A business with no sign

is a sign of no business!

     Even if you’re running a business  out of your basement or garage or attic, and even if it’s illegal to have a sign outside, at least have one inside. If for no other reason than that the occasional visitor will be impressed, the IRS will give you less hassle about writing off a percentage of rent or mortgage and utilities, and –most important– it will make you feel good. 

     It doesn’t have to be a Times Square  smoke-blowing LED display spectacular. A piece of wood or cardboard will do just fine. The point is to give your business an identity. If you don’t who will? And when was the last time you had business dealings with, or rode through the desert on a horse with no name?  

     Okay, now let’s get to those eleven or so businesses  that are still not run out of the home. (That was a joke. My wife always urges me to announce a joke when I have a straight face like I did just then.)

Bottom line is that people judge

your business and you on first

impressions (and you’ll never

get a second one!)

     And many first impressions are at least formed in a large part by the sign on your building and/or in your window and or parking lot. 

     That sign needs to stand out.  It needs to communicate what you’re all about. It needs to be clean and attractive, visible and well-lit. Shrubs in the way? Trim them. Dirty frame? Wash or paint it. Bulbs out? Replace them. A sculpting studi0 I worked with uses lettering that is so thin and so fancy, it can’t be read when you’re parked next to it, never mind driving by.

A shabby sign tells people

you have a shabby business. 

     Replace or refresh it. A fish business has 20 signs on scrap wood that look like a 3 year-old spray-painted them. I drove past regularly for three years and refused to go there, thinking the fish couldn’t possibly be fresh.

     I finally stopped there one day out of curiosity  about they could still be in business. Now, I wouldn’t buy fish anywhere else. Aha!, you say, so lousy signs work. Actually, I think of it more that they lost my weekly business for three years; that’s a long time to court a prospective customer. 

     Your sign is your face. 

     How many days would you go without checking out your face in a mirror? Why would you not look at your own sign for weeks on end? In today’s economy, it’s not a good idea to have a less than perfect sign showing for even 24 hours! An ineffective sign is a sign of an ineffective business… yes, even in your basement, attic, or garage!           

# # #

OK, so now you’re

knee-deep in self-control

     So, what’s next?  Well, now that you have a firm grip on yourself and total control of all those latent late night and early morning temper tantrums, what’s next on the agenda? How about some practical how-to stuff for defusing OTHER people’s anger? Oh, joy!

     First off,  you’re not likely to get an angry associate, employee, friend or family member to instantly calm down just because you can now wave printouts of this blog site at her or his face and point out that the angry feelings are a CHOICE. Right. That’ll get you a subway fare to Madison Square Garden and a sharp stick in the eye.

     What then can I do, oh Anger Guru? What then can I do?  You can START by really paying close attention to the person who’s angry and by listening carefully to what’s being said. To begin, when we lose sight of the present moment and make a conscious or unconscious choice to feel angry about something or at someone, our brains take us rushing into a past who-did-what-to-whom accounting of past wrong-doings OR into an imagined scenario that hasn’t yet happened (and may never)!

     The goal then is to try to help the individual who is angry to come back to the reality of each passing moment as it passes,  to be focused on the here and now. BUT, unless you’re a shrink (and especially if the rampaging bull is wielding some instrument of destruction), it may be in your best interests to simply pretend you’re a rock. Assuming though that the anger is something less than maniacal in measurement, consider the following:

1)  Ask the other person if they would be good enough to please slow down the torrent of complaints long enough for you to be able to write them down on paper so that you can give serious thought to solving each problem (or addressing each issue) one at a time. [Then do proceed to write down each point as a separate item on a list]

2)  Ask the angry individual to help you prioritize each of the items listed so that you can number them as 1: First most important to take care of, 2: Second most important to take care of, 3: Third most important to take care of, etc., etc.

3)  Attack the items in order of the ranking by paraphrasing what was said about each (i.e., “Now let’s see, if I understand you correctly” or “Do I understand you correctly to mean that when Mary pulled John’s toupee off, he reached for it and she went to bite his hand but her dentures fell into the mixing vat and got processed into the pickle jars that were just loaded on the truck that left twenty minutes ago? Is that what you’re saying?”

Repeat and paraphrase until the angry person agrees 100% with your understanding of what the upset is all about, then complete that with a positive comment: “Good. I’m glad I understand this.”

