Nine Ways to Network More Effectively

No matter what business you are in, you also have a second job…you are a marketer. That means you are responsible for letting others know about how you can help them. One of the best ways to get those opportunities to convert prospects into customers is by networking. Here are some simple strategies for making your networking more effective.

1) Don’t describe what YOU do.

Let your potential client know how you can positively impact his or her life. Explain how your product or service will improve the life of your potential client.

For example, when someone asks me, “What do you do?” my first thought is almost always to explain, “I’m a writer and consultant.” Unfortunately that response rarely piques the interest of potential clients. Instead I’ve learned to answer, “I POWERFULLY communicate business messages to get results.” This answer not only grabs their attention but stimulates more questions about how I might help that particular prospect.

Action item: Develop your value response to the question, “What do you do?”

2) Turn interest into appointments.

Once you have developed your value response to the action item above, you are well on your way to more effective networking. When you describe what you can do for a potential client they are more likely to be interested in what you do. After all, it’s all about WIIFM – What’s In It For Me!

My friend Ray is a dynamic individual. Coincidentally he runs Interlink a faith based organization. I recently overheard someone ask Ray what he does. Ray quickly replied “I help seniors and others stay in their homes as long as possible.” The person asking the question was immediately touched and wanted to know more. By providing just enough information to increase curiosity, Ray quickly gained interest and a new volunteer for his organization. Ray also learned of a senior in need through this interaction.

You can follow this same strategy. Always provide information that is of value even if the prospect doesn’t schedule an appointment or need your services right now. The idea is to partner with customers to help them - not to trick them into services they may not want or need.

Action items: Develop a response to further inquiries about your business or service and provide valuable information to potential customers that helps turn interest into appointments.

3) Give prospects more than they expect.

Sure, your time is valuable but so is the time of your potential customer. Maximize the effectiveness and value of your initial meeting by offering to meet pro bono (or for free). While I don’t advocate giving services away for free, a complimentary initial meeting is a good way to find out if your services are right for the customer…and if the customer is right for YOU.

Recently, Wade, an investment services broker contacted a marketing specialist to discuss ways he could increase his client base. The marketing specialist granted Wade a complimentary ½ hour consultation and could have suggested all kinds of advertising and marketing placements that would have cost Wade lots of money. Instead, the savvy marketing specialist detected that it would be more beneficial for Wade to build networking skills and work on individual relationships to increase business. During this complimentary meeting both parties quickly assessed that they could probably work together in the future but the timing wasn’t quite right. Wade was grateful for the honest assessment and has since begun building relationships via the local Chamber of Commerce. When he’s ready to put together a marketing campaign, Wade knows who he’ll call.

Action item: Consider offering brief complimentary consultations to evaluate if you are a good fit with a potential customer.

4) Can’t assist? Try to provide a referral source.

Let’s face it. There will be customers you cannot help because their needs don’t fall within the scope of the services you provide. It’s a given. There will also be customers you don’t want to work with (which is why the initial consultation is so important). Regardless of why you won’t be working together, provide a reference to someone else who might be able to help if you can. This simple gesture continues to position you in a place of value.

Often if I have an initial consultation and find they need services I don’t provide (or if we are simply not a good fit), I keep a list of contacts handy so I can refer them elsewhere. I try to provide at least three contacts so they have a variety of providers to choose from. Yes, I even refer to other writers and consultants. I have found this actually helps rather than hurts business. I believe there is enough business to go around.

Action item: Develop a list of referral sources you can provide as added value to customers you can’t assist.

5) Collect and share business cards.

This may seem simple but oftentimes even network savvy people forget to gather business cards. Make sure to have a supply of your own cards on hand and trade cards with contacts you meet. It’s a good idea to make specific notes for future recall on the back of the cards you collect.

For example, I recently met an investment broker. So I would remember our conversation, I discreetly made notes on the back of his business card when we were done speaking. I also noted he was an avid golfer. Now when I pull up his card, it jogs my memory about our conversation. You never know when the information might come in handy.

