Networking: Name Recognition

When you meet someone new, do they remember your name? Do you remember theirs?

Sometimes you do, but more often you dont.

Networking means you remember, you recognize, and you refer others to their businesses. This process of promoting your Business Network incorporates professionalism into your friend making process and negates counting on memory to help you retrieve information. Learn to network properly and become a promoter within your Business Networking Circle.

Exposure

The first big step in Business Networking: Get out there. Put a smile on your face, introduce yourself, and expose yourself to people. In business networking, half the power of arriving is just in being out there. Marketing your product, marketing your services, or marketing yourself all include the initialization of exposure. It's called Business Networking because you interact with others.

Name Recognition

In order to get name recognition, your name has to be out there, publicized, and remembered. The more your name is seen out there, the more recognizable it will be. Once your name is recognized, your options broaden, and the possibilities become endless. Networking works best with name recognition.

Brand Your Name

Build on Name Recognition by Branding your Name. Once youve begun to network and build a reputation, use that recognition factor to become a Name Brand. Be recognized by your name. Factor in a significant design logo that establishes a connection between what you do and your name, and youve got a Business Card worth Brandishing.

Network

When you meet people, give them a business card. Be prepared to tell them what you do. Give them a marketing spiel that brings them back to your card thinking, Great, Im going to call this guy! The 10 second Elevator Speech should be committed to memory and packed with powerful action words. You want them to walk away gasping for air from exposure to your Personal Statement.

Ask about them, get their card, ask what they do, and note their information. Make a contact. Next day, give them a call, tell them you were glad you had an opportunity to get to know them, and ask if theres anything you can do to help them meet their goals.

Market

Your objective, as ever, is to make a sale. After you offer to help them, you get an idea of what they need that you might have. Provide it. Give them what they want. Meet the needs of your clients and they will be back.

Your business will expand. Profits will increase. And you, my friend, will have made a new friend.

Jan Verhoeff

Somewhere between college and life, Jan began to focus on other people. Her intense need to feel accomplishment in her life drove her to finding a deeper contentment than just existing in the hoot 'n holler of southeastern Colorado. While the beauty of the prairie never escaped her eye for color and beauty, the intensity of her desire kept her moving ever onward.

Summers in Michigan and Tennessee brought her closer to something, but it wasn't until much later, as an adult, mother of four that she began to understand that her need for accomplishment included sharing what she had learned along the way. It also meant that her talent for painting the dream and writing her thoughts had a lot to do with her accomplishments.

She began to focus on actually writing down her thoughts and ideas in journals, revealing her prayer thoughts and life events. Bits of paper became treasures of memory, and a notebook became an outlet of hope and a step of faith. Jan put her thoughts on paper, and began to publish them, where she found opportunity, including various magazines, trade journals, and local publications. Her interests in business and new enterprise became a resounding outlet for her talent, and wisdom for those who sought it. Jan's interest in business development became her trademark, resulting in her first book publication in !992, "Building a Business: From Scratch". This 22 page booklet was published by a local printer in a vertical brochure format, selling more than a thousand copies nation wide. It has resurfaced in college classes as the basis for college term papers, graduate thesis, and research documents for small business courses over the past 13 years.

Seeking more diverse outlets for her talents, Jan most recently has written several short stories published in various books, including: "Stories for the Trail" with the Lamar Writer's Group, "Prickly Points of Life" a combination poetry/short story collection of Jan's work, and "Coffee Clatter" a bound collection of written works originally published in a newsletter published by her daughter, Brenna, as a Sophomore Year Project when she was homeschooling at Buchanan Academy.

More recently her work is available in a newsletter she publishes weekly via email, and various blogs listed on the right side of this page.

You may contact Jan at: janverhoeff@yahoo.com