“Opportunityville” . . .

every entrepreneur’s weekend! 

     Prowling America’s corporate halls on Fridays still produces an eerie aura of management abandonment and employee lethargy.  Given that weekends in this country now seem to start on Thursdays, the fact is that Fridays have become a sharp thorn in the side (poke in the eye?) to 9-5’ers who can’t sprint from their offices to their weekend festivities fast enough! 

     “HA!” you exclaim, “Good riddence to bad garbage!” you rudely proclaim.  Why?  Because YOU are an entrepreneur! 

     You started, or are in the process of starting (or probably both), your own business and you are TGIFing all over the place because now (FRIDAY!) starts the best time of the week to get some productive work done. 

     For the first time since last Sunday night, you have wrangled your way through 50 or 60 hours of sweat equity without financial disaster or customer base collapse, and have now earned the blessed arrival of 5pm Friday when –like living a dream– you can finally work for two whole days more with no interruptions. 

     It’s time to followup, catchup and plan (sounds like a law firm!).  Weekends, to you, are Opportunityville! 

     At last there’s no one around to bother you.  It’s your chance to think through how you’re going to shoot your business out of the cannon Monday morning . . . or how you’re going to open your 27th business while you keep juggling businesses 21 through 26.  (1-20 are either running on their own or –more likely– folded or sold or squandered or lost, but big-time learned from). 

     That’s okay.  It is, you know, what entrepreneurs do best is learn from their mistakes, get up and dust themselves off, and plunge back into things from a different direction. 

     Imagine what a solid strong economy we’d have today if corporate and government executives who are floundering around in their vast sea of incompetency could do what entrepreneurs do! 

     But asking them to learn is really asking too much.  It would after all fly in the face of their instincts to believe that they need only repeat what failed, again and again, until it eventually succeeds, which of course it doesn’t. 

     If you just clicked on this post and are reading this because you were perhaps thinking about igniting those deep-seated entrepreneurial fuses that you think you have because you had a lemonade stand as a kid, and you were thinking that this whole life pursuit direction seems glamourous, think again.

     Being an entrepreneur means being committed.  It means your business will be your spouse.  It means you may be living for your business more than your family.  Always?  No, but neither does it always rain (unless you’re in Ireland, where you carry your raincoat as often as your wallet!). 

     As an entrepreneur, you must be prepared to think, then act (vs. corporate tendencies to think, then think, and think again) every day . . . and especially on weekends! 

     TGFE = Thank God For Entrepreneurs!  Without them, we’d have zero jobs and no economy whatsoever!  Now, if we could just get government decision makers to make some decisions that assist small business in creating real and meaningful job growth . . .   halalpiar         

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The secret of college is

in learning how to learn.

Make your kids work to earn at least part of their college education.  Even if you can afford it, don’t give them free college, especially business majors!  They won’t appreciate it, and no matter how great their grades may end up because they are unencumbered from having to work, the odds are they will fail in business.  Disagree?  Read on.

First of all, this advice is coming to you from a former two-time business professor-of-the-year and student work internship program director who is also an entrepreneur (having helped start hundreds of successful new businesses) on top of solid Fortune 500 corporate experience.

At some point your college-bound son(s) and/or daughter(s) will have to face the reality of the need to gain real-world work experience.  Sooner is better than later.  And, in fact, it’s been my experience that those who hold jobs while attending college tend to be universally better performers both in class and on the job.  

Most college and university internship or cooperative education programs produce vastly superior students AND better workplace candidates.  Why?  Because nothing in any business textbook or computer program can come close to the value of hands-on experience gained on a factory floor, a retail store, a business or professional practice office, a showroom, studio, warehouse, or any form of sales.

Be aware that in today’s and the foreseeable future’s business climate (unless a college graduate is headed toward a career in law or medicine or allied medical sciences), college grades matter to absolutely no one except maybe the students and maybe the parents.

Recruiters and hiring interviews are more focused today on candidate answers to open-end questions.  How someone handles herself/himself on his or her feet (and has shown the ability to apply on-the-job experience to the classroom and vice versa) is light years more important than what an individual memorized in a management course, or than reiterating what is already on the person’s resume.

The truth is most business employers prefer an ambitious 2.5 GPA graduate with good communication and social skills who worked his or her way through college in a sales or office or manufacturing position, than a 4.0 GPA graduate with zero real-world work experience, who mumbles, shakes hands like a fish, and can’t look you straight in the eye.  That shouldn’t be surprising.  Wouldn’t that be your preference too?          

