:The Flash Advancer

Friends are always passing my name along to people who are doing a job search or building a practice. They usually tell the person about my coaching practice and recommend that the person call me. (I love referrals!!)

Last week people in my network referred three different people who were at three different stages in their careers. What struck me was how similar my response to each of them was.

One young woman, Karen, who recently graduated from college, is now embarking on her first job search. The second person was Jen an attorney with a significant law practice who asked for help in building a new specialty into her practice. The third was Bob who had recently closed his business after 20 years. Bob is also now in the middle of a job search. (Names make it easy to write about but are not the actual names of my clients.)

Karen had no experience doing a job search before. She had a resume and had been answering online job ads but said she felt that was going no where. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to do! When I suggested she do some informational interviewing, she told me she would like to do that but, “How can I find people to talk to when I’ve just graduated college and haven’t lived in this community very long?”

Jen has built a substantial and growing real estate law practice in her 10 years in business. She did this by forming close relationships with the banks and realtors in her area. Now she would like to begin to add cases in small business law to her practice but isn’t quite sure how to get started finding clients.

Bob is in the middle of his job search. He has focused in on three or four jobs that he has applied and interviewed for. As he waits for responses he wonders what he could do to differentiate himself from the others applying for the same job.

Whatever you do today you need relationships with others to help you find work or customers now and in the future. Who is currently in your network? How recently have you contacted them?

For those who are just starting out like Karen, you can begin with your college. Professors, alumnae, and friends are the beginning of your network. Building a spreadsheet with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of acquaintances, friends and colleagues will also be very helpful now and in the future when you want to look for another job or to start a business. People who live outside your location may still know people in your area. Karen could also tap into her parents network.

If you have built a small network as Jen has then think back to what worked for you in the past and do it again. Jen plans to grow the small business part of her practice by approaching the banks and some of the clients that she has had a relationship with. In addition she needs more direct contact with small business owners so she agreed to join some business organizations like the Chambers of Commerce. Since she uses Outlook in her practice I suggested she add her new contacts to the address book in that.

As a former business owner Bob has lots of contacts. In his previous life Bob used ACT! so he was able to go back to that database for some ideas. He was amazed to see that at least a dozen people he knew worked in the companies that he had interviewed with. He could see that contacting those people could certainly positively impact his application especially if the contacts were willing to put in a good word with the hiring manager for him.

Building and maintaining good relationships with people is a skill we all need. Those relationships can be used in many ways. Some of the people in your network may become close friends, others will be colleagues and peers, and still others will be people who are a few steps ahead of you in their careers. Your relationships are important both in your personal life and your work life. Taking good care of them is an important life skill.

Take Action:

1. Take stock of your network and how you keep track of the people in it. Do you know how to contact them and what they do for a living? Create your own database if you don’t have one.

2. Check that database for people you are out of touch with. Commit to reconnecting to one or two people in your network each week. The holidays are a great time to start this.

3. Join an online networking group such as www.linkedin.com. Here is a way to use your network to reach people in their networks. While you are there link to me too!

4. Does the idea of going to networking events or calling people to set up informational interviews scare you? A coach can help you overcome fear, eliminate blocks and address beliefs that are holding you back.

About Alvah Parker

Alvah Parker is a Business and Career Coach as well as publisher of Parker’s Points, an email tip list and Road to Success, an ezine. To subscribe send an email to join-roadtosuccess@go.netatlantic.com.

Parker’s Value Program© enables clients to find a way to work that is more fulfilling and profitable. She is both a Practice Advisor and Coach to attorneys, managers, business owners, sole practioners, and people in transition. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com She may also be reached at 781-598-0388

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Each year time pressed small business owners spend hundreds to thousands of dollars in the marketing activity known as networking. This activity has multiple purposes including:

• To gain the attention of prospects
• To expand potential prospects’ list
• To build relationships with prospects
• To secure referrals
• Bottom line to increase sales

However, when looking at the use of resources employed to network through local chambers of commerce, professional associations or specific networking organizations such as BNI, LEADS or LeTip, the two questions that need to be asked are:

What is this traditional networking strategy delivering to me in terms of clients whether direct or indirect through these leads or referrals?

