Seeking sales fireworks?

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting. God Bless You.

God Bless America and America’s Troops.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

June 29, 2011: Today’s Presidential Press Conference . . .

Mr. Obama:

“Call me naive, but my expectation

   is that leaders are going to lead.”

The American People Respond:

“Duh!”   

Really, Mt.Obama, you can do a whole lot better than kick around the subject of leadership and pretend you know what it means. You clearly haven’t the foggiest idea about it. Talk with Rudy Giuliani. Read Peter Drucker. Watch some newsvideos of Ronald Reagan. Visit today’s issue of the TBD Consulting “Leadership News” newsletter.

Making a mockery of something you have no ability to do doesn’t speak well of you or the office you hold.

• My mother would have accused you of being “the pot that calls the kettle black.”
• My father would have told you to “Pull yourself up by the boot-straps and start getting the job done you’re getting paid to do.” 

ANY small business owner has better better common sense leadership skills than you have demonstrated.

In fact, in all of history, there has never been a leader of any consequence who has repeatedly gone out of his/her way to consistently blame others for his/her own inadequacies, except you!

Placing blame and analyzing it accomplishes zero–as ANY successful business owner will tell you–unless of course you’re Judge Judy.

Then again, you would need to be open-minded enough to even ask in the first place, and you’ve proven yourself incapable of that. To the average American, the relentlessness you exhibit in your pursuit of who and what to blame is pathetic. You long ago ceased to be effective as a leader, and especially because you think you’re a great one.

Nobody else thinks you are

• . . . certainly nobody else who cares about our still sinking economy that you killed when you had a chance to breathe life into it; that’s called a “blown save” in baseball.

• Then there’s your Lybian Quagmire that you insisted on rushing into with a cocky attitude and no respect for our military; that’s known as underestimating the competition.

• Ah yes, and lest we forget the catestrophic daily oil spill you wasted more than a month analyzing instead of responding to.

• Business owners will tell you when a customer fails with your product, you rush to the rescue with a quick-fix and find out what went wrong later, after you’ve resolved the problem.

• Oh, and the selective weather disasters you chose to respond to? Please. Everyone knows you’re a puppet to begin with, but there’s no reason on Earth that people who’s lives were devastated by floods in the Midwest should be ignored while those raked over by a crushing tornado get immediate attention because they’re in a “blue” state.

• It would be a crime to not at least touch on your simpleton behavior in misappropriating tax dollars to union-thugs and incompetent corporate automakers. Thank the Lord for Ford!

• Again, small business owners will tell you to not get mixed up with those big business muckity-mucks and their union thugs. Advice too late for you no doubt.

Leadership is all about openly motivating others to get the job done that needs doing.

It’s about transparency and respect and authenticity.

It’s not about photo ops, sound bites, grandstanding, or being “amused” as you claimed to be today over being accused of lacking leadership effectiveness . . . which you do.

“Amused”? Surely you jest! 

True leadership? Americans would welcome it, and I’d be first in line. But after seeing the trainwreck you’ve created in such a short time, and how long we’re going to have to be paying for your foolhardy healthcare plan, I don’t hold out much promise. I’m just thankful you’ll never be part of the small business world you seek to destroy.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting, and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Sorry, Docs and Esqs,

 but you’re not God

anymore!

Well, one good thing about the current Administration (and it may be the only good thing) is that it has snapped Americans back to reality — the reality that no matter how great you can talk, action speaks louder. And taking no action speaks loudest of all. Like a whirling dervish, this tax-and-spend do-nothing White House spins in place.

So that’s the good news: we’re all learning from our mistakes. Watch the blur!

_________________________________                                                  

Now on to doctors and lawyers: You guys are being shopped around for on the Internet, and you haven’t yet caught on to the reality that this single shift in patient and client technology is driving your practice into the ground because you’ve chosen to ignore and discount its impact on you. But you can’t. You need to take action now. 

Reality is that your services are no better a commodity than peanut butter, plumbers, snowplowing services, or used furniture once a prospective patient or client gets her or his pudgy little fingers into the Bing or Google search window.

The days when you needed not to worry about your staff customer service skills are long gone.

