Top 3 Reasons Why Business Planning Is Important
By Moira Chin

It is about anticipating what will happen. It is about having a critical mind in assessing the current environment. It is about setting goals.

Every entrepreneur needs to do all these if his or her business must succeed. Planning is imperative for all business enterprises. The saying, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail," appropriately captures the compelling necessity of planning. Certainly, no one would put up capital and start a business only to fail.

Why must businesses plan then? This question truly baffles those who are not used to planning. But here three important reasons why.

First, it provides a game plan. Even a basketball team who goes to the court, play with their opponents with the goal to win the game. Planning works the same way for business. An entrepreneur does not engage in business without a clear direction. In fact, the business plan bears it all. It outlines what the entrepreneur must have to do.

It must be noted that before one can come up with plans in terms of strategies and timelines, one must be fully aware of the current realities the business finds itself in. The question, "Where are we now?" must be answered. Once this is done, it is only then that one can come up with relevant and appropriate plans.

Second, it serves as a metric for success. A plan essentially contains goals and objectives that the business hopes to achieve. These goals and objectives shall serve as a standard by which performance must be evaluated against such that, if you achieve or better yet, surpass the established targets, then the business shall have succeeded. Otherwise, it has failed. In other words, it serves as benchmarks or key success indicators.

Since, goals and objectives are vital in the definition of business success, a word of caution is therefore necessary. Objectives must be clear, measurable, realistic, attainable and time-bound. If we are to compare actual performance with it, then it has to be concretely quantifiable.

Third, it helps the business allocate its limited resources. Since a plan establishes the business's directions and thrusts, it easily helps us determine which strategies and programs should be prioritized in terms of financial allocations as well as human resource allocations. One must understand that due to the dynamism of the business environment, an organization needs to respond to any change in the current picture. These developments and changes may pertain to competition, demographics, technology advancement, legal environment, social, or cultural. Most often, responses to the environment entails cost and other resource spending.

Entrepreneurs practicing planning may have other equally important reasons for doing so. But it is clear and apparent that if a business fails to plan, it would be like a ship sailing to a destination without a map. It would have a difficult time adjusting to changes in the business environment. It would have a hard time sensing any trends and opportunities. It would have rough time for being always on the defensive stance against competitors' who plan. Planning is therefore a very important exercise.

Strategic Planning

Top 3 Reasons Why Business Planning Is Important
by Moira Chin

Planning is imperative for all business enterprises. If an entrepreneur aims to grow his business and succeed, then planning is more than necessary - it is a must. It provides a game plan; serves as a metric for success; and helps the business allocate its limited resources. Entrepreneurs who fail to plan would have a difficult time adjusting to changes in the business environment; have a hard time sensing any trends and opportunities; and would have rough time for being always on the defensive stance against competitors' who plan. Planning is therefore a very important exercise.

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Start Your Own Business Today
By Mark Josh Green

Whether struggling to find employment or simply wanting to be your own boss, looking to start your own business is exactly the right thing for many people to do. However, on the road to success lies many a shattered dream and tattered ambition. This information will help you give yourself the best chance of success.

Ahead of anything else is making that first move. Though starting your own business is never an easy challenge, it is important to be aware that the perfect moment is never likely to come. Possessing the focus and the ability to shrug off lingering worries and press ahead is often the key to success.

Having a particular market to explore, perhaps a niche area not presently filled, will help. If so, the earlier you start the better things will most likely be. Being aware of the local climate is essential, since even seemingly inaccessible industries will present excellent opportunities. Of course, coming up with a unique idea or breaking into a new market can be incredibly difficult - and is where many new businesses fall down.

Sometimes though, as the old adage goes, you fail to see the wood for the trees, so considering things that may be staring you right in the face is important. Look at whether there are any professional services that local businesses are not being provided with. If provided for, are the current services really up to the task? Perhaps start your own business on that basis.

If in employment already, consider if there are any suppliers that management are consistently complaining about. Ask yourself if you could do better. One area that a local business may struggle with is printing services. You could assess whether the printing costs in your area are too high, or the quality too low. This could be something to consider. Many individuals attain personal success by first identifying a problem, and then working ardently to solve it.

With the plan in place, knowing whether you already possess the necessary skills, or have yet to attain them, is important. You most likely already have one of the most important skills - the drive to start your own business. If you do not have the actual skills to deliver the product, then working out a way to attain them is the next step.

