“P”…PUBLIC

 

First off, as an entrepreneur, small business or professional practice owner, operator, or manager, you have a public persona, or image —a brand, if you will– that communicates your reputation to others in your Private-Public and in your Public-Public. You do, indeed, have both! Ignore either at your peril.

Your Public-Public (or EXternal customers) is what most often comes to mind when we talk about sales and markets. But every business also has INternal customers (family, friends, partners, investors, referrers, lenders, employees, agents, consultants, and suppliers). These are your reliable supporters, your Private-Public.

Many successful businesses build their Public-Public customer / client / patient base as an offshoot of their Private-Public resources because –sorry, marketing, advertising, PR, SEO, and social media experts— NOTHING sells like personal recommendations.

Often overlooked in this mix of supportive and prospective recommenders are FORMER family, friends, partners, investors, referrers, employees, lenders, agents, consultants, and suppliers who you are still on good terms with. Some older mid-sized companies actually foster employee alumni associations and reunions.

Not only can your Private-Public become a loyal customer base and serve to refer Public-Public purchases, they can also often suggest new business approaches, technology, and revenue streams… IF they are properly motivated and encouraged AND (and here’s the biggy) IF they are carefully solicited and attentively listened to.

Lest there be any doubts , I am not suggesting abandonment of marketing functions (sales, PR, promotion, packaging, pricing, SEO and SM applications, etc.). I am simply pointing out that day-to-day, many of us have a tendancy to overlook the obvious, spend more than we need to,  and  not tap into our best resources.

Traditional Public Relations is rapidly becoming an ineffective tool for building brands and brand awareness. With increased use of Internet sites, webinars, digital marketing and social media, the odds for stimulating Public-Public purchasing and Private-Public referrals, only the flexible, cyberspace-savvy PR firms are surviving.

A similar assessment surfaces for traditionally-invested advertising, sales, and marketing firms. This doesn’t mean “always and everywhere.” It does mean that small businesses can no longer rely on successful past media, creative, financial and market development  strategies to survive today’s onslaught of instant communications.

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Remember too that YOU, personally, are always on stage. Someone is always watching and listening. You are always being sized up by someone, even when you least suspect it. The bottom line is that in addition to your business having public concerns, awareness’s, and opportunities, so do you!

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Making the most of what you have means being, as Thoreau once urged, forever on the alert! 

                                 

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Hal@Businessworks.US

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 “O”…ORGANIZATION 

 

It was going to be “O” for “Operations” but a few years back the world’s surgeons decided that “Procedures” would be a gentler, less-threatening sounding  word to use in describing what happens when they take a scalpel to your body.  And as businesses became more specialized, “Operations” began to dissolve from usage in the business community too.  So with all that phasing out activity, I came back to one of the most important multi-purpose “O” words for life and small business success: ORGANIZATION.

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There are 30 million of us (small business owners and entrepreneurs) kicking around out there, somewhere between Hawaii, Florida, Maine, and Alaska (Whew! A lot of kicking!), and —artistic, creative types not withstanding– those among us with the strongest sense of organization will generally prevail in the success arena.

“Organization” is both the dynamics of the people you’re involved with — what’s the business “chemistry”?– AND how effective are your planning and doing (action) skills? “Team chemistry” wins in sports (Just re-live World Series Game 6 a few days ago), but it also –like people and task organizing skills– wins in business.

There are of course, entire books, courses, and training programs devoted to OD (Organizational Development), so don’t expect a 700-word crash course here, but you can expect to have your cage rattled. After all, who else is going to risk being in your face and telling you to get your act together better than you have been? Right. Read on.

Now, most of what I do is write, design, create, sell, email, meet, and talk on the phone, so I’m not exactly the world’s most organized guy, but –thanks to Kathy– most all of the organizational chores associated with running a business are taken care of by her capable hands and organized brain. She actually excels at it. (Thank heaven!)

So one important rule of thumb is that if organization skills escape you, or you don’t want to justify the time it takes to sort out, prioritize, plan, and execute tasks, find someone you can trust and rely on (almost always, by the way, a spouse, because no one else really shares your values) to do the scheduling, paperwork, computer tasks, etc.

