Women business owners have reason to feel good. According to a survey, in the most recent 10-year period, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. grew by 44 percent (twice as fast as men-owned firms) and, women-owned firms added 500,000 new jobs.

Women are growing business twice as fast as men, they are employing thousands of people. It is crazy for men to neglect this market when they are hitting the networking circuit. It is not that men do not network with women, they just don’t do it well. Not that they really don’t want to and not that they don’t try, there are just little things that cause the connections to go south.

Here are 3 things that men can do to make their chances of connecting with women better.

When opening a conversation with a woman, don’t go straight to business. Ask them to tell you something about themselves. Women are looking for ways to connect, some common ground that will allow for a relational conversation.

Listen to the women that you meet at networking event. Yes women talk more than men, they have deeper conversations that men do, often sharing a great deal of information in a very storytelling way. Men can learn a great deal by asking questions and just listening.
Never underestimate how serious a woman takes her business. Just because she may be selling a product or a service that seems soft and fluff, like cosmetics, clothing, child care or any other personal service, does not mean she does not take her business as serious as any man may take his.

Women are creating business, they have a need for services, they know other women who need products and services but they are not going to share that information with someone whom they do not have a trusting relationship with. Building those relationships will take time and work, but if you are willing to invest both, men and women can connect and refer to one another very successfully.

Hazel Walker
Referral Institute, llc
BNI
hazel@bni.com

January is one of my favorite months. The feeling of renewal and rebirth that this season brings can be life-changing for so many. For others, especially as we get older, we get stuck back in our grooves.

Why do people as they seem to get older find it tougher to reinvent themselves? To get out-of –the-groove so to speak? Why are the people that are able to reinvent themselves seem to be geniuses that change the world? Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Madonna, and even Tony Robbins seem to keep themselves relevant through the times when the “norm” is to have “your time, your glory days” and move on.

Steve Jobs had a theory that as people get older, they become more and more engrained in patterns, and these patterns cause them to start to limit their ability to think creatively. The range of their thinking would become smaller and smaller.

These patterns become our groove, they are comfortable and safe, at least we feel their safe. But are they? Is it safe to get grooved in a career, your role in a business, a business model, a certain kind of product or even an economy?

I love working in technology because the very nature of it forces you to turnover old grooves and think in different paradigms almost every day. You can’t get in a groove in this industry. If you do, the world just passes you by…which is pretty much the way it works anyway, right?

What I mean is, are you stuck in an old job groove? an old economy groove? an old business groove? an old relationship groove? or a even an attitude groove?

A new year is not just a new way to date your checks (if you are still stuck in the groove of writing checks, that is). It is the chance to commit to throw yourself into something new. You are not a train, you are built to create, to solve problems, to produce.

You are designed for greatness by your creator. If you are not making the impact of Mother Teresa or M and M, it’s because you are playing a smaller-than image of which you were created. A groove to deep could be your grave or worse yet, the death of your dreams.

Let this New Year bring the rebirth of your dreams, the creation of a new life, of designing the health, wealth and abundance that you and your family deserve. Here is why I think the older we get, the more we get caught in the groove: it comes down to our ego.

Our ego holds us back and here is why: the history of us according to us becomes our reality. We use our reality to create the reasons for who we are and why we are in a particular station in our life. Good and Bad. We get our ego tied deeply into this perception that we become rigid and defensive of our perception of who we are.

And thus the groove, the more hurt we have recovered from, the deeper the groove…the more pain we have suffered, the deeper the groove…the more we have been attacked, the deeper the groove.

Look, I am not saying there are no positive grooves, ones of success and of love and abundance, I am saying we that more than not, our grooves cause us to be more and more inelastic in our ability to reinvent ourselves to become bigger than our situation.

So dance to the groove rather than get stuck in it.

Tony Scelzo
Rainmakers Marketing Group
317-216-6345
Tony@gorainmakers.com

As 2011 was moving out and the 2012 was moving in, Lorraine Ball and I were taking our weekly long walk on the Monon discussing and solving all the problems of the world, or at least our world. The topic of people saying thank you came up. Lorraine has been interviewing people for a position in her company and she noted that no one sent any kind of a thank you message to her or her team for the time taken. Her question was, “Whatever happened to the simple Thank You Note?”

