5/09/2015

Constructive Thoughts 5/09/2015

How many of you started your business to work 70+ hours a week? If you were like me when I first got started I thought I would work 40 to 50 hours a week and that would be it. I remember sitting in my office one night at 11:30pm knowing I had to be back up at 4:30am to go and pull wire with one of the crews because we were shorthanded and I didn’t want to hire another person. Thought I was saving money. What a joke that was no one was running my business or meeting new contacts because I the owner was pulling wire.

Well today Toolbelt Trainers LLC is going to share secret #2 of the Bullseye Marketing series, networking. I do not mean BNI’s or the hundreds of other paid networking events that are out there. If you are going to pay for networking you really have to calculate your ROI (Return On Investment), not just the cost of the event or weekly meeting but your time also. Could you be somewhere else making money, giving an estimate, working on an advertising flyer, writing personal thank you notes to pass clients and so on. If you are charging $75 an hour for your time plus the cost of the event lets just say $200 if you have a 10% profit margin (Yeah Right unless you are using Contractor Academy Coaching) you would need to get at least one $2000 job every week from your BNI to make it worthwhile. Are you?

I will say that one of the best places I ever networked was the Chamber of Commerce, when my contracting company was in business it received our largest maintenance contract ever from one of these events. While cooking hamburgers with the maintenance director of a large corporation he and I got to discussing duck hunting and before you know it my company had 20 guys working in that facility.

Social networking is a good thing also, but remember to limit your alcohol intake and never tell jokes or stories you couldn’t tell in church.

Another important thing be real and relax, at these events I seldom carry business cards if the person wants my number I go to the car and get them one.  A good example of this on a fishing trip to Wisconsin one year while tent camping the people camping next to me was a landscaper, we got to talking and know each other a little bit, and said to call him when I returned home so I did and he became a client. He was looking to sell his business and was kinda letting it die. So I convinced him the more money his company made the more it could be sold for. Toolbelt Trainers LLC helped him increase sales find a manager and reduce his hours while increasing his profit. Instead of selling for nothing now he takes several trips a year and still has a good salary in a few years he will sell the company to the manager for a price they have already decided on. Win-Win-Win!!

My favorite thing to do is meet new people, so it is easy for me to network, but that is not the case for everyone. Remember to keep it short if you go to a large networking event, about 90 to 120 seconds listen to their elevator speech then give your elevator speech and move on. You purpose is to talk to as many people as you can while you are there. If you are interested in talking more with them tell them you will email or call and set an appointment. I recommend that you never go to an event with less than 50 people. Keep your word if you want to talk to someone more send an email and do a 1 2 1 with them.

Thank you for reading and remember to keep a positive attitude if you are struggling it will get better when you decide to make a difference.