The lifeblood of modern business, networking is a vital tool for just about anyone with any interest in running their own business/department/team. Basically, anyone with half a brain should realize the importance of a large network of contacts—in industry, in the marketplace, in the media, or even with Average Joe on the street. Networking raises your personal and company profile, can be used to secure contracts or deals that may otherwise pass you by, and help cement links with clients, investors, suppliers and just about anyone else. However, some people find stepping into the potential social minefield that is the networking circuit to be intimidating, as well as very hard work. If you are one of these people, you need to realize that networking really isn’t that hard—you do it most of the time without even realizing it.
Before you even start to think about networking in earnest, prepare yourself with an arsenal of materials. The Chinese (undisputed masters of the art of business networking) have a simple rule of thumb whenever they go out on business: get business cards printed. Ninety percent of businesses in the U.S. don’t use business cards period, and of those who do only 25 percent keep them updated regularly. Once you get your cards, you should carry at least twenty on your person at all times, preferably in a nice little business card case. Make sure all details are up to date—the card should feature your name, job title, contact telephone number, business address and email as a minimum, and you should also consider including some of your skills and areas of expertise on the back.
Then, buy a second business card holder fro all the cards you receive. Always keep a pen and paper on hand to write down the name and details of anyone who doesn’t have a card, and the minute you get to the office or your computer write everything down in a database. Write where you met, what they do, and any other info you can remember, and build up a definitive list of the people you meet who you may be able to work with in some capacity in the future.
Be confident in your networking, and always think long-term. Don’t discount someone as a contact because they may not be able to help you out immediately. Don’t run up to people demanding their assistance, either. Networking is a two-way street, and quite often it pays big dividends to be the person offering help, rather than the one asking for it. Make yourself useful to your contacts, start building a relationship, and then take things from there.
Always be polite and cordial, even if you think the entire population of the room/party/event you are at are insipid pond scum not worth the light of day. The irritating, pompous pest with an attitude problem and personal hygiene to rival your average skunk may one day turn out to be your best client, or the one man in town who can provide what you need.
Some people look at their business and question it for many reasons. Some might think their ideas are too “out there” or “far fetched” while others might believe that they are either too old or too young to run their particular business. For those of you who see that the description above is an accurate assumption of your business, please understand that you ARE able to change. Optimism is a matter of practice. You are not born to believe a certain way; it’s the way you are brought up that highly dictates your thought process and regardless of what others might tell you, this can be changed.
Cultivating optimism is done not through positive thinking like some believe, but through how you behave. Taking action is the main ingredient in an optimistic lifestyle and business. When you anticipate a better business, you will (or can) make a subconscious effort to take the steps necessary to complete any task in front of you to make your better business a reality.
When your business faces an obstical that it needs to get through, an optimist will know that the end result its after is only attainable by geting through the road block and will then plan an exact path to gain the positive results. A pessimist has trouble believing in themselves, their decisions and their business. This is the main ingredient in failure. Many people say battles are won and lost in your mind way before the actual fight and this holds true when looking at the optimist and the pessimist mindsets.
In the book Breaking Murphys Law: How Optimists Get What They Want From Life – and Pessimists Can Too, Suzanne Segerstrom recommends keeping a “good fortune” log. In the log she says that you should write down three good things that happen to you each day. Anything from someone holding the door open for you, to a client finally putting the deposit down on a new project. The key is to make a notice of these things and begin to convince yourself that good things DO happen to you, which will begin the training of your mind to think different about your business.
The main key in becoming an optimistic business is creating change. Even by taking baby steps, your changes will accumulate over time. If you place a penny in a jar every day of the year, at the end of the year your jar will be filled with 365 pennies. This can be applied to a bootstrapped business as well. If you call just ONE prospective client each day for an entire year, at the end of the year you would have called 365 potential clients. Now, if 1 out of every 10 calls leads to a sale, you would have made 36 sales. Multiply that by 2-3 calls a day and you could do well over 100 sales per year. If you’re business makes over $1,000 on each sale, this could quickly add up. Always remember, none of these things would have happened if you counted yourself up and never picked up the phone.
I challenge you to make a change today. Grab a notebook or moleskin and start a log of all the positive things that happen to you for the next month. In one month if you don’t see a group of positive things happening to you, post a reply here and let me know. I bet you can’t, because positive things happen to everyone, no matter how little or how big. And besides, making a change in your thought pattern is a great way to bootstrap your business because its completely free!