Just got back from a Saturday afternoon reading on the beach and was, once again, struck by the rapid change in just one week in almost everything.    Just before I succumbed to the soft sounds of the surf and the 75 degree temps which somehow forced me to stretch out on the sand and take a short nap, I noticed that the evidence of change was everywhere.

The seasonal break of summer, and all of the years of going back to school in September always make me approach these four months not as the month of September, the end of the quarter and then Q4, but as the four month quarter. Nothing really changes except the measurement stick of Q3-critical only for quota benchmarking, but in the practicality of day-to-day, month-to-month selling, this four month period, if properly planned-can become the most rewarding of the year. All it takes is just a bit of short term planning.

This week, almost everyone from school kids laboring over their well worn essays to those of us gathered around both the real and virtual water coolers will be answering the end-of-summer-question, “What did you do on your vacation?” Since I’m just now returning to Boston after spending most of the summer on the beach studying and writing a couple of business plans, my answer is pretty simple: I spent some time searching for The Elusive Red.

With the jobs report out yesterday, it’s better than good news on the for-profits side of the picture. Really stellar results, and should supply enough fodder for the Marketing King sitting in the Oval Office to move through the mid-term elections without doing too much (more) damage to the Democrats.