Helping the needy 

doesn’t mean

competitors will 

eat you for dinner

  In fact, quite the contrary. When you slow down or stop your business-wheels long enough to reach off your merry-go-round and help some of those who can only afford to stand off to the side and watch you calliope-music your way around in circles, you are investing in your community . . . and ultimately in your own business, if you’re smart enough to make it newsworthy.

“Charity starts at home” isn’t just a sarcastic jab at humor.

But most businesses either fail at trying to make newsworthiness out of nothing, or at thinking that efforts to proclaim newsworthiness out of acts of generosity somehow taints the integrity of the charitable offerings. Both are wrong. First of all, the public is not stupid. People can see through thinly-veiled acts of self-proclaimed greatness with one eye shut and both hands behind their backs.

Don’t invent situations in order to gain favorable news exposure and publicity. Editors typically reject such self-serving efforts, and even when something does manage to slide by and end up getting attention, the public sees it for what it is.

But when your business does something heartfelt to help someone or group of someones, don’t be overly timid about spreading the word. Why? Isn’t that too much like bragging? Doesn’t that rub people the wrong way to be tooting your own horn?

The truth, since you asked (okay I asked for you) is that the more exposure your business gets for having sponsored an employee fundraising for some worthy organization or situation, the more you will have primed the pump to prompt others to follow suit. Then what? Then you will have shoe-horned (have you ever seen a shoehorn?) in even more helpful acts than your own.

The soft side of business — whether it’s charitable fundraising, or giving an employee or supplier or community family the support it needs to get through a crisis, or sponsoring a neighborhood clean-up project, or donating products or services or time, or providing technical or administrative back-up to a local or regional nonprofit organization — can work wonders for business reputation.

People (your customers, clients, patients, and prospects) BUY reputation! Connect the dots.

You haven’t time for all the solicitations at your doorstep? That’s like saying you haven’t enough time to learn time management. Ask for someone in your organization to follow a criteria list you hand off to screen applicants and make periodic recommendations for situations that fit inside the annual or semi-annual or quarterly budget you set and insist on.

When the tax-deductible budget is spent, solicitors go on a waiting list, or apply again next year. Make sure arrangements are made for news release announcements before and after (at least) every event, with content that’s always focused on the benefiting individual or organization, and always urging others to get on the bandwagon (or your merry-go-round!).  Soft is good.

 Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

     The best business consultants, advisors, coaches, trainers, and counselors base their fees on what they’re able to accomplish, not on how great they tell you it’s going to be.

 YOU’RE PAYING TOO MUCH IF:  

1)  You’re paying ongoing fees and can’t see any ongoing results.

2)  You’re paying any kind of “retainer” fee, and you’re not sure of what it is that you’re “retaining.” 

3)  You’re paying for dead-end training, coaching, or counseling support that assures you of new and improved leadership/team-work . . . or communications, or customer relations, or sales . . . but that doesn’t produce noticeable change in 21 days, and that doesn’t then keep it going with meaningful, targeted, personal follow-up long after scheduled sessions are completed.

4)  You’re paying for outside services that continuously blame your inside services for stalling/blocking/obstructing/interfering or foot-dragging and/or lack of commitment.

5)  You’re paying for professional expertise exclusively because of long-term relationships and because that individual or group has maintained all your records for a long time. Would you not go to a medical or legal or financial expert you know has the ability to heal you just because your present advisor was hired by your father (or grandfather) and has your complete history in his files?  

6)  You get billed for every breath taken on your behalf. Outside experts unwilling to invest a little extra time and effort on your behalf as an expression of their customer / client relationship management are not worth the invoice postage or email review time. They are easily (and happily) replaced.

     There are a gazillion qualified groups and individuals out there who will deliver ongoing attention and ongoing results. In case you think you haven’t enough time to go shopping for the kinds of outside experts who breed authenticity, consider how much money you’ve been (or are presently) wasting  by not finding more honorable replacements.

     Even hiring someone else to shop for you – with your criteria of course – will probably still end up being a financially-smarter and more performance-rewarding move than avoiding the issue.

     The hardest thing any of us have to do in life – and consequently the hardest thing any business owner or manager has also to do – is to let go.

     Letting go of anything that we own, command, raise, invent, enhance, fix, inherit, create, design, develop, build, or even just think about, is like giving up a piece of our existence. How big of a piece determines the amount of anguish and reluctance and hesitation and whining and complaining that is sure to surface.

     And you’ve already been around long enough to realize that the total of all the upset added together multiplies according to how much time, money, and effort has been invested. So, the time to act is now. Clean house. Find experts who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work with you, who will act like partners, not leeches.   

