If Einstein

had been Alaskan,

would he have been 

wearing your shoes?

     In finally getting around today to Sarah Palin’s best-selling book, Going Rogue, I was reminded early on that US Secretary of State William H. Seward bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million (or two cents an acre) . . . well over half a million square miles (589,000 in fact) of mostly rugged (and then considered useless) wilderness.
     The unpopular purchase was publicly mocked and anointed as “Seward’s Folly.” But Seward, it turns out, had uncommon vision and great foresight.
     Decades later (and now, of course, the 49th State), Palin points out that Alaska ultimately produced colossal amounts of “gold and oil and rich minerals, along with the world’s most abundant fisheries.” She notes that Seward was “posthumously vindicated, as purveyors of unpopular common sense often are.”
     Let’s flip this historical tidbit into your own backyard, and explore what we learn.
     You run your own business. You have some terrific common sense ideas that you’re convinced can boost your business (industry, market) sky-high. But your family and your (formal or informal) advisory board considers you borderline crazy? They all agree that your newest business idea is too radical and far beyond having a realistic chance for success?
     You respect and trust their judgment and recognize that they have your best interests at heart, but — in the end, no matter the circumstances– your gut will prevail. Why? When none of them share your instincts, why? Because none of them are in your shoes. In fact, if they really were in your shoes, they’d be running your business instead of you.
     You got where you are because you have an entrepreneurial instinct, because you took reasonable risks, because you weren’t afraid to take up an unpopular cause that you believed in, because when others got too rigid or too flighty with their leadership, you always clung to using common sense.

Q. So how do you fly forward in the face of headwinds that seem determined to take you down?

A.The same way that you’ve done it before: forcefully AND gracefully (yes, both can work together). You need to move upward and onward in the directions you believe are right, but not at the cost of the input, insights, and guidance from those you honor and rely on.

     Claiming that if humans could use 100% of their brainpower, they would be able to separate molecules and walk through walls, neuro-scientists have further speculated that even Einstein never used more than 10% of his brain. (Whew! Imagine what percentage of brainpower each of us not-quite-Einstein-types use?). The man himself was often quoted as having said all we ever have is limited knowledge. 
     Okay, so limited common sense knowledge triggered by gut decisions. Sounds like a plan. Actually, it sounds like every successful entrepreneur who ever lived, from Henry Ford to Bill Gates. Measuring the Alaskan past and considering your present state of “craziness,” one might very well conclude what most of us know but most of us forget:

Forward motion as a human being and as a business leader

is always about having the courage of your convictions.

Just look around once to confirm that, then look inside your SELF to ignite what you believe in. 

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“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 matter which end of

the interview

you’re on…

     Few things can feel more satisfying than to win over the person at the other end of an interview by taking quiet control with championship communication skills.

     Active listening, thoughtful speaking and careful observations pay big dividends in employee/employer screening and hiring interviews, as well as in day-to-day operations.

     Yes, it’s true that nothing beats a great handshake, neat appearance, good grooming, eye-contact, and a bright smile for openers. But once you’re seated, you need a new set of tools.

     And no matter which end of the interview you’re on, be careful to not blow off a great first impression with lousy body language.

     When you sit back in your seat (especially in a sprawl and/or with hands clasped behind your head) you are giving off a superiority attitude that no one likes, even if you happen to be superior.

     If your arms, legs, ankles, hands, wrists are folded, you are communicating defensiveness, which will not work to your advantage, even if you are feeling that way.

     Open-ended questions provide the most revealing answers:

• “Tell me what’s important to you that’s not on this resume?

• What would you do if I gave you a million dollars cash right this minute?

• Who or what has made the biggest difference in your life and how did that happen?

• What would make you choose situation A over situation B even though B would offer you more money? (or better benefits?)

• What’s the hardest work situation you’ve ever had to deal with?

• How did you get started in this business anyway?”

are all good examples.

     WHAT the answers are to these or any other questions are only 20% important. HOW the answers are delivered accounts for 80% of what’s important! How rushed or deliberate are the responses?

