CUTTING EXPENSES

DOESN’T MAKE SALES!

To paraphrase an old presidential quote, “It’s the government, stupid!” America’s entrepreneurial leaders are grasping for a lifeline to avoid being swept out to sea by the daily onslaught of misdirected government speak and arrogant government attitude — a trickle-down mindset — harbingers of total economic collapse. And it could be just around the corner.

Forget all that stuff your grandparents used to preach about turning out lights and closing doors to save money. You might save electricity and keep out drafts, but in small business, that kind of save money mentality has been the ruin of many startup ventures. In reality this government-style thinking process accomplishes nothing on the road to survival and growth.

NO ONE EVER MADE MONEY FOR

A BUSINESS BY SAVING MONEY!

Biting into economical practices does not make sales. Only sales make money! “Ouch!” you proclaim, “but I’m not a sales type!” Well, then, become one. Or find one. Or give up your business and go to work for the government. Or show some guts and stick it out. You can make your idea work if you stop taking government advice about how to make it work.

This is not suggesting you do an entrepreneurs gone wild act. A mainstay of our current government, though it may be, this post is not about spending. It’s about what you can do now to turn your business around and stand up to the sleazy, ramrod, phony compassion-soaked policies of the current administration that is desperately trying to control small business.

Just because you have an exciting idea and some startup funding doesn’t mean you can let your enthusiasm run rampant. Business success is about extraordinary customer service and relationship-building. It is about channeling energy and making the most of opportunities that present themselves within your realm of pursuit.

Chase one rainbow at a time! And remember that the best leaders are those who make leaders of their followers.

Running recklessly in too many directions at once will simply produce frustration, exhaustion, and distress — especially in this bare-bones economy. But you CAN run a bare-bones business. After all, small business is based on TRUST. Got some?

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WRITING   YOUR   BOOK 

It’s just not the same as editing, designing

 formatting and publishing, distributing,

branding, promoting, legalizing, and

marketing your book… or selling it!

READ BEFORE YOU LEAP, YOU 81%!

Why am I telling you this? What makes this relevant to small business? HA! 81% of all Americans think they “have a book in them” according to a New York Times survey report . . . uh, that’s like over 200 million people in the U.S. who want to write a book — more than total viewers of the most-watched-in-history 2012 London Olympic games!

WOW! That sounds like a sizable market right? And an awful lot of new books on the horizon, right? Wrong! How could that be? Well, first off– like the old days when TV first came out, and everyone watched it with the same passion we now relegate to smart phones, all humans thought they could write TV commercials because they watched them!

In other words, if you don’t read, you can’t write. According to industry findings reported at www.SelfPublishingResources.com, the average book buyer reportedly never reads more than the first 18 pages of a book she or he has purchased!!! If you don’t read complete books, you can’t write books worth reading. And if your first 18 pages don’t shake the walls loose . . .

Second: WRITING your book is the easy part!

And even if you DO write a book worth reading, you’d better have a lot of money and/or considerable professional expertise with editing, designing, formatting, publishing, distributing, branding, promoting, marketing, contract law, and sales. Even IF you can manage getting a big-time agent, publishing house, and publicist, the buck still stops with you! Even if.

Discouraging? Absolutely. My best guess is that 80 of the 81% will fall by the wayside trying to effectively manage the tasks noted in the paragraph above. That’s a big pile of dead book efforts! Ah, but now there’s CROWD SOURCING to the rescue!

Go to this site now for an example of how to make your book work once it’s written. Oh, yes, and it’s only a couple of hundred dollars to create! IT’S THE NEW WAY TO SELL BOOKS. IT”S THE WAY ALL FUTURE BOOKS WILL BE SOLD!

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Hal@Businessworks.US   

When to personalize

your message?

Please. If you’re still asking this question, I hope someone else is doing your marketing for you. The answer of course, is “Always!” When do you NOT personalize a message? When you want no results!

Can any message that you ever receive (except maybe a threat or a summons ;<) be too personalized? Well how do you think your prospects feel when they get your emails and Tweets and direct mail addressed to: Dear Occupant, or Dear Computer User (Duh!), or Dear Follower, or Dear Homeowner, or Dear Friend, or Dear Voter?

You might ask instead:

Why would a business or professional practice

owner throw money out the window?

