Location Matters Most

to Doctors, Lawyers,

Retailers and Realtors!

Doctors want to be near the hospital or part of a medical complex, or healthcare campus because it’s good for their egos and reputations, professional camaraderie, and convenience in playing the referral game.

Lawyers want to be near the courthouse and close enough to other lawyers to spy on their practices in walking-distance coffee shops and upscale bar-restaurant gathering spots.

Realtors spout out:

“Location. Location. Location.”

(Yes, in three’s in case you missed the 1st or 2nd part of the mantra)

Why? It’s a nifty little subconscious control device for up-selling prospects on preferred (more expensive) commercial properties. Location emphasis also serves to set the stage for a realtor to paint a prettier picture, justify a bigger-than-planned-for client investment.

Actually, retailers (and certainly not all) are typically the only businesses that truly benefit by intensive location deliberations most of the time.

Online and home-based businesses, or manufacturing and distribution entities (that don’t require centralized supply route locales), most service industry ventures (that may need only to be within reasonable travel distance of prospects), can often function anywhere.

In fact, there’s a certain appealing ambiance and character associated with many off-the-beaten-track businesses. Maybe, since you’re an entrepreneurial thinker, you’re one of them?

I’m talking about out-of-the-mainstream locations in dinky little hamlets where you’d never even think of a security system, or trashy chain-link-fence-enclosed back alleys with double-bolted doors.

Maybe your business is holed up in the mountains of New Hampshire, a warehouse in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, the cornfields of Waterloo, Iowa, a tied-up rented barge in San Diego, a kitchen table in Dallas, or a dilapidated garage in the slums of Memphis.

But regardless of your location, there’s a self-satisfying feeling that the physical space where you do business is your place, and that you make it work.

If these kinds of places even come anywhere near close to your reality (and you’re still somehow managing to survive our catastrophic economy with still rising gas prices and still rising unemployment and a brutally expensive and unwanted healthcare program blocking  business progress), imagine the added burden of some hot-shot commercial realtor’s idea of a prime location you cannot do without.

Who needs the high-rise penthouse office space in mid-town Manhattan or the end unit of that corporate park overlooking the Chesapeake, the New England oceanfront office condo, or those slope-terraced deals with windows facing the Golden Gate Bridge?

Really? Yes, it might be a nice change, but that barn of yours, across two cow pastures, next to the henhouse, works just fine, makes sense, and saves money. Besides, it leaves you still qualifying as a prospect for Extreme Makeover! Hey, y’never know!

Home is where the heart is,

but so too is the office or workspace

of every entrepreneur.

Until this economy turns around (which may yet be another two years), reconsider relocation. Stay where you are. Stick to what you know best and most enjoy doing. Don’t worry about appearances. 

Don’t let outsiders influence you to think you need a bigger, better, more fancy-pants location. It’s not where you work that matters. It’s the passion and purpose you put into what you do each day.   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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

and God Bless all of our U.S. Troops and Veterans.

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

When expectations

breed disappointment

(and they always do!),

expectorate them!

Better yet, when you see planning start to cross that ever-so-thin line into expectations a little too often, you may want to consider working harder to not have any expectations to start with.

They overwhelm and underwhelm at the same time. They are the stuff that emotional upsets, frustrations, and another “ex” word –exasperations– are made of.

Dwelling on the past and worrying about the future are self-imposed, self-destruct avenues (sometimes “erringly” made into missions!). Herein lies the key to big-time sales! 

Most people can see that dwelling and worrying are not healthy pursuits that can lead quickly to far worse consequences than a headache. But few seem to realize that expectations can be just as damaging to one’s well-being.

Expectations can quickly lead us out of the present moment. Anything that takes our minds off of our work when we are at work and “on the job,” can be a genuine (and sometimes permanent, even all-pervasive) threat to productivity.

Lost productivity = Lost revenues = Lost profits.

. . . an increasingly difficult path to reverse

in an increasingly difficult economy.

Staying tuned-in to each passing “Here and Now” moment as it occurs may not always be easy, but it is always a choice. So why choose misery?

It’s been said that Einstein only used 10% of his brain. Where does that leave the restof us? Scientists further make a strong case for humans who could use 100% of their brains being able to separate molecules and walk through walls.

Hmmm, that conjures up a thought or two. Presumably, if we could live in the present moment every moment, we would never have illness or accidents.

Well, that sounds great, and knowing it’s a choice thing really rubs our noses in it, doesn’t it? But as truth will out, consider that being in the here-and-now as much as we possibly can, offers us greater protection from accidents and illness.

