Coming soon to your  

expanding consciousness

. . .Two of the world’s three 

most important words!

Besides “Please” (which does not have a special day devoted to it), “Thank You” may be the world’s most important words because –in every language and every neighborship  in every country– they make people smile inside.

You can prove it to yourself just by thinking for a minute that it’s Thanksgiving time: 

• the general business climate begins to relax
• our thoughts turn to family — our “family-families” of course, but it’s also an appropriate time to take stock in and remember our “business families” as well.

And while we’re on the subject of thankfulness, let us not forget all our military and “first responder”  (police and fire and EMS) families. They are, after all, the ones who have given us the freedom and the opportunities to choose and achieve, who make it possible for us to pursue new horizons, and ways to grow our business interests, which support our families.

“Thank you for your service to our country!” with a sincere handshake and straight look in the eye addressed to the occupant of every passing military uniform or veteran hat is a rewarding and meaningful practice all year, 24/7. “Thank you for your service to our community!” is an equally important expression of appreciation to local, county, and state first responders.

If these are not routine practices

for you, try them out this week!

I had the pleasure for a number of years of serving as management consultant to H&H Swiss, a precision metal manufacturing company in Hillside, New Jersey. It was the company’s tradition to send out Thanksgiving cards to customers and friends every year instead of Christmas cards. Their mailings expressed timely thanks for business friendship, and never got lost in the “holiday shuffle.”

With most of us looking forward next week to the annual trekking or hosting of our assorted dysfunctional “family-families,”  it may be appropriate to pause to appreciate not just all the good food and relationship renewals, but also the accomplishments of our “business families.”

Remember that special favor

someone did for you

 this past year? That extra

effort you were too busy

to acknowledge?

No, you needn’t start doling out cash bonuses, or even turkeys. But you might want to hand out, instead, your sincere appreciation for those special contributions of time and commitment that surfaced within your “family-family” as well as your “business family.”

Go ahead. Take the risk. It’s a reasonable one.

Let each person know how much you genuinely appreciate her or him going the extra mile. Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

302.933.0116    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!

 Know someone looking for work?

Send this post along as a 

reminder of HOW to look.

As editor of a 100-page JOB HUNTER Action Guide for outplacement counseling, and a former professor of career development, I have three critical observations to share with today’s desperate job search market:

1. Learn what you have to about yourself, and about how to manage your stress (take some deep breaths) effectively enough to not allow others (anyone, really) to pick up on your desperation feelings.

No one wants to refer or hire a person who’s busy scraping and scrambling to stay alive.

So even if scraping and scrambling is in fact what you’re doing, pack it away when you start each day. Keep your mind on positive thoughts even when you’re staring negativity in the face.

Surround yourself with positive people and positive experiences every chance you get. This includes the TV shows you watch, the music you listen to, the emails you send and FWD, the room(s) you live in, and the things you read.

2) If you’re not on Twitter, figure it out. Do it. It will force you to be concise, think on your feet, and be responsive. It will provide job connections and opportunities you won’t find in your local newspaper or even in key industry publications. If you keep your Twitter account (which is free) and activity focused on getting a job and on being social without over-indulging in chit-chat, there IS payback.

When you go back and forth on Twitter, and gain confidence that somebody out there loves your comments (called Tweets), you will simultaneously be training yourself to think and communicate in resume terms.  Your resume will get tighter and more impressive as it gets Twitter-streamlined.

Twitter’s 140 character per Tweet limitation is like boot camp for your job hunter brain.

Your interviewing process will likewise benefit by the 140-character discipline habit because you will start getting to the point of what you are trying to express quicker, and more simply. Bosses want responsive, uncomplicated job candidates. Long-windedness and fat vocabularies are great if you’re looking to be a politician or librarian, but send out the wrong signals otherwise.

3) No matter what your background or skill set, and no matter what the job you seek is all about, you must recognize that you and you alone are –in the end– the one who has to land the job. No resume writer or career coach or counselor can do that for you. That means one thing: You must learn and practice everything you possibly can about marketing because you are marketing yourself!

Your resume needs to accomplish one task only. And more than one page (unless you’re seeking a professional position requiring a CV) won’t cut it!

It must get your foot in the door. It must land you an interview.

More than one page says you don’t know how to be concise and you don’t know how to prioritize, and you don’t know what’s important. Most interviewers throw these out without a glance.

You need –like a professional marketing program– to play out EVERY contact, THANK every contact, and focus on AIDAS: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction . . .

