Three Ways to Get Your Email Answered First

Dave Lavinsky, Contributor
 
It’s a situation we’ve all faced at one point or another: you need to send an e-mail to some company or person in order to place a request, extend a business offer, or obtain information that you need.  And you need a response; the sooner the better.
Chances are that the person you are contacting receives an innumerable number of e-mails per day, and your communication gets lost among the horde of similar requests.  How many times have you called someone and asked “Did you see my email” only to be told “I have about 200 emails I haven’t been able to check yet”.
This can be frustrating.  Email is a primary form of communication in business. Not connecting the way you need to can be damaging to your business. The following tips will help you in this regard
Subject Lines
A good subject line will increase the open rate of your email. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient of an email for a moment. You’ve received two e-mails. Compare these subject lines:

• A proposal to meet next week vs. I’d like to buy you lunch on the 13th
• A Sales Seminar That Increases Sales vs. Our commitment to boost your sales by 10% in 30 days
• Hello and Good Morning vs. Your Accountant, Jack Smith, told me to contact you

The latter subject lines in each case are edgier, more benefit oriented, and/or more specific. They are thus likely to stand out from the usual email chatter and get opened. Go for different, bold, personal phrases that will jolt the reader’s mind out of “scan mode.”
The Introduction
Next, make sure the introduction in the body of the email begins with an immediately attractive line.  It could, for instance, read like this: Based on your interest in X, you should know about Y.
The intent of the introduction is to grab the attention of the reader immediately. Doing so by tying into something you already know the reader is already interested is a great way to accomplish this.
The Body
A good introduction is simply not going to cut it all by itself. You need to make sure the body of the e-mail is equally readable and attention-getting.
When you write the body of the e-mail, don’t get caught up in needless, superfluous verbiage. Running on about a subject or going on a tangent is going to bore the reader, not attract and retain their attention. Keep your sentences and paragraphs to the point and relatively short. Make sure that all the relevant details – financial figures, yearly reports, and so on – can be easily found, not buried under mountains of text. Importantly, these figures should provide proof that it’s worth the reader’s time to engage with you.
The Call to Action
Once you’ve got the introduction and body down, proceed with the conclusion. This is often the most important part of any communication. A properly written conclusion will compel the reader to take immediate and serious action about the ideas, proposals, and/or suggestions laid out within the email. If you’re interested in a prompt, favorable response, you’ll want to conclude your e-mail with what is called a “call to action.”
A “call to action” is a request for the reader to make a decision or take an action.
For example, ending with: Let’s set up a brief call to discuss how this can benefit you. Right now, I’m free to discuss at 3PM on Friday. Please confirm that this time works, and the best number to reach you.
Summary
Let’s review. You need to increase the chances of having your email opened by using a bold, specific, and creative subject line.  Then keep your reader’s attention by starting with a powerful introduction, followed by precise content that proves your merit. Finally, close your email with a compelling call to action.
Finally, if you are sending similar emails to a group of prospects over time, constantly tweak and test your approach. For example, try two different subject lines and calls to action and see which one gets the best response. Whichever version wins becomes your “control” that you test against next time. Over time, you’ll develop a winning email that gets you great results.


 Source: www.forbes.com

5 Steps to More Effective Time Management

Published December 16, 2010 by Steven Snell

Most designers and freelancers wish there was more time in the day to work. It seems like no matter how much you are able to accomplish in a day there is still more that you would like to have done. Time management is not only one of the biggest challenges for most freelance designers, but it is also a critical factor in determining the success of any freelancer or independent designer.

In this article we’ll take a look at 5 steps that you can implement to better manage your time and get more out of your working hours.

Step 1: Have a Plan for Your Time

One of the best ways to waste time is to have no plan or no priorities for what you need to accomplish in a particular day, week, or month. I’ve personally found that when I start working without a specific list of things that I need to get done, I am far less productive and I wind up working on things that aren’t very urgent or I waste the time entirely.

How you plan for your time is up to you, we all work differently. I like to work off of a to-do list on a daily basis, with items prioritized. I don’t necessarily start each morning with the highest-priority task because I am not at my best early in the morning, but I can at least start crossing off some of the minor tasks that need to get done, and then it feels better to have a to-do list with several things already crossed off the list.

