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!

This is an excellent question to ask when you would like to audit yourself and your actions. Meeting thousands of people over the past 4 years of networking has taught me one thing specifically, talk is cheap. Business networking is a game of sorting and numbers just like anything else. Beware, there are a lot of people out there talking a big game, but when it comes down to their key philosophies they will prove to be a disappointment.

Don’t let that discourage you! That is what is great about business networking; YOU get to choose who YOU align yourself with. What you must train yourself to do is identify the people that are trying to make $100k with a $30k philosophy. These are the people that appear to always be flustered and busy, but most likely they are chasing the same people who have been telling them “no” for months.

Being excited is wonderful, but only when excitement is effectively directed towards the achievement of one’s objective. Ignorance on fire draws more attention that knowledge on ice, but it is when you can harness the fire and combine it with knowledge that you will have true power.

Adopting a few simple principles and activities, then consistently doing them over an extended period of time will reveal not only the discipline of a person, but uncover the success that may have been hiding just beneath the surface. Having a relaxed intensity is key, when you don’t allow insignificant things to fluster you, when you can keep you focus on the end result then and only then is when all the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together to unlock massive success.

How much is your daily routine worth? Is it enabling you to achieve the levels of success you desire? If not, then when would NOW be the best time to make a change?!?

Don’t take my word for how effective networking can be for your business, listen to a local Tampa Bay business owners successes and how he did it.

Selfless promotion is the name of the game. How many people can you help?!?