IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

Everything in the universe is in a relationship with everything else. Nothing can exist alone. Likewise, as business owners we have to stop thinking that we can achieve everything needed to grow a successful business alone.

Building successful, meaningful relationships are all about finding ways to make other people more successful. Successful relationships are a two way street, a constant process of giving and receiving – of asking for and offering help.

There are many options in to our selection process of people with whom we want to establish a relationship. Influential people in a community are usually the targets of many small business owners who dream of “hitting it big”. I prefer another option and that is to identify future community and business leaders and build your relationship by helping them become successful.

Some thought has to be given as to who you want to select for your ongoing relationship building effort. There is a somewhat plausible saying, “Everyone knows someone who can use your service or product, do build a relationship with everyone.” My recommendation is to find those people that also provide services or products to your target market.

The internet has made the identification process very easy. On most social media sites as well as networking sites, you will find information of people that want to establish a relationship. As an example, several that I have used are “Meet-up”, Alignable , and LinkedIn. The most important step in this process is to develop descriptions of the people you would like to meet.

A few of the criteria I look for are:

• Type of business.
• Length of time in business.
• Position in the company.
• Community involvement

Because I always try to reach out to people that I believe have my same values, I look for clues in what is printed about them in any media I can access. No, I don’t always have a “fit” in my selection process, but by being careful, I have a very high percentage of successful and profitable relationships obtained through this system.

My definition of successful relationship building requires a minimum of two personal contacts each week.