Imagine the implications and possibilities for business. For leadership. For teamwork. For building long-term business relationships?

I don’t know about you, but it seems (and, personally, has proven time and again) worth the effort to minimize expectations by increasing focus on the present moment. The potential rewards far outweigh the expenditure of effort.

Where to start? Try some of the direct links noted throughout this post, and punch words into the search window! Because they are generally more diligent and and constantly active than other senses, be aware that staying tuned-in has more to do with what you take in through your eyes and ears than anything else — except, most assuredly, your breathing. take some deep breaths.

Of course, suddenly smelling a dead skunk, or touching something hot or cold or sharp, or experiencing a great or foul taste can all have a jarring effect. But touch, smell, and taste generally need to be triggered for us to start paying attention. Bottom line: work at sharpening all of your senses.

Realize that you can stay alert without having expectations. You can anticipate without having expectations. You can be prepared without having expectations. And, get this: you can even expect something without having expectations! Give that one a little thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

931.854.0474 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!

Q. What if it walks like a duck

 and quacks like a duck, but 

 looks like a tyrannosaurus rex?

A. You’ve got trouble. . . 

right here in River City!

And if we’re talking about A~N~Y aspect of your business, you can be sure that your customers will have even bigger problems than you, which is not a good thing.

Take it from experience, the last thing you want is for your customers to be confused, because confusion doesn’t just cost you patronage; it costs you your reputation. All the good things you’ve done, and are doing, get flushed away with one jerk of the handle.

Anything that costs your reputation, costs you sales to existing customers, and costs you prospective customers too. Like winning sports teams, businesses that offer consistency succeed. Attitude consistency is paramount.

From McDonald’s to Charles Schwab, from Hershey’s to Microsoft, from Federal Express to Wal-Mart, consistency of products and services (and of innovation, operations, marketing and sales) is what puts businesses like these over the top.

Consistency doesn’t mean having inventories that collect dust or never trying new methods or line extensions, or always doing the exact same things in the exact same ways. Those are investments in maintaining the status quo — a boring and unhealthy practice.

Consistency means carrying integrity and leadership and customer service to the extreme every day of your life that your business exists. It means maintaining and nurturing one strong, simple, single image throughout all the ways you represent yourself to the rest of the world.

It doesn’t matter if some people don’t like your image or your message. What does matter is that your image and message is consistent and delivered consistently across the boards…in your advertising, marketing, promotional and PR efforts, online and off…all of the time, without exception.

You know that repetition sells.

Repetition sells.

Repetition sells.

Repeating what you do and the ways that you do it, over and over, is the best way to build and strengthen a loyal following. Ask any stage performer, producer, or director.

In that sense, you are no different. You are on your business stage every day (and often at night), and your performance (what you have to offer and the ways you offer it) is being judged by others all of the time, even when you’re not aware of having an audience. 

Look at it this way — you want to get in better physical shape, but can’t make that happen by eating ice cream, candy and fried foods,  drinking heavily and smoking cigars only on weekends and justifying it by taking a long walk on Sunday afternoon.

Like building a healthy life, building a healthy business is a full time commitment to consistency.

If your business walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, don’t make it something it’s not. Consistency sells.

# # #

 Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US        or comment below

Does YOUR business

fit this definition:

Agility: being marked by ready ability to move with quick, easy grace . . . having a quick, resourceful and adaptable character 

???????????

How does it fit or not fit?

No, this isn’t a quiz. No, you don’t have to turn in any papers. Yes, the two questions represent an important self-inventory that should help you determine the ability of your business to survive the next coming wave of lousy economy.

What? More is coming? Yes, and it will be worse than the last one, and yes (Don’t shoot the messenger!):  It is on the way now! 

Like forcing the captain to own up to his miscalculations, and make a rapid course correction to keep the ship from running straight into the cliffs rising up out of the fog, November 2nd gives America’s small business owners a window of opportunity for a mid-course correction.

It’s a chance to adjust the sails of business ignorance that have led our rudderless tax-and-spend economy deeper (almost to the point of no return) into this unemployment-earmarked deficit since November, 2008. 

Oh, excuse me, The Washington Post –alongside it’s recent full page’s worth of attention to Tiger Woods visiting the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School Learning Center he just donated (Imagine that!) and another full page’s worth of photos devoted to a new Supreme Court portrait (Say “Cheese!”)–continues to overtly underplay our near-catestrophic economy.

