If you are in business, you must have a strong network in order to thrive. As a chamber membership director for 6 years, I have seen people come and go. One big difference between those who thrive in their business and those who closed their doors has been the ability to network and create an interwoven system of beneficial relationships.

A manufacturer needs dependable suppliers, reliable workers, and robust wholesalers to distribute their product. Retail store need sources of goods, positive relations with neighbors, and excellent customer service. All business owners need some networking skills, but there are three types that absolutely must develop strong personal networking skills to survive.
These types of business people will succeed or fail based on their networking skills: sole proprietors, people in their first sales job, and home-based or direct selling business owners.

Sole Proprietor

The challenge for a first time, one-person business is the sheer number of different skills they must master in order to be successful. They may be a fabulous graphic designer with strong computer and art skills, but they also need to know: marketing, accounting, sales, etc. DaVinci was a genius and mastered many disciplines from architecture to irrigation, but most of us don’t have the time, IQ or desire to become the DaVinci of business. Therefore you need an absolutely reliable source for either 1) learning enough of these skills to survive or 2) where to outsource these activities so that you can focus on your true passion which is what makes you money.
You also need a supportive group of people who understand the unique trials and tribulations of being a micro-business owner. They can reassure you that what you may be feeling is normal. Or they can guide you when you go off track. Your network will be a vital feedback mechanism to help you continue to move in the right direction.

Unless you have venture capital backing, between the two fundamental resources of time and money, you probably have less money than time. You need to leverage every dollar you have. You do not have the resources to experiment with the best and most effective advertising tools. A networking can save you thousands of dollars by providing you with feedback on their experience.
Assuming you’ve bootstrapped like many businesses in the U.S. you’re probably not going to have the money for advertising anyway. You won’t be able to afford newspaper ads, the yellow pages, mass mailings, radio or television. So how are you going to find customers? How are you going to show them the value of your product or services? You have two choices: cold-calling or networking.

First-time Sales Job

Being a sales person is hard. It takes perseverance and a thick skin, especially if your new boss has given you a list of business names, set you down at a phone, and said, “Here, make some sales.” This is sometimes a weeding-out process. One source says there is a 30% turnover in sales jobs. If you do not want to be part of this statistic, you need to make more cold-calls and be the best closer ever (“coffee is for closers”). Or if your soul cringes at the thought of being willing to increase your rejections and harden yourself to being solely about the sale, you can become an expert networker.

By meeting people, making connections, and helping others, you’ll create warm leads. This is where you still may be calling someone you haven’t met, but you know someone they know. Or you’ve been given an insider tip that they are looking for your product. The close rate is much higher. You’ll feel more comfortable talking to a friend of a friend.

The holy grail of selling is the “hot referral” (someone who is ready to buy, you just need to take their order). If you do not have a network, the only way you are going to get these is if your company spends money on advertising. And if you’re working for a local office of a major firm, you are going to get this. Do you think that the company is going to give these hot leads to the brand new salesperson or are they going to the experienced, senior sales person who has done the time and paid their dues? So where else are you going to get these leads? From someone in your network whom you’ve developed a relationship with and who believes in you enough to send you their friends and acquaintances.

Home-based or Direct Selling Business

You’ve heard the saying that you are “in business for yourself, but not by yourself?” For many of the excellent, reputable multi-level this is absolutely true. You are the business owner, with all of the benefits and responsibilities of proprietorship. But the company whose product you represent provides you with materials, advice, training and a very large network of representatives who are learning the product and the business along with you.

Like the sole proprietor, you rarely have a large, national marketing campaign creating business for you. In fact, this is one of the major tenants behind the direct selling industry: the savings on advertising is passed to the consumer. So the only way you are going to make sales is through networking. The company wants to see you succeed, but they cannot do the work for you.

How will you continue to grow your business once you’ve contacted every one of your friends, family, and co-workers? Networking and referrals are the only way you are going to develop a strong team and a reliable income.

About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at www.thenetworkingmotivator.com for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

How can networking be like getting rich? They are both simple to do. But if that’s true, why aren’t more people rich and good at networking (which can make you rich)? Because it’s simple, but not easy.

An article in MSNBC.com’s Money section by Harry Domash says that getting rich isn’t easy, but it’s simple. All you need is income, time and discipline. The simple – but not easy – act of saving a portion of your income and then letting it build over time will create great wealth. What is true for building wealth is also true for building a great network.

It takes small actions, time, and discipline.

Take small actions to build relationships with other people. These do not need to be monumental tasks of great effort. It is the small, thoughtful things that give you a great return. Learn about their needs, send them referrals, provide them with information, and generally work to give them value first.

