C’mon . . .When was the last

time you ever remember 

in your whole entire life

having a “trillion”

of ANYthing????  

Have you been listening to all the politicians talk about budget-slashing? They must be kidding!

Hey, it’s definitely no joke the economic mess we’re in. And TRUTH? Truth is -no matter who says what– truth is that we’ve got to live with it all for at least another three years. It’ll take a year and a half or more just for the new White House to undo the reckless spending tangle that the great “Hope and Change” hero created.

Business Owners Beware!

If you own a business and you’re not already working at unseating the socialism plague that’s practically brought you to your knees, you must be part of that crowd that thinks it understands “trillions.” I just read somewhere that a million dollars a day every day since Jesus died wouldn’t even add up to close to a trillion dollars.

The deal is that you must protect your budget without tearing it out by the roots. Oh wait, that’s your hair. Well, the thing is that if your business budget isn’t bare bones yet, you may already be out of hair and roots!

Here’s an example of spending priorities

that smart business owners must consider:

• MARKETING — You should be spending money for a professional marketing or branding writer to create your sales messages, but you should NOT be spending money needlessly to get your messages out.

Maybe that sounds like a “Catch 22”? It’s not. There are plenty of ways to reach your target market effectively for free, but you’d better be saying something worthy of capturing attention, creating interest, stimulating desire, and bringing about action and satisfaction, or get back to your budget board and start all over!

• OVERHEAD — Of course you have to pay the mortgage or the rent, but can you sublet part or all the space to a business that operates when yours doesn’t? Many instructional program businesses operate in evening or weekend hours. Do you have extra space you don’t need that you can separate from your workspace?

A lumberyard office building barters one small corner of space to a moonlighting graphic designer who provides the lumber company with free brochure and flyer designs in exchange for the space, electricity, and computer hookup.

• PAYROLL —Maybe space-sharing’s not practical, but what about sharing people? A centralized reception area and receptionist can save two or three or four businesses money and afford to hire a hard-working quality employee.

There’s much to be said for the old entrepreneurial “incubator” days, where all kinds of services and workspaces were shared. These included common area receptionists, centralized booked-time conference rooms, cleaning supplies and maintenance services, delivery and fuel costs, security systems, office supplies. If you can think it, try it!

• PROFESSIONAL SERVICES — When did you ever meet an accountant or lawyer or consultant or creative service person who wouldn’t be please to offer a discount for two, two, two clients in one? (Oh, that was “mints”? Sorry.)  

This kind of arrangement is especially win-win when common elements or interests prevail. Adjoining physical therapy and occupational therapy offices that both require similar electronic medical forms maintenance for insurance coverage reimbursements. A publisher and designer who both need a copyright lawyer.

Dig out your imagination here. Do the railroad track warning thing: STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN. Look around at what you’re doing from the standpoint of sharing, bartering, co-sponsoring . . . and maybe you too can “slash a trillion” or so!

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Kids are

the world’s greatest

salespeople because

they know how to 

paint a verbal picture 

. . . and put you in it!

When’s the last time you took business advice from a single-digit-aged kid? Every small business owner, operator, manager, entrepreneur, and sales professional should have to do this at least once a month, even for a ten-minute long crash course.

Ask someone under ten years old to tell you why she or he likes something. Then listen. Ask questions but only for clarification. Odds are pretty good that you’ll end up inside that child’s verbal description of a thing, a place, or an event. You’ll get there by your own choice and you’ll enjoy the experience.

Those of you who are Mothers (or Mr. Mom’s) know all about the pearls-of-wisdom-from-the-mouths-of-babes thing, but in case you’re not, or don’t, don’t think for a minute that you haven’t time to waste with such foolishness.

Innovative business empires have been built on ideas and messages that have come from listening to children.

Children —and generally the younger the better– are less inhibited, have far fewer fears, and fewer feelings of self-importance. They may fantasize. They may not seem very realistic about things like money or distance or amounts or sizing up people or situations, but they speak the truth.