Sorry to burst bubbles here, but the secret of college is not being able to ace tests in accounting, finance, management, marketings, sales, advertising, economics, retailing, promoting, packaging and pricing, public relations, Internet business, etc. 

At least two truisms support this platform: 1) There are no rules in business.  Business moves forward by experience and innovation, not formulas, 2) The secret of college is in learning how to learn.  Subjective teacher ratings are far less important than having learned how to learn.

If you’re sending your kids off to college to learn business, let them prove to themselves that they can earn business learning by working while they learn.  The ROI is better for all involved.  

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HOW  THEY DO IT . . .

“Necessity is

the mother of invention.” 

—PLATO (Between 427BC and 347BC)

This quote drives every entrepreneur, scientific explorer and creative mind on Earth.  It of course holds true as well for military and quasi-military operations, cornered criminals and animals, and most homeless and foodless victims in society.

TODAY, the notion of necessity prompting inventiveness has great significance as a universal entrepreneurial hedge against economic downturn.  Businesses that will survive the existing economic traumas are those that can throw off the cloak of dismay and depression, shake themselves off, and charge forward with positive attitudes that are hell-bent on making the most of every opportunity.

WORKING TOGETHER with other businesses is a major step in that direction.  Networking with others to Barter goods and services should be a first and foremost thought for guiding daily travels. 

SHARING REFERRALS, common space, facilities, equipment, vehicles, furnishings, personnel, training, purchases and purchase discounts, databases, charity leadership roles, advertising, promotion, news release and blog site development and writing, website and online network development and content, are just some of the areas to consider negotiating.

LOOK TO BUSINESSES that are compatible and supportive to yours, or that your business serves.  Check out possible cooperative arrangements with businesses on the same floor, or in the same building, ir same cluster of buildings, or same neighborhood or town, or in the same industry, or that share some common characteristics (online retail as one example, or professional services as another).

TAKE ADVANTAGE of the opportunities to make and save money by working together.  Even competitive businesses can sometimes do this more effectively than standing defiantly alone.  Consider geographical clusterings of antique stores, for instance. 

CONSIDER New York City’s diamond and fashion districts!  Their competition alone in shared physical space/areas serves to boost business for all by bringing customers to centralized, more convenient and more price and quality sensitive shopping areas. 

CAN YOU EXCHANGE SALES LEADS?  Have you considered combining insurance coverage and benefit plans with another business?  Can the neighboring business receptionist do phone or clerical work for you during slow periods (instead of reading paperbacks?)?  Can you combine advertising time and space purchases to qualify for bigger discounts?  Maintenance services?  Supplies?  Conference rooms?

THE SHARED RESOURCES popularized by the old new business “Incubator” and “Conglomerate” concepts still work.  The only problem in realizing true economies of scale and values of barter may be YOU.  If you start with the attitude that it won’t work, it won’t. 

IF YOU START out discounting the ideas, they’ll never be more than ideas.  If you initiate discussions with others, you might surprise yourself with new-found sales and savings that could help you rise above the economic rubble. 

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Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Asking “Why?” Breeds Excuses!

“Ours is not to reason why.

  Ours is but to do or die!”

(source unknown, but help me out please if you know it)

     What makes this such a powerful one-two-punch thought is that it is based on the fact that anytime we ask “Why?” we are setting ourselves up for inaction.  We are investing ourselves in maintaining the status quo.  We are committing ourselves to going nowhere. We are on the road to over-analyzing!

     How is that possible?  Scientists are always asking “Why?” things do what they do, or “Why?” things are the way that they are, and their analytical pursuits end up helping all of us . . . hardly the stuff of status quo!  And what about accountants and history teachers?  They earn their livings by questioning “Why?”  And doctors need to check medical histories in order to . . .

Nope! 

Asking “Why?” Breeds Excuses! 

Period.  

     Imagine the range of answers to the question, “WHY were you late to work?”  Are any of those answers NOT a “reason” or “excuse”?  Now imagine the answers to instead asking, “By the end of the day, can you please give me–in writing– three ways that explain HOW you will prevent yourself from being late to work?” 

     Excuses (aka reasons)are responses we give out of laziness, ignorance, lack of self-discipline, lack of sense of reality, or when we seek to rationalize or explain something (like history teachers, archaeologists, sociologists, and accountants whose careers revolve around analyzing the past).