# # #

Your FREE subscription: Posts RSS Feed

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!

“THANK YOU

FOR YOUR SERVICE

TO OUR COUNTRY!”

AIN’T NOBODY

WRITES

NOTHIN’ NO MORE!

     For those of you out there who can still actually write with a pen and paper, consider yourself in possession of a unique skill (even if your handwriting resembles the scrawl of your favorite nearby brain surgeon, or your neighbor’s cocker spaniel . . . probably can’t tell them apart! Uh, the writing).

     And you can be assured your handwriting is a skill that’s underused, especially if you own or manage a business or are in professional sales. I lump those entrepreneurial and sales careers together because if you own 0r manage a business, you sell. And if you’re in sales, you own or manage a business.

     So here’s the thing: AIN’T NOBODY WRITES NOTHIN’ NO MORE.

     Don’t believe me? Just look around and what do you see? PCs, Laptops, Cellphones, BlackBerries, Strawberries (Oh, sorry). You really have to search to find a pencil behind some one’s ear anymore, and fountain pens? That’s like discovering a pygmy tribe living in midtown Manhattan.

     Think about the times in your life when you’ve seen business people step up and do something unique, something different for their business or their customers or their employees or their suppliers, and you think to yourself: Self! That’s an idea I wish I had though of first because no one else is doing it.

     Well, here you go — a great new, FREE idea for you that I GUARANTEEwill make you stand out from your competition, regardless of whether you’re a farmer, a rocket scientist, a realtor, a proctologist (okay, well maybe not a proctologist), a website designer, an undertaker or wedding planner, an accountant, a lawyer (though I don’t distinguish much between a lawyer and a proctologist), a retailer . . . you get the idea.

     Dig out that old pen you forgot about; find some nice (unlined) notepaper that’s been collecting dust in the back of your desk drawer. Practice a few freehand swirls of ink on your local newspaper, which is not much good for anything else these days, and get ready to fire off some genuinely appreciative notes to present and past customers/clients/patients who have been particularly supportive of you or who are especially interested in you and/or your business products and services.

     You will get more attention and more mileage out of 100 personal handwritten notes, than you will out of 500 emails or 1000 text messages, or 5000 Tweets. I won’t even bother to waste your time with a visit to the dim prospects offered by US Postal Service incompetence no matter how great you think your direct mail campaign is.

     Do I guarantee these numbers? Of course not. But I absolutely guarantee — given the exact same message — a handwritten, personalized, hand-addressed and hand-stamped note will outperform all the solicitation glut that’s pouring out of our computerized lives. All you have to do is think of what to say, then say it in your own scribble. Oh, and Hallmark cards don’t do it either. Their commercials make you cry maybe, but their words are not your words, and they are machine-printed.

     Besides that no one else in your marketplace is doing it, what makes this idea so outstanding? People like real. Spill on the ink and it will smear. If your writing is great, great! If it’s crummy, great: what other messages do your customers actually work at trying to read? Say what you think. Say what you feel. Keep it short and sweet. But DO it. I promise you’ll be amazed at the responses you get!   

 Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

The farther apart we go,

 the closer we need

to be.

     As time and technology continue to stretch the great divide they’ve created between human beings . . . and personal relationships become less personal . . . the importance of common sense and common courtesy rises to the surface with more pronounced impact than ever before.

     The HR and sales management rule of thumb, “Praise in public and criticize in private” has — for example — no less common sense meaning now, with increased communication reliance on emails and text messages, than it did in the days when every encounter was a personal face-to-face experience. In fact, the integrity of that “Praise and Criticize” guideline is even more important today.

     Why is that? Because today, we rely more on short, concise, written notes, and every communication is traceable. When someone is praised by email for exceptional performance, everyone in the ranks should get a Cc. When someone is criticized, and Bcc’s are flying around, poor judgement is being exercised, and hidden agendas overwhelm integrity.

     If you run your business on a need-to-know basis, and that works for you, then stick to that and don’t entertain exceptions. If you have a broader interpretation of management transparency and practice across-the-boards openness with all your people, and that works for you, don’t drift into occasional closed door sessions or transmissions. Consistency is what builds business success because it’s what fosters customer, employee and supplier loyalty.

     Customers, employees and suppliers all like to know where they stand. They appreciate business policies, procedures, and approaches that are predictable, and that — even if they disagree with them — they can be assured of no surprises!