Like investing, networking takes time for your results to compound. If you do one beneficial or positive thing for someone, they’ll think that’s nice but it won’t create a lasting impression. If you do two or three things, now you’ve established a positive pattern that they’ll remember. And if you continue this pattern over a long period of time, you’ve created a friend, and a fan, for life.

The hardest part is discipline. You have to stick with it even if you don’t think you’re seeing results. This is where most people lose interest and give up on getting rich, or building a network. They join a group and pay their dues for a year but never show up. Or they attend a meeting, then let a few months go by, attend another one and eventually lost interest. Along the way they decide that they gave it a try, but nothing happened. They didn’t let their efforts compound. Or they expected to receive something for nothing, they took no action that benefited anyone else, but just decided that the sheer fact that they joined or showed up meant they should get something back.

You don’t get rich off some small deposit. Networking doesn’t work with one or two small, inconsistent efforts either . It takes all three parts of the plan: small actions, compounded over time, conducted with discipline. Decide that you are ready to create a portfolio of positive networking actions and apply your efforts over time. The results will compound – with interest.

About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at www.thenetworkingmotivator.com for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

Networking is like so many things in our lives – exercise, eating more fiber and less fat, quitting cigarettes, saving money, writing goals – that we know are not only good for us, but are the keys to success. We know because we’ve occasionally done them enough to see and feel results, but we didn’t keep up with it. Or we’ve seen our friends doing these things and enjoying great health. Or we’ve seen the news articles about the studies that prove these things are beneficial. We’ve even read the books by the experts and celebrities who clearly spell out these actions and habits as the reason for their wealth, health, and happiness.

We know all this, and we know that networking is a vital business development activity and an important life skill, so why don’t we do it? Because there are obstacles in the way of our success, some obvious and some so subtle that we don’t know they are there. Of the six major OBSTACLES to networking, nearly all of them are created inside our own minds. Therefore, it is simple (but perhaps not easy) to change our thinking and to remove them.

The six reasons why we don’t network are:

• Misconceptions • Dislike
• Having no Purpose
• Not Knowing How
• No time • Shyness

Misconceptions
Are you holding onto false beliefs about networking that are mostly negative? You think it’s just schmoozing, or that it’s all about selling, or it’s only for outgoing people? Did you try it once and when you didn’t get results, or didn’t feel comfortable, you decided it wasn’t for you?

The basis of any of these fallacies is that you believe it doesn’t work or that it won’t work for you. This error in thinking that is very easy to disprove. Simply look at the millions of business people who are successful because of the relationships they built through networking. Read books by Dale Carnegie, Harvey Mackay, Andrea Nierenberg, and Keith Ferazzi to be convinced of the value and the principles of networking.

Dislike
Do you dislike networking because you don’t feel like selling or being sold to? Do you avoid it because of other people and their poor networking skills? Have you had negative experiences that caused you to have misconceptions about networking?

If you avoid networking because you don’t like the way other people do it, you need to radically shift your thinking from annoyance and dislike of these people, to compassion and seeing an opportunity to help them change bad habits. And just like daily life outside of networking, we need to simply deal with those few who don’t have good skills and keep searching for the right people to build relationships with. If you’ve had negative experiences with networking, you need to research your organizations much more thoroughly. We don’t eat raw food for the rest of our life because we burned our hand on the stove once. Avoiding networking because of other people is cutting our noses off to spite our faces.

Having No Purpose
Do you see networking as an endless series of pointless cocktail parties full of vapid conversations? Is your contact database not growing or even shrinking as people move away? Do you only network when it’s time to change jobs or when business is slow?

If you do not have a strategy and a long-term outlook, you will network based on short-term need, such as losing a job. This can be very unsatisfying because desperation is unattractive. Experienced networkers will avoid your “help me now and I’ll forget you later” approach. Harvey Mackay calls it “digging your well before you are thirsty.” Your purpose in networking is to build a vibrant, growing, and responsive assortment of relationships you can count on, and who can count on you. The development of mutually beneficial relationships will make every conversation important and purposeful, there will be no more pointless chitchat. Instead, you’ll see each time you make contact or converse with someone as another vital but small contribution to the networking structure we are building

Not Knowing How
Do you feel okay with meeting people, but wonder what to do next? Or you are building your contacts, but don’t see results from it. Are you unsure what kind of conversation is appropriate if you’re not going to sell?

If you lack technique or are unsure how to take networking from the early stages of meeting someone to a deeper relationship that is going to create value for both parties, then you may create in your own mind the perception that networking doesn’t work. Or that it’s okay for other people who don’t have money for advertising, but that it’s not necessary for you.