And they are passionate.

And they know how to

paint a verbal picture.

And they won’t hesitate to tell you

all the things you need to know

that no one else will tell you.

You will gain value from a child’s perspective.

His or her viewpoint, remember is looking up under your chin and your belly, and inside your nose. Put your new product, or a photo or video clip of it on the table in front of the nearest 8-year-old and ask what she or he thinks it is. Ask what it does, how it works, who would use it, why, when, where, how?

It’s a service? Simplify your explanation of it and see what you get back. Offer and ask for examples and comparisons. Does he or she if the product or service would be a good or bad thing . . . and why?

Tou’re looking to save your business money? What better deal can you make than to get an outpouring of honest, unbiased opinions about your business or business ventures for the price of an ice cream or hot dog, or a trip to the circus or a walk on the beach or through the park?

On top of all that, you’ll get a firsthand booster shot of salesmanship. Maybe you forgot about how important energy and enthusiasm are, or the importance of painting a mental picture with words, and walking a customer into it. Hmm?              

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302.933.0116     Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone

Thanks, Angela Current www.ClassicResumes.com, for today’s topic

PUT AN “X” THROUGH IT!

It’s never easy to balance two large critical chunks of your daily existence –like your work and your exercise– without experiencing some feelings of inadequacy, and wondering if you’re cheating yourself.

Why can’t I make both of these things work? What do I have to do to make both pieces fit my daily timeline? Life is no longer feeling like a series of opportunity windows . . . it’s more like locking and unlocking prison gates. HELP!

There are no magic-trick answers. What there is, is discipline. And self-imposed discipline is the hardest to follow. Grumble though we may, it’s almost always easier to follow someone else’s schedule of discipline.

“Your report is needed for a 3pm meeting,” says the boss. “Two more laps around the track!” yells the coach. “Parade Rest!” orders the CO. 

Ah, but all of those external discipline situations include real or imagined consequences for failure.

So?

You’re saying you can only perform when there’s a perceived threat involved?

Maybe you need a shrink?

You use self-discipline to get through every hour of every day. It’s called living a mature and responsible life. What you make of your self-imposed discipline is what draws the line in the sand between your existence and productivity and achievements, and the existence, productivity, and achievements of others

If you’re an extremist, you might be choosing three hours a day, seven days a week, of pumping iron. This can of course severely cut into any kind of reasonable work schedule, and this is not even to mention the time that must be used to be selecting, preparing, and eating the specialized diet that needs to accompany such a commitment.

But hopefully you’ve figured out how to harness your compulsiveness by combining interests — by running or managing a gym, or functioning as a personal trainer or exercise physiologist or physical therapist, or perhaps by being a professional or Olympic athlete.

Now this may be an even bigger stretch, but let’s assume instead that you are fairly “normal” (HA! and you’re reading this?)

Okay, you’re a typical entrepreneur who’s preoccupied with making your business idea work; you put in longer business hours than most of your friends and family.

And you’re trying to maintain a reasonable exercise schedule, right?

As with anything in life, success doesn’t drop from the sky. You must apply yourself. In this case, you must set up your own disciplined approach to doing the kinds and amounts of exercise that you believe you need (or that a healthcare professional has prescribed), and commit your mind and attitude to working around that!

Put exercise times down on your calendar for every day you decide you need to exercise.

Pick times (usually best kept consistent from day to day) that do not interfere with essential work hours. For most, early mornings fit best; some prefer early evenings (late evenings are not generally recommended by professionals); others use their lunchtimes to exercise, and nibble healthy snacks throughout the day rather than sit-down lunches.

Some set flex schedules.

The point is that once you choose the times, record them on your daily calendar — put an X through the time slots involved.

Then work everything else in your life around those X’s.

Unless it’s an emergency situation, simply elect to not schedule any meetings or conference calls in those X-boxed times.

