Are You

Juggling Seagulls?

     Draw a bullseye with two rings around it and label the center space: FAMILY & PERSONAL, then label the innermost ring space: WORK & BUSINESS, and then label the outer ring space: FRIENDS & OTHER ACTIVITIES.

     Copy each heading onto a separate column or separate piece of paper. Then list the most appropriate items/ people/places/ things in each category. Allow yourself one minute per list. 

     Put the list down and walk away. Get some water or a cookie or just stare out the window. (This is like a little ginger between sushi pieces.) Then return to your target and lists. The amount of “blur” between your bullseye and your next two rings will indicate how “fastlane” your life is right now.

I say “right now” because this is a here and now exercise: what goes in each part of the target can change by next week, tomorrow, tonight, or within the next 6 seconds!

In fact, when life gets too hectic, it’s a useful device for daily assessment, for helping you sort out and stay focused on priorities.

     Whatever blur does occur, whatever lack of definition exists between the three areas should give you a good heads up on how efficiently or inefficiently you are using your time, as well as the extent of your allegiances to each entity that is taking time and attention from your life.

     Once you’ve done this little diagnostic study on yourself, and have a good overview of your current activities and involvements, you need to decide if these pieces are where you want them to be.

     Are you spending too much time with your business and not enough with your family, for example? Or, are you so caught up in someone else’s problem that you haven’t made time to solve your own?

     I once found myself so sucked into a Chamber of Commerce project to boost town retail traffic, that I ended up working nights and weekends just to catch up with my own business (which was not retail and stood to gain nothing from the initiative).

     The crunch infiltrated my time commitments to my family. The small disruptions that surfaced were clearly the tip of cataclysmic explosion. I extracted myself from the C of C mission and discovered — lo and behold! — the retailers I was knocking myself out to promote didn’t care enough to pick up the ball for themselves.

This is NOT to suggest that voluntary community work is not worthwhile. It most certainly is. But it’s a good idea to look before you leap. For your own good, as well as the cause involved, such engagements are most successful when they are clearly defined, clearly justified, and clearly scheduled.

Plus –realistically — where choice is involved (vs. for example, an emergency), no one should ever commit to helping others who is not coming from a position of strength to begin with . . .

• A sick teacher is an ineffective teacher.

• A cashpoor business cannot donate to charities.

• A business owner who’s preoccupied with family survival issues or debt collection issues cannot be an effective sales leader.

     Draw your target again tomorrow. See if anything changes. Can you make something change? Maybe if you stop juggling one fewer seagull, it will fly away! 

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

S T O P

managing problems

and S T A R T

ending them!

     We are unfortunately taught from pre-K through graduate school, and brain-deadened all along the way by government, unions, and giant corporations (plus well-intentioned family, friends and associates), to wring out our dripping old problem washcloths and use them again.

     Some kind of recycling “green” thinking stewardship-leadership idea?

     Well, far be it from me to not be fully supportive of environmental and ecological interests, but “No Thanks!” when it comes to recycling problems. To manage a problem is to recycle the problem until it comes back again and bites you in the butt! Small businesses don’t have the financial staying power to withstand multiple butt-bites.

     This leaves small business leaders to end the dripping-old-problem washcloth cycle before it begins by blowing the thing up, instead of letting it collect bacteria before its next use. How? STOP doing everything we’ve been taught since childhood: STOP STUDYING THINGS SO MUCH!

     “OMG, that’s sacrilegious! We have to be analytical — especially men — that’s our job!” Right. Because every blue-blooded American is crazed about getting and regurgitating the “in-depth analysis” offered by competitive sporting events commentators, by political and news pundits, by medical and diagnostic healthcare professionals … and by the vast majority of teachers in the vast majority of classrooms. 

     But this is about your small business and my small business, not the AFL-CIO,  AARP, Chevrolet, Bank of America, VERIZON, GOOGLE, main-stream media or the American Federation of Teachers. This is not about the futility of trying to end the vicious cycle of problems of the deep-pocketed. This is about learning what no one (except perhaps for some wise old grandparents!) has ever taught us: HOW TO THINK!