Consider whether there is a franchisor offering a franchise opportunity in the business sector you are interested in. Respected franchises are clearly doing something right, have excellent training in place, business knowledge, and a proven model to give you the great start that can feel impossible with brand new enterprises.

Most importantly though, a good franchisor provides expertise and essential support. In essence, it is your own business with the support of a successful chain. From helping to locate a viable area in which to start a business, to assisting with the logistics of setting up the premises, there is much to be gained from being part of a franchise.

Every business needs funding, and getting this in place is often the toughest challenge. Not securing enough finance can end many of the best planned ambitions, though lenders are eager to invest in strong opportunities. Again, franchises with a proven business model can help secure funding far easier than start-ups, making it an increasingly viable option if you want to start your own business.

Sales Techniques

Start Your Own Business Today
By Mark Josh Green

Whether struggling to find employment or simply wanting to be your own boss, looking to start your own business is exactly the right thing for many people to do. However, on the road to success lies many a shattered dream and tattered ambition. This information will help you give yourself the best chance of success.

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Small Business

Why Most Small Business Owners Fail
by Tracey Munn

There is only one reason why small business owners fail. Lack of planning. A small business with no plan is equal to failure. However, it is never to late to start succeeding by following a plan to achieve your small business success. Find out how.

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Why Most Small Business Owners Fail
By Tracey Munn

Let me give you a stereotypical view of today's failing small business owner.

The failing small business owner is frustrated, deflated and have owned their small business for between 3 to 6 months. The reason they went into business for themselves was either boredom, flexibility or dreams of getting wealthy fast. Fast forward some months, they have made no money, are ready to give up, and are now scouring the employment classifieds for a job.

Now, let me tell you why 99% of these small business owners end up in this exact predicament. Lack of planning. Yes, that's all it is, a lack of planning.

Planning is not as simple as the word may suggest though. There are numerous areas of small business that require planning, evaluation and research before any ball starts rolling. Small business owners must plan to succeed or plan to fail.

So how exactly does one plan for a new business success?

First of all, can you really afford to work for yourself? Self employment is a significant step and one which many small business owners do not consider. They jump in thinking the money will generate quickly. This is rarely the case, thus one must be prepared for earning little, if any income, in their new small business for some months.

The idea of having a small business is very exciting. However, unless you have undertaken your market research how do you know if there is a demand for your product or service? It may be a case of there being an over abundance of competition, or no demand at all for what you are planning to sell. Study your competition, your target market and the behaviour of your potential consumers. Make sure you know that your target market is prepared to actually buy your product. I love million dollar yachts, and would tick a box saying I want one, but there is no way I could ever buy one.

Now, are you confident that you have the skills to make your business work? Do you understand how a business operates? Do you feel confident your business idea will work? Then evaluating your business idea is of utmost importance.

Once you have completed the above steps, it will be time to plan for your business success. It is not only possible to plan for business success, it is absolutely necessary! The more you plan, the higher your chances of success will be. What exactly will you be planning?

Marketing
Online presence
Weekly sales plan
Budget
Business Strategy
Skills Requirement
Risk Management Plan


The last step is honesty. Admit to yourself that you may not have all of the necessary skills to make your business succeed. There are ways to obtain assistance for little cost, and you must ask for help. Reach out, join groups and continue to educate yourself.

There is no doubt that having your own business is fulfilling. However, if you are contemplating self employment and at the same time expecting your new business will deliver consistency, less working hours, more money and an easy ride, you are better off getting a job.

Strategies for Increasing Customer Retention
By Kevin M Plankey

No matter your industry, keeping existing customers is always more cost-effective than acquiring new customers, regardless of the reason for their leaving. All businesses must obviously focus on bringing in new customers to help grow revenues, but they must also focus more attention on keeping existing customers, including newly acquired customers. The last thing you want is to add new customers to your customer base and end up with them being "one and done" because nothing was done to keep them once you acquired them. With that said, here are 15 strategies that you should employ to minimize customer attrition.

Use customer research
Understanding the different customer segments that make up your customer database is extremely important. Separate them into segments such as loyal customers, underperforming customers, and lapsed customers, among others.

