Big Business. Small Business. Your Own Business.

WHAT’S  YOUR  FOCUS?

IF YOU’RE WORKING FOR

A BIG ORGANIZATION . . .

. . . and flirting with someone down the hall or in another department (married or not), “Don’t fish off company docks!” is the best advice I can offer because edgy socializing undermines your business focus, and your stature in the organization. Others do not want to understand. Odds are you and your job will dissolve away before you know it… or collapse overnight!

Unfortunately, the only ones who don’t believe this are blindsided by their own pursuits. They simply don’t believe that a “stolen” kiss, or pat on the butt, or slightly too-long handshake could possibly interfere with a bonus or promotion. But “Aha!” They do. Work flirtations are never hidden. They dislodge your focus on getting your job done and exceeding management expectations.

Think for just a minute about being the boss and having expectations of those you’ve hired to “give their all” and be 100% focused on doing their jobs. What’s YOUR focus?

The secret? It’s all about balance.

IF YOU’RE WORKING FOR A SMALL BUSINESS OR A PROFESSIONAL GROUP PRACTICE . . .

. . . it’s your job and it should be your focus to do whatever you can to help grow the small business that has shown good faith in you. Your focus needs to be to do whatever it takes to make things work better, and to do whatever it takes to make customers/clients/patients as happy as possible every day!

None of that happens if you’re constantly preoccupied counting the minutes  left in the workday, the workweek, until a holiday or the weekend or a vacation. None of it happens either if you show up for work with your backpack or briefcase or pockets filled with upsets you’ve left at home, or with a relationship, or social commitment. A distorted focus can quickly and quietly distort your ability to think clearly, and focus.

Teamwork

The secret? It’s all about balance.

IF YOU’RE WORKING FOR YOUR OWN BUSINESS OR YOUR OWN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE . . .

. . . Bless you! But the trade-off here is even more pronounced. You are the business and the business is you. Not everyone can succeed as an entrepreneur, but keeping your energy and attention focused as much of the time as possible on how to launch and feed and grow your own business or professional practice will take you a long way.

The bottom line, though is that you simply cannot be 100% focused on where you want to be headed all the time. You got where you are because you wanted more freedom, so take more freedom. Working your brains out doesn’t grow your business. Making the most of your “freedom” by channeling it in directions that are as productive for you, and your self, as they are for the business creates a focus that’s balanced.

Balance is the secret.

And ONLY YOU know

how to balance your SELF!

YOUR BUSINESS STAR…

FILM INDUSTRY LESSONS

Just brought my “think out of the box” business life and teachings back from the Cannes Film Festival.

The experience opened doors. New insights planted themselves in the middle of my pursuit path. The surroundings of this venture, highlighted by a breath-taking daylong drive from Geneva through the Alps to the French Riviera, were amplified by the seemingly endless clamber of the 12,000+ Festival participants who each in their own way sought the spotlights and camera lenses… often, while pretending not to.

The experience literally seemed to stun-gun my mind. What did I learn that might be good food for thought for every business and professional practice owner and manager?

Working smarter, not harder is no better than working harder not smarter.

Business success come only through a strong sense of balance.

A good place to start improving your business balance is to take inventory of your commitment to never cease searching for ways to improve your product, your service, your attitude, your story, your people, and the lives of your customers, clients and patients.

Serving as a makeshift Executive Producer for an emerging  (pre-production) original feature musical film (LOVE IS… Click on logo above for the less-than-2-minute “Sizzle Reel”) has been a major chunk of my life since helping to launch the forerunner stage version three years ago.

I’ve learned –sometimes the hard way–  that with every tiny aspect of a film –from words, music, and sound effects, to direction, production, gestures, budgets, lighting, cameras, film-editing, marketing, branding, promotion, legalities, you name it:

Everything changes every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year.

It is changing me as I write this and will no doubt continue to as long as I keep open-minded enough to accept that. It will change even as the movie is being filmed and recorded and edited and even after it’s done in the ways that it is branded and promoted.

WOW!, you might say, that sounds nerve-wracking!

Well guess what else I learned? Every business has the same dynamics. We have simply come to accept that many of the businesses and practices we own and manage never change. We often just accept that our businesses follow specific rules and that those rules limit change.

BALONEY!

Each of us changes every minute of every day in some way. We simply turn ourselves off to being receptive to that thought because it somehow threatens our existences.

Rising above that “being stuck in the mud” mindset is key to achieving record growth with our business pursuits and ourselves.