What’s in a name? It’s the most important thing you have! When a business or professional practice refuses to take the trouble or go to the expense to find out what it is, or refuses to use it in communicating, or won’t take the time and make the effort to spell it or say it correctly, that entity is not worth dealing with. Period. No exceptions.

“Dear Valued Customer”? Finger down throat! Pffffft! That’s BS and you know it! If you can’t be more personalized than that, you’re not serious about being in business. Get a government job! (Not much of anything needs to be personalized there.) If the customer is so “valuable,” prove the point; get it right!

Your prospects and customers are no different than you in how they perceive the integrity and authenticity of a business or professional practice based on the accuracy and diligence of how a communication is addressed. If your name is Smith and a message comes to you addressed to Smythe, are you about to open it or read any further? Of course not.

And if it’s pronounced “Smitt” on the phone

 . . .”CLICK! Buzzzzzz:

If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and . . .”

Making doubly sure of the exact accuracy of the name that you personalize (and address your communications to), no doubt takes longer and probably costs more, but–in the end–odds are it will get through and be noticed instead of being trashed without even being opened. Oh, and the more complicated the name is, the more likely you gain a friend by spelling it right!

This goes for email addresses and phone calls as well. You don”t know how to pronounce a name? Ask! There are enough tools available via Internet search engines today that there’s no longer any excuse for misrepresenting, mispronouncing, misdirecting, or misspelling a prospect or customer name, or title, or company affiliation. Personalizing your message sells!

If you, in other words, are reduced to having to say “Dear Friend,” be assured you are not. Stop wasting your time and money.

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HAL ALPIAR Writer/Consultant 302.933.0911 TheWriterWorks.com, LLC

National Award-Winning Author & Brand Marketer – Record Client Sales

Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Consider the worst,

 but assume the best!

There’s no longer any excuse for being surprised in business (or life) when you’re able to discipline yourself to practice the thinking: “What’s the worst that could happen?” in every major decision . . . and then proceed to believe that only the best outcome will actually occur to reward your efforts!

Mind over matter? Perhaps. But, more than that, each worst case scenario situation you consider will better prepare you for the reality of what’s possible while it protects your belief in making happen what’s probable.

In other words, you will move forward most effectively when you’ve weighed the risks involved realistically.

Every leader worth her or his salt will attest to this thinking. The difference between it and a proverbial doomsday attitudes is simply that considering bad outcomes need only be a momentary departure from the positive thrust of making something positive happen.

Dwelling on negativity produces negativity.

Well, you say, making negative thoughts be fleeting ones is easy to SAY, you say. Ah, but it’s also easy to DO. Doesn’t it all come down to a matter of choice, after all? We do, by the way, choose our behaviors, yes?

So can we not simply choose to make  negative thoughts be benchmarks with a caution flag?

Who’s to say that considering the worst possible outcome has to be a long, drawn-out, analytical affair? It’s as quick as saying, “If I take this deal, I could lose the farm” and then realize the risk is not a reasonable one. (Contrary to popular opinion, by the way, Entrepreneurs take only reasonable risks.)

If you have trouble stopping your own runaway train when decisions come to the surface, force yourself to close your mouth and take a deep breath through your nose. Get more oxygen into your brain and more blood-flow into your muscles. Then exhale the stress slowly through your mouth.

Every choice you make is a better choice when you have better control of yourself. More deep breathing more often will put you in better control of your self. Is that a no-brainer, or what? All from making the choice to consider the worst that could happen before moving forward? Whew! Look at what you just taught yourself. The lesson is worth repeating:

Make the choice to consider the worst

that could happen before moving forward.

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HAL ALPIAR Writer/Consultant 302.933.0911 TheWriterWorks.com, LLC

National Award-Winning Author & Brand Marketer – Record Client Sales

Your competition is in

summer slowdown mode

. . . so speed up!

Former New York Mets manager Willie Randolph professed that winning teams needed the attitude that when they were able to get ahead of an opponent in a game or series, was the time to “put your boot on their neck.” Merciless? Maybe. A winning formula? Maybe. (Though Willie was hardly a big-winning manager.) A philosophy with merit? Sure.

It’s always worth considering options for dealing effectively with your competitors. But –unless you’re a boxer– knockouts are rarely if ever the most effective method for your reputation and long-term growth. Many successful small businesses actually use a competitor’s summer slowdown period as a chance to collaborate and exchange supportive services.

