Is your business too frivolous

to survive this economy?

Of course not!

ONE: Find the people you need as new and repeat customers or clients.

TWO: Show them how they’ll benefit from your product or service.

THREE: Push an emotional trigger.

That’s it!  Let’s put it this way: if you think your business is too frivolous for you to be able to make sales in this crummy economy, you’re right! Fold up the tent and go home!

If you believe that people  are only spending money on basics right now and that they haven’t enough spare dollars to afford your products and services because they’re hardly “essentials,” odds are that you are also letting that attitude show in the ways you conduct and promote your business.

I don’t care if you’re selling  designer soap, dictionaries, Swedish Massage, venture capital pool memberships, jeweled toiletpaper holders,or gold-plated shoelaces … now is not the time to be timid in your promotional messages … or be turning out all your store or office signage lights at night … or going into US Postal Service-style retreat mode.

Now is the time  to rise to the occasion, to innovate, to put in extra hours, to go the extra mile, to show people why they can’t live without your products and services. I know, I know, there’s no excuse like the present. That’s true. There’s also no loss like losing a business.

So toss your chin back there, Buckeroo!  Go get your glove and get in the game. Remember that YOU CHOOSE to give up or slow down or make excuses. It’s just as easy to choose to charge forward and speed up and own up to your shortcomings. Everyone has shortcomings.

“Yeah, sure, easy for you to say,”  you say, “but you don’t know how hard it is and what a struggle I’m having just to pay the rent and salaries!” Ah, but I do know. I also know that feeling like it’s hard and feeling like it’s a struggle are — guess what? — right! — choices!!

Choose to feel like it’s easy and choose to feel like you’re on cruise control.

It will be and you will be.

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Stuff always gets worse

before it gets worse.

December, 2008: Gutless, Incompetent, Greedy: The US Postal Service http://halalpiar.com/2008/12/no-more-room-for-snail-mail/\

March. 2009: Having grown up a mailman’s son, maybe I’m just sentimental (or simply as stupid as the PO?) http://halalpiar.com/2009/03/23-lifelines-tossed-to-the-post-office/

August, 2009: Not just tech triumphs, the PO is a self-fulfilling sinking http://halalpiar.com/?s=postal+service

     …and yes,  there were other blog posts beating on the PO, and hoping for some light to penetrate the organization’s self-imposed deathwatch. But no, it mustn’t be in the cards. The US Postal Service does nothing to help itself, choosing instead to just keep digging a deeper grave!

The most recent proof  of ignorance came in the form of a 32-page atrocity of an ignorant, out-of-step excuse for a magazine delivered, it appears, to PO Boxes nationwide.  Campbell-Ewald Publishing should be ashamed of itself for putting out such politically-motivated trash in the name of the dying Postal Service, instead of taking a constructive stand on behalf of Postal Service customers!

  It’s just more evidence  of the sea of federal government incompetency that dictates to and surrounds the United States Postal Service … surely an organization (and I use the term loosely) destined for the next federal bailout after, let’s see, is it newspapers that are now being considered?

Please, spare us the insult!  Why on Earth cannot SOMEone with some business savvy step forward and get Congressional blessing to take control of this rapidly fading and no longer relevant entity that has simply lost touch with reality.

Businesses are failing  left and right. Families are struggling to make a living. The federal government sends $529 million tax dollars (reported today!) to Fantasyman Al Gore’s new automobile company so he can manufacture and sell cars in Finland! If this isn’t astonishing all by ityself, you must be living on Mars!

So along comes the Postal Service  with yet another elaborate, expensive promotional piece with thinly disguised heavy support for badly misguided Administration environmental policies. Why am I reminded of the story about being preoccupied with rearranging deck chairs while the cruise ship is sinking?

How many families  can you think of right now that are worried about environmental problems? It’s a little hard to focus on the spotted owl and Mr. Gore’s make-believe global warming issues when there’s a need to put food on the table and pay the mortgage… or pay for the gas to drive the car to go to the post office to pick up the mail!

Wouldn’t you think  the Postal Service would be standing on its head to compete in the marketplace and make the most of its resources to exercise some leadership geared to helping businesses get back on their feet instead of throwing bad money after bad money producing pricey lackluster materials that no one cares about?

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What’s eating you is

what you are eating.

