The Second Civil War

is coming:

Obama’s left-wing, 

liberal socialists

vs. thirty million

US small businesses.

Happy Birthday America!

_____________

As we celebrate our “E Pluribus Unim” and “In God We Trust” heritage, as we pause to value the freedom that comes–as Thomas Jefferson said–at the price of eternal vigilance, we need also to take stock in the reality that for nearly three years, we the people have been trapped and sold up the river, by none other than our own President.

Mr. Obama has dishonored us, disowned us, and disengaged himself from the job he was elected to do, and –in the process– has triggered us into The Second Civil War, this one between big government and small business! 

Mr. Obama has disgraced and spit on the entire (30-million strong) universe of small business enterprises and on the entrepreneurial spirit that made America great to start with, the very spirit that allowed him to be elected in the first place . . . the very spirit he should be nurturing and rewarding with tax benefits for innovation and job creation.

Small business tax benefits for innovation and job creation remain the only viable key to economic recovery yet, at every turn, the White House arrogantly insists on doing the exact opposite.

Small business innovation and job creation tax benefits remain –after more than three years of harping on it in this blog– the only REAL solution to our still plummeting economy.

It is hard to imagine, when truck drivers and supermarket clerks and burger flippers and barbers and plumbers and roofers and accountants and doctors ALL see that this is true, how the White House can be so adamant.

By obsessively over-taxing and over-regulating small business

–AND by continually berating and discrediting the leadership of the Senate, the Congress, the Supreme Court, and our military–

Mr. Obama is simply demonstrating transference (ask any psychologist) of his own inadequacies and his own complete lack of leadership.

                                                               

Being tangled up in one’s underwear is not the way to move forward.

As we celebrate this second most important day in America’s calendar — second only to the birth of Christ — let us pray in thankfulness for all that we have achieved as a nation, all that we in small business have achieved in industry and technology and humanity.

Let us be thankful too for our entrepreneurial global leadership and enlightenment (until and in spite of the current White House).

And let us also pray

. . . that we overcome The Obama Depression, that we survive and thrive once more, that we the 30 million of us join together in purpose on November 6, 2012, to turn the tide, and begin to restore our battered economy and rapidly eroding stature as leader of the free world. Use your business clout to make a difference. Start now. 

STAND PROUD IN TROUBLED WATERS.

WORK HARD TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” 

[Thomas Jefferson] 

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting. God Bless You.

God Bless America and America’s Troops.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

June 29, 2011: Today’s Presidential Press Conference . . .

Mr. Obama:

“Call me naive, but my expectation

   is that leaders are going to lead.”

The American People Respond:

“Duh!”   

Really, Mt.Obama, you can do a whole lot better than kick around the subject of leadership and pretend you know what it means. You clearly haven’t the foggiest idea about it. Talk with Rudy Giuliani. Read Peter Drucker. Watch some newsvideos of Ronald Reagan. Visit today’s issue of the TBD Consulting “Leadership News” newsletter.

Making a mockery of something you have no ability to do doesn’t speak well of you or the office you hold.

• My mother would have accused you of being “the pot that calls the kettle black.”
• My father would have told you to “Pull yourself up by the boot-straps and start getting the job done you’re getting paid to do.” 

ANY small business owner has better better common sense leadership skills than you have demonstrated.

In fact, in all of history, there has never been a leader of any consequence who has repeatedly gone out of his/her way to consistently blame others for his/her own inadequacies, except you!

Placing blame and analyzing it accomplishes zero–as ANY successful business owner will tell you–unless of course you’re Judge Judy.

Then again, you would need to be open-minded enough to even ask in the first place, and you’ve proven yourself incapable of that. To the average American, the relentlessness you exhibit in your pursuit of who and what to blame is pathetic. You long ago ceased to be effective as a leader, and especially because you think you’re a great one.

Nobody else thinks you are

• . . . certainly nobody else who cares about our still sinking economy that you killed when you had a chance to breathe life into it; that’s called a “blown save” in baseball.

• Then there’s your Lybian Quagmire that you insisted on rushing into with a cocky attitude and no respect for our military; that’s known as underestimating the competition.