And is there another way to achieve more clients and sales using less resources?

Let’s examine the traditional networking return on investment or ROI.

A business owner joins a local chamber for $200 and then attends 1.5 hour monthly luncheon meetings at $20.00 She then spends 3 hours each month on two chamber committees. Additionally, she joined a local association for another $200 as well as a formal networking group for $700. The local association meets monthly in the evening for 1.5 hours and there is no food bill, but the networking group meets weekly for breakfast that costs $10.00 and takes 2 hours. Additionally, she spends 1 hour per week on her reports for the networking group to preparing for the other events.

When we total her time, this active and time starved business owner is devoting 18 hours each month not including drive time which could be easily add another 7 hours for a total of 25 hours. By placing $100 per hour on her time, she is investing $2,500 each month. Her monthly fixed networking costs are $60 for food and $40 for travel. When we annualize these costs combined with the annual membership fees, the total is a conservative $32,300.

Let’s also presume that her average client is worth $5,000. She would have to secure 6.5 clients each year just to break even. For this marketing strategy to demonstrate a positive return on her investment, she would need to acquire at least 7 clients. Even if she acquired 20 clients, the cost would be $1,615 per client leaving her with $3,385 gross profit per client.

Now let’s consider a non-traditional networking strategy called “Fast Pitch” or table networking. Using this strategy, the same business owner would spend 2 hours at each event along with an hour of drive time and would be guaranteed meeting 25 new prospects at each event. She attends 8 events for a total of 24 hours and meets a minimum of 150 prospects (presuming there is some duplication of attendees at each event) during the year costing her $2,400. The fee for the event averages $40 and her gas is $10.00. There is no annual membership fee saving her hundreds of dollars. When annualized, her networking costs are now a conservative $2,800. Her clients are still worth $5,000. So she needs just to acquire 2 clients to break even. If she secures just one client per event for a total of 8 clients, her acquisition cost per client would be $350 leaving her with a $4,650 gross profit.

After “doing the math,” Fast Pitch Networking or table networking appears to potentially deliver greater value and yields a dramatic return on investment. For each individual business owner, the results would vary. However, if you want to recover your networking investment, maybe it is time to consider the non-traditional, Fast Pitch, networking strategy.

Leanne helps small business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals to double performance in real time. Click here to learn how to catapult your business to the next level and sign up for a free monthly newsletter. Please feel free to contact Leanne at 219.759.5601. If you truly don’t believe doubling your results is possible, read some case studies where individuals and businesses took the risk and experienced unheard of results.

One quick question, if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack, what would that mean to you? Then, take a risk and give a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.

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It is amazing how humans seek out companionship and it appears in an observation of over all society, more people do wish to get to know people better. They seem to be intrigued with meeting new people and enjoy the personal insights they get from discovering more about the inner thoughts of others.

This is a positive thing for human interaction even as the interpersonal relationships in larger more dense civilizations trivialize the individual and dehumanize social interactions. This is not a negative comment or a positive one of humanity, just an observation.

Some of the reasons for less interpersonal relationships seem to be caused from Data Smog or over load of information taking our bandwidth or organic brain thought processes. Some people assume this is bad and they blame the 250 channels of Satellite radio, 600 channels of Satellite TV and the Internet online news, Ezine newsletters, email or 8.88 Billion web pages searched in .06 seconds.

It is truly amazing if you stop to think about it. So I suppose you might like to get to know me better and I suppose I might like to get to know you better. It is for this reason and many are joining in ad hoc online forums, emails and Blogs to share them selves and meet others online. Perhaps this ability may just bring us all back together again? Think on it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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With at least 60% of job-seekers finding employment through networking, it’s no wonder that people are turning to their colleagues and acquaintances for advice and help in finding employment. The old adage, “It’s not what you know, but who you know” rings true when it comes to sources of labor in today’s economy.