As unlikely as it may seem on the surface, down-shifting summer and holiday gears from 3rd to 2nd can be done with less negative financial impact when good working relationships with competitors can be called into play. I’ve even heard of competitive retail firms alternating seasonal slow-down periods by arranging to cover for one another.

TURN DOWNTURNS UP!

And don’t many successful professionals do that routinely? Doctors, lawyers, accountants, and many creative and tech services will provide short-term coverage for one another in a spirit of teamwork, and to make the most of opportunities to spread out overhead costs, and keep clients/patients/customers who might otherwise stray.

“WIN-WIN” isn’t just a leadership/teamwork slogan. Any situation where bi-partisanship can enhance overall performance of competitive businesses is a win for customers as well. Bartering work hours for administrative or sales personnel, for instance, can be very effective when the business owners and managers are equally committed.

Barter can be especially beneficial

for business startups and overhauls!

The retail world is filled with great examples. Physically-clustered competitors can usually attract many more customers than those in isolated locations. Consider the drawing power of New York City’s Diamond and Garment Districts, San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, Houston’s Riverwalk, Delaware’s Outlet Centers . . . add your own here!

The point is that while you may be looking to throw a knockout punch at your competitor, consider the opposite. A cooperative arrangement can benefit you both, and even be there to support you if your business ever goes through a slowdown period. Examine the ways you do business before turning up the heat on your competition.

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HAL ALPIAR Writer/Consultant 302.933.0911 TheWriterWorks.com, LLC

National Award-Winning Author & Brand Marketer – Record Client Sales

THINKING BIG WINS!

I see small businesses every day that think small and stay small:

Vehicles and signs and ads and websites that show phone numbers without area codes; radio and TV commercials that fail to say what town a business is in, or what the address is; owners who resist free global promotion opportunities (like Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook and BizBrag) because they think of themselves as catering to small town communities and local markets.

There’s no surer way to guarantee staying small and never earning the big-time sales you’re capable of.

If you want to get big, STOP THINKING SMALL!

For many, small, local business is a great way of life and a totally satisfying experience, but for those who seek to grow and generate revenues worth writing home about, it may be time to open some doors in your brain and realize that your body, your life, and your business are what you think they are. (READ THAT AGAIN!) Whatever you think something is, it is.

If you think of yourself as fat, you are and will be fat. If you think of your life as happy, it is and will be happy. If you think of your business as growing and successful, guess what? So the question is not what’s wrong with the business or the economy or with  you? It is instead what are you imagining it (or yourself) to be? And, how can you change that?

Start with accepting the three realizations that:

1.  Thoughts are things and what you perceive is what you believe.

2.  You are what you think about.

3.  Your behavior (in this case, your ability to think differently about things) is a choice. 

Be a detective about yourself and your motives. Why would you choose to think and act small? If your answer sounds like an excuse, it probably is. Why would you choose to offer an excuse? What can you do –starting right now– to confront the reality of what you think you’re capable of, and go for it? What mental roadblocks are in the way? How can you remove them?

Why do you think top advertisers say things like “DO IT!” and “IT’S INSIDE YOU”? The old Eagles song, “Take it to the limit” is yet another reminder. You have the choice and can choose this very minute to change, to make a difference, to start thinking BIG and HAPPY and THIN or whatever it is that you want. Thinking hard and consistently yields results!

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Hal@Businessworks.US              931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

ENTREPRENEURIAL

TRIAL-AND-ERROR

BEATS CORPORATE

ANALYTICS!

Small business owners and operators invariably run their businesses –and practice human resource, industry/profession, and community leadership– by trial and error. The trade-off for not following all the latest corporate mumbo-jumbo leadership trends and fads, and time-consuming “time-proven” techniques is instantaneous adjustment.

That translates into what Grandpa always used to say was the most desirable of all business traits: “being able to turn on a dime.” Of course Grandpa ran a five and ten-cent store and could hardly have known that in 2012, no one would much care about a meager dime. It won’t even make a phone call or (Thanks to Starbucks) pay for a cup of coffee anymore.

Only by being able to ‘turn on a dime,’ or ‘shift gears quickly,’ can a business adapt to rapid market changes without skipping a beat. This, of course, may not be so critical an asset for an insurance broker, as for a retailer… or for a repair shop, as it might be for web design or writing services, as just a couple of examples.”