4)  Ask for help in resolving the issue at hand, or at least provide some alternative action options for the angry person to consider.

     Be consistently and pleasantly adult-like and rational and logical and unemotional throughout.  This may be harder than it sounds, but if you’ve done steps 1-4 above, odds are you will already have effectively taken the wind out of the sails and restored some calm and order. As you proceed through the list, items will simply dissolve.     

# # #

You Suck Eggs!

Yeah, well suck THIS: I QUIT!

You can’t quit; You’re Fired!

     You KNOW that the mainstream media lie.  You know the economy isn’t getting better. You know because you see your sales performance. You know because you’ve had to make lousy cutback choices you hate.

     So you’re irritable.  Your fuse is getting shorter. You’re ready to jump down the nearest throat. And the last thing you want to hear is for somebody to tell you to chill! 

     Okay, sometimes it’s hard  to realize that your angry upset feelings are a choice. And sometimes you just want to steamroller over it anyway. You’ve just read 10 sentences of negative thinking.

     Here:  http://halalpiar.com/2009/05/4-steps-in-one-minute-zero-stress/  Try this one-minute diversion for something positive. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you. You’ll be glad you did. Click on it for a 60-second visit, then come back!

     You did it or you “copped out”?  You know what? Where your business, your family, your friendships –and frankly anyone you encounter– comes into play, you really can’t afford to not take advantage of every opportunity to get yourself into, and consistently demonstrate a positive frame of mind.

     Angry feelings ARE a choice.  Deep breathing DOES serve to reduce stress and de-fuse anger. The point is that unless you are monitoring yourself (especially if you’re the boss). no one else is going to do it for you!

     The old saying that it takes two to tango hovers in a holding pattern over ill intentions.  It’s ALWAYS the boss’s job to back off. Real leaders back off. There’s a time to charge forward but not when it involves stampeding over others you are responsible for leading. You are the one who must de-fuse situations… hard to do when your own is sizzling!

     There’s no challenge in accelerating anger.  There’s no intelligence in accelerating anger. There’s no taking back the words or tools used in accelerating anger. There’s no leadership in accelerating anger. There’s no integrity in accelerating anger. There’s only stupidity.

     Why?  Because –and I can promise you this– it will ALWAYS come back to haunt you, perhaps when you least expect it and when it can do you the most personal and / or business harm, but rest assured it WILL come back to haunt you.

     All that having been said,  it’s hard to imagine anyone dumb enough to do it anyway, right? Wrong! Wrong because anger is probably at least half the time an UNconscious choice, capable of rearing its ugly head in the most innocent of circumstances.

     The ounce of prevention  then has to do with making sure you literally surround yourself with positive thinking, positive people, positive statements as much of the time as possible, keep a “here and now” focus as much of the time as possible … and remember to breathe!

# # #               

STOP HIRING CONSULTANTS

(for the wrong reasons!)

Dear Business Owners and Managers: Stop with the knee-jerk decisions to hire consultants. They will not help you through the economy unless they are specialists at bringing sales in your door!

Until at least a couple of years down the road,  there is no need for “communication consultants” or “management trainers” or “personal growth and development consultants” or people to write your mission statement, your vision statement, your annual reports or your “white papers.”

How do I know? Because I’ve done all of the above (and made a successful career of it), but I also have run my own business for 35 years, and helped to start hundreds of others. I’ve run management and communication and personal growth and development training programs for 20,000 people. And I’ll be the first to tell you not to waste your time and money on these services, in this economy.

There is only one thing you need consultant support for these days, and that is for services that bring you sales. Period.

That having also been said,  I will be so bold as to suggest that communications and marketing generalists are also not the kinds of “sales consultants” to trust. Find a specialist. Do not EVER hire a marketing or communications consulting firm to do your website. Get a website specialist. Do not EVER hire a website specialist to write your website content. Get a writer who understands sales.

A good, proven commercial / marketing / advertising / website writer can do more for your business than all the ad agencies, marketing and communication consultants and non-sales trainers you can find put together! You need writing help? Hire a writer!

There is a growing temptation to panic at the financial strangulation your cutbacks have created, and grasp at any outside service that –like the frustrated wife whose husband  was a marketing executive and could only ever sit on the edge of the bed and talk about how great it would be– you simply cannot afford right now.

