Guest post by Melinda Emerson @smallbizlady

Meet Melinda at her extensive half-day training in Washington, DC on May 25. Attend her Succeed as Your Own Boss Tour and get the tips that will help you grow your business. Visit http://bit.ly/byob2011dc for more info.

In small business, your network is key is to your business success, but it is astonishing to me that people with no friends will start a business. I believe it’s best to plan 12 months before you quit your job to start a business.  In that year, one the most important things you need to do is build and reinforce your personal network. Why? Because, people do business with people they like and people they know. Hopefully, you can be both to your clients. There are many businesses like yours, but one thing that separates your company from others is who you know and how you know them.

An entrepreneur’s most valuable skill is the ability to make friends and influence people.

Look for Ways to Meet People Encounters with people you don’t know are important. Look at it this way: You don’t meet strangers; you meet friends you just don’t know yet. There are a few rules to this kind of networking. Always invite the person to talk about themselves first. After all, the more you know about them, the better you can tailor your thirty-second pitch. Be ready with your short commercial about your business. Consider this your opportunity to make a first impression.

The 30 Second Commercial Before you hit the street extolling the virtues of your great product or service, it is crucial that you have a clear thirty-second commercial (also known as “the elevator pitch”) for your business. When someone asks you what you do, you need to have a crisp and memorable response that makes it clear what business you are in and how you solve problems for your customers. Your commercial is intended for very brief, chance encounters. It is important because it helps you make a lasting first impression. You use it to showcase your professionalism, the benefits you provide, and your expertise. The goal is to capture your target’s attention and interest so that you can engage them in a more substantial and meaningful way. A strong thirty-second commercial will help you create better networking connections, and it can draw people to you. People will seek you out if you present yourself and your business professionally.

It is very important that you sound excited about what you do when you talk to people. You are always selling the business and yourself. Be careful never to tie up someone more than few minutes unless the contact seems to want to prolong the conversation.

Trains, planes, and buses are a great way to meet other business people. I only take the Amtrak Acela express train, which is how most business travelers in the Northeast ride. When I ride the train, I look for an open seat next to someone who looks like a businessperson. You just never know who could be a high-ranking executive, so I keep my mind and my options open. I try to make a friend or at least to learn something from someone during the ride. Most of the time, I accomplish both goals.

A Friendly Conversation Can Always Turn into a Potential Business Lead Learn how to strike up a conversation with anyone. Giving a compliment is a great way to start.  Look for something you have in common such as kids, sports, tired of being in line—anything you can thing of to make a personal connection with the person you are talking with. Whenever you attend networking functions or, for that matter, go anywhere, you should always have business cards. When it comes to networking, you never know where you might meet someone who can help you grow your business, so it pays to always be prepared with plenty of business cards. It’s like that old saying goes “never leave home without them.”

Build Personal Network When I first moved to Philadelphia, I put my nose to the grindstone for a few years to build up my career, then I turned my attention to meeting people. I did three things. First, I joined the Urban League to do volunteer work, socialize, and participate in professional development activities. Then I found a church home. The third thing I did was to reach out to the alumni association of my alma mater, Virginia Tech. These three associations paid off in spades years later when I started my business. My first customers came from those associations.

The Cocktail Hour Before Any Event is the Event! Be early for the reception so you can circulate. Once you sit down to dinner, the only people you can network with are the other nine people at your table. An accountant once told me that the rule of thumb is that you should go through 500 business cards roughly every two months when you first start a business. I even carry business cards to the hair salon because you never know who’s in the shampoo bowl next to you.

The Follow-Up The way to build relationships is through continued contact. It is essential to follow up within two weeks after meeting with a potential business contact. You can do this in multiple ways. The quickest and easiest way is e-mail. I prefer to send a handwritten note on my company stationery, since I feel this adds a personal touch. You can have note card stationary printed with your company logo on it.

Leave me a comment if you have any other good networking tips or stories to share.

Melinda Emerson “SmallBizLady”is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #smallbizchat on Twitter. #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business. Melinda is best-selling author of, Become Your Own Boss in 12 months! A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business that Works!

Meet best-selling author Melinda Emerson and learn from her in an extensive half-day training in Washington, DC on May 25. Attend her Succeed as Your Own Boss Tour and get the tips that will help you succeed. Visit http://bit.ly/byob2011dc for more info.

I have a joke in my house. Were you networking or “notworking”? Basically, when you were out last night at that reception, were you gathering contact information with no plan of action for putting it into use later on? Having a plan of action for the day after a networking event is crucial. Once you gather a stack of business cards, or enter those names and numbers into your Blackberry, you must find a way to efficiently and systematically keep in contact with your new contact.

