Read the BizBooks conversation with Jill Lublin, the author most recently of Get Noticed...Get Referrals, here.

Let's say you're new to the business game, you've psyched yourself up, and you're ready to dive in--head-first. What next? Where do you start?

Consider organizational events. They can be the ideal places to begin making contacts because virtually everyone who attends these events is there to network and make connections. Frequently, these events have been structured to facilitate networking. Specific times have been set-aside for attendees to meet one another, interact, and make connections.

The fact that these events are networking-oriented can take the pressure off shy, uncomfortable newcomers. Since everybody has the same agenda--to connect with others--strangers will frequently approach you, introduce themselves, and engage you in conversations. When you talk with others, it breaks the tension, and makes it less frightening. You find that taking to the next person is easier and that you're more comfortable.

A dizzying number of organizations hold networking events, so the trick is to attend those that could be most productive for you. Choosing the best events can take a little investigation and although every group is a potential source of referrals, some are clearly better than others. Therefore, it's usually worth the time and effort to learn which can be the most opportune for you.

Or, start your own group.

And don't limit yourself to just one group. Different groups serve different audiences and have different slants or purposes. Civic organization support community projects, women's groups work to promote women's causes, and industry associations serve the members of their particular fields. So I always belong to a number of groups.

Before you join organizations:
*Clarify your objectives for both the short and long term. List what you want to accomplish and how long you realistically think it will take.
*Precisely identify your target audience. Know exactly whom you want to meet: travel writers, classic car restorers, or wine distributors. Then go to organizational events that they would attend.
*In identifying your targets, look for cross-promotional opportunities. Members of certain groups may not use your goods or services themselves, but they could give you entr?e to a large number of people that will.
*Learn about each organization; investigate what you may be getting into. Ask about its mission, agenda, membership profile, events and causes, how often it meets, and the commitment you will be expected to make. If you're young and new in business, do you want to join an established service organization that has an older demographic? Perhaps you do. Speak with your friends and business associates. Learn about their experiences and what they would recommend for you. Be their guests at meetings and events and experience them for yourself.
*Before you join an organization, speak with at least one member.. Get a general overview of the group, its strong points, what it's like to belong, how it could help you, and information about its members. Specifically ask what they like best and least. Usually, those you speak with will introduce you at your first meeting or even sponsor you, which will help you make contacts and gain credibility.

Join organizations in your field, but also venture out. If you're a publicist, join publicity associations, but also think about going to authors groups because writers need publicity. If you?re the only insurance salesperson who belongs to the motorcycle club, it could help you sell policies. Joining organizations outside of your own industry can also turn you on to new and fascinating people and interests, which can stimulate and add excitement to your life.

When you join organizations, decide how involved you want to be. Devoting your time to causes, serving on committees, and being an officer can dramatically increase your profile. Ask yourself, can you afford the time, effort or expense of leading a campaign or being a director? Is it worthwhile for you? Or will your service be rewarding enough to justify the time??

No matter how far you branch out or how successful you become, I think it's essential to remain closely connected to your local community: your Chamber of Commerce, business, civic, and community groups. These organizations will be your base; their members will be the core advocates who will root for you, support you, and spread your fame. When you try to expand beyond your local area, they can give strong endorsements when people in the new markets ask about you.

Rohit Bhargava weighs in on how Apple has accomplished so much, and what you can learn from it. Be sure to check out Rohit's BizBooks conversation here, on his book, Personality not Included.

At some point just about every marketer is bound to look at something that Apple is doing and wish they could have done it for their own brands. There are a few other brands that have this universal admiration from marketers. Coca-Cola is the other notable example that comes to mind. Yet there is a temptation I have noticed to simplify the success of Apple to two things: innovative products and great marketing. I would love to believe this as much as any other marketer, but there is a crucial missing third element that most people never talk about which I think is actually the most important reason Apple has been so successful. They do one thing that almost none of their competitors in any market can do ... they control distribution.

They have their own stores, their own sales people, and their own model for selling their products that cuts out any middleman or competitors completely. The fact that they control distribution offers many benefits:

1. Consistency of messaging - As opposed to other consumer electronics brands that must educate sales people who work for someone else, Apple can control their sales force and the messages that they learn to talk about. As a result, everyone tells the same story about their products.
2. Removes the competition at point of sale - A big issue for many of their competitors is that a customer may come into a store with one product in mind, but can often get steered toward another during the time they are in store. Often they will walk out not with the product they intended to buy, but something that was cheaper, recommended more heavily by the sales staff, or (most frustratingly) another product whose packaging simply was more appealing.
3. Makes upselling easier - When you walk into an Apple store, everything is Apple branded in some way (even the products manufactured by other companies). As a result, you are in the ultimate upselling situation, where you might pay $45 for a connector cable that would ordinarily cost $5 elsewhere. When you are captive in the store and already spending $499 on a big product, who really cares about another $45, right?
4. Retail environment reinforces the community - Apple fans are enthusiastic about the brand and products that they love. Because Apple has distribution focused on their stores, they can create events, features and resources that all reinforce this community. From the Genius Bars to special events hosted at Apple stores, this offers an invaluable marketing asset that few of their competitors can match.
5. Pricing is controlled - It is virtually impossible to find huge discounts on Apple products (particularly new ones). This is another effect of this controlled distribution, that if you are setting the places people buy your products, you can also centrally control the price. Not only does this allow for more consistency, it also gives you the ability to include pricing in your marketing materials and ads because you know its the same price everywhere.