Think about all that next time you watch a movie… maybe even before that? It’s called renewing your own sense of self-awareness. What have you got to lose besides a false sense of self-security?

Want more?

Text 1.302.752.8505 or phone 1.931.854.0474 or write: 370 S. Lowe Ave. A-148, Cookeville, TN 38501 or free weekly podcast: www.newstalk941.com/podcasts (scroll down program sections to BUSINESSWORKS and click on any of 60 business topics. Feedback always welcome!

ENTREPRENEUR?

STOP KIDDING YOURSELF.

STOP CONNING OTHERS.

Every minute of every day, someone

thinks s/he is an entrepreneur, or can

become one, or that s/he can magically

turn someone into an “entrepreneur”

Do you have an Entrepreneur Training Center or some such entity in your town or on your campus? Does their spiel sound enticing? After all, who wouldn’t give a few months or weeks (or years) and a few hundred or few thousand dollars to fulfill the dream of becoming an “entrepreneur”… reporting to no one and making lots of money for entrepreneuring your ideas?

You’ve always liked the dream of winning a lottery or triumphing over some casino offering and you are known among friends for being lucky and/or having good judgment. You’re inquisitive and action-oriented. And you have exceptional creative skills. So go for it!

But be aware that the odds are overwhelmingly against becoming or making yourself into an entrepreneur. Why? Because Entrepreneurs are born not made.

Entrepreneurship is an instinct, not a learned skill. You either have it or you don’t. And if you don’t, no amount of effort on your part or on the part of any pretending instructor will make any difference.

Your bubble has burst? Sorry, but the truth is IF you can look at the issues involved honestly, there is MUCH that can be learned about entrepreneurial behaviors and ways of thinking that can work to your benefit. So maybe it’s not in your blood, but entrepreneurial THINKING is what makes this planet exist. It is what generates lifetimes of success. Yes, it includes some risk-taking, but what in life does not?

The point here is to stop dreaming and be realistic. Successful entrepreneurs are doers not dreamers. They act on limited knowledge (who doesn’t?). When something doesn’t work the way they want or imagine, they try something different and keep moving forward. They do NOT hang out at bars or pot-shops.

They do not throw money around to impress others, or to experience exorbitant weekends or vacations. Contrary to popular opinion, successful entrepreneurs make the time to be analytical but not to the point of dwelling on what surfaces. They pay careful attention to money management at every level, from bill-paying, credit ratings, taxes, investments, weekly expenses.

Successful entrepreneurs often have grand-scale ideas but will typically only realize those ideas by taking one step at a time. Skipping over essential ingredients or directions or parts or opportunities leads to bungled products and misrepresented services. Being open-minded enough to listen to voices of experience and to process conclusions serves to develop a sense of life/work balance.

Of course there’s more. But how you use what you know and what you learn is completely your call, and pretending that you can achieve or acquire entrepreneurship or provide entrepreneurship to others is fantasy. That you can learn and apply the traits and practices of entrepreneurial thinking to your life pursuits is reality, but it will not necessarily come easy, anymore that being born with entrepreneurial instincts is a choice . . . even though everything else IS.

ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING

SMALL BUSINESS, PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES

CORPORATE, NONPROFITS… 1.931.854.0474

 Hal@Businessworks.US

SAVVY BOSSES BEAT

THE GREAT

AMERICAN SLOWDOWN

Unless you’re caught up with ushering in holiday retail and online madness shopping clamor, you are likely entering “The Great American Slowdown” holiday season, and taking that much-awaited business relief break for yourself.

This is not to suggest you divert from the certainty of increased family interactions. 

It IS, however, to point out that as a suddenly relaxing American business or professional practice boss (Owner, Partner, Operator, Manager, Entrepreneur, CEO, CFO, CTO, or one of those other corporate muckity-muck titles), you may well be missing your single greatest business growth opportunity of the year ahead. 

Speaking of “ahead,” putting your hands behind your head (and feet onto your desk) for longer than some deep stress-relief breaths — instead of simply shifting productivity gears (like your savvy competitors will surely be doing) can be just enough to send your happy business existence down the tubes. 

By not making the most of business downtime to give yourself and your business interests a thorough checkup, and revitalize your  business growth plans for 2019, you may well be short-circuiting what little entrepreneurial think time you will have once January hangovers and New Years Resolutions begin to fade.

Putting a stethoscope to your business structure, employees, customer base, ambitions, growth directions… and whatever “map” you may have in your head for how to get where you’re going needs to be your first step.

Remind yourself that once 2019 gets on a roll (usually around mid-January) it may be too late to take the time out to reassess, reevaluate, and adjust goals and directions.