     Now, waitaminute!  I am not some flaky diet fanatic who claims to know the best ways to get your minimum daily calorie, saturated fat, lard and grease requirements. I am not on any brown rice and bean crusade. And I could care less if you think the Food Pyramid belongs in the desert somewhere.

     Here’s what I have to say:  You own or operate a business and/or you are an entrepreneur or you manage a business or a big chunk of a business, and/or you’re a professional salesperson. The last thing you need is to have to be sick in bed, run dry of energy, be speeding your brains out on the amphetamines in diet drugs, or getting any fatter than you are, right?

     Then why do you insist  on inventing reasons that you can only afford the time or the money to subsist on Oreos, Coke and Pepsi, Dunkin Donuts, Big Macs, Gummy Bears, Kentucky Fried Chicken, whipped cream in your latte, butter/syrup/jelly AND powdered sugar on your pancakes, 3-martini lunches, and those foil-wrapped dark chocolate and potato-chip stashes you keep hidden in your purse or briefcase?

     I’m not even going to talk about  all the big-time clogged artery-type physical ailments that accompany junkfood dependency. Let’s just stick with business stuff here. Are you REALLY serious about making your business work? If you are, you need to be REALLY serious about making yourSELF work because it takes two to tango (or even lap dance!).

     If you’re finding yourself  getting more irritable lately, don’t blame it on the economy. But you might want to do an honest assessment of what you’ve been eating and drinking. If you’re not sleeping well, and you’re tired a lot, take an inventory of what you’ve been eating and drinking.

     Yes, you CAN change it.  Yes, you CAN have a more successful business. Yes, you CAN start to get yourself to eat better without having to wait for your birthday or a New Year’s Resolution. All you have to do is make the choice. It’s really that simple. If you think it’s too hard, choose for it to not be hard. All behavior –let me say that again– ALL BEHAVIOR is a choice!

     Why make choices  that will make you and your business suffer? Besides, your better eating choices will make you and your business healthier, and that will increase the odds you return to this site again looking for more “food for thought”… and your return visits will make me very happy. (So, okay, do it for me then.) Happy better-eating-choices weekend!   

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I, Me, My, We, and Our

Lose To You and Your!

     Unless by some miracle,  you’ve managed to uncover an exception, I believe it’s safe to say that You and Your win 100% of the time!

    So howcum  the vast majority (MUCH more than 50%) of small business advertising and marketing consistently takes the loser position of emphasizing I, Me, My, We, and Our? 

     The answer no doubt  has to do with the fact that entrepreneurs tend to be more self-centered than corporate types, and may lack certain psychological-impact-of-word-usage awarenesses. That tendency is not necessarily a bad thing, it simply is.

     Most entrepreneurs  probably skipped through, over, or around English, creative writing, and psychology coursework in school as they marched to different drummers on paths less traveled to innovate and create and pursue their business ideas. 

     The only problem  with this is that when small businesses beat their chests and tell everyone how great they are and why they’re better than their competition: NOBODY CARES!

     Let’s put the fact that you own  and/or operate or manage a business off to the side burner for a minute, and examine this paradox from your own personal perspective. Surely, YOU purchase products and services for yourself and your family and your business because you believe there are benefits in what you choose for yourself and your family and your business.

     So why would you think  that what you have to sell would be any different? Why would you think that others would spend their money on your products or services for any reason other than that they believe them to offer,have, or promise a benefit to them?

Customers really don’t

                                          

care about how great

                                             

you think you are! 

                                                                                          

     So why does the wording you use  in your brochure, on your website, and in yours ads and commercials emphasize your reputation, your company history, your mission and vision statements? Credibility can be worded to be a benefit instead of a boast. Why does what you say focus on ANYthing besides what the benefits are?

     Cars, parts, appliances, homes, vegetables,  personal and professional services, healthcare, boots, lightbulbs, newspapers, cruise ships, circus acts, roofing and flooring, ice cream, software, fish, septic systems (which may require upgrading if you eat too much ice cream and fish together!)

     Nobody gives a flying frog  about the features of any of these, or any products or services, except tp be able to tick off a bullet list to impress friends, justify expense, or appease parents or bosses. Customers ONLY care about what’s in it for them (to purchase your offerings). What specific benefits will someone gain by buying your product or service?

