DEAR BOSS:

What can the matter be?

Gallup Research says odds are that your

employees may be costing you a

lot more than you think.

How so?

Fewer than a third of employees , says Gallup, are “Actively Engaged” with their work! (Does that furrow your brow?)

And more than half are “Disengaged” from their work! One out of five is, in fact, Actively Disengaged! (Does that make you snort?)

If you think it’s not true, maybe it’s because some of your people are just good actors! (Does that make you applaud as the cash falls from your pockets?)

But guess what? YOU are the boss. YOU are responsible. You can delegate authority, but you canNOT delegate responsibility.

Bosses who try to “pass the buck” inevitably fail. Bosses, however, who accept full responsibility and who lead by leading instead of by telling, who make genuine ongoing efforts to create a bond with their employees are the ones who help ensure and foster active employee commitment and –in the process– help ensure and foster black ink on their organizations bottom line!

So where do you start?

You start with the decision to start. This is a typically easy and quick step. You either want to be a better leader or you don’t.

Assuming your screen-tapping fingers are still capable of the task, START with a WRITTEN-ON-PAPER-WITH-A-PEN goal of where you’d like to end up, and if your goal statement is ever to work, it MUST be:

Specific       Realistic      Flexible     Due-Dated

If you stick to working through this in any meaningful way and steer clear of attempting shortcuts, this is a typically hard and slow process. But don’t be discouraged, the harder you work at this, the better your odds for success.

Next, review your goal statement at least daily. Sometimes hourly is necessary. Change it as you open new doors, uncover new problems, discover new directions, meet new people, discover new techniques. Remember, a key criteria is flexibility . . . a sudden storm can quickly disrupt a leisurely canoe trip and force a change in direction. Unexpected removal of a roadblock can shorten and speed up a long drive. When you get this far, check out: HOW to make your goals work.

BUT

Believe it or not, don’t share your goals with anyone else who doesn’t also have written goals, or who isn’t working with you on a shared goal. Why? Many people are either consciously or unconsciously invested in seeing others around them who strive to succeed, become failures. Doubt this at your own peril.

Assuming you’ve kept your homework out of the dog’s mouth and actually done what you’ve accepted as necessary, and are getting into the swing of real handwritten-on-paper goals that are flexible, realistic, specific and due-dated, and that you are constantly upgrading them, and carrying them with you all the time and reviewing them as often as you check your wristwatch or smartphone messages, you need to start teaching your people to do the same thing for themselves.

Start them out with a deeeeep breath!

THAT process is a good beginning. But it can only start if YOU start!

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

     Go back 20, 50, 100 years! Surprise! The names and locations change, but the stories are mostly the same. It will be like missing a week of C-SPAN or THE BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL. Nothing Earth-shatteringly new goes on.

What will you do with

your time this year?

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US          931.854.0474

        I just re-discovered a Christmas ornament my 14-year-old grand- daughter Gwyn made . . . five years ago. The brightly painted piece of heart-shaped plywood is the stage for her blobby-marker-printed starstruck words. But where did you get those words? I asked. “I just thought them up in my head,”  she said.

HER WORDS ARE THE BEST WISDOM I CAN SHARE FOR 2016:

Life is a question. No person on earth is your enemy but you. You can’t decide what you’re born with, but you can decide how you end up.

Being happy is beyond a feeling. It’s a way of life.

Questions are endless but the only one answer is YOU.

You can dream without imagination, but you can’t dream without a belief.

You are who you are, and no one can stop you.

— Gwyn, Age 9

As you head into 2016 building your life and your business, do Gwyn’s words have as much “start the new year” clout for you?

Please let me know YOUR thoughts . . .

# # #

God Bless You One And All . . .

and HAPPY NEW YEAR To You!

 # # #

Are You Making A Difference?

‘

Until your life and career purposes are interwoven as one, you’re not

likely to be on the road of making a difference for yourself, or for others.

Making a difference may not always measure up to what others consider as success, but there’s little doubt that making the kind of difference in life that really matters requires determination, dedication, commitment, stick-to-it-ive-ness, and resolve.

Okay, you may say, that all sounds good, but what does it actually mean for me in my life, in my work?