The art of the handwritten note card, is a lost art that hardly anyone knows how to do or why they should. Emails notes and cards are cheaper, easier and faster, and at least that is better than nothing at all. But there is something special about that small little handwritten card that shows up in your mail. The moment you see it you know that it is usually good news, and not the typical bill or crap mail you usually get.

There was a time that it was just common courtesy to send a thank you card to someone who had done you a kindness. It was a simple act of gratitude.
Today people barely say thank you let alone write it out in a note card. I am always so happy when I get a note from someone, it makes me feel appreciated, it tells me that I make a difference or that I have contributed in some small way to another. I keep the cards that I get throughout the year on a board in my office and when I feel discouraged or just need a boost, I can look at the board and know that there are people out there that appreciate me and the work I do. It is such a positive reminder of who I am in the world.

On a recent television show, one of the human interest shows, they did a segment on the handwritten note. I was shocked and amazed! I watched with great interest, after all in this age of technology in communication, this was astounding. The segment was excellent, and they interviewed this man, John Kralik, who has written an entire book on the simple act of sending out cards and how it has changed his life. See, not only does your kindness of a card make a difference to the person who got it, but it makes a difference in your life too.

You don’t need a reason, it does not have to be fancy, and you don’t have to write like Halmark. Just pull out a little card, say thank you or I appreciate you and mail it. Make it a habit this year, set yourself a part from the pack, be different and be sincere.

Today, I will clear off my board, put my cards from 2011 into a special wooden box, and start putting up my 2012 collection of inspiration. I will continue my practice of mailing at least one card a day with the hope that I will inspire someone else to pass along a simple act of kindness.

Hazel Walker
Referral Institute, llc
BNI
hazel@bni.com

I love lists! They serve to remind us of things we need to do or may have forgotten. To satisfy this passion, I’ve decided to devote one eletter marketing lesson per month devoted to 12 things in 2012 you can do to improve your mindset, marketing, and management of your career or business.

To get the ball rolling, let’s look at twelve great ways to stay in front of your customers in 2012!

#1. Make more offers to them. Yes, marketing 101 for many readers, however, a buyer is a buyer. They’re already sold on us, so make it a goal to add more value, save them time, and allow them to spend more money with you.

#2. Mail handwritten thank you notes. Timeless, yet so few people do it.
They connect with people and are always appreciated and remembered.

#3. Set up a Fan Page on Facebook. It’s gotten much easier and it’s also a low cost way to engage, share, and promote your message to your biggest fans, referral partners and prospects.

#4. Use an eletter. Educating and keeping people informed is a non-negotiable. If your business is out-of-sight, it’s also out-of-mind and that’s not a good place to be.

#5. Have a contest. People love a challenge and being rewarded for their time, effort and input. Make sure you offer cool prizes that get people excited, talking, and thinking about what you and your business.

#6. Host a client appreciation event. It’s amazing the positive impact these have with customers when planned and thought out properly. Don’t be cheap, have fun with the event and also look to partner with key suppliers and referral partners to help co-promote and fund the event.

#7. Step up your community outreach. When your visible people take notice.
Encourage your people to become active within the community and causes that they are passionate about.

#8. Have fun with your marketing and communications. If you get people smiling, you often get them buying. Incorporate fun into your marketing and reveal this positive shade of your business. Most businesses are boring and often forgotten.

#9. Do theme related promotions. Tap into what people are talking about and build a bridge with your product or service promotions. Piggyback on key trends, holidays, sporting events, and other calendar related opportunities. Hint: In 5-weeks it will be Super Bowl Sunday.

#10. Share good news. Let people know about the positive things going on within your business, your employees, and customer’s lives. Again, people seek out and enjoy good news.

#11. Join groups, clubs or associations they’re in. Networking is essential. From trade groups, chambers of commerce, to local service clubs, there are a wide range of options for you to congregate and become active within groups that your best customers are members of.

#12. Thank customers daily for their business. Similar to point #2, we must never take business for granted. The customer signs our paychecks. In the age of digital and intense competition, they have lots of options and can easily choose to go somewhere else if they feel their patronage and referrals are being taken for granted.

Tony Rubleski
Mind Capture
616-638-39121
www.mindcapturegroup.com