     How serious or humorous are the answers? If humor is included, is it disparaging or self-effacing? In good taste? Does eye-contact have a focal point or is it more like staring? Leering? Avoiding?

Resist the temptation to fill the air with words.

Silence is a very useful and telling tool as long as it doesn’t go past the point of being intimidating.

In the same context, note taking is always a powerful practice; it keeps your attention focused; it supplements your memory banks; it’s flattering.

     Prompt, then listen. Never hesitate to clarify with paraphrasing (“Do I understand you correctly to mean . . . ?” Fill in your own words to check the meaning of something you’re in doubt about). Ask for examples. Ask for diagrams. Offer examples. Offer diagrams.

     Be careful with any job candidate who seems preoccupied with issues involving compensation, insurance, vacations, sick days, personal timeoffs, overtime pay, time reporting, lunch and coffee breaks. If you’re a candidate, be careful of a prospective employer who doesn’t volunteer this information up front.  

     When you can be prepared to the point where the interview is something you look forward to, you are likely to be ready to communicate effectively no matter which end of it you’re on. When you can be a detective during the interview, and make adjustments along the way, you’ll be increasing your odds for success regardless of whether you’re asking or answering.   

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Wake Up Congress!

The White House

is NOT on Your Side.

(PART 2 OF 2… The rest of the story)

PASS ALONG a printout or email this page link to your U.S. Senator and Congressional Representative

     Small business has been the backbone of America’s economy and the driving force behind job creation as the means to economic turnaround since the beginning of time. Yet small business has been not only blatantly disregarded in the search for economic and national survival, it has been literally stomped on by a penny-wise, dollar-foolish Federal Administration … that you are being dragged along into as a co-conspirator!

     Paying back union bosses for buying the election, and overriding common sense with big business bailout rewards that should not have come from taxpayers to begin with, and should have gone to small businesses instead to create jobs, was (and remains) a colossal error in judgment.

     Adding insult to injury, the White House is now trying to ramrod yet another version of a so-called healthcare reform plan down our throats.

     The voters are not stupid. They know that the schmooze-coated advances the President is making and the tokenism dropped at the feet of small business is meaningless, empty, UN-American nonsense designed solely to increase government control.

     The White House wants you to think the “new and improved” healthcare plan is what your constituents want and need. It is NOT.

     The White House wants you to think that small business is being awarded huge decision making benefits as part of this ill-founded, burdensome, unworkable plan. Not the case. Small business is being awarded gigantic, financially back-breaking responsibility for making healthcare work without being allowed meaningful input.

     If this healthcare plan goes through, the bankruptcy court lines will stretch all the way around the block in every city in America. If you, dear representatives of the people, think we have unemployment problems now, just give this financially-numbing plan 9-12 months to boil over… oh, and don’t worry about picking up the pieces because you won’t be around for another term.

     The people you represent are already fighting for their lives to avoid forclosures, pay bills, and feed their families. They sure as hell are not going to re-elect representatives who continually vote to spend more money that doesn’t exist — and that our children and grandchildren will be paying for, for decades.

     Jim Toedtman, the accomplished and perceptive Editor of AARP Bulletin, wrote last October (and it continues to ring true) that “It’s striking how closely” (Obama’s healthcare plan) “resembles the plan outlined by Nixon” (in 1970). “There’s a lesson here, and an important one that” (even the late Senator Ted) “Kennedy learned four decades too late: Don’t allow partisanship and deology to blind you to opportunity. But who,” Toedtman asks, “in the nation’s all but dysfunctional capital has learned Kennedy’s lesson? Who has the common sense and the willingness to listen? Who will set aside the partisanship that has paralyzed the health care debate? Who will step forward and seize the opportunity before them?”

     Surely that “who” could be YOU!

     Small business owners strongly urge that the torch be passed to those who know best how to fuel the job creation and healthcare reform fires: small business and healthcare professionals… not corporate giants, not hospital executives, not unions, not bankers, not automakers, and certainly not government administrators or media people. 

     There must be free market enterprise price competition, administered on a state-by-state basis (because health problems and needs vary considerably in different geographical regions) and small business owners cannot be expected to carry the financial burden.