     Common courtesy of course is most evident with every exchange, in writing and electronic transmission, in person and on the phone. It is so evident because it is so simple, takes so little effort, but works wonders for every recipient: “Please” and “Thank you!” may sound like dumb old customs to some in this day and age, but nothing else has ever risen in all of history that accomplish more than those three words. [And at-home applications are as important as on-the-job.]

     People are hired and fired, sold and unsold, respected and disrespected by the subjective measures of others as to the genuineness with which these three words are expressed, and if, in fact, they are expressed at all. Those who let “Please” and “Thank you!” flow freely (yes, even when the waitress puts your silverware down or pours you a glass of water, even when a delivery person brings you something you don’t want!) are the people who spread positive attitudes and who will achieve the most success.

     No need to take my word for it. Simply observe those words in emails, hear them in person and on the phone and — assuming they’re delivered with some sense of authenticity — judge for yourself what your impressions are of the person using these expressions of courtesy vs. those you observe and hear who don’t. It’s your call. Thank you for your consideration! 

 Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

“Hot Diggity,

dog-diggity,

BOOM, what you

do to me . . .”

–PERRY COMO [Yeah, I know; he was before your time.]

     If you’re not celebrating your customers (clients/patients) regularly, it may be time to question priorities. In case you missed one of my past blog post references, it costs five (5) times as much money to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one!

     And in case you haven’t noticed, or it’s escaped your awareness, existing customers send you new customers. Prospects don’t send prospects.

     Many small businesses and professional practices get to grow up and be big businesses and professional practices by catering to the customers they have. The best source of business is existing and past business.

     Cold-calling is essential to any meaningful sales strategy, but it needs –ALWAYS– to take a back seat to nurturing your existing and past customer base because that’s your bread and butter, and because your customer base will drive many more prospects to your door than you’re going to be able to ferret out for yourself with cold-calls.

     HOW to kick some customer catering and appreciation into gear? Have a party. Host a customer-families-only midnight sale. Email out 72-hour discount special certificates. Send “Thank You” cards out at Thanksgiving and birthday cards on birthdays. Call together a focus group discussion (with appropriate rewards) to review your service pros and cons!

     Offer discounts or credits for referrals. Send in that charitable donation you make every year in the names of your customers. Feature your customers in your newsletter and/or in a series of news releases. Post the releases free on www.BizBrag.com and have BizBrag email them out for you to whatever list you provide — also free!

     Make “How goes it?” followup calls. Imagine actually getting a phone call from a restaurant, accounting firm, or construction contractor just to ask if your last visit was a good one, and what could you suggest to make the next visit even better? (How would YOU feel? Who would YOU tell?) And do this REGULARLY with existing clients.

     Parties and all that stuff too expensive right now? Make it a bagels and coffee breakfast stop-by reception for customers only. Combine forces and split up costs with neighboring businesses; you’ll even gain customers from one another in the process.

     No time? Hand the idea or the event off (with $25 cash or credit, or sports or concert  tickets, or dinner for two, or a limo trip?) to a relative or student intern or employee to organize and promote.

Whatever you do, do something. Try AAA:

Customers like being Appreciated, Acknowledged and Asked!  

# # #    

Call me at 302.933.0911 or comment below

or email Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

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

“You’ve been a

pain in the butt

ever since

you were born!”

     You own, operate or manage a family business. God Bless You. Now let’s get down to reality. Odds are that you, or at least someone you work with, harbors resentment. And those upset feelings are getting in the way of business growth, perhaps survival. When we collect negative feelings about someone else, resentment is usually the accompanist.

     Resentment often takes the form of a demand that the other person feel guilty. In the classic Addison-Wesley book Born To Win, authors James and Jongeward suggest, “When you become aware that your resentment is growing, handle each situation as it occurs and with whom it occurs rather than collecting and holding your feelings, and perhaps cashing them in for a big prize or on an ‘innocent’ person.”

     The world renown educator/counselor/co-authors recommend the following steps for dealing effectively with resentment:

• “Try to talk the problem over with whoever is bugging you.

• When you attempt this, avoid accusing the other.

• Tell the other person how the situation is affecting you. Use the pronoun ‘I’ instead of an accusative ‘you.’ [For example, ‘I don’t like smoke; it bothers me,’ instead of  ‘You’re really thoughtless the way you blow your smoke around.’]”

• Remembering that the solution to any group problem lies within the group, James and Jongeward go on to urge that in a family group, it is helpful to set up “resentment and appreciation sessions,” which they point out need to have specific rules. Here is how they define that process:

• “Each person in turn verbally states the resentments he holds against the others; (it is important that the others listen but do not defend themselves. The statements of resentment are to be let out but not reacted to.)

