You’ve undoubtedly heard the old maxim: Eighty percent of life is showing up. Although the origin of this quote is up for debate, it’s an excellent rule of thumb for business owners.
If you’re not meeting other business owners in person, you can count on the fact you’re missing those fortuitous opportunities to network at the CEO level.
We’ve all got a mile-long to-do list. Even so, if we don’t venture out once in a while, the vibrancy of our business network will wither like a vine without water.
Dates on the calendar slip by, and before we know it, we’re in danger of losing that valuable connection we currently have to our fellow business owner. Relationships require ongoing watering to flower into something with relational substance.
Many business owners chalk it up to a lack of time, but that’s not the whole story. One of the more onerous burdens business owners face is the perpetual quandary about how best to use one’s time. Accept the fact that those small-to-medium crises will always plague successful people. Don’t be driven by the winds of the moment. Think strategically and craft a networking plan that includes relational B2B opportunities. For small businesses, the business owner is the most important resource the company has, because business owners forge connections with other business owners, not their underlings.
It all begins with penciling in those opportunities to swap trade-talk face to face. So grab a pencil and mark the calendar!