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Networking Article from Networking Today Canada, Nat'l

Reduce Your Business Risk with the Power of Connection

Author: Debbie Bermont

Date: Feb 2005

If you want big sales results, then you have to play big. Most often there is a direct correlation between the amount of risk you take in business and the amount of the financial reward you receive. In other words, the bigger the risk, the bigger the potential gain – and also the bigger the potential loss.

What are you willing to risk in order to get bigger returns? Some people are concerned about playing big because they think about what they could lose instead of what they could gain. If you want explosive sales growth in your business you have to be willing to take more business risks than someone who wants slow or moderate growth in his business.

What if you could play big without tremendous risk? Would you be willing to take more chances? Risk really is another way of referring to your comfort level. What might seem risky and uncomfortable to you might not seem risky or uncomfortable to someone else. It’s all a matter of perspective. There is a way you can increase your comfort zone so that thinking and playing big becomes easy.

First you must define what “big” means to you? What number do you want to attach to the sales growth you expect in the next twelve months? Take a moment to think about what number would represent explosive sales growth for you in the next twelve months even if that number seems so large that you feel uncomfortable even thinking about it. This number should make you feel uncomfortable or it’s not big enough. Here’s the secret – in order to be successful you must be uncomfortable on a consistent basis!

Your current comfort zone is represented by your current level of sales. Whatever you did in your business previous to this very moment got you to the level of sales you have right now in your business. If you were to do exactly what you have done in the past to get to your current level of sales, then you can almost guarantee that given your existing knowledge and resources you will get the same level of growth or lack of growth in the future. In addition, your business will be adversely affected if the economy has any type of downward trend. If you prefer to stay in your existing comfort zone then you have no reason to move forward. If you want to experience explosive sales in the near future then you have to be willing to be uncomfortable. You must expand your comfort zone on a consistent basis. And while you are doing that you will feel uncomfortable.

Think back to the earliest stage of your career when you had no business experience at all. Regardless of whether you started in marketing, sales, administration, or operations you had to start from the bottom and learn a set of skills for your job. Just like you didn’t come out of your mother’s womb able to run a mile. You had to learn to roll, then crawl, then stand, then walk, and then run. Wherever you started in your business career was an uncomfortable place. The only way you could succeed was to take steps forward to learn what you needed to know. Once you mastered a skill you could achieve higher results and you had expanded your comfort zone.

If you stay in your comfort zone for any extended period of time your business will stagnate and eventually diminish. Being uncomfortable doesn’t mean being overwhelmed or distressed. These two feelings can cause inactivity or struggle. Successful people still have fears that could prevent them from moving forward. The difference is that they don’t let the fears stop themselves from moving forward!

Here’s the solution to help you move forward with confidence. Instead of focusing on the end result (your sales goal), you only have to focus on the next step you need to take to get one step closer to achieving your goal. All you ever need to know from moment to moment and day to day is what you need to be able to take the next step forward. As soon as you advance forward your comfort zone will now have expanded and you are closer to reaching your goal.

Once you have identified what your next step is, then you can find the resource that will give you the answer or information or training you need to help you advance your business. This is called the power of connection.

You have always been using the power of connection; you just didn’t know it. In the past, every time you needed to know how to do something to move forward you found the help you needed. It might have been through a training program, from learning on the job, from a book, from a seminar or from talking to someone else. The connection could have been from something or someone. You always received an answer to help you move forward. Every past experience you had, and every connection you made with someone in the past, has contributed to where you are now.

Now you might be thinking that it took you a long time to move forward or that some of the connections you made set you backwards instead of forwards. It doesn’t matter. Good or bad, where you are today is your current comfort zone. The time it took you to get to where you are today is irrelevant to how long it will take you to reach your projected sales number.

Perhaps in the past you never consciously thought that the answers to get you to where you need to go are so easily in your grasp. You’ll find the solution in the same way you did in the past or through other avenues. It might be through a competitor, through a consultant, through a friend, through a business associate, through a customer, through the Internet, through a book, or through a mentor. The list of resources available to you is unlimited.

You only need to know what the immediate next step is you need to take to get you closer to your goal. The how is out there. Somewhere in the world there is someone who has already blazed the trail you are currently on. They have taken the risk of being uncomfortable and learned from their experience and they will be willing to share the lessons learned with you so you too can move forward without making the mistakes they made. You have unlimited help to get you to your next step. You have access to billions of people on the planet at the touch of your fingertips through phone, fax, and email. Your learning curve can be quicker and easier than ever before. You can use the power of connection 24/7.

Now you can think big, play big, and most important – achieve big sales result. As long as you have access to the power of connection, you can always move forward quickly and easily!

Debbie Bermont is president of Source Communications, a marketing consulting firm. Debbie is a leading expert on helping businesses reduce their marketing costs and accelerating their sales growth. For more information go to www.outrageousbusinessgrowth.com or call (619) 291-6951.

Published in Networking Today, February 2005.