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How to Build Wonderful Relationships With Your Clients Through Live Events

For the past few weeks my heads down working on one of my businesses , TheBDevent. The entire concept is focused around bringing executives together in a particular industry, segment of the Technology Industry for education and peer networking without the distractions that a typical trade event brings of multiple different areas to cover and too many places to be. The event is regionalized and held in different parts of the country a few time a year. Well, we’re just about done with our 3 day event in Boston and I’ve learned a few thing and have been reminded of a few thing this week.

1. Personal Connection makes a difference: There is very great value in meeting somebody face to face, shaking their hand, and grabbing a chair for discussion .  Getting to know them better from both a business and personal perspective has a huge impact on the ability to do better business when you’re in different geographic areas and spend a majority of the time communicating via email and telephone. You can build a stronger relationship when you personally connect with them.

2. A little enjoyment goes a long way: While we may have fun with it, most of us spend a lot of time running from place to place, stressed out and plain old tired as we grow our businesses. It continue to amaze me what happens when bringing people together, in one place, to get a little work done and then allowing time to socialize and relax. Brilliant ideas are born and synergies are created. Sometimes in the formal meeting, sometimes at dinner or at the bar afterward. I realize how substantial in business relationship to hang out with your client though we don’t get to do it enough because both of us spread across the country.

3. The value of the live event is huge: When you get dozens/hundreds of the smartest people in an industry together then bring in other smart people to provide education through discussions, forums and presentations – the collective “smartness” increases. The learning that is done leads to new concept , new products, new partnerships, new relationships , etc. As event promoters, we may not know it during the event or right away – but at some point something that was said at X event has a positive effect on someone and they make action. New companies and new products are born.

4. We are all human: Our events include many of the “who’s who gurus” of the industry. I’m talking about the people with oodles of respect, money and influence. It is wonderful to take time out of their busy days to join us and share with us. And yes, sometimes I am surprised they take the time – but they do. They weren’t always gurus or part of the who’s who. They started someplace, worked hard and moved up and didn’t forget their roots or their friends. It is amazing to watch. Having put on these events for a while now, it continues to remind me that deep down we’re all just people looking to grow our businesses and live a good life and that connecting and helping others learn is all a part of that.

I want to propose an idea to you to take a look around your industry and see if there is an association or group of people that puts on live events during the year and if you haven’t been to one I want you to look into it . Whether you’re a lawyer, florist, realtor, artist, mechanic, network marketer, or basket weaver – there are others like you , your peers, that want to get to know you. And there are events for you. Go, enjoy yourself, learn and you’ll benefit from the information and friendship gained. Trust me on this one . I experienced it myself and seen it happen.

Have a great day!

P.S. I appreciate your feedback and look forward to your comments. For more information about my services or to find out how we can partner together call me at 503-780-3203 or email me at vanessa@vanessaduplessie.com.

 

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Tags: Business, Coaching, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Internet Marketing, mlm, Network Marketing, Public Relations, relationships, small businesses

The Skills And Mindset Of Typical Entrepreneurs

Whether you dream of owning your own small business or of creating the next big global enterprise brand, there’s a lot of skill and work that goes into becoming a successful entrepreneur. If you’re thinking of making the move to working for yourself, read on. One of the first things you need to have in place is a good idea as, without this, you’ll be nowhere. You also need the skill to turn that idea into reality, so an element of practicality is essential.

This takes commitment and dedication on your part as it can often take a long time before even the best of ideas come to fruition. You may want to give consideration to the following things: do you care enough about your idea to work on it for free until it starts to come good? Are you willing to sacrifice your social life if you have to put in long hours to make things work? Are there any areas where you could make cutbacks to focus on your dream?

There’s a lot of hard work involved in becoming an entrepreneur, so once you’ve got the commitment sorted, prepare for hard graft as it takes time and effort to create a successful enterprise. You need to spend some time marketing yourself and making sure people hear of your idea to maximize your chances of success and also work to put in place any structures you need to ensure the sustainability of your business as well as focusing on how innovative your idea is.

Linked to innovation is the need to be flexible about every area of your business. This will help you be sustainable in the long run as it’s vital to be able to update and adapt your business to the ever-changing business environment to ensure your continued relevance. Also, if your idea doesn’t work first time, you need to be flexible enough to understand why and change things if necessary or you may find yourself stuck in a rut you can never get out of with a business that doesn’t work.

On top of this, it’s vital for entrepreneurs to be ‘people’ people, as without vital skills of networking and meeting people, you will have a hard time finding support and investors. Getting investors on board is often crucial so make sure you know how to market yourself, your business and your skills. Also give some thought to timing as, no matter how great your idea is, enter the marketplace at the wrong time and it might flop, which also makes a positive outlook crucial in hard times.

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Tags: Business, Business plan, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Kauffman Foundation, Small Business, Start Up

Small Business Action Alert

Alerts from Small Business California

There is raging battle going on in Washington over reauthorization of the Small Business Innovative Research[SBIR] program. Now you are probably saying to yourself this doesn’t affect me but it does indirectly. Read on

The SBIR program directs $2.2 billion annually in Federal grants to small technology businesses across the country.

There is legislation in the House [HR 2965] which would allow venture capital controlled companies to participate in SBIR. With this legislation, Congress is changing the definition of small business to include subsidiaries of multinational corporations and companies majority owned by multi-billion venture capital funds and  other large financial institutions, including foreign institutions to in SBIR. This fundamental change in definition of a small business opens the door to greatly reducing Federal Research and Development grants for companies that have traditionally been defined as small business- those with 500 or fewer employees.

Small businesses which creates most of the private sector jobs and exceed all of the patent filings of research universities currently gets only 4.3% of the Federal R&D grants. Passage of HR 2965 would not only reduce money going to traditional small businesses but because of the increased size of grants reduce the number of grants by 50%. I am urging you to send an  email to Speaker Pelosi and Congresswoman Speier asking them to oppose this. FYI the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee has passed S1233 which would not allow this. Congressman Markey and Congresswoman Tsongas will be introducing an amendment tomorrow more friendly to small business

Text of the email to the Congresswomen could be

Dear Speaker Pelosi/Speier

I am a small business owner in San Francisco. There is a bill in the house HR 2965 dealing with reauthorization of the Small Business Innovative Research program which would change the definition of small business to include venture capital firms with more than 500 employees. I urge you to support the Markey/Tsongas amendment.

Sign and make sure your address is included

Please send the Email to Brian Perkins in Jackie Speier’s office Brian.Perkins@mail.house.gov

And Mark Herbert in Speaker Pelosi’s office Mark.Herbert@mail.house.gov

You can send one email to both

If you want the Markey amendment please let me know.

If you want to call the numbers are Speier- Brian Perkins- 650 342-0300

Pelosi- Mark Herbert- 556-4862.

If they are not there leave a message.

Time is of the essence as the vote in the House could be as early as Tuesday. Also I will be meeting  with Speaker Pelosi’s representative with a group of SBIR recipients Tuesday at 10:30

Please, please , take a few moments to write or call. Please send me copy of email or let me know you called.

If they VC’s are successful they have said they want all the SBA programs open to them

Scott Hauge

President

CAL Insurance and Associates, Inc.

2311 Taraval Street

San Francisco, CA  94116

www.cal-insure.com

Phone:  (415) 680-2109

Fax:      (415) 680-2137

“Always looking out for you”

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Tags: Action Alert, Entrepreneurship, R&D Grants, SBIR, Small Business, Small Business Action Alert, Small Business Innovative Research