relocation, Fire,

Flood, Robbery, 

Management/Staffing

Overhaul… New Product,

Service or Market…

Bad Press, Economy, Stress.

How rare it is that small and medium size enterprise owners and managers have the foresight to reorganize their operations proactively. What’s that childhood message we get? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”? Well, that little rule of thumb might have been a truism when we were kids, but –in case you haven’t noticed lately– the world has changed, and so has business.

The strongholds of entrepreneurial leadership ushered in by today’s technology have actually helped to bring about business and market transformation by practicing the exact opposite credo from what many of us grew up with. Today, entire companies are devoted to the idea that “If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway!”  

And so, for the most part, in entrepreneurial ranks today, it’s the young who are the brave, who take reasonable risks — and who stand alone as representing the only real prospects for reversing our still desperately sinking economy.

But before you go rushing off to do this new jobs stuff, and leaping blindly into some expansion plan that relies on what you are NOT an expert at, remember to“stick to your knitting!”   

Only new and revitalized small entrepreneurial ventures have successfully stood the test of time as the single most monumentally significant source of new job creation.

It is this place alone that the government needs to focus some genuine (more than SBA tokenism) tax incentives to create and grow jobs.

• FACT: Giant corporations, such as those that received bailout tax dollars, do not create jobs. They have never been a key source for job creation.

• FACT: New government jobs are not within the legitimate realm of job creation measurement because they are inevitably “favor” jobs that serve little if any purpose, and are –second– paid for with tax dollars, which simply increases the deficit! 

So, what’s one way for an SME management team to deliver a meaningful counterattack on the purveyors of our faltering economy?  

Don’t wait for a major event to trigger reorganizational activity.

The rule here remains to always think first and act second or “Measure twice, cut once!” 

Oh, right, and choosing some action is almost always better than choosing no action.

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

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

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!

Retail settings make it easy to

cherry-pick examples . . . but

the dynamics are the same in

every business and profession.

This really happened less than 24 hours ago

in a well-known U.S. resort town:

Checker at major-name crafts store cash register rings up $9.99 for a roll of artist’s tape (similar to masking tape, but pulls apart easier and leaves no surface marks (even on paper or cardboard) when it’s removed.

Customer: “Excuse me, but that price should be $6.99. It says $6.99 on the shelf.”

Checker: “Sorry, it’s $9.99!” (She takes the twenty-dollar bill on the counter, puts it in the register, slaps down a ten-dollar bill and a penny, throws the tape in a bag and quickly moves to start ringing up the next customer.)

Customer (to the checker): “Listen, I just told you that the price sign says that this tape is $6.99, not $9.99 and I want my $3 back. On top of everything else, even $6.99 is a rip-off, and if I didn’t need it now, I’d never pay that price, let alone $9.99. If it’s $9.99, why does it say $6.99 on the shelf?” (The checker nods and turns back to wait on the next customer)

Customer (now becoming annoyed and louder): “Excuse me, but I just told you that I want my $3 back, and all you can do is nod at me? Please call the store manager.”

Checker: “You’ll have to wait, Sir; I’ve started the next customer here!”

Customer: “Listen to me: Call the store manager NOW!”

Checker (on loudspeaker system): “Manager to register six!” (three minutes later, the manager shows up)

Manager (to checker): “What’s up?”

Checker (pointing with her thumb): “He says this tape is $6.99, but it’s $9.99 on the scanner!”

Customer (interrupting their exchange): “You’re the manager?” (Manager nods) “I picked this tape off the shelf and the shelf had a sign on it that the price is $6.99. Now your checker who, besides being rude, took my money and charged me $9.99. If this tape is $9.99, then your sign is wrong and I don’t want it for $9.99. Either I pay what the sign says or I want my money back.”

Manager: “Gimme the tape; I’ll go check it out!” (Then to checker: “I’ll be right back, but don’t ring anybody else up ’til we get this straight!” The line of now disgruntled customers grows and no one is around to handle the other registers. The checker hums, stares out the front window, and drums her fingers on the register. The manager walks to the shelf in question, which is all the way to the back of the store, and returns four minutes later to a huffing-puffing crowd of customers waiting not so patiently in line.)

Manager (speaking only to the checker): “He’s wrong! The price is $9.99 the way you had it!”

Customer: “Excuse me! First of all, would you please speak with meand not the checker? I am starting to get very annoyed here. The sign back there said $6.99 not $9.99 and I either want this tape for $6.99 or my money back. If I can’t get either, you can be sure of having a major problem for false advertising.”

Manager: “Sir, the tape you purchased is $9.99. It, and a few others, must have been put on the $6.99 shelf by mistake. There are $6.99 tapes back there.”

Customer: Great! I’ll go get one of those. I suggest you not hold up this line any longer.”

Manager: “Sir, that’s our decision, and we’ll wait for you to get back here.