Action item: Make sure you have your own business cards on hand at all times. Start collecting cards when networking and noting possible projects and interests on the back of business cards. Consider creating notes in a “tickler file” if the cards are two sided leaving no room for notes. Staple your notes to the card itself.

6) Remember to follow up.

It’s the easiest yet most neglected step of networking. Many people miss out on future opportunities by simply not following up on leads.

Make it a habit to put aside time after a networking event to follow up with your new prospects. Once you get used to this step, it will become second nature. Enter their contact information in whatever filing system or software program (ACT or e-mail) you use. Now you can choose to send a quick email letting them know how much you enjoyed meeting them and/or send a handwritten note (include some additional business cards). Even if a person isn’t interested in your services right now, you want them to keep you in mind for future projects or referrals.

Action item: Take a moment to follow up with a prospect today. The time it takes to write a note and the small investment of a stamp could pay off mutually in the future.

7) Continue to follow up.

While you don’t want to inundate people with unwanted contacts, you do want to make sure potential customers know you are thinking of them. The key to continuous follow up is to be genuine.

One way to subtly follow up without being a pain is to be on the lookout for articles or information that may be of interest to the potential customer. Clip it out and mail it or e-mail to them with a brief note letting them know you’re thinking of them. About one week later, give them a quick call to make sure they received the information.

Action item: Choose one prospect and send him or her an article of interest today. Make a note to follow up with a phone call in one week. Chances are you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the response. After all, you are providing something of value for nothing.

8) Don’t forget your friends and family.

When you’re running your own business, it’s easy to get caught up in day to day operations. It’s also easy to forget some of our best references and (possibly even clients) are our friends and family. Be sure to keep in touch and let them know what you’re trying to accomplish.
I was recently visiting a childhood friend, Karen. We’ve been friends since we were five years old. Though we keep in touch via e-mail and letters we only see each other every few years because we live in different states. Over dinner, I learned that Karen is in the initial stages of planning a new business venture. I was able to share more about my own business and we found that we’ll be able to help each other. Karen needed resources for completing a business plan as well as help with marketing ideas. While she knew that I was doing freelance writing projects, she didn’t know that marketing and advertising plans are one of my specialties.

Action item: Never assume that everyone knows and understands what you are doing. Make a list of friends and family who may not be aware of what you do professionally. Send them a personal note along with business cards to ask for their help in prospecting. They could inadvertently become your top sales people.

9) Always thank your contacts for referrals and projects.

One of the first things we’re taught as children is to say “please” and “thank you.” Oddly enough it’s one of the first things that many business people forget.

It’s easy to fall into the mindset you are providing a valuable service and doing the work itself is enough. This is simply not true. People need to feel appreciated and valued when you let them know they are appreciated and valued. Continue to build relationships even after the sale by sending thank you cards and / or gifts. A little kindness will go a long way. Also, don’t forget to thank those who have done work for you.

Action item: Recall someone you have worked with lately you haven’t thanked. Then follow up right away.

Bonus Item: Thank you!

Thank you for taking the time to invest in yourself and your business. In the spirit of offering more than is expected here is a final networking tip.

Join organizations that help you connect with likeminded people who want to succeed. You can visit www.yahoogroups.com to find these types of groups. Or do a search using www.google.com for areas of interest. Check out professional business groups you are eligible for locally. Chambers of Commerce are often a great source for networking. (If you’re a writer I can highly recommend the National Association of Women Writers. I have to say, as someone who POWERFULLY communicates business messages to get results, this organization has been an invaluable networking tool.)

Action item: Make a list of organizations you can join to help grow your business. Choose one to join today!

Lisa Manyon specializes in POWERFULLY communicating business messages to increase results. She is a professional copywriter and marketing strategist. Her work has been featured by the National Association of Women Writers, Absolute Write, Copywriting TNT, Lewiston Tribune and more.