Make excuses if need be, but protect those Xs because they are indicators of investment you are smartly choosing to make in your SELF. No one but you can do this. And no one but you can make it work. Reinforce your X hours by watching and/or listening to motivational programs. And keep marking your calendar, always  a month in advance.

Oh, by the way, when you’re occasionally forced to miss an Xd-out time block, don’t torture yourself. Make it up as best you can, when you can. It’s not the end of the world. It’s an opportunity to make adjustments.

# # #

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

We humans are “suckers”!

No? Well, here’s

what we buy:

•  Good-looking women

• Good-looking men

• Good-looking children

• Cute babies

• Especially ugly men, women, children, and babies

• Puppies (any kind)

• Red,white, and blue (still the top colors in America!)

• Repetition of messages, including colors, designs, images, and fonts

• Love stories

• The promise of love, suggestive or otherwise

• The promise of sex, suggestive or otherwise

• Music (all kinds – there’s something for everyone)

• The promise of svelteness, muscles, physical strength

• The emotionally-satisfying images associated with brand names

• Taste

• Smell

• Softness

•  Ruggedness

• Good feelings

• Happiness

• The promise of happiness

• Wealth

• The promise of wealth

• Security

• The promise of security

• Relaxation

• Discovery

• Endorsements (especially from celebrities, and “regular” people

• Opportunity

• Time savings, speed, access

• Responsibility

• Praise

• Convenience

• Sports and entertainment

• Food and beverages

• Preservation of resources

• Health and the promise of health (physical, mental, emotional)

Do you see anything here that looks like logic? Rationality? Objectivity? Product and service features? Warranties? Guarantees? Reasoned sensibility?

Of course not! UN-emotional, logical, rational types of appeals are only used by buyers to JUSTIFY their purchases!

All purchase decisions (even those that appear on the surface to be rational ones are emotionally-triggered. Because people buy benefits!

And nothing on Earth has proven ability to trigger emotions as effectively as words. Because good sales words keep it simple! Because words explain benefits!

How much attention does your business pay to the words it uses? How much do the words you use answer the question every consumer has:

“What’s in it for me?”  

Is your branding message as concise, meaningful, and emotionally-triggering as it can be. Does it emphasize benefits instead of features?

Does it attract attention, create interest, stimulate desire, bring about action, provide satisfaction?

And does it do all that in seven words or less?

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

$200 Fill-ups?

No joke, business owners!

Obama pushes for $8 a gallon.

Do the math. 

Unable to succeed at squashing America’s entrepreneurial spirit and controlling small businesses and professional practices –though certainly not for lack of trying– the Obama Administration is now making the biggest mistake of its (hopefully half-over with) life.

Mr. Obama is quietly seeking to drive the price of gas to

$8 per gallon.

Average gas tank capacity means that

a fill-up will cost $200!

Crushing not only the travel freedom of the general public, $8 per gallon gas rates will put many of America’s 30 million small businesses out of business. Imagine the financial paralysis that will set in when shipping and delivery costs are doubled.

Who could think the skyrocketing fares of air travel, air cargo, taxicabs, buses, and every conceivable type of personal and commercial truck shipment will not drastically impact small business and professional practices.

Do we even want to consider the impact

on emergency services expenses?

Why, you might ask, would anyone (let alone Mr. Obama) be looking to undermine even further the only real opportunity that exists to restore health to America’s economy: small business job creation?

See if you can follow this path of crooked reasoning exposed in last night’s Washington Times Editorial. Here are some excerpts:

A perfect storm of foreign and domestic policy choices by the Obama Administration has paved the way for European-style energy prices to arrive on these shores. Far from being alarmed, President Obama sees the prospect of $8 a gallon gas as an opportunity.

When it comes to energy, the White House has sought to augment government controls to prevent the “long-term threat of climate change, which if left unchecked could result in violent conflict, terrible storms, shrinking coastlines and irreversible catastrophe,” in Mr. Obama’s words. Making energy more expensive is exactly what the administration’s “cap and trade” scheme is meant to do.