It means that –no matter how or where you live, no matter what kind of work you do or career you are in or aspire to, making a true difference in life demands that you do the best you can possibly do, and then more… and that you never give up your pursuits no matter how many discouraging roadblocks block your path, no matter how many opinions cloud the intersections you come to, no matter how many temptations seem to reach out for you to change your path.

It means that –no matter how you feel when you wake up every morning, no matter how stressed or tired, you must remember that you are the only one who can carry your own torch, who can take steps every day on your own behalf by doing what you do best for others… family, friends, co-workers, partners, customers, clients, patients, community, church, and –of course– pets!

Is this a diagram to study? No it’s simply a model from which to create your own diagram that fits your own life and career circumstances, but the model does represent the key ingredients most of us need to move forward with and toward on a daily basis to get where we want to go. The circular motion indicated is not to say we should run around in aimless circles; it is to say that this kind of flow awareness is what it takes to make things happen.

As Shakespeare’s Falstaff once said:

“Discretion is the better part of valor.”

In other words, let your daily pursuits be guided by good judgment. And perhaps the most important message to keep in mind — because it literally dictates everything else, every word and every action, is that every behavior is the result of a choice that we make or that we once made. So if everything we say and do today is a choice, then why choose to make things hard on yourself when you can just as easily choose to make them easy, including how and when you deal with others.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm

God Bless You and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!
hal@businessworks.US

WAKE  UP  AMERICA!

Reveillez-vous, les Etats-Unis!

An open letter to Republican presidential hopefuls

[Opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author, Hal Alpiar]

The Bible tells us that there is a time for everything. For America,
with the agony of Paris in our rearview mirror. . . that time is NOW!

As a lifelong small business coach and advocate, my perspective of economic recovery is borne of the fact that small business provides the underpinnings of a strong economy. By over-taxing, over-regulating, intervening and meddling with private enterprise, by discouraging innovation and job creation, by pretending to have entrepreneurship savvy, our government is killing our economy.

Is this a political stance? No. You undoubtedly know I speak reality because each of you has in one way or another already expressed this viewpoint. Clearly, they are indisputable facts.

So what’s the connection? You care about what just happened in Paris, or you wouldn’t have read past the first line. Government failure to grow the economy illustrates the same kind of purposeful ignorance —an inexcusable refusal— to confront the relentless reality of Islamic terrorism.

What, sadly, could be more proof positive than the ISIS violence than just showed its ugly face in Paris? You need to step up in a way that’s meaningful, that makes a difference. Solo speeches don’t cut it! It’s nice to express your feelings, but while speeches and interviews may win votes, they don’t win results.

Beyond any doubt, ISIS poses a real and serious and immediate threat to every American’s life, family, values, and community. So NOW is the time to act!

Here is my proposal for a rallying-cry

Action Plan strategy to imagine and think about:

Imagine that somehow each of you agrees to put aside your personal and campaign differences and your individual egos for the couple of hours it might take to join one another at the front gates of The White House (with only a last-minute tip-off to the media). Then, you request a spontaneous and urgent audience with Messrs. Obama and Biden and Kerry to make your collective points for urging immediate and specific action steps that need to be taken NOW:

1) Steps to preserve and protect America’s families and towns and cities NOW (not after the next election)!

2) Steps to lead promptly to the complete defeat of ISIS NOW (not after some other—closer-to-home—mass slaughter)!

This will require the politically-unthinkable of having to individually rise above the fray and put your personal agendas and commercialized candidacies on hold long enough to join in lockstep with each other – to demonstrate genuine leadership to those you aspire to represent and to the rest of the world.

Real leaders nurture and weigh the input of other leaders. In this case, by physically standing together (as you have on the debate stage) you will serve an important purpose by representing the concerns en masse of all American citizens.

In the possibility that Messrs. Obama, Biden and Kerry cannot or will not be available, that choice makes it clear to the public the inappropriateness and insensitivity of their priorities, and instead you can each deliver your 5-minute (UN-political) position statement to the media people who show up, while standing at The White House gates.

You will individually also benefit personally by keeping your focus on communicating action solutions (each perhaps taking 5 minutes).

