How Proactive Networking Can Dramatically Boost Your Business !

© 2007 by Christophe Poizat - All rights reserved

Do you know why most people fail at marketing anything on the Internet? Even though the products or services they are trying to sell are awesome?

Regardless of your present level of success, pause for a minute and try to find out the #1 reason for failure so you can avoid making the same marketing mistake most people make over and over. Found it ? It is fairly simple: once they have
caught someone's attention, most people will start touting about how great their products or services are: "nothing that you will have ever seen..."

Generally, when you own a "brick-and-mortar" business, you get to meet face-to-face with your potential customers at least once. That's how people get acquainted and how business relationships are established and eventually develop into long-lasting and mutually beneficial rapports.

It's a fact, people are usually more enticed to do business with someone they feel they can trust. Believe me, establishing trust on the Internet is the most difficult
and challenging thing to accomplish. Why is that?

Here is the main reason: people don't get to see each other, to feel each other, to see each other's expressions and body language which helps to gauge the person that is in front of us and immediately determine whether we want to do business with that person or not. Don't we say we have 15 seconds to make a good or bad impression?

If you want to be successful online, your #1 goal is to establish a trustworthy relationship with your potential customers. Instead of touting about your products or services right off the bat, you would be better off trying to know people's needs first!

That's were proactive networking comes into play. Proactive networking has become a necessity in today's business world. Pro-active networking is the systematic process of establishing relationships with new people and build mutually beneficial relationships.

Once a relationship is established, it will be easier to offer your products or services to people that are in your network and trust you !

Happy Proactive Networking!

All the best,
Christophe

Are You Driving Your Business like a Stuntman or a Reckless Driver ?
© 2006 by Christophe Poizat - All rights reserved

Ideally, you should drive your business like a wise stuntman and  not a reckless driver. Prior to executing any daring stunt, a stuntman always studies and evaluates all the different parameters involved and all the possible scenarios with their associated levels of risk.

Depending on whether the probabilities of success appear to be high or low, the stunt will be marked as feasible or not feasible -- nobody wants to risk loosing their life stupidly after all...

Once the stunt has been retained as feasible, the execution will be rehearsed many times. First on paper, then mentally. Over and over, the stuntman will go through the whole event and when he or she feels ready, he or she will execute the stunt in front of an audience of astonished people. What appeared to be very daring or was even deemed impossible to do is suddenly executed perfectly in front of a crowd of astonished people.

On Thursday May 20, 1999 Robbie Knievel completed such a stunt: a 231 ft leap over a section of the Grand Canyon. It was certainly one of the most daring stunt. All parameters must have been studied and evaluated with the highest precision: location, speed, angle, wind, etc... Success was no coincidence.

Let's not forget such a daring stunt was the result of several weeks, if not months of careful evaluations, precise simulations, and a meticulous preparation based on accurate observations and wise decisions -- somebody's life is on the line after all. What a good example of successful risk-management that is!

It is pretty much the same if you want to run your business successfully: you need to do some business intelligence and plan thoroughly, you need to evaluate carefully and make fact-based decisions and not only emotion-based decisions.
Weeks or months of preparation would likely be needed in order to make the wisest decisions but the problem is: the market won't wait that long, your competitors are going to cut the deal before you do if you don't move fast!

How is your driving, business-wise? Do you step on the gas pedal as soon as you hear about a possible business deal without evaluating and planning thoroughly? How well do you know your vehicle and all the different options? How well do you know the terrain? How precisely have you studied all the different parameters? How well do you know the competition and what they are doing? Do you have the right people in place? What is the level of readiness of those people? Are they making noise of are they playing some beautiful music?

How well and accurately you can answer these questions will of course determine your level of success. There are many more questions you should ask yourself before firing up the engine and putting your hands on the steering wheel.

So everything has been checked and double-checked you say and you are on a full tank and absolutely confident you will be able to drive your company to ever-lasting success.

So, you think you are ready, finally, it is reality-check time on the battlefield! But before long, it turns out the road is bumpier than you thought, you see other competitors passing you by and leaving you in the dust. Their vehicles is way more powerful and these guys know how to drive way better than you do.

They drive effectively, efficiently, based on their experience of the road and the many challenges they already have overcome many times. They know how to play the game better than you do...

Your vehicle is puffing, comes to a stop. Out of gas. Out of ammunitions, that is. You are stranded in the middle of nowhere. It was supposed to be the ride of your life and you are busted. You think of the term "learning curve" and say: "Ok, what I need to learn I will learn by doing, so the more I drive, the better
I will be..." Only true if you are on an unlimited budget -- but who is?

So you're gonna have to take some driving lessons and presto! Don't even think of getting back on the road before improving your driving or you will be toasted pulp for good next time and will probably end up in front of the court as another chapter 11...

