Chinese Proverb . . .

TALK DOES NOT

COOK RICE!

Like facing a mental firing squad, being called out to justify your existence –by anyone with clout: a client, customer, partner, investor, lender, referrer, founder, advisor, even some braindead government regulatory agency official– can paint you into a corner of zero return on your time, energy, money, and often innovative talent as well. 

Justifying decisions and actions may be important in a courtroom but, in business, searching for reasons wastes enough time to prevent a needed quick-fix, to intercept momentum and slow down progress, and to prevent the launch of creative fantasy into innovative reality… a process today’s economy needs more of rather than less! 

Many entrepreneurs seem to include some form of justification frustration in their list of reasons for giving up corporate or government careers to join the ranks of the self-employed. “I hated having to always subject every breath I took to someone else’s microscope. Getting the job done on time is what should matter, not how or why.”   

Talk may serve to satisfy boardroom egos and government budget rationales, but if you own or operate a small business, it doesn’t cook rice! 

In our steadily sinking economy, it serves no purpose to patronize and pander. Telling your supporters that things are still not where they need to be but that they are in fact better than they once were means absolutely nothing. Nada. Zero. Action still speaks louder than words. Responding with a sense of urgency still counts big-time. 

All those business guys with clout (in the top paragraph) care only about results! ROI. Benefits. What’s in it for them? How soon can they realize value or affect a turn-around? So the trick is to side-step requests to justify yourself by answering demands to explain why the rudder broke, and to use that time and energy instead to right the ship.

It’s called an “action attitude.” Every successful entrepreneur I’ve studied has practiced it under fire, when the chips are down. Those I’ve seen who dwell on “getting to the bottom of things” usually do because that’s what they choose to preoccupy themselves with, instead of moving forward. 

If you think you need all the answers in order to move on, you’ll never move on. Which brings us to the central message here. Sure there are times when we need to explain ourselves for the sake of maintaining household or employee harmony, or to satisfy an upset customer who demands it, or to keep an investor at bay. But:

You need to free yourself from always feeling that you have to justify yourself.

It reportedly took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts to invent the light bulb. Imagine if he had to stop and explain his way out of each failed effort? We’d still be sitting in the dark! Life is to short to worry about what went wrong. Focus on getting things to go right!                                         

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Think you have

a busy business

 and lead a busy life?

Think about this quote

…and this 60-second bullet list!

Pretty scary stuff to be banging around your brain, eh? It’s no wonder you get yourself stressed out. Just think about the information overload comment and what’s happening in every passing 60 seconds worth of cyberspace. I mean,  any entrepreneur in her or his right mind could easily almost die or justify opting in to becoming an ostrich. 

But, no. Here you stand, taking it on the chin (and in the wallet)! You are in it, and you’re going to make it work for you because you are not a quitter, because you’ve got guts and gumption, because you believe in your ideas. What’s missing? Sometimes you teeter on the edge of not believing in your SELF. Sometimes you need a re-charge.

Well, step right up, business and professional practice owners and managers and operators and partners and investors! I know you think you’ve got a “killer” business, so I’ll tell ya what I’m gonna do: I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. Are you ready?

Here’s the deal: You stop reading newspapers and news magazines and newsletters . . . stop watching and listening to news reports and programs . . . take more deep breaths than ever before . . . think more about your family than you normally do and say a few more prayers than you’re used to . . . for 21 days!

If you fail to make something of really major importance happen for you and/or your business in that amount of time –21 days, but you must follow the news abstinence path outlined– I will devote a full blog post to promoting your business interests for free plus provide you –also free– with a professional news release you can use.

I’ll even throw in step-by-step personalized professional guidance on how to make it work . . . Over $2500 worth of professional services for FREE if you fail to succeed with the approach outlined above. No strings attached. No gimmicks. I will not try to sell you on anything else, or on any extension of services.

This is a straight ahead offer.

If you are successful, you get –free– a full 45-minute customized and personalized telephone consultation on how to make more effective and more economical use of your planned and existing marketing efforts. No strings attached. No gimmicks. I will not try to sell you on anything else, or on any extension of services.

This is a straight ahead offer. 

Deadline: You have until July 29th to stake your claim. I will expect a dated, detailed report of the steps you take and the results you produced or failed to produce. You can contact me by email or phone message anytime, and I will respond promptly.

You have nothing to lose except news

(and that never changes anyhow).

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

No-cost/low-cost marketing

doesn’t happen overnight!