Once you have your customers segmented into different groups, you can then drill down further to understand the needs of your customers by industry. This will allow you to tailor offers that they will find compelling. It will also provide your sales and customer service representatives with data and specific examples that they can use to explain how your products and services can support the needs of that industry and that individual customer.

Measure service performance
This is a key strategy because you need to ensure that customers are getting the level and quality of service they are supposed to be getting. Also, this helps ensure everybody in your organization is informed about the degree to which those goals are or are not being met.

This means not only measuring the concrete numbers, but also measuring customer perceptions of service quality. Measuring customer perception of service quality is certainly difficult and you can't satisfy every customer every time, but it is the pursuit of such excellence where you will see improvement in customer perceptions.

Meet implied as well as explicit commitments
There are a number of things that customers can forget and forgive. But the one thing they will always remember, and cause them to find someone else to address their needs, is a company that does not keep its promises. Always be clear about what you will do and when you will do it. Then make sure you do it and you do it when you said you would. The final step here is to contact customers for closure and thank them for their business.

Foster customer involvement
Customer involvement often means nothing more than getting customers to do more of the work. This creates economic savings that are usually shared with customers and provide an incentive to maintain the relationship.

If a relationship is comfortable for customers, inertia will usually maintain it. But if your customers make a deeper investment with you, such as engaging you to do their design work or investing in compatible hardware and/or software, your relationship will usually be secure for a considerable period.

On the psychological end, customers generally have high motivation to be involved in the customer service process, and usually identify closely with vendors in "partnership" arrangements. This tends to increase the likelihood of account retention.

Create a disaster recovery plan
Why is having a disaster recovery plan important to retaining customers? The answer is simple. The more downtime you have, the more money this costs you and the more your customers become frustrated with the services you provide, because they can't use them and contact you for assistance.

Customers want a reliable product and service and they want to be able to contact you whenever they need assistance. If you can't provide this, they will look elsewhere.

Deliver fast response times
Quick and satisfactory settlement of routine claims, complaints, and requests for adjustments are one of the more important aspects of retaining customers. They don't want to be left out in the wind. They want to be taken care of quickly and they want issues resolved when you say they will be resolved. Customers are more apt to remember how you handled an issue instead of the issue itself.

Offer unique service features
Why invest in offering unique service features? Two words answer this: competitive advantage. If you offer products and services that your competitors don't offer, then your customers have no other place to go to get what they need. Work to become a one-stop shopping place by adding new products and services when demand requires this and improving on your existing products and services at an equal pace.

Train customer service personnel
Agents who are trained in capturing customer feedback can spot customers who are dissatisfied or who are considering buying from the competition, and can pass that information along to their manager. They should also be trained in passing along competitive information so that your marketing department can take appropriate action.

Training agents in basic customer retention techniques gives them the tools they need to keep customers. This is done by successfully handling complaints, turning dissatisfied customers into satisfied, loyal ones, and educating customers on the value of your products and services.

Giving front-line personnel courtesy, customer relations, and telephone skills training increases the likelihood that the agents will delight rather than antagonize your customers.

Training customer service personnel in your systems, policies, and procedures and giving them in-depth product and service knowledge prepares them to handle customer calls professionally and proactively, in a way that ensures customer satisfaction.

Automate the low end, personalize the high end
This strategy is key to retaining customers because it allows you to automate the routine tasks that your sales, customer service, and marketing groups perform daily, thereby freeing up valuable time that can be used to call customers.

Know your customers
Know a customer's business. Be a consultant and ask questions of your customers. This will allow you to direct your customers to purchase what they actually need, not what they think they want.

Follow up on lost business and cancelled orders
Track revenue loss and make immediate attempts to reverse any cancellations. Don't be afraid to ask customers why they cancelled a single order or why they are taking all of their business elsewhere. By getting this very valuable feedback, you will be able to identify what steps are needed to recapture this lost business and/or avoid this same mistake in the future.

Offer customers incentives to continue doing business with you
Price is always a concern for people shopping for a particular product or service. What you don't want to do is get into a price war with your competition. Implement a pricing strategy that puts you in the 50 to 60 percent deciles for pricing, as compared to your competition. Don't be the cheapest and don't be the most expensive. At the same time, don't just offer discounts to all of your customers for the sake of offering discounts. When you do this you are effectively training your customers to look for discounts before they place an order.