     Leadership means many different things to many people and organizations and governments, but to small business owners, operators, managers, and entrepreneurs, it can only mean one thing: HOW TO THINK!

     Even college which is supposed to teach us how to think, teaches us instead simply more of how to analyze. Analysis skills will not ingratiate a customer, pay a bill, respond to an immediate market opportunity or patch up piece of bad press.

     Long-term strategic planning is the lifeblood of big business and often accounts for giant corporate leaders’ collective inability to see their hands in front of their faces. Action plans are the regimen of small business; they are about what’s happening now and what can be done now to start ending problems now.

     Successful small businesspeople don’t waste time re-assessing, re-evaluating, re-comparing, re-contrasting, re-thinking, revising, re-visiting, re-structuring, or dwelling on re-reads of studies, surveys, and reports.

     Successful small businesspeople try solutions, and when the solutions don’t work, they try other solutions; they don’t waste valuable time, money, and effort running around in circles trying to manage the fire and put the same flame out over and over again. They get rid of the fire.

What can you do today to start ending

            the problems you’ve been managing?          

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

“Awk! My blog

is flogged!”

     Some of you who know me well know I maintain a fairly relentless (accusations of compulsion are sometimes hinted) fast-lane pace for a 200 year-old entrepreneur and business coach. But the last few days, fallout from Mr. Gore’s global warming warning took the starch out of me. Blessed as we were at our home and office, with 30 inches of snow (8-10 more en route) — more than we’d seen since NW Maine — Kathy and I were stoically committed to tough it out with boots and shovels at the ready.

     But then, like Hannah with Montana and bacon with eggs, along came the snowstorm’s accompaniment: 4.5 days of no electricity at 40 degrees inside! And a State state-of-emergency of course (declared by a irrevocably Europe-bound governor!). Foreign leaders no doubt outweighed the fate of the State … and my blog, which by now, was flogged!

     Part of me was in something of a panic mode because I had no contingency plan about how to continue conducting business in a blizzard. [Who woulda thunk an area with no more than a rare broom-sweep worth of snow over most of the past 30 years could be this, now?] I’m also reminded of riding out a hurricane and power outage when I was a dumb young professor living aboard my boat in a stormy marina.

     None of this may seem to have much business application, but — actually — contingency and succession-planning come to mind. Most entrepreneurs, I believe it’s fair to say, never consider worst-case scenarios and alternative plans if the central thrust of their venture fails to ignite. 

     And fewer still, I think, ever consider what will happen to their ventures if anything happens to them. [This thought admittedly rose to the surface after my third round of driveway shoveling in three days.]

     Odds are that not a majority of entrepreneurs will have been successful Girl or Boy Scouts, and so may lack some of that “Be Prepared” discipline. Plus, who likes to entertain his or her inevitable demise or consider being sidelined by accidental injury? The point is that it is as wise a set of considerations as drawing up a will, or planning for retirement or marriage or children, or purchasing insurance policies.

     The positives of entrepreneurship are that most small and new business ventures are undertaken by young, energetic types. The negatives of contingency and succession planning are that most young energetic types are too young and energetic to consider their own mortality, OR that any business problem that arises could possibly be beyond their capacity to control.

     Accept this as myth, and think about it. It doesn’t take much more to come up with an effective take-over and emergency action plan to make sure your business, your family, and your employees and customers are cared for. 

     So back to being snowed in and powered out: I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of business and life with a renewed sense of appreciation for all that I have and for what it must be like to not have those things. Do I sound mushy grateful? Maybe it’s because I am.

Comment below Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!  

Just because you’re a hotshot,

don’t blow off doing your homework!

      I recently noticed two free-standing specialty coffee kiosks gone from two strip mall parking lots I regularly pass. The business owners — a franchise I believe — are no doubt fretting that they made a bad investment decision, probably blaming the economy. 