Networking begins with basic social skills such as having conversations that are other-centered. We may feel comfortable in purely social settings like soccer games or birthday parties where we can talk about our children or the happy occasion, but we believe that business networking occasions should be all business. Remember that businesses are run by people, and those people have families, interests, and personal needs. Getting to know someone first is not only perfectly acceptable in the business world, but is the basis of building mutually beneficial relationships.

Once you’re comfortable with learning about people for themselves and not as a prospect or sales target, the next step in knowing how to advance the relationship. The most effective and easy way to do this is to give first. Send them information, an invitation or even a referral for business. They will gladly work with you in return.

We sometimes think that we should automatically know how to network just by virtue of being in business, but this is the one topic where there is a gaping hole in our education and training. Financial planning companies are notorious for bringing in their new associates, giving them detailed FINANCIAL training, no networking training, and then sending them out to network one of the most difficult industries there is. The range of skills that are needed in networking include conversation skills, the ability to perceive and fill other people’s needs, organization, and a clear process for creating a return on the investment of time. This range of techniques requires study and application, like any complex skill.

No Time to Network
Are you ready to network, but you find you just don’t have the time? Do you pencil in networking events, but then have too much work to do and can’t leave the office?

There are only two reasons you don’t have the time to network. Your life may truly be so complicated with jobs, second jobs, childcare, or elder care that you literally work 16-hour days every single day of the week. But, if you watch one single hour of mindless television a day, you are just making excuses to not network. You don’t lack the time; you just don’t want to make the time.

Any busy person who discovered a new passion or a fun new hobby has found that it is possible to find the time when you strongly want to do something. Suddenly, your schedule opens up, you find new efficiencies, or you are able to reprioritize. If you’re not able to do that with networking, revisit your beliefs and your purpose. The time will almost magically appear if you are clearly focused on the value of networking.

There are also ways to be much more efficient and effective with the time you spend networking. Instead of very general events with a random group of people, take time to research exactly whom you need to add to your network and target your networking time accordingly. A leads group is also a time-efficient way to network because it is focused on giving and receiving referrals. You may even want to create your own networking events and activities. This would be a larger investment of time, but the return is much greater when you are the organizer and host.

If you have a short-term perspective, you will feel that the time invested isn’t paying off. If you think you’re wasting time, you won’t spend it. But if it is a long-term project that will compound, it is much easier to find the time to invest. We so often have to deal with the urgent tasks that aren’t important, instead of networking, which is not urgent but very important.

Shyness
Do you feel like you can’t be a good networking because you are an introvert? Or do feelings of shyness hold you back from networking? A majority of people in the population report feeling some shyness at different times. These feelings contribute to the misconception that only outgoing people are good at networking. Having no clear purpose and needing to work on our social skills can compound feelings of shyness, which are basically a lack of self-confidence. Preparation and planning can create confidence, which causes us to be successful which make us more confident.

There are also networking events that are better suited for a more introverted person. Large, non-agenda mixer meetings can be difficult for anyone if you are unfamiliar with the group. Use the buddy system and focus on smaller, more personal events to build your confidence.

Conclusion
Think carefully about your excuses for avoiding networking in relation to these six common obstacles. Nearly every one of them is founded in the way we think. Once we’ve removed these obstacles that come between ourselves and our goal of effective networking, our success is assured. Apply diligence to make sure you’re not allowing bad thinking habits and doubt to creep back in. From now on, it’s simply a matter of time and consistent effort.

About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at www.thenetworkingmotivator.com for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

There are thousands of books on learning how to network, along with audios in bookstores, on the Internet and in business magazines. While networking is a simple process of meeting people and building mutually beneficial relationships with them, it can be complicated (because people are involved). There are a lot of different skills involved, from conversational skills, to building your expertise, and maintaining databases of information on your contacts. There are three ways to learn this vast range of skills: study, modeling and doing.

Study

People who like to read are faced with a quandary. At this unprecedented time in history, more books are published each year than any one person could ever read in a lifetime. In 2005, the United States alone published 172,000 books. Still, you could select an influential list of books on networking starting with the classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and including “Never Eat Alone” and other modern classics. These books will give you an excellent foundation for learning to network effectively.

There are also tapes, MP3′s, online teleseminars, blogs, articles, magazines, videos and a myriad of other forms of media where you can access millions of words written on the topic of networking. Study should be the foundation of learning any new skill.

Modeling

The learning method of modeling is one of the oldest human means of disseminating information and technical skills from one generation to the other. Trades people expected to take on apprentices to work in their smithies, stores, and workshops in order to pass on their abilities. Schools and textbooks were not an option until the printing press was widely used after the 15th century. Even then, paper and books were not readily available.