The theory is that pricier power will be used more frugally, which in turn will appease Mother Earth into blessing us with cooler weather. Mr. Obama expressed the same outlook in May when – with oil at $61 a barrel – he signed a memorandum dictating to automakers the kinds of cars they will be allowed to sell. At the time, Mr. Obama noted with trepidation, “The impetus for action would fade when gas prices started to go back down.”

It’s not possible for domestic production to relieve the pressure from international uncertainty. Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats have blocked drilling in places like Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in millions of acres of federal lands and in offshore locations. Mr. Obama even took advantage of the BP oil disaster to shut down operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr. Obama points to the small amount of oil currently produced at home to conclude, “We can’t drill our way out of the problem.” That’s only a true statement as long as the current policies place 67 percent of America’s reserves off-limits.

The events unfolding in Egypt, Libya and throughout the Middle East are beyond American control but not outside our influence. Fear and uncertainty drive oil prices higher, and Mr. Obama has done nothing to restore confidence that the United States will act firmly to promote stability in the region.

Instead of addressing these concerns openly, pledging support for the remaining U.S. allies or deploying military assets to show that this country will not allow an interruption in the flow of goods through the Suez Canal, Mr. Obama has calibrated his tepid response to ensure no Muslim mob is offended.

We’re now paying the price for weak leadership, but it’s about more than just paying a few bucks more at the local Chevron station. Every product and service depends on the price of oil and the price of electricity. The vast majority of goods hit the shelves after being transported by aircraft, ships and trucks powered by fossil fuels.

That’s why, as economists note, there is a direct correlation between the number of miles vehicles travel in a year and the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Unless there’s an immediate U-turn in the domestic and international agenda, we’re headed for rough economic times.

BOTTOM LINE: Should stampeding gas price increases be a concern of small businesses and professional practices?

If you’re not sure, I respectfully suggest you consider re-reading the nine excerpted paragraphs above.

If you disagree, you are surely a few quarts low on entrepreneurial spirit, or you are so rich that a couple of thousand extra dollars a month to keep your gas tank filled makes no difference.

If you agree, remember there’s strength in numbers, and there are 30 million of us.

Well? 

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

When you finally slow down for

(or from) the weekend,

DEFRAGMENT!

No need to explain why. You already know all the economy, industry or profession, marketplace and competition reasons.

So let’s get to the heart of it. Use this slow-down-time period to step back, adjust your glasses, put your hands on your hips, stretch, yawn, take some deep breaths, and defragment — put all the pieces out on the table.

Start with your business . . .

What’s been going on these past few months? Weeks? Where’s your business now, and where’s it headed?

~~FINANCES?

Management? Strategies?  Communications? Budgets? Investors? A/R? A/P? Cash flow? Payroll? Other overhead? Reimbursements? Taxes? Revenues? Charitable donations? Profits? Accounting systems? Bookkeeping services? Add your own here: _____________________  

~~OPERATIONS?

Management? Strategies? Communications? Equipment? Supplies? Storage? Shipping? Inventory? Warehousing? Operating systems? Work flow? Scheduling? Purchasing? Leases? Legal actions? IT? Add your own here: _______  _________________________________   

~~MARKETING?

Management? Strategies? Communications? Branding? Sales? (Yes, sales is a function of marketing.) Public and community and investor and industry relations (Also all marketing functions, including news releases, special events, blogs, BUZZ)? Advertising (another function of marketing, including online, traditional and direct media . . . as well as the creation and production of all of it) Pricing? Packaging? Promotion? Merchandising? Social media? Add your own here: _____________________________  

~~HUMAN RESOURCES?

Management? Strategies? Communications? Benefit programs? Customer Service? Referral values? Recruitment? Hiring and firing? leadership, teamwork and skills development training? Performance incentives? Motivational programs? Add your own here: _____________________________

[So you noticed those 3 primary targets for each category, huh? Well, in my experience, poor management, poor (or no) strategies, and poor communications have consistently been the primary reasons for business failure!]

