Are YOU on my desk?

     As I look around me,  I see notes and slips of paper with phone numbers and phone messages and email addresses and reminders… all people who have said they are definitely interested in moving forward with business consulting and/or writing services… all people who have not followed through even though I have offered gentle reminders.

     If you commit to someone  that you intend to do business with at some level, and especially when you set a target date, either do it… or call that person immediately to let him or her know that you have second thoughts, other thoughts, no thoughts… whatever! But communicate!

     In street lingo,  it’s referred to as “S*@& or get off the pot!” and it means exactly that!

     How can you expect  to build or maintain any kind of reputation for integrity when you tell people one thing, and do another?

     How can you expect  people to think respectfully of you and your business when you don’t treat them respectfully?

     Does this mean  sending out an RFP to “outside” services and then not communicating about it once the proposal is submitted? Of course! Doesn’t every proposal require some explanation? 

     Does this mean  agreeing to have the information a product or service provider needs in order to complete an order into her or his hands by a certain date, and then honoring that agreement (or immediately notifying the other party of the need for a delay)? Of course!

     Does this mean  honoring a customer discount offer that’s presented 24 hours after the expiration date (regardless of reason offered)? Of course! 

     If you are on the receiving end  (or actually, non-receiving end might be more appropriate) of any of these kinds of situations, you may need to re-negotiate your relationship to the point of having to ask point blank:

“Are you interested in moving forward with this as we’ve agreed, or not?”

(If YES,  “Let’s set a deadline of _____ for getting _____ done. Okay with you?”)

(If NO,  “What specific things can I do right now to get us back on track?”) 

Putting things off , like services you contract for, or not providing essential input for those services to do what you’re paying them to do, is a losing proposition for all involved. And the cost of not communicating is lost integrity. Neither is a healthy business practice!

# # #  

When you’re getting screwed…

• Scenario A.  You bust your butt to provide the Smashface Cosmetics Company with superior package designs. Your performance exceeds their expectations and definite sales can even be traced to your efforts. . . They thank you and tell you that they’ll not be honoring your agreed-to fees, and you’ll have to accept a 30% cut because “as you know, times are tough right now”! 
• Scenario B.  The Breaka Ubones Surgery Group thanks you for putting in 20 hours a week (instead of the contracted 10) to develop their medical practice, but you haven’t delivered them enough hip and knee replacements in the past 30 days and they need the fee they’re paying you for a golf sponsorship.
• Scenario C.  Your management/marketing consulting input resulted in the Half- Moon-Half-Hour-Room-Rental Motel purchasing 14 new mattresses that are now bedbug infested. It’s your fault, they say, and they refuse to honor your management consulting fee until all the bedbugs are gone, and even then, only if you do them a free website upgrade and revise their brochure.
• Scenario D.   You get an audience with a major company that asks for rush help launching a new product. You do a quick come back with a comprehensive startup plan. They thank you then issue a RFP to four of your competitors for the same job. . . You ask to be included. They agree. You work for three full days, produce a ten-page proposal that works (at 30% lower fee than others propose). They hire a firm that gives them a fancy presentation, and then ask you to submit ideas for another project.

HA!  YOU MUST BE KIDDING!

FIRE ‘EM!

T H E Y    D O N ‘ T    D E S E R V E    Y O U .

     Besides, they’ll make you broke,  and they’ll never respect you anyway. Get rid of them. Walk away. And unless your brother is a great business lawyer, forget about pursuing legal action. Just take it on the chin, and walk. Of course you can afford to let them go. How affordable is it for you to continue? Use the time and energy you save to go get a new client!

     There comes a point where your time and energy are not worth the hunt.  And you need to be able to drop the deal and move on to other people and situations where you can make a difference and where your input will be respected. Integrity always finds its reward!

     Life is too short  to waste time and energy on stupid people with hidden agendas. 

# # #  

Does “Boardwalk Mentality”

Dominate Your Business?

     In a diner, I might expect it,  but I visited a doctor’s office today where a beautiful, large, flatscreen TV was broadcasting full volume coverage of the funeral of a man with a track-record of highly-questionable morals, who almost single-handedly was responsible for influencing  Federal Government leadership to wreck havoc on the entire US healthcare system.