                                                 

Heart patients in Pennsylvania fly to Arizona or Minnesota for surgery. People with vision problems in Florida will travel to Baltimore. Just because a local physician or lawyer diagnoses a problem seldom means anymore that the patient or client will stay with that professional. Many, if not most, seek specialized care referrals online.

A good part of the reason for this, and one that’s continually dismissed, has a whole lot more to do with office staff treatment and “bedside manners” of the doctor or lawyer than most professionals would care to admit. Truth is it’s likely to be costing you 50% or more of your practice volume. And it’s close to 100% avoidable!

Incredibly, to most of America’s population raised on ER and Law & Order, there are studies floating around that show over 90% of all doctor and hospital visits (including those to the ER!) are for reassurance

— being told with a warm smile and backpat, “You’re going to be alright. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning” seems to sum up what most people consciously or unconsciously seek.

And I strongly suspect the same dynamics of pursuing empathy come into play with lawyers.

Lawyers thrive on delay. Doctors thrive on patient loyalty. Neither of these payoffs are very much in the cards (or the stars, tea leaves?) anymore because people want gratification as immediate as a txtmsg response, and loyalty is directly proportionate to truth (readily verifiable on the Internet), and personal attention with every contact.

So, solutions? Here are 3 FREE solutions: More frequent and more genuine use of smiles, and of “Please” and “Thank you.” Don’t assume your patients and clients are being treated the way you want them to be. I can tell you of over 100 medical and law offices where they are not. Find out. Use friends as “secret shoppers” to report experiences.

Reward positive attitudes. Small, inexpensive, frequent rewards actually work better than lump sum cash or raises (which, remember, are permanent). Consider outside professional coaching help.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

 Every step you take,

 every word you say,

 every blink you blink

  . . . is marketing.

You’re a professional practice or small business owner or manager. Whether you have 100 employees or work out of your bedroom closet, the words you use (and don’t use) and the ways and places you move (and don’t move) say worlds about where you’re headed and how long it will take you to get there.

Every step you take and word you say, every blink you blink is a form of marketing to someone for something.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to get your rich brother-in-law to loan you his $1,700,000 Bugatti Veyron to drive your best customer to dinner at the club, or whether you want to motivate your new assistant, or get approval to cash in a free WAWA coffee coupon that expired yesterday, you are constantly engaged in marketing.

Your business plan and loan applications are marketing documents. When you hire a consultant, you have to impress on that person or group (oh, sorry, “team”) that you and your business are worthy of her/his/their exertions on your behalf. You slide a little salesy language into explaining what your business is all about.

The thing is that most hard-nosed, competitive, aggressive business people know all this and make no bones about practicing proactive, assertive language and posturing at every turn in the road. But those who often have the most to offer in terms of creativity and innovation will typically get themselves caught up in the process, not the selling.

We can’t turn timid creative genius personalities into super sales pros overnight (and probably shouldn’t try or even want to), but we can help raise these folks up a notch by pointing out that five criteria are part of every successful marketing effort . .  and that EVERYthing is marketing SOMEthing! Your steps, words, and blinks must:

1. Attract Attention

2. Create Interest

3. Stimulate Desire

4. Prompt Action

5. Deliver Satisfaction

All five of these must be present in every form and function of marketing to bring about ongoing and long-term success. Look around you. The extent to which these five criteria are effective determines how effectively your message is being delivered to your target markets.

Look for the five in print advertisements and broadcast commercials; billboards and other outdoor advertising vehicle messages; print and video promotions and displays; online presence (websites, social media sites, etc.); sales presentations (in-person, seminars, webinars, teleconferences; trade and professional shows); public relations programs (events, news releases, etc); packaging and labeling; merchandising; even pricing can all be measured for effectiveness when they succeed at making these ten words work . . . even in your “elevator speech.” 

Remember you are being:

watched; heard and overheard; listened to (there IS a difference!); read about; sized-up; checked out; assessed; evaluated; figured out; thought about; tested; weighed; raked over; admired; followed; respected; loved; praised; scourged; mocked; appreciated; and bought

— all day, every day, even as you sleep!

The same way that you buy or don’t buy others, they buy or don’t buy you. Your best insurance for achieving success is to make the sale. Your best way to make the sale is to accept that it is what it is, and that you need to be forever on the alert to opportunities.