That should give you a place to start. When you’ve exhausted your business thinking, switch gears to your SELF.

What’s been going on these past few months/weeks  with YOU? Where are you now, and where are you headed?

~~HEALTH & FITNESS?

Are you squeezing in enough exercise every week to keep yourself in decent shape? You need not lift or jog for three hours a day and eat powered protein shakes with 37 raw eggs for breakfast in order to stay physically fit.

Many experts say 3 hours a week of brisk walking and avoiding overdoses of red meat and fatty foods will suffice for most people with busy schedules. Are you getting routine medical and dental health checkups as recommended? What do you need to do to motivate yourself in these directions?  

~~FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS

Are you spending enough quality time with children, parents, spouse or significant other and (get your finger out of your throat!) your in-laws? How can you combine some time-consumers more productively? Walk with family members or friends. Partner up for health tests (easier to deal with when you have company).

Get serious about sharing healthy food preparation ideas, recipes, and meals. Small specialty of handmade gifts and handwritten thank you notes work wonders as relationship cement. Add your own ideas here: ____________________

~~SELF-EXPRESSION, SELF-AWARENESS & SELF-DEVELOPMENT

Surely you know what you need to do in these categories to defragment yourselfand move forward with the adventures in creative expression and self and academic learning that you’ve always wanted to fit into your life, but never chose to make the room for. Now’s your chance to choose, and blame it on me!

The more you can learn about yourself, the better you’ll be as a leader and coach and role model . . . the better prepared you’ll be to inspire and motivate others to productivity and peak performances. Choose to make yourself make room for this. 

Weekend time slow-down periods are the perfect times to reevaluate and make commitments to yourself.

No, not token promises that never happen. Get serious here for a minute.

You have only one life, and the rest of it starts the minute you leave this blog post, so how about making the rest of your life make the kind of difference you’ve only ever dreamed of?

Hey, what’s to lose by trying?

 # # # 

www.TheWriterWorks.com

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Is what you’re doing

right this very minute

taking you to where

you want to go?

You run your own business, or a number of businesses. You know who you are. You know you’re an entrepreneur but you don’r readily admit it. (Why? Maybe it just sounds too fancy-pants?) Anyway, what matters right now is that you step back for the couple of minutes it takes to read this, and pat yourself on the back!

What’s the backpat for? You deserve to appreciate yourself for believing in yourself. And you should probably get a medal for keeping your ego in check enough to engage the “missing ingredient” help you need from those with the expertise to excel at the tasks you never mastered.

You haven’t been squirreled away this winter assessing your past business moves and decisions and carefully figuring your next game-plan strategy for the rest of 2011. 

I know this because I know if you are truly the stuff entrepreneurs are made of, these are things you ordinarily do weekly, if not daily or hourly. 

While others (government agencies and corporate types) are racking their brains with strategic planning exercises, you are just charging ahead — testing and trying new ideas and new twists on old ideas. You do this trial and error thing all year long because there’s just not enough time to take your advisory board on a retreat weekend, or lock up in some hotel room for days of chit-chat. 

That’s time that could be spent doing stuff, right?   

In fact, odds are you hate to think about or planning anything farther out than about 60-90 days. You prefer not thinking past 30! And you’d rather get in and out of a convenience store with breakfast to eat while you drive than sit down in a restaurant for more than 15 minutes, or –unless you’ve a home-based business– have to gulp coffee ‘n egg sandwich at home and then waste time cleaning up! 

Shopping trips you actually enjoy are probably limited to Staples, Office Max, Lowes, and Home Depot. I say all this just to let you know I get it. I got it. And, you, as independent a cuss as you may be, are not –surprise!– alone. I’ve been working with entrepreneurial whack-o’s like you most of my life because I love the challenge, high energy, enthusiasm, and turn-on-a-dime response level.

What’s important to know is that YOU,

and others who fit chunks of this profile

I’ve outlined, are the catalysts in society

that in fact make the world go around. 

