Archive for the 'Special People/Special Occasions' Category

Apr 11 2010

Age Difference Turf Wars?

“Lately, I see a lot of 

                                        

wise old hot-shots vs.

                                              

smart-ass young

                                      

rapper-snappers.  

                     

You?”

                                                                                                  

The same woman walks into two competing retail stores with age-different sales styles:

“Afternoon, Ma’am, how’s that traffic out there today? You drive far?” greets her at store number one.

“Hi Ma’am. Let me show you to our electronics department. I’m sure you’ll be interested in seeing the new Apple iPad. Can you believe that thing can do…?” is the first thing she hears as she enters store number two.

Disagreements come to a head once again in the professional services business down the street:

“Frank? Pfffft! All he’s got is that dusty old Rolodex thing with a thousand scribbled and crossed out cards. I think we should rent an up-to-date email list and send out a blast announcing our new services; combine that with a big splash on our website and let people download the info pages –like an ebook — on the apps we now offer in exchange for their email addresses.”

“Jaysyn? You gotta be kiddin’— he’s been here for six months, tryin’ to run everything and doesn’t have a clue about customer service. The kid’s got a Black Berry wired to his butt and an iPod growing outta his ear. We need to work our existing customer base to announce the new services, and most of them don’t even have computers, never mind email addresses.”

You own or run the business. It’s your call. How do you keep everyone happy and still keep customers coming in the door? What do you do if the old guy is your brother (brother-in-law, cousin, your father)? What if the young dude is your nephew (your wife’s best friend’s son, your banker’s son, your lawyer’s son, your own son)?

[Just by way of momentary diversion, I’m reminded that it’s often been said that the biggest problem with a family business, by the way, is the family. Lots of stories about that. I’ll save them for another post.] 

So, you have to do — first and foremost — what’s best for the business, right? Can you and the business afford ongoing turf wars? Is it just an age thing or do two or more same-age-range feisty types engage regularly in territorial battles? “I was assigned Westchester County and she was supposed to handle Rockland; now you’ve got her doing Northern Westchester. What’s with that?”

RULE ONE for getting things straightened out: Get things straightened out! Sit down with the people involved and get each to speak her or his piece with no interruptions allowed by you or the opposition forces. Take notes. Ask followup questions and ask for examples with no interruptions allowed by opposition forces.

Make a decision and explain your rationale with no interruptions allowed by opposition forces, then get on with life. Do not put off a decision. Do not waver on the rules on engagement and do not waver on your decision. Once you’ve established this as a procedure (and it may take 2-3 times), you’ll see fewer and fewer disruptive turf battles.

If you don’t see the strugglers taking chill-pills, you will see more and more evidence about which of the warring parties is most out of line and probably least productive. Let go of him or her, no matter who’s uncle or daughter or neighbor is involved. Be nice about it. Offer relocation help. But — for the sake of your business — stick to your guns and “e-li-minate the neg-a-tive”! 

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

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Mar 31 2010

Lowest US Job-Satisfaction in 22 Years!

ONLY 45% OF

                              

AMERICANS

                                              

SATISFIED WITH

                                  

THEIR JOBS!

                                                                                 

     It’s the worst it’s been in over two decades. The 2010 Conference Board survey underscores that Americans are not making good choices for themselves and their employers are making even worse ones!

     With more than half of the 90% of Americans who are lucky enough to be employed reportedly UNhappy with their employment, we may have an even bigger problem than job creation!

    Fortunately, it’s easier as a business owner or manager to do something about unhappy employees than it is to create and pay for new ones, especially when no realistic job creation incentives exist.

     Sure, a lot of people are unhappy with their jobs because the economy has cut their pay and benefits off at the knees, and maybe you can’t do anything about that right now — but you can provide more opportunities for employee involvement beginning right this minute.

     You can do a better job of engaging and motivating employees beginning right this minute.

     You can do a better job of promoting pride of workmanship (no matter what the job, product, service, industry or profession is). When? You got it: beginning right this minute.