• Ah yes, and lest we forget the catestrophic daily oil spill you wasted more than a month analyzing instead of responding to.

• Business owners will tell you when a customer fails with your product, you rush to the rescue with a quick-fix and find out what went wrong later, after you’ve resolved the problem.

• Oh, and the selective weather disasters you chose to respond to? Please. Everyone knows you’re a puppet to begin with, but there’s no reason on Earth that people who’s lives were devastated by floods in the Midwest should be ignored while those raked over by a crushing tornado get immediate attention because they’re in a “blue” state.

• It would be a crime to not at least touch on your simpleton behavior in misappropriating tax dollars to union-thugs and incompetent corporate automakers. Thank the Lord for Ford!

• Again, small business owners will tell you to not get mixed up with those big business muckity-mucks and their union thugs. Advice too late for you no doubt.

Leadership is all about openly motivating others to get the job done that needs doing.

It’s about transparency and respect and authenticity.

It’s not about photo ops, sound bites, grandstanding, or being “amused” as you claimed to be today over being accused of lacking leadership effectiveness . . . which you do.

“Amused”? Surely you jest! 

True leadership? Americans would welcome it, and I’d be first in line. But after seeing the trainwreck you’ve created in such a short time, and how long we’re going to have to be paying for your foolhardy healthcare plan, I don’t hold out much promise. I’m just thankful you’ll never be part of the small business world you seek to destroy.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting, and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Sorry, Docs and Esqs,

 but you’re not God

anymore!

Well, one good thing about the current Administration (and it may be the only good thing) is that it has snapped Americans back to reality — the reality that no matter how great you can talk, action speaks louder. And taking no action speaks loudest of all. Like a whirling dervish, this tax-and-spend do-nothing White House spins in place.

So that’s the good news: we’re all learning from our mistakes. Watch the blur!

_________________________________                                                  

Now on to doctors and lawyers: You guys are being shopped around for on the Internet, and you haven’t yet caught on to the reality that this single shift in patient and client technology is driving your practice into the ground because you’ve chosen to ignore and discount its impact on you. But you can’t. You need to take action now. 

Reality is that your services are no better a commodity than peanut butter, plumbers, snowplowing services, or used furniture once a prospective patient or client gets her or his pudgy little fingers into the Bing or Google search window.

The days when you needed not to worry about your staff customer service skills are long gone.

                                                 

Heart patients in Pennsylvania fly to Arizona or Minnesota for surgery. People with vision problems in Florida will travel to Baltimore. Just because a local physician or lawyer diagnoses a problem seldom means anymore that the patient or client will stay with that professional. Many, if not most, seek specialized care referrals online.

A good part of the reason for this, and one that’s continually dismissed, has a whole lot more to do with office staff treatment and “bedside manners” of the doctor or lawyer than most professionals would care to admit. Truth is it’s likely to be costing you 50% or more of your practice volume. And it’s close to 100% avoidable!

Incredibly, to most of America’s population raised on ER and Law & Order, there are studies floating around that show over 90% of all doctor and hospital visits (including those to the ER!) are for reassurance

— being told with a warm smile and backpat, “You’re going to be alright. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning” seems to sum up what most people consciously or unconsciously seek.

And I strongly suspect the same dynamics of pursuing empathy come into play with lawyers.

Lawyers thrive on delay. Doctors thrive on patient loyalty. Neither of these payoffs are very much in the cards (or the stars, tea leaves?) anymore because people want gratification as immediate as a txtmsg response, and loyalty is directly proportionate to truth (readily verifiable on the Internet), and personal attention with every contact.

So, solutions? Here are 3 FREE solutions: More frequent and more genuine use of smiles, and of “Please” and “Thank you.” Don’t assume your patients and clients are being treated the way you want them to be. I can tell you of over 100 medical and law offices where they are not. Find out. Use friends as “secret shoppers” to report experiences.

Reward positive attitudes. Small, inexpensive, frequent rewards actually work better than lump sum cash or raises (which, remember, are permanent). Consider outside professional coaching help.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Twitter opportunities

bail small business out

 of still sinking economy!