Juxtaposed with all their Tiger and The Supreme Court (sounds like a hip-hop group)fanfare, the paper devoted only small insignificant attention to “The U.S. shedded 95,000 jobs in September”  (“Shedded”?) and that “Foreclosed properties now comprise 1 in 4 homes sold in the U.S.”

But then, who could expect anything else from such an accomplished, erudite, award-winning editorial staff? Yet, priorities do seem a bit confused, you think?

The point is that the only way to fix the economy is with new jobs created by new entrepreneurial enterprises that have genuine tax incentives (not more meaningless, token, convoluted, SBA-channeled government gobbidly-gook “programs”).

Neither do we need any more bailout billions to be poured into giant self-serving, top-heavy corporations that create near-zero new jobs. 

Ah, and there’s all those wonderful government agencies sucking up taxpayer dollars for politically-inspired nonsense “jobs” that simply serve to compound and expand the deficit even more. Nothing productive is achieved, and none of it helps small business to help the economy.

So the worst case scenario is that November 2nd brings in RE-election of a Congress and Senate and State Governorships, and we suffer through another two years of record unemployment, hardship, bankruptcies, bad credit, and steadily declining dollar value.

Best case scenario for November 2nd, brings in a new wave of government (which will reverse the small-business-destructive Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda that advances ill-conceived initiatives for healthcare, cap and trade, immigration and more, which will literally cripple small business growth and job creation nationwide) . . . to restore balance to both our economy and our lives.

Even with that, it will be two more years of financial struggle to dig back out.

So hunker down. Foster and nurture agility! Exercise inspired leadership that promotes trust and takes action. Innovate. Innovate. Innovate. And focus every business breath on your customers. 

www.TWWsells.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!

When you attack

a person’s self,

there can be no resolve.

One of life’s hardest lessons for every business owner and every manager is to always criticize behavior, never the person at fault.                                                        

“I don’t like the way you handled that customer and here’s what I suggest . . .” is a lot more productive and easier to swallow than “You moron! Why did you send that customer to our competitor? I can’t believe you’re so stupid!”

The assumption here of course is that because you and/or your business is invested in every employee, it’s important to help keep those investments on track and growing.

Step ONE is to nurture and protect and ensure the individual human being that lives inside the employee facade or uniform. You will never achieve these ends when you are critical of the person.

It is indeed true that this process is not necessarily an easy one, particularly when you may be dealing with a hostile, or relatively incompetent individual, or someone who has just committed a colossal screw-up.

But keep reminding yourself that your behavior –as well as the one you criticize– are both the result of a conscious or unconscious choice.

You can, in other words, choose to make the situation a difficult, stressful and nonproductive one

. . . or choose for the approach and the outcome to produce a win-win for both parties 

But –again– if the employment investment is worth protecting, then you need to bite the bullet, take some deep breaths, and accept that your role must be as a calming influence, a patient and understanding teacher. Hand-holder? No! Warm, fuzzy pardoner? No! But not confrontational either.

Taking the middle road need not be a torturous trek. And, in fact, it can be a learning experience for both you and the person whose behavior you need to address. 

Look at the prospects of confronting some unwanted behavior as the unique opportunity it is to help a valued employee become more valuable and to notch off another credit level on your human relations resume.

Ask not WHY something occurred. Instead, focus the person involved with improving her or his process. Deal with WHAT can be done and keep it specific, and hand the problem-solving back to the problem-creator.

“What three things can you write down for me on  a piece of paper before you go to lunch that you think will be the best steps you can take to avoid this kind of behavior in the future?  

Oh, and keep the ALWAYS RULE in your back pocket: ALWAYS praise worthy employee behavior in public, and ALWAYS criticize unwanted or unworthy employee behavior in private.

Go to great lengths to insure this ALWAYS RULE and you will quickly gain or enhance the kind of reputation that will increase sales and business growth (yes, even in a bad economy!)

 # # #

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!

Let it rain on your parade.

You get wet??  So what??

Rain. In life, it comes from the sky. In business? It can come from anywhere and everywhere, any time. It’s the “anywhere, everywhere, any time” part that gives most business owners ulcers, right? 

At least when rain always comes from the sky, we can duck for cover, use umbrellas, pull up hoods, wear hats, and avoid getting our eyeballs pinged by looking up!

But have you noticed that whether it rains in real life, or it rains on your business parade, it never makes everybody happy all of the time? That of course exempts those of you who live in Seattle, San Francisco, Ireland, or one of those preserved rain forests where you simply go with the flow (no pun intended).