And since you probably have two thumbs, another important rule is to give up one hour every Monday to meet with your organization person or team to review progress and problems, and get the ducks in a row. (Monday, because issues can be dealt with during the week; issues raised on Thursday or Friday never get done). 

I read somewhere that a famous sales guru I’ve always admired, made a dumb statement. He said It’s not time you need to manage; it’s your attitude. I understand the intent, but in reality, all entrepreneurs, by definition, have a positive attitude. Managing time is the challenge because we have only a limited amount of it available.

Not to belabor the point, but there are just so many seconds in a minute, so many minutes in an hour, so many hours in a day, so many days in a week, so many weeks in a month, so many months in a year . . . and just so many years in a lifetime, assuming you’re not from outer space just because you might act it! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) 

There are at least 3 zillion magic formulas for managing your emails. If you limit phone call message returns from 11:30am until noon, and from 4:30pm until 5pm, you will be more productive. People do not want to talk too much when they’re thinking about lunch or heading home.

When you make to-do lists, date them and chunk them up into small parts of big tasks. Prioritize item urgency. Cross the done deeds off with a highlighter so you can look back to see what was accomplished. If you really must use other than pen and pad because you are laptop or handheld-addicted, it’s not great, but better than nothing.

In short, experiment, but do whatever works best for you. Whatever you do– don’t ignore or avoid focusing on the getting-ready-to-act parts of your business before you charge headlong into them. Not being organized is a common entrepreneurial ailment that can crush a venture before it ever gets off the ground. Ready? Set? Go!

                                                                                               

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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!

“Huh?” say all you corporate muckity-muck types who came here for a shot of entrepreneurial adrenaline . . . you who pride yourselves on being keyed into the latest approaches to management and business leadership . . . Yes, it’s MBWU, and by now you’ve probably guessed the first two because you’re a shrewd student of business.

You think maybe I mean MBWA – Management By Walking Around? No, I would have said that.

MBWA is arguably the most sensible and productive form of management leadership theory in existence — at least until now.  But times have changed, and we are now nearly waist-deep in this economic quagmire with no end in sight and very few ways to lift one foot from the muck to put in front of the other.

Managing by walking around is no longer as realistic with many businesses that have found global growth a viable solution to the choking American dollar. For many, digital visits (video conferencing, webinars, etc.) have stepped out of the shadows, but most small businesses still rely on personal physical visits from the boss.

Aha! Thought you’d never ask. MBWU stands for “Management By Waking Up”!  The approach has multiple meanings, which may include walking around, but with a different emphasis. The MBWA problem-solving, problem-prevention and rah-rah visits give rise now to taking action. MBWU is a “call to action” methodology.

Since some action always beats no action, and since the opposite approach: ISQ (Investment in the Status Quo) means sufficient capital must be available to be able to invest in the first place, small business owners are left high and dry. Either there’s no money to invest, or there is, but you don’t trust the options.

Certainly, there is no incentive or reason to trust government promises enough to proceed with creating the new jobs many of America’s 30 million small business owners are capable of creating, even though they represent the only viable and historically-proven solution to the unemployment puzzle and to turning the economy around.

The more open-minded and receptive you can be (and the better listener you can be) and the greater your sense of urgency, the more that opportunities will surface that usher in new avenues and prospects for new business from existing and old customers, as well as new business from new customers.

You are likely to uncover entirely new revenue streams that would not ordinarily surface in businesses where owners and managers remain inactive, and distance themselves from reasonable risk-taking..

All MBWU progress is of course enhanced by being able to experience a decent night’s sleep from the git go. It’s hard to wake-up and make better use of resources, better decisions about priorities and people, when, for example, you’ve been out late partying the night before or are in a high-stress environment at home, or haven’t exercised or eaten properly.

So the 1/3 of your MBWU life rests squarely on the 1/3 of your life that you spend sleeping, which rests squarely on how you manage and treat and believe in your SELF. Are you ready? Got a plan? Are you set? Go!