Promises do not perform. Providers with track-records for creating and delivering sales perform, and are worth paying! Look for a successful writer who is a quick study and who shows you she or he can learn your business promptly, who has a customer benefit focus instead of a chest-beating, “how great your business is” and product / service features focus.

You want someone who can help you develop sales strategies and and create the tactics that support that thinking. You want someone who is not afraid to work weekends or evenings to get the job done.

You want someone who will take the extra step, go the extra mile, and give you more than what you expect … someone who is both a talented writer and an example of what you want and expect from a sales pro.

Anyone who fits this profile,  by the way, should also be receptive to at least partial compensation based on performance. I know a lot of consultants will hate me for this post, but –down deep– they’ll have to admit that I speak the truth.

# # #

“Sorry, it’s NOT  FOR  SALE!”

     Think about it.  Almost everything you do and say every day is a form or function or process of  sales, or selling. (And, believe me, the more you think about it, the more you’ll agree!)

     So reality is  that if you’re not relying heavily on customer and client referrals these days, why not just label everything in your store, showroom, briefcase or website as “NOT FOR SALE!” ??? 

     You already know  that the best source of new business is old business … or current business (that translates to targeting past and present customers for repeat sales AND referrals!)

     Past and present customers  are people and organizations that already know you and rely or have relied on you and your company. They have already accepted your ability to deliver what you promise, when you promise. (Also known as “branding”!) They are aware of your reputation. They are aware of your competition and have chosen you now or in the past. 

     You don’t need to “dog and pony show”  or razzmatazz them. You DO need to remind them — clearly and often — how much you appreciate them and their support and patronage and confidence and trust. You DO need to be sure they are still totally pleased with your offerings, and find out what you need to do in order to make sure, if they’re not. 

. . . you DO need to convince them that you will stand on your head and spit wooden nickels for them if that’s what they need, in order to continue counting them as loyal customers.     

     The bottom line is  that you don’t need to convince these people to do business with you, but you DO need to convince them that you will stand on your head and spit wooden nickles for them if that’s what they need, in order to continue counting them as loyal customers or clients — and to be assured that they will continue to refer you to their friends, family, neighbors,  associates, employees, suppliers … even (for publicity and news release coverage sake) media contacts!

     Should you still cold call?  Absolutely! Should you rely on cold calls? Absolutely NOT! You always need to be out there registering positive first impressions with prospects. But remember that the bulk of your sales (studies show close to 80%) will come from established customers and clients.

     Ah, and there are fringe benefits  connected with focusing on present and past customers. Chasing repeat sales and referrals from those who have come to you before or who are presently dealing with you will prove more productive, easier to communicate with and influence, less time-consuming, and almost always more pleasant. Not so sure? How much easier is it for you to spend time with old friends than to make new ones?                                          

# # #               

What’s Killing Your Business?

So much positive feedback on  “What’s Your T-Shirt Say?” posted the other night:  http://halalpiar.com/2009/10/boost-your-business-in-3-minutes/ that I thought another evaluative exercise might be in order.

     Don’t scream, “Hi-YaaaAHHHH!”  in mock sarcasm and kick in your monitor screen when you read the next sentence that describes your homework assignment.

     If you’d like to boost your day-to-day and long-range business sales and operations  with 20 minutes of concentrated effort (and no consultant fees!), take a deep breath  http://halalpiar.com/2009/05/4-steps-in-one-minute-zero-stress/ and write your business’s obituary. Whaaat? Yup! Read the first 16 words of this paragraph again!

     No, it’s not easy.  Yes, it’s worth it! The exercise will be enlightening to say the least. The insights you gain may provide a guiding light to the revitalization of your business. Plenty of participants in my various entrepreneurship seminars have found this experience invaluable.

     Take any approach you like.  Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, and punctuation. At this point no one else in the world will see what you write anyway. The only requirement is to be honest with yourself.

     Some suggested questions to answer:  Itemize the highlights of the life of your business …

• When it was born?
• Who were the parents? 
• Where? 
• What was the startup business type and goal? 
• Why? (i.e., what prompted entering a particular industry or profession and what was the  intended result?) 
• How (what process used) did it get started? 
• How did it get to where it’s been in this last year of it’s life?

     What was the cause of death? 

• Any survivors? (Parents? Brothers? Sisters? Children? Grandchildren? Quotes/Testimonials from any of these people?)
• Service arrangements? (Will there be a viewing? Will services be private? Should there be an “instead of flowers” request?)      

