Networking

1. Isolating Yourself
When setting up a business, you can get so overwhelmed with the administration that you don’t focus on building up your network. Networks can provide a way to catapult your business forward through referrals, joint ventures, or providing industry knowledge. Networking does not need to be through formal events but can come in many forms. Even using websites to become aware of who and what is out there is useful. Giving time for self development and training activities to grow your skills, can be one area that is given a lower priority which can often lead to unwise decisions.

How may you take more time to mix with people who you think can contribute to your business?

How may you increase the priority given to grow your skills?

2. Not Having an Overall Marketing Strategy
Instead of developing a comprehensive plan that has been thought through and well researched, many entrepreneurs just dive in with a few good ideas, using a try and see approach. Often these ideas are not suited to your niche or business type, or it is the wrong timing for the stage of growth you are at. Working from the start and considering what you offer and to whom, your branding, differentiation and positioning can all be crucial steps to work through for success.

Have you a comprehensive plan that is constantly reviewed and improved?

3. Not Sticking With a Marketing Strategy
Many entrepreneurs try a few marketing strategies and when these strategies don’t work in the first few weeks or months, it is assumed this is the wrong strategy and something else is tried. Often the strategies have not been tried for long enough to fully see the benefit, or for the entrepreneur to become skilled enough to make the strategy successful. Focusing on two key strategies to market your business can really test whether these are right for you. Another mistake is to focus too much on passive marketing, such as websites, articles, ads, etc, and not enough on active marketing, such as presentations, workshops, networking, and referrals.

What percentage of time are you spending on passive and active marketing?

4. Not Leveraging Your Time
The trap that all entrepreneurs are faced with, once a business starts to grow, is that they can’t do everything. Many will keep the business small rather than recruit help, outsource or delegate. Leveraging is one key to successful growth. This is a skill you need to learn to become comfortable with in order to grow your business.

Are there tasks that you need to delegate to successfully grow your business?

What sort of people do you need to turn to for assistance?

5. Not Generating a List of Leads
On beginning a business, you are constantly meeting people. If a database is not started in some form, many of these contacts can be lost and the opportunity to market to them is wasted. Providing an opportunity for people to sign up to a regular newsletter can be a valuable tool to develop a relationship with prospects that may eventually be interested in buying your products or services. To get you started, excellent free ideas on developing successful marketing emails, and other useful marketing ideas, are available from the Ezine Queen, Alexandria Brown.

Do you have some system to collect leads and contacts?

If not, what would be the most appropriate system for you?

6. Not Having a System to Follow
Developing a system that is repetitive, simple and that works, is crucial for success. Many entrepreneurs have a number of different ways of operating, and do not record information that can help them determine what is a successful marketing method; or do not develop a system that will keep their time commitment to a minimum.

Do you have systems that you know will work for you?

7. Lacking Confidence
Believing in yourself is crucial to successful marketing and gives you the ability to put yourself out of your comfort zone and grow. Confidence in your product and yourself is infectious and attracts clients. Most people who are successful do not wait for success before they feel confident. They have confidence in themselves and their ideas first; and then the success follows.

Have you decided you are worth something, even if you have yet to prove it?

8. Taking on Any Job
Distractions and following secondary goals are some of the main ways you can sabotage your behaviour and not concentrate your efforts to make a difference. Often called the “Shiny Light Syndrome”, it is easy to be sidetracked into accepting many opportunities that come your way, just because you have been asked. Some of these may not fit your niche, experience, or passion. The end result can often be a poor, halfhearted job that reduces the amount of quality time you can put into projects that more closely match some of the above criteria. Being clear on your niche, your values, and your strengths can help you avoid “Shiny Light Syndrome”.

What projects have you been involved in that were a distraction from your primary goals?

How can you avoid this trend?

9. Selling Only One Product
Having a product funnel can be a key to obtaining a regular source of income. Many prospects will be reluctant to purchase a highly priced product first, but may be willing to build up to this, by purchasing several lower priced items that give them confidence in who you are and the quality of what you do. For example, if a coach only sells coaching. Success is far more likely if a coach starts by having a free ezine, then some low priced ebooks, or a subscription website; followed by higher priced products such as a course, manual, or group coaching programme; as well as the highest priced items, such as private coaching.

How wide is your product funnel?

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This article may be reproduced in its current form provided the following credit is included.

Jane Johnson is one of Melbourne’s leading Women’s Performance Coaches. She has worked with many solo entrepreneurs, small business owners and executives, to enhance their success in their chosen career or business; and improve their income levels. She has also helped many clients find more fulfilling work. Jane is author of the home study course “Finding your Life Purpose” and several ebooks. She also runs teleclasses and workshops in these areas.