When you commit to spending minimal or no dollars to get your marketing message out to your target market, don’t expect miracles. Be realistic enough to recognize that a great many factors can impact your effectiveness. 

Whatever you do must be well done. If it’s news releases, you need to distribute a series of at least 5 or 6 different ones, 10-20 days apart, to a reliable list of media contacts, whose names and titles are double-check spelled correctly . . . and who are treated with utmost respect and gratitude for consideration.

Remember you are asking these people to give you free publicity. They decide if you get it or not, if your words are worthy, if they like the way you ask, if they are in a receptive mood, or if they will require you to buy advertising time or space first.

Your releases must be:

• NEWSWORTHY – Use “enlightened” self-interest, not just self-interest!

• GRAMMATICALLY FLAWLESS – Use Spellcheck. Use AP and UPI “Style” books, and Strunk and White’s Elements of Style

• 1.5 PAGES MAX, AND 1.5 – 2 LINES PARAGRAPH SPACING

• 3-4-LINE PARAGRAPHS

• ACCOMPANIED BY:

  • Your contact info
  • Interesting, captioned photos whenever possible
  • Short, personalized-as-possible cover notes that point out why each release will have interest to the recipient’s reader or broadcast audiences

If you’re using social media and/or emails (and you should be on both counts, if for no other reason than to support and promote the use of releases), think before you “Send.”

Always include a shortened link to your site. Be social. A steady stream of sales pitches, day after day numbs Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn subscriber brains into Delete Mode.

As with your news release headline, make sure your message attracts attention without being alarmist or overstepping acceptable boundaries of good taste.

Be smart enough to realize that the economical course of action you choose for your marketing simply does not offer the same accelerated pace of providing and paying for an advertisement and getting immediate exposure.

“Free” takes time!

Expect — even when everything and every person involved in the process falls neatly into place — it’s going to take you longer than you want it to, to make things happen.

A news release that finds its way to a receptive editor may get tossed at the last minute because a major news event breaks. Coverage of that takes priority because it sells newspapers, magazines and broadcast aduiences.

That’s what sells advertising time and space and that’s what pays salaries.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Not “Pie-eyed” intoxicated

. . .Pie-eyed as in bleary

from studying

 too many pie-charts!

Actually, if you have this ailment, you are either reading too much of USA TODAY, or you are reading too much into your competition.

Try the following exercise on behalf of the entrepreneurial professional practice or small business that you own or operate or manage or partner with. It will give you an “Aha!”

• First, draw a pie. Whatever kind you like is fine. Next draw a slice that approximately represents what you think is your business or professional practice share of the primary market you’re engaged in (SOM, as corporate biggies call it).

• Do something to highlight it: color, fill it in, draw your favorite fruit into it, add crumbs or a topping if you want.

• If your slice is too small to fit any decorative ingredients, put an arrow off to the side that shows your sliver and decorate your arrow (or if the sliver is simply a reflective glint off the pie tin, you may want to consider closing down and trying some other business . . . or there’s always government work that requires no pies and no thinking).   

• Next, assuming you do have a reasonable or promising piece of the pie in front of you, take an educated guess at what you imagine the sizes of the other market portion slices that each of your key competitors controls.

• Draw in and label those slices. Are you still with me, or have you been nibbling?

• Now stand back (or lean back) and take a good, hard look at this pie. It’s a graphic representation of the market your business is in. What’s going on in the middle?

• Scribble a little tornado into the dead center of the pie, overlapping all the tips of all the slices. That is where everyone in your market is killing each other, fighting to get a bigger share.

Just think about how much time and energy and money is spent in that little area of commotion. That little battlefield becomes so consuming and wasteful that many business owners and managers fail to see what else is happening.

Pay attention for a minute to what’s outside the pie (the box, the bun). What do you see? Endless space? More pies?

Have you, in other words, been staring at one star in the sky and not noticing the rest of the solar system? Or beyond? Have you been focused on one tree and ignored the forest? How about just concentrating on your one slice and seeing only what else is in the pie? There is a limit to the amount of toppings you can add, you know.

So why not (are you ready for this?) . . .

e–x–p–a–n–d—– t–h–e—– p–i–e—–?—–?—–?

What happens to your SOM when you make the pie larger? Yes, yes, the competition grows bigger too. But are you in business to succeed or to kill your competition? When you are the entity responsible for making the pie bigger, you are also going to capture the lion’s share of the increased market because you are the one opening the floodgate.