     The White House is trying to make its backers look like heroes. But reality is that backers will instead be thought of by those who elect them as internal terrorists whose support of White House plans and policies are tearing at the very fabric of American life.

     Wake up, representatives of the people of America! Small Business Job Creation is what we need and want. If you were unemployed, could you pay for “the new” healthcare? First things first!   

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Get blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

IF YOU CAN FOLLOW

these 8 sentences, you 

understand how to fix

the economy — and the

White House is puzzled.

(PART 1 OF 2)

     Entrepreneurs pursue ideas. They taste, test, trial-and-error, and explore applications of their ideas. When they settle on a direction, they find or attract enough financial support to do two things: 1) Create an operations process to develop (manufacture, fabricate, enhance) the product(s) and/or service(s), and 2) Design and deliver a marketing program.

     Marketing drives prospects to the door and creates a support platform for sales. Salespeople (or the entrepreneur herself or himself, acting in a sales role) produce(s) sales. Sales produce revenues. Revenues pay operations process and marketing (and perhaps investor) expenses and hopefully generate profits.

     Profits allow entrepreneurs to create jobs.

     Big business really doesn’t create new jobs. Research demonstrates time and again that far more than the vast majority of new jobs created in America originate with small business.

     So— why does the White House insist on avoiding and glossing over small business as an insignificant source of new jobs? Why does the White House pretend to befriend small business, shaking hands with the right hand while stabbing it in the back with the left hand?

     Can someone please answer this? Can the answer please be a real one, and not some convoluted response anchored by union-held political chips or fantasyland corporate moguls riding bailout coattails?

     How do”We the people…” choose to allow narcissistic political arrogance to override the critical needs of our economically-threatened society to stimulate and foster job creation?  Part of the answer is that we have a federal government that’s universally comprised of individuals who have not one iota of business experience, and who adamantly refuse to get the business advice needed for economic recovery from the only source that matters: small business.

     And surely–because, really, no one could be this dumb– the government can’t possibly be thinking that the SBA is the place to turn for meaningful input. (Yes, this is the same Small Business Administration administered by small-business-braindead government employees and stimulus-recipient big business corporate types who can’t even spell entrepreneur, let alone think like one) .

     The message is: WAKE UP AMERICA!  There’s more to this story, and it’s coming tomorrow.

     I hope you’ll return for –as one of my heroes, Paul Harvey, used to say– the rest of the story!

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“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!

Should “A-Rod” 

be negotiating

terms for Scott Boras

to play third base?

     With immediate apologies to all those “not a baseball fan” types who prefer brawn-over-brain sports that require heavy drinking to appreciate, and, oh yes, apologies also to all those who suffered great heartache at having to see Olympic curling competition come to an end.

     It’s just that even Herman’s Hermits have heard of baseball’s super-star Yankee slickster, and America’s champion sports agent (No, not the Tom Cruise character from the “Show me the money!” movie). And everyone knows that neither of these guys could do the other’s job with even a shred of success. Besides, it hooked you into reading this, right? 

     Well, this is not much ado about nothing because business owners and managers insist everyday on putting the avalanche of marketing burdens on the shoulders of salespeople who haven’t a clue about the most appropriate tools to use, nor any sense of the command of psychology needed to make those tools work effectively. And designating marketing people for sales roles can be an even bigger joke.

     Marketing is not sales. Sales is a function of marketing.

     Marketing is also the umbrella over all these other functions: pricing; packaging; online and offline promotion, merchandising, and advertising; online and offline public relations, community relations, investor relations, industry relations, business alumni relations, and much of customer relations; professional practice development; formalized networking, blogging, and social media activities; website design and development; and “buzz” (word-of-mouth) marketing.

     Sales has many parts to it. Not the least of these is that being a sales representative means running one’s own small sales performance business complete with bookkeeping and all the other migraine-promoters. But sales is sales.

     Marketers are the planners, organizers, strategists and creators. Salespeople are the movers and shakers. Salespeople are the lifeblood of every organization. Marketers provide the support services that bring prospects to the point of sale. Salespeople sell!