The Traditionalists

In the recent past (and even today for some unbending traditionalists), if you were unemployed you would focus on perfecting your resume, scour through the classifieds, or spend $5K getting help from an employment firm only to end up with outdated job leads and generic career advice - but still no job.

While these tactics are still important to employ as part of an overall job hunt, it seems like a lot of work and energy (never mind monetary resources we don’t have) when you consider the 60% of people who are finding jobs via referrals and relationships they’ve built.

Dinosaurs can Change

But even old Traditionalists can learn new tricks. Take my close colleague, J.M., for example - an experienced traditionalist and professional in the insurance agency who is just now ’succumbing’ to e-mail technology and implementing it in his daily interactions with customers. Some people are slow to adopt new technology. J.M. is slower. So when I told him I was launching ViralCommerce.com (a social networking tool for professionals) and explained it helps people to create new contacts and build their network via their existing contacts, I fully expected him to turn and run. Instead, he replied (via e-mail) “Give me a demo sometime. You never know. Dinosaurs can change. “

And he’s right. People change… but only when the old way isn’t working anymore. After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. No one wants to be insane.

Enter the Social Network

Social networks provide a fresh avenue for professionals to make new contacts without the time expenditure incurred attending mixers or scheduling lunches. Based upon the six degrees of separation theory, whereby you and anyone you could want to meet are separated by a maximum of six people/connections, social networks have become an extremely helpful resource tool for job hunters and employers alike.

Unlike sites built on classified ads, social networks like ViralCommerce.com promote traditional networking, building relationships by e-mail and interviews. Instead of hunting for a specific job, members of the network look to reach out and expand their network - in turn expanding their job opportunities. Often, building connections with other members results in accessing top jobs that aren’t published in classifieds or traditional job postings.

The concept behind using social networks to find a job is easy: The more connections you make within the network, the more friends-of-a-friend you can
meet, and the better your chances of finding an employer or key contact who can make an introduction resulting in employment for you.

Networking Online

Why do it all online? Why not take the concept and just apply it to your own existing inner circle? The answer: Diversity. Chances are, the people who are already in your network probably feel the same way you do about pretty much everything. You probably agree on most matters and likely have a large number of similar contacts. And those contacts that you don’t already know, you probably weren’t even aware your colleagues knew. They didn’t think to introduce you because the obvious synergy between you wasn’t obvious to them.

Using a social network like ViralCommerce.com gives you access to your colleague’s contacts without them having to determine who you would or wouldn’t benefit from knowing. You can search through contacts and request an introduction with ease. In addition, because most social networks aren’t limited by demographics the diversity is incredible. Take ViralCommerce.com for instance, where you can request a connection with the Chaplain of the Oakland Raiders, a Norwegian Software Programmer, a Sales Professional representing Usana Health Sciences, or a Professional Recruiter from Illinois.

Mixing it Up

Of course, it’s recommended that you use online tools to complement, not replace, traditional efforts. Networks aren’t an instant fix. It takes time to build relationships, but once they’ve been established the pay off is great. Think of it as a whole new set of contacts and opportunities, or perhaps the tool that might just help you land your ideal job. After all, it’s not what you know - it’s who you know.

About the Author:

Sherry Schuller is President of Viral Commerce, Inc. and Zabbo Communications. She is the founder of the Conference on Strategic Growth for Businesses and Entrepreneurs, co-author of 222 Ways to Entrepreneurial Success, and has assisted many organizations with strategic planning, branding, marketing, advertising design, training, and application development. She was previously an Internet Specialist for IBM’s leading North American distributor, Business Partner Solutions (now Avnet), and an independent consultant for various firms, including PRIMEDIA, Inc., the leading provider of targeted content and integrated marketing solutions in consumer and business-to-business sectors.

