How to Make Connections

How to Make Connections

Making connections with others is an essential part of growing your business and continually moving it forward. It is in your best interests to master this skill, which involves much of what you likely do already. Tap into your social/personal side and have fun connecting with others. Many of these connections will help lay the foundation for a more definitive business relationship.

Keep the greeting short and natural. Whether you are meeting in person, on the phone, or via social media, make sure you greet him or her with a brief and natural exchange of introductions. Some make the mistake of launching into some kind of sales pitch right from the start, which is almost a surefire way to make sure the other person tunes you out. Greet the person as you would anyone else, keeping it short, to make a solid first impression.
Stay humble and approachable. You’re without a doubt a busy person, but adopt an attitude that your door is always open for others to approach you with whatever they may need. Avoid the common mistake of trying to impress others with your business owner status; you may unknowingly come across as conceited instead. A humble person is almost automatically likeable, and you’ll get much more of a response from others when they feel you will welcome their questions and concerns.
Focus on the other person, listen, and then reply naturally. Focus the conversation on the other person’s interests rather than your own. People generally respond very well to sincere attention to themselves. Carefully listen to what they are telling you and reply naturally where appropriate. A good idea is to find some common ground to help make your connection. When you do, remember to refocus the dialogue back on the other person. He or she will come away with the impression that you truly listened to them and will remember you in the future.
Be yourself. People can see through a fake demeanor, which is an immediate turnoff. Know your strengths and use them to socialize and build relationships with others in your business. It is nearly impossible to keep up appearances that are not based in reality anyway. Embracing who you are, faults and all, will only benefit you in the long run.
Find out as much as possible in the given context and time. Evaluate the situation to figure out what you can actually accomplish in your exchange. If you are running into an acquaintance at the supermarket, chances are you don’t have a ton of time to have a long conversation. However, if you are in a scheduled meeting with someone, that might be a time when you can delve a bit deeper. In any situation, find out as much as possible to help you focus your efforts in connecting with the other person.
Don’t try to sell anything or yourself. Your ultimate goal may be to acquire a new client or pitch a new product, but while making that initial connection is probably not the time to do so. Without a good sense of who you are and the knowledge that you are interested in them, people won’t want to listen to you go on about what you’re selling. Your main objective is to make that connection now, so you can have a contact later on.

Making connections can be a fun skill to practice, as it allows you to learn about others and yourself. Being yourself and listening to others are the two most important ways to do this.

How do you make connections? Please comment below with your ideas!

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Get the Most Out of Your Networking

Get the Most Out of Your Networking

Networking is a valuable tool for small business owners. Its benefits can have far-reaching effects on your business such as new clients, opportunities for growth, and professional development. Your time is precious, so you’ll want to make the most out of any networking you do by being prepared and having set goals in mind. Follow the suggestions below to get started.

Get background information on people you’ll be meeting and events you’ll be attending. Perhaps you’ve registered for an industry convention; plan ahead by creating a schedule of seminars you’d like to attend and/or vendors you’d like to meet. If one of those events is a Q&A session with a panel of experts, for example, research those members of the panel so you can ask them specific questions and take advantage of their individual experiences. If there’s a Twitter hashtag set up for the event, take a look at the profiles of the people using that hashtag leading up to the event. Make note of any people you’d like to connect with in person, and begin interacting online ahead of time, so you’re familiar with each other at the event, and look forward to meeting each other in person.
Use scripting that is natural and enhances bonding. Informal networking situations call for you to think on your feet more often than not. This can be done more easily when you have a foundation for the message you want to send to others. Create a script ahead of time, allowing for many variations to fit different situations, and practice saying the words in a natural, conversational tone. Consider role-playing with a colleague while recording the exchange to get an idea of how you sound to others. Make sure your script includes something positive and memorable, like a poignant story about why you started your business or how you’ve really connected with your community through your business. You should definitely have an idea of what you’ll say, but speak from the heart and your sincerity will shine through.
Listen to others in order to find ways to make introductions and help others with their needs. Listening is a large part of successful networking. Most people love to talk about themselves, so use that opportunity to learn who they are, what they want/need, and how you can help. Ask personalized questions. For example, in an informal gathering, a fellow workshop attendee mentions that he wants to find a souvenir for his young daughter while visiting the area. Ask him how old his daughter is and share some of your favorite local shops where he might find what he’s looking for. Now that you’ve broken the ice, continue with a conversation and you may have just acquired a new contact. Always have your ears open for networking opportunities.
Follow up and keep in touch regularly. Acquiring new contacts is half the battle, but keeping them is the other half. Implement time in your schedule dedicated to following up with your contacts. Depending on the situation, a brief email might suffice, but other relationships may benefit from a handwritten note or phone call. Keep a log of whom you contacted and when, and make a note in your calendar of when to follow up with them again. A system of regular correspondence will ensure that you never lose touch with your contacts.