Having a plan for your time is really not that difficult. If you haven’t done this in the past I recommend that you give it a try and see how it impacts your productivity. At the end of each week take a look at your progress on the projects that you have going at the moment and make a list of things that you’ll need to accomplish during the next week. Then take that list and break it down into a day-by-day list so it can be more easily managed. Each day you can work off of your list and you’ll find that you stay on task, waste very little time, and have more accomplished at the end of the day.

Step 2: Take Advantage of Your Hot Spots

Each one of us has certain times of the day when we’re able to concentrate and get more accomplished, and other times of the day when we struggle to stay focused. When I first started working from home full-time I didn’t take these natural “hot spots” in my day into consideration. I often found myself struggling to focus on the task at hand during certain times of the day and I would force myself keep working at it, but the results were usually far less than my best work, and it took me longer than it should.

After trying it that way for a while I realized that I could get more out of my time by taking advantage of my best times during the day and admitting that some hours are just not that productive for me. Instead of wasting my prime hours on things I could be doing any time, I now will plan my days to allow my best hours to be used for the tasks that will require the most focus, concentration, and/or creativity. During my weakest hours I can work on cleaning out my inbox, dealing with routine tasks, or simply take the time off. This way I can get the most out of my time, keep the most important items in focus, and still get something productive done even when I am not at my best.

Most likely, you are probably already aware of the times of day when you are at your best and worst. Take that into consideration when you are planning your time to be sure that you are maximizing what you have.

Step 3:  Recognize Your Distractions and Plan to Minimize Them

There are a lot of things that can be distracting to freelance designers. Often the distractions are actually necessary parts of the business, but they can just be an inconvenience. For example, most freelancers communicate with clients and potential clients primarily through email, so this is of course a part of your daily life. But email can often be a distraction because it can break up your time and get you off track.

Email is just one example. There are plenty of other potential distractions, like Twitter, obsessively watching stats, noise in or around your office, phone calls, etc. In order to get the most out of your working time you will need to recognize the things that are most distracting to you, and you must work to minimize their impact on the productivity of your time.

If your distraction is something that is a necessary part of your business that is a little bit out of control, like email or Twitter, you can help the situation by keeping those tasks contained to certain time periods within your day. Instead of having your email open all day and seeing each message the moment it arrives, you could set up a time each morning and each afternoon to deal with email, then close it for the rest of the day while you are working.

If your distraction is the phone you could do something similar by letting calls go to your voice mail (unless it is an emergency) and have a designated time to check the messages and return calls. If your distraction is a noisy house surrounding your home office you could plan your time so that your most important working hours are when your kids are sleeping, at school, or doing something else that is not overly distracting to you.

Regardless of what tends to be a distraction to you, finding a way to minimize or work around those distractions is key to getting the most out of your time.

Step 4: Cut Back on Your Hours

Most freelance designers tend to work long hours, especially when deadlines are looming. Although it is tempting to simply work more hours in order to get everything done, this can often be detrimental to your productivity and efficiency. We all need some time away from work, so working more hours isn’t usually the best answer.

Cutting back on your working hours will force you to prioritize and to manage your time more effectively, or you won’t be able to accomplish everything that needs to be done. If working longer hours is generally your answer when you have too many things on your to-do list, try going the other way and reducing your hours.

I’ve found in my own work that having a definitive ending point to the day helps to keep me on task and progressing towards the completion of everything the needs to get done. For example, if I know I am stopping work at 5:00 I have an end in sight that pushes me to work efficiently and effectively throughout the day. On days when I decide I will just work until I get everything done, whenever that may be, I find that I wind up progressing much slower because I do not have the same sense of urgency. In the end I often work longer hours on those days while accomplishing less.

Reducing your hours will also help to keep you fresh and it will be easier to focus on the task at hand, allowing you to get more out of your working hours. Of course, you’ll want to consider your hot spots to make sure that you are not eliminating your best hours when you are reducing the amount that you are working. This is probably the most difficult of these 5 steps for most of us, but it is important if you are going to focus on the long-term and to avoid burnout.

Step 5: Evaluate

Evaluating your use of time is also a critical aspect of time management. Every now and then it is good to step back and look at your typical process for going about your work, and try to identify some things that can be changed to improve efficiency. It’s easy to develop habits and without even realizing it you can get stuck in the rut of doing things in a less than optimal way.
There are plenty of apps available to help you with tracking your time so that you can recognize areas for potential improvement. Some leading options include Klok, Rescue Time, SlimTimer, and Manic Time.

