How you chunk up

daily commute time  

reveals the real you!

Ever wonder what you can learn about others based on how they spend their work commute time?

As unorthodox an HR assessment tool as it may seem, it’s probably as effective as any other. How a person commutes to work (i.e., by what means and process) indicates, after all, a little something of each of the following career attributes:

1. time and stress management skills
2. concentration and organization skills
3. entrepreneurship
4. motivation and prioritizing skills
5. sense of initiative and responsiveness

The first pair of these itemized attributes (time and stress management skills) signals a person’s ability to adhere to a schedule while juggling interferences, interruptions, and delays. It also offers some clue about tolerance levels associated with the daily barrage of pin-pricks and nit-picks (and occasional flair-ups) of fellow-commuters.

Yes, there are still carpool goof-balls who jam an unsuspecting neighbor between them in the backseat and proceed to laugh as they spill coffee on the sandwiched lap at every pothole.

Yes, there’s always a sprawling snoring (and probably drooling) sleeper to awaken and/or climb over who’s commandeering two (or three with luggage) rush hour train (or subway or bus) seats — always, of course, when there are no other seats available.

What’s a poor commuter to do? Standing for an hour of jerks (both kinds) and bounces is not usually a great option for starting the day, especially when the time window was planned for laptop or paperwork. And please don’t start with defensive comments from “business class” express trains or some limo drivers union. We’re talking real life here. 

The second pair of attributes (concentration and organization skills) assumes the first pair can be readily met and dispensed with. It’s almost always easier to concentrate and be organized when you’re on schedule and able to fend off anger, annoyance, and upset!

Then there are also some who thrive at concentrating and being organized in chaos and turmoil. (A terrific qualifier for government job applicants!)

Next is, aaah yes, entrepreneurship! First of all, most of these folks only commute a flight or two of stairs in their bathrobes. Hey, there has to be some trade-off with corporatesville, right? And if any of these types are not officially running a basement or garage or kitchen table operation already, they are planning the moment of great escape, and aren’t reading this anyway.

Motivation and priority issues surface as various commuters face the grueling daily ritual of “Commuter Mental Block.”  Not sure about that? Just stand back and watch how many smiles disembark commuter vehicles balanced atop those suits and skirts as they enter work zones and re-enter home zones.

You’ll get volumes of information to match up with Maslow’s Hierarchy theory of motivation and a truckload of clues about those with strong prioritizing interests.

Responsive individuals with a sense of initiative rarely keep commuting . . . except perhaps a bathrobe-clad flight or two. These are the innovators, the catalysts for change, the emerging entrepreneurs who will gladly move to live on the edge of their venturesome ideas. They are the people who happily leap from the daily traffic battles and 9 to 5 status quo monotony to take their chances with their own self control. For the rest: Don’t give up your day job!    

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!

“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!

If your search engine sent

you here looking for a fight,

you’re in the wrong place!

     . . . Uh, the post title — that’s “Profiling” as in filling out website subscriber info about yourself and your business.

Sorry. My apologies to all the rest of you (including lawyers of course) who’ve landed here  looking for a bunch of racial slur charges and counter-charges (hopeful no doubt of gathering ammunition for getting yourselves in an uproar about who is subjecting whom to bias and prejudice in which states, and why, and how awful it all is).

You know who you are: Anti-Arizona political types, NPR and network TV news desk occupiers, and fans of “Cops.”

Three messages for you: 1) The truth will out 2) Sorry to disappoint you, and 3) Click off of here and go yell at your search engine.

     Well now that we’ve cleared the air, and have sent the vast armies of contentious network news and incompetent government types packing, let’s get down to business.

     When you fill out a website profile, here are some good rules of thumb to consider that will help you present a more attractive picture of yourself and your business:

• As a matter of PROCEDURE: draft it first; edit it second; edit it third; edit it fourth; save it fifth; cut and paste it into the window sixth. Not much creates instant panic as effectively as clicking “Save” a blink too soon. Take your time. Get it right.