Instead of we’ve got better stuff and we’ve got cheaper stuff and we provide better service deals, what about looking around to see how many prospects there are out there who do not own or use ANY of your existing market products or services, and then take the high road that “We want EVERYone to experience this type of market offering!” 

Not sure? Call or email me. I love making pies bigger. Yum! Happy weekend. See you Saturday!  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Small Business Suffers (See personal note at end) . . .

Highest Consumer Prices

in 3 Years!

(and the Worst Leadership Since Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter!) 

The highest consumer prices in three years were reported today for food, clothing, fuel and transportation.

the oppressive nature of obvious federal government efforts to control, manage and force small businesses into bankruptcy, this news is not surprising. What is surprising is that America’s 30 million small businesses have thus far failed to find and focus and rally their strength in numbers– to respond en masse!

What is surprising is that the Obama Administration has been pathetic at best in it’s token offers of olive branch diplomacy through its stagnant SBA puppet show. (Okay, well, maybe that economy-killing attitude is notso surprising after all. I mean, it actually makes sense as accompaniment to our business-leaderless federal government.)

Messrs. Obama and Biden have thrown entrepreneurs and small businesses under the bus.

In the process of over-taxing, over-regulating, intimidating, undervaluing, and completely disregarding the basic economic-growth interests of entrepreneurs and small business enterprises, widespread meddling in large corporate businesses and attempts to disintegrate free market enterprise competition from healthcare have prevailed.

Lest we forget, by the way, entrepreneurs and small business enterprises are the entities that built America into the world leadership posture that Mr. Obama is relentlessly trying to dismantle at the expense of all Americans. 
It’s inconceivable, his “fiddling“–outlandish First Family expenses, preoccupation with sports, and managing to be conveniently and consistently “out of town” while oil spills, floods, tornados, poverty, unemployment, foreclosures, and the undermining of America’s military and global image rise to the surface of day-to-day reality.

And now it’s consumer prices! What’s next? Must be “Dignity” because it’s trumpeted in every speech, and trampled in every action.

                                                                     

Leadership that incessently talks “dignity” and never delivers really cannot be allowed to continue. You and I and our families have struggled and suffered to keep our businesses afloat, to survive.

Has it occurred to you that we are no longer working for ourselves; we are working for the government battling against all odds to make an honest living, but losing ground daily because what we do manage to earn is turned back in to be distributed to others who are too lazy and too manipulative to work for themselves.

Why bother getting a job? Huh? After all, everything’s free. Why bother with even learning English or getting citizenship? Americans are so stupid that they’ll pay for everything anyway. Take advantage. What a great country!

______________________________

A SPECIAL NOTE TO BLOG VISITORS

I rarely comment personally here, because this blog was created for those seeking business development ideas, methods, stories and encouragement. It was never intended as a political instrument but, you know, it’s become increasingly difficult for me to choose to not be tormented by business-inexperienced, know-nothing leaders who –day after day– pound away at entrepreneurs and small business.

If what is said here offends you, please don’t just click off; call me or send a note and let me know your thoughts. I promise you a respectful response. 

Until someone can prove otherwise, I see no exception to the conviction that Mr. Obama has no regard for –or understanding of– what makes America’s economy tick, and that he chooses to ignore even finding out because that pursuit alone will cost too many votes?

Pardon me, but I believe, dear professional practice and small business owners and managers, that this kind of shortsighted, misdirected leadership is not leadership. It is sick, self-serving, do-nothingness that we cannot continue to live with, and that our economy cannot much longer tolerate.

We have the clout to make that change:

Election Day – November 6, 2012.

Vote Responsibly! 

                                                                           

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Itttttttt’s a wrap!

Waitaminute! What makes you so sure?

You’ve been working at this deal for awhile now. It finally looks like things have fallen into place. You are almost ready to count your chickens before they’re hatched. You’re 99% sure that the long-sought-after customer/client is, at last, in your pocket.

You’ve started paying attention to champagne ads, and checking booking schedules for that dream cruise.

Winning with the who who’s in your pocket all depends on how much you learn from past mistakes. Yes, most of us have been there at least once. It’s called:

Presumptuousness

Presumptuousness is cornerstoned by assumptions. Not a lot of architectural integrity there. In case you haven’t given it much thought lately, assumptions can be dangerous. A necessary evil, so to speak, that can often be the result of a series of correct hunches, and still be wrong.

