What Your Business think

According to researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Pennsylvania State University, bosses think that "cross-pollinators" are able to bring fresh ideas to their department, while also developing a valued network of co-workers who are important assets in navigating the corporate waters.

Another advantage of networking: At least, 75 percent of all jobs are landed through networking connections, according to Atlanta career coach Jennifer B. Kahnweiler. "And that even includes jobs advertised in the newspaper and through search firms," Kahnweiler says.

What's more, among women who have participated in Women Unlimited programs (this firm offers networking opportunities to women from companies across the country), networking can have an incredibly positive impact on your career. All the participants agreed that through networking, they not only broadened their circle of contacts, they also gained the confidence to ask for promotions and raises, the courage to pursue other opportunities within their companies -- plus they improved weaknesses and developed strengths.

The good news, according to Helen Fisher, Ph.D., author of The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World, "Women don't have to learn how to network -- they're born with the ability. On a playground, it's the little girls who form groups and work to build harmony within their tight circles."

Despite this natural affinity to click and connect with others, however, networking is not a high priority for many women because it requires time and energy -- two precious commodities among a majority of working women today.

Nevertheless in today's ever-changing business economy, networking is a necessity in your quest for success.

"It's critical throughout your career to gather information and to let people know of your interests, so they'll have their radar up for you," says Peter Vogt, president of Career Planning Resources in Eden Prairie, Minn.

But what if you don't have time to put on the power suit and go out to shake hands and exchange business cards?

Kahnweiler offers one solution. "You want to be strategic about how you network. It used to be you just networked all over the place. Let's meet this person; let's meet that person. But our time is more valuable now. You want to be smarter about how you network."

Another option for women busy juggling work and family is to log onto their computers to network. The Internet is an invaluable tool for connecting with other professionals, reaching potential clients, and learning more about your industry. Many online sites have chat rooms with scheduled meetings -- or you can network on your own using message boards and forums.

Bizwomen.com offers "the bizwomen exchange," a free live networking site.

For other service providers, try doing searches for a topic that is of interest to you and include "chat," "message board," or "forum" as a keyword whey you search (examples: "business chat," "marketing message board," "real estate forum").

Are you tired of going to one networking event after another with little or no results? Here are several of the reasons that you may not be getting the results you are looking for.

1. "The purpose of going to networking events is to collect as many cards as possible and to build a huge Rolodex." Many business owners and independent professionals believe if they just meet enough people, great things will start to happen. Your purpose in attending networking events should be to develop relationships. Simply gathering cards and shaking hands will not bring business.

2. "The purpose of going to networking events is to sell my products and services." This approach is guaranteed to ensure that you will not see much benefit out of your networking activities. The fastest way to turn off networking partners is to attempt to push you product or service. Your focus should be one thing only and that is to meet potential networking partners and to learn about THEIR business first. Then talk about your business with the thought in mind of looking for ways to work together to refer business or create an alliance.

3. "If I meet someone at a networking event and agree to be a referral partners, then it is likely that I will receive referrals." The only way that you will receive referrals from networking partners is to develop a face-to-face mutually beneficial relationship that generally develops over time. Your first step when you meet a likely partner should be to get together for lunch or a cup of coffee and get better acquainted. From there it may take anywhere from one to five or six more meetings to begin to reach a level of trust and confidence to do business together.

4. "I can maintain relationships with hundreds of people as referral partners." The reality is that you can only effectively manage around 20 relationships on an in-depth basis. To meet with key partners enough to build the type of relationships that will bring new business takes a tremendous investment in those relationships. You should break down your list by A relationships, B relationships and C relationships. The A group is the one you want to spend the majority of your time with.

5. "If I find a great referral partner it will stay that way forever." You should constantly be evaluating your referral partner list and focus on those that are most productive. Relationships evolve for many reasons, and you can find yourself spending your time unwisely. Keep a log of where your business is coming from and invest your time wisely.

If you avoid these mistakes, you will be able to decrease your networking time and a greater amount building relationships that will produce results!

Selling your ebook on the internet will require that you know some technology. Even though writers do not like to get involved with the behind the scenes technology, it is imperative that you know how to get around in order to sell more ebooks. Here are the basic skills you will need to know in order to market and sell your ebook online.

• How to set up and post to your blog - A blog will become important as you want to build your list and promote yourself on the internet. I prefer to use Typepad for blogs because it is user friendly. Once you see how to do it, working on your blog will become as easy as writing a letter or sending an email.
• You will also need to know some HTML code. This is what is used to write a webpage. If you can use a few short pieces of this code, you will be able to make some changes to your work online.
• How to add a page to your website. If you can use a word processing program such as Word, you will be able to learn how to add a new page to your website. Once someone has set it up for you initially you will be able to make changes and save them. Then you can publish the site and it will upload these new pages to the server. This is really much easier than it sounds here.

Learn these basic skills and will have complete control over your online business and will be able to sell your ebook on the internet. It is much easier if you have someone to walk you through the steps at first.

Networking is about building relationships with others. It's about giving first, before expecting to receive. It's about making contacts, and then developing relationships so that each person can feel comfortable referring the other person's services to others. It's about building TRUST. How long does it take to build trust? The amount of time varies. But, it definitely takes more than a chance one-time meeting.

The key with networking is building the relationship. This happens when you nurture, and maintain contact with persons who you desire to "build a network" with. Whether you use a contact management software program to help you do this, or a Rolodex file, it is important to find a way to keep in touch with the person.

