The worth of an entrepreneurs is in their ability to bring create solutions and to build relationships. What hinders small business is that we either don’t use our networks enough or we only use our networks. What small business is most guilty of is not networking because they could be doing something else. The thing is that having coffee or lunch with a contact is something seriously valuable, it’s building your net worth through your network and here is what you need to remember.
Build relationships, not sales
A cardinal sin that small businesses are the guiltiest of is the mistake of not recognizing potential sales. As soon as we met another company, we immediately think of what we can do in terms of product or services. Building relationships is about what you can build for the future and sometimes that means putting the sales talk on hold and figuring out how you can be helpful without sending an invoice.
Pick a role
If you want to be the person that executes the task every time, you are not an entrepreneur. If you want to be worker a bee, work for someone else. Entrepreneurs have to be big picture people and we have to able to make decisions above the fray. We cannot get down in the weeds every time something happens and that means that we have to surround ourselves with a team of capable and dependable people.
Surround yourself with people that will push you
I recently made a contact that I normally wouldn’t have and the result was massive. That’s the funny thing about business, deals aren’t made in the office. They are made over dinner, over lunch or on the golf course. They are made because we had great conversations about kids and vacations and then that person remembered you when they needed something. That’s the way you build relationships and that’s the way you build your business.
Running a business is tough and the learning curve is steep. The reward of success is so great that it justifies these pitfalls, believe me. So now that you not what not to do, how can you build your empire today