Have your vehicle checked by experts for any missing parts and do learn how to drive that thing! Only there are many instructors that have absolutely no clues whatsoever on how to drive a business successfully and yet that's another challenge!

If you are tired of visiting smash-repair shops and instead want to learn how to drive your business precisely and efficiently to produce results that you never thought possible, why not listen
to a respected instructors in the field?

If you are willing to listen, I am willing to show you with my team how to improve your driving and help you jump over the last remaining difficulties like Robbie Knievel over the Grand Canyon!

In any case, whatever you do, don't forget to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Where are we now as a company? as a team?
2. Where do we want to be as a company? as a team?
3. How are we going to get there? Individually? as a team?
4. How do we measure success? How do we know we have attained our objectives?

then use the Deming approach: Plan-Do-Check-Act, repeat relentlessly

All the best,
Christophe

"You Can't Direct the Wind but You Can Adjust the Sails"
© 2006 by Christophe Poizat - All rights reserved

First of all, let's take a look at the meaning of the word "metamorphosis" and how it can possibly be of interest to our everyday life. Metamorphosis: Noun (plural
metamorphoses - say metuh´mawfuhseez) …  "the change of form, structure, or substance, as transformation;  the structural or functional modification of a plant organ or structure during its development."

Applied to our everyday life, this does clearly suggest a process by which we can possibly transform our Self and adapt to an ever-changing and complex environment or marketplace with the clear intent to become and remain successful.

Sustainable success is what we are after! It's all about our personal growth and our ability to react to the multiple challenges of life. I am tempted to say it's all about the metamorphosis of tadpoles into leaping frogs! Identifying and aligning all the pieces of the complex puzzle life represents does take time, quite a bit
of thinking and strong determination.

It also requires that we constantly reconsider and refine our approach, strategies and actions. Transforming ourselves has been a necessity since the dawn of humanity and it is not any different in the modern world: if we want to stay in business, we have to evolve. Let's keep in mind that it is us who have to adapt to the environment or the marketplace
and not the other way around.

This is a hard fact, it cannot be argued upon: no one can expect to win at any game without first knowing the rules and driving principles. Life is a serious game where it's possible to have a lot of fun. It has strict rules though. First we need to study the rules, master them, maybe break some and then comes the fun!

It takes time to fully master and successfully apply all the different rules and principles of life, the Great Pyramids of Giza were not built in a day after all.

It is a visible sign reminding us all of the astounding results  that can be accomplished with vision, determination and persistence. This is exactly the same behavior we want to apply in our everyday life if we are to get results of the same magnitude.

What we have to do is study the founding principles of successand get better at applying them effectively in the real world: on the battlefield. It's a fact: we need to get better at mastering strategies and actions that lead to higher levels of
success.

Regardless of our level of success, both individually and as a team, the number one critical success factor to accomplish this is determined by our ability to identify and process the information that will give us the leverage that we lack to reach the next step and thus enable greater success. As leaders, it will also depend on our ability to inspire others to act collaboratively in order to gain more leverage, faster.

The most efficient and fastest way to increase our success is through the adoption of behavioral patterns that will create more and more success for us. It pretty much works like a snowball effect: the first step is to get started to the best of our knowledge and abilities. As Confucius used to say: "Even a long journey starts with one footstep..."

The most important thing is to get started, right now ! Everything can always be improved in the course of time. That decision to get the ball rolling is ours to make, no one else can make it for us!

It is important to realise that states of mind and behavioral patterns are intimately connected and how much one does influence the other greatly; be it negatively or positively; the choice is ours ! that is where lies our responsibility as co-creators, where lies  our freedom to stretch and reach for the most magnificent dreams and live up to our full potential. In other words, revealing our grandeur as responsible human beings. Think about it for a while and then if you feel inspired, step up, get the ball rolling, continue acting and promise yourself to never stop doing it! Stick to it and you will be on your way to great accomplishments, always remember:

You can't direct the wind but you can adjust the sails and shorten
your journey leading to higher levels of success...

All the best,
Christophe
http://christophepoizat.com

Join the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs, a group I have started with the intent to create a platform for Social Entrepreneurs to connect globally and collaborate on a number of key projects.

Hopefully, a number of new synergies will come into existence out of it, my vision is to have different stakeholders combining their expertise and talents, working in a highly collaborative fashion to contribute to the eradication of poverty and the restoration of peace on Earth.

In 2002, the United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed by all 191 UN member states, set a target to halve world poverty by 2015, and to end world poverty altogether by 2025; It is our common responsibility to fulfill this promise.

All you have to do to join the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs is click here: http://tinyurl.com/2a43kq

Social Entrepreneurs recognize a social problem and use entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make changes that are sustainable and for the highest good of humanity. Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.

Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors; Dixit Wikipedia.
All you have to do to join the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs is click here: http://tinyurl.com/2a43kq

All the best, Christophe
http://www.christophepoizat.com
"Be the change you want to see in this world" Gandhi