Be more scientific. Whether you have the ability in-house or you have to partner with someone, implement predictive modeling so that you are making the right offer to the right customer at the right time. Be focused in your offers. Don't take the one-size-fits-all approach.

Build personal relationships
One simple thing to consider is assigning an individual person to specific accounts and empowering this person to build a relationship with each customer.

Advertise to keep customers as well as acquire them
Remind customers of all of the product and/or service features or applications that will enhance utility and satisfaction.

Follow up with new customers
This is a golden strategy that all companies should strive to achieve, but this is especially important for an e-commerce company. Following up with all new customers puts a human touch on an impersonal transaction, thereby creating a foundation for a loyal relationship. Following up with every new customer may not be possible because of volume, so set a dollar value and follow up with all new customers who spend over that amount.

Marketing Articles

Strategies for Increasing Customer Retention
by Kevin M Plankey

No matter your industry, keeping existing customers is always more cost-effective than acquiring new customers, regardless of the reason for their leaving. All businesses must obviously focus on bringing in new customers to help grow revenues, but they must also focus more attention on keeping existing customers, including newly acquired customers.

Read More

Why Marketing Is The Easiest Way To Make More Money In Your Business
By Melina Abbott

Used correctly, marketing can be the single biggest profit-making tool that you as a business person has to boost your business and profits.

Consider this...

You can put your money in the bank, in shares or buy some real estate. You'll get a return on investment of 10%, 20%, perhaps up to 40%.

On the other hand, money invested in marketing of your business will without doubt give you your biggest single return on investment - greater than any other form of financial investment.

How come? Well, simply because a single advertisement, properly targeted, with the right headline and offer, costing say £300, can bring returns of perhaps 1,000% or more within days.

Calculate that increase over a year. Can you see why marketing is the easiest way to make money in your business?

Let us say you are already running an advertisement and getting 5 calls a week from it. You change a headline and now you get 8 calls a week. What if you raise your number of sales from 2 out of the 5 people who call, by just one more sale? That is 52 more sales in one year. Plus the extra sales from the other three calls and now you have 104 more sales over a year. How much profit did you just make with the same cash outlay?

That's leverage and you can do it in your business...

All you have to do is experiment, test different offers, headlines and target the right groups of people.

A restaurant on the Gold Coast in Australia sent their customers a letter with the offer of a free dessert. Only three people out of one hundred came in on that offer.

The next month they sent another letter offering new customers $10 credit for the next month only. The response... 18.8% at an average sale of $52.20. That's $9,991 for every 100 letters sent.

Better than leaving your money in the bank isn't it?

Peter Sun - Australia's highest paid marketing consultant - once placed an advert with the headline, “Spa Bath under the For Sale column in the classifieds”. The result was 2 calls and no sale. The next week he tried the headline, “Sex is Free”, and described the fun of having a spa with the ending, “...and what you do in it is your business”. The result - 11 calls the same day and it sold at 8am the morning it ran. That's a 550% increase in response.

I am not suggesting you use ‘sex is free’ in your advertising; it's just an example of what a difference in results you can get with one approach over another.

Another advertiser running an advert for a home perm headlined, “New Home Perm - Conditions As It Curls”, and received 100 replies. The second headline was titled, “Girls... Want a Fast Perm?” This one received nearly 300 replies. That's almost 200% more. This advertisement ran every month for years. By changing the headline the business received 2400 more replies in a year.

And that was just in one magazine!

Can you use leverage in your business? Of course you can. It works for every kind of product or service. All you have to do is keep testing, experimenting, leveraging...

...And, banking more money every day.

Advertising Articles

Why Marketing Is The Easiest Way To Make More Money In Your Business
By Melina Abbott



Used correctly, marketing can be the single biggest profit-making tool that you as a business person has to boost your business and profits.

Consider this...

You can put your money in the bank, in shares or buy some real estate. You'll get a return on investment of 10%, 20%, perhaps up to 40%.

On the other hand, money invested in marketing of your business will without doubt give you your biggest single return on investment - greater than any other form of financial investment.



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Meetings That Work: A Guide to Conducting Successful Meetings
By Paul Bryce

Business meetings can take up so much time and produce so little return on investment that it is mo small wonder that the majority of us dread them, even hate them with a vengeance! To give you an example of meeting madness, I have been to a pre-meeting meeting to discuss the meeting that we then attended. This was followed by a post-meeting debrief meeting to talk about how the meeting went and then later we had a strategy meeting to discuss how we would approach the next meeting! And if that wasn't enough, further meetings were spawned to discuss the tasks required to action some of the outcomes from the original meeting. All in all, I spent about 7 hours in meetings for the sake of one 2 hour meeting.

