The One Quality You Need to Successfully Network and Promote Your Small Business

I’d like to go past the obvious. Entrepreneurs know that qualities such as professionalism, friendliness, and showing a passion for your business are helpful, if not necessary, when networking and getting people excited about your venture. The one quality I often see missing while I network, however, is mindfulness. This is something that occurs after the initial meet-and-greet is over and you’re at the stage where you’re cultivating relationships with the people you’ve met. Being a mindful entrepreneur will not only strengthen these relationships, it will help you avoid creating negative feelings accidentally.

Remember Who’s In Your Network. Would you rather be forgettable or unforgettable? It’s a silly question. Of course we want people to remember us! So, how do you feel when someone you’ve met forgets you? At the very least, it will give you pause. This happened to me. I started using a new networking/business directory app and I invited some people from my contact list to use the app as well. One of the people accepted the invite and sent me a message through the app. “It’s nice to meet you!” Well, we’ve already met, but thanks for the message.

I don’t want to make anyone in my network feel forgettable, even if the feeling is minor or temporary. When I meet people, I always get their business card and enter their contact information with notes in my address book. The notes include information such as where and when I met them, what event it was, and any other pieces of information I got through conversing with them. Remembering names is not one of my strong suits. My notes, however, help jog my memory once I can place someone at a certain location and event. So, when I get one of those out-of-the-blue e-mails and I don’t immediately recognize the name, I search for it in my address book. If I find it, great! I respond to the message and personalize it a bit. “I haven’t seen you since the Acme Networking Group Mixer. How are things going for you?” That way, the person knows I remembered them, creating positive feelings in the process.

Give Your Network Something Valuable. Another way to show mindfulness is understanding the needs of the people in your network and meeting those needs the best way you can. One gentleman in my network sends out a weekly e-mail of networking events going on that week. Sounds great, right? Let me tell you the rest and then let’s see what you think. He would send the e-mail on Monday…for that week. Sometimes Tuesday. By that time, I’ve already got my week planned out. He also wrote in all capitals letters that if you did not attend any of these events for two weeks, you would be removed from the distribution list. Last, if you were removed from that list, you still received solicitation e-mails from him. What seemed helpful on the surface turned out to be a little too self-serving for my taste. Dangling value in front of someone and then taking it away because of some pointless broken “rule” is bad form.

I took the basic structure of this idea and transformed it into something of permanent value for my network. Many small business owners are like me. We need to network but have limited funds. I decided to send out my own weekly e-mail, but with a few alterations. First, I send it out on Friday for events in the upcoming week. This gives people time to plan. Second, I only list free or low-cost events and include date, time, place, cost, and a link to each event. Third, I only take people off the distribution list if they ask to be removed. Last, the e-mail is informational only. I never solicit my services or ask for anything in return. So why do I do this? I mainly do it to help others in my network. I’m looking for events for myself anyway. It’s not that much additional work to type it out. The bonus effect, however, is that it creates goodwill; it relays valuable information to my network; and my business gets weekly exposure without looking, uh, “solicit-y”. Everybody wins.

Read E-Mails From Your Network Partners Thoroughly. My last suggestion for being a more mindful entrepreneur is to read your e-mails completely. Beginning to end. People like to be remembered AND heard. One of my biggest business pet peeves is someone replying to my e-mail and asking a question that was already answered in my original e-mail. That tells me they didn’t read the entire message. It sends a vibe that my e-mail wasn’t important enough to read all the way through or the person isn’t detail-oriented or careful. Or both. What makes it worse is I purposely keep my messages short because I know people have a tendency to skim long e-mails. I had someone ask me a question that was answered in, literally, the first sentence of my e-mail. It looks bad and I would be very reluctant to give this person a referral.

Final Thoughts. Meeting people is easy. Maintaining positive and meaningful relationships takes work. Being a mindful entrepreneur will boost your network’s confidence in you and will create an environment where small business owners can support each other and participate in everyone’s success. Remembering who’s in your network, adding value to your network, and reading network partner’s e-mails carefully are great ways to show that mindfulness.

If you want to receive my weekly e-mail of no-cost and low-cost networking events going on in the Metro Phoenix area, send me a message HERE.