Read the July 30 BizBooks conversation with Jill Lublin, the author most recently of Get Noticed...Get Referrals, here.

* Be yourself. Build on your assets and your uniqueness, because they are really what people want. Clients and customers want you--your special viewpoint or approach; your unique insights or touch--not a weak imitation of someone else. Don’t just be a copycat; find your own voice. Get noticed in your own way, in the manner most natural and comfortable to you. Examine the approaches that others have taken and then follow what feels natural for you. Trust yourself and your instincts.

* Work your business around your life, so that it fits in your life, supports your life, and reflects you. Too many people do the reverse: they work their lives around their businesses. It frequently doesn’t work.

* Think of your clients, customers, referral sources, vendors, and suppliers as your partners and friends ─ as people who want to help you. This means never forgetting that they’re people, not just business statistics, and that you cannot succeed without them.

* Master the art of listening, because when you listen, you truly learn. If you listen, people will want to share their knowledge with you, be with you, and help you. They will consider you their friend and go to great lengths to help you.

* Before you take on any project, make sure that you know exactly what the client or customer wants. Transcribe your understanding in writing to eliminate doubt. It’s hard to satisfy people when you don’t know what they want.

* Be generous. Make giving a central part of your life. Work hard and give your clients and customers more than they expect. Give people your time. Always show your appreciation, and thank and reward those who help. Praise others; and give them the credit and the spotlight.

* Surround yourself with the most interesting, active, and positive people. Hang around with experts, authorities, and people who are smarter and more accomplished than you. Find ways to meet them and be with them because they will open amazing new doors for you. They will support your efforts and add fullness and excitement to your life.

* Constantly strive for excellence and do everything in the best possible way. Build a reputation for continually doing outstanding work and everyone will want to be with and work with you. People who live for excellence will find you.

* Always ask: can I do it better, more interestingly, or more inventively? Challenge yourself to go beyond your prior accomplishments and always to surpass your best. Constantly look in new directions.

* Never compromise your integrity. Stand by your values, but don’t preach. Always be truthful, honest, fair, understanding, and humane. Deliver what you promised when you promised.

Follow these suggestions and you will be noticed. The best people will notice and appreciate you ─ and you will enjoy a wonderful life.

Why do most companies struggle just to meet last year’s revenue numbers? Why do more than 500,000 U.S. businesses fail each year? Growth is a universal and perennial problem. Yet as central as growth usually is, rising energy prices and generally poor conditions have made it more essential and more difficult in 2008 than ever before.

Take manufacturing giant Proctor & Gamble, whose head of global supply, Keith Harrison, told the Financial Times in June: “It’s the toughest operating environment, clearly, that I’ve ever been in.” FT defined P&G’s situation in this eye-popping way: “P&G has forecast that its material and energy costs will increase by $2 billion in the fiscal year starting July 1.” In other words: P&G must either generate $2 billion more in revenue or cut $2 billion in costs just to stay even with this single line-item expense. That’s a mind-bogglingly steep challenge.

The central problem, which faces every business in the world today, is that no company is competing locally or nationally any more. Instead, your business, no matter its size or type, is now competing for products, people, technology, services, delivery, and finance with the businesses, mouths, governments, and cartels of other developed nations as well as powerful emerging economies.

Moreover, this new state of affairs is not a short-term technical correction, but an unprecedented, permanent shift. In the same issue of the FT, Robert Hormats and Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs International underscored burgeoning global demand: “Since 2001, the US share of world GDP fell from 34% to 28%,” they wrote, while the sum of Brazil, Russia, India and China’s GDP rose from 8% to 16%.

In sum: historic overhead structures are just that - history. They have been invalidated by sustained and unprecedented global demand for every commodity - from oil to rice to paper, from skilled labor to capital, from delivery to technology.

To overcome this destruction of your overhead structure your business must start growing immediately and grow at a much higher rate than any time in history.

If business leaders want and need to grow, why aren’t more businesses growing? There are three simple reasons:

1. Self-delusion – “This is just a temporary revenue problem – we’ll bounce back next month – surely next year will be better.”
2. Procrastination – “I’m going to create a growth plan next month – well, it’ll have to be next year because I’m just too busy now.”
3. Lack of know-how – “Truth is, and I hate to admit it, I simply don’t know how to get started – I need an easy-to-use blueprint for growth.”