It could be as simple as connecting on social networking sites so that you are both ambiently aware of each others comings and goings; it could be as sophisticated as entering your new contacts into a database after which they would receive periodic updates from you or your company about new promotions, publications,etc.

I reached out to Brian Sarff, a marketing consultant out of Kansas City, Missouri who writes the Marketing Bull Blog. He shared a few tips about how to close the circle of networking and make networking work after the in-person part is over. Here are some of his insights:

Gaining permission from a prospective client is the best and only way to effectively build  relationships [after meeting in person].  There have been a number of books on this subject, but they all boil down to the same basic principles.

Get Permission:  Having permission from the prospective client is imperative.  So after the initial meeting, send them a kind note of thanks and mention that you have a blog, weekly email, monthly newsletter, whatever it is that you have, and subscribe them to the service.  The first step in the service is to ask them to opt-in to your email campaign.  Then you are free to begin building the relationship.

Tailor the Message:  Now what to send to your prospective client?  That’s a good question and one that is easily answered, but not all at once.  Through an online email service like Constant Contact, iContact or myEmma, you can build in surveys to go out after the 5th or 10th or whichever email makes sense in your process.  Just ask questions that can be easily answered and will provide you more insight into the mind of your prospective client.  Once you have this information about the prospective client, then you can mold your periodic email to address the topics that are of most interest.  Now, should you have a prospect that you really want as a client,  look for things that only they are interested in, “clip” them from the internet using Snagit, and send them a direct email with a note.  “Hey Tyrone, I ran across this on the internet and thought you would really enjoy reading it.  Sue.”

Be Consistent:  This is the one step that is usually violated. Consistency or Discipline.  If you are going to publish every Thursday or on the third Wednesday each month, then make sure you never miss a date. If you promise content on specific subjects- make sure you deliver. Consistent messages, emailed over a period of time, addressing items of interest to your clients, will pull them closer to you.  They may not be ready to purchase  the day after they meet you, but by staying in contact, and by calling or emailing on a regular basis (every 90 days or so)  then over time you will become their go to for information.  And one day, when the need arises, they will hopefully ask you for your product or service and not your competitor.

Bryan Sarff is an infopreneur, entrepreneur, ghost writer, and business owner.  He has worked as a consultant in the financial services industry for several years and coaches financial advisors how to consistently attract more clients.

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I recently received a query from a Mopwater PR + Media Notes reader. A regular networking reception attendee, this reader wanted to know how people were handling that awkward space between just meeting someone in person and trying to get to know them on-line. Particularly when the in-meeting was professional in nature, it’s tough to always know how to follow up, how much to follow up and when following up is considered pestering.

After meeting promising leads in person, this reader says she immediately sets up Google alerts for her new contact’s clients and/or projects so she can send a note that says, “Hey I saw this and it was great” or “Thought this may interest you.” But what else are people doing?

I went to the experts to find out.

Reno Lovison, author of Turn Your Business Card Into Business told me that he sees networking as more art than science.

“It’s difficult to come up with a one size fits all follow-up approach,” he writes. “It begins at the point of contact. I try to learn something unique about the person I meet so that I am seeing that person as an individual not just another face with a business card. In my email follow up I try to share (as best as possible) some information that is pertinent to that person. This helps us both to remember what was meaningful about our encounter.”

Lovison says that lately when appropriate, he’s started blogging some information about his new contacts as as a way to better connect him or her with his network. This gives him a chance to follow up with an email that drives new contacts to his site and also demonstrates that Lovison is really interested in referring business to them.

” In some cases this becomes the beginning of an ongoing dialogue… It is time consuming but the idea is to be personal and sincere and not treat people as a generic commodity.”

Elaine Masters is a yoga instructor who regularly attends health expos where she captures e-mail addresses in order to inform people if they’ve won a prize through her raffle. She follows up with her newsletter Drivetime Yoga Notes, which offers tips on taking the stress out of driving.

“I follow up once or twice a month with another that has special offers on my book and cd, plus one or two very brief items on staying stress free or other interesting notes related to life behind the wheel,” Masters says. “What do I get out of it? A few sales, great testimonials, forwarding to friends, list-building that’s going to be leveraged into affiliate programs and joint ventures. It’s not always the immediate ROI but I’m servicing the clients and it does surprise me once in awhile with offers to present or better. The business is small but growing.” Read the full story