     If you want your salespeople to do a better job of selling, let them sell. Take away the responsibility for marketing that drains their energy, makes them crazy and is beyond their comprehension to begin with, and let them sell.

     Give the responsibility for marketing to people who are trained to do marketing. Let them come up with the words and pictures and designs and plans and budgets and strategies and slogans and jingles and branding lines and media plans and scripts and news releases and online program approaches.

     When their work succeeds at driving prospects to your door, reward them for the results; but then let your salespeople do their job! 

     Of course they all need to interact and share insights with one another. The more each team and individual knows about what makes the other(s) tick, the more successful all of them will be, and so will be your business. Your greatest challenge is to motivate everyone to do what they do best to take your business in the direction you want it to go. That’s leadership, and only you can do that!

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Get blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

Are you playing

with yourself?

. . . business is

a team sport!

     Don’t you just love it when a word older than the Civil War makes a comeback and ends up on top of the heap? Collaboration. It’s the hot new buzz word in business. Who knew? It’s strategic alliance, cooperation, shared interests, communication, interaction, productivity, and teamwork all rolled into one.

     Whoa! And it’s not a legal, structured entity so there are no lawyers involved. What could offer greater promise for success?

     Did you think that just because you run your own business, you no longer need to worry about or deal with anyone else? Did you think “Solopreneuring” would or should render you independent? Did you think when you hung out your solo practitioner shingle, you could function completely on your own?

     No more. Maybe small business hasn’t yet caught up with the giant union-based companies feeding on bailout tax dollars, or the Silicon Valley techies housed in converted warehouses with coed bathrooms, and elevated bunkbeds hovering over their computer workstations. But small businesses ARE collaborative.

     Successful small business owners recognize they cannot withstand today’s economic forces with their incessant coastal flooding and gale warnings simply by hunkering down and having an inflatable lifeboat ready.

     Doctors (including those who directly compete) can no longer exist without other doctors’ referrals. Downtown business membership organizations (including many directly competitive retailers) work together to stimulate customer foot traffic. Online and offline services are sharing services with other online and offline services.

     Many compatible and/or competitive businesses are partnering up for centralized buying services in order to exercise greater clout in winning product and service quantity and shipping discounts. Many others share creative development talents. There are even collaboration website resources like http://www.collaboratingentrepreneur.com for small business owners (which is well worth a visit).

     Business employee alumni associations are cropping up with collaborative applications designed to capitalize on the life and career paths of former (retired or moved on) employees who have maintained loyalty and/or contact since leaving. New revenue streams and solidified client sales have evolved from these collaborations.

A FREE, do-it-yourself, 2-page Business Employee Alumni Association

How-To Guide is available via email to me at the address below.  

     The point is that if you’re playing with yourself (pardon the double entendre), you are living in the dark ages, and you need to come up for air, look around, and see how you can help yourself (and others) by combining forces, interests, and financial pursuits. No contracts, no lawyers, and no money required. Go for it!

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Get blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

 Cars, Copiers,

Cabbage,

Colonoscopies,  

 Microchips,

or French Fries

     It doesn’t matter WHAT a salesperson sells. It’s HOW he or she makes a sale that counts. 

     If you’re “in sales,” you know what this is about. And if you’re NOT “in sales” (technically speaking), you ARE in sales. Think about that one for a minute. Aren’t all of us engaged in some form of selling every day?

     Not knowing or accepting that you are in sales even though you’re not “in sales” is probably a bigger roadblock to your success than a dysfunctional family (which each of us reportedly has!).

     Savvy sales managers and business owners recruit “sales personalities,” not robots dripping with product/service knowledge. Of course salespeople cannot be effective without substantial product/service knowledge, but they also cannot be effective if they are not social animals. Performance features are easy to teach; performing is not.

     We are human so it’s only natural that we gravitate toward people with personalities that come across as authentic — people with “sales personalities.” Why would this be the case? Here we go with this sentence that sounds exaggerated but is true: All customers make all purchases (even those that seem completely unemotional) based on emotional buying motives, not logical, rational, objective ones.

     You may want to re-read that last sentence and give it some open-minded consideration. Human beings do not buy product or service features. They use product or service features to justify their purchases.

