Today, I got a glimpse of just how many wonderful people Twitter has brought into my life.  You see, today is my birthday, and my friend @nancymyrland thought it would be the perfect excuse for a TweetUp.  It wasn’t a major landmark birthday, so no special reason for the celebration, except it sounded like fun.. and it was!  While many of the guest are long time friends and family, others are folks I had never met face to face.

But there we all were, ready to party, celebrating, life, business, friendship and birthdays with me and my good friend @edeckers ( who had a birthday this week too!)

And if you were there, and made a new friend, but didn’t get their Twitter ID, here is the list started by @kristenhorton.  I hope we have close to everyone who was there.

No Matter How Complete Your Business, You are Not a One Stop Shop

Your customer, has needs beyond what you can provide. Understanding those other needs may lead you to cross promotion opportunities with strategic partners in your circle!     As you think about your target customer, think about other products and services they purchase on a regular basis. The providers of those products and services can be ideal strategic partners for your company.

As a small business consultant, I surround myself with other professionals who offer services my customers needs. The group includes an accountant, lawyer, printer, computer expert and human resource professional.  I make time to meet with these key individuals on a regular base, and frequently exchange referrals or share clients.

Competitors in Your Inner Circle
In addition to these complementary services, I have a number of marketing professionals, web service and social media consultants  who compete with me in one or more areas of my business, who I consider part of my inner circle as well. Why???

• Capacity! - If I get overloaded (or if they do) we pass projects back and forth. There are times a client is a better fit with someone else because of their style or specific talent. In either case, I want to refer them to someone I trust if I can not complete the project myself.
• Complementary Services - As my business has grown, I have focused more and more on the things we do best, and I outsource the things which add value, but take us too long to do.

Building Your Circle
Building a solid business circle takes time. Make time for your strategic partners. Stay in touch with your partners through emails, phone calls and the occasional face-to-face. Find out what is new in their business and share what is new in yours. The more you know about each other, the easier it is to share clients.

He said: “If you are the smartest person you know, your circle is too small!”

And the more I thought about it, the more I knew he was right.  We all like to feel “smart”, we like to be respected, and valued for what we know and what we do.  But, particularly as small business owners, we need to surround ourselves with people who will push us, ecourage, and challenge us to do more, to do better, to change!

This idea of circles, and the roles other people play in your life, will be the theme of my upcoming presentation for the  Southeastern Indiana Women’s Conference later this month.

It is easy for small business owners to feel alone, and isolated, but it doesn’t work very well if you are.  Seek out other business owners, who will be good sounding boards, and perhaps have gone through many of the same challenges you are facing.

And remember it is a two way street, and sometimes, you have to be the one listening, supporting and suggesting too!

I was about three years old when my dad and I walked into a bakery. After he placed his order, he noticed I was staring into the glass display case with all the pastries.

He asked, “Lanie, do you want one?”

“Yes, daddy,” I replied enthusiastically.

The saleswoman handed me a round pastry, with whipped cream, and a cherry on the very top. As we turned to leave, the pastry fell to the floor. The saleswoman offered me another one which I was happy to accept.  As we turned to leave the second time it was obvious I deliberately dropped the pastry as soon as I ate the cherry.

“Lanie, why did you do that,” my father inquired. ( Right about now, I should mention my father was not a patient man)

“I only wanted the cherry,” I replied!

Don’t Mistake Cherries for Pastries
My father made a common mistake; assuming we were talking about the same thing.  Actually, he was talking about pastries, but all I saw was the cherries.

Anyone who has spent time with young children has had a similar experience.  Children enter conversations with a much narrower base of experience.  From this limited perspective they often miss the subtleties or even the main part of the conversation.

Adults Often See Just Cherries Too!
Surprisingly, this doesn’t change as we grow up.  We each enter conversation with limitations and gaps in our knowledge base. And yet, people often use technical or jargon-laden language at networking events.

The listener smiles politely, but has no real understanding of what is being said. The result - Instead of focusing on the message, and how they can help you, they are thinking about their next client, next conversation or possibly a lovely pastry with a cherry on top.

Let Children be an Example
So how do you engage someone who is unfamiliar with what you do?  The same way you engage a child.  Simplify the concept, making connections to things in their realm of experience.

Just for practice, before you head out to your next networking event, imagine you are about to enter a 2nd grade classroom, and the teacher has asked you to tell the children what you do!
If you can simplify the message for an audience of 10 year-olds, you can find something somewhere in between for a room full of adults.

Use these simpler, shorter sound bites at the next networking event you attend. You may be surprised to find the shorter answers and simple explanations are more likely to generate a response or question from the listener.

And because your listener has a frame of reference for your comments, you may end up with more referrals, sales, and the occasional cherry!

• Branding
• Customer Experience
• Word of Mouth
• Traditional Advertising and Promotion

It isn’t a either or world.   Just as TV added new dimensions to advertising for small business owners 70 years ago, so does Social Media today.

The title comes from the short presentation below, based on my experience giving a presentation with friends in my front row. The lesson I learned? When I give a presentation, or work on a problem, I want friends in my front row.