NOW is the ideal time (or after Christmas, if you’re in retail) to take a step back from where you’ve had your head buried all year to inventory what worked and what didn’t, what needs to be adjusted, what needs to be dumped… and PUT IT IN WRITING!

What? Who needs that? I put stuff on my PC, notebook, laptop, smart phone… writing?! Humbug!

When you put important ideas, ambitions, guidelines, goals onto paper with (OMG) a pen(!), there is a major physiological difference. Ideas from your brain that go through your neck to your shoulder, arm, wrist, hand, fingers, and into a pen, then ink, and transfer to a piece of paper, you create a more personally binding commitment than with keying in any kind of electronic transfer.

Humans do not commit actions to words on a screen, but we do follow-through with a greater sense of determination, open-mindedness and commitment when we put our words to paper.

This doesn’t mean everything has to be rigid or etched-in-stone. Effective planning and goals still need to be specific, realistic, flexible, due-dated, and in writing to be effective!  

So, when things change–as they always do–in ways that impact what we are aiming for, we simply re-write our plans on another piece of paper and tear up the old one . . . and, like the battery-run rabbit, “keep on going.”  

BusinessWORKS.US

COACHING BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE GROWTH NOW

New book: Healthcarepreneurs — free 24/7 access to weekly

22-minute “BUSINESSWORKS”  Radio Show/Podcast

 Creating Record Client Impact Since 1981

 DIVISION OF THEWRITERWORKS.COM, LLC.

GROW YOUR BUSINESS OR

HEALTHCARE PRACTICE NOW!

Get your FREE no-strings-attached

weekly dose of success-anchored guidance

based on 100+ years’ experience

NO TRICKS. NO GIMMICKS. NO RECORDS KEPT OF YOUR VISITS. This is not some online “upgrade” deal. Get your free 22-minute podcast 24/7 via computer or mobile phone. Pick any night-or-day time slot that fits your schedule (Listen before, during/after work–even driving). Nothing to subscribe to. Replay it whenever you want.

EACH 22-MINUTE PODCAST gives you tools and ideas for achieving fast-track success with your small-to-medium-sized business or healthcare practice… and grow it quicker than you can do by yourself. No time limits! We don’t chase after you. We don’t even know who or where you are. Start with a “Sampler Visit”—> CLICK HERE (then scroll down to “BUSINESSWORKS” and pick any topic!)

SIMPLY LISTEN WHENEVER YOU CAN to get the best of two diverse approaches to solving your own business and practice growth problems. We share what we’ve learned to help you avoid wasting time, money, and energy.

YOU GET:  STIMULATING, PRACTICAL

“HOW-TO” IDEAS, PROVEN INPUT AND

ADVICE THAT GETS RESULTS. YOU GET

CAUTIONS AND ENCOURAGEMENT, PLUS

 WAYS TO DEAL MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH:

Branding. Marketing. Advertising. Sales. Community and Public Relations. Customer Service and CRM. Recruiting, Hiring and Firing. Management Coaching. Staff Training. Investments. Money/Resource Management. Outsourcing. Dealing with Partners/ Investors. New Revenue Streams. Startups/Revitalizations. Stress and Time Management. Communication Skills. Strategic Planning. Dealing With Government Agencies. Much More.

CO-HOSTS HAL ALPIAR AND JOHNNY STITES (and their periodic guests) help you sort through issues, stimulate your creativity, and learn to trust your own business sense and judgments.

YOU GET  HANDS-ON-EXPERIENCED INPUT from professional coaches who help grow all kinds of specialized and competitive enterprises… from construction and skilled labor to retail, manufacturing, and service entities… from healthcare practices and facilities of every specialty and description… medical centers, hospital departments/ institutes, immediate and long-term care facilities.

NOT ONLY DO BOTH HAL & JOHNNY PROVIDE a combined 100+ years of success track-record. They also offer proven expertise in managing the uniqueness’s of family businesses and in positioning nonprofit and creative project businesses and organizations for long-term growth.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED

BEYOND PODCASTS . . .

CALL HAL AT 1.931.854.0474 

OR JOHNNY AT 1.931.261.7003

This inspirational film musical is

about 3 intertwined, related love 

stories… with a touch of fantasy. 

Humor, memorable songs and dramatic edginess ala Sound of Music, La La Land and Mama Mia are delivered yet again with new and different captivating characters–struggling to conquer the trials of life in:

FEARLESS! ABOUT LOVE 

The music drives the emotions and dialogue of the characters singing original songs by composer Valerie Connelly in a variety of genres. 