You can have successful networking experiences with some research, planning, and commitment. Maximizing the time you spend networking will help you grow your business and reach your professional goals.

Do you have something else to add to our list? Please comment below with your ideas!

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How To Be Better in Business

How To Be Better in Business

The conscious choice to improve the way you do business is necessary to grow your business and move it forward. It is always a good idea to focus on one small area at a time so as not to spread yourself too thin. Consider the following suggestions for improving the way you do business.

Always look for new and better ways to do things. Sometimes we just get stuck in our old habits without thinking of better ways to do things that might be more efficient. For instance, even though you have been paying your bills online for years, you still find yourself with paper statements and an overflowing filing cabinet that needs to be cleaned out at the end of every calendar year. An easy solution would be to sign up for e-bills through your bank’s online bill paying system and/or paperless statements through your vendors themselves. Create an online filing system that works for you, and back everything up on an external hard drive or via cloud storage such as Norton or Carbonite. New and better ways of doing simple things are becoming available all the time, so take advantage of accessible resources.
Think of “no” as “not yet.” Perhaps one of the hardest things about owning a business is hearing the word, “no.” It may be from a potential customer, a recruit, or an existing client. Instead of taking “no” as the final word, think of it as, “I’m not ready for this yet,” or “I need more information about why I need this.” Adjusting your mindset when wearing your salesperson hat will prevent you from giving up too easily or shrugging off the follow-up questions you should be asking. Even if you only acquire one additional sale out of 5 or 10 by adopting this approach, it will be worth it to your confidence and to your bottom line.
Build lasting relationships to grow your business. Relationships with everyone you work with from colleagues to clients are the heartbeat of your business. Build new ones, nurture existing ones, and always demonstrate sincerity. Make an effort to learn something personal about your customers, especially something to which you can also relate like hobbies and family life. Find out from your staff what you can do to enrich their experience working for you or help them with something they’d like to improve. When others know you truly care, lasting relationships can be built.
Continue taking calculated risks. When considering taking a risk, make sure you are fully informed about the pros and cons and have a backup plan ready for the worst case scenario. Don’t fear risks so much that you never take them, as that can cause your business to remain static. Use your existing knowledge and skill set, research necessary information, and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of your decision.
Develop a reputation for excellence. It is better to do one thing extremely well than to do several things at a mediocre level. Focus on one aspect of your business, and strive to be the best at that one thing. For example, your bakery offers everything from freshly baked breads to custom made cakes. Your real strength, however, is that crumb cake that everyone raves about. Promote that particular product and consider creating new ways to use it, such as in bite-sized packages for gift baskets or kids’ parties. Your customers will always be able to count on your excellent crumb cake and because of your consistently high quality, they’ll branch out to your other offerings as well.

Don’t be overwhelmed by all the things you want to improve about your business. Just a few simple changes here and there can make a significant difference. What else should be added to our list? Please share your ideas below!

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Making a Road Map to Your Goals

Making a Road Map to Your Goals

Goal setting is a crucial part of realizing your personal and professional dreams. However, it isn’t enough to create these goals mentally; you must write them down. The act of writing down your goals gets the process off to a head start and gives your brain its own set of instructions. The more specific your goal is and the more details you provide, the more successful you will be at achieving it.

Here are some suggestions for mapping out your path to achieving your goals.