• After resentments have been stated, each person tells the others what he appreciates about them.”

     When first learning how to conduct this kind of session, do it daily. After it can be done with ease, stretch it to weekly.

     In some working situations, resentment and appreciation sessions can be useful, “particularly where people work together closely and personal irritations occur easily. If it is tried, all members should agree to a trial period — say two months.” At the end of this period, the usefulness of the procedure can be re-evaluated. If “participants decide to continue, they could decide on adaptations and establish regular session times, like meeting once every two or three weeks,” or whatever seems “practical.”

     It should go without saying that an outside professional facilitator or family business coach can play an important role in establishing and moderating this kind of program. The more structured and enforced the process, the more likely it is to eliminate or minimize nonproductive ill feelings and be able to help produce positive results.

     Is all of this easy? Probably not. Does it take time? Yes. Is the risk reasonable? If everyone involved is agreeable to pursue positive and productive solutions, yes. Should you try it on your own? Possibly, if you are not personally involved in the resentment exchanges, or directly related to those who are, and have a firm but compassionate leadership quality.  

# # #

Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Yes, you get

what you pay for!

Stop wasting time looking for magazine articles to guide your way. 

     You will not find actionable, productive problem-solving steps to take in magazines. The so-called experts whose guest-lecture style writing is published routinely in trade and professional journals may arouse your interest, and may carve out some fascinating new research directions, but odds are they haven’t a clue about the kinds of help you really need.

     How can I say that so authoritatively?

1) Common sense dictates (and has been soundly proven) that the best solution to any group, organization or business problem lies within the group, organization or business that has the  problem. A good, experienced outside consultant brought in under your wing can quickly integrate into your group, organization or business— plus bring  invaluable, informed, fresh perspectives to your table. 

People who are skilled at this are generally too busy with hands-on activities to be  writing about their experiences. And even when they do manage to squeeze in a story or two, it will never be de-fined with the exact same dynamics that are giving you headaches.

2) Early on when I couldn’t make enough money consulting, I used to write many of these milquetoast monologues. And, I can assure you, practical application never factored in as long as the publisher or editor was happy and I got paid.

Besides, what on Earth would a publisher or editor know about your business? Most of them can’t even tend profitably to their own affairs. It’s like inviting  the wholeheartedly incompetent federal government to step in and run your business.

     So, let’s get back to the kinds of help you really need. First of all, you need an action approach and realistic, flexible thinking support. Whatever you might read in a trade or professional publication is not likely to be action-oriented, and even if it is, it surely won’t be flexible and realistic enough to apply to your unique needs. While problems are not usually unique, solutions–real ones, lasting ones–typically are.

     The current issue of a major industry trade magazine features a cover story titled “The Making of a Manager” and proceeds to say nothing of any useful consequence. Instead of providing some insight on how to initiate manager development, the article focuses on all the reasons (mostly questionable) to promote from within rather than hire from outside.

     The article offers no input about the important differences that need to be addressed between, e.g., being a sales or customer service rep vs. being a sales or customer service manager. There’s no attention given to the most critical step involved with “The Making of a Manager” which is learning to let go. In order to do the job of motivating others to do the tasks that one used to do firsthand, requires learning how to let go of doing the tasks oneself.

     This is no doubt not addressed because to do so would upset the writer’s premise and purpose to promote internal promotion instead of finding the best person to do the job. 

     BOTTOM LINE: Read trade and professional press items that interest you, if you have the time, but don’t expect to find lasting and productive answers until you’re willing to bite the bullet and pay for someone who can help coach you and guide your people through the solution process.

Visit Hal at www.TheWriterWorks.com

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Yes, “quirky” works.

Save that tablecloth!

     In between rocket-blasting stints with Madison Avenue’s two biggest and most successful ad agencies in history, I once worked as new business director and assistant to the chairman of a rather inconsequential yet highly profitable New York advertising firm. My boss was the number one guy out of three partners. The other two hung out and acted important. My boss was the one who made the sales and brought in the money.

     I never learned much from him except that it really is possible to be successful even when you have no obvious success traits or qualities, as long as you are a stupendous listener, and can be totally quirky. The old man had no redeeming characteristics to speak of but he was both quirky — accentuated by a cartoony voice and over-the-top animation that seemed to ooze incongruously out of his 3-piece suit — plus he was an outstanding listener.