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I am sure that you have heard the phrase “safety in numbers” before. In the animal world, creatures travel in groups because they instinctively know that, when there are many of them, predators have less of a chance of being successful during an attack. In most cases, if a predator is successful, its victim is usually a sick or weaker member of the herd. This is an important part of the process of natural selection and maintains the process of survival of many species.

On the other hand, there are predators that travel in packs because they instinctively know that in the search for prey, some potential meals have the ability to defend themselves, and a group attack is usually more effective. This too ensures the survival of the species because, without the pack, some predators would literally starve to death.

In the large corporate world, herds and packs are replaced by boards of directors, employee teams, shareholders, and subsidiaries. These are groups of people who come together to pool their abilities in support of the agenda or goals of the corporation. In essence this ensures the future success of the business. In the large corporate world, failing companies are often absorbed by successful ones in mergers and through acquisitions. Rarely does a large company just “go out of business” or become extinct. They are usually simply bought by another large company.

In the small business world, the entrepreneur is the animal who has wandered away from the herd. Sometimes it happens because of unemployment, but often it is because they have a desire to be independent from the politics of the corporation, or simply to be self-sufficient. Fortunately for the small business owner, a community exists where they can count on others to help them to be successful. It is the community of business-to-business networking.

Not all small business owners are aware of the opportunities of success involved in business networking. In fact, if I were to make a guess at how many businesses are involved in networking, I would guess the number to be around less than 10 percent of all businesses. This is unfortunate because not only is there a great deal of opportunity for acquiring more new business in the networking environment, there are also methods of learning to be more successful and to be a bit safer in the business community.

Why would I link safety in numbers, animals and small business? Because in the business world at large, predators exist. Corporations have learned that a part of doing business is putting measures of security in place through patents, copyrights, server firewalls, policies, and a myriad of other functions that occur on a daily basis often with employees dedicated to these. In the environment of small business, we often are not even aware of the threats and if we are, rarely do we have the means within our budget to protect ourselves against them.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever done work for someone who refused to or simply never paid you? If you have never had this experience, I applaud your extreme streak of good luck. On the other hand, maybe you have not been in business for very long so this painful experience may be looming on the horizon.

In any case, when this does happen to you, what will you do? Contact the lawyer? File suit? Complain to a friend? Accept it and move on? Most people tend to simply accept it and move on. Some cases may involve inventory that you can write it off as a loss on your taxes, but some cases involve intellectual property where there is no monetary resolution. The sad reality is that often there is no justice for you, no satisfaction, and ultimately no payment.

When one opens the figurative doors of their small business, they do so with a lot of enthusiasm. To maintain the daily pressures of meeting expenses requires a great deal of positive mental attitude. It means that even when things are tough, you have to be upbeat, and forge ahead in order to survive. This world of positive attitude dictates that we eliminate negative thoughts so that we can remain focused on our goals. In fact as communities of small business owners develop, it is almost an unspoken rule that negativity be eliminated from conversation on every level. After all you would not want to admit to a prospective client that things are not going well and you are going to have to file bankruptcy if you don’t close this deal.

In the same vein, as the predator attacks the small business owner and feeds upon them, the entrepreneur is reluctant to talk about this negative experience. In some cases, the predator is working within the peer group of the victim. As the predator continues to feed, several members of the group may have fallen victim, but because of the fear of reprisal among the group for saying negative things about another “nice” member of the group, they remain silent. They are afraid that if they say anything negative about the predator, that they themselves will be viewed in a negative way.

People are afraid of being accused of slandering another. They are afraid that no one will believe that this person has really done what they are accused of and that it will further damage their own reputation if they become vocal. Have you ever felt this way? Has this happened to you? I am willing to bet that there are those reading this who feel the same way.

The truth is in my opinion, and this is simply my opinion, that as long as the predator is allowed to continue to function in a group, they will continue to do harm to individuals within the group. After they have victimized a good portion of the group, they simply move on. So how can we change this, how can we stop it? Is it just a question of taking responsibility to protect the others? Does it have to be a matter of risking our own reputation to try to protect others?

Until we change the paradigm of responsibility and belief, the predator will continue on, business as usual. Until we can find it acceptable to hear the honest truth about someone who appears to be a “nice” person, the predator will continue to thrive in our midst. There is safety in numbers unless we have blinders on. Without the ability to voice the experiences we have without tainting our own reputation, we will continue to suffer our losses.

Jeff Glaze is the Editor of http://www.AtlantaEvent.com, founder of http://www.privacy-first.com e-mail certification program and the author of several e-books. His company, Mostcool Media Inc.( Mostcoolmedia.com ), specializes in marketing planning, coaching, business networking training, web and media development. His e-book “The Six Xtremes Of Power Business Networking” is available here: http://www.atlantaevent.com/ebook.htm Jeff Glaze is available to speak to your group and can be contacted at 678.508.5975

Copyright © 2006 by MostCool Media Inc.

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