Checker (after customer returns with a $6.99 tape): “We have to start this all over again, so give me back the $10.01 and I’ll give you back your $20 and then I’ll have to get the manager back here to approve the initial over-ring before…”

Customer (turning to walk out): “Screw it!”

Funny? Maybe if you’re reading it. Not funny if you’re the customer, or someone who’s waiting in line. Not only should the checker be fired on the spot, or at least put on probation, the manager needs a “straighten up and fly right!” warning (and both obviously need training). Every customer is always right all of the time, no exceptions, ever!

You own a business, and don’t agree? Bite the bullet and move on, or sell the business. By ALWAYS following the customer is right guideline ALL of the time, you will lose something sometimes, but the reputation you gain will more than compensate for the losses. People do business with businesses that consistently demonstrate respect and authenticity, that do what they say they will do.  

Surely, you know what SHOULD have happened in the incident described. Of course the checker and the manager were both at fault, but what could they have done differently? What would you have had them do? How would you have fixed the problem? How would you prevent it from happening again? Is YOUR business the next example?

Every dissatisfied customer tells ten other people about his or her bad experience, and each of those ten tell ten others. Can you afford 100 negative impressions? (And of course each of those hundred tell…)

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

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

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!

 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!

PULLING TEETH!

BANGING HEADS!

LOCKING HORNS!

Find yourself doing much of that lately?

Maybe it’s the economy?

When times are tight, people get tight.

When people get tight, they can get worried.

When people worry, they can become defensive, aggressive, manipulative, territorial, and often, job-threatened.

Reaching agreement becomes increasingly challenging, and sometimes it feels close to impossible. It can be especially problematic when working with volunteer groups. http://bit.ly/bLAB9s

When your business or key issues come to a grinding halt, you can:

1. Draw Straws
2. Flip a Coin
3. Go Bonkers
4. Call in the Police

5. Work it Out (Recommended)

Working it out, for two people –as those who are married, engaged, courting, living together, or partnered know all too well– means that someone must give up something.

Working it out for three or more might also mean giving stuff up, but more likely –if it’s to be any kind of meaningful reconciliation of divergent thinking– some type of collaborative compromising of interests is generally desirable.

Reaching consensus involves a synergistic process. It means that everyone within the group (team, task force, department, division, company) must agree at least somewhat with the resolve or conclusion or direction reached. Note “somewhat.”

Consensus-seeking can be a very effective leadership/teamwork method of problem solving because it inherently prevents any one person from “winning” a “competition.” Everyone involved must be able to agree that she or he can live with the way things are worked out.

http://bit.ly/c1DUbg

As a device for settling disputes, consensus-seeking flies in the face of traditional American brainwashing to win at all costs. It is (sorry, football fans) not the case that there always needs to be a winner and loser, and that there is no such thing as second place.

For those deep, dark, impulsive, no-constraints,

take-off-the-gloves moments,

go for a referee or umpire.

(You can also always call your Mother-in-law!<) 

For issues that will impact working (or living) together, consensus-seeking leaves all involved parties with some worthy scraps to cling to, allows everyone to save face, and usually prompts a process or procedure or product or production (ah, communicative benefits of alliteration!) to occur that is both measurable and accountable. Because it’s a group-effort pursuit! 

As leader/facilitator, Pfeiffer and Jones suggest in the University Associates Structured Experiences for Human Relations Training, you need to establish consensus-seeking “rules” to help ensure productive results by employing the following guidelines: 

• No averaging,
• No “majority rule” voting.
• No “horse-trading.” 

                            http://bit.ly/bmoP3Z                                       

You need to influence group members to avoid arguing in order to “win” as an individual. Seek instead the best collective judgment of the group as a whole. Conflict on ideas, solutions, predictions, etc. should be viewed as helping rather than hindering the process.

Problems are best solved when individual group members accept responsibility for both hearing and being heard. Tension-reducing behaviors can be useful as long as meaningful conflict is not “smoothed over” prematurely.

The best results flow from a fusion of information, logic, and emotion (feelings). Need a little coaching help? Call me.

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

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

and God Bless all of our U.S. Troops and Veterans.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

If your marketing has gone 

online-exclusive, your business

 may very well fold in 24-36 months!

Ah, but there’s still a chance to save yourself from killing yourself.

• FIRST: Get rid of the person who talked you into putting all your marketing eggs in one Internet basket. Even if it’s family, begone with him or her . . . as well as his or her ideas, which are costing you money, wasting your time, and depleting your energy!
• SECOND: Recognize that, in spite of whatever sales spiel you were fed by that person (or agency or group or team) that you listened to, the whole world –and your target market specifically (unless it’s 110% techie products or services)– has not (N~O~T) stopped reading newspapers, magazines, and direct mail!
• THIRD: The whole world –and your target market specifically– has not (N~O~T) stopped watching TV and listening to radio, or shut their eyes down while passing billboards. They have not stopped reading brochures, or responding to special sales and promotions, news releases, and coupons. They have not even (Aaargh!) stopped responding to telemarketing.