Today, we have a much less formal modeling system and much of the learning is in softer skills such as networking. Personal coaching and informal mentoring have taken the place of the apprentice/master system. Finding a person you would like to emulate can be a very effective way of learning. The explosive growth in life coaching shows that more and more people are returning to the old ways of learning from someone else’s experience.

But wouldn’t you like to be able to skip all of that, zoom through the learning curve and go straight to success by implementing the third way of learning? This method is especially effective for networking.

Doing

Most people have learned much of their life skills through trial and error. This means trying out ideas and strategies in the real world, then reviewing your results, and trying again. We usually don’t consciously think about this as a formal process, but this is what we’re doing every day. Networking is a skill that involved activity and people. Rather than trying to absorb this through passive reading, we will learn best and fastest though activity and being around people.

If have basic manners, a decent understanding of your product and market, and a willingness to take the risk of feeling a bit awkward or uncomfortable, you could just do it. Start networking. Go somewhere, meet a few people, do something for them, and follow up. Review your results. Do it over again with the same person, but do more, get to know them better and follow up faster. Do this with someone new. Keep doing the simple steps, over a period of time, and a year from now, you’ll be amazed at the network you have.

>>”Do the thing and you will have the power” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Conclusion

Jump to the head of the class by just getting out there and trying some networking. Be consistent. Remember that it takes time to build a strong network. The time you spending sitting around, studying and preparing to network is time that could be spent on relationships that will benefit you in the long run. Want a quick fix? Try just “doing” something every week, every day that helps you meet people and build relationships with them. Get out there and do it and you’ll have the network.

About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at www.thenetworkingmotivator.com for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

For any new parent, getting out to network to meet people becomes a challenge. There are feedings, diapers to change, baths…and trying to get the little one to sleep. Only 24 hours in a day and times seems to fly by quickly.

So here are some tips for getting the little one for fall asleep to squeeze some more time out of your day whether its to exercise, sleep, catch up on work or meet new people.

The Schedule

The book “On Becoming Babywise” is all about how to schedule your baby. It’s somewhat controversial, because a lot of people think scheduling isn’t right for infants. However, in our experience, the sooner the baby is on a schedule, the smoother feedings and sleep patterns become. This involves feeding at the same times each day and within a tight window and also putting to sleep at the same time each day.

For example, my wife would give me 45 minutes to get 6 ounces down the hatch. This would generate some stress. Sometimes the 6 ounces would go quickly, other times it was agonizing. If I was 18 years old at the time, I probably would have drank some of the formula myself to take off some of the pressure at the 30 minute mark.  But keeping a tight schedule clearly helps most babies ease into things.

Quasi-Ferbize

The Ferber technique is essentially the one that our parents’ generation used — put the baby down before she’s asleep, let her fuss if she needs to, check on her in 2 or 3 minutes so she knows she’s safe and you’re near but don’t pick her up, then increase the increments between check-ins — 5 minutes, 7, 10, 15, etc. If your baby doesn’t fall asleep within 30 minutes, pick her up, walk a little, quiet her down, and try again a little later. This process may take up to a week for the baby to get the idea, but it’s better than months upon months with mostly sleepless nights.

Both the scheduling and Ferber methods can be used when you’re trying to put them down AND when they wake prematurely from a nap or night’s sleep.

The Sleep Environment

Some recommend purchasing a white noise machine for the nursery to generate a steady level of noise, more like what they experienced in the womb.  We bought an air purifier that cleans the air, while providing some white noise.

Swaddling is also a big help since comforts the infant. However, don’t be surprised if the baby seems to fight it — pressing out again the swaddle is similar to the kicks they do in the womb and, again, it’s soothing to them. It makes them feel safe and familiar. You can buy ready-made swaddles with strategically-placed velcro strips to reduce the likelihood the child becomes unswaddled at night resulting them waking up.

Bedtime Routine

Implement a routine before naptime and bedtime. For infants, we did bath and story before bedtime, and some walking and talking or a song before naptime. We also fed a little bit before putting them down (we called it “topping her off”), but not a full meal — just enough to help them feel full and warm inside. One theory is they wake up once their stomach is empty so topping her off helps.

Using something “snuggly” during bedtime is really a good idea. It can be a blanket, a small toy or the like. Rub it gently on the baby’s cheek when you’re trying to sooth her or put her to sleep. Pretty soon it will be a signal to her that that it’s time for sleep. If she wakes up before she should, you can rub the snuggly on her cheek while she lies in the crib or bassinet — another signal that it’s still sleeptime.

Thanks to Teresa from Boulder for some of these tips. They helped us a lot and hope they help you whether you need more time to sleep, exercise, relax or to network to meet new customers or clients.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).