Keeping in touch can be accomplished by:

1. Sending an article out of a newspaper/journal that may be of interest to them.
2. Inviting them out periodically for coffee to "relationship build."
3. Calling with some news, special information of interest to them.
4. Calling to let them know you referred a lead to them.
5. Socializing with them at networking events.

These are all simple ways to keep in touch, and might be done monthly. Of course, it is important to prioritize your contacts, and strive to develop the ones which you find are most valuable to you. They can be categorized by:

1. Needs my product
2. Knows someone who needs my product
3. Valuable or professional contact
4. Social contact
5. Useless contact (Yes, they exist! You will know which they are.)

How you categorize your networking contacts is up to you.

I have been attending a lot of networking events lately, meeting LOTS of new people. Today, I attended a group I have been part of for four years. It was great to see familiar faces. It was then that I understood the value of these long-term relationships, and how long they take to build. I felt "at home..."

© 2006, 2008 Bonita Richter and Profit Strategies.

The networking season has begun. And if these events include cocktails and canapés, you'll be caught in the same bind as everyone else. How do you network and eat and drink, all at the same time?

Here's the typical scenario. You approach someone who's shoveling food into his mouth, and he puts up his hand as if to stop you. He can't really talk right now.

Or you put out your hand to shake someone's hand. She is holding a cold drink, so she has to find a place to put the drink down. Then she wipes her hands on their pants or jacket and shakes hands, all the while apologizing for her cold, clammy hand. Not a pretty picture, is it?

Here are 7 tips to help you network well, and still enjoy the food!

1. Don't try to network and eat at the same time. Networking isn't about eating, it's about meeting people. That's why it's called net-work, not net-sit or net-eat. If you are hungry before the event, try to eat before you go.

2. If you don't have a chance to grab a bite before the event, when you arrive, find a place to sit down and eat some of the delicious food. Then get up and network.

3. If you still plan to eat and talk, here's how to do it. Choose foods that are easy to eat, like baby carrots or cheese and crackers. Warning: Don't pick up that cherry tomato. It's likely to squirt tomato juice on the person in front of you.

4. Always keep a napkin in your left hand, so you can wipe your fingers after you eat something. And always keep your right hand ready to shake hands.

5. Avoid anything greasy or sticky, such as fried chicken wings. Be careful of very hot canapés that can burst open or fall apart in your fingers.

6. Hold cold beverages in your left hand, so your right hand is always ready to shake hands. Hold your wine glass by the stem in your left hand as well.

7. To hold both a plate and a drink, use the Layering Technique. Here's how it goes. Hold a small plate in your left hand. Put your wine glass on the plate and anchor it with your thumb. Put a napkin under the plate and hold it there. Every time you eat, wipe your fingers on your napkin. Voila! Now you can add finger food to your plate, and still keep your right hand available for shaking.

There's much more to successful networking that just eating and drinking. You have to know how to approach people, how to introduce yourself, and how to follow up.

More and more I've been facilitating progressive networking events where participants switch tables three times over the course of the evening to interact with three different groups of people.

It's one of my favorite events to lead, and attendees enjoy them as well because they really maximize the number of connections they can make in a very short amount of time and know exactly what to do next to follow up. And when the events are done well - and I always strive to go the extra mile - people also form deeper connections. Both breadth and depth in networking.

A few years ago, I led a particular event for the National Association of Women Business Owners that still sticks it out in my mind today. And it's all because of the novice networker who came off like a pro.

I met her during the second round of the event. She sat at my table along with several networking veterans I knew, and some I didn't. No one could tell by looking at her that she was completely new to networking. And had she not told us herself, we would never have guessed.

This was the first networking event she had ever attended, yet she handled herself beautifully and was an instant hit. Why? She did a number of things that sometimes even experienced networkers forget (or don't know) to do to make a lasting, positive impression.

If you're just getting started with networking or find yourself struggling with it, you'd be wise to take some of these lessons to heart:

• She admitted she was nervous. Just came right out and told the whole table. While this may seem like a risky move on the surface, in fact, she endeared herself to us immediately. She didn't quite know what she was supposed to do, and by saying so in an honest and heartfelt way, we all wanted to help her.

• She was friendly and enthusiastic. A smile goes a long way. No one wants to network with a sourpuss. You need to be approachable and show that you're open to learning and listening if you want to attract great people into your network.

• She showed a strong work ethic. During the group interaction she shared that she was working full-time at a bank, going to school for her degree and also working part-time in the music industry. Definitely no slouch. We were all impressed with her and felt that although she was young and didn't have a lot of experience, she could get any job done through hard work.

• She came prepared. Though the bank didn't give her her own business cards, she brought a stack with her boss's name and wrote her name and cell phone number on the back. A few people at the breakfast actually ran out of business cards. A rookie mistake that I've seen many veterans make, but that this newbie did not.

• She thanked me afterwards. I'm a sucker for politeness, what can I say? I always feel that it's a nice touch to thank the organizers of an event especially, and, to a lesser extent, the speakers. In addition to being a considerate gesture, it's an easy (and quick!) opportunity to get face time with some of the most influential people in the room. And since so few people do it, you'll be remembered.

While I've come to specialize in teaching networking from the ground up, giving networkers a progression of steps and tools to get motivated and get going, what I learned that day was networking from the inside out - how enthusiasm, authenticity and 'fessing up to your fears can be just as important to a successful start.