The Entrepreneur’s Table Part 2 - T

The T in Table ( as in the Entrepreneur's Table)is for Timely Topics and Transferable Themes. Strategies come and go, but the basic themes have a long shelf life and are transferable from business to business. Networking is built upon values and big ideas. These can be enlivened and made more applicable through an awareness of the times. Networkers can help each other by bringing market, technological, and demographic trends to the table and discussing them in the light of timeless principles.

1) The first theme is Vision. Some package it as a dream and others as an objective. Whatever the nomenclature, it is the big picture view of a destination that the entrepreneur has in view. It is that person's WHY. for what he or she is trying to accomplish. Without a Y, a WAY is just a WA (a meaningless moan or whine). The capacity to envision and dream is not something that we can take for granted. It must be cultivated. We were born with it, but it went dormant and needs to be revived. We can help each other dream greater dreams. Read The Dream Giver.

    The Dream Giver: Following Your God-Given Destiny - Hardcover
    By Bruce Wilkinson / Multnomah Publishers Inc.

    A WAY without a Y is a WA.

2) Once you have a WHY and it goes to the root of your sense of mission/purpose in the world, the next component is commitment. You are either committed or not with degrees of commitment in between. The WIT principle measures that commitment. WIT says, Whatever It Takes and can be evidenced by your calendar and energy expenditures. There will be choices and the choices you make will be driven by your connection to your commitments. Being surrounded by a support system creates an avenue for accountability where we can be reminded of our commitments and encouraged to follow them.

3) Next we need a strategy and a vehicle. Not all networking companies are created equal. Entrepreneurs needs to develop skills for evaluating integrity, marketability, and compensation systems. Once in a particular company, there are still choices to make regarding tools, marketing approaches, product emphasis selection, and other strategic initiatives. Strategies can be very transferable between businesses and may depend upon ones location and any number of factors.

4) We need to learn how to make contact lists and where to find people. Prospecting is a skill that begins with a thought process. It is a conscious contact consciousness. An Entrepreneur's table can be a place to exchange contacts. I will address this later. Also - more on building blocks including people skills later.

5) Tools are vital to business development. Choosing the right tools and budgeting for tools is essential to networking. Some resources and ideas can be shared across business boundaries.

6) Contacting and inviting are two skills that are always transferable. Methods, relationships, interpersonal skills, insights into human nature, motivating factors are all timely topics for a round table discussion.

7) How to make presentations is a topic that everyone can find beneficial. Do you use charts or booklets, PowerPoint or conference calls? Do you present over the Internet?  It is important to look at how we communicate, what holds people's attention, and how to find hot buttons. This is a vital and transferable theme.

8) Failure at follow-up is the downfall of many a networker. Without follow-up, contacts are lost and time is wasted. Rare is the person who will follow up themselves. People are just too busy, distracted, and scattered. They do not know what they do not know. Folks need to be reminded and encouraged. How do you do it? Where do you get the courage? Are there some approaches that work and others that don't. Conserve the results of your contacting by learning the art of follow-up.

9) Closing and enlistment are skills that we can move between business ventures. It does not matter  how much work you do in other ways until you lead a prospect to a decision. Without the decision, nothing else can happen. No one makes any money; no loves are changes; no dreams come true. Maybe we need more information on how to do this; maybe we just need encouragement. Remember a postponement is practically the same as a "no." Don't be so afraid of a "no" that you never ask for a decision. You might just get a "yes." You never will if you do not ask.

10) Duplication is the heart and soul of network marketing. How you structure your business for duplication will determine your success. You must invest in your organization and its members. You must make sure that your best practices are things that others can take and do themselves. If you are a lone ranger, your success will be limited to what you can personally accomplish. Network marketing is about building people. Duplication is how we do that.

So - the ten themes of T (Timely Topics and Transferable Themes) are: (1) Vision (2) Commitment (3) Strategy (4) Contact Lists (5) Tools (6) Contacting and Inviting (7) Presentation (8) Follow-up (9) Closing/Enlisting ( Duplication).

In my next posting I will deal with the A which stands for Attitude and we will apply the "Oh Gosh" approach to attitude adjustments.

As a preview, the B will be for Building Blocks, the L for Lifestyle, and the E for Ethics.

Cheers.