Archive for the 'Small Business' Category

Dec 14 2011

Shake it up, Baby!

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Calendar,Change,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Family Business,Goals,Good Health,Happiness,Innovation,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Reputation,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics

Today’s the day

                            

to overhaul

                                  

your workspace!

 

 

Changing your daily routine can be just as stress-relieving as taking some time off.

                                                            

I’m not suggesting that you abandon holiday relax time to keep working, but when the rest of your business universe slows down for Christmas and Hanukkah, it’s a great opportunity to clean up, dress up, reorganize, reassess, take inventory, take stock, plan, and set goals.

Rattle your own cage! Start by creating a better workspace. Move furniture and tools. Open drawers and clean out old stuff. File away work that’s done. Sort through magazines and newsletters; sticky-note items you want to read and toss the rest.  Reassess your lighting (and fixture bulb replacement status). Is clutter off your floor?

Can you actually get into storage areas without climbing and sucking in your gut to squeeze through? Are the backs of shelves and closets in easy reach or does access pose the need for Olympic prowess? Are your alarm systems all in good working order? Are window coverings and locks in decent shape?

Are too many door/truck/car keys, or computer codes/user-names/passwords floating around?

Does your waiting area match the level of professionalism you want to project? Dead bugs in ceiling light fixtures and dead or dying plants do not inspire much sense of confidence in professional practices, maintenance or medical supply businesses, florists, landscapers, or any kind of healthcare, food or food service businesses, among others. 

The dead bug/dead plant solutions, by the way, are not to be nurturing live bugs or plastic plants, both of which speak equally negative to your attitude and reputation. Go with no bugs, and if you can’t maintain plants to be permanently healthy, go with no plants as well! And the same goes for beat up outdated magazines!

If you think this is stupidly basic input, start to notice what you see when you visit other businesses. How many restaurants and coffee shops have you left with indigestion after facing mounted TV screens locked onto news channels? When you’re done cleaning up and reorganizing outside your self, step inside for a few overhauls!

You will never get this chance or this day back again.

Make the most of your opportunities.

                                             

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 13 2011

“GOING INTO” 2012

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Objectives,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Reputation,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Strategies

You are NOT

                              

“going into” 2012!

                                      

You are making it happen!

                                   

You’re an entrepreneur!

                                                            

                                                  

The forecast: stormy, bleak, doom and gloom? I don’t think so. You didn’t start or take over a business to improve your skills at playing the victim role. When you kicked into second and third gear, it was because you saw stars in the sky and you knew you were making your own choices, creating your own destiny. Right?

So, let’s look at the mess we’re in realistically. We have a chance to get out of this year standing upright, and to make happen what has to happen. To jump-start 2012– make the very best possible use of the next two weeks. That means, first and foremost, to do family relax time, pay attention to your SELF, and go with the flow.

In other words, abandon the maniacal pursuit you’ve been on all year in favor of jetting down, assessing yourself and your business. Refocus your day-to-day activities. Relax your brain, and set some meaningful, realistic goals that serve to both challenge and guide your interests and activities.

Did I say “meaningful”? Yes. Scribbling or txtg a nice-sounding statement about what you aim to do in 2012 may make you feel like patting yourself on the back, but it doesn’t mean beans about what’s real and possible and what needs to be flexible and specific and have a deadline attached. Who says? The Chief Goal Keeper.

If what you come up with as a target for yourself and your business fails to accomplish all six (That’s ALL SIX!) of the following criteria, you are simply not serious about wanting to improve your life. People fail at goal-setting because they fail to be flexible, to realize that not reaching a goal means only one thing: Change The Goal!

To be effective, any goal you set must be specific, flexible, realistic, due-dated, written on paper (and adjusted regularly), and carried on your person! Take all six of these steps, and keep your goals to yourself (because too many people who don’t have goals will try to discourage you from achieving your own!). 

If you do exactly what’s suggested here, you will be successful beyond your wildest dreams in 2012 because you will be making it happen… because you are an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs don’t “go into” things; they make things happen. Will you? Are you an entrepreneur or a victim? Creating your own destiny is your choice! 