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“No time to network!” Is this something you grapple with?

I can certainly relate to not having enough time in the day to do everything I want to. With a toddler and an infant, ALL my time is spoken for — for now, at least. Yet I continue to network (successfully, I might add).

How do I manage?

Before I answer the question, let me ask you this: do you consider “networking” to be a distinct and separate activity (like an item on your “to do” list)?

That could be part of the problem.

Well, here are two ways you can network, even when you “don’t have time”.

1. Integrate “networking” in your normal day.

People “network” all the time. You too. Except, you may not think of what you’re doing as “networking”.

Here is an example of what I mean:

Let’s say you’re looking for a landscape maintenance company, that will take care of your yard year round. Mowing the grass in the summer, raking the leaves in the fall, clearing the snow in the winter. But perhaps you’re new to the area, or maybe you know the area but are a new homeowner, and you don’t know how best to find someone who is reliable, affordable and does good work.

So what do you do? Chances are, you probably ask people you know who are homeowners, for information, recommendations and references.

This is networking.

And as I said, you probably do this kind of thing without thinking.

Now, if you consciously applied the same concept to your business needs, you wouldn’t need to carve out extra time for “networking”. It would become integrated into your normal day and how you did business.

2. Leverage technology whenever you can.

In this day and age, it’s possible to get to know and work with someone without ever meeting them in person. In my previous career, I successfully built and led a team, whose members were located in 4 different continents.

How did we work successfully without ever meeting each other? We simply used technology (nothing fancy — common stuff like phone and email) to get to know each other, keep in touch and coordinate our work.

You can do the same in networking.

Here are a couple of examples of how you can use technology to your advantage when networking:

A client of mine asked me once if I could recommend some Executive recruiters to him. I didn’t have this information. However, I did belong to several online groups that had people who could provide me with this information.

So I posted a question on a few of these lists, describing exactly what I was looking for. Within a couple of days I got a list of Executive recruiters from people I trusted. And I passed this information on to my client.

Note a couple of things here though.

First, this information came from “people I trusted”. Even though I’d never met many of them in person, I knew them (or got to know them) through email and/or phone conversations. Second, I posted my question on *some* lists — I chose only those lists whose members I thought would be best able to help me find this information.

In terms of generating referrals for my own business, here is one way I leverage technology to help me with this:

I regularly ask my customers and subscribers, especially those who find my articles and products useful, to refer people to me.

Specifically, I ask them to tell their friends and associates about these resources, and provide an online form to help facilitate this. I ask for referrals (and present this form) during key interactions, such as when someone requests the free self-paced program, or buys one of my products.

My point is, even when I’m unable to ask for referrals in person, using technology I am still able to ask.

(c) Copyright 2006, Srirupa Dasgupta

Sri Dasgupta helps business professionals get better results from their business networking efforts. She is the author of the Effortless Networking, and writes regular articles offering business networking tips and related resources.

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Global Warming is the most talked about topic, and the evidence of global warming are all over the world recently. The phenomenal increase in the Earth’s temperature due to the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide etc is the main reason for global warming. The greenhouse effect is the most important cause for global warming. It is very important to have these greenhouse gases, but at permissible levels, as these gases trap the heat rays from the Sun and provide the much needed thermal blanket for the Earth which is ideal for us human beings, animals and plants to survive in this world.

But, in the last couple of decades, there has been an alarming increase in the emission of CO2 in the atmosphere that has made the Earth warmer than usual and hence we find an increase in the temperature. So, we see more and more temperature being absorbed in the atmosphere, which increases the temperature of the Earth gradually causing global warming. But, more then presence of CO2 in the atmosphere, the more will be the effects of global warming on Earth. The causes of global warming are many like emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from man made factories, industries, vehicles etc; deforestation of natural vegetation and forests; Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) used as jet propellant and in aerosol sprays and refrigerators; emission of methane gases from marshy places etc.

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