If you think for one minute that your entire universe of customers and prospects is maniacally text-messaging and spending every living moment on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, you are sorely mistaken.  

And anyone who might have bamboozled you into thinking those things is much too short-sighted (and evidently too immature) to take responsibility for moving your business forward.

DO NOT abandon traditional marketing and think that it will be compensated for by a full-commitment plunge into online vehicles and media efforts.

Your website is important. Depending on the nature of your business, your engagement with social media is important. But anyone with even a little marketing savvy and training knows that these are simply ingredients in the total mix.

If you are not using every possible, affordable opportunity to market your business right now, you might as well open your window and throw the money out that you have been spending!

(Ah, and don’t pretend that online stuff is free . . . dig out that old magnifying glass and start discovering those hidden expenses! Prepare to be surprised!)

While most small and medium size businesses appear to have engaged so-called “Web Editors” or “Community Managers” or “Digital Marketing Managers,” fewer than 30% are reported to have a “Marketing Manager.”

Sadly for those misinformed business owners who dominate the 70%, these numbers should be the exact opposite!

Those who pretend to be business experts because they have some computer expertise will be the downfall of many well-intentioned but pathetically uninformed business owners.

“Web” and “Digital” people tend to know nothing of (and care less about) traditional marketing media, and so automatically discard traditional marketing management approaches they think are limited, but which are not!

                                                                                            

Even the teeny-bopper market that most uses handheld electronic devices (and most text messages one another), continues to watch TV and go ton the movies and visit arcades and read magazines and newspapers and attend sporting events and concerts, and open mail addressed to them.

It may appear to be all about hi-tech and emails and the like, but –even this market– indulges in traditional media. How can you confirm this? Run some quick and cheap focus group studies.

But, oh, your “Web Editor” might not know about how to do a focus group study because that requires traditional marketing experience. Okay, focus group some txtmsgs and see what you get!

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

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

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!

Location Matters Most

to Doctors, Lawyers,

Retailers and Realtors!

Doctors want to be near the hospital or part of a medical complex, or healthcare campus because it’s good for their egos and reputations, professional camaraderie, and convenience in playing the referral game.

Lawyers want to be near the courthouse and close enough to other lawyers to spy on their practices in walking-distance coffee shops and upscale bar-restaurant gathering spots.

Realtors spout out:

“Location. Location. Location.”

(Yes, in three’s in case you missed the 1st or 2nd part of the mantra)

Why? It’s a nifty little subconscious control device for up-selling prospects on preferred (more expensive) commercial properties. Location emphasis also serves to set the stage for a realtor to paint a prettier picture, justify a bigger-than-planned-for client investment.

Actually, retailers (and certainly not all) are typically the only businesses that truly benefit by intensive location deliberations most of the time.

Online and home-based businesses, or manufacturing and distribution entities (that don’t require centralized supply route locales), most service industry ventures (that may need only to be within reasonable travel distance of prospects), can often function anywhere.

In fact, there’s a certain appealing ambiance and character associated with many off-the-beaten-track businesses. Maybe, since you’re an entrepreneurial thinker, you’re one of them?

I’m talking about out-of-the-mainstream locations in dinky little hamlets where you’d never even think of a security system, or trashy chain-link-fence-enclosed back alleys with double-bolted doors.

Maybe your business is holed up in the mountains of New Hampshire, a warehouse in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, the cornfields of Waterloo, Iowa, a tied-up rented barge in San Diego, a kitchen table in Dallas, or a dilapidated garage in the slums of Memphis.

But regardless of your location, there’s a self-satisfying feeling that the physical space where you do business is your place, and that you make it work.

If these kinds of places even come anywhere near close to your reality (and you’re still somehow managing to survive our catastrophic economy with still rising gas prices and still rising unemployment and a brutally expensive and unwanted healthcare program blocking  business progress), imagine the added burden of some hot-shot commercial realtor’s idea of a prime location you cannot do without.

Who needs the high-rise penthouse office space in mid-town Manhattan or the end unit of that corporate park overlooking the Chesapeake, the New England oceanfront office condo, or those slope-terraced deals with windows facing the Golden Gate Bridge?

Really? Yes, it might be a nice change, but that barn of yours, across two cow pastures, next to the henhouse, works just fine, makes sense, and saves money. Besides, it leaves you still qualifying as a prospect for Extreme Makeover! Hey, y’never know!

Home is where the heart is,

but so too is the office or workspace

of every entrepreneur.

Until this economy turns around (which may yet be another two years), reconsider relocation. Stay where you are. Stick to what you know best and most enjoy doing. Don’t worry about appearances. 

Don’t let outsiders influence you to think you need a bigger, better, more fancy-pants location. It’s not where you work that matters. It’s the passion and purpose you put into what you do each day.   

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

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

and God Bless all of our U.S. Troops and Veterans.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!