                                                   

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 12 2011

The Holiday Stress Express

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Decision Making,Economy,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Good Health,Happiness,Leadership,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Special People/Special Occasions,Stress Management,Tactics

Alllllll Aboard!

 

 You been takin’ the train to less stress and strain, but the holidays got in your way? An’ now you’re just tired, maxed out and wired… and the bookkeeper tells you you’re broke? Just cha-ching up the big bucks on Visa and PayPal then go find an invisibility cloak!

~~~~~~~

Yes-sir-ee-bob! It’s that time again, only this year most small businesses (maybe 20,000,000 or 25,000,000 out of 30,000,000?) are juggling numbers just to stay alive. And if that sounds even a little bit familiar, it may be time to seriously consider changing your usual holiday habits . . . modify them or let ’em go! 

If you thought you were headed into a blog lecture on cutting back your food. beverage, tobacco and drug intake, and that you were going to get another speech on yoga, deep breathing, egg whites, broccoli, sleeping eight hours, jogging in place, and counting to 10 when you feel upset, rest assured you can keep reading.

Let’s say you’re one of those hot-shot entrepreneurs who feels the need to go to exorbitant lengths to prove your business prowess by doling out a few tons of gifts to relatives, friends, employees, and customers you want to impress. Ha! Stop right there! Rein in your fantasyland generosity. Replace it with reality. Get your brain in gear!

Reality is: misappropriated gifting and charity (however well-intentioned) can strangle your ability to be truly giving and charitable. In other words, give from a position of strength. And if you’re not there, don’t push it!

If you choke off or compromise your own resources, you limit your ability to make a difference. Yes, everyone wants or needs more. But the more you give, the more you’d better have to start with, or you end up with no more.

First off, giving is not about dollar value, it’s about thoughtfulness. Gift cost doesn’t impress people as much as gift matching the recipient. This is kind of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of gift-giving. Every great leader will tell you that–on the job– nothing motivates as well as matching rewards with true needs of each individual.

Well, with gift-giving, nothing pleases like a gift that “fits” the receiver. Giving something that’s INexpensive but that fits somone’s personal interests makes a statement that you care more than a gift that costs ten times as much but has no personal appeal. [Where do you store all those old wedding gift bowls and vases and . . .? ]

There’s never a need to try to buy your way into the favor of others (if there is, you might want to start trading off friends and family for others who simply appreciate you for who you are). This is especially true at a time when the only positive economic indicators are coming from the White House and media talking heads.

Don’t let limited financial resources limit your wisdom, or your ability to expend more effort pleasing others than trying to impress them.

                                             

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 11 2011

Getting RE-ORIENTED

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Age & Aging,Anger/Conflict,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Corporate Management,Decision Making,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Gestalt Therapy,Good Health,Leadership,Life Plans,Management,Mental Health,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Trust

If you are in the process

                                   

 of change (who isn’t?)

                                     

  …you may need this.

 

                                             

Whether you’ve been out of work for a prolonged period, busy being a house-mom, or giving birth, or just searching for a new job, or a new business to start, the needs that you have to get yourself re-oriented to the reality of your new or re-newed existence can seem overwhelming — highly challenging, at best.

Consider yourself something of a catastrophic illness patient on the road to recovery. Huh? Well, sure. What you must face is not much different than the sacrifices you need to make –including the life-change attitudes you adopt  and adjust yourself to– than those you might experience in a healthcare recovery or rehab program.

The bottom line for all of these incidents, and for bosses and associates who are trying to help others through transition experiences:

“PATIENTS” NEED PATIENCE

                                                             

Patience? Yes! It is, we’re told, “a virtue” (whatever that is), and it always accompanies successful attempts to get better, lose weight, exercise, think more clearly, act more decisively, find a job, return to a job, start or re-start a career, run a household, run a business, establish a brand/logo/slogan/theme/message, improve your outlook.

Does it mean you need to come to a screeching halt, and slow down your normally faster-paced thoughts and actions? Perhaps, but probably not. It means recognizing that anxious and impatient and worrisome feelings are your choice, and that you can just as easily choose to stay in total control of your behavior, words and deeds.

This can be accomplished with help (Physical, Occupational, Speech and Psycho Therapists) or with support groups/teams (like family, friends, neighbors, co-workers) or (not recommended) on your own. Trying to be your own therapist inevitably takes longer and decreases your odds for success. Ask any shrink!