Opinion, after creating thousands of small business marketing and management programs, and many life observations:

Since the debut of television, no other media vehicle has had such positive and pronounced impact for small business as Twitter. LinkedIn is a distant second and Facebook doesn’t even make it to the table.

________________

A little background . . .

• In case you haven’t noticed: since 2008, there’s been relentless government pursuit of globalization at the expense of business, marked by the near strangulation of entrepreneurial ventures and accompanying choke-hold on free market competition.

• In flagrant disregard for America’s economy, America’s employment opportunities, America’s military, America’s healthcare, and America’s self-esteem, spread-the-wealth idealogy has trampled the nation’s economic heart and soul beneath its runaway tank treads.

• America’s 30 million small business enterprises –the proven source of over 90% of all new jobs– have been chewed up and spit out while bungling corporate giants and their muscle-brained unions have been handed tax-dollar bailouts that have accomplished nothing.

________________

So where does Twitter come in and what’s “rightbackatcha!” all about? Twitter, first of all, is a powerful outbound social media entity. Among many applications, it allows for small businesses to broadcast availability of products and services out to the world at no cost. In today’s economy, this access is a Godsend.

More and more small businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities Twitter provides, and are discovering that INTERNET globalization opens new revenue stream pathways unimaginable just 5 or 6 years ago. Business today comes from many surprise sources . . .

A local plumber gets a service call from Betty whose cousin lives 2,000 miles away but cut and pasted his clever Twitter quote into an email to Betty because it mentioned the town Betty lives in. Betty figured that was better than the Yellow Pages. Voila!

LinkedIn, FYI, is a much more sedate, more corporate medium. It lacks both the flair and immediacy of Twitter.  

Facebook? Forget about it! For business, Facebook doesn’t cut it! Let it help you keep your Friends and family together and communicating, but don’t expect it to make sales for your business.

If you run a small business and you have a website, why do you need to find people to drive to your Facebook page to try to get them to visit your website? It won’t happen. The process is too big a run-a-around. Visiters bail out. Why waste time and money and energy?

Send people direct to your website! Facebook also demands constant monitoring to police inappropriate posts that you don’t want associated with your business.

So, now you’re on Twitter, but it’s not working? That’s only because YOU’RE not working.

If you “work” Twitter, you are careful not to flood it with repetitive sales-pitch messages, and you have fun with it by being social. Yes, that’s what makes it part of “social” media.

In other words, someone mentions or thanks or repeats (RTs) your comment (“Tweet”)? Reply with a thank you!

Say: “rightbackatcha!” or express some form of appreciation. Even a “TY” will do.

But don’t disregard others for the sake of ramming home your sales message. Your “Followers” will drop like flies.

About “Followers,” incidentally, if you’re not selling something that EVERYone needs (rubberbands, toothbrushes, water), you don’t need 36 trillion Followers; you need Followers who share your interests or who fit your market target. Be selective.

If you’re going to “play the numbers” and amass as many as possible, be prepared for the fallout. You will inevitably attract weirdos who will waste your time and energy.

So, someone tells you you’re great or that they like your quote or the title of the song you mention or the product or service you represent, tell ’em “rightbackatcha!” or say Thanks (or THX). But you ignore sociability at your peril.    

Drive your imagination forward with reality. 

Open minds open doors.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

There comes a time

in the life of 

every business owner 

where lines become

B–L–U–R–R–E–D  

 between love and sales!

Even though with one of these, you fall into it, and the other you never want to have fall at all, there are endless similarities. Just consider a few musical messages when you substitute one for the other:

Put A Little Sales In Your Heart . . . Sales Make The World Go ‘Round . . . All You Need Is Sales . . . Sales Is A Many Splendored Thing . . . Silly Sales Songs . . . Sales And Marriage . . .  They Call It: Puppy Sales . . . Sales, Sales Me Do . . . Makin’ Sales In The Afternoon With Cecilia . . . Sales Are In The Air . . . Sales Are But A Little Boat Upon The Sea . . . Sales, Sales, Sales . . . When A Man Sales A Woman . . . What’s Sales Got To Do With It? . . . Sales Will Keep Us Together . . . Feel Like Makin’ Sales . . . To Sir With Sales . . . Give Me Sales . . . Stop, In The Name Of Sales . . . Chapel Of Sales . . . Game Of Sales . . . A World Without Sales . . .  Sales Letters In The Sand . . . Takin’ A Chance On Sales . . . You’ve Lost That Salesin’ Feeling . . . Will You Still Sales Me Tomorrow . . . Sales Me Tender . . . Can’t Buy Me Sales . . . Sales Will Keep Us Together . . . You Get The Best Of My Sales . . . April Sales . . . Young Sales . . .  

If you’re here looking for a great list of love songs

with “love” in the title, I don’t want to disappoint you:

 GO HERE!

__________________

Ah, but –fun aside for a moment, there are a couple of really huge “Lovin’ Sales” problems to consider:

1)  If someone who holds control over you or your business –like the government or a major customer, investor, supplier, or partner– hasn’t a clue about real entrepreneurship, and what it’s like to love your work, you’ve got troubles. 

These are people and entities who need to see your work as a committed relationship — in much the same way you might offer up testimony as part of a business plan and budget to impress lenders. I mean, I did once have an accountant who lectured me that my business was a legal entity that needed to be thought of as a separate person.

(That assertion of course simply reinforced my conviction that accountants lacked human feelings, and made me think that maybe my business was the one person in my family who was not dysfunctional! Kidding ;<) er, almost.) 

The point is that if those with control don’t appreciate your relationship with your business, you are losing sales you deserve to make, and income you need to grow.

2)  If you’re not 100% tuned-in to the reality that without sales, there is no business, you are living in fantasyland! In other words, your business cannot survive and thrive if you keep it locked in orbit around your great business idea at the expense of a monumental sales effort on your behalf. This is 2011. This economy will not tolerate you sitting.

(The alternative of course could simply be to apply to your state DOT or local roads department for cone placement training — security, benefits and no brain use!)

If you’re staying in the game, you need to devote more time and energy to selling than you have been. Nobody else can sell your business as well as you. It’s your baby. It’s your DNA. You feed, finance, insure, staff, and nurture it. Now get out and sell it. If you make 3 calls a day, make 10. If you make 10, make 20. Whatever it takes.  

If you’re not lovin’ your sales every day, no one’s going to be lovin’ to buy what you have to sell. Period. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Chinese Proverb . . .

TALK DOES NOT

COOK RICE!

Like facing a mental firing squad, being called out to justify your existence –by anyone with clout: a client, customer, partner, investor, lender, referrer, founder, advisor, even some braindead government regulatory agency official– can paint you into a corner of zero return on your time, energy, money, and often innovative talent as well. 

Justifying decisions and actions may be important in a courtroom but, in business, searching for reasons wastes enough time to prevent a needed quick-fix, to intercept momentum and slow down progress, and to prevent the launch of creative fantasy into innovative reality… a process today’s economy needs more of rather than less! 

Many entrepreneurs seem to include some form of justification frustration in their list of reasons for giving up corporate or government careers to join the ranks of the self-employed. “I hated having to always subject every breath I took to someone else’s microscope. Getting the job done on time is what should matter, not how or why.”   

Talk may serve to satisfy boardroom egos and government budget rationales, but if you own or operate a small business, it doesn’t cook rice! 

In our steadily sinking economy, it serves no purpose to patronize and pander. Telling your supporters that things are still not where they need to be but that they are in fact better than they once were means absolutely nothing. Nada. Zero. Action still speaks louder than words. Responding with a sense of urgency still counts big-time. 

All those business guys with clout (in the top paragraph) care only about results! ROI. Benefits. What’s in it for them? How soon can they realize value or affect a turn-around? So the trick is to side-step requests to justify yourself by answering demands to explain why the rudder broke, and to use that time and energy instead to right the ship.

It’s called an “action attitude.” Every successful entrepreneur I’ve studied has practiced it under fire, when the chips are down. Those I’ve seen who dwell on “getting to the bottom of things” usually do because that’s what they choose to preoccupy themselves with, instead of moving forward. 