In business, politics, and life, not many attitudes can be more foreboding.

In other words, anytime you decide that you think you know it all, you can be sure someone or some circumstance will come along and prove you wrong. It’s something like a distant cousin to Murphy’s Law.

When that dark shadow crosses your mind, stop what you’re doing. Take a deep breath. Stretch.

Ask yourself if what you believe about the outcome of that big deal looming over your checkbook’s future –or about the genuineness of the partner(s) or principal(s) involved– is based on fact or opinion.

Go back to your drawing board long enough to make sure you have some contingency plan in place to offset any pending disaster. (What’s worse than looking for a job when you have no job, or having the boat motor die miles from shore with no oars, or hosting a BBQ party and running out of fuel half-way through the steaks?)

I once hosted a huge New Year’s party that ended with guests in winter coats, hats and gloves at the punchbowl when the heating plant died in 20-degree weather. Ah,the lessons of life live and learn.)

It never hurts to follow the Boy Scout motto:

“Be Prepared!”

Or Henry David Thoreau:

“Be forever on the alert!”

Business owners make assumptions every day, sometimes every hour. It’s part of the game of business.

We need to project income and expenses, often for 3-5 years out,to satisfy prospective investors and lenders with business plan financials. We need to devise marketing and operational plan budgets farther in advance than most entrepreneurial comfort zones tolerate.

One of the reasons older entrepreneurs are typically more successful than younger counterparts is simply experience. Most business success seems to me to be able to be reduced to making effective educated guesses.

“All we ever have is limited knowledge” 

. . . that one was Einstein

So next time, you think you know who’s in your pocket, think again!

Even Presidents have learned this the hard way, presuming voter support that never materializes.

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Silence is NOT golden!

Just because you get the news release done and out, doesn’t mean anybody cares!

I ran a small “News Release” workshop recently, and was reminded of how important news releases have become in the face of government-borne economic recovery impossibilities being shoved down the throats of struggling small businesses. When you can’t afford to advertise, you twist your message into news and release it into cyberspace.

Public and community relations are free

but not easy!

The problem is that even after you’ve done a 100% perfect job of packaging what you want to say, the media people who get your release, simply don’t care. It has to suit their whimsy, sense of balance, and their boss’s mood… unless you’ve been holding hands and buying them lunches for years, and toss some advertising bucks their way!

To get around all this,  you actually do need to package your message 100% perfectly –format and content both. `It must be NEWSWORTHY.  Self-serving, salesy, promotional, and contrived releases get deleted and trashed in record time. Editors and writers and news directors are usually much smarter than the companies they work for.

You’re expecting free publicity. What you say has to make a difference for your recipient’s audience.

Every release needs a personalized, respectful, courteous cover note that thanks the recipient for her or his time and consideration. It also needs to make some kick-butt statement about what makes the attached/enclosed release important to the recipient’s audience. You need to know the readers and viewers as well as the editors and writers.

So, random “Dear Talking Head” notes? No.

Homework first? Yes.

 ————————————

 A while back, I read a blog post by Laurie Halter:

“The Press Release Is Dead.”

Don’t believe it. Especially from someone who still -archaically– calls it a “Press” release! (Though she happens to be a truly superb writer!). The point is she’s wrong.

It has simply become much harder to make news releases work, but for those who persevere and are willing to trade hard work and a tenacious follow-up effort for free exposure that is proven to be over ten times more credible than paid advertising, the return on investment can be great.

All of this of course assumes (I know, I know, a dangerous word) that you are prepared to be exceptionally creative in the manner with which you present your newsworthiness. Like a billboard or online banner, catchy short (six and seven-words max) headlines get results.

Your headline needs to attract attention, create interest, stimulate desire and –hopefully– bring about or promise action, along with offering some assurance of satisfaction. Just the headline alone? Yes, just the headline alone, in seven words or less!

The opening paragraph will ideally give the reader the who, what, when , where, why and how of what the release is all about, and do that in 3-4 lines of type. Open your release with your name and contact information (email address and phone number), and close with a standard block of descriptive “elevator speech” copy.

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Double check that the intended recipients are still employed where you’re directing your release, that they still spell their name the same, that they still have the same title, and that the email address/address is still the same. Media people live much more transient lives than most of us. One reporter I know changed jobs 3 times in one week!