     Oh, and –by the way– the same do-nothing mindset infiltrates the entire vocation of self-proclaimed “SEO Specialists” and “Sales Conversion Specialists” who seem more often than not to simply be experts at smoke-and-mirroring you into a corner.  They LOVE when you ask “Why?”  Guess (ahem) “Why?”  They salivate at the thought of dragging unwitting non-geeks into their dark and mysterious corners of overkill analysis, and charging higher rates the darker it gets! 

     The bigger the organization asking, the more valuable the SEO and sales conversion answers pretend to be, and the results?  Well, the results in big-company cases are both more expensive to obtain AND more readily offered as justification for changes that should have been made on the fly, months or years ago without all the “Why?” questioning in the first place.

     In entrepreneurship training

and coaching, we call it

   “getting tangled up in your underwear.” 

(Not exactly a flattering image!)

     BUT it is this very point that in fact distinguishes entrepreneurs from the rest of the business world.  A genuine entrepreneur will not typically care about “Why” something is the way it is as much as taking trial and error steps immediately to do something about it.  True entrepreneurs believe in themselves!  “Don’t analyze the thing to death; you think too much!” you’ll often hear an entrepreneur say.

     An outstanding American business leader I knew in my second full time job always said that he didn’t ever want to hear problem-centered discussions about who did what to whom or when or why, that he was only interested in the solution, and that there was no better way to find the right solution than to try out what you believe to be right, and keep trying and acting on it over and over. 

     In retrospect, my guy must have been listening to Thomas Edison who disavowed public mockery of his 9,999 failed attempts to invent the lightbulb by simply explaining the attempts as 9,999 discoveries of ways that could be eliminated in his quest.      

     Passive minds do nothing.  Analytical minds exhaust themselves in circles of reasons, rationales, and excuses.  Active minds get things done. 

     Any entrepreneur will tell you that some action is always better than no action, and that the only way to move forward is to move, to act on gut instinct and limited knowledge . . . because, in the end:

Instinct and limited knowledge

     are all we ever have anyway.    

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Do You LOVE

What You Do

For A Living?

     If you do, you are a rarity!  [Maybe you could sell yourself on E-Bay?]  And if in fact you DO love what you do for a living, then you’re likely to also be exceptionally good at doing what you do.

     But (and be truthful with yourself here) if you really don’t love what you do (and endless studies indicate that this constitutes the vast majority), then the odds are overwhelmingly that you’re not particularly good at doing what you do.  Similarly endless studies also say that we perform best when we enjoy what we’re doing! 

     So, if that’s the case, and you’re just muddling your way through your job or career, and not making waves, in order to keep food on the table and tunes on your ipod, you need to do two things: 1) Keep your day job, and 2) Get off your butt and pursue work that you’ll enjoy doing. 

     FYI, 1) and 2) above are based on the fact widely known but little followed fact of life that it’s easier to find a job when you’re already employed than it is when you’re not.  

     Now, if you are one of those oddball types that is extraordinarily good at job performance for a job or career that you hate, you need to make sure you’re sitting before you read the rest of this. 

     In a chair?  Okay, here’s the scoop: There may be dozens (hundreds, even) of reasons that you are performing well at what you hate, but none of them changes the fact that you need to work yourself out from under. 

     Why?  Because every minute of every day, you (your mind, your emotions and your physical body) are experiencing negative stress decay.

     Negative stress takes its toll.  Eventually it finds it’s way into your overall mental, physical and emotional health and well-being.  You may altready be well on the way there.  But, don’t let that depress you.  Not doing anything about it is what’s depressing!

     Like having your lungs miraculously return to healthy pink just a short time after you stop smoking, your mind, emotions and physical health can likewise begin to recover and surge and thrive as soon as you start to change your over-stressed lifestyle! 

     Remember that this kind of lifestyle/behavioral change is your choice.  And you can choose to make it hard or easy.  If you make it easy, you can take it easy.  Happiness breeds productivity and self-worth.  Take a couple of deep breaths and do it, or pass this post along to someone you care about!

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ARE YOU BOARD-BORED?

     The most infamous collection of meeting-makers on Earth has to be “Boards.”  Consider how Board-Bored we must be.  We have Boards of Directors, Boards of Trustees, Boards of Advisors, School Boards, Medical Boards, Law Boards, Admissions Boards, Homeowner and Condo Boards,  Probation Boards, Boards of Overseers, Surf Boards, Snow Boards, Water Boarding (whoops! sorry) Editorial Boards, Boards of . . .  