The really sad part about this is that it wasn't an isolated incident, nor was it peculiar to my employer. I have seen similar patterns before and since, where managers and staff are relentlessly drawn into meeting after meeting, seemingly without end. This never ending cycle of meetings has several pitfalls, not the least of which is the frustration caused and the lack of real work being done. That's not to say that meetings aren't necessary, they are, but many organisations overdo them to such a degree that staff can spend over 50% of their time stuck in meetings. Now, assuming that they were employed to produce a good 35 hours of meaningful work each week, is it any surprise that either things don't get done or there is a staggering amount of overtime.

Here are some ideas to cut meetings down to acceptable levels and get some work done;

Ask yourself this question before you schedule your next meeting; Is it necessary? Often, the subject of a meeting can be discussed more effectively via email or a few well-placed phone calls. This is especially true when the invitees are geographically dispersed.

Give attendees plenty of notice and be clear about the intended outcome. Too many times I have left a meeting wondering what it was about, never mind knowing what was achieved. These meetings become an unstructured talk-fest where no one really knows what they are trying to achieve (and that sometimes includes the convenor). While agendas don't suit everyone, it is polite to inform people why they are needed.

Start and finish on time. Everyone appreciates meetings starting on time, especially when you have a busy schedule. Likewise, meetings that conclude at the specified hour allow for better planning and time management. Once you establish a reputation for good time keeping, attendees are more likely to be punctual (or even turn up). If there are some people who are consistently late without good cause, you could introduce an honesty-box fine system (say $5.00 to charity for every 5 minutes you are late).

Consider using video conferencing to keep travel times down. Yes, attendees might be tempted to wander off to do something else, but there are systems which will let the convenor know when people are not paying attention. Also, if someone is not needed for the entire meeting, why not let them do some other work while keeping part of their attention on proceedings?

Keep your meetings down to 45-60 minutes. We have a limited attention span and long meetings cause people to lose interest and drift off, resulting in lost productivity. I sub-contracted to a very large Australian mining company a few years ago, where meetings were strictly limited to 15 minutes. This worked extremely well and we only had 2-3 of these a week. Everyone had learned to use their own internal networks to bounce ideas around and look for solutions to problems - we only had meetings when they were absolutely necessary.

Keep the topics to a minimum. That big Australian company I mentioned - our meetings usually had 1 or two items for discussion. That meant there was no need for an agenda, everyone who attended was 100% focussed and everyone contributed.

Have a clear set of rules about how the meeting will be conducted and the behaviour that is expected within the room.

Some meetings require minutes to be published and it is very frustrating if these only come out the day of the next meeting! If you do need to produce minutes, make a commitment to have them distributed within two business days, and certainly a week before the next scheduled meeting.

Finally, another useful tactic to employ in the battle against endless meetings is to set a quota on the number of hours everyone spends in meetings. You could, for example, set a quota of 3.5 hours per week; this means that time becomes a commodity which must be carefully spent in order to get the maximum result.


These are only a few tips to help you avoid meeting overwhelm and get on with business. By applying these simple principles alone, your meetings will become more efficient and productive.

Business Article

Meetings That Work: A Guide to Conducting Successful Meetings
By Paul Bryce

Business meetings can take up so much time and produce so little return on investment that it is mo small wonder that the majority of us dread them, even hate them with a vengeance! To give you an example of meeting madness, I have been to a pre-meeting meeting to discuss the meeting that we then attended.


This was followed by a post-meeting debrief meeting to talk about how the meeting went and then later we had a strategy meeting to discuss how we would approach the next meeting! And if that wasn't enough, further meetings were spawned to discuss the tasks required to action some of the outcomes from the original meeting. All in all, I spent about 7 hours in meetings for the sake of one 2 hour meeting.


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5 Easy Stages to Successful Networking
By Michael Birchmore

You may not realise this but you have been networking all your life. You have been doing it quite naturally every day. It is, in my opinion, simply getting to know people. It probably started between you and your mother. Then your father and siblings then peers and so on.

