Thoughts On Writing...

"The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don’t necessarily make you a good writer. Writing needs raw truth, wants your suffering and darkness on the table, revels in a cutting mind that takes no prisoners…"

Natalie Goldberg: Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir

A Meditation Among the Trees

I just settled in from a meditation retreat this weekend, "Sacred Spaces". One of the ideas was to meet with like-minded people to meditate over the weekend and increase conscious awareness. We covered six principles and did a lot of meditating in various form to facilitate this. Amazing.

One part of my weekend was following a trail on the land that we retreated on. Getting away from the busy city life was challenging at first. Once I quieted inside and focused on the woods and all of nature around me I forgot about work and duties and frenetic things and acknowledged quite a lot. Someone wise advised me to write out short bursts of what that was. Here they are:

+ At first, my mind and my chest pined for the confusion of the hectic city. How comfortable that chaos can be. I'm surprised how easy I let it go and walked on.

+ Wind just stirred up a bit of ways behind me. Catching up to me now. I'm gonna stand still. It is here with me right now. Loud - but quiet. Moves past me. It's like a wave. It's alive like me.

+ Some brush is a light, hazy purple. I thank it out loud for being purple. Felt odd and right all at once.

+ The Earth is wet and sloppy. My shoes are bright white. They mingle. Who cares today? It is okay. It is good even.

+ I see a Jack Rabbit. Whoa. Hey, there! He didn't say hi back. But he didn't ignore me like the city ignores me. Oh, look! He has a trail he is on, too. He's gone.

+ I can hear the gang behind me. I speak then walk off to the side. They pass. I stay out with this field that is open and wide and I stand with intermittent sun.

+ Walking          + Breathing       + Pausing       + Walking
+ Breathing        + Pausing         + Stretching

+ I stopped and "sent" some of this stillness and wholeness to the inner city and to twitter and to Wall Street and to the Middle East. Hope I bring some back in me.

+ I see some dew on a thorny branch. I touched it. I tasted it. I rubbed some on my face and neck.

+ The birds are having a choir practice up top. A lot of 'em showed up for rehearsal. I can pick out the sopranos and the altos. The woodpecker is on percussion. I nod my head a bit to the beat.

+ The air is so clean at first it burns.

+ I thought of work. That's none of my business now. I let it go.

+ Twigs crunch and snap from my weight.

+ I have no sense of time out here. Huh.

+ I am home now. I still smell the woods on me. I hope I smell it for a long time.

Accounts Receivable/Collections Tips Part I

Have a mid to small-sized business? Accounts receivable and collection of past due accounts your favorite part of the business cycle? Nah, I didn’t think so. Use some of my 13 years of experience to remove some of the fear and stress associated with this heavier and, often times, more stressful part of running a successful business. And, trust me: being successful in business means you will pay attention to this important piece of your accounting. Wanna fail? Ignore A/R!

Here are a few ideas:

+ Computerize.Smaller businesses can use Quickbooks just fine. Mid to larger sized firms need specialized accounting software that can put a clear focus on A/R.

+ Use reports.Those reports in Quickbooks and systems like MAS are there for a reason. You can quickly spot trends in the way your customers pay - or don’t pay - and then meet with your team to develop ideas to address these trends. You are going to learn a lot about aging, DSO, trending, payment history, how aged receivables impact your company’s worth, who your most profitable customers are, where risks are - and a lot more.

+ Send regular statements.Sounds like a no-brainer, I know. I once had a client who sent his statements out sporadically. Funny, payments often came in that way as well. He was teaching his accounts how to pay this way. By creating a “due date” and sending out regular statements corresponding to those dates you have set a pattern and an expectation. It will weed out a lot of slow pays and late pays.

+ Sales tip: Use “white space” on your statements to promote special products, offers and events. Snuck this one in. It will connect your billing piece of your business with the sales staff - and, trust me, they will like it.

+ Accept multiple methods of payment. If possible, add check-by-phone acceptance to the methods of payment you offer. There is a lot of quality and inexpensive software out there. The more ways to pay = more payments. Sales likes this, too - this is a crossover utility!