Opportunities are created by marketing that attracts attention, creates interest, stimulates desire, prompts action, and delivers satisfaction.

Drive your imagination forward with reality. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting and Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

It’s not all about the numbers . . .

How you time your

purpose and your passion

 determines your success.

“Life is timing,” says a man commonly reported to be one of the world’s top 20 motivational speakers: Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, author and editor of nine business and personal life and leadership books, including one with over two million copies in print in 12 languages.

When you want to demonstrate some proof to yourself of the importance of timing and being able to make timing adjustments, go find the nearest batting cage; swing at a round of fastpitch baseballs; then take some deep breaths and swing at a round of slowpitch softballs. (Do them in the opposite order if you really want to challenge yourself!)

Hey, sometimes it’s the little things in life, like baseballs and softballs that can humble the best of us.

The reality though is that there’s much to be said for “being in the right place at the right time,” Of course saying and doing “the right thing” is what makes the difference. Just as adjusting one’s swing to the pitch is what makes a great hitter, adjusting your purpose and passion to the circumstances is what makes for great business success.

And it’s not all about numbers!

The answers to your marketing needs, e.g., will not come out of statistical analysis of market research. Leave that stuff for the corporate and government types who need to juggle and analyse numbers to cover their butts. You have a small business to run, and there’s no time for that. You try things. They don’t work. You adjust them.

Marketing is not a rational, unemotional, objective, cut and dried, black or white series of numbered quantifiable events. It’s an art. It’s a psychological-based creative art form. It requires substantial experience with and adaptations of psychology. It seeks to impact peoples’ minds with a message. Every person’s mind is different!

What about how you conduct yourself? What about leadership? Good timing and making good timing adjustments means there are some important “Don’t’s” to guide you as you step up to the plate:

• PLEASE DON’T say one thing to an employee, customer, associate, consultant, referrer, supplier, sales rep, investor, lender, and then do another!

• PLEASE DON’T promise any of those people what you can’t deliver.

• PLEASE DON’T promise what you won’t deliver.

• PLEASE DON’T ask for meeting options, and then change them when you get them.

• PLEASE DON’T set meetings or appointments (note especially, professional practices) and then keep people waiting without some definite, reasonable, truthful, and on-time explanation. Acknowledge people waiting in line! And, by the way, a visiting sales rep should be treated just as importantly to you as your best employee or best customer.

• PLEASE DON’T host a meeting and then interrupt it with non-emergency cell calls or txtmsgs that really could wait.

• PLEASE DON’T call for a meeting and then change it on the fly at the last minute.

This is all starting to sound like a reminder list for exercising integrity? HA! YES!

HOW you time things, HOW you time your purpose and your passion is what others measure you by. It’s your own yardstick that you create. So, yes, integrity it is. Sizing up when and where to swing your bat counts alot. HOW you swing it counts most! 

Drive your imagination forward with reality.

Open minds open doors.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“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! 

Twitter opportunities

bail small business out

 of still sinking economy!

Opinion, after creating thousands of small business marketing and management programs, and many life observations:

Since the debut of television, no other media vehicle has had such positive and pronounced impact for small business as Twitter. LinkedIn is a distant second and Facebook doesn’t even make it to the table.

________________

A little background . . .

• In case you haven’t noticed: since 2008, there’s been relentless government pursuit of globalization at the expense of business, marked by the near strangulation of entrepreneurial ventures and accompanying choke-hold on free market competition.

• In flagrant disregard for America’s economy, America’s employment opportunities, America’s military, America’s healthcare, and America’s self-esteem, spread-the-wealth idealogy has trampled the nation’s economic heart and soul beneath its runaway tank treads.

• America’s 30 million small business enterprises –the proven source of over 90% of all new jobs– have been chewed up and spit out while bungling corporate giants and their muscle-brained unions have been handed tax-dollar bailouts that have accomplished nothing.

________________

So where does Twitter come in and what’s “rightbackatcha!” all about? Twitter, first of all, is a powerful outbound social media entity. Among many applications, it allows for small businesses to broadcast availability of products and services out to the world at no cost. In today’s economy, this access is a Godsend.

