I walked into a bank for the first time in years yesterday…

You see, I tend to look at banking as a line item on my checklist and all I want to do is check it off in the most efficient way possible. Walking in and waiting in line to complete a financial transaction is not efficient in my eyes. So, I’ve spent years becoming really good at online banking, frequenting ATMs and calling 800 numbers to answer any questions I may have. And I’ve been very happy. But yesterday, I had to set up an account that I was unsure how to structure and because my boyfriend goes to the same bank, I figured I’d tag along and do everything I needed to while I was there. (Side note: my boyfriend is the exact opposite of me when it comes to banking. When we walked into the bank, he was greeted by a symphony of hellos from the employees who obviously knew him well. And when he pulled out checks he wanted to deposit, my mouth dropped out of shock as I asked, “you don’t deposit those at the ATM?” He laughed when I later commented, “Wow…you’re so old school!”)

We sat down at a desk across from one of the Account Managers (who my boyfriend was talking to about movies, just as they did every time he came in) and I immediately began asking the questions I needed answered in order to open the account appropriately. Though the gentleman answered kindly and knowledgeably, you could tell I had caught him a little off guard in my forwardness. My boyfriend sensed the discomfort and jumped into the conversation with more movie talk. I sat back and surrendered to the situation: I was in a “belly to belly” situation here…I needed to play the game of relationship building in order to get my needs met.

This situation got me thinking…as we’re deep into the age of the Internet, just how important are those “belly to belly” situations?

The Internet has changed the game for all of us business owners and here’s why:

1) You now have access to a Global market.
2) The playing field has leveled (you have the same resources at your fingertips as giant corporations).
3) The point of entry is a comparatively cheap (you don’t have to have a $1 million marketing budget to get the word out about your company).

This boils down to the fact that you and your business have great potential to hit it big. The trick to the Internet game, however, is learning to use this “global” tool to make your audience feel intimate and local. With the advent of Web 2.0 and Social Media (interactive and user-centered experiences), out of touch, non-interactive and static websites are quickly losing business to their connected, interactive counterparts. All this being said, it is still about being in touch with what your customers want so you can offer it to them when they need it.

One of the biggest complaints about the Internet is that it’s allowing us to become way too disconnected and out of touch with one another. Even though Web 2.0 answers that issue with its interactivity (c’mon…how cool is it that I can know exactly what my college roommate is up to on a daily basis when I get onto Facebook?), it’s vital that as a business owner, you never lose touch with the foundation of those “belly to belly” interactions that may feed your business.

There are two kinds of business people out there: those who love to network and those who loathe it. A few of us fall smack dab in the middle…we know it’s vital to business so we do it, and we enjoy it just enough to continue with it at our own pace. No matter where you are on the networking spectrum, it’s imperative for you to accept the fact that those in-person interactions are the best places to not only build relationships with clients, but also build relationships with business allies who can elevate your own game.

The bottom line is that in order to thrive in business today (let’s be honest, none of us want to “survive”…we want to thrive!), you must utilize the tools around you – from the “old school” ways of belly to belly relationships to the new ways of the interactive online world.

Even though I was frustrated sitting in the bank for an entire hour, I was thrilled when I downloaded the iPhone app that keeps me digitally connected to the accounts I had just set up. I recognized in that moment that this bank had done an amazing job marketing. They knew they had a world of customers just like me, who wanted to be “left alone” to do my banking business (just give me the tools and I’ll do it fast!). And they also knew they needed to service people like my boyfriend, who wanted to know everyone’s name and make every transaction in an actual banking facility. All they did was make sure to have their services and products available in ways that appealed to us both.

So, what do your clients want? How do they want to have access to it? How are you integrating your “belly to belly” interactions with those of your online presence?

Katie Krienitz is the Chief Operations Officer for The Wealth Building Annex (http://TheWealthBuildingAnnex.com), a mastermind and resource community for Entrepreneurs. She’s also a Relationship Author who sells her book online. You can find out more about Katie at http://KatieKrienitz.com or http://MyTrueLoveTV.com.

I come to you, my BNL family, to hopefully shed some light on something that I recently feel forced to address. My objective with this post is to help you evaluate the people you pay to “design” your website. I am going to be super blunt because I am so passionate about empowering my followers and I am getting tired of seeing people get taken advantage of by those who have no idea what they are doing.

After hosting internet marketing trainings and consultations for the last few years I have come across numerous “web designers” and I feel this is the only quote to express my feelings adequately…

“I knew it. I’m surrounded by A$$#*!&$. Keep firing, A$$#*!&$!” -Dark Helmet, Spaceballs

I am by no means a website designer or a development expert nor do I want or claim to be, but there just seems to be too many companies out there toting their web design expertise and have no business doing so. I want to give you a few things to look for when choosing someone, and more importantly paying someone to develop an online marketing campaign, particularly your website.