Five Major Ways Of Attaining Legal Residence In The United States

There are several ways of attaining legal residence in the United States. In this lead article, I will discuss what I consider to be the five major routes to legal residence, namely, family based visas, study visas, work visas, asylum and refugee status and the diversity visa program. In the rest of this article, I will summarize each one of them. It should be noted that within one of the categories you can have a further classification as to whether the visa is an immigrant or non-immigrant. A non-immigrant visa is one that allows an alien to be resident in the United States for a short period of time for a particular purpose. A study visa is a good example of a non-immigrant visa. On the other hand, an immigrant visa allows the recipient to be resident in the United States for the long term, for example the Diversity Visa Program.

1. Family-based immigrants

Spouse of US Citizen

If you are an American citizen you have two ways to bring your foreign spouse (husband or wife) to the United States to live. You can file an immigrant Petition for Alien Relative; Form I-130 or Nonimmigrant visa for spouse (K-3); Form I-129. It is important to note that application for the nonimmigrant visa for spouse (K-3) who married a U.S. citizen must be filed and the visa must be issued in the country where the marriage took place. After the visa process has been completed, and the visa is issued, the spouse can travel to the United States to wait for the processing of the immigrant visa case.

Fiancé of US Citizen

A fiancé is a person who is engaged or contracted to be married. The marriage must be legally possible according to laws of the state in the United States where the marriage will take place. In general, the two people must have met in person within the past two years. The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services grants some exceptions to this requirement. For example, it may be contrary in some traditions for a man and woman to meet before marriage.

You must file the Petition for Alien Fiancé, Form I-129F, with the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office that serves the area where you live. See the Department of Homeland Security's USCIS Field Offices for information on where you can file the petition. After the USCIS approves the petition, it sends the petition to National Visa Center for processing, prior to sending it to the embassy or consulate where your fiancé will apply for a K-1 nonimmigrant visa for a fiancé.

2. Study Visas

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people come to study in the United States from all over the world. This provides diversity to the US classroom, and makes a US education so vital in broadening each student’s world view. The Immigration and Nationality Act provides two nonimmigrant visa categories for persons wishing to study in the United States. The "F" visa is reserved for non-immigrants wishing to pursue academic studies and/or language training programs, and the "M" visa is reserved for non-immigrants wishing to pursue nonacademic or vocational studies.

You first must apply to study at a USCIS-approved school in the United States. When you contact a school that you are interested in attending, you should be told immediately if the school accepts foreign national students. If you are accepted, the school should give you USCIS Form I-20 A-B/ID (Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant (F-1) Student Status - for Academic and Language Students) or Form I-20 M-N/ID (Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant (M-1) Student Status - For Vocational Students), which you will need to apply for your student visa.

3. Work Visas

a. I-129 Non-immigrant Petition for Temporary Workers

Employers who wish to hire foreign workers to temporarily perform services or labor or to receive training may file an I-129 petition. Form I-129 is mainly used for non-immigrant categories; thus, in most cases, workers who enter the United States under this petition must depart the U.S. when their maximum period of stay has been reached. Form I-129 may also be used to petition for an extension of stay or change of status for certain non-immigrants.

There are many categories of workers who are temporary visitors and who may be petitioned for on the I-129. The most common visa for temporary workers is the H-B, which is normally valid for 3 years and is renewable for a maximum of 6 years.

b. I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker

Form I-140 is used for an immigrant visa petition, meaning the petitioner intends to relocate to the United States for the long term. This is in contrast to Form I-129 which is used for temporary workers. However, the petitioner has to meet a very high standard of excellence in their field of endeavor.

U.S. employer may file this petition for an outstanding professor or researcher, with at least three years of experience in teaching or research in the academic area, who is recognized internationally as outstanding and is a member of the profession holding an advanced degree or is claiming exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business, and is seeking an exemption of the requirement of a job offer in the national interest.

4. Refugees and Asylees

If you are currently in the United States and you have a risk of persecution for your political opinion or for belonging to a particular social group in your home country, you may be eligible to apply for asylum. If you currently outside the United States and face a similar danger of persecution you may be eligible to apply for protection by the United States as a refugee.