More and more small businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities Twitter provides, and are discovering that INTERNET globalization opens new revenue stream pathways unimaginable just 5 or 6 years ago. Business today comes from many surprise sources . . .

A local plumber gets a service call from Betty whose cousin lives 2,000 miles away but cut and pasted his clever Twitter quote into an email to Betty because it mentioned the town Betty lives in. Betty figured that was better than the Yellow Pages. Voila!

LinkedIn, FYI, is a much more sedate, more corporate medium. It lacks both the flair and immediacy of Twitter.  

Facebook? Forget about it! For business, Facebook doesn’t cut it! Let it help you keep your Friends and family together and communicating, but don’t expect it to make sales for your business.

If you run a small business and you have a website, why do you need to find people to drive to your Facebook page to try to get them to visit your website? It won’t happen. The process is too big a run-a-around. Visiters bail out. Why waste time and money and energy?

Send people direct to your website! Facebook also demands constant monitoring to police inappropriate posts that you don’t want associated with your business.

So, now you’re on Twitter, but it’s not working? That’s only because YOU’RE not working.

If you “work” Twitter, you are careful not to flood it with repetitive sales-pitch messages, and you have fun with it by being social. Yes, that’s what makes it part of “social” media.

In other words, someone mentions or thanks or repeats (RTs) your comment (“Tweet”)? Reply with a thank you!

Say: “rightbackatcha!” or express some form of appreciation. Even a “TY” will do.

But don’t disregard others for the sake of ramming home your sales message. Your “Followers” will drop like flies.

About “Followers,” incidentally, if you’re not selling something that EVERYone needs (rubberbands, toothbrushes, water), you don’t need 36 trillion Followers; you need Followers who share your interests or who fit your market target. Be selective.

If you’re going to “play the numbers” and amass as many as possible, be prepared for the fallout. You will inevitably attract weirdos who will waste your time and energy.

So, someone tells you you’re great or that they like your quote or the title of the song you mention or the product or service you represent, tell ’em “rightbackatcha!” or say Thanks (or THX). But you ignore sociability at your peril.    

Drive your imagination forward with reality. 

Open minds open doors.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“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! 

There comes a time

in the life of 

every business owner 

where lines become

B–L–U–R–R–E–D  

 between love and sales!

Even though with one of these, you fall into it, and the other you never want to have fall at all, there are endless similarities. Just consider a few musical messages when you substitute one for the other:

Put A Little Sales In Your Heart . . . Sales Make The World Go ‘Round . . . All You Need Is Sales . . . Sales Is A Many Splendored Thing . . . Silly Sales Songs . . . Sales And Marriage . . .  They Call It: Puppy Sales . . . Sales, Sales Me Do . . . Makin’ Sales In The Afternoon With Cecilia . . . Sales Are In The Air . . . Sales Are But A Little Boat Upon The Sea . . . Sales, Sales, Sales . . . When A Man Sales A Woman . . . What’s Sales Got To Do With It? . . . Sales Will Keep Us Together . . . Feel Like Makin’ Sales . . . To Sir With Sales . . . Give Me Sales . . . Stop, In The Name Of Sales . . . Chapel Of Sales . . . Game Of Sales . . . A World Without Sales . . .  Sales Letters In The Sand . . . Takin’ A Chance On Sales . . . You’ve Lost That Salesin’ Feeling . . . Will You Still Sales Me Tomorrow . . . Sales Me Tender . . . Can’t Buy Me Sales . . . Sales Will Keep Us Together . . . You Get The Best Of My Sales . . . April Sales . . . Young Sales . . .  

If you’re here looking for a great list of love songs

with “love” in the title, I don’t want to disappoint you:

 GO HERE!

__________________

Ah, but –fun aside for a moment, there are a couple of really huge “Lovin’ Sales” problems to consider:

1)  If someone who holds control over you or your business –like the government or a major customer, investor, supplier, or partner– hasn’t a clue about real entrepreneurship, and what it’s like to love your work, you’ve got troubles. 

These are people and entities who need to see your work as a committed relationship — in much the same way you might offer up testimony as part of a business plan and budget to impress lenders. I mean, I did once have an accountant who lectured me that my business was a legal entity that needed to be thought of as a separate person.