     Is it worth it? Of course, unless you’re ready to just let go of your top performers without a fight. The longer you delay with pulling these “best people” into the boat, the higher the odds go every day that they will certainly get lured into a bigger, better-run boat.

     The longer you wait to throw a tow line to those who are floundering and dog-paddling around or who are trying to stay out of sight by swimming underwater around your boat, the more money you’re wasting everyday paying for what you’re not getting.

     Don’t shoot the messenger, but job creation needs government support that’s not coming. The token talk isn’t any more valuable than a handful of ping-pong balls thrown to someone who’s drowning.

     So, with that reality in your pocket, the only choice is to do whatever has to be done to pump up sales (note: not saving on utilities . . . pumping up sales; saving expenses does not make money). Increased sales generate increased revenues. By containing the greed factor, increased revenues should lead to increased profits. Increased profits allow you to create new jobs! BINGO! Economic turnaround.

     But let’s not forget that the key to all this is for you to initiate an immediate job satisfaction turnaround!

     If you can’t save your best people and get your weakest swimmers into life-vests and keep everyone involved with genuine and transparent leadership activities, with teaching by example, with sincere compliments and back pats, you’re in trouble.

     If you think this is all unnecessary stuff, you are sadly mistaken. You are choosing fantasy over reality. You are not appreciating that while none of this may be important to you, it’s life or death to other people’s job happiness.

     Right now more than half your people are not in the boat. It’s pretty hard to be a leader if you don’t have any followers. Need some help? 302.933.0116. or Hal@BusinessWorks.US — I’m here.      

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Blog via RSS feed or $1/mo Kindle. GRANDPARENT Gift? http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

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Mar 28 2010

You may have a dream, but what’s it mean?

“Dreams which have

                                         

not been interpreted 

                                   

are like letters from

                                     

the Self which have

                                           

not been opened”

— TALMUD

Here’s the thing, the most successful business people in the world all share some common traits and all share one common status of being self-actualized. This means that they have each learned some in-depth things about themselves and have used that information to figure out what makes them tick.

Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, Steven Jobs, Mary Kay, Henry Ford, Dale Carnegie (Add your own), have all been students of themselves in the processes of designing and developing their businesses.

Do you know what makes you tick?

One way to get a better fix on the answer to this question is to write notes to yourself the minute you wake up in the morning about any dreams or parts of dreams you can remember . . . a “dream journal” if you will. By forcing yourself to take up this practice and jot something down every morning, a few things will happen:

  1. Odds are good that after a few days, you will begin to remember more and be able to record more. In this case, more is better.
  2. Repetitive patterns or scenes or thoughts or images may begin to emerge that will help you interpret more and learn more about your SELF which can boost your business big-time.
  3. The more you remember and write down, the more likely you will be to feel less stressed, and to be more productive both on and off the job.

Is this information to share with your white-shirt-and-tie corporate brother-in-law? Probably not. I wouldn’t in fact recommend sharing the idea with anyone until you start to see some results for yourself. Why does the idea seem too off-the-wall bizarre? Because it’s not in any business textbook and most of those who benefit by the practice don’t discuss it for fear of . . . well, you understand.

A primitive Malaysian hunting and gathering tribe called the Senoi (Bing or Google them if you’re interested in more detail) have a generations old practice of waking each morning and talking about their dreams from the night before with others in their tribe. They reportedly go from one tribal member to another until they feel satisfied with the interpretation of their dreams.

Wackos, right? Wrong. The tribe is free of stress, free of disease and free of mental illness.

Imagine if you could be enjoying that luxury right now. Is it mumbo-jumbo or dark magic? Not likely. Since almost all research ends up demonstrating that disease of all kinds has a psychosomatic base that inevitably evolves from stress, it shouldn’t be surprising news.

When a group of people (regardless of how primitive) devotes part of every day focusing on, exploring, and identifying stress sources, that group is going to experience less stress. Less stress means less disease and less mental illness.

Keeping a daily “dream journal” is one way to help yourself (which means you will also be helping your business) beginning immediately. And it’s FREE! (Oh, right, a blank book and a pen!)