Consider the range of positive impressions that can benefit each and all of you in this scenario. Though you shouldn’t need any added incentive, my best guess is that if this is done “correctly,” it will also serve to completely eliminate any Democratic candidacy in the minds of voters. You can then all be free to re-ignite your individual campaign efforts after making such an innovative and unprecedented effort.

And, hopefully, your unified appearance and purpose will produce some concrete actions and rallying-point results.

Just some thoughts I hope you will each consider.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!
hal@businessworks.US

Take a QUICK step back.

Take a DEEP breath. 

 Take stock of your SELF.

If your business is your life, you are obviously not in academia, not a corporate type, and not some government flunky. Only true entrepreneurs make their businesses their lives. And only true entrepreneurs need a crowbar to separate the two. This is good and bad. Good because you increase the odds that your business will succeed. Bad because–in the process–you increase the odds that you, the person, may not  succeed.

You need a “HOW GOES IT?” meeting

with your SELF — now, today, tonight, at

sunset, or tomorrow morning at sunrise!

You need to not make excuses for delaying it. At the rate government continues to ravage America’s 30 million small businesses, you cannot afford to go past this coming weekend. I know, I know, you have a family deal coming . . . you have to charge your iPad . . . your dog pushed you into stepping where you should have scooped . . . it’s your only chance to see  Lady Gaga . . . there’s a Shark Tank special . . . it’s year-end something or other . . .  it’s . . . STOP! Take some deep breaths.

This is not a half-baked suggestion to do some fancy inventory of your customers, branding program or finances, though it’s hard to do too much of that. This is an informal step-back-out-of-the-woods assessment point in time which successful entrepreneurs with healthy businesses make a habit of practicing every couple of months (at least quarterly).

• Start with a quiet place where you will not be interrupted for two hours by cell phones, radio or TV reception, machinery, other people or barking dogs. (Sunrises are great!) Walk on the beach, through the woods or in a quiet park . . . or just sit parked in your car, but –given today’s day and age– remember to not “look suspicious.” 😉 Bring a pen and notepad (NO keyboards or keypads!).

• Write down one single sentence that best describes where your business is right now. Follow that with another sentence that best describes where you are right now — physically, mentally, emotionally. Be honest. It’s just for your brain. No one else need ever see this piece of paper.

• Next , write one single sentence that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your business within the next six months. Follow that sentence with another one that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your SELF (physically, mentally, emotionally) within the next six months.

• Spend the next hour studying these four sentences and diagramming HOW (the process; the steps) you think you need to take to get from one to the other, and HOW you see them coming together or interdependent on one another. Then write down the three action steps you’re willing to take right now (AS you review your diagram) to get started moving from where you are to where you’re headed. Prioritize them.

_________________________

Two hours out of your life that will positively improve your life (and your business) and you just saved all that business consultant and psychotherapy money.

You can be your own best shrink! (Unless you choose to put off having a “HOW GOES IT?” session with yourself —  in which case, the couple a hundred bucks an hour fees will probably be a worthy investment.)

_________________________

P.S. When you get good at this process, start introducing it in your “big picture” work with employees and key customers. Everybody loves having the opportunity to participate in doing positive attitude-focused diagnostic workups and developing treatment plans aimed at improving work options and customer service performance.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

R  E  A  L   C  H  A  N  G  E

DOESN’T TAKE TIME.

IT JUST HAPPENS!

And the reason for such thought diversity between what small business represents and upholds, and the self-aggrandizing departure words of America’s Speaker of The House today has to do with the same reason small business has been under constant blindside attack by the government since 2008.

. . . our federal government is devotedly invested in management by consensus, where everyone involved must agree at least somewhat with every decision. This approach to problem-solving and getting things done has been religiously adhered to by all U.S. Government agencies. It has infiltrated the management behaviors of many if not most in funding-sponge academia, and in the upper ranks of many if not most failing lethargy-infested corporations.

Consensus-seeking management theory (like other “dead soldiers” e.g., Theory A and Theory Z and group hugs) might have solved problems and gotten things done decades ago in the “Hippy” years of the 1960s and 70s. But they simply do not work any longer in today’s world.

“Entrepreneurialism” and small business innovation –which thrive on maintaining a sense of urgency and taking REASONABLE risks– continue to be the true solution-directions that work. Yet they are consistently undermined by shortsighted government agencies that are relentlessly invested in maintaining the status quo.