If it was not for you and other dreamer/doers we would surely no longer be a (at least partly) civilized nation on this fragile planet. There simply would be no industry or marketplace or culture or technology to speak of.

Now with all this positive fluff floating around, it’s also important that –to be and remain successful– you maintain a balance with reality. This means you need to be forever vigilant about  recognizing one extremely critical entrepreneurial business factor. 

The foundation of your business rests squarely on shifting sands, and the stability of your enterprise is only as strong as your ability to remain flexible enough to shift when the sands shift. 

Those who entrench themselves thrive only in corporate environments that lack this balance and awareness. And you can only maintain your own ability to go with the flow by staying focused on which ways the moving targets move. 

Is what you’re doing right now with your business growth, development, and presentation of itself (how it communicates its messages) keeping a step ahead of the pace within the universe of business you’ve chosen? 

In other words: Are you making the best possible, most-in-demand kinds of (for example) pizzas, with the best possible ingredients, for the market you most want to capture? Are you presenting them at the price and service level that will usher in the sales you need to generate the profits you want? What do you need to do differently?  

REMEMBER:  Shifting sands work just fine when you’ve got a four-wheel drive vehicle, can deflate and inflate your tires according to how packed the surface is, have a couple of pieces of planking with you in case you get stuck, and are constantly monitoring wind, tide and precipitation (where appropriate), temperature and other weather conditions.

Stay alert.  Don’t get hurt.  Build bridges, but don’t burn them.  Make sure the risks you take are “REASONABLE.”  Always imagine a “worst case scenario” before you act. 

Your energy and the people around you in your life are your most important assets. 