All of us need help from others at different times in our lives. HOW we receive and apply that generosity and assistance from others holds the key to how rapidly we recover or become re-oriented to the reality of our lives and careers.

Remember that if you own or run a business, you are different, your re-orientation needs and the period of re-orientation time involved will be different than those of someone with re-orientation needs who works with or for you. And under the circumstances, you must also be patient. Each of us is unique in every way.

Accepting help from others is supposed to be a gracious act according to sources as diverse as Hollywood and the Bible, but these events are often filled with vindictiveness, irritability, frustration, jealousy, and feelings of incompetence. There may be no easy solutions, but raising awareness for all involved helps all involved.

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Hal@Businessworks.US

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 08 2011

‘Tis The Season for this and this and th. . .

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Community Support,Contacts/Networking,Corporate Management,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Delegation,Economy,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family,Family Business,Good Health,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Mental Health,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Special People/Special Occasions,Strategies,Stress Management,Tactics,Teamwork,Trust

BAH! HUMBUG!

                                 

‘Tis the season to be spiteful, act angry, hide from creditors, put off paying bills, smile fake smiles, eat more sweets and fattening foods, drink more booze and soda and energy drinks, smoke more cigars, spit on the floor, sleep late, and curse the relatives who give you cheap gifts. 

 

Sound familiar? Remind you of someone you know? You might consider printing this or this or this out and mysteriously leaving an anonymous copy (or scissored excerpts) on that person’s desk, carseat, windshield, or stuffed into her or his coatpocket. 

Having come from poverty– I can genuinely appreciate the humbugness of truly destitute people at this time of year, as well as the humbugness of struggling business owners and managers who spend their days battling the threats and destruction of our nation’s economic quagmire, and their nights worrying about it. 

And I feel deeply saddened by anyone who continually chooses to not rise to the occasion of Christmas Season joyfulness — even non-Christians — because it is a season of great joy for all people of any faith, but as so many of us have learned about the leading horse to water proverb, none of us can make someone else’s choices.

Even with all good intention and wisdom, we really can’t reach into another human brain and push buttons and adjust frequencies and turn dials that will produce a happy, healthy, positive attitudes. All we can do is try our best to create positive supporting environments for those who choose misery, and keep the door open to them.

I say these things now, because I’ve been all over this issue of wasting life and opportunities through assorted career roles — from college teaching/counseling to management training/consulting/counseling to business and professional practice development consulting/counseling, to family and group counseling– and this period, now through February, has traditionally brought these dreaded negative behaviors for many to the surface.

Probably the single most useful tool for the vast majority of those I’ve worked with over the years is the one post that I keyword to most often on this blog, and recommend most to those I find in times of need is THIS. Literally thousands have raved to me about its value. It is highlighted in three of my books. It works. 

What else works? Prayer and gratefulness.

God Bless You. Thank you for your visit.

Please return soon.

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 07 2011

Swimming Upstream?

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Customer Service (CRM),Delegation,Economy,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Small Business,Strategies,Tactics,Teamwork,Trust

The question that haunts business owners in desperate times–

                                                                

Are you making the sale

                   

. . . or making a customer?

 

Cultivating relationships among others with whom you have no shared interests –especially in this day of technology-induced dwindling relationships and global economic demise– is harder, takes more time, and is often distasteful. But does swimming upstream pay?

                                                            

The more needy you are financially, the greater the temptation to make the sale and run, regardless of the prospects that holding out now can prompt a repeat (sometimes bigger) performance further down the road. “There is no road,” you might say, “It’s now or never! I have bills to pay. I need the money now!” 

If it’s a matter of food on the table for your family tonight, you’d better go for the sale, and should probably be looking for some other work as well. But small business survival tactics really must revolve around the customer, prospective customer, and employees.

I stopped in a small hardware store looking for a kitchen faucet wand, and hoping to get a plumber referral at the same time. The store was busy, but I was greeted by a young man with a genuine smile and eye contact at the front door who asked if there was anything specific I was looking for.