Waiting for change instead of making change may have a place in history, but can no longer be tolerated as a modus operandi. There just is no time for such nonsense as waiting. ENTREPRENEURS ARE THE AGENTS OF CHANGE!

We live in a world of impatience.

Forward motion that plods

is backward motion.

When small business and entrepreneurs are punished with over-burdening taxes and unnecessary government rule and regulation intrusions designed to do nothing except further the cause of interventionist government in our lives, it proves itself more inadequate and less representative of the reasons it exists every day . . . in fact, every minute.

As the government continues to prove it’s own inadequacy, misguidance, and misdirection that have led to outright thievery of freedom, to outright undermining of our very economy (and knowing our economy is literally and unarguably dependent on small business growth and development), it is indeed time for change.

But REAL change–the kind that happens now, the kind that makes a difference, the kind that underscores the life/liberty/pursuit of happiness foundation of our country must be encouraged, not squashed, not stepped on, not bidden good riddance. It must be nurtured.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to get their heads out of the sand and stars long enough to realize their sand and stars are being eroded by slow, gradual, plodding change fostered by years of government intrusions and restrictions on small business growth and development.

It’s time to acknowledge that staying immersed in the sand and stars actually serves to allow, actually encourage and reward long-term politicking — politicking intentionally aimed at lining political pockets and underwriting meaningless wasteful programs that create greater business, family, and individual dependency. It does this by not paying attention to what’s swirling around the rest of you while your head is focused on business growth and development.

It’s easy to pick your pocket while you’re

bent over, star-gazing through a telescope.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners can no longer afford to feign ignorance or not take action . . . even if it’s simply speaking up and out more to others. Unless some changes happen quicker, our small business-dependent economy is destined for extinction. If you rent your workspace, there surely comes a time when you need to tell the landlord about a water leak or temperature control. Responsiveness is the entrepreneurial key to success. It’s time to step up to the plate and go to bat for CHANGE.

ADDENDUM EXCERPT FROM THIS BLOG (August, 2011 !):

It means taking just long enough to visit or write a couple of letters or emails to politicians about why you think small business matters. Take just enough time to support those who support your ideas about why small business matters. Why? Because small business does matter. And because it matters that we all step up!

Imagine the impact: 

THIRTY MILLION

(Estimated Total U.S. Small Business Owners)

visits and letters and emails calling attention to the economic recovery role of small business and why government must invest in small business –not with more wasted cash handouts– with tax incentives for innovation and tax incentives for job creation.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

And perhaps you thought “Whew! This is the end of the 30 Days.”

But guess what? It’s just the beginning of The New Economy . . .

Entrepreneurs,

it’s time to get moving!

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

The next 7 steps you need to take now. Now? Now!

Over the last 29 days, we’ve discussed the ways in which yesterday is over, and today’s markets are not the same as they’ll be tomorrow. You need to be ready to pivot.

If you haven’t yet, you must be ready to continually assess and adjust and re-position as conditions change. Success loves speed. That’s because the New Economy is knowledge-based, nimble, and driven by technology—with the Internet as its infrastructure.

Old rules don’t apply.

If you’re an entrepreneur in this environment, working alone is no way to navigate this wild frontier.

You need to plan for the unique challenges and issues you will face in all facets of your business – marketing & competitive analysis, sales, finances, vendors & sourcing, labor & management, training & employee development – not to mention how to balance your business drive with your personal life to achieve maximum performance.

If you are just beginning or partway down the path already, make sure you keep these 7 STEPS TO ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS on your mind and in your pocket:

• Define realistic objectives – Besides “realistic, make sure your goals are also specific, flexible, due-dated, and in writing (even if it’s simply on the back of an envelope) . . . keyboarding simply doesn’t cut it if you’re truly serious about pursuing your vision of the picture you mentally paint for your enterprise five or ten years from now.

Write down your realistic/flexible/specific/due-dated goals that will lead you to that vision. If you feel you’re not getting there, simply adjust something about your goals (due date, sales numbers, whatever). Being able to make goal adjustments is exactly why it’s important to keep them flexible. Just put your pen to the back of another envelope!