If you think you need all the answers in order to move on, you’ll never move on. Which brings us to the central message here. Sure there are times when we need to explain ourselves for the sake of maintaining household or employee harmony, or to satisfy an upset customer who demands it, or to keep an investor at bay. But:

You need to free yourself from always feeling that you have to justify yourself.

It reportedly took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts to invent the light bulb. Imagine if he had to stop and explain his way out of each failed effort? We’d still be sitting in the dark! Life is to short to worry about what went wrong. Focus on getting things to go right!                                         

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Small Business Suffers (See personal note at end) . . .

Highest Consumer Prices

in 3 Years!

(and the Worst Leadership Since Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter!) 

The highest consumer prices in three years were reported today for food, clothing, fuel and transportation.

the oppressive nature of obvious federal government efforts to control, manage and force small businesses into bankruptcy, this news is not surprising. What is surprising is that America’s 30 million small businesses have thus far failed to find and focus and rally their strength in numbers– to respond en masse!

What is surprising is that the Obama Administration has been pathetic at best in it’s token offers of olive branch diplomacy through its stagnant SBA puppet show. (Okay, well, maybe that economy-killing attitude is notso surprising after all. I mean, it actually makes sense as accompaniment to our business-leaderless federal government.)

Messrs. Obama and Biden have thrown entrepreneurs and small businesses under the bus.

In the process of over-taxing, over-regulating, intimidating, undervaluing, and completely disregarding the basic economic-growth interests of entrepreneurs and small business enterprises, widespread meddling in large corporate businesses and attempts to disintegrate free market enterprise competition from healthcare have prevailed.

Lest we forget, by the way, entrepreneurs and small business enterprises are the entities that built America into the world leadership posture that Mr. Obama is relentlessly trying to dismantle at the expense of all Americans. 
It’s inconceivable, his “fiddling“–outlandish First Family expenses, preoccupation with sports, and managing to be conveniently and consistently “out of town” while oil spills, floods, tornados, poverty, unemployment, foreclosures, and the undermining of America’s military and global image rise to the surface of day-to-day reality.

And now it’s consumer prices! What’s next? Must be “Dignity” because it’s trumpeted in every speech, and trampled in every action.

                                                                     

Leadership that incessently talks “dignity” and never delivers really cannot be allowed to continue. You and I and our families have struggled and suffered to keep our businesses afloat, to survive.

Has it occurred to you that we are no longer working for ourselves; we are working for the government battling against all odds to make an honest living, but losing ground daily because what we do manage to earn is turned back in to be distributed to others who are too lazy and too manipulative to work for themselves.

Why bother getting a job? Huh? After all, everything’s free. Why bother with even learning English or getting citizenship? Americans are so stupid that they’ll pay for everything anyway. Take advantage. What a great country!

______________________________

A SPECIAL NOTE TO BLOG VISITORS

I rarely comment personally here, because this blog was created for those seeking business development ideas, methods, stories and encouragement. It was never intended as a political instrument but, you know, it’s become increasingly difficult for me to choose to not be tormented by business-inexperienced, know-nothing leaders who –day after day– pound away at entrepreneurs and small business.

If what is said here offends you, please don’t just click off; call me or send a note and let me know your thoughts. I promise you a respectful response. 

Until someone can prove otherwise, I see no exception to the conviction that Mr. Obama has no regard for –or understanding of– what makes America’s economy tick, and that he chooses to ignore even finding out because that pursuit alone will cost too many votes?

Pardon me, but I believe, dear professional practice and small business owners and managers, that this kind of shortsighted, misdirected leadership is not leadership. It is sick, self-serving, do-nothingness that we cannot continue to live with, and that our economy cannot much longer tolerate.

We have the clout to make that change:

Election Day – November 6, 2012.

Vote Responsibly! 

                                                                           

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Itttttttt’s a wrap!

Waitaminute! What makes you so sure?

You’ve been working at this deal for awhile now. It finally looks like things have fallen into place. You are almost ready to count your chickens before they’re hatched. You’re 99% sure that the long-sought-after customer/client is, at last, in your pocket.