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Mar 24 2010

The Quandary of 30 Million Small Businesses

At this moment

                                      

in history… 

                                    

when small business

                                   

can least afford it…

                               

[4-STEP  SOLUTION AT END] 

                                                               

     GOVERNMENT is muscling entrepreneurs into incipient bankruptcy with this healthcare plan that — contrary to what the spin has been — does absolutely NOT pass along tax credit to all. In fact, 88% (maybe more) of America’s 29,000,000+ small businesses will get ZERO healthcare plan-related tax credit! So, do the math: “Maybe 12%” will get some tax credit.

     29 MILLION? Yes, that includes the 23 million self-employed. They are indeed small businesses by any rational person’s definition, and certainly by any textbook definition, and most assuredly by any measure of reality.

     The healthcare plan forces downward pressure on wages, when we’re at a point in time, facing the prospects of total economic demise, that the exact opposite is what should be happening. Downward pressure on wages inhibits business growth and strangleholds small businesses’ abilities to create jobs.

     SMALL BUSINESS will end up bearing the burden of increased insurance premium costs. Insurance companies will now pass on to small businesses the increased costs of government payments they must make. Insurance companies are not stupid. They will simply turn around and stick it to small business . . . camouflaged perhaps, but it will not not happen!

     Heaven knows we need to create jobs. And heaven also knows job creation will never come from corporate giants or from incompetent, close-minded market government agencies like the US Postal Service. 

     Yet, small business is the last and really only hope for job creation. Job creation is the only meaningful and realistic economic stimulus solution in America’s economy. Yet we are being trapped in a vicious circle of reckless spending partisan-politics that has no clue about the value of free market price competition and tax incentives with teeth!

     Instead, our no-business-experience leadership looks forlornly to the corporate and government executives who run the US Small Business Administration for the kinds of help they are simply not capable of providing.

     Most small business owners and entrepreneurs know how to solve problems quickly and know how to stimulate cash-flow and open new revenue streams, how to build a competitive environment and make it be productive. Give them a chance!

                                                     

THE SOLUTION…

                                                                     

>>> We need regional roll-up-the-sleeves task forces of experienced, successful small business owners and entrepreneurs in place and functioning via virtual meeting site conferences within two weeks.

>>> We need individuals with proven track-records who are willing to step up to the plate and work together for the common good without burden of paperwork overload or complex multi-level reporting systems.

>>> We need task teams to be given full authority AND responsibility to take immediate steps to develop and implement business turn-around programs geared to creating jobs.

>>> We need government acceptance of the fact that the time has come to make the most of America’s great wealth of small business resources by respecting and working with them, instead of pounding them into the ground.   

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Blog via RSS feed or $1/mo Kindle. GRANDPARENT Gift? http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

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Mar 21 2010

YOU’re Married to Your Business, Not the Govt!

For richer or poorer,

                                                                                                             

in sickness and

                              

in health, it’s

                                    

YOUR business…NOT

                                                                                                                          

the government’s!

                                                             

     There may never have been a better time than now, for small business owners, operators and managers to rise up and defend the businesses they’re married to, to take hold of the entrepreneurial leadership that America’s government hasn’t even an inkling about how to make work.

     We’re promised leadership transparency and get instead closed doors.

     We’re assured of job creation incentives and get instead “much ado about nothing.” Mountains of utterly useless government paperwork clog our channels of communication and threaten our existences as free market competitive entities.

   Here’s the line in the sand:

The government wants to tax and spend and provide all the necessary infrastructure to gain total and complete control of our businesses and industries, our families and our personal lives. [This is not exaggerated. Look carefully at what’s been happening every day.]

American business owners want an end to taxation without representation. Small business owners want an end to spending money that doesn’t exist, no matter how great the cause. Business owners do not want the government running businesses; they want government to provide infrastructure tools for use by small businesses to create jobs and economic turnaround opportunities. They want to keep their inalienable rights to freedom and independence.

     America’s federal government has run amuck. It is using today’s lame excuse for a healthcare bill as a Trojan Horse to–once positioned inside the walls of democracy–unleash a flood of controls designed to pursue their mission to usher in socialism.