(That assertion of course simply reinforced my conviction that accountants lacked human feelings, and made me think that maybe my business was the one person in my family who was not dysfunctional! Kidding ;<) er, almost.) 

The point is that if those with control don’t appreciate your relationship with your business, you are losing sales you deserve to make, and income you need to grow.

2)  If you’re not 100% tuned-in to the reality that without sales, there is no business, you are living in fantasyland! In other words, your business cannot survive and thrive if you keep it locked in orbit around your great business idea at the expense of a monumental sales effort on your behalf. This is 2011. This economy will not tolerate you sitting.

(The alternative of course could simply be to apply to your state DOT or local roads department for cone placement training — security, benefits and no brain use!)

If you’re staying in the game, you need to devote more time and energy to selling than you have been. Nobody else can sell your business as well as you. It’s your baby. It’s your DNA. You feed, finance, insure, staff, and nurture it. Now get out and sell it. If you make 3 calls a day, make 10. If you make 10, make 20. Whatever it takes.  

If you’re not lovin’ your sales every day, no one’s going to be lovin’ to buy what you have to sell. Period. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“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! 

No-cost/low-cost marketing

doesn’t happen overnight!

When you commit to spending minimal or no dollars to get your marketing message out to your target market, don’t expect miracles. Be realistic enough to recognize that a great many factors can impact your effectiveness. 

Whatever you do must be well done. If it’s news releases, you need to distribute a series of at least 5 or 6 different ones, 10-20 days apart, to a reliable list of media contacts, whose names and titles are double-check spelled correctly . . . and who are treated with utmost respect and gratitude for consideration.

Remember you are asking these people to give you free publicity. They decide if you get it or not, if your words are worthy, if they like the way you ask, if they are in a receptive mood, or if they will require you to buy advertising time or space first.

Your releases must be:

• NEWSWORTHY – Use “enlightened” self-interest, not just self-interest!

• GRAMMATICALLY FLAWLESS – Use Spellcheck. Use AP and UPI “Style” books, and Strunk and White’s Elements of Style

• 1.5 PAGES MAX, AND 1.5 – 2 LINES PARAGRAPH SPACING

• 3-4-LINE PARAGRAPHS

• ACCOMPANIED BY:

  • Your contact info
  • Interesting, captioned photos whenever possible
  • Short, personalized-as-possible cover notes that point out why each release will have interest to the recipient’s reader or broadcast audiences

If you’re using social media and/or emails (and you should be on both counts, if for no other reason than to support and promote the use of releases), think before you “Send.”

Always include a shortened link to your site. Be social. A steady stream of sales pitches, day after day numbs Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn subscriber brains into Delete Mode.

As with your news release headline, make sure your message attracts attention without being alarmist or overstepping acceptable boundaries of good taste.

Be smart enough to realize that the economical course of action you choose for your marketing simply does not offer the same accelerated pace of providing and paying for an advertisement and getting immediate exposure.

“Free” takes time!

Expect — even when everything and every person involved in the process falls neatly into place — it’s going to take you longer than you want it to, to make things happen.

A news release that finds its way to a receptive editor may get tossed at the last minute because a major news event breaks. Coverage of that takes priority because it sells newspapers, magazines and broadcast aduiences.

That’s what sells advertising time and space and that’s what pays salaries.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“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! 

Not “Pie-eyed” intoxicated

. . .Pie-eyed as in bleary

from studying

 too many pie-charts!

Actually, if you have this ailment, you are either reading too much of USA TODAY, or you are reading too much into your competition.

Try the following exercise on behalf of the entrepreneurial professional practice or small business that you own or operate or manage or partner with. It will give you an “Aha!”

• First, draw a pie. Whatever kind you like is fine. Next draw a slice that approximately represents what you think is your business or professional practice share of the primary market you’re engaged in (SOM, as corporate biggies call it).

• Do something to highlight it: color, fill it in, draw your favorite fruit into it, add crumbs or a topping if you want.

• If your slice is too small to fit any decorative ingredients, put an arrow off to the side that shows your sliver and decorate your arrow (or if the sliver is simply a reflective glint off the pie tin, you may want to consider closing down and trying some other business . . . or there’s always government work that requires no pies and no thinking).   