     This all translates to  removing I, Me, My, We, and Our from your marketing, advertising, sales, PR, and promotional language. Replace them (and the emphasis) with You and Your. Watch your sales rise.

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Hal@Businessworks.US     302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open   Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Yesterday’s Customers

Bring Business Today!

     It’s a proven fact: Your BEST source of business is existing and past business!

     So, when the time comes,  if it hasn’t already, to put your shoulder to the wheel, stop working and have a party! No one ever told you that entrepreneurship is all about being spontaneous?

     Really! Stop what you’re doing  and have a Customer Appreciation Party. So what if it’s a last-minute deal? So what if you’re down to your last few nickles? Buy some cheap wine and cheese and make some decorations. Invite your not paid up-to-date lawyer and accountant. Tell them they can be their sharky opportunistic selves and use the gathering to network their own services.

     It matters not  that you run a retail or wholesale operation or a professional practice or service office, or turkey farm or pistol range (okay, well I’ll grant you that maybe it’s not a great thing to have a party at a pistol range) … or whether you have 100 employees or you’re a one-man-band … or whether you operate out of a fancy building, or your basement! 

     You simply call all your best customers  a couple or seven days ahead and tell them to come as they are and to bring friends, family and co-workers and stop in at 5 or 6 o’clock to have an Oktoberfest (or a “Celebrate The Economy”) drink (or 8AM for coffee and donuts! Be sure to invite local police!) and give you the chance to shake hands and say a personal thank you to each.

     Put on some music.  Lower the lights. Get Aunt Jabib to fix a tray of those old lady sandwiches. Pick up a bucket of pretzels. Give out special discount coupons (or even better:  handwritten “20% off until October 20″ on the back of your business cards, which you dole out with each handshake).

WHY? Here’s Why:

     You will get more business  from this impromptu gathering than you will from expensive advertising because you are PERSONALLY interacting with each person, and showing your humble appreciation for the value of their business in a PERSONAL way.

     Don’t believe me?  So go back to work and forget it; what do I care?

     BUT IF YOU DO THIS DEAL,  you’d better invite me as well. Besides I’m a cheap date; I’ll just slink into a corner with a glass of wine and dream up my next blog post! Happy Customer Celebrating!

[P.S. If not enough can make it, have it anyway, and then do it again for those who missed the first one!]

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Leaders who fail this

exercise fail as leaders

     As the leader  of your organization, department, division, constituency, team, troop, household, office, clinic, crew, institution, property, building, club, store, or factory, you have and will form a number of prejudices in your lifetime.

I can tell you  that these feelings are your choice and you should choose something else, but it won’t make a difference. If you truly intensely dislike some segment of society, odds are the feelings are so deeply rooted that a BandAid isn’t going to heal the gaping wound.

     You CAN,  however, take some time (and, yes, it is worth it) to examine more carefully what it is exactly that tips your scale into tiltsville. At least you will have narrowed down the ugly feelings enough to have the good sense to know when to walk away from a potentially volatile situation, vs. setting yourself and others up for an explosion.

     First of all,  and this is important, remember that you need not like somebody to do business with her or him. Of course it’s nice to enjoy a customer or prospect’s company because it makes the sales process (Oh, yes, leadership IS sales, because leading IS persuading, right? But you know that of course!) more pleasant.

     But, you know what?  For some peculiar reason I’ve never figuired out, odds are that the biggest and most important leadership (sales) accomplishments have occurred with people who you are not particularly fond of. So…

Half the battle is knowing what prompts you to think the way that you think before the circumstances arise that prompt you to think that way!

Can you look in the mirror and give yourself honest

one-word judgments/assessments of these 46 types:

Men? Old men? Young men? Middle-aged men? Women? Old women? Young women? Middle-aged women? Children? Infants? Toddlers? Adolescents? Teenagers? Black people? White people? Blondes? Brunettes? Redheads? Bald-headed people? People with wigs? Toupees? Beards? Mustaches? Tattoos? Face piercings? Tongue piercings? Pierced Ears? Indians? Pakistanis? Mexicans? Frenchmen? Muslims? Jews? Irishmen? Asians? Fast talkers? Slow talkers? People who don’t look you in the eye? People with bone-crusher handshakes? People with fish fillet handshakes? Rednecks? City slickers? Tree huggers? Overweight people? Underweight people? Handicapped people? Athletes?   