I waved my broken wand. He laughed and said, “I’m sorry we can’t help you with that, but I’m sure you can find one at the big home center up the road. Ask for Joe in plumbing. Is there anything else you need today?” I said that once I found the part, I’d be looking for a local plumber to install it.”

He called the owner over and paraphrased what I’d said. The owner asked if I’d be okay with a very competent older man, a retired plumber who likes to keep active doing small projects like this, and would be very inexpensive.

Who could say no? He went to his contractor book, then the phone book, looked up the name, wrote it on a piece of paper with the man’s number and told me when might be the best times to call. “He’s been coming in here for years, but he never left a number. Anything else we can do for you today?”

I went to the big home center, got the part, found another plumber in the meantime, but returned to the little hardware store with the proceeds of a broken piggy bank. I spent a lot of money on products I needed that would have been 15% cheaper at the big home center up the road.  

When you train your people personally and teach them how important every customer and prospect encounter is every day, how customer relationships pay the bills (including their salaries) and all it takes is knowing that everyone has something in common with everyone else, and finding that something is the challenge.

It’s both the challenge and the opportunity.

                                                                                            

And all it takes to make it work is to invest something of your self. Is this true of marriage? Family life? Teams? Hobbies? Friendships? Community organizations? Neighborhoods? Certainly it’s true in every work setting — office, truck, computer station, basement, showroom, hospital, or factory floor.

Return On Investment odds increase proportionately with the quality and amount of effort you’re willing to put in.

Every prospect stands before you wanting to become a customer. Why else would she or he be there? Every customer wants to be a loyal return customer because having a sense of security and reassurance (TRUST in the seller) is half the sale.

                                                       

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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!

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Dec 07 2011

Lazy Learners

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Age & Aging,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Community Support,Creative Thinking,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Lifestyle,Literary Pursuits,Management,Marketing,Motivation,Observations,Personal Growth,Politics/Gov't,Productivity,Professional Practices,Public Relations,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategies,Stress Management,Tactics,Time Management,Trust,Writing

Leaderless government has laid the trappings for America to become a nation of scholastic sloths. And John and Suzy Q. Public have bought into the time drift. What’s the impact on business?

                                                                  

Be honest: When did

                                 

you last read more

                          

than 18 pages of a

                            

 book… any book?

 

                                 

I guess this factoid is less astonishing to most people than it is to me and other authors who share head space in the sand: The highly reliable SPR (Self Publishing Resources) reports (bullet-point number 30) that their studies and research show “most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.”!

You’re in business and wonder about impact and impressions that add up to a book purchase in the first place? Go back to that same list and check out bullet point number 22, which reports that average bookstore browsers will spend 8 seconds looking at a front cover and 15 seconds scanning the back cover.  

Now I find these little tidbits of news — the products no doubt of fastlane lifestyles and lazy learning attitudes– to be outright shell-shocking! Growing up, I remember book purchases as major events and what seemed like the threat of going straight to hell for not reading even a miserable book all the way to the end. Yes, ancient times.

Well, aside from the obvious conclusions to be drawn from these book reading and purchasing enlightenments, that books ARE judged by their covers (and the covers had better be as smashing as the first 18 pages), there is an underlying and discouraging sign of the times suggested that the faster society moves, the lazier it gets.

Is it no wonder that technology advances have rendered us into handheld-device-carrying vegetables with no greater regard for the flow of thought process brilliance than some instantaneous, impersonal, ungrammatical, third-grade reading level txtmsg? Still puzzled why agents and publishers only want to see a writer’s first 20 pages? 

How did we get here? Leaderless government that talks education but fails to deliver or understand that self-esteem, authenticity, stress and time management, communication, innovation and motivation skills are what will ultimately determine life and career success. And that these come from reading more than 18 pages of any book.

How do we change that?  1) Work within your business to cultivate these life and career success strengths with training and incentives and support. Nurture and promote take-home values and structures that enable and empower your people and associates to “pass it on” at home and in their communities. 2) Vote November 6, 2012

America’s small business owners make our nation go.