You’ve started paying attention to champagne ads, and checking booking schedules for that dream cruise.

Winning with the who who’s in your pocket all depends on how much you learn from past mistakes. Yes, most of us have been there at least once. It’s called:

Presumptuousness

Presumptuousness is cornerstoned by assumptions. Not a lot of architectural integrity there. In case you haven’t given it much thought lately, assumptions can be dangerous. A necessary evil, so to speak, that can often be the result of a series of correct hunches, and still be wrong.

In business, politics, and life, not many attitudes can be more foreboding.

In other words, anytime you decide that you think you know it all, you can be sure someone or some circumstance will come along and prove you wrong. It’s something like a distant cousin to Murphy’s Law.

When that dark shadow crosses your mind, stop what you’re doing. Take a deep breath. Stretch.

Ask yourself if what you believe about the outcome of that big deal looming over your checkbook’s future –or about the genuineness of the partner(s) or principal(s) involved– is based on fact or opinion.

Go back to your drawing board long enough to make sure you have some contingency plan in place to offset any pending disaster. (What’s worse than looking for a job when you have no job, or having the boat motor die miles from shore with no oars, or hosting a BBQ party and running out of fuel half-way through the steaks?)

I once hosted a huge New Year’s party that ended with guests in winter coats, hats and gloves at the punchbowl when the heating plant died in 20-degree weather. Ah,the lessons of life live and learn.)

It never hurts to follow the Boy Scout motto:

“Be Prepared!”

Or Henry David Thoreau:

“Be forever on the alert!”

Business owners make assumptions every day, sometimes every hour. It’s part of the game of business.

We need to project income and expenses, often for 3-5 years out,to satisfy prospective investors and lenders with business plan financials. We need to devise marketing and operational plan budgets farther in advance than most entrepreneurial comfort zones tolerate.

One of the reasons older entrepreneurs are typically more successful than younger counterparts is simply experience. Most business success seems to me to be able to be reduced to making effective educated guesses.

“All we ever have is limited knowledge” 

. . . that one was Einstein

So next time, you think you know who’s in your pocket, think again!

Even Presidents have learned this the hard way, presuming voter support that never materializes.

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Silence is NOT golden!

Just because you get the news release done and out, doesn’t mean anybody cares!

I ran a small “News Release” workshop recently, and was reminded of how important news releases have become in the face of government-borne economic recovery impossibilities being shoved down the throats of struggling small businesses. When you can’t afford to advertise, you twist your message into news and release it into cyberspace.

Public and community relations are free

but not easy!

The problem is that even after you’ve done a 100% perfect job of packaging what you want to say, the media people who get your release, simply don’t care. It has to suit their whimsy, sense of balance, and their boss’s mood… unless you’ve been holding hands and buying them lunches for years, and toss some advertising bucks their way!

To get around all this,  you actually do need to package your message 100% perfectly –format and content both. `It must be NEWSWORTHY.  Self-serving, salesy, promotional, and contrived releases get deleted and trashed in record time. Editors and writers and news directors are usually much smarter than the companies they work for.

You’re expecting free publicity. What you say has to make a difference for your recipient’s audience.

Every release needs a personalized, respectful, courteous cover note that thanks the recipient for her or his time and consideration. It also needs to make some kick-butt statement about what makes the attached/enclosed release important to the recipient’s audience. You need to know the readers and viewers as well as the editors and writers.

So, random “Dear Talking Head” notes? No.

Homework first? Yes.

 ————————————

 A while back, I read a blog post by Laurie Halter:

“The Press Release Is Dead.”

Don’t believe it. Especially from someone who still -archaically– calls it a “Press” release! (Though she happens to be a truly superb writer!). The point is she’s wrong.

It has simply become much harder to make news releases work, but for those who persevere and are willing to trade hard work and a tenacious follow-up effort for free exposure that is proven to be over ten times more credible than paid advertising, the return on investment can be great.

All of this of course assumes (I know, I know, a dangerous word) that you are prepared to be exceptionally creative in the manner with which you present your newsworthiness. Like a billboard or online banner, catchy short (six and seven-words max) headlines get results.