     What’s the point?  If you’re Board-Bored, you are most certainly sick of meetings, right?  Right!  So, what can be done to make meetings better?  Here, following, for your Board-Bored pleasure: 

7 Steps To Making Meetings Work ©

Copyright 2009, Hal Alpiar 

HAL’S “MEETING STEP NUMBER ONE”: Use an agenda!  Circulate a draft of it a week in advance of a monthly meeting, a couple of days ahead of a weekly meeting, and 17 seconds before a daily meeting (If you’re meeting daily and you’re not in the White House, the Pentagon, or a police department, 17 seconds is enough time to pour some coffee and decide to find another job!) 

Ask for agenda input in time to add it and —before the meeting– post a clearly visible newsprint or whiteboard (YOW! another Board!) version of the agenda you can refer to, and check off as you go.  People will know where they are and where they’re going, minus the anxiety of potential surprises.

HAL’S “MEETING STEP NUMBER TWO”: Do NOT invite people to any meeting who are not actively involved in the decision making for the agenda points.  Meetings are not for training or parading egos.  If meetings do not end up producing results, stop having them!  Deal with those who need to attend for certain topics first and let them leave when those discussions end.

HAL’S “MEETING STEP NUMBER THREE”: STICK TO THE AGENDA!  When issues are raised that are not directly related to the agenda, thank the source and ask that she/he include the point on the next agenda for the next meeting, or –if there’s time left after the agenda is completed– to raise it again then, but that “this meeting is for this agenda.”

HAL’S “MEETING STEP NUMBER FOUR”: Always ADHERE TO THE EXACT TIMES SET for start and finish.  No exceptions ever.  If you do this twice in a row, no one will ever be late again, and everyone will stay on schedule for the day.  Also: resist the temptation to load the table up with snacks and beverages! Contrary to popular belief, donuts do not make for better decisions!

HAL’S “MEETING STEP NUMBER FIVE”: Emergencies aside, meetings work best when they are consistently set and conducted.  This means holding sessions at regular times (I recommend Monday mornings for weekly status review meetings as being 100% more productive than mid-week  which is too workflow-disruptive, or Fridays, when everyone’s thinking about their weekends.

HAL’S “MEETING STEP NUMBER SIX”: Include compliments and small rewards (a toy car, a game or puzzle, a banana – preferably something appropriate to the deed) at the end of every meeting!  

HAL’S “MEETING STEP NUMBER SEVEN”: Follow up each meeting PROMPTLY with a simple bullet list report of decisions made and who specifically is responsible for the next step by what date.  

     If all else fails and meetings still drag on into the sunset, have the chairs removed from the room and hold stand-up meetings!  It works wonders for getting things done quickly. 

     Remember too that MBWA (Management By Walking Around) is still the best way to minimize or eliminate meetings, get decisions made and motivate the troops at the same time.  People LIKE seeing the boss outside the conference room and out from behind the desk. 

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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!

Lost Your Marbles Lately? 

Probably the world’s greatest expert on the subject of death and dying was Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, whose definitive book, “ON DEATH AND DYING” has now become a true classic in the worlds of psychology, psychotherapy, social work, and caregiver counseling. 

     So what?  What does that have to do with your job, or the job of someone close to you going down the tubes?  A lot! 

     The dynamics that Kübler-Ross devoted her life to studying are the same for virtually ANY loss.

     So, the “5 Stages” of death and dying that she defined apply to loss of life, loss of limb or function, loss of possessions, loss of health, loss of friendship, loss of a spouse or parent or child, loss of a home, loss of money, loss of a pet, loss of business, and –yes– loss of a job.

The 5 Stages are, in order of occurrence:

1. Denial and isolation

2. Anger

3. Bargaining

4. Depression

5. Acceptance

The ultimate goal for any of us when we experience loss, has to be to move through the first four Stages as quickly as possible, and get ourselves to that 5th Stage point of Acceptance.

     Some succeed at this.  Some get stuck at Stages 1, 2, 3, or 4 along the way.  [Thes would probably be the majority.]  Some never make it to Stage 5 Acceptance, ever, and live the rest of their lives, for example, angry or depressed.  Those who don’t achieve a sense of Acceptance (as well as those who do but who require a particularly long time to get there) set themselves up to be in an emotionally unhealthy place in life.