Give yourself time each week to clarify your goals. It isn’t enough to just write down your goals and bury the list away. Frequent review and adjustment of your goals should be considered a requirement of achieving the goals themselves. Spend an average of 10-12 minutes a day revisiting your goal list and making necessary adjustments to it. For example, say your list of goals includes revamping your website, seeking out more referrals, and creating a new marketing plan. By revisiting this list each week, you can assess your progress. You may realize that you have spent most of your time on your marketing plan, but have completely neglected the other goals. This time each week can also be spent adding specifics to each goal, like due dates and relevant numbers.
Spend enough time on weekly goals. If you set goals that you want to be met by the end of the week, you should be spending at least 50% of your time doing what it takes to achieve them by Friday. So if you put in an 8-hour workday, then an average of four hours per day should be set aside for weekly goals. Keep this in mind when setting your goals for the week. Will you be able to invest that much time? What do you have going on this week that might prevent you from accomplishing your goals? Set your goals high, but be realistic about what is required of you to meet a weekly objective. Always set yourself up for success.
Build relationships with people who can help you achieve. Win/win relationships are those that benefit each person. For example, as the owner of a hair salon, you may form a relationship with the boutique owner down the street. During prom season, you could cross-promote services and exchange referrals. A relationship like this provides benefits for both parties and helps to achieve sales and marketing goals. Make win/win relationship building a priority when you create your road map.
Embrace the good and drop the bad. We all make New Year’s resolutions, but many of us fail to stick with them throughout the year because we don’t commit to making those resolutions a regular part of our lives. When setting your long-term goals, focus on forming 3 good habits and breaking 3 bad habits a year. You may decide that you want your customer service follow-up to become habitual, rather than sporadic and on an as-needed basis. You may have sabotaged your past efforts because you tend to procrastinate, so commit to dropping that bad habit as well. When making your goal list, consider what you will do to make a desired behavior habitual and an undesired one a thing of the past.

Developing a road map to your goals provides you with a clear path and increases your chance of success. How do you map out your goals? Please share your ideas in the comments below!

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Four Ways to Improve Your Chance of Success

Four Ways to Improve Your Chance of Success

When you start a business, you no doubt take measures well in advance to maximize your chance of success. You write up a business plan, choose a location, and procure financing. Even with lots of research and preparation, it can be difficult to predict how well your business will perform.

Here are some tips on improving your chance of success.

Master your networking skills. Put simply, networking consists of building mutually beneficial working relationships. Effective networking will work wonders for your business in a variety of ways. You will be able to reach a wider customer base, exchange ideas with fellow small business owners, get advice from successful entrepreneurs, and even create professional partnerships. Start by contacting your local chamber of commerce, attending industry conventions, establishing your internet presence, and by getting involved in the community (volunteering, hosting events). You should consider networking to be a mandatory responsibility to the growth of your business.
Tune out negativity. Sometimes it is difficult to avoid hearing negative talk from others. Perhaps those around you doubt your abilities, maybe they’re trying to prepare you for failure, or it could be that they simply don’t understand your desire to be your own boss. The good news is that none of this matters. As long as you believe in yourself, you can succeed. Learn to tune out the negativity that others put out by creating positive self-talk, developing a mantra, and reminding yourself of your own strengths and accomplishments. Seek out others who share your goals and views and who will add to your self-confidence, not diminish it.
Keep taking risks. You’ve already taken the biggest risk of all by starting your business. You will be faced with a great number of decisions that carry some level of risk throughout your career as a business owner. Don’t be afraid to take risks just because there is a chance of failure or a setback. For example, a veteran small business owner decides he wants to broaden his exposure and market himself as an expert in his field. To begin, he has booked some local speaking engagements at vocational schools and community colleges. It’s risky for him to take time away from his business to try public speaking, something completely new. However, the potential for him to market himself as a brand can have positive impact on the business. The risk is definitely worth it. As long as you make educated decisions about your business and have backup plans in place in case of unforeseen events, risk-taking can lead to great success.
Hire wisely. No one is good at everything. You may be brilliant at interacting with others and face-to-face selling, but horrible with organization and accounting-type tasks. This is where it becomes extremely important to hire people who can make up for those weaknesses. If you don’t have a head for numbers, look to bring on board someone who is. You wouldn’t attempt to build a tree house if you didn’t know a hammer from a hatchet, so don’t do it with your business. Identify your weaknesses, and hire people who are good at those things so your business prospers.