• As a matter of FORMAT: Live with what’s provided. It will be a lot of years before subscriber websites are all up to speed with the latest options for type sizes, line and border spacing and special (color, shadowing, bolding, Italicizing-types of) accent treatments as you may be used to with your PC and Mac text formatting choices. What you get is what you get! When bullet and numbering options exist, use them, but sparingly.

• As a matter of CONTENT: keep it short and sweet. Conciseness counts! Suffice it to ask when was the last time you read a long wind-baggy profile? Don’t try stuffing your thirty-pound resume into some one-pound profile window. Use highlights as teasers to prompt a reader to want to know more. 

• As a matter of INTENT: Keep it honest; if you don’t you have my word it will come back to haunt you. You may even (shudder) lose Twitter Followers and Facebook fans! Think of your profile as a combination of your “brand” and your “elevator speech.” No matter what your intent is about what you say and how you say it, don’t allow yourself room for exaggeration to creep in.

• As a matter of EMPHASIS: don’t try to be cute; don’t write sales or advertising copy; if you have strong credentials, list them but don’t belabor them; if you lack strong credentials, don’t try to make weak ones look impressive. It’s a profile, not a sales pitch! You can deliver that after a prospect likes what she or he sees and decides to contact you. Humor? Doubtful it has a place in 99% of business profiles. If people want a laugh, they need only start hanging out with that other “profiling” crowd mentioned at the top of this post.

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

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

A lesson from one

 of the masters . . .

You run a business. You know that when you’ve got something good, you run with it, right? Wouldn’t you expect something better from one of the world’s leading brands than a half-hearted, slipshod application of their “signature slogan” theme line?

On the heels (and after many years) of one of the most memorable slogans in history — “Leave the driving to us!” — the company came up in 2007 with one of the all-time worst slogans: “We’re on our way!” [Typical consumer response: “Who cares?”]

“We’re on our way!” totally disregarded the surge in consumerism which rendered this kind of chest-beating as inappropriate and ineffective. (And to put the icing on the cake, Greyhound reportedly spent over $60 million trying to shove their braggadocio down consumer throats!) This move was so predictably bad that had they spent even one nickle on it, they would have been making a poor marketing and management judgment.

Ah, but there was a comeback. Almost. Greyhound finally did outdo itself by actually topping that “Leave the driving to us” classic with this more recent touch of brilliance [and I truly do mean brilliance]:

Greyhound. Stop Less. Go More. 

Wow! What a terrific branding theme line. It says so much with so little. It’s customer-focused. I saw it on the side of one of their buses cruising down the New Jersey Turnpike. (Yes, it is true that occasionally one may be fortunate enough to actually cruise on this road that’s eternally jam-packed with Evil Knievel and Kamikaze wannabees.)

But then a funny thing happened.

A second Greyhound bus passed that, instead of the great ‘Stop/Go” theme on the side, had some very somber and unintelligible statement on the back that was an assertion of sorts about a business alliance with some organization whose name was replaced with a totally obscure logo that seemed about the size of maybe a golf ball or two. . . not terribly identifiable at 65mph.

Awhile later, I noted yet another Greyhound bus that appeared to have nothing on it except their famous racing dog  logo.

SO what?

Here’s what. It makes no marketing sense whatsoever to have different vehicles from the same company displaying different graphics and not capitalizing on the proven importance of repetition in selling. Can you imagine spending millions of dollars to establish a theme line (or signature slogan as Greyhound calls it) and not have that line appear in every conceivable application?

And is it a no-brainer to put it prominently on the sides of vehicles you operate?

Now this is no small-time company here. We’re talking about the largest North American intercity bus company, with 16,000 daily bus departures to 3,100 destinations in the United States. That ain’t hay. Yet the money they spent might as well have been hay.

If giant corporate entities like this haven’t the sense to get the right kind of marketing input, just imagine the plight of small business enterprises.

But small business can do what big business cannot. Small business can turn on a dime, be more innovative more quickly and capitalize on opportunities as they surface. Small businesses can also make the kinds of marketing-judgment and tweaking-help choices that big businesses can’t make without getting themselves too tangled up in politics.

I have always thought Greyhound to be a great company with great service and a reputation to match, but in the instance cited, they have clearly failed at making the most of what they already have, to achieve their goals quicker and more soundly.