If you need an easy-to-use and quick-to-implement strategic growth process, you’ve come to the right place.

These four steps, when defined in brief, insightful plain language statements, will enable you to kick-start your business’s growth:

1. WHO is my Core Customer?
2. WHAT is my Uncommon Offering:
3. HOW can I differentiate my business, so more customers will buy from me – not my competitors?
4. OWN IT! How can I use my imagination vs. my money to make my Uncommon Offering well known to my Core Customers with little or no investment in infrastructure or advertising?

Want the longer version? To learn more about creating the Growth Discovery Process for your business, read my book cover-to-cover. Click here now to order THE INSIDE ADVANTAGE, The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business. (McGraw-Hill, November, 2007).

The new challenges your company faces may be daunting, but they’re also surmountable. The key is to find your Inside Advantage, and start growing your business.

In my long career in the business trenches - as a successful entrepreneur, the CEO of large marketing services company and an advisor to a wide variety of famous companies and brands, I have discovered that the best way to expand the size, scope and profit of any business is to grow it from the inside.

Every firm can grow by capitalizing on an undiscovered or underutilized strategic asset that already exists in the enterprise. This “hidden” growth potential is called the Inside Advantage.

So how do you find your Inside Advantage? Well…

First, define your Core Customer(WHO) as far more than a demographic, brand or even company. Then concentrate your resources on this vitally important individual’s wants, needs and aspirations with the goal of enhancing customer loyalty and securing valuable new customers.

Second, define your company’s Uncommon Offering (WHAT) – something that goes well beyond the buyer/seller transaction. You should identify an undervalued, underutilized or undiscovered strategic asset that already exists within your firm and translate it into a tangible and emotional customer benefit.

Third define a Persuasive Strategy (HOW) that will differentiate your products or services. You create a compelling selling rationale for your Core Customerto buy your Uncommon Offering vs. all competitive offers. This is HOW you sell WHAT to WHO.

The final step enables you to OWN IT! Bypass the expense of traditional media, create marketing that’s focused on numerous no or low cost Imaginative Acts that will make your Uncommon Offering well known to your Core Customer.

Remember - advertising costs money but imagination is free. Imaginative Acts will bond/cement what you do best to your brand or firm name so that you can OWN IT!

At this pivotal moment in your business evolution, your firm will own, leverage and grow with the benefit of your newly discovered Inside Advantage.

What is your company’s Inside Advantage and how will you use it to build your brand or firm?

*************************************************************
To learn more about creating the Growth Discovery Process for your business, read my book cover-to-cover. Click now to order THE INSIDE ADVANTAGE, The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business.

In my 45 year career, I have discovered that every enterprise has at least one strategic asset – one existing strength – that can form the foundation for future growth. I call this an Inside Advantage because this strength usually lies unrecognized in an activity the business is currently performing, or a concept or idea that the business already owns and can exploit. Finding this hidden potential, nurturing and communicating it, and becoming well known for it will grow the business. This principle has been the foundation of my growth strategy.

My strategy worked well as I grew my father’s 12-person Dallas ad agency into a national force and later, as I grew the US operations of Publicis Worldwide, and as I applied it to my clients’ businesses.

I have used my growth strategy with a great many clients, some of the largest and best-known companies in the world, digging deeply into their businesses to locate the hidden strengths they could own and leverage.

I’ve written a book for the growth-starved business people who want to learn to do what I did – take their small businesses, divisions or brands and make them better, bigger, and stronger.

My ambition is to make my way of growing businesses accessible to the business community at large. I wanted the book to be honest, innovative, and results-generating for the owners, managers, and 24 million-plus business start-ups in this country.

My readers have no time or use for academic theory – they have an urgent need for a practical, easy-to-use solution that’s proven to work in the business trenches. My readers don’t need to learn about strategy theory – they just need to create a doable strategy for their growth-starved business. I simply want to show entrepreneurs that their potential to grow exists within their companies right now. I show them how to look for their Inside Advantage and grow their business, their division, or the brand that they manage by capitalizing on that advantage.

Starting and running a successful business is more challenging than ever. Globalization and the Internet change everything, repeatedly. Markets evolve and dissolve more rapidly than ever. Each year, almost 600,000 US companies close their doors, most as a result of not capitalizing on their hidden strengths – their Inside Advantage. Here’s the simple truth – businesses must grow or die.

Start growing your business today.

And pick up a copy of The Inside Advantage.

Duct Tape Marketing today about Dreaming Smaller and was intrigued with the Scorecard system. So that got us thinking over here at BizBox. What other tactics do our readers use to work smarter. Join the conversation.....

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