     Spend as much or as little time as you like  (20 minutes usually works). Your goal is to present as complete a picture as possible of the life of your business if it were to end today, and to focus on achievements and contributions made.

     In your final analysis, after you’ve finished your write-up,  step back and ask yourself if the cause of death is your true exit strategy. Should there be more accommodation for having more children and grandchildren? Are the highlights the ones you most desire?

•  
  • Would you change the highlights if you could? 
  • What would you do differently if you could prevent the business from dying today? (Life saving surgery, if you will)
  • What would you do to ensure the business a longer life starting right this minute if you had the ability to step in now and spare it from death?
  • PSSSSST! What are you waiting for? 

# # #               

“Listen To Your Customers!”

     There is no single-sentence piece of advice,  guideline, or rule of thumb in all of business that’s more important. Your employees may be your greatest asset, but your customers are the reason your business lives, and the reason you get up out of bed and go to work every day.

     You are the boss.  That means — among 37 million other things you need to tend to — that, first and foremost, you must be putting yourself in the right place at the right time every day to be able to LISTEN to (absorb and process, not just hear!) your customers.

     Find out  what your customers REALLY think of your name, logo, themeline, reputation, service, branding, advertising, marketing, community involvement, pricing, packaging, cleanliness, vehicles, experiences with your products / services / employees / website . . . 

     You must ALWAYS  be asking for customer  opinions,  advice,  input,  suggestions, contacts, referrals, resources, networks … and then putting that information to work. Take it with a grain of salt if you like, but don’t blow it off or gloss over it!

I once knew a boss  who did all this listening, who actually hired professional facilitators and researchers to run opinion surveys and focus discussion groups, who gathered whole file cabinets full of customer information, and let it collect dust right up until the day he was forced to close his doors because he never heeded customer advice to upgrade his inventory of services

. . . and he never followed up  on the referrals and contacts his customers provided. It was just easier to do business the old way, using old systems, old inventory, old-thinking employees, and old contacts. It became a business too old for its own good.

     Customer Focus Groups  (targeted discussion sessions moderated by a professional presenter and interviewer) can be the most useful customer opinion and information-gathering tool you can use. Odds are, though, like professional business writing, it’s almost always (like probably 99.9% of the time) best to hire an outside professional to get the job done.

     Why?  One reason is that objectivity is critical to meaningful feedback. Two is that your customers will speak much more freely with an “authorized outsider” than they will with you and/or people in your organization.

     Outside professionals bring fresh perspectives and objectivity both to the table. And these are particularly valuable attributes when it comes time to interpret the findings. They are paid for what they do, Because they are not put on salary, they are really not “beholden” to you beyond the immediate assignment.

     You can usually count on  more honest and direct conclusions and hypotheses.

     Focus group format, facilitation, agenda, and especially the words that are used  can make a huge difference in what you learn… as different as the replies generated by asking someone WHY he or she was late, vs. asking HOW can being late in the future be avoided?

     Bottom Line?  How can you provide customer service or manage customer relations if you don’t know exactly and with certainty what your CUSTOMERS consider to be “service” and “relations”? It could mean something completely different than what you think.

FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS?

Call or Email: 302.933.0116 or Hal@Businessworks.US  (“FOCUS GROUPS” in the subject line) 

# # #               

Call it whatever you want…

     Call it an incubator,  a co-op, a strategic alliance, shared platforms, networking, whatever you want . . . the bottom line is that the long-term business success effects of this sucky economy and dollar devaluation are going to be measured in terms of how much you can be both a leader AND a team player!

     The US Army teaches  that — among other things — to be a great leader requires also being a great teammate and follower. You can lead your business straight over the cliff by ignoring all other businesses around you and “going for broke,” if you choose a path of arrogance.

     The major difference  between arrogance and self-sufficiency and independence is that the first of these is an attitude. Combining forces with other businesses doesn’t render you helpless. If it does, you’ve selected the wrong business to work with, or you have an attitude problem.

     Combining forces with other businesses  should put your business — and the others — in a position of strength. It means that one business picks up where the other leaves off to the mutual benefit of all involved. Money can be involved, but it doesn’t always have to be. Ego is almost always involved; don’t let it be. Self-importance loses wars, and crushes business ventures!