     What is it that makes these failures and long delays emotionally unhealthy?  Denial, isolation, anger, bargaining, and depression all live in fantasyland.  The only reality there is on Earth is the one that is happening right this very split second as you are reading these words and thinking about them.  It’s a state of balance and harmony.  It means being focused on the present moment as much as possible.

     Often a “rescuer” or professional “coach” is needed to assist the sufferer of a loss in accelerating and smoothing the way to transition, to Acceptance.  If you want to help someone through a loss event or loss period of time, you must be prepared to be extraordinarily patient, empathetic (putting yourself in her or his shoes) and encouraging. 

     You need to help the individual or group or family pass through each stage and let go of each stage before moving to the next level, and to help him/her/them from slipping backwards.  Keeping those with loss issues and upsets focused on the immediate present moment that’s in front of their faces as much of the time as possible can be frustrating and emotionally draining for the helper(s). 

     It is not always an easy task and –while I heartedly recommend that responsibility for this function is best left to professionals who are trained to provide proper guidance— you can always lend a support system to encourage pursuit of professional assistance, and you can help prompt a sharper “here and now” awareness level simply by keeping your SELF focused on the present, and calling attention to it.     halalpiar

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THICKEN YOUR SKIN!

     Everybody sells or has to sell something

all or some of the time. 

Whew, now that’s a brainful of thoughts! 

     What I’m saying here (and run the risk of offending some by offering an “in other words” interpretation) is that anybody who sells anything, which means YOU (unless you’re a hermit or a castaway with a Wilson soccerball!), odds are great that you need to run an internal (inside your head) crusade to wipe out self-doubt!

     We can discuss what makes the odds “great” some other time; just trust me for now as I share with you “like it is” . . . IF YOU CAN’T shake off (like your dog after a swim) the worryworts about what your concerns are of the impressions and opinions others have of you —by worrying about what you think they think– you are dooming yourself to failure.

     At a time when more people are looking for fewer available jobs and the challenge to compete harder is tougher than ever, you cannot afford to short-change yourself or second-guess your actions or underestimate your abilities.

     You are what you are and worrying about what you are not will not make one iota of difference. 

     If others like, appreciate and respond to you and what you have to offer (regardless of whether it’s product or services for sale or your job qualifications), that’s great!  If they don’t embrace your ideas or what you have to sell, it’s their loss.  Period. 

     Don’t busy your mind with overkill analysis.  Move on to the next opportunity.  There is always a next opportunity that comes from what you make happen, and you can only make things happen when you’re free from dwelling on what didn’t happen! 

     You think maybe this sounds good but isn’t practical?  Wrong.  It sounds good because it IS good.  Making things happen and dropping the things that don’t along the way, are both a matter of choice. 

     Simply recognizing that your behavior is your choice will often turn the tide by itself, and other times will prompt you to free your mind up sooner rather than later.  It feels pretty stupid to be wallowing in disappointment and feelings of failure when you are thinking that you are CHOOSING to wallow and feel sorry for yourself. 

     Okay, and what will make all of this thinking work quicker and more effectively?  Getting in touch with the “here and now” that’s in your face (and that’s passing you by, NEVER to be retrieved if you’re busy wallowing), and the best way to do that is to TAKE A FEW DEEP BREATHS. 

     Circulating more oxygen to your brain makes you more alert and tuned in (kind of the opposite of wallowing).  Deep breathing also circulates more blood flow to your muscles, making your body more relaxed, less tense, more prepared to be going forward. 

     You’ll find four (just 4) VERY simple, detailed steps for making the most of deep breathing elsewhere on this site.  Try the “Magazine Articles” tab above, and click on the second article link (“Are You Breathing?”) in the lefthand column. 

     Oh, and as you thicken your skin, remember to believe in yourself, will you?  You are unique.  There is no one else on Earth exactly like you!   halalpiar   

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When did your ego (or favorite

 blog) last get the best of you?

     This morning at breakfast?  In a meeting?  On the telephone?  At lunch?  Over the conference table?  On your way home?  After dinner?  All of the above?  (Oh, ha-ha, not me! Not all of the above. Good heavens, man, I’m not that bad!)

     Well, maybe, maybe not.  If you think something outside your own body got the best of you AT ALL, you may have a problem.  Why?  Your ego can only take over when you CHOOSE for it to take over.  You don’t get angry and no body makes you angry. 