• ATTRACT ATTENTION (with your demeanor, not flamboyance)
• CREATE INTEREST (by HOW you present yourself –format, as well as WHAT you present –content)
• STIMULATE DESIRE (by demonstrating your own desire for the challenges and opportunities, not the salary and benefits)
• BRING ABOUT ACTION (by asking for follow-up, a test period)
• PROMPT SATISFACTION (by providing follow-up; this can be tricky; consider consulting a professional career coach)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Do All Web Designers, Editors,

SEO “Experts,” Digital

Managers, and Webmasters 

Own Stock in Optical and

Eye Surgery Centers?

Speaking of Eyes, here are a few I’s for you — just in case you’re looking for good “I” words to characterize the work performance sections of your resumes (which I hope for your short-term well-being that you have up-to-date!).

Let me not beat around the bush.

Here’s my Top 20 List of Words to describe the efforts(?) of those of you who appear to be part of the vast sea of non-communicative business (and especially BIG -time Corporate) websites:  

Irksome. Irritating. Infuriating. Insulting. Invidious. Inconvenient. Incompetent. Irrational. Insolent. Inapt. Impudent. Immature. Insouciant. Inflammatory. Incorrigible. Implacable. Inconceivable. Idiotic . . . Ignoramus Internet Imbeciles!

And that’s just the I’s.

I dare you to tell me the last website you visited that was physically readable. It’s bad enough you’ve butchered the English language and that you remain out-of-control-convinced that all of humanity speaks only via txtmsg language, now we all read your proudly-designed sites, and need glasses.

Do you really think that:

type this size

. . . is for normal, healthy eyes? And then you have the audacity (we’ll leave the I’s behind for awhile; I like “audacity”) to do the damn type in gray, and Italicized, no less?

like this

What are you all nut cases?

Did you ever consider that site visitors become prospects and prospects become customers and customers’ purchases of the products and services promoted on the site are what pay for your existence?

(Oh, and please don’t start telling me about ways to adjust my screen size to accomodate your lack of customer service and marketing savvy!)

Sometimes, I might expect to see some brand new business attempting –with, obviously, the communication expertise and guidance of one of you– to spout its message with a touch of class that no doubt came from having once visited a high-priced attorney’s office where everything is gray, including the invoices. But I’ve come to expect better from long-established enterprises.

Or, well maybe I’ll give you the benefit of doubt, maybe it’s just that if you use .6 and .7 font sizes, you figure you can get more stuff on a page and jam it into little corners so you can design Internet castles in the air with all that leftover space. And, shoot!, if you make it gray and hard to read, nobody can criticize your attempts at copy content without having to visit their ophthalmologists, right?

What touched off this avalanche? Check around a few corporate giant sites, especially pages with unimportant junk — you know, things that just don’t mean anything, like instructions, or policies, or payment terms. I have.

In fact, I’ll return to the A words for long enough to say that it is beyond ANNOYING to find evidence of work done by people who really should know better (and who are typically commanding huge fees) that fails 100% to communicate. And somewhere up there is a boss who clearly hasn’t a clue about how to be a leader, who has let droves of techie superstars commandeer their own marketing programs.  

So, in case you’re still reading this (and with apologies for catching up the more honorable among you in my wrath), I have this to say to you:

Don’t give up your day job!

~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or 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!

If your marketing has gone 

online-exclusive, your business

 may very well fold in 24-36 months!

Ah, but there’s still a chance to save yourself from killing yourself.

• FIRST: Get rid of the person who talked you into putting all your marketing eggs in one Internet basket. Even if it’s family, begone with him or her . . . as well as his or her ideas, which are costing you money, wasting your time, and depleting your energy!
• SECOND: Recognize that, in spite of whatever sales spiel you were fed by that person (or agency or group or team) that you listened to, the whole world –and your target market specifically (unless it’s 110% techie products or services)– has not (N~O~T) stopped reading newspapers, magazines, and direct mail!
• THIRD: The whole world –and your target market specifically– has not (N~O~T) stopped watching TV and listening to radio, or shut their eyes down while passing billboards. They have not stopped reading brochures, or responding to special sales and promotions, news releases, and coupons. They have not even (Aaargh!) stopped responding to telemarketing.

If you think for one minute that your entire universe of customers and prospects is maniacally text-messaging and spending every living moment on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, you are sorely mistaken.  

And anyone who might have bamboozled you into thinking those things is much too short-sighted (and evidently too immature) to take responsibility for moving your business forward.

DO NOT abandon traditional marketing and think that it will be compensated for by a full-commitment plunge into online vehicles and media efforts.