      Socialism does not work, and will not work. It has never worked.

     And until what I am firmly convinced is our nation’s corrupt union leadership (especially teacher and automaker unions) and until naive, ideological arts and tree-hugger communities are willing to put aside their new-found, Obama-led arrogance long enough to face reality, we as a nation are in deep trouble.

     So why address all this political mess in a blog for small business owners and entrepreneurial leaders?

     Because it is WE who are on the line here. It is WE who hold the opportunity to reverse the reckless spending and reckless mind-games being foisted upon us. It is WE who need to rise up and restore balance and strength to our crumbling economy. 

     No, these are not just words. These are actions that each of us needs to take and pledge to work for. Our government, as it has come to exist in this past year, no longer represents “WE the people.” 

     If any of us with small businesses spent money we didn’t have as mindlessly as the federal government has been doing and continues to do, we would be out of business . . . exactly where America  is headed.

     We are on a runaway train, being driven by a totally-inexperienced group of incompetent (seemingly “possessed” say some) politicians who are intent on taking us all directly over the socialism cliff into Marxism waiting eagerly below. And, God forbid that should ever take place.

     The only way to ensure the survival of democracy bolstered by its capitalistic roots that established the US as the world’s one-time strongest nation, and be able to be in the position to best help others, is to provide small businesses with real (not token) tools to lead us forward once again.

     This can only happen when each small business owner takes an active role this November in voting out those who think it’s more important to “taxdollar-bailout” corporate giants than to put meaningful job creation tax incentives in small business.

     Realize here that we have representatives who are more concerned with their empty, small-business-killing healthcare plan than with reducing unemployment rates enough to allow people to pay for the insurance coverage they’ll need to have, to avoid getting fined with amounts they have no ability to pay, because they’re unemployed. Oh, is that not logical or something? 

     We need Congressional Representatives and Senators who are not afraid to stand shoulder to shoulder with small business, who will foster the spirit of knowledgeable, experienced, and open leadership we so sorely lack.  

     We need small business leadership with the vision to restore the sovereignty and credibility of America that generations before us worked so diligently and hard to preserve.       

Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Mar 20 2010

NO REBATES ON WASTED TIME

YOU WILL NOT

                         

GET PAID

                                                                    

for doing tasks

                     

of avoidance,

                                                                     

nor will you get

                             

the time back!

                                                                    

     The trouble is that ONLY you know what truly constitutes a task of avoidance, and ONLY you know when your time’s awastin’, which serves to underscore that being true to yourself is yet one more ONLY to think about– being true to yourself is the ONLY way to run a business and live life to the fullest.

     ONLY? Well, assuming you accept that there’s no suggestion intended here to be selfish in terms of dealing with others, and that one needs to be oriented toward strengthening oneself (i.e., one’s SELF), consider the alternatives for a minute and you’ll certainly agree.

     Even the world’s greatest givers — of love, of money, of opportunities, of freedom, of whatever counts — recognize and accept that they must somehow be able to give from a position of strength in order to be truly effective.

     If you are committed to a goal of giving money to the (fictitious) E-Charity Fund, and you donate at great personal sacrifice because table food is scarce and mortgage payments are behind, guess what? You’re not being blessedly generous; you’re being foolish.

     Once you’re able to catch up with your expenses and build a base of financial strength, you’ll be able to donate more, more often. Self-sacrifice is not a requirement for charitable giving. Sure, there are always those who will be in greater need than you, but if you fail to boost your own finances before giving money away, you may be setting yourself up to be joining the ranks those you seek to support. 

     Then what good will you be? 

     Do you need millions to justify donating thousands? No. But you need to not be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy or foreclosure before you saddle yourself with cash donations that could put you under. And that doesn’t mean that you are any less loving or caring or charitable a person.

     Back to rebates on wasted time: there are none.

     Granted that when the pressure’s on to get a report or presentation done, may not be the best time to go for a long walk or start plucking yellow leaves off of plants . . . or maybe it is! Creative-types often need to divert their physical selves to stimulate their conceptualization chambers in their brains. Walks and yellow leaves may be just the ticket!