• Next, assuming you do have a reasonable or promising piece of the pie in front of you, take an educated guess at what you imagine the sizes of the other market portion slices that each of your key competitors controls.

• Draw in and label those slices. Are you still with me, or have you been nibbling?

• Now stand back (or lean back) and take a good, hard look at this pie. It’s a graphic representation of the market your business is in. What’s going on in the middle?

• Scribble a little tornado into the dead center of the pie, overlapping all the tips of all the slices. That is where everyone in your market is killing each other, fighting to get a bigger share.

Just think about how much time and energy and money is spent in that little area of commotion. That little battlefield becomes so consuming and wasteful that many business owners and managers fail to see what else is happening.

Pay attention for a minute to what’s outside the pie (the box, the bun). What do you see? Endless space? More pies?

Have you, in other words, been staring at one star in the sky and not noticing the rest of the solar system? Or beyond? Have you been focused on one tree and ignored the forest? How about just concentrating on your one slice and seeing only what else is in the pie? There is a limit to the amount of toppings you can add, you know.

So why not (are you ready for this?) . . .

e–x–p–a–n–d—– t–h–e—– p–i–e—–?—–?—–?

What happens to your SOM when you make the pie larger? Yes, yes, the competition grows bigger too. But are you in business to succeed or to kill your competition? When you are the entity responsible for making the pie bigger, you are also going to capture the lion’s share of the increased market because you are the one opening the floodgate.

Instead of we’ve got better stuff and we’ve got cheaper stuff and we provide better service deals, what about looking around to see how many prospects there are out there who do not own or use ANY of your existing market products or services, and then take the high road that “We want EVERYone to experience this type of market offering!” 

Not sure? Call or email me. I love making pies bigger. Yum! Happy weekend. See you Saturday!  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“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! 

Itttttttt’s a wrap!

Waitaminute! What makes you so sure?

You’ve been working at this deal for awhile now. It finally looks like things have fallen into place. You are almost ready to count your chickens before they’re hatched. You’re 99% sure that the long-sought-after customer/client is, at last, in your pocket.

You’ve started paying attention to champagne ads, and checking booking schedules for that dream cruise.

Winning with the who who’s in your pocket all depends on how much you learn from past mistakes. Yes, most of us have been there at least once. It’s called:

Presumptuousness

Presumptuousness is cornerstoned by assumptions. Not a lot of architectural integrity there. In case you haven’t given it much thought lately, assumptions can be dangerous. A necessary evil, so to speak, that can often be the result of a series of correct hunches, and still be wrong.

In business, politics, and life, not many attitudes can be more foreboding.

In other words, anytime you decide that you think you know it all, you can be sure someone or some circumstance will come along and prove you wrong. It’s something like a distant cousin to Murphy’s Law.

When that dark shadow crosses your mind, stop what you’re doing. Take a deep breath. Stretch.

Ask yourself if what you believe about the outcome of that big deal looming over your checkbook’s future –or about the genuineness of the partner(s) or principal(s) involved– is based on fact or opinion.

Go back to your drawing board long enough to make sure you have some contingency plan in place to offset any pending disaster. (What’s worse than looking for a job when you have no job, or having the boat motor die miles from shore with no oars, or hosting a BBQ party and running out of fuel half-way through the steaks?)

I once hosted a huge New Year’s party that ended with guests in winter coats, hats and gloves at the punchbowl when the heating plant died in 20-degree weather. Ah,the lessons of life live and learn.)

It never hurts to follow the Boy Scout motto:

“Be Prepared!”

Or Henry David Thoreau:

“Be forever on the alert!”

Business owners make assumptions every day, sometimes every hour. It’s part of the game of business.

We need to project income and expenses, often for 3-5 years out,to satisfy prospective investors and lenders with business plan financials. We need to devise marketing and operational plan budgets farther in advance than most entrepreneurial comfort zones tolerate.

One of the reasons older entrepreneurs are typically more successful than younger counterparts is simply experience. Most business success seems to me to be able to be reduced to making effective educated guesses.

“All we ever have is limited knowledge” 

. . . that one was Einstein

So next time, you think you know who’s in your pocket, think again!

Even Presidents have learned this the hard way, presuming voter support that never materializes.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

“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!