Small Business Owner: Are You Eating Alone? Or Are You Eating with Your Customers and Strategic Partners?

How do you serve your community of colleagues and customers?

How you answer this question defines who you believe you are and what you believe your purpose is. Sometime ago, I wrote how building a business is like building a community. In that article, I wrote about the importance of tapping into our existing community to network with like minded individuals to form strategic relationships with. It is vitally important that we build a community with our customers as well.

The author, Keith Ferrazzi, of Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time says “real networking is about finding ways to make other people more successful. It is about working hard to give more than you get.”

Where do you go to interact with your colleagues and customers to make a connection?

The answer to this question may take some careful analysis to properly evaluate if you are getting the expected return on investment. As the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. If you are not connecting with the right customers who can buy your product/service or the right people who can get you to your customers, then you aren’t spending your time in the right places.

Once you are in the right place, how do you make a connection?

For this discussion, when I say connection, I mean the individual knows that you understand in the core of your being what his needs, wants, and desires are and you will do everything in your power to fulfill them.

Connection + Service= Great Relationships

Your business is as solid as your relationships. And relationships are based on listening. The better you are at listening to your customers and potential partners, the better you can serve them. The more effective you are at listening, the more successful you will be in growing your business.

Think about what your intention is. What do you need to grow your business by $25,000 next month? Who do you need to meet? What should that conversation look like? What relationships can you develop?

If you want help in answering these questions, please join us on Wednesday, March 31^st for the Listening to Your Business: Vision, Strategy, and Social Media workshop for NYC Entrepreneurs.

Much Success in Living Your Vision in 2010!