In order to qualify for asylum, you must establish that you are a refugee who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of nationality, or last habitual residence in the case of a person having no nationality, because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. This means that you must establish that race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion was or will be at least one central reason for your persecution or why you fear persecution. The US law that provides for the asylum benefit for persecuted aliens is 8 CFR PART 208. If you are granted asylum, you and any eligible spouse or child included in your application will be permitted to remain and work in the United States and may eventually adjust to lawful permanent resident status.

5. Diversity Visa Program

Every year, thousands of people from all over the world are given an opportunity to become US residents, in a deliberate program to promote immigration. This program reinforces the fact that the United States is a nation of immigrants and that despites security challenges in the last few years, remains open to welcome visitors and residents from foreign lands.

The Diversity Visa Program is a congressionally mandated program that makes available 50,000 to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. It is free to submit the application, anybody or organization that solicit a fee from you must disclose that they are charging you a fee for their services in assisting you file the application, and non of the fees charged will be forwarded to the Diversity Visa Program, because it is free.

For latest information, prospective applicants should check the Diversity Visa Program website at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov Information about the program for each particular year is normally available at the State Department website in the second half of the year, the next program will be the DV-2010 and information should be available in late 2008.

Lovemore Ncube

The Law of Attraction and The Weird and Wacky World of Metaphysics

Quantum science is going beyond the probe of atoms, and exploring the weird and wacky!

New words are entering science, new ideas, theories and dimensions, String Theory, Zero Point Energy Theory, and Membrane Theory to mention a few.

But the weird and wacky isn’t new to science, there has always been controversy and mystery in the science of the very little.

In ancient Greece there was a controversy about the nature of light. Euclid, Ptolemy and others thought that "light" was some sort of ray that travels from the eye to the observed object.

The atomists and Aristotle assumed the reverse. Nearly 800 years after Ptolemy, circa 965 CE, in Basra in what is now Iraq, Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) settled the controversy with a clever argument. He said that if you look at the Sun for a long time you will burn your eyes: this is only possible if the light is coming from the Sun to our eyes, not vice versa.

In 1672 another controversy erupted over the nature of light: Newton argued that light was some sort of a particle, so that light from the sun reaches the earth because these particles could travel through the vacuum.

Hooke and Huygens argued that light was some sort of wave. In 1801 Thomas Young put the matter to experimental test by doing a double slit experiment for light.

The result was an interference pattern. Thus, Newton must have been wrong: light had to be a wave.

The double-slit experiment contains a lot of the best aspects of the weirdness of quantum physics, for example a light shining through a small hole or slit (like in a pinhole camera) creates a spot of light on the screen (or film, or detector). However, light shown through two slits that are close together creates not two spots on the screen, but rather a series of alternating bright and dark lines with the brightest line in the exact middle of this interference pattern.

This shows that light is a wave since such a pattern results from the interference of the waves coming from each slit.

However, in the year 1900 physicist Max Planck showed that certain other effects in physics could only be explained by light being a particle. Many experiments followed to also show that light was indeed also a particle (a "photon") and Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921 for his work showing that the particle nature of light could explain the "photoelectric effect."

This was an experiment whereby low energy (red) light, when shining onto a photoelectric material, caused the material to emit low energy (slow moving) electrons, while high energy (blue) light caused the same material to emit high energy (fast moving) electrons.

However, lots of red light only ever produced more low energy electrons, never any high-energy electrons.

In other words, the energy could not be "saved up" but rather must be absorbed by the electrons in the photoelectric material individually. The conclusion was that light came in packets, little quantities, and behaved thus as a particle as well as a wave.

So light is both a particle and a wave. OK, kind of unexpected, but perhaps not totally weird.

But the double slit experiment had another trick up its sleeve. One could send one photon (or "quantum" of energy) through a single slit at a time, with a sufficiently long interval in between, and eventually a spot builds up that looks just like the one produced when a very intense (many photons) light was sent through the slit.

But then a strange thing happened. When one sends a single photon at a time (waiting between each laser pulse, for example) toward the screen when both slits are open, rather than two spots eventually building up opposite the two slit openings, what eventually builds up is the interference pattern of alternating bright and dark lines!

Hmm... how can this be, if only one photon was sent through the apparatus at a time?

The answer is that each individual photon must - in order to have produced an interference pattern -- have gone through both slits!

