Where Relationships & Referrals Meet

Archive for the ‘Systems’ Category

I was recently working with a small business owner that was struggling to find more business. He had come to me to teach him a little about networking and making connections. He’d attended several events and many people had referred him to me. After we talked a while, I made several suggestions. Every single suggestion I made he responded with “No, that won’t work” or “No, I can’t do that” or “No, I don’t have the time.” That’s fine…his choice. My choice…I fired him.

Why did I fire him? Because he had an extremely negative attitude and was unwilling to try anything new.

Trying new things is why there are so many small businesses! But for some reason once a business owner goes into business they get stuck. They get stuck in their beliefs, their problems and stuck in a small set of solutions. Trying something new is not only scary, its risky.

Here are three things that are NOT risky that I recommend:
1) find a CRM system that tells you who your clients are and more importantly, who your prospects are (Microsoft Outlook is probably already on your computer sitting there waiting for you to use it).

2) create a system for following up with people so you know who, how and when to call (and especially what to say).

3) create a prospect list: keep it simple. List the people or professions or companies that you’d like to meet. Then reach out to the people you know to find who knows them. Then get them to introduce you. How hard is that?

If you’re having a problem with networking; making connections or growing your business – YOU MUST CHANGE! If you want things to stay the same – then by all means keep doing what you’re already doing. BUT if you want to grow your business then doing what got you here, won’t get you where you want to go. YOU MUST CHANGE!

Change your ATTITUDE!

Change your SYSTEMS!

Change is good, however to change an attitudes is nearly impossible. Changing one attitude is equivalent to creating a miracle. Would you like to make your business miraculous? Then CHANGE your systems and your attitude about your them. Don’t have a system? Make one and tweak it until it works for you.