Your website is important. Depending on the nature of your business, your engagement with social media is important. But anyone with even a little marketing savvy and training knows that these are simply ingredients in the total mix.

If you are not using every possible, affordable opportunity to market your business right now, you might as well open your window and throw the money out that you have been spending!

(Ah, and don’t pretend that online stuff is free . . . dig out that old magnifying glass and start discovering those hidden expenses! Prepare to be surprised!)

While most small and medium size businesses appear to have engaged so-called “Web Editors” or “Community Managers” or “Digital Marketing Managers,” fewer than 30% are reported to have a “Marketing Manager.”

Sadly for those misinformed business owners who dominate the 70%, these numbers should be the exact opposite!

Those who pretend to be business experts because they have some computer expertise will be the downfall of many well-intentioned but pathetically uninformed business owners.

“Web” and “Digital” people tend to know nothing of (and care less about) traditional marketing media, and so automatically discard traditional marketing management approaches they think are limited, but which are not!

                                                                                            

Even the teeny-bopper market that most uses handheld electronic devices (and most text messages one another), continues to watch TV and go ton the movies and visit arcades and read magazines and newspapers and attend sporting events and concerts, and open mail addressed to them.

It may appear to be all about hi-tech and emails and the like, but –even this market– indulges in traditional media. How can you confirm this? Run some quick and cheap focus group studies.

But, oh, your “Web Editor” might not know about how to do a focus group study because that requires traditional marketing experience. Okay, focus group some txtmsgs and see what you get!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or 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!

Adapted from an original archived blog post on this site…

WHY DO YOU THINK U.S. MILITARY

 If your business return policy

is this UNfriendly, you

may want to rethink it!

Now you KNOW that while I frequently beat up on government incompetence (being as how it’s so-well earned), that I hardly ever jump on any business.

But this email came to me today, forwarded a few hundred times. That fact alone made me immediately skeptical, so I checked out the policy link at the bottom, and came away awestruck.

Customer insensitivity is one thing, but the kind of top management stupidity that fostered this ridiculous policy (in this kind of economy no less) deserves to be heavily publicized.

The boxed text speaks for itself. It’s too bad that some businesses, like BEST BUY, see the need to run roughshod over the consumer public like this.   

EVEN if this customer was “wrong,” he was right!

If your business can’t afford bad word-of-mouth, make sure all your policies are user-friendly and easily explained and supported, and that your people know how to handle situations like this better than this.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or 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!

Tired of Reality?

Ache for Fake?

Comes a time for every professional practice and business owner or manager to step up into the world of make-believe, and take a brain break from daily work realities and nightly reality TV.

I’m not talking a week in the islands or weekend at Disney World or some quality after-dinner minutes with kids or pets. These are all wonderful brain breaks recommended for every working human.

No, I’m talking about introducing a new ingredient in your daily schedule. You already read, right? But do you read right?

Are you filling your head with world news, industry news, market news, balance sheets, income statements, cash flow analyses, and all those advice articles: “How To Be A Better Leader”; “Saving Your Business From Financial Collapse”; “Why Motivating Customers AND Employees Is Like Juggling Seagulls”?

Ah, and even in the car, and late night TV, is it more business news?

Are you getting like one of those Washington DC-area C-Span junkies?

There is more to the world and more to your life than that. There is also more to your business than what you absorb from dwelling on business. And what might that be? Try INNOVATION!

Innovation doesn’t happen when you lock yourself up in a closet for a bunch of hours and suddenly come sweeping out with the magical answer (Note this analogy, those of you who retain creative services, which involves the same dynamic).

Innovation, it should be said, ONLY STARTS with a good idea. Ditch-diggers can come up with good ideas. For innovation to set in, you need a brain break!

Innovation means taking an idea

all the way through to fruition.

It requires comprehensive analysis of the product or service, the market, the competition, the creation and production options, the developmental costs and timelines, the human and operational resources needed, and so on and on, up to the point of launch countdown, and projections that go beyond that.

To foster and nurture innovation and innovative thinking requires a different mindset than is typically engaged on any given workday. The kind of free-spirited thinking that you evidenced when you started your business or professional practice or managerial job.

That attitude is not born of trade journals, online and traditional business media sources, or the rest of what you do every day!

Innovation comes about

from a mental shake-up!

It surfaces when you challenge yourself to look somewhere else besides the worlds of reality that cling to your shirtsleeves 5-7 days a week.

Yes, indulge yourself with travel and friend and family visits, and playing with your kids or pets (or the neighbor’s kids or pets). Take more photographs. Paint. Draw. Write. Get out of the rut.