     What’s the point? Like Smokey The Bear’s message that “ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES!” — ONLY you know yourself and your circumstances well enough to determine if you’re wasting time or not. And making that determination comes full circle back to the keynote message of the first paragraph above: To thine own self be true!  

     Oh, and by the way (i.e., btw), it’s a choice!  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Blog via RSS feed or $1/mo Kindle. GRANDPARENT Gift? http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

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Mar 18 2010

SEX ON THE DESK?

If you’ve even been

                                 

thinking about it,

                                   

STOP!   It’ll

                            

kill your business! 

                                                                                             

     “Fishing off company docks,” as Grandpa used to call it, is a choice. Don’t choose it!

     If you’re not in a home business and married to your partner, there is no excuse big enough to allow room for a sex relationship in your business no matter how discreet you think you can be, no matter how tempting a person or situation is, no matter what any one’s marital status is.

     It will come back to bite you in the butt and wreck your business. Guaranteed!

     No, I don’t pretend to be a preacher or a moralist. Nor am I a prude or an embittered, failed religious fanatic. I have been a personal and professional growth and development counselor to many top business executives and many physicians.

     I have seen and “heard confession” of at least a hundred instances of boss and associate or boss and employee sex relationships at work, and every single one of them ultimately destroyed the business or medical practice. No exceptions.

     No matter how worked up the thinking about it gets, sex on the desk is simply not worth it. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal transformed societal acceptance levels, with of course the help of mainstream media which found it preferable to capitulate and sanction the offenses (rather than bite the Presidential hand that fed them . . . Hmmm, sound familiar?).

     Bill Clinton’s indiscretions don’t make the practice of sex in the office (ANY office) an “okay” thing.

     It’s unfortunate that Clinton’s gross violation of public trust and personal morals will be his only truly memorable contribution to go down in the Presidential legacy history books. The Brothers Kennedy and others, as past events come to light, were apparently no better behaved — just had the wherewithal to stall off public awareness for a few decades.

     The sexual pursuits of employee underlings follow the perceived power of leaders . . . and it’s easy for business leader (the more powerful, the easier) to take sexual advantage of an employee . . . even the owner of a small retail store is not exempt.

     The only thing that keeps business owners above the fray is the active recognition that all behavior is a choice, and that sex at work is a bad choice in every instance. Why? Because it stands to cost the business and the owner (as well as the magnetized employee!) deeply and irrevocably. 

     The risk of lifelong-haunting business failure far outweighs the moments of indiscretion. Entrepreneurs, we need to remember, take only reasonable risks. Leave the mixing of sexlife with worklife to Hollywood where morals don’t exist anyway, and where risk-taking is a fictional pursuit.

     Odds are you have spent enormous energy and untold amounts of time and money to anchor your business in reality. You deserve to keep it there.   

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Mar 04 2010

FIXING BROKEN CASHFLOW

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 DayGet blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

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Mar 02 2010

Business as usual suspended for today…

R.I.P. "TUCKERTON" Our Loyal Cocker (8/7/03-3/2/10)

 R.I.P. “TUCKERTON” Our Loyal Cocker (8/7/03-3/2/10)

A week of great sadness has swept through our lives: first I lost a friend and teammate (See three posts below) and now, our joy-filled, spirited little black cocker TUCKERTON (named after Tuckerton Seaport on the New Jersey shore, because we lived nearby when he was born) has passed suddenly in the night.

                                                                  

We have had many dogs in our lives (10 or 12, I believe; 7 in our 23 years of marriage) — and thankfully, still have our 12 1/2 year-old female golden retriever, Barnegat, though her legs are slowing — but Tuckerton is the only one who had a tail that never stopped wagging!

                                                                  

He was happy, even up to his final moments last night, and for all the joy and unsolicited love he delivered, we shall be eternally grateful.

