Networking is a key business skill, a way that many of the top success stories of our time have played out and highlighted in the saying “its not what you know, its Who you know”. Now I put a fair amount of belief in that saying, primarily because it shows a clear definition between skills and people, that is you could know php in and out, maybe you even know a good place online to sell it, but sooner or later if you completely lack people skills your business will come a cropper.
As with all things it depends on your intention, but if you intend to succeed in business - then in 90% of cases you will need to master at least the basics of networking and people skills. From phoning up a sales lead or calling back an old customer the phone is part of the skill, politeness, charm and a positive distraction from the day are all skills of telephony that will allow you to lure people into maintaining a phone based business relationship. Furthermore public events, promotions, the hard sell are all good skills that you would expect a sales person to have done to the tee, but as an entrepreneur you have to act as a jack of all trades, learning enough of all areas of your business - in this case dealing with potential customers is key. Its worth noting that I have noticed that the people who are good with crowds, the loud ones begging for attention are not always the victors of the social war either. They may appear to be the life of the party, but resist joining in - be a clever people person - learn when to play and when to hold your hand!
Anyway people know about networking in real life - I find it fairly awkward and just have to throw myself in the deep end, and when I am there I am usually more than fine, but what about networking online? How do you develop friendships, business relations and find useful contacts online?
There are both good and bad ways to do it, as well as good and bad reasons for doing it. Finding helpful people sitting on the other end of a laptop or pc somewhere else in the world can be great for support work, online work etc. but the downside is you have to compete with spam and I find that the anonymity of net tends to mean that online workers can take longer to do things, drop projects more, scam you easier, be less answerable (e.g. if abroad.) With this in mind I would advise that if you need work done and you are going to look online for a solution, or if you want to find someone to mutually help you and themselves online then first know where too look:
Forums - A great source of information, connections, discussions, reviews, opinions. The great thing about forums for finding useful people is that good forums (e.g. digital point) have well established rep systems and its easy to find out if most people on there are trustworthy.
Advertise - Don’t forget sometimes the person you are looking for might find you - if you advertise on your site or on an appropriate niche website you will find your man. Key here is detail - lay down exactly what you are looking for - then you will either be able to choose from a list of lots or wont get the man you want because he doesn’t exist (or you are advertising in the wrong place!)
Blog Comments - Comment on peoples blogs you like - and don’t. Its often said this is a good idea - but the dislike is underplayed. Be honest, constructive criticism is 100% better than ass kissing, if the person is real then they will see your comment as what it is, if they just flame back they aren’t worth your time.
Manage your Time without mercy. Its always tempting to burn into the night commenting, posting, emailing - but the best way to build good relations is under reasonable sustainable situations.
What you think about that then? Tell me what you think or read something else from my Archives!
- 5 Startup Points - Don’t let your business be a failure from the start
- Subscribe the Masses - Great ways to get people subscribed to your blog
We all love statistics in business, economists, business owners, entrepreneurs like a good graph. With good reason too, without statistics, analysis and financial plotting we would all be up sh*t creek, because that would be like a blind man fighting on the front line.So which are the most important statistics to a business? well this can depend a great deal on the area of business being traded in. Selling Fish for example - statistics are less critical, but they definately still care whether over the last 5 years their haul has increased in tonnage of fish or not. Assuming your business is online - which if your reading this the chances are this applies, then statistical analysis divides the online-elite with the semi-profitable.
Competitiveness heightens the effectiveness of statistical analysis as a refinement process, not to mention the freely available tools and data to make the whole process quicker and easier.
As an e-commerce outfit you may focus on sales, best selling products, geography of orders, profit percentage etc. All are great to help you predict future trends, maximise on sales and cut overheads.
SEO, SEM and online marketeers alike tend to focus on unique visits per day, ROI (return on investment), effective cpm, CTR (Click through ratio), impressions and suchlike.
So if you are in a service providing position, whether you operate an seo company, hosting solutions, advertising management, account services and suchlike, Statistical reports and information can be a great add value tool. It is quick and easy to write a few php scripts that monitor referrers, page load times, click through ratios, advertisement impressions, geo positions etc. and then creating an easy to view ’statistical’ system for your end users/customers will only add value to your packages. Not to mention the positive of adding value, provided you offer relative statistics that are simple and offer HELPFUL numbers then the business’s and people you sell too will likely use them to refine their own actions, growing their business and their esteem for you providing them such a useful refinement system.
Creating tools that will allow your business customers to do better business will be positive exponentially and is well worth the programming time.
If you like this business point then may I recommend reading the following:
- Pagex - My simply built seo and statistical business cms - bolt on - 2 files that will change your developing!
- Opening a business bank account in the UK - Easy business
- Hyperlocal - How local should your internet business focus?
refine