One of the best ways to take this daily journey to increased productivity and innovative thinking is to do more reading — but not business stuff. Stop choosing excuses. Replace some of that reality overload with visits to fantasyland.

Go buy two FICTION books that look interesting to you. You might even find it surprising that you really CAN enjoy a novel. Set aside 20, 30, 60 minutes a day for it!

Anything from comics to Nelson DeMille’s serious humor stories, or Annie Proulx’s probes into America’s heartland, to Harry Potter books (you thought these were just for kids?), Richard Russo’s and Kent Haruf’s mainstream Americana stories, or a good mystery or suspense thriller. Just NOT business. And NOT nonfiction. And shelve the biographies and memoirs.

Your head needs to swim in make-believe. 

Do this conscientiously for just three weeks — your business cannot help but grow quicker and more brilliantly. Dangerous side effects: Your family, friends, and associates will actually enjoy being around you more. And (Aha!) less stress ( !) and new leadership opportunities!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

931.854.0474 or 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!

Are you and your business

MARCHING or STUMBLING?

You’re a business owner or manager, right? So you rarely know if you’re coming or going, never mind marching or stumbling . . . or jogging for endurance . . . or, for that matter, running scared.

Probability is that these are merely indicators of the degree of rigidity and/or speed you move according to how wildly your entrepreneurial fires are burning. Hmmm, now there’s a thought-provoker.

And it doesn’t help much that we’re living in “The Whiplash Age.” I feel my neck snap back in astonishment almost every day as I hop, skip, and jump through the process of discovering emerging technology methods and products . . . and bamboozling ideas! 

Considering we’ve gone from blackboards and filmstrip projectors to greenboards and overhead projectors to whiteboards and 16mm film projectors to newsprint pads on tripods, video projectors, PowerPoint, virtual meetings, virtual offices, txtmsgs, Twitter, Facebook, and handheld electronic devices (not even to mention the audio metamorphosis of reel-to-reel, then 78rpm/33 1/3 rpm/45rpm vinyl records, to 8-track cassettes, pocket and mini-cassettes, CDs, DVDs, boomboxes, sattelite radio (whew!) . . . and from crank-ups to cell phones . . . WHERE are we going next?

Of course you should answer this for yourself, but you may get some ideas here: http://bit.ly/bDOOVf

What are you doing to keep pace? Is your business keeping up with your market? With your industry or profession? 

Perhaps you’re ahead of yourself? http://bit.ly/bWXxIq

Are you over-spending? Under-spending? Over-communicating? Under-communicating? Are you being taken advantage of by advertising agencies that claim to be Internet experts?

How about Internet specialists who claim to be marketing experts? Just because someone anoints him or herself as an SEO or web design guru, doesn’t automatically qualify as expertise in marketing.

In fact, odds are excellent that Internet savvy techies know next to nothing about marketing.

ASK.

Ask what any of these people know about the psychology of selling, about verbal and nonverbal communication, about how to deal with traditional media rate cards and package structures, about branding.

Ask when they last wrote a branding themeline that established a clear market leadership position.

Ask for examples of major sales boosts that could be attributable to their work.

Ask for specifics.

If you can’t get satisfactory answers to these questions, you may have the world’s greatest Internet expert in front of you, but don’t pay a penny for marketing services that do not clearly trigger your market’s emotional buying motives. http://bit.ly/bwkfdr

Look at it this way: If I haven’t a clue about what makes your customer tick, then I also have no clue about how to attract prospects for you, or create interest in what you have to sell, or know how to stimulate desire for your services or wares.

And if I can’t do those things, I certainly have no idea of how to bring about action or how to prompt and promote feelings of exceptional customer satisfaction. http://bit.ly/bMDGcy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or 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!

 STOP telling everyone

how great you are,

and just BE great.

BE what you sell!

Forget about giving away too much. If you have a service to sell, stop talking about it, and start providing it!

The fastest road to a consulting assignment is the one where you simply start BEING a consultant.

Assume the role. Ask good questions and make diplomatic suggestions. Demonstrate your expertise. No need for overkill. Just give your prospect a taste of what you’re all about.

There are many dozens of produce markets in my State.

The one that gets the lion’s share of business is the one that greets you with fresh cut slices of the latest fruit shipment, or a cracker with some of that homemade jam they sell.

Or you get home and find a free onion or green pepper in the bag of string beans or potatoes you just bought.