America’s military gives us the freedom to keep going.

                                         

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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!

No responses yet

Dec 05 2011

Mr. Obama: You’re Wrong!

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Anger/Conflict,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Community Support,Contacts/Networking,Decision Making,Economy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Leadership,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Politics/Gov't,Problems=Opportunities,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Strategies,Tactics,Trust

Still stuck in your 4-week-old delusion? You said: “America has lost ambition and imagination.” Remember? You prodded businesses to “Do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam. Unleash all the potential in this country!”  

 

Well, you’re wrong,

 

Mr.Obama. The only thing

 

America has lost is

 

leadership. And the only

 

thing lacking in America’s

 

30 million small businesses

 

is trust in YOU!

 

 

I hear every single day from clients, associates, business friends and neighbors that YOU, Mr. Obama, are what’s wrong with this country! You have continuously chosen to ignore small business in America, when even those who surround you admit that only small business can reverse your dying economy!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that job creation is what will turn us around, and it shouldn’t take much more than the feeble skills of a community organizer to see that new job creation comes exclusively from small business. That means genuine (real and guaranteed) innovation and job creation tax incentives for small business.

It is YOU, Mr. Obama, who have seen fit to wipe out the financial and free choice futures of our children and grandchildren with your foolish and misguided healthcare plan. It is YOU who have single-handedly dismantled our peace through preparedness military, rendering us more vulnerable to terrorism than ever before in history.

Not only that, you have literally made America the laughing stock of other emerging nations on the planet. Your programs for social reform have created nothing but dependencies and joblessness. You have made our economic future a bleak one. Your political priorities have always taken a front seat to our nation’s well-being.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where “30 million” came from when your administration counts only 20 million? Talk with your statiticians who –obviously following your lead– chose to simply not legitimize sole work-at-home proprietors as “real” small businesses. I, for one, am one, and make a living at it, and pay taxes for the privilege.

You have misled this country and the small business universe that makes it go. You appear to all the world as a clown, “The Emperor With No Clothes,” who chooses self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement over the needs of those who elected him. You have done injustice to those who trusted and believed in your empty promises.

Small business owners are sickened by your failures, but we DO have a choice: November 6, 2012! 

                                                    

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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!

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Dec 04 2011

Thumbs Up!

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Creative Thinking,Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Innovation,Leadership,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Small Business

Thumbs up! Thumbs down!

                                         

 All thumbs! Thumb a ride! 

                                  

Thumb this!

 

                          

Did you ever notice how many things you use your thumbs for? Did you ever notice how much you use any part of your body for tasks that you never stop to pay attention to, until that part gets sick or injured or stressed beyond functioning? And you wonder how you could have ever overlooked how critical all of your parts are?

Isn’t it the same with your business? Don’t you have tasks and functions to deal with, approaches to take, routines, habits and checklists to observe every day?  And when something goes wrong, breaks down, or isn’t where you thought you left it… or not performing up to snuff, or communications get muddled, you become an EMT?

Okay, so you’re good in emergencies,

 but you really can’t make a living in

 business functioning as a firefighter.

                                                               

Being able to respond quickly and adapt quickly are genuine entrepreneurial strengths, but too often they become crutches and can readily lead the leaner into business failure and a nonproductive way of life. True leaders wear many hats and know when to trade off one for the other. Thumbs go up! Thumbs go down! Thumbs hitchhike!  

Cute, Hal, but what does that mean? It means that truly successful business owners and managers are those who exercise flexibility in the ways they move, the things they say, the leadership styles they exercise, the assignments and presentations they give and the WAYS they do these things.

Process is what matters most — HOW things get done, the steps involved, can often be more important than what is actually done. Isn’t that a lot like how you say what tou say is at least as important as what you say? Well, the key to process is flexibility… being ready, willing, and able to “turn on a dime,” as the old expression goes.

“Turn on a dime!”

                                