     A Two-Way WIN-WIN:  I work with a bright young business that specializes in Internet marketing (website design and services, email and SEO programs, etc.). We combined website development interests because that firm’s strengths were tech-driven and mine were content-driven. We share responsibilities on work generated and produce a better, more complete product by focusing on what we do best.

     A Three-Way WIN-WIN-WIN:  A local liquor store and area deli have combined forces at a local fire department to raise money for an area charity by paying the fire department space rental and soliciting donations for admission to a “Giant Wine & Cheese Tasting Festival” that includes vendor donations of wine and cheese from a couple of dozen manufacturers and distributors who supply the two stores. Actually, if you think about it, this is like a 30-Way WIN situation.

     Can your business share  a workspace? A receptionist? A display area? A parking lot? A truck or delivery service? A database? Utilities? Cleaning services? Expertise? Research? Resources? Sales teams? Payroll services? Meeting rooms? Advertising media expenses? THINK about it!

     The next chapter in American business  will revolve around ways to economize even more than you are right now. The challenge will be to make the most of every resource, including those of neighboring or allied businesses. OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS.   

# # #               

What’s Your T-Shirt Say?

Would you agree that when you’re at the top of your game and performing at your best, that the business you own or manage improves?

Would you agree that your business reaps the benefits of your attitude and performance with improved productivity, enhanced reputation and increased sales?

Of course it does, so how do you overcome the plateful of daily garbage in front of you and get yourself to that point?

     One solution  that has worked for thousands of participants in management training  workshops I’ve run:  Try designing your own T-Shirt!  No, you need not be artistic. You need only be honest with yourself.

Take 3 minutes to follow these 6 steps:

1.  DRAW  (assuming you do still own a pen or pencil) and label 3 blank T-shirts (“A” “B” and “C”) on that piece of scrap paper that’s sitting by your monitor.

2.  IMAGINE  that the 3 T-Shirts are real and that each has some word or words and/or some image or images on it that represent YOU . . .

A.  The way you used to be

B.  The way you are right now.

C.  The way you want to be.

3.  NOW FILL IN  the blank space on the front of each shirt with each A, B, and C message.

4.  STEP BACK  and ask yourself what each message means and what each communicates?

5.  OKAY, NOW ASK YOURSELF  why you are at B instead of C? What’s holding you back? (FYI, Odds are it is something you are consciously or unconsciously choosing.)

6.  WHAT CAN YOU DO  now (tonight, this morning, this afternoon) to be able to wear the “C” message on your T-Shirt right now? What is it that you need to choose differently? (Are you choosing to delay yourself? It’s just as easy to choose action now!)

# # # 

Don’t give away the store!

     As bureaucratic nooses tighten  around small business necks, it’s natural for feelings of desperation to begin setting in, and to respond by reducing prices in order to make sales. It doesn’t take long to be traveling on this road before you’re giving away the store!

     Resist the temptation to undercut your value  by offering “more competitive pricing.” Easy to say, you may say, but when the guy down the street is selling comparable products and services for lower prices, and is getting more people in his door, reality dictates lower prices!”

     Bull! You’ll only be worsening the economic stress on your business.

     Reality dictates  that you will be more successful than the price-slasher down the street by sticking to the prices you have and offering instead more value. Are you being innovative enough to offer product and service line extensions that help customers economize?

[This is not the same as lowering prices. This means offering a high-end mattress cover that zips on and extends old mattress life for a fraction of the price of a new mattress. This means adding the availability of inexpensive payroll services to the lineup of accounting practice offerings. It means adding energy-efficiency, fuel-economy, etc.]

     Do you and 100% of your staff  have a “kill ’em with kindness” attitude 100%  of the time with 100%  of your prospects and customers? Not 99%.  100%.  Truth? What needs to happen to get to 100% of the time with 100% of your prospects and customers? 

Is getting to that point going to cost you more or less in real

dollars and real stress than increased sales at lower prices?

     Like giving a salary raise  to someone instead of a one-time bonus or other reward, and ending up with a permanent long-term financial drain, when you lower prices, you run the big-time risk of never being able to raise them back up again.

     Your customers  will expect your low prices to stay low and when you try to raise them, they’ll head for competitors who offer more value.

     In the end, the smart response  to economic stress is to build and boost and promote value, and not give away the store.    

# # #