Anyway, there’s always either too much or 

not enough… Or am I just imaging things?

We’re either in a terrible draught and can only wash the car on alternate weekdays, or we’re hiding under the covers, quivering with each cloudburst, and bemoaning the juiced-up local TV weather person’s bug-eyed flash flood warnings.

Oh, and we certainly know about how “hard” it can rain. We’ve known since kiddiedom that “When it rains, it pours!”… and Bob Dylan warned us that a “hard rain’s a gonna fall.”

People complain there’s not enough business,

or that there’s too much business.

Oh. . . such killer problems!

(You think I’m making this up?)

How do you handle too much or too little business raining on yourparade? Do you drown yourself, just wallow around in the muckity mud, or do a “Singing in the rain” routine as you tap dance around the nearest light stanchion?  

How often do you ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen here?” Hopefully, that’s the leading question that pops into your rained-on brain just before every decision you make. Why? Because having a worst-case scenario in your mind provides a platform of reality for forward motion, and helps prevent surprise…which most entrepreneurs stopped liking when they turned six.

Here’s the deal: You got into your own business by hook or crook, or by accident or accidentally on purpose. Or maybe you slid sideways into it through some family rainstorm or annoying drizzle, or slam-bam downpour. But it’s yours.

Like the old Toyota theme: “You asked for it. You got it.” So, by now, dealing with upsets is probably daily routine.

Dealing with your SELF though, may not be.

So, stop and take stock. This weekend is as good as any to look hard in the mirror and size up what you see there that’s upsetting. Ferret out the rain, and make your mind up to see it for what it is: necessary, refreshing, and routine in many places. Yeah, and wet.

Next, decide how you can reverse your own gears to back out of whatever upsets come your way. (Combat is not always the best answer!) And consider contingency plans based on (you got it) worst case scenarios. “Be Prepared” caution the Boy Scouts.

Choose to look at every problem as an opportunity, and get on with it.

Too much rain sells more umbrellas, slickers, ponchos, foul-weather gear, waders, boots, sump pumps, waders, hair dryers and flood insurance. Not enough rain, sells more watering cans, mulch, faucet washers, flush-efficient toilets, rain-dance manuals and videos, and ice cubes (for exotic drinks to enjoy while draught-watching!).

What’s the opportunity in your latest problem?

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!

A to Z and Soup to Nuts

…Maybe. But maybe not.

Are you trying to have your business

be all things to all people?

It’s easy to see why any business owner would choose, or be tempted to choose, a path of omnipresence.

First in the line of reasons is the motivation to survive a continually worsening economy (spawned by the federal government’s continuing business incompetence, and aggravated by its dumb and dumber insistence that the recession ended last June!).

Reasons enough to drive any entrepreneur scrambling up the wall of desperation.

Second, we need look no further for examples of others making “Sales Offering Sprawl” work, than to tune in to the examples offered by many product-based companies.

Traditional product specialization offerings have been sidetracked, integrated, absorbed, and demolished.

In retail and online businesses alone, we can barely keep up as consumers with where’s the best place to buy what.  

We’ve watched drugstores evolve over the past generation from independent prescription pharmacies supplemented by inventories of OTC (over-the-counter) drugs and some limited HBA (health & beauty aids) products, plus maybe a 6-stool soda fountain and some penny candy, into today’s behemoth supermarket and electronic warehouse (even furniture) chains that seem to sell everything under the sun.

Most notable of course is the inclusion of complete in-store professionally staffed medical facilities — and the forerunner of that: tucking entire pharmacies under the same roofs, as a number of industry-leading retail giants have done.

So why wouldn’t it seem appropriate to aspire to include a little bit of everything under your own roof?

Maybe it is appropriate, but don’t just think so and then do it. Entrepreneurs take only reasonable risks. That “Best Guess” path is not a wise or reasonable risk. Take the time and trouble and energy and expense to define, set up and run focus group discussions with target clients/customers to determine what they really think instead of what you think they think.

Design a strategic plan. It need

 not be fancy, but it needs to exist.

The good news is that if the November elections can produce enough upstart representation by people who understand that new small businesses are the nation’s only source of job creation and that job creation is the only way to turn the economic tide, business can be more free-market and free-wheeling and more competitive again.

But the bad news is that until that point actually occurs (probably 2-3 years away at best), decision making about what your business is in business to sell needs to be more cautious and needs to be based on more than opinion.

Service businesses are not product businesses.