10 tips for time management in a multitasking world

Posted in: Productivity December 10th, 2006

Time management is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn’t matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done.
Younger workers understand this, and time management is becoming a topic of hipsters. 

In today’s workplace, you can differentiate yourself by your ability to handle information and manage your time. “Careers are made or broken by the soft skills that make you able to hand a very large workload,” says Merlin Mann.

So here are 10 tips to make you better at managing your work:

1. Don’t leave email sitting in your in box.
“The ability to quickly process and synthesize information and turn it into actions is one of the most emergent skills of the professional world today,” says Mann. Organize email in file folders. If the message needs more thought, move it to your to-do list. If it’s for reference, print it out. If it’s a meeting, move it to your calendar.

“One thing young people are really good at is only touching things once. You don’t see young people scrolling up and down their email pretending to work,” says Mann. Take action on an email as soon as you read it.

2. Admit multitasking is bad.
For people who didn’t grow up watching TV, typing out instant messages and doing homework all at the same time, multitasking is deadly. But it decreases everyone’s productivity, no matter who they are. “A 20-year-old is less likely to feel overwhelmed by demands to multitask, but young people still have a loss of productivity from multitasking,” says Trapani.

So try to limit it. Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users suggests practicing mindfulness as a way to break the multitasking habit.

3. Do the most important thing first.
Trapani calls this “running a morning dash”. When she sits down to work in the morning, before she checks any email, she spends an hour on the most important thing on her to-do list. This is a great idea because even if you can’t get the whole thing done in an hour, you’ll be much more likely to go back to it once you’ve gotten it started. She points out that this dash works best if you organize the night before so when you sit down to work you already know what your most important task of the day is.

4. Check your email on a schedule.
“It’s not effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately does not mean that you have to respond to them immediately,” says Dan Markovitz, president of the productivity consulting firm TimeBack Management, “People want a predictable response, not an immediate response.” So as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.

5. Keep web site addresses organized.
Use book marking services like del.icio.us to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.

6. Know when you work best.
Industrial designer Jeff Beene does consulting work, so he can do it any time of day. But, he says, “I try to schedule things so that I work in the morning, when I am the most productive.” Each person has a best time. You can discover yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then you need to manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.

7. Think about keystrokes.
If you’re on a computer all day, keystrokes matter because efficiency matters. “On any given day, an information worker will do a dozen Google searchers,” says Trapani. “How many keystrokes does it take? Can you reduce it to three? You might save 10 seconds, but over time, that builds up.”

8. Make it easy to get started.
We don’t have problems finishing projects, we have problems starting them,” says Mann. He recommends you “make a shallow on-ramp.” Beene knows the key creating this on ramp: “I try to break own my projects into chunks, so I am not overwhelmed by them.”

9. Organize your to-do list every day.
If you don’t know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their to-do list into manageable, relevant chunks. For example, Beene uses tasktoy because when he goes to a client site tasktoy shows him only his to do items for that client, and not all his other projects. (Get tasktoy here.)

10. Dare to be slow.
Remember that a good time manager actually responds to some things more slowly than a bad time manager would. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they’re doing it. As Markovitz writes: “Obviously there are more important tasks than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing one’s work (evaluating what’s come in and how to handle it) and planning one’s work are also mission-critical tasks.”

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/12/10/10-tips-for-time-management-in-a-multitasking-world/

Networking Tip #108

Fact: Networking gets harder when we feel more desperate - Others can sense when your sole purpose is to make a sale or find a job. If you change your objective to taking a single step closer to your goal, the stakes won't seem as high and you will feel more relaxed, less desperate (From Gwinnett Network, October 31, 2012)

Cory'ism #51

Facts tell, stories sell - telling a story of someone you have helped or are helping lets your sales TEAM know that you are actively engaged in your business and that you are in the business of helping people. (Cory'ism October 31, 2012)

Words of Wisdom

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Words of Wisdom

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Words of Wisdom

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” ~ Arthur Ashe

Words of Wisdom

Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust. Zig Ziglar

Words of Wisdom

For every sale you miss because you're too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you're not enthusiastic enough. Zig Ziglar

Successful Networking

by Karen Cormier

Congratulations, you’ve joined a networking group. You get to come in once a week and the referrals will be dropped in your lap…. Wouldn’t that be great?