     You choose to feel angry about what you or someone else does or says or something that happens.  You may not be making a conscious choice, but it is nonetheless a choice. 

     Contrary to what the majority of the civilized world’s population seems to believe: Behaviors –ego, guilt, anger, arrogance, or otherwise– don’t fall from the sky and land on your shoulders and make you into an ogre or cause you to do or say anything.     

     So, tuck that little pouch of wisdom in your pocket and let’s go take a look at the blogosphere.  What is it that bloggers seem to be grasping at and pretending they have no choice about these days? 

     Now, I don’t look at hundreds of blogs because I also have a life, but it seems to me that the ones I do check out are inevitably shallow ego-trips aimed at unloading lots of doom and gloom lectures in very authoritative fashion.

     Why is this important to business owners and managers and entrepreneurs?  Well, here’s the news flash: believe it or not– you are human too! 

     Just because you run around in scuffed shoes and drooling your last meal out of the corner of your mouth because you’re so preoccupied with your cashflow, or the bumbling idiot who’s representing your business interests somewhere, or the next big idea you’re birthing, doesn’t mean you don’t or can’t have feelings!  The bloggers who lecture on current events and industry trends love having you return to their sites because they’ve made you worry or sad or angry or enraged.  They live for that. 

     Alrighty then, you’re rushing through life and are now close to relying completely on the Internet for information and nurturing.  Blogs have become a way of life.  You visit YouTube and Face, then tweet your brains out on Twitter before hitting up your favorite 3, 4, 5 (?) blogs, where you get massive doses of smug, self-serving, know-it-all infusions of negativity. 

     Hey, you might as well be watching that 11 o’clock news crap . . . nothing like seeing babies burned in ovens, terrorist beheadings and a family of 14 jammed into a compact car and crushed by a runaway dumptruck just before you go to bed!  Great food for lovely stressfree dreams!    

     So where’s a serious entrepreneur to turn?  Sideways.  Check out what’s around you instead of the steady diet of what’s on top of you and what’s being pulled out from under you. 

     Many blog writers are just closet psychos.  Their only interest in you is as a site visitor and comment poster.  The more they get, the more the search engines reward them with bumped up rankings.  They don’t care about misleading your tired brain, or about helping you learn or see new ways to help yourself. 

     The Blog Smog is just as useless as network TV news smoke and mirrors acts.  Choose what you want when you want but don’t choose to think that all blogs are worthwhile uses of your time.  They’re not.   halalpiar

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“You can’t build a reputation

on what you’re going to do.”

–HENRY FORD

We’ve talked before about the definition of integrity being doing the right thing even when nobody else is looking.  The dictionary says it’s “the quality of having strong moral principles,” and “the state of being whole, unified and sound, without corruption.” 

I mention it here because integrity is the best kind of reputation to have.  Some customers flock to some businesses because they offer the lowest price.  Some seek only to have quality at any price.  But in today’s volitile marketplace, integrity (“HIGH TRUST”) is what sells most consistently and most profoundly.  It’s what anchors that elusive customer characteristic: loyalty! 

Consumers have been duped and led to slaughter for too many years.  Consumers are tired of hearing about businesses that make empty promises, that fallaciously attach themselves to worthy causes but fail to walk the walk when it comes to the moment of truth.  

As proverbially expressed, deeds and action speak louder than words.  

Consumers are demonstrating, across the boards, that they do not any longer want to deal with “low-trust” talk-the-talk businesses. 

     What separates “HIGH” from “LOW” trust?  Integrity. 

     How does a business gain integrity?  By gaining respect. 

     How does a business win respect?  By establishing a reputation. 

     How does one build a reputation? 

• By consistent demonstration of honesty and fairness with both internal and external customers, and appreciation that the two need to be viewed as interchangeable. 

• By recognition that the customer is always right and that there are never any exceptions to that short of legal violations or physical violence. 

• By (back to the proverbs) practicing what you preach! 

Being partly honest in business is like being partly pregnant in life. 

If your assessments of your business and the spin you’ve been putting out to the public (or, more correctly,  to your marketplace) are filled with um’s and er’s and maybe’s and sometimes’ and occasionally’s, you’re not kidding anyone but yourself! 

Are you and your business, for example, making token donations to charities, or are you and your employees getting into the trenches and helping charitable organizations to raise money and move forward?

It may be time to step back and revisit your mission as well as the services you perform and that you provide both inside your doors and out.  Today’s a good day for that.  Think about it. 

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