Owning a business does require some trial and error, but if you are prepared with the important things and follow the above suggestions, your chances of success are greatly improved.

What else do you think should be added to this list? Please leave your ideas in the comments section below!

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Better Networking

Better Networking

Whether you own a storefront business or operate from your home, relationship-building plays an essential role in your business. Networking has the potential to provide many opportunities such as word of mouth marketing, potential customers, and mutually beneficial partnerships with other small business owners. Read the following tips on how to make the most out of the time you invest in networking.

Be generous in giving out referrals. Referrals are as valuable as gold in the small business world because receiving one provides a basis on which to build a relationship as well as giving you a foot in the door when making that initial contact. In order to receive more referrals from others, offer them to other fellow small business owners. It is human nature for people to return a favor; just think about the last time someone gave you a referral. Didn’t you want to give them something in return to show your appreciation? The more referrals you pass on to others, the more likely they are to pass some on to you.
Look beyond your target market. Although the bulk of your time should be spent focusing on your target market, it is still a good idea to look beyond that demographic in order to connect with new people. For instance, a seller of women’s beauty products caters mostly to her target market of young professional women. However, at certain times of the year such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas, she markets her business to men in search of thoughtful gifts to give their girlfriends or wives. She holds men-only shopping events in which a guy can feel comfortable shopping in a “girl’s store”, and she encourages them to bring some photos of that special lady so she can help guide him toward the appropriate products. When the men come away with a good shopping experience and a grateful girlfriend, they are likely to return as loyal customers and recommend her business to their buddies, dads, and brothers.
Develop a reputation for excellence. In these times of economic hardship when mostly everyone is looking for the best deal, people are still willing to pay a little more for a quality product and outstanding customer service. Make each customer glad that he/she chose you to do business with instead of a competitor by providing those two things. Additionally, find ways to make customers feel special each and every time they shop (not just the first time when you want to make a good first impression). If you can consistently provide what your customers wants and needs and do it in a way that they will enjoy, then you will begin to build a reputation for excellent business practices. Customers will recommend you to others, and you will become a trustworthy and dependable force within your niche. Remember that this takes time, so be patient, persistent, and always put forth 100%.

Just like any other skill, networking requires practice in order to improve. Follow the tips mentioned above and always seek out other resources to stay aware of current networking trends. How do you improve your networking skills? Please share your comments below!

Free e-book “Business Owner’s Road Map to Success.” It has over 50 pages of techniques for everything a small business owner needs to master, from business planning and ethical selling to a success mindset. It’s all there and it’s free for you. To get it, just “Like” our Facebook Page here: http://on.fb.me/KsIN6P Pass it on!

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How to Use LinkedIn for Your Small Business

How to Use LinkedIn for Your Small Business

Raise your hand if you have a LinkedIn account.

Now raise your hand if you haven’t used it since you set it up!

If you’re like many business owners, you set up your LinkedIn account a while ago, but other than serving as an online resume you have no idea what to do with it. But now is the time to change that, because there are many features within LinkedIn that can help you market your small business.

LinkedIn is primarily a networking tool. It is excellent for helping you connect with other professionals with whom you might be able to do business. Whether that’s an employer/employee relationship, a joint venture, or someone that joins your direct sales team, you can find motivated, competent people to connect with for your business when you use LinkedIn effectively.