     It seemed a strange backdrop  for a medical doctor… over-the-top accolades for a leading advocate of virtually dispensing with the entire spectrum of quality physician care. Are you so out of touch, doctor, that you think it just doesn’t matter what impressions you foster in your own waiting room?

     You surely never supported  the fanatical radical ideas that man nurtured, or you wouldn’t even be in practice, yet you choose to promote them to your patients? And don’t make the excuses that your receptionist picked the station. It’s your practice.

__________________________

     As a favor to a friend,  I recently gave a retailer a sample product to consider stocking. This product performed twice as effectively, lasted twice as long, and was twice as efficient, environmentally, as the product he presently sold. Oh, and it was half the price! He refused it.

     Did I mention that this product  also had no shipping costs because it was produced in the next town and that a percentage of the proceeds was kicked back to a community program that the retailer’s wife was engaged with? “No,” he said, “I don’t want it because it lasts too long, and I need repeat sales here so it’s better that the things people buy break down; then they have to come back for more!”

     Are YOU this out of touch?

__________________________

     When I taught business  at Ocean County College, near the famous boardwalks of Point Pleasant, Belmar, Seaside Heights, Asbury Park and Atlantic City, I used to refer to this out-of-touch kind of thinking as having a “Boardwalk Mentality.”

     Boardwalk stand owners  and operators fostered the attitude for years (and some, unfortunately, still do) that it’s okay to rip people off to get their money because –first of all, they’re on vacation and don’t really care how much they spend and –second, because those people will never be back again anyway, and even if they are, they won’t remember getting bilked.

     Obviously this kind of “screw the customer” thinking  doesn’t cut it anymore… neither does the suggestion of support for the antithesis of quality patient-care standards and your professional career, doctor!

# # #  

“Uh, let’s see, Beer Fest?

Chunkin’ Punkin?

Or 5-Mile Run?”

     You can’t even dream up  an event that some business isn’t sponsoring these days! And aren’t we all suckers for the fundraising solicitations of candy-bar-bearing cherubic-smiling Brownie troops, aluminum can-collecting T-ball teams and car-washing high school cheerleaders?

     And of course there’re  the church bake sales, fire department carnivals, VFW clambakes, and all the other terrific events that are the very fabric of small town America.

     How great is the temptation  to get behind everything that comes along? How special it feels to be the stuff that a community-minded business leader is made of? But you know what? Today more than ever, you need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your business and face (ta-ta-ta-ta, ta-ta!): reality!

     Sponsoring charities and community events  is a truly wonderful and charitable behavior and experience BUT… do not hesitate to focus whatever time, effort, money, products and services, and attention you contribute on situations that will have some return on your investment! 

     If you’re going to give money away,  make it count for yourself as well as the recipient. You worked hard to earn it. There’s nothing wrong with your business getting some recognition in the process.

     Ack! That’s a terrible thing to suggest,  you may say. But, no. It’s a realistic thing to say, and here’s why:

     If you want to quietly  and anonymously plunk a thousand bucks into a deserving cause that has nothing whatsoever to do with your business or your customers or your employees or your suppliers, or your community you might as well be throwing it out the window!

     If you want to do that  for a cause that does have some business-related value, you might as well be throwing it out the window! And if you throw enough out the window, you put your business in jeopardy.

GIVE FROM YOUR HEART BUT USE YOUR BRAIN TO PICK THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

     The more you contribute  to situations that help enhance your business name and posture, the more loyalty and sales you’ll build so the more you can be in a position to donate more! It’s called “Enlightened Self-Interest”! If you find that each year, more and more groups and organizations seem to be chasing after your support and it’s getting too draining:

     Establish an annual budget  (with a sidecar emergency fund) and stick to it; direct latecomer solicitors to put their dibs in earlier next year because your budget is all appropriated. This doesn’t mean you’re a scrooge.

     It means you’re being smart  about what you choose to support and the amounts that won’t cripple your business so that you can make your contributions be more productive for your business so you can increase your budget next year.

     The other step  that many business owners take is to establish a private non-profit foundation specifically for the purpose of screening and awarding and managing charitable and community contributions. Many of these entities even conduct their own fundraising programs to support needy organization causes and events.              

    # # #  

A Propensity for Cantankerosity

     Not only have hard economic times  wrought hard times for business, they’ve also turned a lot of previously pleasant customers into snot-nosed, demanding, arrogant, cranky brats! In their worrisome preoccupation with getting the most value for their dollar, many customers have become much more demanding and unreasonable.