If you are the boss, don’t expect miracles. Expect that the job is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and slow to get results (on the average, it takes 5-6 releases to the same person before actual news coverage is realistically considered. If your investment is backed by skillful writing and determined energy, you will get a return.

# # #

     Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

24 Hours from right now,

you will have used up

86,400 seconds of your life.

Will you have made them count?

How often do you micro-manage your SELF? From all I’ve been able to determine in studying truly successful people, is that they seem –universally– to do this on a fairly regular basis. They plan and deliver to themselves short periods of introspection.

A few minutes a day perhaps. Or maybe an hour or two over the weekend? Is it time to prime the pump and recharge the batteries?

“I take yoga,” one person tells me. “I run (walk, jog),” others proclaim. There are also, of course, the “workout freaks” whose lives revolve around the gym and the weights they lift.

The bottom line, though, is that –while all of these and many other methods are great for all-around good health– it takes that extra conscious attention to the unconscious to be fully productive and rise above the limits of physical accomplishment.

Don’t abandon yoga or running or lifting. Take them to the next step and make them work for you.

Creative and spiritual people excel at this.

Some part of them knows instinctively when and where and how to mentally and emotionally “drop back” into themselves for a “How Goes It?” self-inventory and assessment.

It’s rarely as formal and compartmentalized as this suggests, but it nonetheless serves to rally your energy and your focus.

If you’re serious about wanting to take as full advantage as possible of every passing day’s worth of 86,400 seconds, you will not be offended by my never-ending suggestions to integrate more deep breathing into more of your life: Just click here for the free 60-second exercise that can change your life, and ignite your business.

Deep breathing gets more oxygen to your brain for better decision-making and it stimulates blood flow for more relaxed, not weaker, less stressed muscles. It works for every level of health and fitness. You will feel better!

The combination of effects rewards those who make deep breathing an ongoing practice, with substantially-increased self-control, self-confidence, and better health. It’s free. With little practice, it’s also “invisible.”

With improved self-control, self-confidence, and health, also comes a much-enhanced ability to respond instead of react to what would otherwise be stressful external circumstances and individuals.

If you don’t react, you can never over-react!

That single benefit is generally the “crowbar” that separates true leaders from lifelong followers. And if that’s not enough, be reminded that self-control and self-confidence come partnered with HIGH TRUST!

Who wants to follow someone who’s out of control emotionally, or for whom they have no or low trust?

So, making the most of your next 86,400 seconds will serve to point you in the direction of strengthened self-control and leadership. What more could you ask? Uh, odds are you’ve probably just used up 100-150 seconds reading this post. That leaves you with about 86,200 seconds in the next 24 hours. make the most of them!

And remember that pausing to enjoy, and to introspect, helps ensure that your next round will also be productive! Oh, and did I mention “HAPPY”? Well, if you’re feeling mentally, physically and emotionally healthier, and getting more accomplished . . .

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. .

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Stop worrying, creative-types…

You’re not going

the wrong way

. . . you simply have a unique perspective! 

You’re an artist, writer, sculptor, musician, photographer, performer, designer, craftsperson, stylist, architect, landscaper, sign-maker, entrepreneur . . . and people call you “Weirdo”

__________________________

You laugh it off . . . but, somewhere deep inside, you worry that maybe you are weird. (I’ve been there; I know.)

After all, you hardly fit those corporate suit meetings or the trappings of that threatening vast jungle of government incompetency. And you do indeed march to a different drum. You’re really not anti-social or inherently contentious. You simply are what you are. Period.

So much of what you do requires isolation, keeping “strange” hours, eating only when you’re starving from whatever the closest container may hold, not watching TV, forgetting birthdays and anniversaries, periodically forgetting to wash or brush your teeth or fasten your seat belt, or even to use the bathroom until it’s almost too late. 

Many creative businesspeople fill in the blanks with Twitter. It’s a good social outlet, and a decent sales tool for those who work at it.

There’s little point in trying to explain to others what makes you “counterclockwise”

— that you’re really not going the opposite direction of society, and clocks.

You are just standing behind the clock, reflecting what’s in front of it. You’re simply thinking and functioning from a different perspective.

HA! Sort of like a dyslexic visionary? ;<) But hey, whatever works, works.

                                                            

If you can see the same thing differently from the ways others see it, you have a special God-given talent worthy of nurturing and training and developing. In other words, make the most of what you have and stop thinking (worrying about) what others who lack those skills might say or think about you. Rise above it!

Accept that you are extraordinary.

