When you are starting out, you can spend all the money in the world on a fancy, optimized site, the latest marketing techniques and create the finest product ever created and find out that none of it matters. Without relationships, you’ve got nothing.
Smart business owners know how to use and manage their relationship capital. Smart business owners know that without a team to implement their ideas, their ideas are meaningless. If they don’t have the right circle of influencers to help them spread the word about their product or service then no one know about it.
Think about the relationships that you have had in your life, what was good about them? Who is behind you and gets you? Who has influenced you?
There are several ways that you can use relationship capital for your business. Here are a few of the most important:
Mentor/Coach: We can all benefit from people’s expertise who have been there and done that. Mentors can give you the pages from their playbook on what has worked for them and what hasn’t. They won’t keep you from making mistakes but they can help you make fewer mistakes. Don’t be afraid to pay to be mentored as well.
A coach can help you uncover blind spots that you have about your business and your life. Make sure you find a coach that understands you and that you can build rapport with.
Influencers: Who are the people in your industry that are doing what you want to be doing? Creating value for and relationships with these people can be a huge boost to your credibility. The best way to build these relationships is to work your way up or over to them through recommendations. I’ve found that this is by far the easiest way to get in front of people, particularly when more than 1 person has recommended to the influencer that we meet. When you meet these people be prepared to have a plan for how you are going to create value for them and why you are worth getting to know.
Network of Collaborators: Creating a solid network of collaborators has been a must for me. Having a great network can really help you expand what you are able to do for people. When you start building a network, don’t ever stop. You should always be looking for great people to add to your network. I have found out the hard way recently that if you don’t stay on your game with your network that it can become a liability rather than as asset.
Relationship capital is more important than ideas and money (although these things do help). Take a look at your network. How does it look? Are you expanding? Are you looking for ways to create value for others? Think about the three main relationship groups that I talked about and put together a game plan for expanding your network
What are the most important relationships in your business?
One way our company does this is through the forum feature in our My Business World premium platform for business owners. In the forum users can chat about specific issues in their business and get a wide range of different business perspectives to work through it.
Take a tour of our premium membership and get involved in the conversation.
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