     The bad, low-trust reputations  of big-business bankers and automakers —underscored by the sea of incompetency that’s home to government administrators and politicians who haven’t a shred of business experience or know-how— have trickled down to a point where beat-up consumers are distrusting even the small, local supermarket and neighborhood newsstand.

     The manager of an upscale hotel,  who is as honest and customer-attentive as anyone who’s ever walked, reports his Guests have been getting increased service and complaining more. Service demands on the hotel’s already high-performance-level staff have no direct bearing on  accommodations, amenities, or services.

• One man created an uproar because he parked under a tree overnight and ended up with sap on his windshield. The staff spent an hour trying to clean off the sap, but their efforts weren’t sufficient or quick enough for the man’s liking. He left in a barrage of complaints and threats.
• A visiting couple made a ruckus over not having enough to do because it rained so much during their stay. Their access to movie selections, spa, fully stocked library and fully-equipped game room, plus endless nearby attractions was apparently not sufficient.

     A local farmer  tells me people are taking thirteen ears of corn and paying for twelve.      

     A retailer  known for offering discounted merchandise, much of it with minimal markup has been besieged lately with customers looking to make price deals below his costs.

     Yes, there are many examples  of the new consumer pushiness, but the bottom line remains unchanged for business owners and managers:

     The Customer Is ALWAYS Right!

     Unless physical harm  is represented, or someone is clearly breaking the law (unfortunately, it’s not worth the phone call to sic the police on someone who’s stolen one ear of corn!), you and your people have to suck it up and cater to the cantankerous.

     Like it or not,  we have to accept that it’s all part of the change of life on this planet that’s surfaced with the bad global economy. There is really only one solution if you expect to stay in business today and tomorrow: “KILL ‘EM WITH KINDNESS!” 

# # #  

Whaddayou, a head case?

You think business is 

in cruise control?

     Are you on some other planet?  I heard someone say today that he thought business was holding steady and that this economic slump would be over soon. Those of you who know me know I am the eternal optimist. I always believe that –no matter what the odds–  things will work out for the best, and soon!

     But, this economy is out of control.  It’s one thing to think and act confidently and to believe in yourself and in what you’re capable of accomplishing. But it’s quite another to think that everything’s going to move out of your way as you stride forward. That’s like saying you’re a great swimmer so the tsunami that’s coming is no big deal.

     Sorry to have to be the messenger  (please don’t shoot!), but REALITY is that things are NOT going to move out of your way just because you have self-confidence. In today’s economy, you need a whole lot more than that. You need innovation, perseverance, and integrity.

• INNOVATION. If you are not coming up with a clear, new idea (SOME idea; it doesn’t have to be Earth-shattering), and seeing that idea all the way through to implementation EVERY WEEK, your business is not likely to survive another year!

• PERSEVERANCE. If you are not determinedly and tenaciously driving your business forward on a DAY-TO-DAY basis, your business is not likely to survive another month! 

• INTEGRITY. If you are not demonstrating HIGH TRUST evidence of integrity (doing the right thing even when nobody is looking) in EVERY business dealing you have every single hour of every single day, your business is not likely to survive another week!   

     Well,  here’s the good news:

     ALL OF IT–Innovation, Perseverance, Integrity– is a CHOICE!  You can choose to practice all three of these important qualities every day… every day! You simply need to make your mind up that self-confidence alone, without direction, accomplishes nothing. 

     But you can make  the conscious choice to make self-confidence work FOR you, right now by exercising innovation, perseverance and integrity in your very next encounter with an employee, customer, vendor, referrer, delivery or maintenance person, and the next human being you meet…and every one thereafter!  

     Right now!

     How hard is that?  As hard as you choose to make it!

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“It’s not the economy, stupid!”

Anonymous paraphrase of some political statement

     From organizational development studies,  we know that the solution to every group problem lies within the group. From business success and failure analytics, we know the solution to every business problem lies within the business.

     Stop looking out the window for answers.  It’s NOT the economy that’s the problem. And the answer isn’t outside. The problem and the solution are HOW YOU DEAL with the economy!

Get this “throwing in the towel” and “folding up the tent” and “boarding up the windows” and “closing on Fridays” and “cutting back hours” mindset out of your mind.

You are not the Post Office!

