You've Opened Your Doors, Now What?

Your business is up and running you seem to have hit a small snafu: your customer base is far too small.  This is upsetting.  After all, you've opened your office doors, put an ad in the paper and told all of your friends to tell their friends.  What else is there? 

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Networking.

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Networking is all about building professional relationships through interpersonal communication.  Make sure that if there is a business fair that your company is represented.  Carry business cards with you at all times (you never know when the person in front of you at the movies will turn out to be a potential client).  Make sure that you have a presence on the internet as well as in the three-dimensional world. 

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So how does networking benefit you?  Think of it as a multiplication tree.  If you make one contact, that contact then talks to three of his or her contacts and those contacts mention your business to three of their contacts.  Before you know it your business's popularity has grown by leaps and bounds and that is just by making one contact! Think of how many potential clients you will reach if you turn every meeting into a networking opportunity!

Date: 22/02/2008
Category: BUSINESS EDITORIAL