B to B businesses are not B to C businesses.

Avoid getting caught in that tangled tidal wave of confusion by sticking to what you specialize in, by developing strategic plans for how to proceed and by encouraging more than SBA lip-service and make-believe assistance to small businesses.

# # #

 Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

A business wallowing

in its own culture is 

rapidly irrelevant, and  

moving toward extinction.

(Yet corporate giants need it to survive!) 

I just read somewhere (Twitter?) that “Company culture is the priority” for some business organization whose name I’ll withhold to spare them embarrassment. I never heard of the company, but no doubt it is either part of some corporate giant sprawl or, sadly, some idealistic young tech business that is tripping over its own inexperience.

Any company that devotes its priorities to promoting, maintaining, nurturing, and protecting its own culture is totally out of touch with the realities of doing business in 2010. Admittedly, “never forgetting where you came from” is a healthy, driving energy force for every business owner, but dwelling on it is exactly what is wrong with the ways corporate giants conduct business today.

If your business is not customer-centric in every application possible, it is headed toward the great business burial grounds up in the clouds. Developing pie-in-the-sky programs to attract and keep top industry performers is a waste of time and money unless you totally lack the leadership it takes to foster and cultivate top performance from within.

The short solution:

Stop wasting so much energy on trying to inbreed specific employee characteristics and allegiances at a time when the only ROI you’ll realize will be major deficits (you remember him?).

If you’re not running some incompetent government agency, heavily subsidized corporate entity, or dreamy-eyed inexperienced new venture, don’t think of a culture focus as your bailout.

Here’s the bottom line: You cannot focus on your company’s culture AND on serving your customers exceptionally enough to earn ongoing profits AT THE SAME TIME. There’s simply not enough hours in the day to devote your concerted efforts in both directions simultaneously. If you haven’t a treasure chest in the closet, stick to pleasing your customers.

What was it Abe Lincoln said about not being able to please all of the people all of the time? Yes, some self-absorbed employees will jump ship who are not catered to, but do employees who come to work with a daily “what’s in it for me” attitude do your business any good to start with?

Did you go into business to cater to employees or to cater to customers? Sure, employee recognition and motivational performance incentives are nice, warm, fuzzy actions. But don’t let them get in the way. If you do a good enough job of pleasing customers, you will automatically please employees as well…at least those who matter to your business.

Those employees who are intrinsically challenged to be outstanding performers, who want to build their careers on achievement will rise to the opportunities you provide when you set the example.

Teach them how to embrace your customer base, instead of constantly pandering to their requests for more social activities.  

Is that a thin line? Perhaps. Yet, business owners who understand communications, and who practice leadership by example, and management by wandering around, can substantially reduce the need for many employee recruitment and reward devices because they create an environment all by themselves that make others gravitate to serve their pursuits. Voila! “Counter Culture”!

Put the spotlight on the customer and teach employees how to focus it, how to keep it shining and how to change the bulb when necessary, then reward them for how well they do what they do instead of for the promises of their smiles behind their resumes.

We need only look briefly at the complete financial losses attached to professional sports team owners who buy into promises of greatness vs. those who make the long term investments of cultivating from within. A great team culture doesn’t matter if you can’t perform in the clutch.

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!

She Tweets Me,

She Tweets Me Not,

She Tweets Me,

She Tweets Me Not,

She Tweets Me…

Howcum all we 30 million small business owners only ever hear about using Twitter and Facebook comes to us in useless abstract terms?

Do we really care about all the bundles of tech apps and clever little increase-your-overnight-income opps? And how credible are the sources that bombard us with such meaningless, time-wasting minutia? Is there really a business owner anywhere on the planet who actually buys into the daily onslaught of claims being foisted on us by self-anointed “social media experts”?

Surely those online businesses that promise 27,943 new followers a day or 16 million new fans a year can’t be serious? Why is it that mixed in with these thousands of clowns, there is only a handful of resources that truly teach the only information that’s really needed in order to be successful with social media marketing messages?

When was the last time you saw a

good run-down of things to avoid,

when trying to market your business

on Twitter and Facebook?

What’s acceptable as social media business content is far different than what you might put on your website, or in an email blast or a news release or a traditional ad or commercial. More importantly, it is far different than the “socializing” climate that most Twitter and Facebook users indulge in.

I have seen countless scores of respectable businesses stumbling through trying to manage Facebook content (text/words/copy/photos) that is tasteless, vulgar, trashy and often filled with curse words posted by disgruntled employees or vendors, and even by young adult children of the business owner or manager.