Nonetheless, all the big-time, extravagant methods that corporate muckity-mucks use to justify their existences with overkill assessment processes –from weeks worth of focus groups to statistical analysis paralysis— don’t add up to anything close to what can be achieved with the entrepreneurial respond-adjust/trial-and-error method.

This is not to suggest that all leadership decisions should be seat-of-0the-pants, knee-jerk, shoot-from-the-hip reactions. It is rather to say that the amount of time it takes to plan and analyze every step tends to be proportionally related to failed decision making.

Leaders lead by leading.

No one was ever a successful business leader who spent inordinate amounts of time and energy studying past actions and events, and then planning and worrying about the future.

What separates entrepreneurial success from corporate lethargy is acting out possibilities on the spot, making adjustments on the fly, taking reasonable risks, and living most of the time in the present, here-and-now moment.

Entrepreneurs are invested in making their ideas work, instead of covering their butts and justifying decisions.

Trial and error may produce some black and blue bruises along the way, and probably a great many more than your big-business counterpart will encounter while slogging along through the white shirt and tie quagmire. When the focus is here and now, there’s no time to dwell on errors or worry about where you’re going.

Flexible goals? Yes! Stifling long-term plans? No! . . . Think it. Try it. Do it. Adjust it. Do it again. Make it happen.

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Hal@Businessworks.US Thanks for visiting and God Bless You! 

E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P . . .

Need A Crowbar

to Separate

Business

From Personal???

If your answer is YES, you are probably an entrepreneur. You probably make yourself so busy that the line between personal and business interests is as inexorably blurred as cataract vision, right? Well, there is hope, and no, it doesn’t have to be laser surgery!

In good times, it’s called “vacation,” and since that probably hasn’t been the case in five years, you may want to call it “taking breaks.” Don’t look so scornful. Taking frequent breaks has been proven to actually increase productivity.

The most successful of two small business owners, for example, doing the same kind of work in the same number of hours, will be the one who takes regular breaks . . . start with not eating lunch at your desk, and getting up and walking around more. Stretching your arms, legs, back and neck is always rewarding. (Try it with your speaker phone on!)

Taking breaks is not an activity that should be limited to leaders or followers, to teams or individuals, to owners or partners or operators or coffeeholics. If you’re a human being, you need breaks in the action! If you’re not a human being, and you’re reading this, contact me immediately (phone and email below) — we can make a lot of money together!

When you’re vaguely aware of getting too fat, too skinny, too lightheaded, too clumsy, too disoriented, too mean-spirited, too ANYthing — before you race off to the doctor, make sure it’s not simply a case of failing to give your body and mind more attention than the tasks at hand. Tasks won’t get done right without being mentally and physically alert.

Looking for “how-to’s”? Put small reminder notes to yourself in your face . . . on mirrors, your wristwatch, your cellphone, your briefcase, your dashboard, your wallet: “BREATHE” or “STRETCH” or “EXERCISE” or “EAT BETTER” or “TAKE A WALK” or “PLAY MORE” — whatever works for you! Ask someone close to you to prompt you, or give you wake-up calls!

Entrepreneurs have a way of muddying up their internal fluids because they believe that they ARE their businesses and if they stop, the businesses stop. This of course is true at many levels, but not overall, and not all the time, and not nearly as much as small business owners and operators lead themselves to believe.

When in doubt, try it. What have you got to lose by taking a couple more breaks every day? Stress? Well . . . 

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0116

If you own or operate a

business or professional

practice . . . . . YOU are

“The Mother of Invention”

If you work anywhere in that vast sea of government or private mega-enterprise incompetence, click off here and visit some other website that lets you be corporately lethargic and obscure. If, however, you’re running or managing your own business or some innovative part of a business –real parent or not– read on: YOU are the “Mother of Invention.”

Now Peter Drucker who’s referred to as the “Father of Management” may not like that idea, but–I would challenge him. I mean, when did “Mother” ever lose to “Father”?

Today, in other words, is also a day to celebrate YOU being your business’s parent.

First off, anyone who works for you sees you in a parental light. You are looked up to for guidance and leadership. You are a role model. You may not like providing inspiration or being thought of as something special, but you ARE.