It takes time and effort to become part of a sales team. When you first join TEAM, we ask that you start with getting to know everyone, by having Coaching Sessions. Once you know and trust the people in your chapter, you (and they) will be comfortable in knowing that you are a person of integrity, and will feel comfortable in sending you referrals.

It’s important to always expand your circle. There are so many different events that happen around town. Make it point to go to a chamber mixer, ribbon cutting or any other event that will be an opportunity to meet new people.

FOLLOW UP!!! If you take someone’s card, ALWAYS call or e mail them, and let them know you enjoyed meeting them. You never know where it may lead.

Invest Your Time to Build Relationships

You know a lot of people, but how well do you really know them? By investing your time to strengthen relationships you will grow a strong referral network.

You may have heard the phrase, it’s, "Who you know." Well, many believe that the phrase, "How well you know them and how they do business" that counts.

This means your network must not only be broad, it must also be deep. Unfortunately, most people make lots of contacts hoping to find that special someone that will become a client. They are simply gaining exposure and some visibility. These people need to consider this… eucalyptus trees have a shallow root system and the oak tree has a root system that grows deep into the ground. During heavy winds, the eucalyptus tree blows over and yet the oak will weather the storm. Which tree are you? If you want to be the oak tree you need to build a relationship based on trust and deepen the roots of your network. Let’s get you started.

1. Determine who is in your network that has the same ideal client as you do. Ask around to determine if this person and the business are reputable. Visit their website and read the marketing material.

2. Schedule an hour and get to know them as a person and about their business. At the end of an hour you will know if you want to get to know them better or not.

3. If you still want to know them after the initial hour invite them out for a social event, attend a networking event together, or a fundraiser to further strengthening the relationship.

4. Once trust has been established you may want to pass a referral or make an introduction to someone in your network in order to move the relationship along. This is important, one referral or introduction only… follow up on this and see how it goes. If all goes well, then get your “Ask in Gear” and ask for a referral or introduction in return.

We all know the best time to plant an oak tree was 25 years ago; however, the next best time is now! Invest your time and develop business relationships with deep roots, it will be worth it.

Laura Bruno

The Business Relationship Authority

310.961.6136

Laura@BusinessRelationshipAuthority.com

www.BusinessRelationshipAuthority.com 

10 Tips for Public Speaking

by Toastmasters International

Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and even beneficial, but too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here are some
proven tips on how to control your butterflies and give better presentations:

1. Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more
   about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.
   
   
2. Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice, pause and breathe. Practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected.
   
   
3. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.
   
   
4. Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
   
   
5. Relax. Begin by addressing the audience. It buys you time and calms your nerves. Pause, smile and count to three before saying anything. ("One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. Pause. Begin.) Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm.
   
   
6. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping – it will boost your confidence.
   
   
7. Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They’re rooting for you.
   
   
8. Don’t apologize for any nervousness or problem – the audience probably never noticed it.
   
   
9. Concentrate on the message – not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience.
   
   
10. Gain experience. Mainly, your speech should represent you — as an authority and as a person. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need in a safe and friendly environment.

Can Speaking Live Boost Your Business?

by Jo Foster, Love Your Small Business

A month ago I was invited to speak on a panel for women business leaders at the University of Canterbury. I was excited to accept, even though I felt a good dose of imposter syndrome creeping in.

Janine and I have always wanted to combine our online work with face-to-face workshops and events, so this felt like a great opportunity to get out in front of some women in our sector and test out how effective public speaking might be as a tool for getting the word out about our work.
 
To clarify, this is not the kind of event where you get up and do a hard sell of your business, so attending was not just about getting clients. From our perspective it was a great opportunity to speak live in front of women from our sector and to build relationships. As it turned out, it has also been great for our business for a whole lot of other reasons….

Preparation is a great learning exercise!  

In the time leading up to the panel event, I thought a lot about what I might have to offer to a discussion about 'women leading in business'. I have a good understanding of the reasons why women enter into the world of entrepreneurship, and the key challenges that women in business face, based on our recent survey of Kiwi and Ozzie women entrepreneurs, but I was also looking forward to hearing from others. 
I also wanted to make sure I conveyed professionalism, knowledge, and our core vision and values. It was a lot to think about, but I got a lot of value out of the process and the pressure of a looming event caused me to put some serious thought into it! As a result, I have improved my ability to articulate what we do and why we do it. 