Don’t waste your time, money, and effort trying to be too smart about too many things. Bring in a fresh, informed and experienced, outside perspective to turn what you have to say into a marketing message and approach that energizes employees and suppliers, and that — most importantly — stimulates and generates sales.

302.933.0911  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!

A job half done

is half UN-done

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

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

Q.

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

A.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     So, it’s . . . 

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

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

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

When it looks, tastes,

smells, feels, and 

sounds like garbage

 . . . guess what?

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

     Sound at all familiar?

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

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

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

And we are living in angry times.

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

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

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

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

     Instead of action, we have talk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bleak prospects, but . . . 

Healthcare viability

needs hospitals to

 be re-invented

     Like a rotting apple in the middle of a basketful, poor management skills can breed themselves into a virtual (and often literal) sea of incompetency before anyone realizes they’ve been overtaken by dumb and dumber, suffering damage that’s too late to reverse.

     DOCTOR BUSINESS is a book I wrote fifteen years ago after more than twenty years of healthcare management consulting experience. It extolled the virtues of entrepreneurial thinking and business management techniques as essential to successful medical practice development.

     The dynamics and principles of that book still apply today, but — with hindsight — I can now see that I failed to recognize the ever-building tsunami of hospital administration ineptness which was emerging and gathering force at the time.  

     Power-crazed hospitals  — rather then entrepreneurially adapt themselves to technology and market-place changes, and do a better job of running their own businesses —  have instead stuck their noses into commandeering business-unsavvy physician partnerships and professional associations.

     Doctors who lack business sense have been buying into hospital physician relations programs that infiltrate and end up controlling their practices. In the process, many of these business ability-shy hospitals have effectively choked off all prospects for medical practices to function as viable business entities.

     Compounding the antics of small-minded hospital muckity-mucks, the new Obamacare health system will have the same kind of disastrous financial and healthcare environment impact as the millions of gallons of oil that continue leaking into our planet’s seas.

     It’s hard, nearly impossible, to excel as any kind of business manager when what it is that you’re managing comes under the scrutiny and control of a bigger, less capable entity that’s operating at cross purposes with your pursuits and interests.

     For more than the past two decades, many hospitals have been being run by groups of administrators whose sole qualifications are typically that they are or were wannabe physicians. Many are med school or government or academia dropouts.

     Some have MBA and MS degrees tucked in their pockets, but it’s my best guess that the vast majority have no meaningful small business experience or sense of reality.

     Wielding limited skill-sets, these people continue to assume controlling positions with running the business affairs of medical practices without having any solid small business management experience or expertise.

     The result, not unlike most government programs, is frequent failure.

     I have had up-close-and-personal vantage points to witness half a dozen hospital failures (and am presently watching another in the making) and the demise of a dozen physician-run medical practices at the hands of intrusive hospital controls.

     Medical practices are small businesses. They need to be run like small businesses in order to survive and thrive. It’s in the best interests of all Americans that this happen.

    But birthing a competitive free market healthcare system doesn’t mean clamping down on medical practices or trying to consolidate all insurance entities under a government umbrella, or having politicians control physician and treatment choices.

     It does mean doctors need to learn more about business and accept that role, and it does mean that hospital administrators need to back off trying to manipulate affiliated practices and start driving more energy into re-inventing themselves to ride marketplace changes more effectively, and anticipate those to come.  

302.933.0116   Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

God Bless You and America and Our Troops. 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Two Simple Examples:

“Do!” vs. “Say!” and

“How?” vs. “Why?”

     I’ll never forget the lesson I learned many years ago as a young college professor when I tried using a Gestalt Therapy “Empty Chair Role-Playing” technique with a disgruntled student in a business career development classroom.

     I used the wrong word. The angry student nearly injured at least two or three other students because I said “do” instead of “say.” 

     Facing an empty wooden chair I placed in front of him, I draped my jacket over the back and asked Tony, who was extremely annoyed with his boss, what he would do if his boss was in that jacket sitting in that chair facing him right now.

     Tony strode defiantly toward the empty chair, picked it up and flung it full force over the six rows of floor-divers and ducking heads, smashing it to smithereens against the back wall. Lucky for him (and for me) that no one was hurt.

