Credit goes to marie-ll

Now don’t get me wrong. Each success story requires a time the person had a personal, business or both obstacles they had to overcome. Yet there are always contributions from others that are crucial to success.

Here are 7 ways to enhance your network that I have found to be enormously rewarding.

The reasons are varied. If you are in business you need customers, a church needs members, PTA’s need parents, looking for that special person to marry, moving to a new area leaves a friendship hole to fill, and maybe you just need the input of a mentor. No matter which of these or other reasons you may have, we all need to know it is all about expanding our networks.

Go where people are! This refers to physical and virtual locations. You cannot expand your network or “meet other people” by just watching television or even surfing the net.

Find relatives you don’t know. In most families there is a network that has broken down. One of the joys I have is searching for relatives I did not know existed. How? By talking with the relatives I know. You will many times find a friend and maybe a cousin for life!

Keep a “Person” card on you! Businesses are not the only ones that advertise. You can have a personal card that represents, guess who? You. It contains information you want to give out and it makes you memorable, and more so when you put your picture on it. Oh yeah! Do not forget to give it out.

Start by saying Hi and smiling. If you are timid to meeting others practice by just saying a “Hi” and smiling. Get used to others smiling back and saying “Hi” as well. It will make you more comfortable. Engaging and interacting with others gets easier with time.

Meet people as you live life. Anywhere you are in line or having to wait is an opportunity to meet others. You can meet people at the grocery store, post office, schools, restaurants, etc. When you have the “Hi” and smile down pat ask the person where they are from. When someone answers you, most times they will ask where you are from and a conversation begins.

Keep in touch with others. It is okay to call, email, Facebook, or tweet those you know. Just check to see how they are doing, but do not wear out your welcome. Many times you both will have something to share with the other that is of interest.

Introduce your networks to each other. Share your acquaintances and friends with each other. Sometimes that is the value you will bring to the relationship. Believe me you will be appreciated. Do not be selfish, share.

I would love to hear your comments on these and other ways of enhancing your networks.

There is a lot of good material on the job boards, blogs, books, magazines, social networking sites and other mediums for obtaining information on how to make you more appealing to be taken on as an employee, partner, team mate, or supplier.

This is a “people based” area of competition. Persons should become strong in a few basic areas. Once these are in place you can adjust here and there to make yourself more valuable.

Image
Image is about how you cause others see you .

Visual – hygiene, clothing, grooming
Communication – What you say/write, how you say/write it, body language
Timeliness – Are you on time? Do you seem rushed? Are you prepared?

Experience
When you are able to connect your experience with experience someone is looking for, you have the basis for a match. This means it is good to research the company you are targeting. What do they do? What is being written about them in the media? Who is their executive leadership? What is the company culture? These are things that help you to target where you would like to work or with whom you want to do business. Experience also includes any education that enhances your experience.

People skills
This is more than just being polite (though being pleasant is a good thing). This is the ability read the person(s) you engage with and respond in a way that shows insight, maturity, and interest. First acknowledgement is that everyone is not the same. People or motivated by different things. See people through their eyes and perceptions. Be able to accept someone without agreeing or disagreeing with them. Sharpen your listening to find out what is important to those you meet. Introduce yourself and promote your ability to solve a problem or enhance a value by your connection with the person(s).

Now let’s talk about how you find the opportunity. Most people use the shotgun approach to obtaining an opportunity by sending/posting/emailing resumes to many companies. Some fill out applications from many different companies. Others just let everyone they know that they are looking for work. While you can obtain an opportunity in these ways I believe they lack purpose, focus, and ultimately have no connection with where you want to go in life.

Here are some tips I would offer:

Complete research on people, companies, and organizations who are engaged with doing what you would like to do. Find out as much as possible about where you want to be. Target the opportunity you are going after.

Find out how to prepare yourself to be valuable to your target. Ask someone who is already in the position with the opportunity you are targeting. Find out what they did to get in.

Prepare yourself by taking the advice you were given by the person you questioned.

Accept any open door that gets you near that opportunity and grow.

This approach makes sure you do not spread your efforts so wide that you lose the impact of being at your best, by being prepared.

I will post more tips on making the best of opportunities!

Do you believe these tips will work for you? What tips would you offer? Leave a comment!

1. What you are paid defines your worth.
Huh! Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most jobs pay according to what value you contribute to the business and are limited by how much business revenue your employer takes in. Sometimes you will find that the employer is not paying according to the value you give. It may be time to start looking for another job. Last thought! Your character (thoughts, behavior, integrity, consistent actions, and interactions) defines who you are and your worth.

2. I cannot save anything because all my money goes for bills.
Change your thinking. Even if all you do is put aside $5 to start your savings from every paycheck you will find out you do not miss it. None of your bills are $5. After 3 to 4 paychecks of doing this increase the amount by $2 per paycheck. In a year you will have saved about $2600. Over 2 years $10,620 will have been saved. The key is doing it day by day. Consistency is what you are building. Building a daily habit that does not depend on whether you are having a good or not so good day. My wife and I started out with dimes and made a game of saving the dimes (we still do). The game was who can contribute more. Of course it is not fair getting dollars broken down into dimes. The dimes come as result of a purchase that gives change back.

3. I am already making as much as I can.
This is more an emotion than reality. You can give yourself an instant raise by resetting the exemptions on your W-4 with your employer. I have personally gone up as far as 10 exemptions to take home more cash; though my wages overall did not change at all. One strategy is to lower your exemptions during the first half of the year to pay more taxes up front. During the second half of the year raises the exemptions to have more cash at that time. This could make a difference for the holidays. Consult your tax professional to determine the correct level for you.

4. I cannot discipline myself to not spend.
Many times to break a habit we need to have someone we are accountable to helping us maintain the “straight and narrow” An example is making saving automated into a Christmas fund you cannot access until Christmas is near. Then you just reinvest the money in the same fund year after year. Do this by direct deposit. Ask the bank to automatically roll funds over to the next year. If this is not allowed take the money out and then redeposit it. Check with your local bank or credit union to see if they have or know of a financial institution that has this type of fund.

5. I can take on a second job to get out of debt.
You can make some more money by taking on a second job. But remember that is using your greatest commodity. That commodity is time. This may not be the best use of your time; especially over a period of more than 3 months. Consider investigating how to invest in yourself to raise your rate of pay, not spend more time at a reduced rate. Be ready to invest in yourself to make you more valuable. This way you are investing, not spending your time. Take classes, seminars, online tutorials, specialized programs. Low cost sources are libraries, Chambers of Commerce, and local Charities hold classes on many things that can get you started in the right direction.

6. The money just seems to go so fast.
This is a feeling that is real but often is a matter of changing our behavior. Place a set amount of money in cash at your disposal. Challenge yourself to see if you can go a week and keep 75% of the cash. Then see if you still have 50% of those funds left at the end of 2 weeks. You may fail initially yet that failure allows you to progress a little at a time until your practice is a habit and success. Be careful of the reasons you spend besides need. Many times money is spent as an emotional reliever.

These are a few tips I wanted to share. Add some of your tips to the list! Share them as a comment so that others can learn by what you know!

Here is another post with some great tips on saving money and cutting cost. http://www.ehow.com/how_5028093_live-frugally-recession.html