Marketing your business on Facebook requires persistent (often constant) ongoing attention and maintenance to ensure that others who don’t share your sense of business decorum are not invading your site with negative associations while you sleep.

Business users of Twitter are not as subjected to outside influence because Twitter is an outbound media vehicle, where people can –like ships in the night– respond to your passing business message with their own passing message but they can’t invade your business message space with negative input.

Facebook, on the other hand, is an inbound media vehicle that allows outsiders to post virtually anything they choose whenever they choose, and it ends up plastered right there next to your carefully constructed heartfelt business message, serving to undermine your business credibility until it can be spotted and removed.

What this distills down to is that business marketing applications in social media can be very effective when they are carefully planned and monitored daily. Yes, daily.

You may think you’re above all that, and are 

capable of simply “winging it.” Think again.

You can’t let other Twitter users provoke you into a debate (or even a one-time comment) about politics or religion unless these subject areas are part of your business foundation.

Don’t believe me? Try it once; your “Followers” will drop like flies. Business-focused Twitter users appreciate business-focused and/or motivational messages, but if those same people do not like your politics, or posts you might make about other taboo subjects (racial profiling, sexism, abortion, anything that’s highly-charged), they will cut you out of their contact base in an instant.

Like joining a game or contest that’s already in progress, enter slowly and politely until you have a clear reading on the unwritten rules. Then plan accordingly and be prepared to stay on top of it every day.

Oh, and please always remember to say “Please”

and especially “Thank you.” Thank you! 

 931.854.0474 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!

Feuding Families,

Combative Couples,

Peeved Partners  and

Belligerent Boards

Constant arguing, bitter and mean-spirited discussions, “business infidelity,” resentment, continuous bickering and back-biting, breaking trust and undermining confidences, changing changes.

. . . I want out and it’s time to go!

Or, as the renown Scottish farmer/poet Robert Burns’ prophesied in 1786 with his “Ode To A Wee Mouse” in what may be the world’s most quoted and paraphrased bits of advice: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” (often go awry, or wrong)   

                                                        

How can you continue with the financial problems? The Mission and Vision disagreements? Operational differences? Business expansion and “parenting” plans vs. consolidation?

Do your business and business relationships look increasingly fragile? Are partners distancing themselves? Does collapse seem imminent?

Divorce between married couples is now in the mainstream of American life, and unfortunately serves to set the table for acceptance at a business level. What else is a business partnership besides a marriage? And family business upheavals can be the worst of all because they frequently involve or contaminate marriage relationships that are the very underpinning of a business structure.   

And those who are caught in the middle typically suffer the most. In a couple marriage relationship, it’s the children. In a business partnership it’s the partner families, employees, employee families, investors, suppliers and vendors and last, but not least, the customers! Nor does the damage line always stop there. In many instances, a neighborhood, community, town, region, industry or profession can also be negatively affected.

Ways to patch things up:

Start with giving the other person or people involved the benefit of doubt. You got into this relationship because something was extremely positive. By re-focusing on whatever that was, you may find that existing differences can be easily reconciled. Isn’t it worth a try? Don’t you have a lot invested in each other? Wouldn’t it be easier to move the business forward if differences could be worked out than to simply part ways and have to start all over again?    

So here’s the plan:                             

• If you can get past that first step of thinking, sit down and write out on paper with a pen, a statement of agreement to seek to resolve differences. Each principal involved in the dissension climate must be willing to do this.

• Exchange copies of these statements without commenting or responding.

• Plan a follow-up Q&A clarification discussion the next day (no rebuttals permitted) to review one another’s comments.

• Plan an open discussion of the Q&A clarification discussion a week or so later.                                    

• Next, and again something all involved must be willing to do: write out one sentence on paper that identifies exactly what you identify as the most critical problem.

• Then each needs to write out clear specific improvements desired in the form of a goal statement that is specific, flexible, realistic, and has a due date. 

Or get professional counseling:

An “outside” consultant who is experienced and skilled in both business management and human relations can help each individual involved put her/his differences in writing, channel productive exchanges, and foster committed attitudes aimed toward working through the differences.

A professional can help set up a recovery path with a schedule for renewable  efforts, and a contingency exit plan that can serve to strike a balance and encourage renewed efforts to make things work. Many leadership training-based organizations can provide assistance in identifying and retaining qualified coach/counselors.

This is always a better solution-approach than slamming the door and walking out! And it just might work! 

 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!