     You’re the boss, right? Ask any employee WHY she or he was late to work or an appointment or meeting. What’s the response? Ask WHY some operational function broke down or WHY your best customer account had been gradually cutting back their orders while increasing competitive purchases. What are the responses you get?

     The word, “Why?” is a request for reasons. It is a set up for anyone to respond with excuses. Asking “Why?” will never solve a problem.

     The most current example of how this word mix-up fails, comes from a befuddled White House asking why the catastrophic Philadelphia train derailment happened, instead of taking a genuine leadership position and asking “HOW?” . . . “HOW can we fix it?” would certainly have been a better approach and accomplished more. Corrective actions speak louder than analytical investigations. 

     Yes, of course there’s a bit more to this last example. It would seem to most businesspeople rather inconceivable that anything as potentially disastrous as a derailment by a government-run railroad that resulted in at least 7 deaths and hundreds of injuries could be ignored for half a day, and even then, still be preoccupied with where to place blame instead of how to solve the problem.

     So, yes, timing is a critical ingredient in word choice, but difficulties often start and end with the exact words selected and used. Before you might jump to conclusions about some issue in your workspace, you may want to respond prudently instead of react in ways that simply make the situation worse.

     Pause long enough before speaking to consider how the recipient(s) might perceive the words you choose, as well as the integrity of your timing.

     These examples and this discussion are not far-fetched by any means. Imagine such vast differences (as between “do” and “say” or “how?” and “why?”) in word choices you use — or overlook or let slide —  in your advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations, customer service, sales presentation.

     Was it your grandfather who said “think first and speak second”?

   # # #

931,854,0474       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!

Tonight’s blog post is dedicated to my friend Ernst Dannemann who died yesterday as he approached his 89th birthday.

I have been fully absorbed in writing Ernst’s memoir for the past year, and finished the text just a couple of weeks ago. A truly remarkable man I admire and respect, Ernst arrived –out from under Hitler– in NY Harbor at age 15 (with minimal English), graduated high school and signed into the Army in response to Pearl Harbor, became a decorated soldier and a U.S. Citizen, courted a Holocaust survivor for 60 days and ended up married to her for 60 years, started as a chicken farmer and built a highly successful 6-state retail fabric chain.

Ernst worked his way up to be trusted advisor to 6 governors, close friend to a U.S. President and contenders, and a U.S. Vice President and contenders, as well as many nationally prominent senators and congressional leaders.

For his volunteer work and his Brotherhood Award from The National Conference of Christians and Jews, Ernst won the highest honor given to a civilian in the State of Delaware. Many will miss him dearly. He was a true gentleman as well as a great father, grandfather and great grandfather in every sense of these words and titles. . . and, I believe, Ernst, though never a Scout, could have easily been the poster boy for the 12 principles embodied in the “Boy Scout Law”:

A Scout is trustworthy, 

loyal, helpful,

friendly, courteous, 

kind, obedient, 

cheerful, thrifty,

brave, clean, and

reverent. 

     Okay, so put aside everything you know for a minute and evaluate your business performance as it measures up against what we should have learned as Boy Scouts (or, sorry, Girl Scouts, but I don’t know their “Law”). Can you 1-10-rate yourself and your business performance against each of these twelve points and come away with a hundred points?

     Can you figure out your strengths and weaknesses in matching or not matching each of these qualities. Does your customer service mission sound anything like this? Do you have employee policies, written or simply understood, that come anywhere close to the elevated level of these twelve behavioral traits?

     Where are you short? How can you bolster that up? What steps can you take tomorrow morning to boost even one of these and make it a shining star for your business? What’s preventing that? Is it attitude? Is it what others think? Is it too hard or time-consuming? Is it just something you feel you’re stuck with? Are you remembering that behavior is a choice?

     Are you remembering that you can choose to make these values ring throughout your business everyday and that all you have to do is decide to do it and keep deciding to do it, over and over? Hmmm? Imagine. Imagine what else we can learn from our youth that can work for our business growth now? Maybe it’s worth visiting a local troop meeting to learn some leadership skills long forgotten? 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Ha@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!