Thumbs are a good example of flexibility. They can turn from up to down in an instant. Think of your thumbs as the gateway to flexibility and spontaneity — flexible fulfillment. Have you ever seen a thumb direction opposite of a facial expression (or an internal feeling?)?  Thumb direction is the harbinger of thought process.

Remember the childhood exercise of putting all your knuckles together as you interlock your fingers and close your palms together so that your fingertips are hidden (reciting “here’s the church!”), then point your two forefinger tips together in the air (reciting “here’s the steeple!”) and then guess what’s next… remember? 

Throwing out your thumbs and wiggling your other six fingertips (reciting “open the doors, and look at all the people!”)? So, even since being a tyke, your thumbs have been the doors that open your vision to what’s going on inside. What happens when you look beyond the thumbs of your day-to-day business?

“The journey to discovery,”

said Proust, “consists not in

having new landscapes,

but in having new eyes.” 

 

When did you last “Thumb Through”some of those pages that describe where your business has been, where it is, and where it’s going? Close your eyes for a minute and think that through before skipping off to your emails, or back to Twitter or Facebook. And remember it’s the process of how you think about it all.

 

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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!

No responses yet

Dec 01 2011

BUSINESS STARTUP

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Anger/Conflict,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Community Support,Contacts/Networking,Creative Thinking,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Delegation,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Goals,INTERNET Marketing,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Marketing,Motivation,Objectives,Observations,Overcoming Objections,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Public Relations,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Stress Management,Tactics,Time Management,Trust,Writing

Startup Fever

 

Channeling startup energy wisely is certainly a paradox. In fact, channeling startup energy wisely is an almost impossible task because the heat of the moment tends to override the rationality of the brain. Emotions, in other words, pack more punch than objectivity and a measured approach. Hmmm, remind you of dating days?

Isn’t this also the reason successful marketers always direct their sales messages to trigger emotional buying motives instead of rational ones? Benefits, not features. I mean, do you really care what’s under the hood if it gets you where you want to go, doesn’t break down, is snazzy, and you think it makes you look good driving it?

If a car turns the neighbor’s head every time you pull into the driveway, and jumpstarts your brain into dreaming of being a big-name, cross-country race car driver just as a result of you buckling up and adjusting the mirrors, you buy it. You may offer 101 other more rational, logical reasons, but that’s just a justification cover!

When an entrepreneur starts a business, she 0r he is typically filled with emotions that seem to run at cross-purposes. Money. Where will it come from? Where will I get the money I need? Will it be enough? Workspace. How much do I need now? Later? Where? What’s the deal? Insurance? Yikes! Equipment? Furnishings? Accountant? Lawyer? Advisory board? Employees? Benefit plans? Strategic plans? Business Plans? Hours of operation? Website? Pricing? What? Huh? Packaging? Promotions? PR? Advertising? Sales? Phone System? Reception? Presentations? Partners? Investors? Lenders? Logo?Suppliers? Branding?Memberships? Networks? Jeeze! Maintenance? Distribution? Referrers? Community? Titles? Whoa! Signage? Name? Mission statement? Elevator speech? Professional or industry relations? Goals? Target markets? And on and on . . .

                                         

According to the most recent SBA studies I could muster (the WH doesn’t want to publicize new small business data), 9 out of every 11 new businesses reportedly fail within the first 10 years, and it takes an average of 6 years just to break even financially. Pretty miserable odds for all that emotional and financial expenditure.

But —considering that your idea and your support systems are great, and the alternative is a secure go-nowhere job with the braindead government or some big corporate shabang position with nothing but ladders to climb before you sleep– entrepreneuring at least gives you adventure, challenge, opportunity, freedom, and fun.

So the answer IS: Channel all that explosive chain-reaction energy. (Try increased attention to deep breathing, yoga, exercise, power walks, eating and sleeping right.) Channel the energy into filling the gaps of business needs that you lack, so you can concentrate on what you like and do best, which will maximize your performance.

You’re lousy at writing or marketing or managing others? Hire someone with a proven track-record to step in and free you up. Sometimes just one or two people can fill all three of these for-example roles. See where and how to consolidate tasks and functions that you can pass along. (But remember responsibility cannot be delegated.)      

The point is that startup entrepreneurs need to jet down and focus their total energy on the “here-and-now” of what they’re doing: find the needs, determine the costs, fill the needs. Shop around for services. Be a detective. Line up at least 10 times the amount of money you think you’ll need. 10? Yup! Guaranteed! 

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

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