+ Speaking of the sales pros - use ‘em.They already have a rapport with your client if they are the ones who sold them. When appropriate have them pick up the phone and make a call. They can always blame it on accounting: “Yeah, it’s those number crunchers over in A/R. They have reports and deadlines. Tell me what’s going on…”

+ Resolve disputes and deductions immediately. Fight the temptation to put off researching a customer’s claim about why they didn’t pay. Address these now! The longer you put it off, the more likely the customer (and you) forget details about what was going on. I once had a client who had to write off thousands in 90+ days accounts receivable in “good faith” because the trail had gone cold on the discrepancies. The customers, although incorrectly, would claim that since the company never cared why would they? And they would also claim it was so old that they didn’t have the originial notes and then refuse to pay. But they wanted to write a new order! Nipping issues in the bud from day one gets payment. It also establishes credibility. Integrity.

+ Never make collecting “We vs. You”.  Collecting is already a tough job. It automatically and subconsciously raises defenses in all of us when it comes to past due bills. Try to add in every call: “How can I/we help you to get the account current?” Then - here comes the hard part - listen! You may hear exactly what you need to fix the delinquency! This makes them feel like you are working with them and not against them. And, if you are smart, you are with them. This translates to a better relationship with your client which translates into more sales.

+ Use late notices.  I know you think people throw them away - and they do! But these letters - differing from the format of a statement - send a clear message to the client that your firm has not forgotten about the account. Even if they do throw it away, they know you know! They have gotten a message even without reading the message. Send letters! 30-60-90-120 days and pre-legal or pre-agency letters.

There is a lot to the credit and collections process. A lot that as entrepreneur or owner you may not have thought about or want to think about. Let me think about it for you. There is a lot more we need to cover. Watch for Accounts Receivable/Collections Tips - Part II.

"Show" and "Tell"

An admonsihment for writers: "Show, don't tell."

An axiom among gurus: "Teach always. Use words when necessary."

Street vibe: "I can show you better than I can tell you."  (Often followed by, "Fool!")

Age-old cliche: "Actions speak louder than words."

Ancient Chinese proverb: "Talk doesn't cook rice."

Among many professions: "Those who can't do, teach."

I get the point. I am sure we can increase the list ad infinitum (add yours in comments below). And... I buy it. I believe it. It makes that identifier go off in my truth detector. Ding! In fact, I want to live by these. I'd like to think I do. No, I mean, I would like to think that I "do". That I am a do-er.

And, of course, here it comes...

But! I am left contemplating today, "Why can't I show and tell?" After all, I learned that in kindergarten. We all know what "they" say about learning things in kindergarten: it's everything I need to know.

After all, I am a purveyor of words. A trader whose wares are ideas. A manciple of communications, if you will (I think I will). Admittedly, I read the dictionary for fun! I am a speaker and a writer. In business I work more on the telephone than with any other tool. So I also buy into the idea that the pen is mightier than the sword, that wise men speak because they have something to say, that a man can be convinced to action by the confidence of a conversation. (I cannot count how many people I have persuaded to turn in a car they were hiding for repossession by a stirring exchange in conversation.)

Here...

Joseph Conrad: "Words have set whole nations in motion. Give me the right word and I will move the world."

Mark Twain: "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

Proverbs 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

"I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an acho sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all."   Richard Wright

And I read this by the adored Anne Lamott today in Bird by Bird, "We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out."

Since I was a child I have known a part of me that, almost desperately, longs to reach out and connect with other people through the spoken and written word. My whole life path has been a development of communicating through the written and spoken word. Through poetry. Through singing. Preaching. Teaching. Conversing. Praying. Writing. Listening. Reading. Pausing. Gesturing. Talking. Editing. Through writing some more. Speaking. Dreaming. Thinking. Telling. Showing.

M. Scott Peck. I'm a big fan. He taught a lot about reality being revealed in paradox. "Para" meaning along side and "dox" meaning opinion. He showed us in The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: "When you get to the root of things, virtually all truth is paradoxical... to understand paradox ultimately means being able to grasp two contradictory concepts in one's mind without going crazy."

