1thing.co.uk

Anyone in business will tell you that the best way of growing your business is through networking.  I am a firmly believer in networking, wether it’s through groups like BRE or BNI, online with sites like ecademy.com or just with the people you meet in your every day day to day. 

I cant think of a better, more cost effective way to build my business, so long as I follow the rules.

Rules? What rules?  Yes there are rules and they change depending on where you are where you are and who you are with. 

Take for instance a networking event like BRE or BNI.  It’s quite simply not just a question of “who do you know who….” although that’s what they say on the tin.  The most important rule in one of these settings is “give”.  People dont trust people who are just looking for intro’s, leads and recommendations.  The more you give, either by reffering to other people or by helping their business, the more they’ll trust you and then open doors for you. So once you start getting those recommendations you then need to “act”.  There is nothing worse than when someone primes one of the business associates or friends about how good you are and then you dont act! Finally there is “remembering”.  Remembering who they are, what they do, what you talked about. Personally I find the best thing for me to do is to collect cards and then make notes on the back about who they are and one key thing about them.  Then I build on that each time I meet them.

Outside of an organised networking event where it’s not about giving and getting refferrals the rules are a bit more gray and you’ll need to asses each situation as it comes.  For instance you dont talk “shop” with your work colleages down the pub but it’s quite acceptable to ask what someone does when you meet them at a party.  However if you find that there’s an opportunity to do some business wait until after the event and then contact them the next day. 

So back to my 1thing.  Well today it’s several thank you’s and they’re all around networking and the leads and introductions I received from various people I met with today.  Thank you, all of you.

Until today I’ve never met anyone who didn’t know what snow was.  Overnight the nation was covered in a thickish (according to the Sun newspaper it was an inch - according to my car roof it was nearly 3) blanket of snow and our transport systems were thrown into complete chaos.

When I checked the Transport for London site at 06:00 the only line that had any problems was the Northern and they were minor. 2 hours later when I checked them everyline was flashing a severe delays warning. An opportunity to work from home.

I digress, back to my original point.  I know that there are people who’ve never seen snow and with global warming that number is on the increase however today it was a delight to watch my eldest daughter wonder at the white stuff that had covered everything. 

When I stopped for my morning coffee I took the opportunity to make snowmen with her in the garden.  Half an hour of me rolling snow and getting cold hames while she watched and directed.  She’s not daft is she!

Those of us who have to suffer the indignity of travelling on London Underground’s tube’s will no how rare opportunities are for carriages to have a laugh and enjoy the journey.

Personally I like to travel in as early as possible to avoid the morning commute.  I like to shut myself away with my bible and word for the day and then when I’ve done that I like to depress myself with the daily news from the Metro as I scan read it in 5 mins.  At the end I like to lift my spirits with the Nemi cartoon at the end.

Today my Metro time was interupted by two lads who were messing around.  07:00 is no time for messing around on the tube, but those of us who lifted our heads from our papers were in for a treat.  One of them had zipped his hoodie right up over his head to keep his face warm.  If you remember parkers, you’ll remember zipping the hood up and pretending to be a diver.  We’ll he’d zipped his completely up over his head and was nice and snug with nothing exposed except the 1cm gap at the top of his head.  During this his friend was taking pictures on his mobile so they could laugh about it down the pub later.

Anyway, fun and games over time to unzip and behave.  It’s at this point that the real entertainment started as he found that his zip had got stuck.  “I knew there was a reason why I didn’t do this” he said.  Not that you cant see anything or you look like a fool would be good enough reason.

So 10 mins of pulling and pushing and stretching and more pulling later the zip finally undoes and he’s free. At which point he see’s that he’s enterained the entire cariage.

Whoever you are, thank you for brightening our journey

“If you’d like to go to room 4, strip off and lay face down on the table.  He will be with you shortly” she said.  Right!  Now normally I would question this but as I’m at the Chiropractor you sort of take this as the norm and get on with it.  Although I did keep one eye on the door at all times to make sure who was entering the room and I kept my strides on.

So there I am laying face down on the table which looks like something out of a Star Wars movie and has more gadgets and attachments than James Bond’s car.  ”If you’d like to breathe in and now breathe out”, crack my spine is snapped back into place.  Vision’s of Jacob Singer in Jacob’s Ladder run amock in my mind as the Chiropractor snaps more vertabrae back into place.  Whilst he’s snapping and cracking he’s “hmmm” and “arrring” and throwing in phrases like “hmmm we’ll have to try it a different way as that didn’t quite work!”. 

Didn’t quite work?  Look fella this is my spine you’re manupulating, whilst I appreciate you’ve done 6 years of training and you’re an expert in your job, I need a little more confidence that “didn’t quite work”.

This is all about taking care of my spine so that in years to come it doesn’t lock out and I’m left resembling a Quasimodo.  It’s what I like to call proactive medicine. It’s something that I did like to see more of at my doctors.  Rather than waiting till I have a problem, why not get me in for a full work up and see if there’s something on the horizon that you can treat more easily before it takes hold. Perhaps if our Government and NHS Managers hadn’t run it into financial oblivion then this might be on offer. 

Anyways, I digress, my thanks go to Auntie’s friend P the Reflexologist who suggest that I should see someone to see if my pelvis was out of line and causing the pain in my foot

Sometimes it’s nice just to be able to lock yourselves away as a family and spend the day together doing fun things without interuptions from the outside world.

A good friend of mine takes this to the extreme.  They close the doors and unplug the phones.  I’ve never felt completely comfortable with taking it this far although I am looking forward to the invention of the phone that will only ring if it’s (a) important and (b) from someone you deem important enough for you to be bothered that it’s important.

Anyway, I digress.  This Sunday we spend the day together.  Just the four of us. Playing games, making cakes, singing songs, running, jumping and generally having as much fun as possible without leaving the house or turning the TV on.

What a fantastic day - who could want for more