In the last 30 years networking has become something of an enigma with the emphasis it has been given in the business world and the books and presentations on how to be successful at it.

If it is such a natural activity why am I adding to the pile of theories? Simply because I think that it has got over complicated with the so called "science" of networking that gets bandied about. That and the fact that not everyone finds it easy to make friends.

If networking is, as I believe, getting to know people, people have been doing it since there were more than one person walking this earth. Adam and Eve if you like. I don't doubt that early cavemen "networked" when they helped each other find suitable sources of food and water. They probably networked as they made discoveries of fire and the wheel and spear and slingshot.

Animals too, I believe, network as I seem to remember a nature programme showing how bees communicate through dance and movement and are thought to share locations of pollen. Taking these into consideration you can see how almost since the world began networking has been a vital means in the survival of the species. In many ways that is just as true today as it was then. I suppose it is possible for people and businesses to survive independently of everything and everyone else. Hermits do. But can they thrive?

So back to the 5 stages and what is the first one? Well not surprisingly you need to meet people. The first stage is simply meeting people. As you meet people you begin some form of communication even if it is just "hello!" How or where doesn't matter, as long as you do. If you don't say much your body language will still communicate many things. The 17th century poet, satirist, lawyer and priest John Donne wrote in his work entitled Devotions upon emergent occasions and seuerall steps in my sicknes - Meditation XVII, 1624:

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Although Donne was a Christian this is a philosophy shared by many religions but most notably Buddhism.

Now the second stage is where I differ from other views. Some, I believe, suggest that the second stage should be giving. Their view is that giving establishes and strengthens a relationship. To some extent I do agree with that. Especially the "strengthening" part but not as the second stage. I think that the second stage should be "conversation". As simple as that. With giving there is no point in giving for the sake of giving. I used to be a member of an organisation that rewarded giving and I was a recipient of several business referrals. However, these proved to be not worth the paper they were written on and I think were given so that the giver could get the monthly award. A further example of this relates to the phrase "It's the thought that counts". How often have you been given a Christmas or birthday present that is completely inappropriate....and I don't mean odd jumpers or silly ties? Presents that make you wonder just what was the giver thinking of because clearly they weren't thinking logically about you. When two or more people start conversing they are mutually communicating. Transferring information about themselves between them. Listening and transmitting. Because they are "conversing" they will be more relaxed and therefore more able to take heed of what is being said. Whatever is discussed will help the parties get to know each other better and learn about the other. This in turn will help each party/person to know what the other needs or is looking for so accurate giving can be done. Mutual conversation is also an initial stage to bonding.

Ok, so now is when I think the act of giving can take place. Some networking organisations such as BNI use the phrase "givers gain". Quite possibly as a strapline to attract more members. The idea is that if one person gives to another then the recipient is going to feel more inclined to return the favour. Now I don't like this. The reason being, and this has been voiced by others, is that there is some obligation to return the gift. The phrase itself "givers gain" also implies that the giver is giving in order to gain which to me takes away the philanthropic aspect of the act. I much prefer the attitude mentioned by Bob Burg and John Mann in their book "The Go Giver" that givers attract. It still doesn't take away the aspect that some people might give in order to benefit themselves but this latter version doesn't seem quite so mercenary.

With appropriate giving there will then come a state of bonding between the parties as the fourth stage. Each party will begin to see each other as an asset. A supporter. A friend. In this friendship where hopefully the give and take is reasonably balanced there won't be much, if any, need to worry about having to ask for referrals or building power groups or so much of the stuff about networking that gets published which to me only serves to complicate things more.

This mutual give and take is likely to continue which takes each party to the fifth and final stage of networking which is thriving. Something we all seek to do.

So to conclude, if you want your business to thrive and not just survive go and have a cup of coffee with someone and have a chat. You never know what you'll learn about them and what you can give them as a result and to what good things all that may lead.

So the 5 stages are -

Meet
Converse
Give
Bond
Thrive

Michael Birchmore

Networking Article

5 Easy Stages to Successful Networking


You may not realise this but you have been networking all your life. You have been doing it quite naturally every day. It is, in my opinion, simply getting to know people. It probably started between you and your mother. Then your father and siblings then peers and so on.

In the last 30 years networking has become something of an enigma with the emphasis it has been given in the business world and the books and presentations on how to be successful at it.



Read More