I get it now. I do not have to choose. I do not have to either be a shower or a teller. I do not have to be either a doer or a speaker.

I will show and tell!

Hold the Phone!

http://tinyurl.com/2gyghbx

The article above heralds the telephone as the greatest, the best social network there is. The title alone got the click in me to snap. It registered. I believe it!

There is no substitute for the phone. I simply have to stay on the phone. In all of my past lives (collecting, skiptracing, accounts receivable, credit management, selling) the mantra has been: “Dial for Dollars.”

And it’s the truth.

Back to the basics. Use what works.

And now, as a telephone names sourcer searching for talented people to fill open positions my clients have, the theme is the same: “Stay on the Phone!”

It works. Most good ideas are simple. This one is powerful.

Need to network? Sure… linkedin and facebook and twitter are great! I use them. But get on the phone.

Cold calling? Lately, I have heard a lot of people say it just is not worth the time. I have heard a lot of people say lately they made good deals through cold calling. Maybe it’s a numbers game. But who is right? Well, why aren’t you on the phone?

I once collected bad debt for a funeral home conglomerate. I know, I know. The boss used to ask toward the end of the month if I was at my goal. Rhetorical. When I would answer in the negative he would chide, “Those people aren’t gonna pay from the grave! Call the signers on the note. Jason, get on the phone!”

He was right. Sending past due letters or emails is necessary, sure. I had better be employing every imaginable resource and tool. Emails work for follow-up or blind “Here I am!”  I automate those processes wherever possible and… get back on the telephone.

Once I hear the greeting, the click of the pick up, the world opens up to me. Here is where the years of experience and technique meet with art in a single moment. It really is staggering. Have I gotten so familiar with it that I gloss over it or discount it?

Here’s one. It’s the first time I was looking for a car that the borrower had not paid on in months. He had been hiding the unit. My boss simply asked, “Did you ask him where the car was?”

I didn’t ask. She schooled me, “Jason, you had him on the phone. What was he going to do to you? Hang up? Find out where our collateral is. Call him back! Now.”

Calling back was worse than calling at all. But I am a pretty quick learner and I got it. I was learning that using the phone and asking the right questions, with the right pauses, yielded the right information. That yields dollars! It worked 13 years ago when I first learned this. It worked today!

I’m putting a sign in my office: “Hold the Phone!”

We are Literally Star Dust

When the “Big Bang” occured some 14 billion years ago, the only two elements created were hydrogen and helium.

Yet there are over 100 chemical elements. Where do they come from?

We know today that they are forged in the nuclear furnaces of stars, scattered about in exploding supernovae.

Oxygen, chlorine, sodium, potassium, calcium, nitrogen, iron, carbon… all heavy elements are created and released when a dying star explodes. Supernovae eject these into galaxies and around other stars and planets. Eventually they coalesce to form you… and me.

So everything in your body, in my hands typing right now, what comes together in our brains to create “mind”, all came from a star. A sun.

We are quite literally stardust. These are not theories. This is law.

Granted, it is poetic. Somewhat magical even. But it is mathematical, physical and chemical axiom.

So next time we look up at the night sky and stand in wonder at the stars and galaxies, we are literally, undeviatingly, completely and wholly, the Universe Itself looking back on Itself and staring in awe at Itself.

We are stardust. We are the Universe. We are whole.

I am never broken!

I may be bruised. I may even hurt. But I am not broken. I am whole.

Some Words...

ALACRITY 1. Cheerful willingness; eagerness 2. Speed or quickness
VITIATE 1. To reduce the value or impair the quality of 2. Debase
SUSURRUS 1. A soft whispering or rustling sound; a murmor
SOIGNE (swan-YA) 1. Showing sophisticated elegance; fashionable 2. Polished
BAILIWICK 1. One's particular area of activity, interest or authority

EFFUSIVE 1. Unrestrainedm or expressive in emotional expression 2. Overflowing