Nerves in my handbag but there was fun to be had!

So – last Thursday I headed along to the panel accompanied by a good dose of nerves. I have done a lot of public speaking in previous jobs and feel confident, but this was the first time I had put myself out there representing Love Your Small Business….and I had a great time!
The panel was chaired well, with simple questions that led to a bunch of different opinions on the topic. There was heated discussion, as well as thought-provoking questions from the audience. I also had an opportunity to speak a little about what we do, so I focussed on how we empower women to achieve business success by helping them make that core connection between profit and purpose, which was great.

Can speaking live boost your business?

Yes. I believe it can. Even when the event you are speaking at is not appropriate for selling, it can still have a big impact on your business. There were several positive spin-off's from attending this event for us: 

1. Nothing beats connecting face to face: While online business works on many levels, live face to face connection is where it's at! After speaking at this event I was approached by at least 5 women, all of whom have followed up by contacting me and want to build a relationship with Love Your Small Business. These people are now a part of our community and we are excited to have them onboard!  
2. Instant feedback: I loved the instant feedback I received from being at a live event. It's just not quite the same online – the body language, facial expressions etc.really give you a sense of the impact you have had. I also received a great response to the work we are doing with women in biz, and that was awesome to hear.
3. The opportunity to get your unique message across and draw like-minded people to your work: Helping women entrepreneurs connect with their personal purpose and values, then use them to guide their business decisions, is at the heart of what we do. And let me assure you, we follow our own advice! 
   Despite my nerves and the possibility that my opinion would set me apart from other panel members, I contributed to the discussion based on my own purpose, vision and values, as well as the ones I share with Janine in our work together at LYSB. I know that some of my values & beliefs about how to 'be' in business did not resonate with all members of the panel or the audience, but you could never hope to please everyone and nor did I want to.
   The important thing to me was that those women in the audience who spoke with me afterwards did resonate strongly with what I shared. They felt compelled to speak with me based on shared values, and a connection that goes beyond anything that hyped up sales and marketing could ever do!

I came away from this event having connected with some inspiring women, potential partners and clients. I also received a great big boost of confidence. So absolutely yes, speaking live can boost your business.

We will definitely keep doing what we're doing, getting out in front of people face to face, and continuing to develop our strategy so that we can get face-to-face with people more in the future.

Use Public Speaking to Grow Your Business

by Pam Lawhorne

Public speaking can be one of the most powerful avenues for bringing in traffic, deals and a powerful reputation for your growing business. Why is public speaking so high impact? How can you find places to speak? How do you structure business deals with people who have audiences? These are some of the questions we’ll explore in this article.

The Potential Impact Of Public Speaking on Your Business

Anyone who’s heard you speak in person is a candidate for being a loyal customer. Furthermore, if you made a strong impression, influential business people may also invite you for business deals.

There’s something almost magical that happens when someone steps on stage. They’re automatically branded “The Expert.” People look at you with an air of authority and deference.

If you use this opportunity to demonstrate skill, knowledge and expertise, you’ll build a level of credibility that’s hard to rival through online newsletters or even one on one interactions.

You’ll be able to speak to larger and larger crowds, building a more and more solid reputation, getting more traffic and more business deals.

Getting Your First Few Speaking Gigs

The first and perhaps best place to start speaking is at Toastmasters. Toastmasters is an international organization with groups from as small as four people to as large as 100+, giving all its members the opportunity to learn how to speak in public.

You’ll learn skills like how to prepare a presentation, how to research in-depth facts, how to use your body and voice, how to use comedy and how to improvise on stage.

Once you have a fair bit of speaking experience under your belt, then proceed to the “small speaking circuit” first.

This is basically the local groups and meet-ups in your area. Look on Meetup for meet-ups related to your industry and meet their organizers. See if you can help out by offering your expertise. Also look into speaking at your local Chamber of Commerce.

Finding Larger Audiences to Speak To

How do you speak at conferences? Seminars? Larger audiences? Remember that conference organizers need good speakers and spend a considerable amount of time hunting down these speakers.