     But the truth is much more obvious. They simply didn’t do their homework. They thought they had an idea that was so spectacular that it would work anywhere: Starbucks-style coffee on the go at drive-up booths in busy shopping areas. You do know the word “assumptions” is spelled “T~R~O~U~B~L~E” ? Apparently, they did not.

     What they overlooked (by not doing their homework) was that you can’t set up shop for a retail establishment of any kind that specializes in expensive, exotic coffee in shopping areas (no matter how much traffic) that boast boarded-up storefronts and are primarily frequented by welfare and food stamp recipients, in a poverty-stricken state.

     Even in good times in a rich state (are there any of either of these left?), to charge $3-$6 for a cup of coffee-to-go approaches the cusp of gouging, and is best left to major parkway service centers and sports stadiums where captive audiences will pay the piper. 

     So these owners knew they had high-traffic areas, but never checked out shopper profiles. And even this would have been obvious had they had their scouting eyes open: junk-heap cars and trucks, and shoppers in Salvation Army-style clothing ear-marked the parking lots.

     Of course it’s possible that these owners might have thought they were so entrepreneurially sharp that they could sell ice to Eskimos.

     Compounding the issue was that perhaps they saw nothing off-putting about cars lined up at these one-person kiosks, having pulled up because there wasn’t time to stop at WAWA or 7/11, waiting in bumper-to-bumper lines for some tweep to order a fat-free, candy cane brandy latte with 3 shots of carmel splash espresso, and skim milk with real whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon… 

     And even that bit of customer aggravation would be resolvable and — in some neighborhoods wouldn’t matter anyway — if some value-added benefits were made part of the waiting time (not unlike the idea of Starbucks laptop connections).

[Don’t get me wrong here, I am not endorsing Starbucks; I don’t like their operations, their rip-off prices OR the taste of their over-the-top coffees; they are simply a convenient example.] 

Bottom line: Realtors beat it to death, but they are right! Location is indeed critical for every (even in-home) business. But if you fail to do your (complete) homework and don’t think through the strengths and weaknesses of any potential location, you do it at your own peril.”

     If the business has promise, excuses don’t cut it when hotshot entrepreneurs run it into the ground. Specialty coffee –in the right locations — can still command big bucks in this economy. Stupidity cannot. 

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 LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP? See Hal’s Guest Blog Post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 WONDERING WHEN NO is Better Than MAYBE? See Hal’s Guest Blog Post in BonMot Communications’ Angelique Rewer’s FREE HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED e-zine www.thecorporatecommunicator.net 

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“Leadership is not

just telling people

what you want…it

is getting people to 

do what you need 

them to do.”

– JON ALTERMAN, Senior Fellow,

Center for Strategic & International Studies

     There’s a classic leadership-style story about (pre-US President) General Dwight David (“I Like Ike”) Eisenhower on the battlefield during WWII, when he was addressing his team of officers at a makeshift table with a piece of string.

     He first pushed the string across the table with thumb and forefinger and demonstrated the end result being a tangle. Next he took the end of the string between the same two fingers and shook it a bit before gently pulling it, demonstrating the straight-line formation of the string…and made his point clearly that troops who were pulled by their leader from the front would outperform those whom the leader pushed from behind.

Are YOU 

p~u~l~l~i~n~g  

or   P U S H I N G ?

     Because you own or manage a business or part of one, you are responsible for motivating your troops. You set the example. If you are pushing people, others below you are pushing people. Pushed people get resentful, uncooperative and disruptive.

     People who exhibit these attitudes will cost you untold amounts of money, time and effort. In fact, such behaviors have been known to cause and lose wars. Surely, they will lose your customers.

     If you are always the first to step up to the frontlines and then pull others along, you will inevitably gain and retain the respect and loyalty of those below you. They will believe in you, trust you and follow you. They will be more productive more often.

     This thinking and approach is as critical for government as it is for multinational and Fortune 100 corporations, even Mom & Pop stores and your own family! Every organization can gain from Eisenhower-style leadership.