     Here’s my best guess on scoring: 

• If you dislike/distrust more than 10,  you have a problem that you should confront and deal with because it’s keeping you from being successful in your leadership role.
• If you dislike/distrust more than 20,  you’ll be happier as a hermit than as a leader. Cash in your assets and head for a cave.
• If you dislike/distrust more than 30,  please run, don’t walk, to the nearest psychotherapist and beg for help (and until you get help, keep yourself locked up at home watching Animal Channel)!  
• Ah,  did we raise some consciousness here? Good! Happy Week! 

# # #  

It’s your business to keep

healthcare a business!

     Successful businesses  run on management that’s charged with taking responsibility to match authority. Yet we continually empower politicians to assume authority without making them accountable for taking responsibility.

     We elect and empower  people who are not business leaders, and they in turn appoint and empower other people who are not business leaders. And then we sit back and expect business leadership? You know what? We’re just not getting it.

     This whole healthcare fiasco  is proof of the pudding. It is impossible to dictate success because success is in fact determined by exercising the ability to rise above dictatorship.

     Federal Government  mandated healthcare cannot succeed because it will break what little is left of our economy’s backbone. And all of us will pay for that failure with our hard-earned tax dollars! 

     If you think $3-$4 per gallon regular  fuel costs are bad (and it was $2.75 today and rising in Eastern Pennsylvania), and you think healthcare insurance is outrageous, and that there’s a real shortage of good, qualified doctors available to choose from, think again!

     You may indeed  want to reconsider rushing to endorse the proposals our UN-businesslike Federal politicians are trying to ramrod into existence by emptying our wallets!

     If healthcare cannot be promoted  and run as a free enterprise competitive system and administered on a state-by-state basis, it doesn’t stand a chance of surviving… and the government’s feeble attempts to throw tax dollars at the auto industry will pale by comparison because the crash of healthcare will be paid for directly out of our own pockets for decades to come.

     While we’re at it,  by the way, education is the next explosion waiting to happen. Getting government hands off of healthcare will go a long way to getting government hands off of education.

     And if you’ve ever had a dream for yourself and your family, it should be for both of those events to occur. Why?

     Because when all is said and done,  NO one knows your and your family’s healthcare and education needs better than you and your family, and those needs are different in Delaware than they are in California, or Maine or Texas!

[Note: For what it’s worth, besides having seen Pennsylvania’s gas prices myself today (!), I have decades of experience as both an educator and as a healthcare management consultant. What’s offered above is NOT a matter of loose, unfounded opinion; but if you doubt, do your own homework!]

# # #  

RIP Police Officer Chad Spicer

Tonight’s blog post is dedicated to the family of Georgetown, Delaware, Police Officer Chad Spicer, 29, who was killed by gunfire last night in the line of duty during what was an attempted speeding vehicle stop after an apparent drug deal had gone bad. Officer Spicer leaves a wife and 3 year-old daughter. Another officer was wounded. Two suspects were apprehended; a third is still at large as of this writing. Details and family donation information are available at www.wgmd.com Rehoboth Beach radio.             

     It is a sad day indeed on Delmarva Peninsula.  Once again, we live through the senseless murder of a brave American who gave his life to protect those of his neighbors. One thing’s for sure, he never imagined leaving his family and friends behind like this when he woke up yesterday and reported for duty.

     If the odds for not surviving  another day haven’t crossed your mind lately, let this terrible incident be a reminder. We live lives too short as humans to devote our energy, time and attention to all the business stresses that run through our minds and shudder through our bodies every day.

     We may think that the older we get,  the closer we move to death’s door, but death makes so such exception when the suddenness arrives unannounced. When that moment is here, will we want to have spent our years and months and weeks and minutes being worried about business events that haven’t yet come… and may never?

     Will we want to have spent our time on Earth  dwelling on past business events that are over and done with, and about which we can do nothing to change? Just because we own or manage a business, do we use that responsibility as an excuse for mistreating ourselves and others, or even for wishing ill-thoughts?

     As our businesses go, so go opportunities to grow and help ourselves and others to better appreciate the riches of all that surrounds us every day. It’s easy to bitch and complain, to make excuses and blame. But “easy” is not part of being human. Genuineness is. Love is. Caring is. Hard work is. Service to others is. A sense of humor is.