The trick is to start building relationships with as many influential people in your space as possible. Do this by attending conferences and seminars and deliberately meeting people who speak at conferences or have large email lists.

Also, if you have a clear offer for speakers, that can help. For example, if you sell a product or workshop and you’re willing to split profits 40%, that can go a long way towards convincing people with audiences to let you speak.

Before you have a solid reputation, some speakers may want to see a video or two of you on stage before letting you speak on their stage. They basically want to make sure you know how to speak before putting their reputation on the line for you.

If you don’t have a video like this, just have a friend film you speaking at a Toastmasters meeting and put it on YouTube.

To recap, build your speaking skills by speaking at Toastmasters, then start out in your local circuit through meet-ups and your chamber of commerce. Then, build your relationships and reputation and gradually work your way up to larger and larger audiences. The influence, traffic and reputation that you’ll build this way can completely revolutionize your business.

Boost Your Business with Power Partners

 By Nina L. Kaufman, Esq

Begin with the end in mind

The most important question to ask yourself about alliances is: do I really need one? Many business owners run around trying to "collect" them for the sake of having them, without focusing on whether their own business needs will get met. Or whether the work to create and sustain the alliance will outweigh its benefits. Don't start by thinking, "I want to form an alliance - with whom can I do it?" Start with, "I have a business goal, and an alliance is a good way to get me there."

What are your immediate business goals? Maybe the goal is to increase your visibility in a certain market so that you can attract more clients. If so, what kind of clients? More of what you already have? Larger clients? Clients in a different industry? Will these be clients for your current product or service offerings, or do you want to branch out into new areas? The answers to these questions are vital, because they help you hone in on (1) whether you will truly benefit from an alliance at this point, (2) if so, who will be the most appropriate allies for your company, and (3) what will be the best approach in working with them.

Finding the Right "Power Partner"

Let's say you have decided that you can achieve your goal better, faster, more efficiently with an ally than by yourself. Now it's time to choose the right "power partners." "Power partners" are people or companies that can give your business the boost that you're seeking in the way that you're seeking it. How do you choose? Again, this ties back into the goals you have set for your business. Among other things, you'll want to ask yourself:

• Does this person/company offer products or services that complement mine (direct competitors are often not a good power partner choice)?
• Is the person/company attracting the kinds of clients I want to attract?
• What is this person's/company's reputation (do your homework on this one - you do not want to get into bed with a bum)?
• Is the person/company in an industry that I want to move into?
• Is the person/company a larger (or smaller) business, and if so, will that make a difference in who controls the relationship?
• How much experience does this person/company have?
• Do I enjoy working with this person/company? What is their "corporate culture" like?
• What are this person's/company's goals in collaborating with me/my company? Are they compatible with mine?

If you can answer "yes" to most of these questions, then you're off to a great start! Many small business owners don't take time to pre-qualify their power partners . . . which is a significant factor in why so many arrangements fail.

How do you want to work together?

Once you have selected your power partner, now focus on how you will work together. Will this be on an ongoing basis, or for a particular project? Will this be a long term arrangement, or will you want to keep it on a short fuse? Will you be collaborating for marketing purposes only, or will you be jointly pitching and serving clients? Will you work exclusively with your power partner, or will you have similar arrangements with others?

Although people use the term "strategic alliance" to refer to a whole spectrum of collaborative relationships (see our September 2005 article, "Watch Your Language"), the term is most apt for arrangements where you have committed to a longer time frame and more involved responsibilities (especially if money will be paid, joint clients developed, and intellectual property created).

Just like personal relationships, it's best not to get too heavily involved before you've had a chance to test the waters. Strategic alliances work best when they evolve naturally, over time, from successful collaborations . . . which is better than trying to force an alliance into being. Don't be afraid to start small.

As an example, I have colleagues whom I met initially at a networking event. We enjoyed each other's company and trusted each other's skills, so over the years we began sending clients to each other (a basic referral relationship). That has blossomed to our developing joint seminars that we pitched and presented to local banks and other institutions, which, in turn, opened up new avenues for clients for all of us (can you see the "power" that comes from a "power partner"?). We are now exploring the possibilities for products and materials that we can produce jointly. At each level, our experience working together suggested that a deeper relationship could deliver more value. By taking things step by step, we grew . . . with wonderful results!