                                                                        

Tuckerton was Kathy’s full-time companion (she called him “T” and “Friar Tuck”) and I think she loved him as she often said, “more than life itself.” He was my favorite office visitor and stress-reliever.

                                                       

He would bound up and down our flights of stairs like a rocketship … to chase a ball or bark greetings to a visitor. He would snuggle up in my lap, pressing his entire body into my chest, still of course wagging that constantly-in-motion tail.

                                                       

He was Barnegat’s “little brother” in every sense of the word, following her everywhere, sometimes walking under her, and practically sleeping on top of her in the car. Loud noises sent him scrambling to get behind her. They would shake paws together for treats every night and exchange barks from rooms apart on those rare occasions when they were rooms apart. Barnegat will miss him every bit as much as we already do.

                                                                        

Tuckerton has inspired characters and names in my fiction writing, and his overall happiness literally invaded our every home and office space every day… truly a dog sent from heaven. God Bless You, Tuckerton.

                                                      

We shall carry your spirit forward with us, Buddy Boy, but we’ll miss you always. # 

                                                        

THANK YOU FRIENDS FOR THE MANY DOZENS OF NOTES WE’VE ALREADY RECEIVED. IT’S NICE TO SEE THIS SPECIAL DOG WAS SO APPRECIATED.  

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Mar 01 2010

The Death of Small Business…

REALITY IN YOUR FACE:

                                           

When it’s time to let go . . .

                                                                                                            

     As I’ve been reminded again twice this week, facing death is never easy, and I think I can make that statement with some conviction because I’ve probably experienced all kinds and proximities of death in one way or another. Some (like family members, heroes and pets) can be devastating; some take a lesser toll, but none escape the memory banks.

     Now this may seem like an inappropriate transition into business, but — if you really think about it — it’s  not. Our businesses are living, breathing entities that are devoid of emotion but that maintain all the outward expressions of existence. Our businesses actually experience all the highs and lows that we’ve come to associate as the exclusive domain of human life.

     If you’ve ever had to close down or bankrupt a business, or experience major business losses due to fire, flood, earthquake, burglary, or embezzlement, you surely can relate to this . . .

     Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, the world’s foremost expert on “death and dying,” identified the five emotional stages we all experience:

1)Denial and Isolation  2)Anger  3)Bargaining  4)Depression  5)Acceptance 

                                                  

     She said all of us must experience each of these five stages to one degree or another in the order they are shown with EVERY loss experience. Some of course get stuck and never make it to #5. As business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs, we experience bits and pieces of these five stages with daily losses.

     Kübler-Ross noted losses are not limited to human death, and can  include the loss of a limb or faculty, or ability … loss of a valuable possession (home, car, a business), loss of companionship (including divorce and separation), loss of freedom (including jail), loss of a job, loss of a client, loss of a prospect or opportunity, loss of self-esteem, loss of authority, etc.

     To a lesser degree, we even experience these stages when we lose a dollar, a photograph, a letter, an address, a contest, and so on. So what’s the point? 

Healthy successful people do everything humanly possible to channel all their energies and mental focus on reaching the Stage of ACCEPTANCE as quickly as possible, and on maintaining themselves at that level as permanently as possible.”

     Everything else is non-productive. Everything else leaves us feeling deflated, defeated, and negative. Some stay in these places their entire lives. Some are institutionalized. Some don’t survive.

     Stages 1-4 are pure torment. We must go through them, but the goal needs to be to move through them as rapidly as our minds and bodies allow us to. Getting through the maze may take friends and rescuers. We have all performed that function for someone else, but perhaps have forgotten?  

     Keep always in the front of your mind that no matter how hopeless it may feel to be stuck somewhere in denial and isolation, or in anger, or in a bargaining position, or a state of depression, it IS a matter of choice!

     The minute we choose to accept loss, and continue to choose that, the quicker we can get on with a happy and productive existence and make the most of the short time we each have here on Earth … make the most of the relationships and purposes we’ve been blessed with.

     We need not choose to lock ourselves into suffering and misery. Life and business life are way too short to have wasted time and energy with anything besides being happy and healthy and in active pursuit of our dreams.

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone

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