This, the simplest of quantum weirdness experiments, has been the basis of many of the unintuitive interpretations of quantum physics.

We can see, perhaps, how physicists might conclude, for example, that a particle of light is not a particle until it is measured at the screen. It turns out that the particle of light is rather a wave before it is measured. But it is not a wave in the ocean-wave sense.

It is not a wave of matter but rather, it turns out that it is apparently a wave of probability. That is, the elementary particles making up the trees, people, and planets -- what we see around us -- are apparently just distributions of likelihood until they are measured (that is, measured or observed).

So much for the Victorian view of solid matter!

The shock of matter being largely empty space may have been extreme enough -- if an atom were the size of a huge cathedral, then the electrons would be dust particles floating around at all distances inside the building, while the nucleus, or center of the atom, would be smaller than a sugar cube.

But with quantum physics, even this tenuous result would be superseded by the atom itself not really being anything that exists until it is measured.

One might rightly ask, then, what does it mean to measure something? And this brings us to the Uncertainly Principle first discovered by Werner Heisenberg.

Dr. Heisenberg wrote, "Some physicist would prefer to come back to the idea of an objective real world whose smallest parts exist objectively in the same sense as stones or trees exist independently of whether we observe them. This however is impossible."

If this wasn’t wierd enough, along came the absolute wacky in the shape of Entanglement!

Entanglement shows us that it is possible to link together two quantum particles – photons of light or atoms, for example – in a special way that makes them effectively two parts of the same entity.

You can then separate them as far as you like, and a change in one is instantly reflected in the other. This odd, faster than light link, is a fundamental aspect of quantum science – Erwin Schrödinger, who came up with the name “entanglement” called it “the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics.”

Entanglement is fascinating in its own right, but what makes it really special are dramatic practical applications that have become apparent in the last few years.

Is it possible that entangled particles are not actually in immediate communication, but are simply programmed to behave in the same way? Much like twins separated at birth who live eerily similar lives - assume the same professions or marry similar spouses.

If you take some property of a particle, the equivalent of color, say the spin of an electron, it doesn’t have the value pre-programmed. It has a range of probabilities as to what the answer might be, but until you actually measure it, there is no fixed value.

What happens with a pair of entangled electrons is you measure the spin of one. Until that moment, neither of them had a spin with a fixed value. But the instant you take the measurement on one, the other immediately fixes its spin (say to the opposite value).

These quantum bits were every possible color until you looked at one. Only then did it become pink, and the other instantly took on another color.

Einstein among other scientists could not accept quantum entanglement. It seems to throw out the whole notion of cause and effect, so how confident are physicists that quantum entanglement exists and what are the implications for science and the scientific method?

Einstein had problems with the whole of quantum physics – which is ironic, as it was based on his Nobel Prize winning paper on the photoelectric effect. What he didn’t like was the way quantum particles don’t have fixed values for their properties until they are observed – he couldn’t relate to a universe where probability ruled.

That’s why he famously said that God doesn’t play dice. I think an even better quote, less well known, was when he wrote: “I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will, not only its moment to jump off, but also its direction.

In that case, I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming house, than a physicist.”

Einstein believed that underneath these probabilities were fixed, hidden realities we just couldn’t see. That was why he dreamed up the idea of entanglement in 1935.

It was to show that either quantum theory was incomplete, because it said there was no hidden information, or it was possible to instantly influence something at a distance. As that seemed incredible, he thought it showed that quantum theory was wrong.

It did take a long time to prove that entanglement truly existed.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that it was clearly demonstrated. But it has been shown without doubt that this is the case.

Entanglement exists, and is being used in very practical ways.

Entanglement doesn’t throw away the concept of cause and effect. But it does underline the fact that quantum particles really do only have a range of probabilities on the values of their properties rather than fixed values. And while it seems to contradict Einstein’s special relativity, which says nothing can travel faster than light, it’s more likely that entanglement challenges our ideas of what distance and time really mean. Similarly, entanglement is no challenge to the scientific method.

We need to use a different kind of math, but this is still the same science