Protect them by keeping on top of your stress, not under it!

~~~~~~~~

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“But my sister

(substitute any relative here)

designed it!”

Besides the name, probably the single most important outbound marketing tool any business or professional practice can have is that little mark known as a logo.

A logo may or may not be, or may or may not include, the actual name. That single (seemingly insignificant to many) identifying mark or symbol is what consumes the first tick of the first second of the first ten seconds. It’s what makes or breaks a sale, determines receptivity, and sets the stage for the next step of doing business.

Your logo is your spotlight.

It attracts attention, creates interest, and shows the way to the second second of the first ten seconds (and you already know there’s no second first impression!).

What? You want research? Research this: When was the last time you EVER passed-over looking at a business card logo before reading anything else on the card?

What’s the last ad or website you looked at that you just turned your head away from when the logo popped into the corner of your eye? Think about the logos you remember. Odds are they tell a whole story.

“SWOOSH!” I say to you. That’s it. Just “SWOOSH!” And guess what? You can instantly visualize the logo, and the brand name, and can probably offer some experience with the product. How about a “Golden Arch” or a “Red and White Target”?

“But,” you might say, “but I don’t have a spare hundred million bucks to establish my brand and make my logo a household symbol.” So, should we understand that to mean it’s not worth the effort, that hot-shot logos are just for the big boys?

Okay, here we are, right at the very spot where many entrepreneurs drop the ball on the one-yard line.

A great logo identity is worth a great effort!

Notice, I said “great logo identity,” not “great logo design.” Some of the most beautiful logo designs in the world are NO GO LOGO failures because they fail to communicate anything of substance about the business or professional practice they’re created to represent.

If you can even imagine this:

I’ve seen a bloody in-surgery photograph of someone’s stomach serving as a logo for a doctor of gastroenterology that surely made most people throw up (maybe that was the idea. Hmmmm, throw up, stomach doctor. I get it!)

…or how about a high-energy exercise program logo with the drawing of a sleeping baby? (a bit of a stretch there, y’think?)

Patriotism? Sure, an orange line through a gray shadow for a company doing business with the U.S. Military? (Uh, what happened to red, white, and blue?)

Weirdness? Can you figure what a propped-up tree inside of a crescent moon has to do with orthopedic surgeons?

I’m quite certain you can add substantially to this list just by leafing through your local yellow pages or that stack of business cards in your desk drawer. 

The point is that while many business and professional practice owners manage to find a need and fill it, and work their brains off building their businesses, they miss the opportunity to make the most of their own business identities. Many pawn off their logo design work to the nearest (or pushiest) relative with a C+ in commercial art 101.

Others let (choose to have) someone sell them on using a riveting design of something that has nothing to do with the business or the message that needs to be communicated. Don’t let either of these things happen.

It’s your business. It’s your identity. You will have to live with it for a long time. Make it work for you. Take a pass on relatives, well-meaning staff, your local print shop, your high school art teacher-neighbor, and –almost always– your self!

Find someone who specializes in branding. It’s worth the investment to do it right. Then, there’s that apple with the bite out of it . . .

~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Overkill business efforts breed failure . . .

LIKE GREAT MARKETING,

GREAT LEADERSHIP

 DOESN’T TRY FOR A 

HOME RUN EVERY AT-BAT

The best creative marketing talent, plans, and campaigns — and the world’s greatest leaders — are born and inspired not by blood, sweat, tears, and insanely long hours, but by focus.

By adjusting the camera or rifle lens, the stage spotlights, the binoculars, the telescope, the magnifying glass, the microscope, and computerized zoom controls, we increase our visual focus for a moment, a few moments, maybe a few hours.

We do the same by adjusting volume, speaker, bass and treble, balance and other media controls to focus our hearing.

Ongoing mental focus, such as that which is evident in literally every leadership or creative marketing performance, is driven by adjusting and channeling powers of concentration.

It is not the product of (pay attention exam-cramming students!) working deliriously through the night, night after night.

Neither is it the product of entertaining others with razzmatazz and razzle-dazzle. (My father used to say, “Don’t give me a song and dance routine; just answer the question!” My father would have made a good Judge Judy.)

Most assuredly, great leadership and great marketing are not the results of political smoke and mirror acts that we see routinely practiced in virtually every local, state, and (especially) federal government-based and corporate giant-based entity in existence. 

Having a true focus means we can “see” and are aware of the actions and influences on the periphery of our focus targets, but that our minds are keenly tuned to the point of what we’re aiming for.

That demands concentration, but it is not necessarily “hard work.” It is what you choose it to be. And ease comes with practice.

Practice? Like what?

• You’re in New York City? Go sit in the middle of Grand Central Station at rush hour and write a three-page essay about your own leadership challenges and abilities.
• You’re in Delaware? Go sit in the middle of a 1,000-chicken chicken coop and read and digest and summarize two articles on industry issues that affect your business. (No ear plugs allowed. Oh, and I hope you like feathers!)
• You’re in Chicago? 1) Get as close as you legally can to O’Hare Airport (Car windows open! Chilly, huh? Dress warm. Bring coffee.) 2) Read and answer three days’ worth of emails on your plugged-in laptop.
• You’re in San Francisco? (What are you doing there?) Hop on the trolley to Fisherman’s Wharf at lunchtime and –while on the trolley– write (yes, with pen and paper) your own obituary (Now THAT’s an exercise that takes concentration!)
• You’re in Hawaii? Well, we all know about those cliffs over the ocean, and waterfalls, and . . . okay, you’re not reading this anyway. Aloha to you too!  

You get the idea. Challenge yourself (and remember to breathe)

Here’s the bottom line: Wherever you are, if you’re serious about wanting to radically improve your leadership and creative marketing skills, spend more energy learning how to concentrate and focus.

Uh, you DO remember The Karate Kid movies? Well, pay more attention to yourself and stop trying so hard. Working yourself into a frenzy with busyness that you think impresses others, doesn’t. All it does is blockade others by making you inaccessible to them.

If you’re actually trying to be inaccessible, you are not leader material, you will never be a creative marketing star, and you are probably best suited to run for political office or work in some government or corporate-giant dungeon for thirty years.

Hey, it’s your life! (And odds are pretty good that it will only happen once!) Do you really want to make a difference?

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www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!