Savvy retail price clubs and supermarket chains do the same “try it/taste it!” deal with packaged foods. Must be something to it, huh? When did you last turn down a free sample? When did you last offer one?

Did you think people don’t notice the freebies you give them? Do they rush to buy what you treat them to? Not always, but they’ll think better of you, and eventually, they’ll buy!

Sure, there are always freeloader types who hit and run whatever they can get away with, but the vast majority of us like to get a sample slice at the deli counter, a flavor sample scoopful at the ice cream store, free website redesign recommendations from the Internet consultant, free bookkeeping ideas from the accounting firm, and new revenue stream ideas from the marketing consultant.

When a prospective ad agency client asks for some creative ideas, and they get a well thought-out action plan supported by some targeted primary and secondary research as cornerstones to support the creative recommendations, the ad agency is going the extra mile to provide a sample of its range and thoroughness.

Oh, and yes, dear lawyers, it’s bad enough you charge clients for every fraction of a breath you take:  Bite the bullet when it comes to your “get-acquainted” prospective client interviews.

Charging people to size you up is not the way to start a relationship, and it matters a lot to most who might consider your services.

Doctors: When you’re seeking patients, grant them time to interview you without an office visit fee.

Showing prospective customers, clients, and patients a little bit of what you know is only part of making the sale. Showing them how you are as a person, how you relate to them and the needs they have, how you communicate with them is even more important.

Remember –especially with service and consulting businesses– to “chunk up” your recommendations.

Resist the temptation to come off like a know-it-all or to charge in with ten (or even more than one or two) pages of recommendations. Simply pace yourself and act yourself. Avoid pandering or patronizing.

If you do all this and don’t get the business you seek, it’s not business you want.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or 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!

Big sales volume begins

 with courageous owners!

Company management that fails to deliver wholehearted commitment

to sales and marketing efforts to win new business

fails to win new business.

In my experience (with many hundreds of all-size businesses), the problem originates not with inferior marketing or sales. It is the product of the top people in the organization who have personal or leadership defects best characterized as ignorance, incompetence, or naivety.

What else could make people so threatened to justify keeping themselves at arms-distance?

Look at it this way: The marketing people develop a new creative approach for attracting  sales prospects that represents a new, possibly “outrageous,” departure from industry norms.

What they’ve come up with may seem a bit too risque or intrusive to top management, but it is well-supported by both primary (focus group study) and secondary (database evaluation) research that clearly reinforces the potential and appropriateness of the message and format.

Sales management loves it and can easily see the prospects of high impact. Yet something about the new approach makes the boss(es) nervous, and prompts a “Get back to the drawing board!” response.

The daring approach is inevitably scuttled in favor of something more tame and more in line with the boss’s(es’) gray-flannel-suits-with-white-shirt-and-dark-tie mentality.

This new toned-down approach fails. The marketing people are fired and the sales leader(s) –now shrouded in skepticism– are being kept around until less-rebellious replacements can be found.

Does any of this sound familiar? Of course it does. I can name a hundred companies off the top of my head that have failed or are presently failing solely because they have had indecisive, unimaginative, non-visionary, chicken-livered wimps in the driver’s seats . . . start with those that were innundated with bailout tax-dollars!

Weak-kneed, do-nothing, glad-handing, back-patting politicians are running this country at every level of government. Why should private business owners and managers be expected to simply not follow suit?

Isn’t it, after all, a whole lot easier to just not make waves? Isn’t it simpler to merely buy into the “blame game” instead of a “roll-up-your-sleeves-and-make-things-happen” leadership role?

You know what? Beside that we have a federal government with no business abilities or experience, it takes genuine courage to take reasonable risks in business. It takes genuine courage to act out beliefs that are based on facts and deductive reasoning and experience.

It’s a whole lot less work and aggravation to take the low road, to be a wussy spewing out meaningless messages of hope and change, to make mediocre decisions that produce mediocre marketing, which results in mediocre sales.

If you work for someone like this, get your resume updated. (Try www.classicresumes.com)

If you ARE someone like this, get yourself inspired. It’s a choice. Give yourself a day off, dress down, and visit some crowded places where you think your target-types of customers spend time (College or university campus? Hospital lobby? Grand Central Station? A boatyard? A racetrack? A stadium? A nursing home? A church or community event?)

Observe. Listen. Ask questions. Take notes. See what you can learn about the kinds of people you need most to reach with your sales message. Decide what you can do differently. Go back to work and dare to be different. You might surprise yourself!

 Support those who endorse free market competition healthcare and REAL job creation tax incentives for America’s entrepreneurs! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 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!