Microbusiness Mentor

One of my long time industry colleagues Steve Woodruff wrote an article he had kept hidden in his heart until recently, called “Building a human network”. Well, he actually called it, “The Post I Keep Wanting to Write (but haven’t…yet)” but it’s all about the human network.

This is something that I’ve been thinking more about recently, in light of my increased involvement in various social networks, some of which have gathered momentum, and others that have either faded naturally or I had pulled the plug of my participation from.

I’ve found that most of the time people are very intent on building the network membership itself by virtue of measuring numbers. How many contacts, how many followers, how many leads.

I know that as a microbusiness entrepreneur, part of this is a numbers game. The bigger your list, the better your odds of getting buying customers, or viable business partners, or productive affiliates.

I think that my friend Steve have built a formidable network, but what makes him different from others who have formidable networks, is that Steve not only has the numbers – he has depth of relationships AND (more importantly) a focused vector of action.

The bigger your network, the more time consuming it is to maintain that network. It is like having a thousand (or more) friends who all need a bit of your energy to stay connected in some way. Yes, we all have voyeurs and fans who are happy to get periodic emails from us to see what we’re up to, who do not require us to personally reach out and touch them with a phone call or even face to face visit.

But for the most part, the relationships that have strong energy – the business partnerships – the buying customers – these people need more than just being added to your network or contact list.

I have a pretty small network. In fact, yesterday I went through my LinkedIn profile and eliminated some people whom I’ve added, but I don’t know them at all and have very little overlap in business interest. I am not trying to win the LinkedIn contacts race and I would like to keep my contacts below 500.

My network depth is good with some, and can improve with others. I tend to focus my energy on a very small handful of personal trusted advisers and engage in actual business undertaking with them. So I tie my depth of contact with an immediate vector of action. This is my style, but it also means I sacrifice a wide network with more deep relationships that may not immediately vest.

But I am doing what works best for me, rather than blindly playing a numbers game. I would rather convert 50% of my 100 contacts into paying customers and business partners, than focusing on getting 1,000 contacts and then hoping to convert 10% of those into paying customers and business partners. It all depends on where I want to spend my energy on.

I learned this very early in my entrepreneurial journey – 2005, in fact – when I was in a business development mastermind group. I looked at my track record of business deals, and saw that every single one of my 6-figure ($100,000 and above) contracts came through.

On the other hand, the 2 or 3 of my smaller contracts (under $10,000) fell apart, and caused me much stress even when the stakes were so small (or perhaps it was BECAUSE the stakes were so small that there is so much fighting). It made me realize that my entrepreneurial personality is geared toward a certain type of network building, and it requires extreme depth of relationship and decisive action.

Many people who collect networks think they are building an inner circle, and they are equating their networks with the inner circle. Sometimes this happens when they do most of the talking, and the other person spends 25 of the 30 minutes allotted in the appointment listening to the person “data dump” rather than having a true conversation where ideas are built by 2 engaged individuals.

But the proof is usually in the outcomes.

At the end of the long string of promises:

- how many individuals have you formed a true business relationship where money (actual dollars, NOT promises of money) was at stake?

- how many individuals helped you create a true revenue channel or extended your business brand?

Now, Steve is someone who has built a business literally on creating results from his network – for his network, and he knows the difference between audience, network, and inner circle. Because of this, he does not waste time or fritter away viable opportunities against fantastic promises that have yet to live up to their potential.

What about you? What type of network have you built?

Image by Sigurd Decroos