When you can face up to it and make the most of it, you’ll be helping your staff, your self and your business to grow.

Don’t just provide leadership. Provide leadership by example; people want to learn by watching and trying and doing.

Don’t just provide leadership. Provide leadership that’s transparent. Keep all your business dealings clearly defined and out in the open. Forget that you have a “Bcc” setting on your emails. Stop closing doors. Share information freely.

If you’ve hired good people to start with, you’re only toying with risk levels that are reasonable. If you’ve got a bad apple or two, your open-and-above-boardness will flush them out.

In other words:

Give everyone a chance to give you a chance

for your business to have a chance to succeed.

Now, Mothers and Fathers, let’s look at that “Invention” word that you’re parenting. And this, by the way, includes the world of healthcare– especially hospitals! If you’re not CONSTANTLY creating and inventing and innovating . . . coming up with new ideas, ways, methods, designs, plans, steps, contacts, messages . . . EVERY DAY, then you are investing in the status quo.

Keeping things the same, not rocking the boat, and “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” are the prevalent nonproductive notions anchoring most stagnant corporate giants, every government agency, and all unsuccessful small businesses.

Business owner Job One is to stay out of that trap. Don’t let anything interfere with your daily birthing of inventive thinking. It’s how you started your business. It’s what’s carried your business. It’s what will will make the difference between your business surviving and your business thriving in the months and years ahead.

This doesn’t mean every lightbulb that goes on over your head needs to light up the world, or even that little dark corner of your workspace, but it does mean that you and your business cannot afford to pull the plug on that open socket; keep trying out new bulbs; follow up with some and discard others. [Edison made 10,000 tries before inventing the lightbulb!]

Innovation, remember, is taking the rarest of those good ideas and seeing them all the way through, every specific step of the way, to their final destination markets — even if only on paper or the computer screen. Together with your business itself, it’s those parented ideas that become the inventions that you mother and nurture into adulthood. Happy Mother’s Day!

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0116

WHY?

WHY NOT?

WHY NOT ME?

…WHY NOT NOW?

The tougher that times get, the more focused we need to be on the here-and-now present. Anything else triggers agita! Demonstrating to our customers, prospects, employees, associates, investors, advisors, referrers, and community-at-large that we are seriously committed to making things happen quickly is one of the strongest impressions a business can make.

This is not to suggest a haste-makes-waste attitude that ends up costing money or relationships. Instead, it’s all about responding promptly to what’s asked of us. Every business owner knows that pleasing others and building strong work relationships and customer relationships is directly related to one’s ability to “hop to it” when a request or purchase is made.

But all too often, this ownership sense of urgencyis never passed along through the rank and file. In my work with at least a thousand businesses over the years, I’ve heard frequent references to “The Boss” as someone who works hard and responds quickly to the interests others express or show in the business, or in the business offerings. But it’s not contagious!

Many employees and associates seem to settle into a lethargic comfort zone that relies on the boss’s behaviors to make things happen instead of assuming responsibility to follow the boss’s lead and adopt her or his commitment to action.

With the assurance that some action is always better than no action –at least in business– most bosses fail to communicate a sense of hustle to those around them.

When did you last gather your staff or team together to let them know how much you’re counting on them to solve customer problems and fill needs as quickly as they can, how important this single commitment is to repeat sales?  Are you rewarding hustle? Try tossing a one dollar coin (because it’s uncommon, it’s special) at someone every time you observe rapid response activity. You’ll be amazed at how far that single dollar will go toward motivating urgency.

• A 6pm phone call requesting delivery of a part 400 miles away by 9am the next morning was greeted by one delivery service with “Sorry our switchboard is closed after 5pm; try back tomorrow.”

• Another delivery service responded by saying it would have to cost $2,500 to get the part to its destination by 9am because the driver was scheduled to go the opposite direction and would have to leave two hours earlier to fill the request.

• A third company said the office was closed and all the trucks were scheduled for the morning, but the person answering the phone said he had nothing planned for the evening and would take the part personally in his car for gas, tolls and breakfast… $323.50. Do you think that customer returned to the third company for future deliveries? 

It’s really hard to respond too quickly to a customer or prospect request. In fact, they’ll surely tell you if that’s the case. But no one forgets the business that goes out of its way to see to it that requests are handled and processed promptly. It’s called having an Action Attitude. Do you?

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116