You are not the government!

You are an entrepreneur.

YOU are better than that!

ANYone can quit when the going gets tough.

Success takes courage.

     Show some gumption, you!

     You were full of spunk  when you started your business. Did you lose your spunk when you lost your marbles when you lost you mind thinking that “too much other stuff was to blame?

     Have you chosen  for the economy, the market, the competition, the cost of raw materials, the overpriced goods and services, the disastrous fuel prices and cost of shipping, the lack of customers, incompetent employees, and overkill regulatory compliances to de-rail your business onto a failure track?

     Well? Did you?  Are you STILL using all this nonsense as an excuse for not working your sales pipeline? For not training your employees? For raising your own prices to keep from absorbing supplier cost increases? For not getting on-the-job as early as you used to? For delegating sales functions? For cutting back to “no-frills” customer service?

     PSSSSSSST:  No one else can sell your business products/services as well as YOU can! And no one else can appreciate and serve your customers as well as you. It’s your business; it’s your baby! Get back out there and start talking it up!

     PSSSSSSST:  SALES is the ONLY activity that brings in money! Turning off lights, doing your own books and taking out your own trash are nice economical and ecological things to do, but THEY DON’T BRING IN MONEY! 

     When you can cut out  the excuses, and realize that making your business successful in spite of what everyone around you may seem to be saying (because THEY haven’t learned to cut out the excuses) IS A CHOICE. You CHOOSE your behavior. And you CHOOSE your business’s behavior. It is just as easy (in fact easier) to choose success as it is to choose failure.

     Get your glove and get in the game, and step up to the plate when it’s time to make things happen. PSSSSSSST: Like…NOW?! 

# # #  

Next time someone calls you

“Four i’s,” say thank you!

Radio station WIIFM  (What’s In It For Me?) has been on the air now for over 30 years that I can remember, as the acronym for reminding marketers and advertisers and salespeople that benefits, not features, are what people buy! You want to make a sale? Tell prospects how they’ll benefit, not how great you are!

Okay,  you got that, right? So what’re the “Four-i’s” in SMALL BUSiiNESS STiiMULUS?

Here it is,  all you acronym fanatics (and don’t say I never gave you anything!):

• Intelligence –

Cause literally EVERYone outside Federal and state government circles knows that ONLY small business job creation will reverse this sick economy, and that small business owners must rise above the meaningless token incentives being waved around… and go for the gold under their own steam!

• Innovation –

Cause everybody has ideas, but very few see them through to completion!

• Impression –

Cause you never get a second first one!

• Integrity –

Cause without it, you have no business and no chance of survival in ANY kind of economy! Doing the right thing all of the time means having no exceptions.

     The bottom line is  that if you are lacking in even one 0f these four I’s, you are in big-time trouble, and need to get on the stick before 9am tomorrow morning! And, incidentally, none of these qualities, values, characteristics, whatever you want to call them, costs anything.

In fact,  all four involve conscious daily choices to pursue them. When you have Intelligence, and know your market, know your industry, know your competition, know your product and service benefits (and features) and know what you’re up against with narrow-minded government perspectives that will only provide lip-service instead of solid support, you will be in the best possible position to move your business forward.

     When you choose  innovation and innovative thinking, you are choosing to see every step of the birthing process for launching a new idea. That focus alone will carry the best ideas forward and lose the unproductive ones quickly along the way.

     When you realize  that no one will take the trouble to judge your business twice and that your first impression must be the one that flies, you will be well on the way to achieving the acceptance levels you seek. This means not settling for inferior marketing, advertising, sales, promotion, merchandising, and public relations programs and materials.

     Integrity is the backbone of business.  The recent failures of giant corporate entities have underscored the truth of this point. The day-to-day failures and successes of small businesses are 100% attributable to having and consistently demonstrating high levels of trust and integrity or not. Failures blamed on under-capitalization are failures of poor management. Failures of poor management can inevitably be traced back to failures of integrity.

Heed the Four i’s  as if they were your own two i’s because in the end, the i’s have it!

# # #

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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

Hal@Businessworks.US         931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

It’s the Lightening Up

of Corporate America!

     You’re a management trainer and corporate economic climates have taken the wind out of your sails. You’re looking around for community college adult education courses to run. You’re doing drips and drabs of HR consulting with some old friends. Times are tighter than your shoelaces. 