• Create hands-on strategic plans – have 90-day plans as well as a one-year plan. You can count on delays, screw-ups, people problems, government interventions, market changes, inopportune news events. Don’t trow away your plans. Just keep adjusting them. Let reality dictate.

• Employ winning entrepreneurship tactics – Figure out what’s working, what’s worked in your market. Master the art of permanent beta

• Work with all your critical stakeholders – customers, employees, vendors and investors . . . and especially customers! See problems as opportunities. Demonstrate your trustworthiness daily . . . people trust actions not words.

• Motivate employees to share your enthusiasm – share your vision and work in tandem with your people to help them create team goals.

• Take Care of Your SELF! – without your good health and well-being (including not taking yourself too seriously), even plans etched in stone will do you no good!

• Stay alert to new connections and new opportunities – but don’t “jump” at any of them for the sake of money alone, no matter your financial need. This is hard to understand when someone waves cash at you (and you’re living on peanut butter sandwiches) . . . until you’ve been swindled or until you discover that you’ve underestimated your budgeting. You may never fully understand the need hold back when you’re feeling broke. But it’s more likely than not to happen. If you’re not a world-class underwater combat swimmer, stay away from dreaming about Shark Tank! Reality, remember?

# # #

Watch for 30 More Days to the New Economy where

we look at today’s people and businesses that are crushing it.

In the meantime, come back next week to catch Hal’s newest small business, branding, marketing and entrepreneurship commentary

# # #

SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE . . . Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

EDUCATION and TRAINING

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

Over the last few weeks, we discussed the knowledge worker, the learning organization and human capital. All these concepts are built on this one essential tool which is the basic education and formalized training of yourself and your team.

“Real value” starts with solid foundational learning that begins almost at birth because there is so much to know, and we now finally know so much more about how we learn.

Real physical learning —beyond mother, father, sibling and caregiver learning— usually begins in preschool and is enhanced by formal elementary school or home school teaching of young children. By the time young teens enter high education, their paths are often clear.

In the U.S., as children grow into the teen years, the opportunities begin to splinter into specializations in the forms of publicly-funded magnet and alternative schools –and for those who can afford it, private schools– where education is usually more competitive and tracked toward certain university programs.

Some foundational learning can be had online but most still exists almost entirely in a physical setting or classroom building.

But, aha! Much university learning is moving more online which means that both the entrepreneur and his or her team may have specialized learning opportunities to be shared via a global online university.

Private, for-profit online universities often do not have the rigorous entry requirements of a physical university, but the coursework is comparable.

Ongoing adult learning is facilitated through the workplace, often supported by the workplace (or self-driven) using free, non-degree materials available through organizations online.

Nothing speaks more loudly about the way humans seek fulfillment and self-actualization than the proliferation of for-profit online universities, professionally sponsored educational forums and classes, and private businesses dedicated to providing educational products for personal and professional development.

Many private corporations (like the two examples cited below) have been paving the way in recent years with their own in-house proprietary universities:

• In Delaware — parented by BURRIS LOGISTICS the leader in refrigerated trucking services, BURRIS UNIVERSITY — uses community college facilities near its headquarters to teach courses on personal and professional development (including communication and motivation skills) to regular gatherings of managers from BURRIS offices nationwide.
• In New Jersey — 9-State commercial cleaning industry leader HEITS Building Services www.HEITS.com uses it’s own online HEITS UNIVERSITY curriculum to train and certify all employees in subjects like Eco-friendly customer care, bacterial health cleaning, regulation compliance cleaning and maintenance, and equipment and chemical safety . . . and to reinforce franchise owner coaching programs.

In a knowledge-based economy, workers are lifelong learners and achievers.

As an entrepreneur, you will be a lifelong learner absorbing massive amounts of information coming at you. Some of your education will be used just to give yourself and your organization the ability to sort and curate information coming at you in order to more effectively hone in on what’s relevant for driving your own business forward.

Take advantage of being an educated consumer of lifelong learning. That mindset allows you to intelligently filter and absorb the onslaught of information you need to be a true entrepreneurial leader, and to operate effectively in the New Economy.

# # #

C’mon back FRIDAY 10/16 for Day 29  —

ENTREPRENEURIAL HEALTH & WELLNESS. How’s yours?

# # #

SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE . . . Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!