     In fact, small and mid-sized companies are places to ignite the kinds of larger, global applications that will eventually revitalize and bolster world economy. Managers in giant corporations who lead by pulling, succeed at cultivating more entrepreneurial, innovative solutions to chronic problems. 

     It matters not that you sell pizza, luxury automobiles, chickens, well-drilling, website designs, media advertising, crabs, healthcare services, insurance, pickles, legal services, clothing, real estate, or microchips…you will be more successful “getting people to do what you need them to do” by pulling instead of pushing.

     What does matter is that you keep working every single day at making your leadership style better because the solidity of your customer base is only as good as the day-to-day performance of those who work for, with and around you.

     Your people’s performance is only as good as the constant attention you give to the kind of leadership you provide. We are living in a low-trust business climate. Raise the bar!

     Remember that “integrity” is doing the right thing even when no one else is looking. Your integrity is your brand and people buy the benefits they believe are attached to your brand. It all starts and ends with how effectively you motivate others…

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Throw Up. Clean Up. Sit Up. Step Up!

     1. It’s that time. Dump Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Schumer (and all the other big misguided tax and spend abusers who are killing small business) into your trash bin. Rid yourself of all the 2009 stress, upsets, ill-feelings, lost sales, financial worries, ego-maniacal do-noting politicians and half-hearted employee efforts by simply throwing up!

     Go ahead; get it over with; tickle your throat; I’ll wait.

     Done? Good. Next…

     2. Clean up the mess. While you’re at it, clean up your email files, your desk, your accumulated piles of paper, your truck, business cards, and phone messages. If there’s any time left, attack your most discombobulated file.

     Then…

     3. Sit up! Look around and make sure your work setting and all first impression views, items, furnishings, windows, equipment, and signs are glistening and free of clutter and performing at optimum level. You’ll never get a second chance at a first 2010 impression!

     Finally…

     4. Step up to the plate and get a good grip on the bat. Prepare to send the next pitch flying into the centerfield stands. Also, write your 2010 goals down on paper (you know, with a pen!) and make sure each goal is specific, flexible, realistic and due-dated.

     Remember that — no matter what your business is — your integrity and your people are your greatest assets. And remember too that you have what it takes to achieve your goals. It’s all about choice. Choose to make it happen. Choose 2010 to be your year!

To all my great friends and blog visitors:

My very best wishes for you that 2010 is the happiest, healthiest, most prosperous year ever for you and your families! Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Year!

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More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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Happy Christmas

Recovery Time!

     SO … Answer these 10 questions for yourself about your SELF, and then answer the same 10 for your BUSINESS.

     If you are totally honest with yourself about your SELF and with yourself about your BUSINESS, you will positively gain some important insight!

•      What didn’t work this past year? (Not “why?” which may take another year to answer)

•      And what, pray-tell, is working NOW? 

•      What needs to be eliminated? 

•      What will work going forward? 

•      What needs to be reevaluated?  

•      What needs to be fixed?  Adjusted?  

•      Completely overhauled? 

•      What needs to be attempted? 

•      What needs to be planned? 

     Remember, this is YOUR business and YOUR self we’re talking about here, so ONLY YOU can decide where to go next and ONLY YOU can choose how to get there. ONLY YOU know the real answers to all the questions about growing your self and your business! 

     And you can take hours researching and surveying, but the bottom line is –dear entrepreneur, dear business owner and manager– that in the end, YOU must charge forward by experience, instinct, and informed subjective judgement. 

     YOU must take REASONABLE risks to improve your SELF and your BUSINESS!

     What you choose as a course of action may be wrong, but:

A. SOME action is always better than no action, and

B. YOU are the captain of your ship, and YOU can adjust the course you’re taking at any hour of the day or night. Or, simply put into port for a short lay-over to get yourself more focused. Just choose what you want  (since all behavior is a choice!). 

     No excuses here. You need to be your own consultant. Step back. Take some deep breaths (For your SELF, for your BUSINESS, for your SPORTS performance, for your SALESMANSHIP, for your LIFE!) Oh, and after you breathe, get hopping! 