     Stop beating yourself up; stop doing all the things you’ve always advised and taught others to not do. Take some of those deep breaths you advocate. The message is this: L-I-G-H-T-E-N    U-P ! Lighten up the programs you’re proposing. Companies do not want any in-depth, heavy-duty, psycho-analytic training programs for their managers right now!

     They want L-I-G-H-T agendas combined with good relaxing fun and team-building. Corporate America may be stupid about growing business and productivity ratios and revenue streams and job creation, but they know when it’s time to lighten up the stress that their loyal managers have been shouldering. 

     And it’s time now.

     I had my own management training company for many years. I ran over 2,000 workshops and training programs, and had over 20,000 participants in 50 different cities and half a dozen different countries.

     It was everything from Maslow’s Hierarchy to Quality Circles, One-Minute Manager, TA, Theory X, TheoryY, Theory Z, Empowerment, Assertiveness Training, Anger Management, and my own inventions: Corporate Entrepreneurship, Doctorpreneurs and Teacherpreneurs.  

     Then is not now. Then corporate executives charged trainers with the responsibility to teach them how to be better, more effective, more efficient, more productive executives and how to be better humans. This took some doing, and tons of analytical diagnostics and psychotherapy.

     Today, the word is L I G H T. As in S I M P L E and having F U N while gaining firsthand leadership and teamwork experiences with fellow employees. A best buddy of mine, Kevin Bousquet, who runs Interlaken Inn Executive Resort & Conference Center www.InterlakenInn.com in Northwest Connecticut, agrees.

     You may have seen my plugs here for Interlaken. It truly is THE premier business escape (2 hours/NYC and 3 hours/BOS) with the finest location, facility, amenities, meals, service AND budget-conscious prices that any management trainer or meeting planner will find. (If you call, tell Kristy I sent you and get a special gift!)

     Kevin tells me that the programs that are having the most success are those with the least stress and the most fun. Not all fun and games, but fun and learning. Interlaken’s Executive Ropes Course, lakefront boating and golf options and gourmet challenge programs are the busiest and most talked-about. Dump the heavy stuff!

Think of it as the Lightening Up of Corporate America!  

# # #  

Input always welcome: Hal@BusinessWorks.US

(”Businessworks” in subject line) or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals and God bless you! 

“Break out the branding

irons, Grandpa. The

rustlers are on the way!”

We brand cattle to keep them together. We brand businesses to set them apart. Cattle brands keep ranchers honest. Business brands (real ones) keep businesses honest.

     Surprised by that last statement? Don’t be. 

     Business brands are not just logos and slogans and motto’s and razz-matazz messages, mission statements, vision statements, jingles and names. Business brands are the intangibles that stand behind those “say-it-in-a-nutshell” communications. 

     The heart of a business brand is the integrity of the business and the management and employees and products and services that support and reinforce the images conjured up by the logos, and slogans, and mottos, and jingles, and names.

     A business brand is the honorability of the actual product or service and employee performance. It’s knowing in your heart of hearts that you as a customer can trust and have confidence in who you’re dealing with and the dollar-value you’re getting.

“The value of any brand rises or falls with each demonstration of the company’s integrity. The balance is fragile. Every slip can be costly…A service can be faster, cheaper, better, and still fail if it does not win the confidence of people that it will keep its promises and tell the truth.”

–Henry Beckwith, from SELLING THE INVISIBLE (Warner Books)

     This thinking applies to individual businesses, entire professions and industries, towns/counties/states/regions and countries. Not many years ago under dictatorship with 17 year-olds roaming the streets with machine guns, the Dominican Republic was not a travel destination with integrity.

     Revolution, democracy, appreciation of tourism dependency, and strong branding programs focused on the integrity of the land and the people have reversed the country’s demise. Today, the Dominican Republic is a great place to vacation.

     You’ve perhaps heard that one disgruntled customer tells ten other people about her or his upsets and that each of them tell ten more…yielding suddenly 100 people bad-mouthing the business.

     Put another way, if you’re open for business Monday through Friday and you have just one unhappy customer a day, you’re looking at 26,000 P.O.’d people a year saying negative things about your business. And it will take more than putting your finger in the dike to stop the flood. 

The branding that shows on the outside must be backed with integrity inside.

# # #  

Hal@TheWriterWorks.com  or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God bless you!