Here are some ways to take better advantage of your LinkedIn account:

Your Profile: Be sure that your LinkedIn profile is complete, and lists all of your experience. Why? Because when people are searching for other people to connect with professionally, they will find you based on the keywords you use in your profile. It’s also a way to highlight your professional experience when people come to check you out. The more experience you have, the more likely it is that someone will choose to work with you.
Recommendations: Think about Amazon.com for a moment. Why do you think they include a place for people to leave comments about products? It’s because we’re more likely to believe what other people say about something than what a manufacturer says about its own product. The same holds true for you! When your LinkedIn profile is full of recommendations about how great you are…how committed you are to the professional development of your team…how amazing it is to work with you…people are more likely to believe it! It’s the difference between the resume, and glowing recommendations. Make sure you ask lots of the people that have worked with you to give you recommendations on LinkedIn. It’s an online way to make sure everyone knows how committed you are to the work you do.
Groups: LinkedIn also offers Groups, which are an outstanding way to network with others around certain topics, and demonstrate your expertise. Simply search for Groups related to what you do. There are many groups set up for direct sales, product lines, professions, etc. Once you join a group, participate in the conversation, share useful resources, answer questions, and get to know people. As you share great content, people will check out your profile to see who you are (which is why it needs to be complete!) And you can also spark offline conversations with people that may lead to additional business relationships.
Answers: Another way to demonstrate your professional expertise on LinkedIn is through LinkedIn Answers. You can find Answers under the “More” section of the LinkedIn top toolbar. Simply browse through the question categories to find questions related to your expertise. Then provide answers to those questions that you can. The more questions you answer, the more you demonstrate your expertise to LinkedIn users, which can lead to future business.

Now all of this, of course, takes time. And you must determine that the target market you want to reach is on LinkedIn. But if LinkedIn’s user base is in line with your goals for social media, making good use of the tools available can help you network professionally and build more opportunities for your business.

Do you use LinkedIn for your business? Does it provide you with additional business opportunities? Would love to read your thoughts on this tool in the comments below.

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Seven Ways to Increase Friends and Build Your Network

In this digital age, it is now easier than ever to interact with people all around the globe, so a solid network is within your reach. Increasing your friends and building your network is a cost-effective marketing strategy that can lead to sales opportunities in a variety of ways. Read on for seven ways to get started.

1. Don’t just attend events, be an active participant. Deciding to attend workshops, conventions, and the like is a great start to meeting new people in your field. However, you should make the most of your time there. Speak up, be helpful and get involved. Set a goal for how many new people you will meet at an event, and be consistent. The more you do it, the easier it will become.

2. Hold off on the sales pitch. When introducing yourself to potential contacts, DO share your name, business, and other relevant information. DO NOT break into a prepared commercial in hopes of selling yourself then and there. The relationship you want to build must be based on common interests and shared goals. Save the sales pitch for a follow-up meeting or phone call.

3. Ask good questions. When talking to people you’ve just met, asking questions shows that you are interested in what they have to say and that you are truly listening. Take this strategy to the next level by asking the right types of questions that facilitate a worthwhile conversation. For example, “So how do you like the food here?” will doom you to several minutes of small talk and get you nowhere. On the other hand, “So what is your role in your business?” and “What are you hoping to get out of this convention that will help you in your business?” are more effective questions that get people talking about themselves. Not only are you learning more about them, but you are building the foundation for a professional relationship. As you perfect your conversations skills you may want start with and develop a script to help you with this process.

4. Follow up. So you’ve met several potential contacts; now what? Don’t be lax about initiating the first phone call or email. Remind the person where you met him or her, mention that it was a pleasure to meet, and set a time to discuss what you talked about earlier. Furthermore, don’t wait more than a day or two after meeting the person to make contact. Make this a weekly habit to meet with new people.

5. Incorporate your online presence with your offline presence. When you meet people at a networking event, be sure to give them what they need to find you online (your website URL, Twitter handle, etc.). It’s also a good idea to arrange for face-to-face meet-ups with some of your online business contacts. By integrating your networks, you enhance those relationships and build your business.

6. Ask friends to make introductions. When you’re at a social gathering or event, don’t be shy to ask your friends to introduce you to other people. Just like in tip one, set a goal for how many new people you want to meet.

7. Do something new. Don’t sit around and wait to be invited to a party or event. Make it happen. Find something new that peaks your interest or something that you have no concept of. Once you get there have fun, engage in conversation with others, and tag along with individuals you like. Again, set a goal for how many new people you would like to meet.

What are your ideas for building your network? Please share them with us in the comments section below.