     Business is our tool.  Let us use it to lead others to cultivate life by thinking and acting positively in all that we do. It may not always be possible, but it’s always possible to try.   

# # #  

Mandated national healthcare

means mandated

national poverty!

There is only one solution  to dealing with U.S. healthcare costs escalating faster than inflation:

Business competition through privatization on a state-by-state basis.

The sooner  the government gets this and takes REAL steps in this direction, the quicker we’re going to see healthcare that’s both meaningful and affordable! 

There’s no longer any doubt  about it. Just listen to the experts. Look into the heart and soul of your own business experience. Small business simply cannot survive the financial crush of a mandated, dictated, universal healthcare plan for all citizens!

If you own or operate a business,  and you are not all-out crusading for healthcare delivery through business competition and privatization on a state-by-state basis, you are living in fantasyland.

Your business will  positively surf into the poorhouse on the next big wave. You and your business have one chance to survive, and only one…

That single chance rests squarely on your shoulders. It may require you to take steps you’ve never taken before.

It requires you to  contact your elected representatives and tell them that you do NOT want dictated, mandated healthcare because it will break what’s left of the economy’s back, bankrupt small businesses everywhere, and lead to exceptionally LOW quality professional care.

After all, do you  really want some know-nothing politician from 2o States away dictating what doctors you can and can’t see for a sick or injured loved one, or for yourself?

Are you ready and willing to put your life decisions  in the hands of someone with no healthcare knowledge, and who doesn’t even understand the business of healthcare, and then –on top of all that– end up with an inferior, low-grade, poorly-trained care provider?

We have decision-makers who lack even basic business knowledge and experience but who are making business decisions about our healthcare that are impacting all of our lives.

We (all of us who own and operate our own businesses) need to barge into this  the same way we would if some unknowledgeable, inexperienced upstart arrived at our doorsteps tomorrow morning and tried to wrest control of our businesses from us.

These are,  after all, the circumstances that are in fact headed for our doorsteps right now.

Will YOU speak up  to protect what you have built and created and what is rightfully yours, or stand aside and let uninformed outsiders rush in to re-set your business stage with fantasy props and the underpinnings of bankruptcy?  Call. Write. Email. Today. 

# # #  

When paper planes

fly like the wind…

     This is NOT  about being on one knee with a ring in your pocket in front of the girl of your dreams! This is NOT  about responding to some ridiculous government or academialand RFP, where you’re dealing with people who –and I don’t mean this arrogantly; it’s just a fact– have no clue about the real world of business.

     This is NOT  about adhering to RFP rules and restrictions (that only those with enormous self-restraint and no imagination will succeed at accommodating). This is about  my contention that most proposals worth their salt will fly best as a single-page paper plane!

     You’re not so sure?  When’s the last time you got a 10 or 20 or 30-page proposal to lift off? It was a nose dive into the floor, right? This is a BlackBerry/TXTMSG/WIFI/IPOD world we’re in. Twitter Tweeters do it in 140 characters!

     So stop  re-writing War & Peace to answer every request and pose an offer to every prospect!

     Let me  roll my sleeves up and put it this way (and, yes, I know it’s not a real word!):

CONCISER IS BETTER!

     Three or four one-page  proposals of some kind every week will land you more and better quality clients, jobs, accounts, projects, sales, interviews, than one 8-10 page proposal every two weeks.

     Leave the fancy binder  and tabs and Introductions and Addendum and Exhibit 2a-3 junk for the floundering corporate giant managers and lawyers and investor solicitations and business plans and R&D studies and ROI assessments.  

     You’re a small business  seeking new customers, clients, patients, associates, referrers, sales reps, suppliers, product or service sales, increased website traffic, locations, business or branding launch… seek it in one page!

     David Balasco,  the famous theatre producer, used to tell sales reps to write what they wanted on the back of a business card and if he was interested, they could meet with him. Nearly no one ever rose to the occasion.

     Of course in those days,  people didn’t think in headlines, but the point is that WHEN you can get to the point promptly, you will increase your odds for success. If you own or manage a small business, don’t try to act too big! Keep your proposals short and sweet. If prospects are reputable and want to know more, they’ll ask! If they don’t, they’re not worth your time.

     And time,  after all, is all you really have, and you have less every minute of each day.

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