Recently, my friend told me the story of being caught speeding by radar. She was going just a little over the speed limit and fell prey to the radar's bounce beam and has a ticket to remind her of the experience.

"What happened to your radar detector? Why didn’t you get a warning about the radar in the patrol car?", I asked.

“I didn’t have it turned on then. . .” was the answer. It was on the dashboard but not on." “Guess they don’t work as well with the switch in the off position”, I offered sarcastically.

Radar detectors work best when they are turned on. No secret there, but there are times when we forget to be detecting.

Now you won’t find this written in any standard text book about business, but you have your very own personal internal radar for business transactions.

Some may call it intuition, I call it business radar. It is an accurate guidance system that, when turned on, will detect important things about business transactions. Sadly, some business people choose to ignore that feeling provided by their internal radar system and leave it switched 'Off' in favor of a scholastic based and rational decision process.

Here’s why 'trusting your gut' is seldom taught by business scholars. You see, it’s close to impossible to describe in a text book what a gut feeling feels like. Think about it, how would you describe it? “Well, it’s sorta-like kind of a funny feeling in your stomach, not like your sick but it’s a feeling that you know is there and it must mean something and for some reason I can’t quite describe exactly to you, but this deal is going to be bad.”

You’ve had that feeling before, right? What did you do with the feeling? Trust it or ignore it?

You may have or have had these feelings, too.

1. You have an inkling that even though 'the numbers' don’t support a deal completely, it still feels like a good move.
2. You have a feeling that you could be accomplishing more and creating more profit in your business.
3. You loved the job candidate’s resume, but your internal B.S. detector was vibrating at 7.6 on the Richter Scale at the interview.
4. You felt uneasy when the salesman told you he could deliver almost twice as much product or service at half the cost of the competition.
5. You sense your business and marketing plans need to be updated due to several hauntingly familiar recurring conversations with customers in the past few weeks.
6. You intuitively suspect your product or service is priced too low.

In my experience, the numbers: past, present and future are always the place to start with decisions. But, you can’t stop there. When you have your internal business radar turned on and tuned in, it is a reliable source of information.

Trust your “gut” as one of the best business radars in the world.

"Intuition isn't the enemy, but the ally, of reason." -- John Kord Lagemann

"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Listen to your intuition. It will tell you everything you need to know." -- Anthony D'Angelo

The first day of summer approaches rapidly. The local hay crop is looking fantastic and the good weather has produced some lush stands of hay. To me, fresh cut hay and alfalfa look good enough to eat after spending the last few months throwing out dry, bland flakes of hay to the horses.

I haven't put any alfalfa in my salads yet, but it is tempting. I have enjoyed some perfectly charcoal grilled beef lately and there is nothing better.

I got on a rant about fat and flavor in my blog a few weeks ago. Click here if you want to know why extra extra lean beef and pork doesn't taste like it should.

My two outdoor cooking tips this week:

1. Charcoal trumps propane.
2. Fat is flavor.

Is your house in order? I mean your business financial house-If your business finances need a makeover, we should talk. (I do windows). We can create a spreadsheet quickly that will serve as your budget (blueprint) for success. If you are like most business owners, you don't use a budget to your advantage to help you create the business you've always wanted.

Isn't it about time you created a foundation for success? E-mail me and we can get the discussion started. Click here.

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