Easier said than done, you may say? Then reach into one of those deep dark corners of self-expression and remind yourself that it’s a choice. Everything you do and say and create is a conscious or unconscious choice. HOW you create and innovate (following a creative idea all the way through to completion) is a spiritual process.

That HOW part –your ability to capture, control, and exercise your spiritual process– is the difference between you and your white shirt and tie brother-in-law or athletic “jock” sister or your federal/ county/ town agency employee neighbor. The HOW process is what comes from your heart and soul. It is what primes the process pump.

You need always to be focused in the present, here-and-now moment as you perform for it only takes one slip of the knife, the brush, the camera, the tongue, to deliver catastrophe to your heart and soul. Here’s the best way to do that: Deep Breathing. (It keeps you in touch with your self, and each passing moment as it passes!)

When you DO come out of your artsy little closet to rub a few elbows, practice asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. Every question you ask and every answer you get holds out the promise of spectacular creative thought because it’s coming from outside of you but is something you ignite.

Rely forever on yourself and your instincts.

You are more often right about a creative decision than you give yourself credit for. When it comes to business, if that’s a problem, study up on it. It’s not as complicated as you may think. Like finding a doctor who’s skills and experience match the ailment, find professional services with creative management experience.

Or, when you get to the point of possibility, hire or commission someone with good business sense and/or good organizational skills and a sense of finances — someone you trust who can take it all away from you. But be careful to not use the occasion of such new found freedom to slack off or get careless. It’s an opportunity to grow!

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Businesses have customers.

Shrinks, lawyers and CPAs have clients,

But you, Doc,

have patients!

—————–

If you have a doctor-friend in your life, you might want to share this post. Useful, straightforward “business” posts for healthcare professionals are not typically or readily available. You may also want to consider how these same dynamics apply to you in your business or non-medical practice.

———-

So what, you say?  Here’s what: Given that healthcare has now become even less predictable (than the plights of business, shrinks, accountants, and lawyers) as we edge ever closer to that Obamacare precipice, you may already be starting to lose patients as you lose patience.

I mean, businesses, CPAs, and lawyers already see the staggering new costs handwritten on the walls. And shrinks? Eh, who ever knows about shrinks?  Anyway, it’s all about you, Doctor. You are being called on as never before to rise to the occasion and bite the business bullet. You must grow your practice in stagnant times. 

This means riding out the economic storms and going with the insurance provider flow even when all you want to do is practice medicine and be fairly paid for your expertise, training, experience, and compassion. Ah, but there stands Obamacare in your path! And you can’t get over, under, or around it. 

So, you’ve got to get through it!   

The only way to “get through” it –to survive and thrive in the next few months and years ahead– is to build and strengthen patient loyalty.

Patient loyalty is the single most critical component of practice growth, especially in hard times. It triggers increased  patient volume and stimulates referrals faster and more cohesively than any other factor.

———-

Here are the five key sets of values that determine success in acquiring and strengthening patient loyalty:

1. Your professional skills, resource network, and “Google-ability”

2. Your training, experience, and regional word-of-mouth reputation

3. Your patient-centric care approach and reassuring “bedside manner”

4. Your office staff’s abilities to communicate clearly and pleasantly, and to handle insurance reimbursement tangles quickly and simply

5. Your effectiveness in managing patient support, diagnostics, and referrals

Notice that the first four value sets above are ones that you should control and/or that should rely almost entirely on you. The fifth one, however, depends on others. This distills down to the reality that you must first attack the first four and fully capture or re-capture them into your control before moving into value set five territory.

Why? So you can strengthen the area that’s not in your control by coming at it from a position of strength in the four areas you are able to harness.

Take a hard look at the ten qualifiers suggested in the first four numbered value sets above. Can you rate yourself a “9” or “10” in each? In which areas are you weakest? What do you need to do –specifically– to get to those ratings in each suggested category? Can you identify three steps you can take next week to lead yourself there?

When you can honestly give yourself those 9-10 ratings, move on to #5 above and ask yourself what specific actions you can take now to improve the ways you manage patient support, diagnostics and referrals. Are you, for example, using resources that keep you in case management control over each of your patients?

The farther away from Med School and Internship and Residency you are, the more vulnerable you may be to economic invasion, and the more important it becomes to self-assess on a regular basis. Quarterly works. It might be the most rewarding investment you can make in your practice . . . or the most costly one to avoid.

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Hal@Businessworks.US

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

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