These are 5 of the most important things you must evaluate when hiring someone to put together a website for you:

1. What platform are you going to set up my site on? (Content Management Systems (CMS) is a MUST, WordPress or Joomla are the best and the only competent options. If they don’t mention these, RUN!)
2. How are you going to design my site? If they say anything about “writing it,” “coding,” “custom style sheets” or anything other than creating a custom theme for you they are more than likely not operating efficiently and are going to set up something that will cost you more in the long run.
3. Look at other sites they have created and try to highlight the text in a few areas. If the text doesn’t highlight and you are able to drag it like an image, RUN! That site is TOTAL CRAP and they have no idea what internet marketing or SEO is.
4. How are we going to capture information? You must, must, must have a call to action on your site. Your list is your businesses equity. If you are not growing that list your business isn’t growing as fast as it could be and you have a stagnant, useless site with the hopes to sell to random people that may stumble upon it. Auto-responders like Aweber, Constant Contact, and iContact are the some of the best.
5. Your costs should be between $400-$10,000, depending on the desired functions of your site. I know that is a pretty big gap, but there many degrees of the complexity when designing a custom web presence. If you just need a simple site with a few pages, some custom images, a contact area, and the training to update it yourself $400-$1,200 is a fair price.

Again, I am not a website designer, but it costs significantly more to duplicate a site that was done by people who really have no business promoting themselves as a website developers. Sorry for the touch of negativity today, but 3 students of mine in the last week have been swindled out of a quality site that they deserved and paid for.

This post is a little bit of an over simplification, but if you get anything from it please just evaluate the people you pay to do web design for you. Just because a site “looks good” does not mean so!

I value and appreciate all of you. Have a spectacular day and I look forward to seeing you at the top!

This is a uncomfortable subject sometimes, but not everyone we meet out networking is as qualified to be a valuable contact as we are to assume.

Google, screen on social networking, do your due diligence! You brand is at risk!

photo credit: Matt Gush

In order to create success and make networking worth your time there are a few simple principals you must follow.

By engaging in these simple actions your efforts compounded over time will inevitably create lasting success, and lifelong friendships.

1- Regular and On Time Attendance- This should be self explanatory, but unfortunately it is sometimes taken for granted.

2- Show interest and Participate- Sitting in silence does not add value to the group or portray you as a resource. Ask questions, give valuable ideas, do anything to get people to say “Wow! I would like to speak to this person.”

3- Be a Resource, Not a Meaningless Advertisement- Constantly pitching and only attempting to meet with people who you feel can help you will get you nowhere. You must be willing to help others unconditionally.

4- Build Relationships, Set up personal meetings- One on one meetings is what are going to build your valuable relationships. If you are not willing to make this commitment your business networking efforts are going to be a waste of time.

5- Help Others Unconditionally- You willingness to help is what is going to build your credibility and your brand. Wouldn’t you like your phone to be ringing off the hook? By positioning yourself as a resource and helping everyone that you possibly can without the expectation of something in return is going to mean you have successfully created credibility for yourself and your brand.

6- Find Mentors & Engage in Personal Development- Success without personal development leads to failure.

7- Position Yourself as a Resource, Stay in contact with those you meet- Maintaining regular correspondence with your network will help you stay in the forefront of people mind. The more you can be a resource the more your emails will be opened and your site will be trafficked.

8- “Rinse and Repeat” Plan, Do, Review- You will only get better through repetition – Once you have gotten these simple steps down keep doing them! This is it, the basics. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Mastering the mundane is what creates lasting success. The ideas and principals have been written and rewritten over and over again for hundreds of years, nothing has changed.

You have all the tools and resources to build your business as well as you network, get to work!

Business Networking to your success!

It is easy to find business networking functions to go to, but what does it take to make it worth the time investment?

I have broken it down into 6 MUST HAVE qualities. Each are very easy. Easy is anything that you can do. The flip side is everything that is easy to do is also easy not to do. If you aren’t willing to adopt these 6 qualities don’t even waste your time going to business networking events.

1. Desire to help others unconditionally- Giving with the expectation of getting something in return is not the objective. Help enough people get what they want and you will get what you want… Not necessarily from the person you helped!
2. Positive attitude- This is a MUST!! We each have enough crap to listen to everywhere else. If you don’t have anything constructive to contribute just SHUT UP!
3. Willingness to participate in meetings- Don’t sit there in silence when you have the opportunity to, at very least, ask a question. You are there to meet people and be perceived as a valuable resource.
4. Be prepared- Know your ideal client, referral partner, other event locations, etc.
5. Good Hygiene- Know one wants to be around people that smell or have bad breath.
6. Follow up- Meet with the people you met at an event on a one on one basis. Your purpose is not to sell the group with your commercial, it is to create an interest in meeting with you at a later time.