Why? They give you the encouragement, support, motivation, and nurturing you need to find truly creative solutions.

Thanks to Dave Anderson and Pinpoint AV for the production of this video

You return home after a networking event and empty your pockets, putting the business cards you collected onto the desk. What comes next? If you are one of those people who organize them in neat piles, tied with a rubber band and a promise to get to them someday, just toss them in the trash! Why - because people have a short memory.

What did you have for lunch? Be honest, do you remember what you had for lunch three days ago? I bet you don’t. And yet the interaction you had with you lunch was significantly more intimate, than the conversation you had at the networking event. So if you can’t remember what you ate three days ago, how can you expect someone to remember you a week later? When you come home from a networking event, you have 24 - 48 hours to follow up. After that it is too late! No one said this was easy. Networking is work!

Choose a few Great Connections If you have met quite a few people, sort through the cards, select one or two with whom you want to follow-up. Send an email or better yet a hand written card within 48 hours. The note does not have to be long. It should however, remind the person where you met, and open the door for a future conversation. When evaluating with whom you want to follow up and stay in touch, think about what you can do for them. Be fair, if you can’t see yourself ever referring any business their way, don’t waste their time or yours cultivating the relationship.

What Makes Good Follow Up? If you were asking good questions and really listening during your brief networking conversation, you probably have a few ideas. Consider an article on a topic of interest or an electronic introduction to someone you think they should meet. Do not use this first contact after a networking event as an opportunity for a sales pitch:

“Hi, I enjoyed meeting you and by the way if you are looking for____.” That not-so-subtle approach says “I am not really interested in you, unless you want to buy something.” An experienced networker knows it may take a few conversations to move to the sale mode, but when you get there, you have a greater chance of success.

Want to learn more about networking? Order a copy of Confessions of a Networking Junkie

When ever that happens to me I am reminded of an old story about an impatient young man who went to visit an old scholar. He demanded the the old man tell him everything he needed to know about the bible standing on one foot.

The old man smiled, stood on one foot and said, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you! All the rest is commentary”

What Would You Say?

If that same impatient young man came to your business, could you meet his challenge? Could you boil down the description of your business to a simple message, deliverable standing on one foot?

Say Less … Listen More When someone at a networking event asks “What do you do?” Treat the listener like an impatient young man. Avoid a long, detailed description of your products and services.   Instead, give a brief, but compelling description that leaves the listener wanting more … and watch what happens!

If you were there, please share your thoughts.  If you weren’t here is just a taste of what you missed with some of my favorite quotes and thoughts from the day:

Scott Massey -

• Leaders need to be four things: Scout, Knower, Witness and Conduit
• The pace of change today should change how we think about ‘change.
• If your not doing something that is bigger than you, you may be wasting your time
• And an intriguing question for Scott: What constitutes work in a concept economy?
  

Jenni Devoe

• Your old customers want to cast you in your old mold. Want to change the direction of your business? Change your customers!
• You’re not going to get where you envision being if you don’t first take the time to envision being there
• Dream until you die

Mark Hill

• It is about mote than ideas. It is about execution
• Wishful thinking is the enemy of execution
  
• People that are successful are the people that do what they say they are going to do.
• Find something you’re passionate about and you’ll never have a job

Sally Brown

• Quoting Helen Keller: Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all
• Measure your success with something other than money
• Ask yourself four questions. What can you do? What should you do? What will you do?  And How will you inspire others

David Forsell

• Life is a gift
• It wasn’t that David had less to say then the other speakers, I was just so wrapped in his story, that I stopped taking notes.  I hope someone else will fill in the blanks

Ken Johnson

• If you are the smartest person you know, your circle is too small
• Then mentality of low expectations is all around us - Call for greatness!

And then there was more…  Jon Ketzenberger and his panel  left us with a few more thoughts but I was running out of steam.   My favorite from the panel discussion:

• - We don’t have to embrace fear when we have the resources to embrace innovation.

And from some of the attendees:

• Jon Speer  ( @creoquality) summed up the event in three words Passion, Connect, Execute
• Mike Magan ( mikemagan) Indiana is in the early stages of a positive transformation.

And along with the speakers and the panel, were the unexpected performances from the Indianapolis Ballet Company and “Married to Magic”  performers from IndyFringe.

For more, check out the Twitter Stream at @ #SIBI and www.smallerindiana.com home page for the videos when they go live in the next few days!

We have created a  different post card for each or our products, printed about 1,000 and mailed them at the rate of 100 a week.   We have a list of about 1,000 small busienss owners on our “hit” list, and but sending the cards out in batches of 100, each company hears from us about every ten weeks.

As soon as a card arrives from the printer, it is time to start working on the next design.  Designing the different mailers was fun because we used slightly different styles and images to portray each service we offer.  It has been a great way to stay connected,  get our name out in the community and keep everyone up to date on the services! we offer.

And the result - we have had a number of calls after the cards are mailed, and a business owner receives one of our postcards.  Sometimes the calls even come a few months later.  The investment has been relatively small, but we are convinced the cards have contributed to  our ability to continue to grow our sales, even in a slower economy!