     Three or four days a week, I found myself in the arguably envious position of getting fat by being his sidekick at exorbitantly expensive lunches he hosted at the best restaurants in Manhattan. He invited clients and prospective clients as guests. I was his Boy Friday but he actually encouraged me to talk up agency credentials and experience, setting the stage for his “pitch” at dessert time.

     What he had to say was always on target, but it came only after intensive listening, interspersed with squinty-eyed questions from over the tops of his reading glasses, and requests for examples and diagrams. He made copious notes with marker pens . . . on the tablecloth! 

     In between courses’, he would engage the help of a waiter or two to turn the table covering, drip spots and all, clockwise so he’d have clear writing space for each part of the meal. When lunch ended, he would tuck a $20 bill into the Maitre D’s hand and neatly fold the tablecloth up, tuck it under his arm as he did all the handshake/smile stuff and head for a cab that I would have waiting at the curb.

     When we got back to the office, his secretary would unfold the tablecloth, tack it on the wall over her workspace and type out everything he had written, rising periodically to turn the cloth and re-tack it (lots of pinholes in the wall!). She would enlist one of the designers to recreate any diagrams. The Boss would prioritize items on her draft and identify them as Objectives or Strategies or Tactics the have a final version typed up.

     The typed copy was distributed to all who had any experience with or interest in the business being courted, followed by a meeting, and a summary returned to the lunch guest reiterating the key points, tying them of course to sales points. Often this document became the “working bible” for developing the advertising for an existing client for a full year or more, and often it won new clients.      

     Should we all run out and start writing on tablecloths? Maybe, but the point is that whatever you do to be better at running your business doesn’t have to be something that’s considered “normal” by others, and you need not worry or care about what others say if the system works for you. Someone else I worked for routinely cell phone called his desk from the golf course to leave himself message reminders of sales prospect conversations he would follow up on the next day.

“Quirky” Works.  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! 

When you add

a splash of red

to a sea of blue,

people stop

noticing the blue…

     My wife Kathy (God Bless Her!) has been my business partner for 23 years. It takes an extraordinarily special relationship to survive and thrive in the same workspace AND the same homespace. 

     Oh, but don’t thinkI have a limited perspective on this. I’ve worked with every kind of FAMILY business imaginable … from restaurants, HVAC, farms, clothing, sewage, chiropractic services, heart surgery, landscaping, mattresses, trucking, dentistry, lumber, accounting, candy and travel, to manufacturing of computer and rocket-ship parts that fit under your fingernail. And that’s just my tip- of-the-iceberg list.

     Yeah, you might say, but just doing their brochures and websites doesn’t put you in the thick of things. How do you know what it’s really like? As a management consultant, trainer, coach, and counselor, believe me I’ve seen it all. I’ve managed succession planning, rookie coaching, crisis intervention, family foundations, partnership formations, partnership separations, and one fist fight.  

     The biggest problem with family business is family. Family relation-ships are a hotbed of emotions. Consider the statistics that claim every one comes from a dysfunctional family, which means there are an awful lot of weirdos out there. When the dysfunctional types become part of the family business, people see the business as dysfunctional. When you add a splash of red to a sea of blue, people stop noticing the blue.

Only a handful of really smart family business leaders have the good sense to realize a proven professional can help grow the business AND save the family.”

     When high emotions reign in a family business, you can be sure the business will not be a recommended long-term investment. Business ventures can be immensely emotional and supercharged, but keeping control of all that energy requires great leadership finesse, objectivity, and balance.

     Imagine a ship in a stormy sea, with an angry, blood-vessel-on-the-cusp-of-bursting, near-incoherent, screaming captain at the controls. You’d want to be figuring out the quickest route to the lifeboats. Some family businesses keep these stormy sea antics below deck, but they still take their toll.

You’d want to be figuring out the

quickest route to the lifeboats.”

     Here’s the good news: None of it is necessary. Here’s the bad news: Only a handful of family business leaders have the good sense to realize a proven professional can help grow the business AND save the family. The basic principles of anger management, stress management, time management, communication skills (especially effective listening), goal-setting, and leadership transparency are the ingredients of family business transformation and success. Someone who knows how and when to use these tools can help you get the red splash out of your sea of blue, and steady the controls.  

     The more generations involved, the greater the need. The more family members involved, the greater the need. The solution direction is simple. It takes a commitment to want to succeed, a willingness to share “dirty laundry” with an “outsider” (and a sense of partnership and perseverance with that outsider) to combine forces to make a difference.

     Family business growth and development is directly tied to the 4 R’s: Receptivity, Responsiveness, Responsibility and Respect. If those are present, an experienced coach can help them all work for the good of the business, and the good of the family.  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!