NOW — with more than a dozen years of production testing and development (including a range of live stage performances), YOUR HELP IS NEEDED to open film production doors, recruit top talent and assist with initial development costs.

To visit a complete representation–including music and stage performance trailers–and Valerie Connelly’s lifetime of songwriting, music arrangement and composition, her recordings, live performances, and life path, simply click on the black-outlined logo box/link at the top of this column. 

BusinessWORKS.US

GROWING BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES NOW

Check Out Co-Hosts Hal Alpiar & Johnny Stites

On Free Weekly BUSINESSWORKS Radio Show 24/7 Podcasts

Creating Record Business Growth Impact with 100 Years of Experience

EVERY GROWING BUSINESS

GROWS WEEDS

The National Federation of Independent Business proclaims NOW is the first time in 45 years that confidence levels of US small business owners are prompting a growth and expansion attitude.

So, the time to grow is NOW.

But beware the temptation to charge full-steam ahead because pursuing more business or professional practice growth now probably means you’ll need to be pulling weeds first!

You’ll need to make more elbow room for your new or planned crops/flowers/products/services to gain more sunshine, and an increased share of watering.

And, remember that no matter how clear things appear above ground, nothing can grow when underground weed roots are commandeering the water supply, and strangling what you are trying to plant!

So, even with more sunshine, unless below-the-surface water routes are not also freed up, you will have done only half the job… ending up with half the possible results.

Well then, where do you start?

Just pulling harder on your weeds often only serves only to delay failure because the roots that remain (after the aboveground portions snap off) simply get larger and even more aggressive.

Odds are you already have a pretty good idea of where you want to end up, but before you set specific, realistic, flexible, due-dated goals in writing, step back from what you’re doing right now and assess your business’s ability to rise to the occasion.

In other words, honor the famous old quotes from Robert J. McKain: “There is no achievement without goals” and Earl Nightingale: “People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.” And most importantly: Start with an honest appraisal of your SELF.

How capable are you and how much do you really want to spend the energy to make a difference for your SELF, your family, your employees, your customer/patient/client base?

How many people are presently employed by your business or professional practice?

Have each of them demonstrated a capability to rise to the occasion? If yours is a “family” business, how invasive is that influence on where you want to go?

Make a Yes/No/Maybe list.

Who among the “no” and “maybe” people are “weeds”? (i.e., they need to move or shift their attitudes somehow to allow more sunshine in… or they need to simply be removed by the roots because they are taking up too much space and water to continue with your new growth ambitions and directions.)

Decide how flexible/adaptable/energetic/motivated each of them is?

And what you think it will take to get each moving in the right direction.

Remember that weeds DO have a use

. . . when they are added to the mulch pile.

BusinessWORKS.US

GROWING BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES NOW

Hal Alpiar & Johnny Stites Weekly Radio Show 24/7 Podcasts

Creating Record Business Growth Impact with 100 Years of Experience

BOOST BUSINESS NOW,

 BUT DON’T KNOW HOW?

You thinkin’ it takes money to make money, honey,

but you ain’t got none… and that ain’t funny!

It’s all a matter of THOUGHTS and WORDS and DEEDS. You need to believe that you can make happen whatever you WANT to happen for your business or professional practice. And, yes, NOW (with America’s current and projected economy) it is indeed the time!

Stop the negativity! It’s true that what goes around comes around, but NOT true that opportunity knocks once or twice. Opportunity knocks as many times as you choose for it to knock. And those choices come bursting up to the surface based on:

1) WHAT YOU THINK most of the time about yourself , and what you think most of the time about your enterprise!

2) THE WORDS YOU USE to describe yourself and your business or professional practice in formal plans and informal conversations… the words you use with friends and family, your customers/clients/patients (and their families), other businesses and practices, your geographical, educational, sports, charitable, and spiritual communities,

3) THE GENUINENESS OF YOUR ATTITUDE, and the endlessness of good deeds and services you offer… including those you know in your heart you’ll never get back or ever hear from again. Remember that integrity is doing what’s right even when there’s no one around to notice.

The Bottom Line: You have the ability to change your circumstances by simply making the decision to do that and then by consistently following through with the thoughts, words, attitude and actions that reinforce your decision at every turn.

BusinessWORKS.US

GROWING BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES NOW

Hal Alpiar & Johnny Stites Weekly Radio Show/24-7 Podcasts

Creating Record Business Growth Impact with 100 Years of Experience

Economy Surge Boosts Business

(but not yours or the Post Office?)

YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT DELIVERING ALL

THAT YOU WANT OR NEED FOR IT TO BE?

Are you seeking some magic to re-ignite your business to take advantage of the booming US economy… or are you standing there, totally befuddled, sucking your thumb and wondering how YOU MISSED THE BOAT??… this post is for you!

DELIVERING 

BASED ON CAPABILITY ALONE

IS DIFFICULT AT BEST

… EVEN FOR THE BEST.

The United States Postal Service has had a zillion opportunities to succeed over a zillion years of big-time budgets and noteworthy big-time leadership of politically-based government organization people, who appear to have never earnestly sought real-world business input.

USPS has failed to act on endless business  growth opportunities Priority-Mailed to itself on a golden platter because those in charge thought they had and continue to think they have all the answers. (When was the last USPS Customer Survey you received?)

That belief alone spells disaster for any business or organization, or even professional practice. The lifetime of failure spawned (and actually nurtured) smarter competition.

How do I know all this?

First, because I grew up with my father being (for 25 years) a USPS Special Delivery Messenger –the first 7-days a week version of overnight delivery service– and watched Special Delivery Mail dissolve away to open a floodgate of business for FedEx, UPS, Amazon, and a long list of others.

Second, because I’ve had the good fortune to have had many proven and experienced business teachers and trainers in my life share many business development basics, like: No one ever has all the answers. Open Minds Open Doors. Leadership is about listening first and acting second.

And I have been able to apply successfully what I’ve learned to teach others— as a professor, business and healthcare practice coach/consultant, published author, management trainer, and now as a “business how-to” podcast and radio host.

With that as background, I attempted numerous times over the years to communicate with USPS executives in some of the same ways I succeeded at communicating with private business enterprise owners and managers… with ideas and proposals… but they were never responded to except by form letter thank-you-but-no-thank-you notes.

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO

RUN YOUR BUSINESS WITH

A CLOSED-DOOR USPS MINDSET,

NOTHING — not even a booming economy — can save you!

STOP HERE. Take a deep breath.

Has your business run away from you? Are you trying too hard to force it into a direction that simply doesn’t fit?

Do you shut down whenever someone floats a business-growth idea past you because you think they couldn’t possibly understand what you’re facing or what you’ve done to get where you are?

Or maybe just because you don’t trust that person’s face or age or lack of hard-nosed experience, or what you imagine to be her/his sense of reality?

HOW RECEPTIVE ARE YOU, REALLY?

If your answer is “VERY,” Congratulations! Now open your eyes, your arms and your mind and get ready to turn things around. You’ve just taken the first step to put yourself on track to being the business winner you’ve always been capable of being. Reach out for input from other business owners, from employees, from customers. Consider and sort out and weigh the options… THEN (without betting the farm), Take Action!

P.S. In case you haven’t heard, President Trump is “taking action” with the formation of a USPS Task Force to address some of the kinds of issues raised here, as well as how to get a better deal with other delivery services. Hoping for the best for USPS… and, of course, for YOU!

BusinessWORKS.US

GROWING BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES NOW

Hal Alpiar & Johnny Stites Weekly Radio Show/24-7 Podcasts

Creating Record Business Growth Impact with 100 Years of Experience

1 pm (CT), Every Sunday, Every Week . . .

BUSINESSWORKS

Broadcast Podcast Blast Off!

BUSINESSWORKS begins a year of free, weekly, stimulating  “business-expansion-how-to” input offerings for business owners, managers and operators, and for  professional practice owners and managers, and entrepreneurs.

The information source?

Two unique, and vastly different business leaders with hugely successful backgrounds:

HAL ALPIAR & JOHNNY STITES

Hal and Johnny are a proven, experienced, unlikely pair of highly active 70-something business success MBA mentor/coaches.

They decided they can have greater impact on business and professional practice growth and development by working as a team.

And they agree that weekly broadcasting and podcasting best allows them the flexibility to help others get things done.

Visit weekly with Hal and Johnny on News Talk 94.1 Middle Tennessee Radio AND, from anywhere else . . .  

CLICK HERE:  newstalk941.com 

FOR PODCAST

Or go to www.newstalk941.com . . . ANY time and Click on “Podcast Center” tab at top then scroll down to BUSINESSWORKS and (with volume on) click the little white circle!

“See You Sundays 1 pm on 94.1 Radio Cookeville, TN or ANYtime via podcast!”

BusinessWORKS

GROWING BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES NOW