     The New Year’s bell is ready to ring. Are you ready to run? Have a Happy! 

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Holiday Gloom and Other

Economic Bushes To Beat

     There comes for many business owners and managers a point in time — that inevitably seems to fall in the middle of holiday season — where you can no longer cut back business staffing or compensation, and other overhead expenses loom ominously over your head, like a guillotine, ready to drop.

      Uh, sorry for such a merciless graphic thought, but there ARE still options to exercise, and you ARE still reading, right? Use this “SQUEAKSMANSHIP”© checklist to prompt your brain to more closely consider your circumstances and determine some alternatives that can work for you now.

• Strategic Alliances. Even with or without exchanges of commissions or time, there are many ways to work together with allied businesses that can save money for all involved. Explore.
• Cooperative Advertsing and Marketing. Many manufacturers provide matching dollar and similar programs for retailers that represent their products. Many trade and professional associations and membership organizations provide discounted rate arrangements. Ask.    
• Shared PR. Jointly-issued news releases and cooperative events that promote participant businesses equally strengthen impact and minimize expenses. Poke around. 
• Barter. ANY combination of goods and / or services represent mutual benefit when traded. Local radio stations will often trade commercial air-time for products they can give away in listener contests. Make some calls.
• Shared Employees. Receptionists? Clerical? Contractors? IT? Programmers? Retail? Think. 
• Shared Services. Delivery? Maintenance? Bookkeeping? Look for what’s accessible.
• Shared Vehicles. Cars? Trucks? Construction equipment? Plows? Planes? If it moves…
• Shared Expenses. Mortgage? Rent? Insurance? Purchasing? Memberships? Hmmm…

YOU CAN ALSO…

     Put more marketing reliance on (less expensive than traditional media) Websites, Social Media, Email Campaigns (which don’t have to be spam, btw), News Releases, Captioned Photo Releases, Postcards, Business Card Distribution Displays, Newsletters.

     Put more sales reliance on commission + expenses and/or + advances (vs. salaries) … virtual sales force use … retail street performers.

     Put more emphasis on minimizing travel expense with less exotic, fewer frills regional and centralized meetings … minimizing energy use (Some major outlet stores are cutting back on lighting with customer explanations of fuel and community savings affected.

     Make this holiday season a half-full glass for YOUR business! Oh, and remind your people to NOT cut back on wishing customers and suppliers “Merry Christmas!” Merry Christmas!  

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Imagine This. Imagine That.

(Then Do It!)

     Sorry, but great ideas you fail to act on are not great. In fact, they’re actually lousy because they clog up your brain and prevent you from getting and acting on the truly great ideas you have. Am I saying that you’re holding yourself back? Yes. Aren’t you?

     I know, you’re overwhelmed right now…sucky economy, family holiday obligations, and you want to just slow down your business push (like past years), just sit back and relax with a nice glass of something warming…and relegate the whole “dreaming up new business ideas” thing to some back burner agenda.

     But guess what? (Yes, you knew this was coming, right?) There couldn’t be a better time to get your brain focused on making more of your imagination. While others are racing around trying to jam in end-of-year sales orders, and still others take vacation time, ACT BOLDLY!

DO AN “O.I.S.T.T.T.”

(Now! This Week!)

     Take 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 of your top people on an “Overnight Imagination Stimulation Think Tank Trip.” Build in a side visit or two for some gift-shopping along the way.

     Here, Try This:

1) Take your Team to breakfast and give them a pep talk. Then give them each some spending allowance or discount deals you work out for special shopping spots along the way to a special meeting destination (Cheap, good dollar-value deals are available everywhere right now!). Maybe offer an extra “Family Day” off to each for Christmas or New Year’s use? 

2) Then bus or limo the whole group to some mountain cabin hideaway, or some fantastic meeting center/resort kind of place. My personal recommendation for those in the Northeast… NY / NJ / PA / DE / CT / MA:  www.InterlakenInn.com because I’ve run dozens of “Escape” meetings there and can vouch for what a super place it is (and I just called them to check, and they assure me they’ll work with your budget).