Your headline needs to attract attention, create interest, stimulate desire and –hopefully– bring about or promise action, along with offering some assurance of satisfaction. Just the headline alone? Yes, just the headline alone, in seven words or less!

The opening paragraph will ideally give the reader the who, what, when , where, why and how of what the release is all about, and do that in 3-4 lines of type. Open your release with your name and contact information (email address and phone number), and close with a standard block of descriptive “elevator speech” copy.

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Double check that the intended recipients are still employed where you’re directing your release, that they still spell their name the same, that they still have the same title, and that the email address/address is still the same. Media people live much more transient lives than most of us. One reporter I know changed jobs 3 times in one week!

If you are the boss, don’t expect miracles. Expect that the job is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and slow to get results (on the average, it takes 5-6 releases to the same person before actual news coverage is realistically considered. If your investment is backed by skillful writing and determined energy, you will get a return.

# # #

     Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Stop worrying, creative-types…

You’re not going

the wrong way

. . . you simply have a unique perspective! 

You’re an artist, writer, sculptor, musician, photographer, performer, designer, craftsperson, stylist, architect, landscaper, sign-maker, entrepreneur . . . and people call you “Weirdo”

__________________________

You laugh it off . . . but, somewhere deep inside, you worry that maybe you are weird. (I’ve been there; I know.)

After all, you hardly fit those corporate suit meetings or the trappings of that threatening vast jungle of government incompetency. And you do indeed march to a different drum. You’re really not anti-social or inherently contentious. You simply are what you are. Period.

So much of what you do requires isolation, keeping “strange” hours, eating only when you’re starving from whatever the closest container may hold, not watching TV, forgetting birthdays and anniversaries, periodically forgetting to wash or brush your teeth or fasten your seat belt, or even to use the bathroom until it’s almost too late. 

Many creative businesspeople fill in the blanks with Twitter. It’s a good social outlet, and a decent sales tool for those who work at it.

There’s little point in trying to explain to others what makes you “counterclockwise”

— that you’re really not going the opposite direction of society, and clocks.

You are just standing behind the clock, reflecting what’s in front of it. You’re simply thinking and functioning from a different perspective.

HA! Sort of like a dyslexic visionary? ;<) But hey, whatever works, works.

                                                            

If you can see the same thing differently from the ways others see it, you have a special God-given talent worthy of nurturing and training and developing. In other words, make the most of what you have and stop thinking (worrying about) what others who lack those skills might say or think about you. Rise above it!

Accept that you are extraordinary.

Easier said than done, you may say? Then reach into one of those deep dark corners of self-expression and remind yourself that it’s a choice. Everything you do and say and create is a conscious or unconscious choice. HOW you create and innovate (following a creative idea all the way through to completion) is a spiritual process.

That HOW part –your ability to capture, control, and exercise your spiritual process– is the difference between you and your white shirt and tie brother-in-law or athletic “jock” sister or your federal/ county/ town agency employee neighbor. The HOW process is what comes from your heart and soul. It is what primes the process pump.

You need always to be focused in the present, here-and-now moment as you perform for it only takes one slip of the knife, the brush, the camera, the tongue, to deliver catastrophe to your heart and soul. Here’s the best way to do that: Deep Breathing. (It keeps you in touch with your self, and each passing moment as it passes!)

When you DO come out of your artsy little closet to rub a few elbows, practice asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. Every question you ask and every answer you get holds out the promise of spectacular creative thought because it’s coming from outside of you but is something you ignite.

Rely forever on yourself and your instincts.

You are more often right about a creative decision than you give yourself credit for. When it comes to business, if that’s a problem, study up on it. It’s not as complicated as you may think. Like finding a doctor who’s skills and experience match the ailment, find professional services with creative management experience.

Or, when you get to the point of possibility, hire or commission someone with good business sense and/or good organizational skills and a sense of finances — someone you trust who can take it all away from you. But be careful to not use the occasion of such new found freedom to slack off or get careless. It’s an opportunity to grow!

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!