     Those people gifted with “sales personalities” are able to sell virtually anything. If I’m looking to hire someone to sell rocket ship parts to scientists, I’ll take a guy who sells railroad cars full of ketchup packets to university buyers over an interplanetary science major who has major research experience in rocket ship construction.

     The ketchup guy can learn the rocket ship parts business. It’s not likely the scientist is going to all of a sudden learn how to turn on the charm and be a great listener. The scientist will typically be preoccupied with talking about what the scientist is interested in talking about, not about first hearing and processing and then emphasizing the benefits the buyers are seeking.

     The scientist will tend to emphasize features (which could just as easily be presented in writing and diagrams) and probably gloss over if not downright disregard any emotionally-based purchase considerations that may –as just one example– have to do with how the buyers’ decisions may have the impact of helping to protect organizational integrity.

     If you own or manage a business and need strong sales support, put aside industry-specific and technical backgrounds as criteria. Focus your recruitment efforts instead on finding someone who’s proven to be a quick learner, who has enthusiasm, exceptional listening and communication skills, and who has demonstrated ability to sell. Period. You’ll get more for your money.

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“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!

Get it out of the elevator 

and into your pocket!

     The more you recite your “Elevator Speech” — you know, that little one-sentence description of what your business is all about that you would presumably use to tell your whole business story to a stranger during the few seconds of an elevator ride — the better it will get.

     It’s like the repetition of any story: the more you tell it, the more polished you’ll make it, the more effectively it will communicate, the more enticing a spiel it will become. But to make it work, you have to use it over and over and over again (Repetition Sells!): in meetings, at social gatherings and community events, waiting in lines, and yes, even weddings and funerals.

     That sounds distasteful to you? Sorry. It’s reality. No one’s ever really offended by quiet discreet sharing of an information one-liner that’s descriptive, in good taste, and doesn’t require ten paragraphs to explain it.

     If you have your own business — or you’re a sales rep, which means you have your own business — you are expected to be able to say what you’re all about in one clear, concise (and hopefully energetic) statement that you can say comfortably without struggling for breath..  

     “So, hey, Philamena, I hear you run your own business; whadda’ya do?”

     Please don’t tell the guy you’re a EXIF 2.2 expert who consults on compatibility of PIM and PictBridge. You might instead try: “We help individuals and businesses that work with photography to find the  computer printer systems that best fit their needs.” 

     I know it’s tempting to let others know that you’re a CTS PT who specializes in inflamed flexor tendons instead of simply explaining you’re a “physical therapist who helps people with wrist pain from repetitive motion (like computer operation, packing and assembly, or hammering) to not lose time at work.”

     Odds are if you’re new in business, you still need to tend to the polishing up of this “best set of words.” If you’ve been around awhile, you probably recite the same old statement every day to everyone and haven’t stopped to actually think about it for a long time.

     So, whichever situation best describes you, stop and think about it! Ask others around you what they think of your concentrated explanation.

     Remember that you only get one chance at a first impression. With today’s business economy, there’s no room for saying even one single word in your elevator speech that’s wrong, or that doesn’t enhance the communication value of explaining what your business does, or that doesn’t intrigue others. 

     Once you think you’ve got it, get it out of the elevator. Put it in your pocket and take it everywhere with you. Never stop refining it. And keep feeding it to your employees as the words you want them to use to describe the business anytime someone asks them (and hopefully, of their own accord, when no one asks!)

Comment below or Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make today it a GREAT day for someone!

Hold your nose

and dunk under

 the wave . . . or 

 ride it to shore!

     Surfers (not the TV channel kind!) are actually smarter than they look. They know enough to take a deep breath and either dunk under a wave to get out of the way, or stand up and ride it onto the beach. When your business cash flow is outbound, it’s time to make that same decision.

     If you choose to dunk under — like leave town, change your name, and disappear into some cave or head for the islands (until your butt’s hauled back to jail) — go for it! But prepare (at least) for a stiff neck from looking back over your shoulder 16 hours a day … maybe work for a chiropractor?