The best part about mastering these few things is it shouldn’t be that difficult. I love what Jeffrey Gitomer said in his book “Little Black Book of Connections,” “Everything you need to know about networking you leaned in grade school.” This couldn’t be more true!

Take a bath, play nice, do your homework, and participate in class. Many of you have kids, lead by example! For those of you who don’t have kids, like myself, get with the program!

Let’s get out there and create massive success!

photo credit: Lights Out Photos

I am going to be a little blunt and upfront today, but it is for your own good… I promise.

With the changes in the economy many people are taking part in MLM, Network Marketing, and Unfranchise opportunities. Whatever title you give it is irrelevant, if you can’t talk about it with confidence and pride quit already, don’t waste your sponsors time and energy.

The fact is there are more people making hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in that industry than most others industries combined. But I am not coming to you today to sell you on the industry, I am here to help you competently promote your business at a local business networking events.

In a nut shell you must adopt the philosophy of “Sell to recruit, don’t recruit to sell!”

People do not go to business networking events looking to “start a plan B,” “make extra money,” “take advantage of a prelaunch,” “save money when they shop,” or any other overused network marketing phase. They go to build their business!

You took part in the opportunity you are in right now because you saw value in the products or services… At least I hope that’s what your decision was based on. If it was based on who started your company, who’s backing your company, or how much money you THINK you can make your failure is imminent.

Network marketing is no different than any other business. It must offer an affordable product or service that solves a problem or fills a need, and the easier the product or service is to duplicate the faster heavy competition will show up in the market.

At business networking events your purpose is no different than anyone else at the group, and that purpose is to add value. When you have the opportunity to speak about your products or services, speak about your product or service! Don’t waste the groups time talking about how you need more distributors, that is for you to discuss with the leadership of your company. Your product is useful and you are there to find alliances and customer referrals, if your product doesn’t pay you enough to just market it by itself and you NEED new distributors to get paid FIND SOMETHING ELSE!

Business networking and network marketing are almost identical. They both are based on finding other people to develop relationships with and create success. You have the opportunity to work with who you want and your success is only up to one person, YOU!

There are hundreds of events, and hundreds of opportunities out there one constant variable is, if you are with a reputable company, “you are either not doing something enough or you are not doing something right.” – Nick Serba One way or the other only you can make the alteration.

Together we can come together as a nation and motivate, build up, and inspire each other to create more success than ever before. But, a change is philosophies and motives is imperative.

To your success, I look forward to seeing you at the top!

There are more and more home based and franchise opportunities coming along every day. You undoubtedly have been confronted with at least on over the last few month. Here are a few helpful little tips of how to effectively evaluate any opportunity.

First you always, ALWAYS want to evaluate the five key areas, which is the criteria Harvard Business College developed:

1) Company- How long has it been around, and does it have the capacity to withstand the test of time.
(Many people seem to think that all the money is made when a company starts or is at ground floor, this is not the case! A ground floor industry, with a rock solid company is a more efficient way to look at it)

2) Need in the Market Place- Is the product of service you will be offering filling a need? Will people live truly be better because they have what you offer, or will they just be storing a bunch of product to maintain their autoship?

3) Product- Must be something you can confidently put your name behind. You must become a product of the product. It is your testimonial that will attract attention, not the artificial excitement you have to been instructed to display.

4) Compensation- Obviously you want to get paid, but make sure you are building for longevity. If there are caps on your income or forced retirements why would you decide to put your sweat, blood, and tears into something that will only be temporary?

5) Timing- Timing is to business what location is to real estate. It is no longer if you are in the right place at the right time, it is now if you are the right person in the right place at the right time. YOU ARE THE KEY FACTOR!

If you have recently gone to a presentation that sold you on your dream for the first 40 min and presented the “opportunity” to you for 20 it is more than likely not a solid opportunity. Don’t allow people to excite you into a business. Allow the product or service to excite you. Get yourself a testimonial and then you have an exciting story.

Think of it this way, if there wasn’t an opportunity attached to whatever product or service you will be offering would you just purchase it if it was offered to you? Just be cautious to not letting the opportunity sell you the product, let the product sell you the opportunity.

And last but not least is duplication, how easy is it for you product or service to be duplicated? Will Wal-Mart be able to offer it once it sees some profit to be made? The ability to duplicate a product or service is what determines the longevity of an opportunity.

Please utilize as many of these tips as possible before making a final decision to invest time and money into your potentially amazing future. It is all up to you. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Good luck!