Bottom Line: You won’t believe how much good the overnight “brainstorming” trip will do for your business (AND your Team!).

3) Imagination will flow from the first cup of coffee to the last, then you have some time left over to evaluate and assess the ideas, and determine the directions and steps to take.

4) POOF! You will start out the new year on the run, ahead of the pack, and with increased commitment and loyalty from your top Team, because they will be part of the action from the git-go.  

Assuming now that you might be serious about wanting to put some truly creative leadership to work, and you’re willing to test your mettle (and your braintrust) as to how spontaneous you can all be (because you realize that SOMETHING powerful has to happen with your business SOON), then check each of these quick blog posts on related subjects:

http://bit.ly/6VFJHL  ~~~ INNOVATING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING (“Has Your Brain Been Thunder-Struck?”)

http://bit.ly/85FlLC  ~~~ 5 WAYS TO BREED INNOVATION (“It Doesn’t Fall From The Sky … Innovation Needs Ignition!”)

http://bit.ly/5358lq ~~~ BEAT THE RECESSION WITH IMAGINATION (“Entrepreneurs Are Imagination Junkies”) 

 MY PROMISE:

THIS (PERHAPS RISKY-FEELING) SUGGESTION WILL POSITIVELY PRODUCE THE MISSING INGREDIENTS YOU NEED TO SKY-ROCKET YOUR BUSINESS INTO THE NEW YEAR!

(Or, if doubts and excuses get in the way, call me at 302.933.0116 to arrange a free how-to, same or next-day consulting session!)

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Product/Service Knowledge

Does Not A Sales Star Make!

     What makes entrepreneurs and sales professionals successful is having the ability to go waaay beyond the point of just knowing about the products and services they represent.

     It takes a very rare “geek,” for example (e.g., Bill Gates, Steve Jobs), to be able to come up out of the techie hole and have a clear vision of everything else that surrounds her or him.

     I’m not suggesting the need to be an expert at everything, but to instead appreciate and value what’s there (in your market, in your industry, in your universe), and know when to call on (and how to manage) others’ skills.  

     This “failure shortcoming” is unfortunately not something that’s easily adjustable because it’s more a product of the system than of the individual. It is the single greatest failing of academia that students are rarely if ever taught how to use what they’ve been taught to know.

     While touching on our misguided educational system, I should add that the best college for successful business career preparation (besides the proverbial “school of hard knocks”) is the one that fosters student internship and cooperative education programs and/or real-life experience opportunities. A taste of reality always beats none.

It is the single greatest failing of academia that students are rarely if ever taught how to use what they’ve been taught to know.”

     Why should this matter? Having a single purpose and collective goals is one thing, but no business is successful that is run with closed-minded fantasy-land controls. Product / service knowledge is just one part of the success equation. Having the vision and organization skills to apply that knowledge is what counts.

     No sales professional has ever made it on having total command alone of her or his company product or service features. No one “buys” features. Buyers may justify their purchases by itemizing features, but what makes the sale are emotional triggers to benefits. Product and service knowledge can only serve as the launchpad for those triggers. 

     What are the answers? I believe they vary with each set of circumstances, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers … BUT:

     I CAN tell you that if you and your sales message have been heavily focused on what goes into a product or service and how it’s made, and you see all the guys down in the trenches (the scientist /technician / analyst types) smiling up at you and nodding agreement, you need to adjust what you’re communicating to the rest of the world!

     Like the dentist ads promoting mucosal blade inserts, which would only have a recognition factor and be a point of interest among other dentists, many businesses go down the tubes grasping for receptivity to jargon that only they and a handful of staff (and competitive!) “experts” understand.

     Real Business “Power”— the Power of entrepreneurial and sales success, comes not from merely knowing — comes from knowing who, how, when, and where to put the knowledge that you have to work.    

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