     My guess is that when payables tip the receivables scale into the stratosphere, most of us will opt for survival instead of surrender. Certa Bonum Certamen say the Latins (“Fight The Good Fight”) and giving our businesses CPR is certainly preferable to filing Chapter 11. Rule of thumb: One first aider beats a full house of lawyers.

     Okay, so where to start? Make the unpleasant calls to creditors; beg for mercy; give them (and stick to) payback plans. Stay in communication with them no matter how awkward, uncomfortable or embarrassing it feels. DO NOT borrow money to pay back loans; it will catch up with you.

     Consider reputable debt consolidation services. Fill in staff-cutback areas with interns. It’s true a recent President kind of ruined that idea, but truth is that if you’re willing to provide the proper guidance and leadership, you can literally build an empire on the enthusiasm and energy of young interns.

     The best source of interns (and usually a structured program that keeps students focused and offers employers recourse) will come from your nearest community college, though some major universities have established highly successful internship (often called “cooperative education”) programs.

     Interns will occasionally work for free, sometimes for commission or bonus arrangements, and often for minimum wage or less. They require ongoing supervision. You may have to fill out evaluation forms and meet with a faculty or administrative advisor once a semester. That’s it. If this is something you want to make work, make it work.

     If you’re a one-man-band, ask family members for hours in exchange for breakfasts or dinners out, or periodic sports or concert tickets … i-tune cards? Be creative.

     One boss I know who’s struggling to get his business back on its feet reports getting productive work hours from his cousin’s teenage son in exchange for covering periodontal work (teeth braces) not covered by insurance. He gets six months of work from another relative in exchange for new tires on two family cars.

     Be creative. Make it work. Ride it to shore!

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Get blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

If every decision you face 

is a coin toss, you’d make a 

good referee. But business 

and life decisions demand

 L  E  A  D  E  R  S  H  I  P. 

     Referees toss coins and make judgement calls about physical actions and movements within physical boundaries. Small business owners and managers must make informed decisions about psychological, mental and emotional  behaviors as well as physical ones, and business has no boundaries.

     Business owners and managers focus on accumulating coins, not tossing them. Referees need 20/20 vision. Business owners and managers require leadership vision. Referees put together all the pieces of a complex, moving jigsaw puzzle. Business leaders never have all the pieces.

     According to the likes of great minds as diverse as Albert Einstein and Henry David Thoreau, all we ever have is limited knowledge. Certainly that’s no truer anywhere than it is in business, especially because daily business decisions revolve around how others think, and we can never know all of what others think.

     Customers, associates, employees, suppliers, competitors, prospects, referrers, professional advisers are all focused groups of individuals with common interests but uncommon (i.e., unique) minds and brainpower. This depth of differences (and the selective perception filters of each) call for decisions that are customized and personalized as much of the time as possible if they are intended to have impact.

     Other than mathematicians, accountants, and engineers, not many careers thrive on rational, logical, objective, unemotional decision making. And EVERY purchase decision–no matter how rational, logical, objective and unemotional (even rocket-ship parts!)–is in fact emotionally-triggered.

     What all this means is that business decision making needs to go FAR beyond refereeing into the land of leadership that recognizes the individuality of emotional platforms and experiences, and that addresses those with respect, grace, and finesse. Decisions are the lifeblood of leadership.

     Making decisions that motivate others to strive wholeheartedly to achieve is what great leaders of the universe have done through the ages. The dynamics apply equally to Washington, Lincoln, Churchill, Eisenhower, and Reagan as they do to Gates, Jobs, and the owners of the successful “Mom and Pop” deli down the street from your home or office.

     It’s probable that there are hundreds if not thousands of factors to be weighed in every small business decision, from investor and government influences to inventories and service supply lines, to the demands of unions, communities and the weather.

     We can only decide based on what’s available to weigh, our related base of experience, the input we get, and our gut instincts. True leaders decide, then move on. Make-believe leaders (usually those of political and big business persuasion) analyze to death then drag out decisions past the point of relevancy.   

     If you own or manage a business, you are paid to make decisions. Coin tossing is simply another form of knee-jerking and winging it. “None of the above” produces decisions that cultivate consistent high impact, long-term results. But leadership does.

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 “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!